Camping

Not REAL camping, but just sleeping at camps on foam pallets...I don't want to perpetuate the myth that we are doing some rugged, outdoorsy stuff over here. No, the truth is that we slept indoors, wrapped up in sleeping bags and blankets, on top of foam mattresses that provided varying degrees of back pain and discomfort. We spent the first three nights at the Manakau Baha'i Center--Centre is the correct spelling over here--since we were involved in a outreach program that formed five or six new junior youth groups around the city. The first real camp was a scout camp located near a little town/village/blip called Clevedon.

The word quaint was invented to describe places like Clevedon. Although from looking at the realtors board next to the dairy, lots of city folks with big money who want "quaint" already know about the place. But the camp was two halls with multiple dormitories, into which we separated the boys and girls. Ashley and I slept in one of the main halls, along with a couple older guys, the camp father, and one other boy who was banished from his original room because his snoring kept everyone awake. Since I missed the first few nights I didn't really get any input into where he should have been banished to; apparently five feet away from me was the best spot in everyone elses minds.

After a five days there, we moved on over to Camp Morley. This camp automatically got the advantage for being located on a beach...with water stretching away towards mountains in the distance, and the outline of the SkyTower barely visible to the north. This was a methodist camp, and the Baha'is have been using it for their childrens camps for over twenty years. It is probably a little more expensive than the scout camp, but that money buys individual cabins with separate rooms and their own showers and toilets. A much nicer kitchen with newer appliances, trash and recycling service (we had to haul away our own rubbish at the other camp) and a comfy hall and dining area. This camp was flash. btw flash means flashy, only not in a gaudy, extravagant way, or maybe in that way only it isn't used with negative connotations usually)

I put a video up on flickr of the play area and my cabin. Ash and I slept apart for the first time since November. But we are back at Caroline's house near the National Baha'i Centre, and we don't have any children to look after here. Just three very large kitties.

We are...

...looking for cheap vans that have been converted into campers
...going to spend a week in an intensive Ruhi book 5 training for working with junior youth (ages 11 to 14)
...planning on leaving the Auckland area in mid-May
...thinking of going to Queenstown, a young, snow-town in the South Island, to try and find some winter work
...thinking of doing some kiwi fruit picking in either the Bay of Plenty (to the south-east of Auckland)or Kerikeri (to the North)
...going to Haifa, Israel in late April of 2010
...hopefully going to be able to stop at some other places along the way to Israel, including Australia, India, Germany and of course-Charlotte, North Carolina
...excited about learning more about gardening
...gradually lightening our travel loads as we go-although they are still some "heavy as" bags
...more than halfway through our book 7 training course
...going to the New Zealand Baha'i National Conference at the end of April
...thankful that we have such loving friends and family

Buy Here

One of our best friends, Jessica has been making her own funky jewelery for some time now.

Go to her website to check it out and order some from her.

Left...

...In two more days we will be leaving Waiheke Island and going into Auckland city, as we have been each weekend for the past few months, but this time we won’t be catching the ferry back on Sunday night. After our Ruhi book 7 on Sunday, we will be staying in the mainland and on Monday we start with the youth camp. So we will be saying goodbye to this place for a while-goodbye to the beautiful beaches and rolling hills; goodbye to the colorful sunsets and the inlets dotted with boats; goodbye to the narrow, twisting, steep roads; and goodbye with our deepest thanks to the family who has given us a home here in this new country...
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So I wrote this on Thursday, and it is now Sunday, and we are already gone from the island. It is the first Sunday night in ten weeks that we haven’t returned to the island, to our wonderful family there. We are in Henderson, a suburb west of Auckland in an area called the Waitakare, staying with a friend tonight and then heading to the camp tomorrow afternoon.

A few people have emailed us about our address…the one that I posted earlier is a PO Box that is paid for the minimum amount of time that we could get it-one year. That will remain as our address. After we leave the Auckland area we will have our mail forwarded to whatever post shop serves our new location. If you are sending something to us, use that address-
PO Box 106125
Auckland City Postshop
Auckland, NZ 1143
Thanks so much for the letters and cards so far. It is wonderful to get them. I have tons of ideas to write up, but little time to do it…and while we are camping I doubt we will do a lot of computer-ing, so it may be a week or two until we get logged on again.

We will be getting that card tomorrow if any stores are open…

In the Morning

We are going to be cleaning the flat that we have been enjoying for the past ten weeks...bidding our kind wwoof hosts aideu, (?) and heading to the mainland.

And purchasing a phone card so we can call our families again.

As soon as we recover our cell phone, which we left at someone's home last weekend.