After a six-day work week followed by a three-day youth retreat (which was AMAZING, but also quite tiring), Steve and I were ready to go on a (relaxing) adventure! So we packed our bags and headed out to Sichuan province to spend our remaining days off during the National Day holiday. We had NO idea what we were about to experience.
Like this....
...OR this....
....or this or This or THIS or THIIISSS!!!
For three days we found ourselves exploring a mountainous playground with unexpected beauty around every corner. The colors, OH THE COLORS! It was such a stark contrast to our grey everyday lives in China that we couldn’t believe we were still in the same country.
Before I get too ahead of myself with all of this ridiculous gorgeousness, I should mention the part of the trip that actually did feel like China. Our first day away from Shanghai was devoted to PANDAS! Chengdu is a major hub for flights to Jiuzhaigou, and because it is the best place to see pandas in all of China, we decided to stay and check it out. It turns out that it was not a bad plan because pandas are pretty cool. While the less famous Red Panda will always be our favorite, going to the Panda Breeding Center really gave Steve and I an appreciation for the Giant Panda that we hadn’t had before. I mean, how could we not love those wittle panda babies :)
After our morning with the pandas, we headed out through the smog to the other big attraction in Chengdu…..the Giant Buddha. It was definitely giant, as you can see! I liked it because it reminded me of something I would see in National Geographic. Steve and I didn’t feel the need to wait in the 3 hr line to see it from the bottom (though we would have waited if it had been an epic waterfall!). We had fun exploring the buddha-park before heading back to Chengdu, where, to counteract our fully Chinese day, we enjoyed Pizza Hut and Hagen Daaz :)
Our 45 minute flight to Jiuzhaigou was probably my favorite flight ever (ok that’s not quite true, I’ve been on some cool flights). This one was different though, because it was such a quick transition from city to country, from smog to snow. The snowcapped mountains were massive and surprising. Even more surprising was the temperature the flight attendant announced when we landed….40 degrees Farenheit! Coming from high 80/low 90 temps in Shanghai, Steve and I were shocked- and as we looked at each other, our faces showed it (which we found out when the small girl laughed at us through the crack in the seat in front of us.)
After we had layered up in warmer clothes, we climbed into a van and oohed and aahed as we rode down the winding road for two hours. I almost cried at how happy I felt to be in nature again! It felt like we were returning home (well, except for all of the yaks and the Tibetan villages with colorful flags everywhere).
The town itself was unique as well. It was somehow a blend between Tibet, China and a Canadian ski resort. Wooden walkways along a clear rushing river, narrow buildings several stories high and painted with beautiful colors and Tibetan designs, and Chinese street vendors!! That night we ate at a small Sichuan restaurant and ordered our favorite dishes. We were pleased to find that the Sichuan food at our favorite restaurant in Shanghai had the same dishes as an authentic restaurant in Sichuan province (although we still like ours better :)!
Day one in the park started at 6:30am! We bundled up, hopped on a bus (with a LOT of other tourists) and headed up the mountain. The bus dropped us off at the top and we spent the rest of the day walking back down....
We found out that Jiuzhaigou has it all. For example, there are: Mountains...
Forests....
Mirror lakes...
Clear rivers...
Shockingly colorful water....
Waterfalls! ...
Um, a lot of people....
Bigger waterfalls....
And a really interesting combination of fall yellows and tropical-looking aqua colored water!
So that was our first day in the park. We culminated our long walk at an authentic Tibetan restaurant, complete with free paper scarves and a waitress that will sing to you when you ask for the bill.
Here's day two in pictures. We took a different route the second day and often found ourselves alone on the path. It was quite restful and energizing!!
Jiuzhaigou turned out to be an extremely restful vacation, and one that we really needed. We were filled to the brim with clean air, peace, joy, and thankfulness- it was like pushing a re-set button that allowed us to dive back into the not-so-naturey city where God has placed us.
My good friend Alana and I took A LOT of these types of pics during our time studying abroad in Mexico:
I never thought we would get to take pics like these together in CHINA!!! But we DID, because she CAME TO VISIT!!! We felt so honored that she would fly across the ocean to see us living life here in the Pearl of the Orient.
It was an incredible visit. About a week and a half after school started in September, Alana flew in and started living life with us. She came to school, observed Steve’s 4th grade Chinese geography presentations, worked up a sweat in my spin class, explored the city of Shanghai, endured going to the hottest and most humid tennis tournament in history, gave her testimony at our youth group, ate basically only Asian cuisine while here (which is actually a challenge considering how international this city is), came to church with us for a special Hillsong United concert, and served in a local orphanage.
And, to top it all off, the three of us spontaneously decided to go to Beijing for the weekend! Our school just happened to have a four day holiday during the time she was here, so we took advantage and hopped on a bullet train to show Alana more of China!! I kind of made that sound easy, but we literally almost didn't make it to the train on time. We ran the entire way off of the subway and onto the train, which left about thirty seconds later (two whole minutes earlier than it was supposed to---look at my watch!!). Phew!
I love Beijing and have thoroughly enjoyed each time we have been there (first with Lyssa and Kirsten, then for the Great Wall Half Marathon, and again with Mark and Rob). Each time has been different in it’s own way, and has been equally amazing. As Steve and Alana are BOTH credentialed history teachers, this last trip to Beijing was seen through the fun and educational lenses of history and cultural analysis.
Our first full day in the capital was actually spent three hours outside of the capital- with a hike on my favorite wonder of the world: the GREAT WALL! We went to a different section of the wall than we had been to before: Jinshanling to Simatai. Wow. It was amazing. Once we took the gondola up, we had the choice to either go left and explore the intact ancient ruins of the wall, or to go right and see the reconstructed wall- what it would have looked like if we could see it in all of it’s glory. Of course we turned left and started climbing up, down, and around the crumbling stones of the original wall’s remains.
I loved how the slanting wall looked like the scaly back of a dragon! We also loved the BLUE SKY that allowed us to see the wall continuing to slink and slope into the distance. And, of course, Steve loved how panoramable the landscape was in general :)
When it comes to the Great Wall, pictures are just so much better to describe it than words. So here they are:
Our next full day in Beijing consisted of the Drum and Bell Towers, a trip to Coco’s, some famous Peking Duck, a walk around the Summer Palace, and…well I’ll get to our unusual dinner later…
Ok ok ok ok- all that was beautiful and wonderful and cultural and usual. So we decided to set out for something a little more unusual - dinner. Not just any ho hum dinner, but a cultural meal that was set in a comunista simpatico setting decked out with propaganda and complete with a live performance and waitresses dressed as communist combatants. Getting to the restaurant was an adventure in and of itself! Since none of us has a smartphone, we relied on google maps and the directions of a helpful guy we met on the subway to find the place. I won’t mention the post-apocalyptic alley we had to walk through to get there… ANYWAY when we did arrive, Alana and Steve found the entrance to this iconic communist restaurant quite appropriate:
With no one able to speak English and no pictures on the menu, ordering was a little bit tricky. Fortunately, we did all right with our survival Chinese. I will say though, that it was the first time we’ve seen a cooked chicken skull amongst the veggies!! They gave us Chinese flags to wave during the performance, and encouraged people to sing along to the patriotic songs. Steve and Alana enjoyed being immersed in the history of it all and helped me understand some of the historically significant components of the night. It was especially interesting to watch the elderly people in the room singing along, and wondering what life had been like for them when this wasn’t just found in a restaurant but in the dominant culture of the country.
Our last morning before zipping back to Shanghai was spent in the Forbidden City. We got a guide, which was good until he found out that both Steve and Alana were history teachers…then he got scared that they knew more than he did (which combined...they totally did!). Fortunately, we did learn some things we didn’t know before. The worst part about our guide was that he lied to us about our favorite part of the whole city- the Nine Dragon Screen! He told us it was closed that day, but Steve suspected something was amiss, and boldly led us right to it!!
Of course we also had to channel our inner Mulan...as well as visit our second-favorite part of the city- the theater!!
Alana’s goal in coming was to 1) see us :), 2) see what God is doing here in China, and 3) see China!! She was able to see a lot, and while I think she was able to see how far and wide God’s reach around the world is, Steve and I were the ones that were extremely blessed by her visit. She is so full of life that it spills into other people in a very, very good way. Her time with us sparked some pretty awesome spiritual growth in us, which I don’t believe was an accident. In the testimony that Alana shared with our youth group, she talked about how when she won big on the game show through listening to God’s voice, it wasn’t just for her. This crazy “new normal” was now for us, and I think that it is so cool to see the ways that God is using her to further bless others!
If you would like to just read about the epic Moose Day, scroll down to Moose Day: A History :)
After a few solid weeks of soaking up mountains and lakes in Mt. Shasta, we set off on another summer adventure- to yet another part of the U.S. we had never been before- the famous Yellowstone National Park. The newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Rickert packed up their newly acquired stuff, and the four of us headed off on an old-fashioned road trip. We left Mt. Shasta at the break of dawn, and, since we were headed north, were soon in Oregon. None of us had ever gone that way before, so we were surprised when we discovered that Eastern Oregon doesn’t actually look like the evergreen mountains we had been expecting. Apparently it’s got a lot of flat farmland, just like Idaho does, which was also a new state for us. We did see a badger cross the road, which was pretty cool (and a good start to all of the fauna we would see later in the trip). I will say that the unexpectedly cool things about our drive through Idaho were 1, awesome canyons coming out of nowhere, and 2, some pretty fun sand dunes.
Steve captured a dove in this pic...can you find it?
Day two of our road trip began after playing on the dunes of course. Steve, John and Lu had fun sprinting down the steep-i-ness, while I chose to roll down. A bit sandier, but way more fun!!!
Along the way we stopped to "ooh ahh" at every cool canyon we saw. We also stopped in Idaho Springs to hunt for ice cream. We ended up watching an osprey impressively circling the man-made falls before heading on to our first real destination: Yellowstone National Park!
We drove through the East entrance to the park and our hunting began! Not only were we trying to see as much wildlife as possible, but we were also hunting for as many license plates as possible! With as many cars in the park as animals (ok, maaaaybe a slight exaggeration), license plate hunting was nearly as fun (and just about as successful) as our animal spotting!
Our first stop in the park was in a meadow…not because of wildlife, but because of the WILD! It was just so beautiful we were happy to just be there!
Soon after we saw our first animal- a female elk…not bad for being in the park for only 5 minutes! We stopped at the Grand Prismatic Spring, which still turned out to be amazing even when completely covered in fog. Fortunately, we were also able to return to the spring on our way out a few days later to see it in it’s full rainbow glory.
Our first full day in the park began at 5 am (thanks to Scott’s advice). Really, I’m not being sarcastic, it was awesome to be up so early in Yellowstone! As we drove up through the Hayden Valley, our early morning adventure really began as we saw some large, dark shapes slowly began to emerge from the mist...
Lyssa was quite excited...
...but also a little scared :)
Buffalo have now become a favorite animal of the Hugh-Ricker-Man clan. I especially love their ginormous heads and cute little eyes! And, they’re just so BIG. Buffalo aren’t quite THE favorite animals we saw on our trip though, as you may suspect from the title of this blog. We soon realized that buffalo are actually everywhere in the park, so we got to see them (and experience the traffic jams they cause) all the time!!
A few minutes after our first bison sighting, we stumbled across an elk, this time, with the horns!
The rest of our first full day in the park was spent finding an amazing campsite, spotting antelope (we thought they were only in Africa but then remembered the lyrics “where the deer and the antelope play” and were satisfied that they were real!), watching a black bear lumbering up a hillside, looking (and failing) for big-horned sheep among some Disney-esque hotsprings, and hiking around meadows (looking for moose) and up mountainsides (for, once again, big-horned sheep). Oh yeah, and keeping track of all the license plates along the way!
The only true legal Hughes’ left in the immediate fam arrived that night, and while we had fun playing Dutch Blitz and eating snacks for dinner, the next day was Moose Day, so of course we must skip straight to that!
Moose Day- A History
On August 11, 1979, while driving in Yellowstone Park, a moose walked in front of my grandparents' car. From that day on, August 11th was officially declared Moose Day, and has been celebrated in my family ever since. See, the moose sighting was not just a cute coincidence, but rather a road trip victory. Mama and Papa, along with my mom and uncle, had been traveling all over the Pacific Northwest that summer, and had been looking for moose the entire time. They consciously put themselves in moose-like situations hoping to see one of the mysterious beasts, but time and time again, the moose slipped right through their fingers, antlers and all. Yellowstone was their last stop on the trip, which made it their final opportunity to spot a moose. So when a huge bull moose casually came right up to them, it was a worthy enough cause to claim an annual spot on the calendar.
Flash forward 34 years to Moose Day 2013. Apart from my mom, this was our first time in Yellowstone, which also meant it was our first opportunity to see a real live moose on Moose Day. No pressure right? Actually....there really wasn't that much pressure, especially since we were so focused on seeing WOLVES!
Our campground was in the Lamar Valley, which (thanks again to Scott) we knew was the main wolf-spotting valley in the park.The wolves are mostly active at dawn (like 90% of the animals in the world), so we got up early again and headed out to hunt for wild canines. We drove around, stopping at all the spotters’ spots (say that ten times fast) to see if they could see any wolf activity.So far, nothing. One of the spotters packed up his telescope and drove away, so we followed him of course. About a minute after turning around, one of us was literally in mid-sentence, saying something like, “I wonder how hard it is to see”- when my mom cried out that it was “Right THERE!” And it was! A lone, gray wolf, trotting in the valley not 50 feet from the truck. It was actually amazingly camouflaged, and it was wild and dog-like and awesome!
After seeing the wolf, we were all jazzed up and ready to spot anything and everything. So at 7 am, we immediately set out to find a moose.
We headed to the old petrified tree, where we had heard a moose had been hanging around a few days earlier. In order to get to the meadow (that’s where moose like to hang out, especially if there’s a lake nearby) we had to walk a mile and a half in, and it was around a bend so we couldn’t see what was ahead. When we were almost to the small lake, my dad and Lyssa started pointing and getting really excited. I looked to where they were pointing and saw a horse and it’s owner standing next to it. As Lyssa’s excitement grew however, I realized that it was not a horse but a female moose, and not a man standing next to it, but a baby moose! We couldn’t believe it! We watched the baby moose frolic through the meadow as it followed it’s mother into the woods. It was really heart melting to watch as well, because every time the mother stopped to do something, the baby would follow and copy the motion. It was just too too good.
Madre called Mama and Papa from the middle of the meadow to tell them about our moose sighting on Moose Day. They were completely stoked of course, meanwhile the rest of us couldn’t even handle how awesome our morning had been. As we had been so blessed all before 9am in the morning, we decided it was time to bless our tummies as well, and enjoyed hot chocolate and hot breakfast at a nearby lodge.
Here’s one more pic to commemorate the amazingness of Moose Day (or rather, Moose Morning):
The rest of the trip was pretty epic as well, and included Yellowstone Falls, seeing not just one, but a pack of wolves the next morning, Old Faithful of course, the Grand Prismatic Springs from a treetop’s view, lots more buffalo, and the Grand Tetons on our way out. Pretty epic indeed.
As you can see the trip was a blast. This summer has officially made me want to tour my own country for the first time ever. The last thing I need to note on here is that not only did we find a moose on Moose Day, but we found 49 out of 50 state license plates while in the park. The only plate we couldn't find was Delaware, which we discovered soon two days later, in nowhere else but the parking lot of Lyssa's new apartment complex! Mission accomplished. Now we just need to find some big-horned sheep...
Every time I think about that quote, it makes me want to watch The Patriot again, haha.
Our first day in Ohio was quite an adventure! Scott, Suzie, Em & I decided to bike down to the river. Solon is a very peaceful, pretty neighborhood, full of trees and even has a few rolling country hills to go along with it! --> a nice continued break from the endless apartment buildings and skyscrapers towering over a flat plane. We had heard that the river was clear, gently flowing & peaceful: a perfect simple of the tranquil suburban lifestyle that surrounded it. However, our hike down to the water revealed a raging torrent of muddy water! At first we were relishing the surprise of our violent discovery, but then we realized that, given the imminent probable downpour of the dark grey clouds overhead, we had better make our way to safety.
I have always loved watching the Black Riders get swept away by the enchanted Bruinen River, but I’d rather not be one of the Ringwraiths in that scene. It turns out we left not a moment too soon! The rain came down HARD as we made our way up the steep slopes back home. To add to our alarmed state, the tornado sirens began screeching as we crossed the main street! By the time we reached home it was actually hailing. This storm was intense! My eyes kept darting frantically between my family behind me and the tree line on my right. I kept expecting a tornado to burst through the trees like a T-Rex, ready to devour us all!
Thankfully, we survived. And so did my parents’ new home! It’s beautiful and we felt very much at home from the moment we walked in the door :). Of course, Reggie was there to greet us with characteristic explosive enthusiasm and snuggling. And then we got a tour of the place, really appreciating the forest view of the living room and backyard patio, and being reunited with much that was kept in storage for so many (nearly 6) years while my parents lived in The Netherlands & then near us in China :). Among the highlights of that particular collection of family comforts were our light brown leather reclining couches, the pool table, and the foosball table. Robert & I had to make up for lost time, so we played 29 games of foosball while I was there. I won 28 of them. Better luck next time, Robert!! Haha ;).
And of course, all of the usual comforts of home were the main joy throughout our stay: Mom’s home cooking (including cinnamon rolls & rhubarb pie!!!), lots of cereal (can’t get that in China), late night movies with my brothers, and great conversations and game times with family, including Guesstures, Dutch Blitz, Citadels, Pandemic, Bocce Ball & Badminton, etc. I was also introduced to Dominion, and I’m definitely looking forward to playing that game again! Last but definitely not least, we appreciated the time we got to spend with Suzie & Samantha – so valuable to get to spend some time getting to know the women my brothers love so much! (one a sister, and one soon-to-be!)
We were very blessed by the trips we took away from home base as well, exploring the nearby (and slightly less nearby) countryside. Our first was a day tip to legendary amusement Cedar Point – and it didn’t disappoint! Its top roller coasters are among the best I’ve ridden on, and its location cannot be matched. It’s on a peninsula, jutting out onto Lake Erie! Surrounded on 3 sides by water, the views just before you begin to plunge to the bottom of the coaster at top speeds are just as breathtaking! Our personal favorites were Millennium Force (affectionately re-named the Millennium Falcon), Maverick, and Magnum – we also enjoyed getting soaked by waterfalls on the rafting ride. There was a conflict of opinion between the four of us (Scott, Suzie, Em & I) who were there about the next best ride; I liked Raptor, while Scott & Em really liked the new Gatekeeper, and I don’t think Suzie liked either of them. Haha. But even the food there was incredible! Chick-Fil-A in the park!! And it was just as delicious as it is outside the park! Don’t worry, we got it outside the park a couple of times too ;). I can’t get enough of that Spicy Chicken sandwich & waffle fries :). Mmmm…
After Scott & Suzie had departed for their new home & the beginning of Westminster Seminary, the rest of us had a relaxing beach day on Kelley’s Island (not that they were stressing us out…;). Ferries back and forth, lakeside restaurants and a fair, warm summer waters, and a good book were some of the simple pleasures of the day. Speaking of the book, I discovered the mastery of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle over the summer; The Lost World is an excellent adventure with fascinating characters, particularly Professor Challenger. Not to mention that we have since ushered in many Sherlock Holmes mysteries this fall; the original tales are so well-written and entertaining! No wonder he became such a beloved character, haha.
A day in the world of the Amish was illuminating; it gave me a much deeper appreciation for their ways and the decisions they have made to follow Christ’s teaching the best they believe how. There is a brilliant Amish panorama painting out there that I highly recommend to anyone who ever has the privilege of visiting my parents or passing through the area. It tells the story (or rather, many stories) of the Amish from the very beginning, including their persecution and their heroes. The story that most impressed me was the one of the man who was being persecuted for his beliefs & pursued by bounty hunters when he (a thin man) crossed a lake in the chase and the fat bounty hunter fell through the ice! Rather than keep running, he chose to love his enemies & rescue his pursuer. Once safely on solid ground, the bounty hunter then led him away to be burned at the stake! The moral of the story: loving our enemies is not just a nice thought; it’s a command!
Our greatest adventure, however, was without a doubt our trip to Niagara Falls! The Limkeman family had visited once before, when we were very young – I was in upper Elementary school, I think. It was Emily’s first time – and while perhaps it has a bit more manicured surroundings than the waterfalls we discovered out in Jiuzhaigou, it is REALLY amazing. Awe-inspiring volumes of water thunder down over those falls. Dad got us the adventure pass, featuring the Maid in the Mist, the Aquarium, and the Cave of the Winds, to name the highlights in brief, the last of which was also the most incredible :).
The Maid in the Mist was just as epic as I remembered it to be – even more so come to think that the only falls I actually recalled were the Horseshoe Falls; while that is the most classic of the three falls, the great American (and Bridal Veil, if you can count as a separate waterfall, haha) Falls are also spectacular. I love going into the clouds of mist that rise high from where the falls crash down into that semi-circular pool below, being soaked by infinite droplets of water rising and falling all around me. After lunch at the Hard Rock Café, we went to a California seal show at the aquarium, followed by swimming at the hotel before Buzzy’s pizza. Then back to the American Falls that night for the light show on the falls (green, red, blue & white).
The next morning I got to lead worship for the family in the park overlooking Horseshoe Falls, and we liked the location so much that we came back to the café there for lunch! Worship was a most natural and heartfelt experience for all of us, given the magnitude and beauty of God’s creation before us. I love singing worship songs. If only my past self could have looked into the future and seen me now…he would have been shocked. But I digress, haha.
Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for – and my favorite part of the trip: The Cave of the Winds! This expedition featured an elevator shaft that took us a couple hundred feet down to the base of the falls. Once we arrived, we donned our ponchos and were actually able to walk up on some wooden scaffolding and stick our face in the American Falls! Now it wasn’t particularly windy in the actual cave, but you could truly feel the sheer POWER of the falls as winds rushed up to 60mph past you and the water came crashing down upon rocks, shooting out forcefully in our direction! It was incredible. And yet, standing at the top of the falls and peering out over the edge, we noticed that the water seems to slip so smoothly over the precipice in such a carefree manner that you would never imagine the beast that is unleashed upon unsuspecting tourists below!
We have missed and will continue to miss weekends and holidays with my parents in Suzhou and sightseeing around China together. But we are so grateful for the 1.5 years we were able to spend with them, and for the chance to live life together once more this past July :). See you again soon, Mom & Dad (and Scott, Robert, Suzie & Samantha) – we love you!
P.S. We did stop by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum one afternoon, in case you were wondering ;). I really enjoyed seeing some memorabilia and history of rock n’ roll throughout the last hundred years. There were some pretty interesting exhibits there! Emily got bored fairly quickly, but she put up with me til my curiosity was satisfied ;). One of our favorite parts was seeing original scraps of verse written by the artists back in the day, with scratch outs and re-writes, all in a hasty, mad artistic scrawl. For example, “The Boxer” by Simon & Garfunkel :).
My best friend got married this summer, you may have heard about it. Lyssa and John tied the knot underneath the leaves of a ribbon-filled tree on July 7, 2013. Everything about the occasion was perfect, from the stately stable-turned-house that was rented for the week, to the friends that flew in from around the world (we weren’t the only ones from China!!), to the way the beautiful bride and handsome groom laughed together as they swayed to the music of their first dance.
Getting to the wedding location was a little crazy. Anyone living abroad will be able to relate to these order of events: We flew in to San Francisco on Saturday, drove into the woods where we enjoyed s’mores at the camp where Sean was lifeguarding, spent the night in a rustic cabin, drove down to Santa Barbara on Sunday, spent the night at Mama and Papa’s, went to the dentist Monday morning (had three cavities filled, why is it always me???), and then finally proceeded to drive down to San Diego with Mama and Papa, (who, btw, successfully took care of me in my chipmunk-cheek condition and found an amazing milkshake place along the way).
Once we arrived though, the fun began! We spent the week preparing for the big event on Sunday- meeting John’s family, playing games, enjoying the amazing rental house, going out to eat, becoming friends with other friends, hiking along the bluffs and jumping in the ocean, going to the zoo, and of course, taking care of all the last minute details of weddings: signs, flowers, dress fittings, and programs!
Some of my favorite highlights were Lyssa’s bachelorette party and the wedding shower the next day. Several of Lu’s closest friends and I went out for mini-golf and Mexican food before coming back to the house and showering her with gifts. The next day, friends and family played some games under one of the huge trees in the courtyard and showered her with more love and gifts! It was so much fun to overwhelm my best friend with attention and love and wedding stuff!!
The actual wedding day was wonderful. I have never seen such an original ceremony as theirs was.
Here’s some highlights from the day:
Getting Lyssa ready with the bridesmaids
Lord of the Rings music as my dad walked my sister down the aisle!
Standing under the leaves with a first-hand view of my sister getting MARRIED!
Sean playing guitar and singing while...
...Lyssa and John demonstrate their love for others as they serve communion to everyone at the wedding!!
Lyssa and John being so comfortable in each other’s arms
Toasting time! I loved hearing all the wonderful ways they have blessed others!
Swing dancing on the grass!
Lyssa telling me that her wedding was her favorite wedding EVER!
Steve doing an AMAZING job as the wedding day coordinator,
And at the end of the day, sending them off through the bubbles to go on their honeymoon!
If that didn't give you a big enough glimpse of how I feel about Lyssa marrying John, I pretty much said it all in my toast. Not to put my heart on my sleeve or anything, but if you would like to read a small, modified portion of my speech, then "read more" below:
There are some cities that I love. I understand that the English language does not have enough variations of the word “love” to fully encapsulate the meaning of the word in each way that we use it, (which, as I was just discussing with my mentee this week while going through C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, I find to be a very frustrating limitation to our language when discussing theology) however, right now when I say that I “love” a city, I mean that I could quite possibly live there despite the fact that it actually is an urban place. I guess Shanghai counts (since I do live here) under this description, and I do love my life in Shanghai, but I do not, however, count it as one of my “favorite” cities in the world. The more I travel, the more I realize what a city must have for it to qualify as one of my favorites, and naturally, the more places I go the more places get added to that list. Currently, there are four cities that get to be on my Favorite Cities List.
The cities are:
San Francisco, CA
Guanajuato, Mexico
Queenstown, New Zealand
and now...
HONG KONG!!!!!
What do these four cities have in common, and what are my requirements for the list? I’m glad you asked!
· I’ve been there · There are LOTS of hills. Up, down, everywhere! If I can consider walking around the city hiking, I'm happy. This is why Shanghai doesn’t qualify…no hills! · There is nature accessible in the city or very close by · There are brilliant colors everywhere · The city is LAYERED! I love cities that are built creatively, with exciting stairways leading to alleys leading to secret gardens on rooftops or incredible views on the tops of hillsides!
Anyway, we really enjoyed our four days in Hong Kong. We explored the different islands via subway, a “Big Bus” tour, taxi’s, public busses, ferries, walking, and even on an old fashioned “junk” cruise! Hong Kong is very intricate, with every inch of space used for something, and they can get pretty creative sometimes! One of the aspects we loved about the city the most was that you could actually feel the history of the place, which is very unlike Shanghai. While Shanghai has the historic bund and a few ancient gardens and temples, everything else has pretty much been built in the last 15 to 20 or so years. Just ask Mama and Papa who came 25 years ago...they barely even recognize our pictures of the city! We especially could imagine the history of Hong Kong while we were winding around the coastline on our Big Bus tour. It was surprisingly fun to take a tour and explore the city and the coast as we listened to interesting facts about each place.
Besides the Big Bus, our first day in Hong Kong included the unique Stanley Market and Plaza (including a display of Lamborghini-Cows???), a ginormous slice of pizza for Steve, one of the most glitzy fashion malls we've ever been in (with crazy decorations to boot), and seeing Iron Man 3, which was incredible. That's a lot of fun for such a gloomy day!
Our second day started off with the Victoria Peak Tram, which was fun despite the fact that it was so foggy we couldn't see anything...but we had much more fun soon after when we hopped onto the Disneyland rail to spend the rest of the day zooming around on Space Mountain and Hong Kong's Grizzly Gulch Runaway Mine Cars!! We actually LOVED Hong Kong Disneyland. While it doesn't have as many "lands" as the real deal, what they do have is great! They have several things that the CA Disneyland doesn't...like Toy Story World, the Runaway Mine Cars, and an incredible Lion King performance that was amazing!! We thought it was also pretty fun to ride It's a Small World while in Hong Kong....it was just too perfect :) I think my favorite part of Hong Kong Disneyland (ok besides the backwards mine car ride...and the delicious caramel popcorn) was how smiley all the "cast members" were. The whole day was like one big It's a Small World ride because the Hong Kong cast members were just so happy and smiley!! Most of all though, I love being married to someone who enjoys Disneyland as much as I do...hee hee hee :)
Our next day was much more beautiful than the first two! We hopped on a ferry and checked out the Hong Kong Avenue of the Stars. We had only heard of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Bruce Lee, but it was fun to see everyone else there so excited :)
We then headed out to Repulse Bay, where we were leisurely enjoying the feeling of our feet in the waves again when all of a sudden we saw that BLACK clouds had rolled in overhead surprisingly quickly. I was in awe, but Steve knew what was up and was able to get out the rain coverings fast enough to save our stuff from the TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR that turned the streets into rivers only minutes later. It was SO FUN! We quickly hopped on a bus and continued on to explore Hong Kong in the rain!
Fortunately, the rain storm passed over quickly, and we were able to enjoy our sunset date that night on a famous Hong Kong "Junk." I don't know why it's called that, but it's basically an old ship with red Hong Kong classic sails. It was definitely one of the most romantic boats I've ever been on :)
Our time in Hong Kong flew by way too fast, so we are determined to go again. There are still so many aspects of the city that we didn't get to experience, not to mention all of the potential hiking! We really enjoyed the combination of China and the West! This might be a crazy statement, but our frequent trips to the Great Wall might just have to turn into trips to Hong Kong....
We’ve been back in the Middle Kingdom for a few months now since venturing into Middle Earth, so we figure it’s about time to move on and share what’s up with us currently. Don’t get me wrong, we are still in the remembering phase of our epic adventure down under (as I hope and suspect we always will be in some way), but our real lives are continuing to progress as well!
Lately, our life consists of: teaching, planning, working 6 day work weeks (only 2 of them, but still :(, going to baby showers for friends who just adopted-- and friends who will have a baby soon, attending a PE conference, watching men hanging from the roofs of our apartment complex as it gets painted, playing Ultimate Frisbee in preparation for the big Shanghai tournament (Steve), doing leg exercises to rehabilitate my leg in preparation for the big Shanghai tournament (me), watching the spring blossoms turn into green leaves, hosting our 10th grade small groups and our adult life group, planning and selling tshirts and raising awareness for the 30 Hour Famine our youth group/school is doing on May 3, ooooooooh yoga (definitely not Steve), planning our upcoming weekend to Hong Kong (yay!), and reading a lot of Harry Potter (we currently started The Order of the Phoenix). Oh yeah, and we’re steering clear of chicken and eggs right now so the Avian Flu won’t get us, and a WASC accreditation team is here at our school this week to (obviously) start us in the accreditation process. Phew!
nothing. It's what's for dinner. 30 Hour Famine. (I designed this!)
Enough of that though, because the most exciting thing that has happened to us since flying back from the under side of the world, is that MY FAMILY CAME TO VISIT! Yay! So the rest of this blog will be about that!
My dad, my mom, and Sean flew over at the end of March to visit for about ten days. Their first weekend here was insanely awesome, as it was the retreat! Each spring and fall, our youth group teams up with other youth groups in the city and puts on a big weekend retreat, with a speaker and workshops and worship and crazy fun skits. It’s basically like camp, but smushed down into 2 days. My dad was the speaker (he did an AMAZING job), my mom led a Middle School small group (definitely not the easiest role to take, but she did great), and Sean was a part of the 11th grade group, where he stayed up all hours of the night learning how to play Mahjong and solving students’ foursquare problems (If you don’t know what foursquare is, ask any teenager with an iPhone).
My 10th grade girls!
Not to brag or anything, but my husband was hilarious in the skits!
The retreat was a really special time with my family because it was the first time that we had all been in leadership positions in a ministry together. In high school I went on a mission trip to Mexico with Madre and Sean, and on a mission trip to Hollywood with Daddy and Lyssa, but I was always a student at that point. This time though, it was pretty powerful to be serving in the same place and for the same purpose as leaders together. We had a lot of great worship experiences, meaningful conversation, and insight about the students we are pouring ourselves into. Both Steve and I were amazed at the breakthroughs our small groups had, and it was just so cool to see God’s presence working through our friends, our family, and ourselves! It was also really amazing that my family could see firsthand the reason we continue to stay in China. We didn’t move here for the youth group, but it’s definitely the reason we are still here. My family really validated that for us by being able to share in that with us.
Do you KNOW??? (the retreat theme)
After the retreat, Steve and I took a day off of work to relax and explore the city with my fam. We basically did it all! We meandered through the ancient architecture of YuYuan Garden, strolled over to the Bund where we had tea at the Peace Hotel, and then finished off the night with tapas and drinks on the 87th floor of the JinMao Tower as we watched the city lights come on. It was a pretty great day!
The next day mi familia zoomed off on the Bullet Train to explore Beijing and the Great Wall for the next three days. They came back having had an amazing time, and apparently they had brought Mt. Shasta air with them, as they experienced blue skies up there (which almost never happens!).
That last weekend, we played Bang! of course (Steve was the sherriff and he won, only fitting) and hung out in our comfy apartment :). After church on Saturday we went out to Thai food with friends, watched a spontaneous fireworks show right next to our table window, and then right on to KTV! Before I actually knew what it was, I thought that karaoke in Asia meant singing on stage in front of a large room of people that didn’t speak my language. What it really is though, is a private room with couches, a huge TV, and two microphones. They have about 50 of these rooms, which is crazy! In our room, we had a blast singing to Backstreet Boys, Sweet Caroline, and Kiss From a Rose.
On Easter Sunday, we made a delicious breakfast of burritos, sweet bread, and fruit salad before venturing out into the city one last time. We explored Puxi, and enjoyed walking through Taikang Lu, a maze of alleyways overflowing with shops, restaurants, and photo galleries. We discovered a teddy bear restaurant so of course we had to check it out. Hundreds of teddy bears of all sizes decked out the interior and the terrace, and they even served a teddy bear paw cake with your coffee!
We hopped on the subway and off again to experience People’s Square with El Padre. We walked down to the bund as the lights were turning on, and appreciated the skyline in all of its neon glory. We hopped on a ferry and ate dinner in Pizza Hut overlooking the river before heading back home.
What an AMAZING time in China with my family! Lu, we really missed you and wish you could've been here (you already know that though). What you don't know is that I'm about to wish you a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! We love you sister! We're so excited for the WEDDING in 2.5 months! Woooooooooooo!
Next weekend we're going to Hong Kong for the first time. You KNOW there'll be an upcoming blog about that!! ;)
Welcome to Middle Earth! :) - It is a great pleasure and privilege for us to be your enthusiastic guides to the most thrilling Lord of the Rings film locations! While the main events are Hobbiton, Mordor & Rohan, we were blessed to be able to experience some of the other magic & wonder of the 100 different film locations featured in the epic trilogy as well :). By the way, the LOTR Location Guidebook is an absolute must for any fan traveling across both islands --> Off we go!
The Hobbit-inspired sights at the airport in Auckland set our hopes on fire for what was bound to be the vacation we had dreamed of for years; one that truly became ours since the moment of our engagement three years ago.
Strangely enough, our first cinematic wonder was the Narnian beach; don't get me wrong, it was incredibly beautiful and magical and all, but I had to wait for Hobbiton for DAYS after our arrival - multiple days! Thankfully, I also had C.S. Lewis' wisdom from his other great fantasy series, the Space Trilogy, telling me that the anticipation for the event was a great and necessary part of the experience of the true pleasure itself! That revelation has completely redefined my experience of every season of waiting in my life.
I could barely sleep at all the night before our long-awaited trip to The Shire. This was, above all else, THE REASON we had traveled all this way to New Zealand :). There are very few if any times I have so greatly desired to have a beautiful, sunny day. To see Hobbiton in all of its shining cinema glory - bright, sparkling green grass that illuminates the rolling hillsides under a clear blue sky: that was my dream. And although we had enjoyed amazingly beautiful weather the past few days, I awoke on the morning of our departure to discover a blanket of clouds, with precious few gaps between them, very few and far between! Yet I held out hope, prayed, and was blessed upon our arrival to Matamata to see that this was the day that the Lord had made - the day of my dreams - and let me tell you, I rejoiced and was very glad :)
WOW. This set, torn down after LOTR and later rebuilt with painstaking attention to detail as a permanent tourist attraction for The Hobbit, truly surpassed even our highest, wildest expectations. To be able to wander about the flower beds and gardens, standing in the field beneath The Party Tree...walking through the narrow pass Gandalf enters into The Shire, and crossing the stone bridge to head to The Green Dragon...ah, it was an amazing, fantastic experience, that was better than we had even dared to hope or imagine. And what really took our breath away was the sheer number of hobbit holes that had been built!
They were all so different, so interestingly unique! We had a wonderful time exploring and learning about the little details of each of them, whether it was the little stacks of wood & tools in the yard or the variety in the doors and windows :) - each one had a door that would open and close, and each had candles in the window along with a chimney to spout real smoke in the evening --> Peter Jackson did everything he could to ensure that Hobbiton really felt as though hobbits were living their lives there :). And of course, visiting Bag End was a special treat. With a view like that, I understand why Bilbo would find it so very hard to leave the comforts of home!
The road goes ever on and on...and if you don't keep your feet, it may take you by Sam Gamgee's house, past the Party Tree and across the bridge to the Green Dragon for a glass of the only brew for the brave and true ;). It was so fun to watch The Fellowship of the Ring and The Hobbit again after we had visited Hobbiton! We were completely transported into Tolkien's world from here throughout the rest of our journey. And yes, by the way, we really enjoyed The Hobbit, despite what all the critics may have you believe. The scene with Gollum in the cave is possibly Gollum's finest hour - I loved it!! :)
Thankfully, our guide knew about 2nd Breakfast. The salted pork was particularly good ;). We loved the North Island, but our journey through Middle Earth was delayed - until our first glimpse of Mt. Doom as we entered Tongariro National Park.
Two of us jumped up and rushed to the front of the bus as soon as the mountain of fire was in sight. Our driver/guide was kind enough to stop and let us take pictures, after which we discovered that we would actually be passing through Ithilien on the way to Mordor - just like in the movies! We were going to get to see the Forbidden Pool! In Maori, it's known as Tawhai Falls, and it's definitely nice and cool ;).
Our driver not only confirmed that we would be stopping by to see the Forbidden Pool, but we would also be able to jump off of the top of the falls INTO the Forbidden Pool! Could this day get any better? The answer was yes. Our driver didn't really know much about Lord of the Rings (he said he couldn't sit still for that long or some lame excuse like that ;), SO he asked me to get on the mic at the front of the bus and introduce the background behind this key scene in the films!! My first time as a LOTR tour guide, introducing a place I had been many times and yet also never before ;) - I loved it!
DId I jump off 6 times spread across two separate visits to the falls? Who wouldn't? ;). In between these two glorious visits to the Forbidden Pool, we went into the heart of Mordor, to the cracks of Doom!
But remember, one does not simply walk into Mordor...
So we left everything that is green and good in this world behind us and entered into a land of barren black lava rock as far as the eye could see - from recent eruptions at the end of the War of the Ring, of course ;). It was a very different kind of natural beauty than any other we would experience in New Zealand. Now bear in mind that I am only sharing with you a painfully selected few of the photos of our journey - Emily was convinced that I was taking too many pictures of Mt. Doom, but I assured here that that was simply impossible ;).
The path was treacherous and steep - and of course Gollum was sneaking round, ready to ambush us at every turn!
But would you really have Mordor any other way? 1 step forward, 2 steps back through loose rock and shale. With the LOTR soundtrack playing through portable speakers, we trekked to the door of the mountain (everyone greeted us with cheers & enthusiasm, by the way, once they figured out that we were playing the appropriate theme music for the mountain - that was fun! We were home among like minded travelers...:). Once we found the door's blasted remains, it provieded quite a nice view of the Red Crater as well :).
We loved Mt. Doom!
Next stop: Wellington - the Middle of Middle Earth! :) First thing to do was to explore the famous theater which held the Australasian premieres of the first two LOTR moves as well as the World Premieres of The Return of the King & The Hobbit. We actually stayed in a nice suite at the YHA here that had our own t.v. and dvd player, so we were able to kick back and watch the Fellowship that evening. very exciting to have just been to Hobbiton and then see it again in film! We had a whole new appreciation for all those precious scenes in the Shire now that we had seen it with our own eyes :).
Our next goal was to make it to the Weta Cave, which housed a number of authentic LOTR maps, memorabilia & miniatures (i.e. Legolas' weapons, Bilbo's burglar contract), and also featured a film that described how they brought Gollum to life and worked on other special effects not only for LOTR but also for films like Prometheus and King Kong - very cool!! It's really amazing when you see where they came from, because The Lord of the Rings was really really AWESOME, not only in its own right but especially compared with their previous work - haha, talk about taking it to the next level! ;). By the way, I have a new appreciation for how huge and scary Lurtz is!
Crossing over to the South Island promised us kayaking, warm sunny beaches, and beautiful turquoise waters. But more importantly, Nelson was the origin of the One Ring.
Not only did I get to try on one of the 40 original gold rings that Frodo (and others) wore for the films, but I also got to check out a MASSIVE steel, gold-plated ring that was created for the scene in the Fellowship at the Council of Elrond. You know, where the camera zooms in on the ring and you can see everyone arguing over what they should do with it, who's going to destroy it, etc. They're both in the picture on the right :).
While there were lots of activities to thrill us on the North Island, the South Island is the more popular attraction for tourists, probably because you get more of those incredibly grand, majestic views that you imagine when you think of LOTR. And we got to see & experience many sights along the way. Some we planned for and anticipated, and others were wonderful last-minute surprises! :)
Top Left: The Misty Mountains, featured in Two Towers
Top Right: Just around the riverbend from where we went bungy jumping you'll find the film location for The Pillars of the Kings: my kin ;).
Bottom Left: The Gladden Fields, where Isildur is ambushed by orcs and the ring betrays him, to his death - except we saw it in spring, which is slightly less ominous than winter
Bottom Right: The Ford of Bruinen - "If you want him, come and claim him!"
And then, the day of my other other greatest dream in Middle Earth was upon us: to visit Rohan, home of the horse lords.
As you can see, this story has a happy ending. And the day began such as could only be hoped for in dreams: a perfect, bright blue cloudless day. BUT, as we rounded a bend in the road on our way out of Lake Tekapo, we were startled by clouds that blanketed the horizon as far as the the eye could see. Dark clouds, menacing, threatening to ruin our last great adventure! And within a few minutes, rain - not a light drizzle, but a reckless downpour! Between that and a driving wind, we could hardly see out of the bus for a few feet. How could we possibly enjoy the breathtaking vistas that Rohan was so famous for? But even as we transferred onto the tour bus after waiting in a cafe for 30 minutes - in vain, it seemed - for the rain to let up, I held onto hope. God could change the weather - he could provide for us. I had seen him do it in Hobbiton and again in Tongariro, where a big storm closed the pass for 3 days following our time there. Not that He was obligated to do anything at all. And judging by our present history, he had done much more than enough for us! He didn't owe us anything - doesn't now, and never has! But God is able - so we asked :). And after we had driven for some time and just began to enter the massive valley, we received! [You'll probably want to click on all of these for a closer look - I do! ;)]
Eowyn looking for hope on the horizon.
We spent most of our time on that hill in Edoras :).
If you look down below, you'll see where the natural background where they digitally inserted Helm's Deep :).
On top of being in a simply incredibly beautiful place, our guides also provided still frames from the movies, so that we could do a side by side comparison and match up the movie with real life - so fun! They also gave us some props to play with :) - there was the flag of Rohan for one, and both Aragorn's ranger sword as well as Anduril. As they described and we experienced, that place was a giant wind tunnel, so it was very easy for us to believe that the flag would be torn off of its staff and float down outside the city walls. Very symbolic too, of course :).
Personally, I preferred Aragorn's ranger sword :). Well, it seems that at last our journey has come to an end. I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are an evil ;). We hope you have enjoyed your stay in Middle Earth, and if you have any questions about our journey, we would LOVE to talk about them with you!
Our three week trip to New Zealand was a whirlwind of exploring city and scenery via hiking, biking, swimming, kayaking, bungying, rafting, strolling with ice cream in hand, cliff jumping, sailing, caving, and sheep watching,…not to mention casting the one ring into the fires of Mt. Doom. Needless to say, we didn’t have much time to relax, but that’s the way we like it- leaving us with much more time for adventure!
The North Island
Our journey began at 7am in the northern city of Auckland. After checking into our hostel in Mt. Eden, we immediately hiked up to the crater about a five minutes walk away. The crater is actually on the highest part of Mt. Eden, and a park with trees and running paths has been built around it, making it a great naturey place to be if you’re going to be in one of the largest cities in the country. From the top of the crater our pale wintery skin soaked in the summer rays and our eyes took in the city skyline with the ocean beyond. Not a bad first few hours!
While in Auckland we explored downtown Queen Street, where we enjoyed the cinema, tried a kebab, and discovered our favorite Kiwi Cookies that we always get from the French grocery store in Shanghai. We also took a ferry to the nearby volcanic island Rangitoto, where we did a little training for our big hike to come later that week. On the way back we stopped off in Devonport to experience a quaint seaside town, and to discover that milkshakes in New Zealand are interestingly, like milkshakes in many parts of the world: very milky but not very shaky (much more like chocolate milk than like ice cream). We still enjoyed it - goes great with trail mix! :)
Our next stop was the Coromandel Peninsula, which was incredible even before we arrived, thanks to the beautiful scenic drive! Bright green rolling hills dotted with dark green trees and specks of white sheep with blue ocean beyond…but why should I explain it when I can just show you a picture?
Once in Whitianga, we grabbed a shovel and hopped on over to Hot Water Beach. The whole idea at this beach is to dig a hole in the sand and create your own Jacuzzi, as there is a natural hot springs that fills your hole with hot water. So we picked up our shovel and began our treasure hunt. We quickly discovered that all of the abandoned holes were filled with cold water, and most of the holes with people lounging inside were filled with the good stuff. Our first hole was freezing, so we moved on. Our strategy was to find a hole filled with contented people, and dig right next to them, hoping that we could share the same underground hot water current. We kept digging, but the water was only slightly warmer than the first hole. Finally the lounging people abandoned their holes and we hopped in right away, only to be shocked that they had been sitting in cold water! We gave up and decided to take pictures in front of a giant spray rock in the water. As I was snapping shots of Steve, I realized that my feet were burning hot IN THE OCEAN! I looked down and realized that the spring was flowing right to my feet, and was actually so hot that my feet were burning even though I was standing in the shallow seawater!
As cool as that was, our favorite experience in Coromandel was hiking to Cathedral Cove. If you have ever seen the movie Prince Caspian, you will recognize the cove as the beach the Pevinsies found themselves when they realized they were in Narnia again. The hike to the cove was really pretty, with tropical green plants lining the path, cows, and views of distant hills to one side and seaside cliffs to the other. The cathedral aspect of the cove was probably my favorite part. It was a huge arch, with a dome-like top like a cave. It was enormous, and the beaches on either side were breathtaking! It’s probably my favorite beach in the world (which is saying a lot!).
Our next adventure was our first exposure to Middle Earth, (which Steve will tell you all about soon!) but I will say that on the night before our visit to Hobbiton, he was like a little kid the night before Christmas! I love being married to someone who enjoys life so much!
Our next stop was Rotorua, which is one of the 3rd biggest geothermal locations in the world (Yellowstone is #1 I think?). We weren’t as excited about the sulfur stuff though as we were about the chance to raft over the largest waterfall you can raft commercially! We went over a 23-foot waterfall and, as our guide put it, took it “smooth as.” It was quite a thrill! Here is a picture of us going over the waterfall, and here is a picture of Steve with a famous NZ soft drink, which happens to be the same height as the waterfall we rafted over.
In Taupo, our bus driver arranged for a sailing and pizza night for us on the lake. When we signed up to use Magic Bus, we thought we were just getting cheap transportation from place to place. We were pleasantly surprised to find fun bus drivers who did everything possible to tell you about a place and arrange fun activities for everyone on board! Our whole bus had a good time getting to know each other as we sailed on a lake that is larger than all of Singapore. We saw some ancient Maori carvings and experienced rough winds on the way back. How fun for my first time sailing!
Our next adventure was Black Water Rafting in the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. While it didn’t exactly meet our expectations of rafting, the whole experience blew us away and is something that honestly seems more out of a movie than something that you can actually experience on earth. We took inner tubes into an underground network of small, pitch-black channels filled with water. We formed a single-file line, and held the feet of the person behind us so that we were floating together through the cave. That part alone was actually kind of creepy, as the cave channels were tight, the water was cold and brown and funny-smelling, and we were told about insects called Weta’s, which will jump on your face if you shine your headlamp on them….all of these things reminded us of the scary movie Prometheus. What wiped all of that away though, was the thousands of blue-green glowworms, twinkling like stars on the ceiling above us. The glowworms have a light on the end of their tails to attract prey into the beautiful, dangling poisonous thread of beads that hangs from them. The glowing lights are ominous for insects, but very magical for us! It was quite peaceful to float under the glowworm milky way. Everyone there understood that the moment was too beautiful to interrupt by talking, so we all just floated there, marveling at what none of us had ever seen before. (Technically though, Steve and I had seen it before on the Caves section of Planet Earth, but it was WAY better in person!). The experience was made even more interesting by the waterslides and mini-waterfall we jumped off along the way.
Off we went to National Park, the small town that literally sits on two different national parks: Tongariro National Park and Whanganui National Park. This is where we embarked on NZ’s best one day trek: the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It is supposed to be an actual crossing, where you start in one place and end in another, but one of the volcanoes that forms part of the trail actually erupted in August and was still not stable, so we ended up doing a round trip type of route. The hike itself was phenomenal. The rolling green hills that had become so familiar to us melted away to barren lava rock and expansive raw volcanic mountain. Alongside the path ran orange streams flowing with volcanic minerals, some of the only streams in NZ where you can’t drink from. We climbed through interesting rock formations, up Devil’s Staircase, and along a steep ridge that had such loose rock that for every one step up we took, we were forced two steps down again. It was so different and so fun! After heading up Mt. Doom (more on that later from Steve), we headed over to view the Emerald Lakes, whose turquoise color really popped in contrast to the barren moon type look of the landscape. It really was a great one day trek!
After hiking the National Park, we still hadn’t had enough, so we hopped on some bikes and rode through the park to a gorgeous waterfall for lunch. Steve jumped off of the waterfall six different times, and although I didn’t quite hit that number, I was very proud of myself for overcoming my fear and taking the leap myself!
In Wellington we caught the last quarter of the Super Bowl amidst a torrential rainstorm, and spent the rest of the day exploring and mourning the 49ers. We did some other fun things as well, but again, that’s Steve’s territory ;)
The South Island
Our time on the south island started with a quite different experience than we expected. On the three-hour ferry between islands, the swells were so large and the ferry was pitching so violently, that we found ourselves in a situation where being seasick was a real possibility. We were pretty confident in the strength of our own stomachs and were content to approach the experience as a fun ride, but we didn’t realize that not everyone around us would feel the same way. The ridiculousness of everyone throwing up around us would have been pretty comical if we weren’t trying to ignore it completely. Luckily for me, Steve demonstrated true love to me and gave me his noise-cancelling headphones while he took the brunt of the audio damage. Soon though we were out of the rough seas and into the nice calm Marlborough Sound :)
In Nelson we explored yet another national park, but this tropical one was quite different from the rocky barren national parks on the north island. In Abel Tasman National Park we hiked along the coast and cliffs to a small cove where we ate lamb kebabs and falafel prepared on a small stove right on the beach. Then we hopped into sea kayaks and explored the wetter part of the park. So fun!
PANCAKE ROCKS! Layers and layers and layers of thin slabs of rock piled high on each other. Scientists know that they are layers of limestone that formed under the sea, but the big mystery is why and how they formed layers upon layers upon each other. It’s fun to think that there are still mysteries we haven’t figured out yet! Whatever the reason, I’m glad it happened, because this big section of the west coast is SO COOL! Everything about Punakaiki is cool, from the pancake rocks, to the giant blow holes, and even to the plants surrounding the area….we loved it! To pump ourselves up for the experience, we enjoyed some pancakes ourselves, with a giant scoop of homemade whipped cream to top it off!
Our next trek was in Franz Josef, where we hiked up to the base of the Franz Josef Glacier, discovered immensely tall waterfalls, and enjoyed a cooler break in the middle of summer.
On our way to Lake Wanaka we took a jog around Mirror Lake, saw the Blue Pools, Steve successfully held his breath over the longest bridge on the west coast, and we killed about a hundred sandflies while only getting bitten once. Once in Wanaka, we took a swim, enjoyed the best ice cream cone we’ve ever had, (Patagonia! AMAZING!) and went on a dinner date (a nice break from noodles or PB and J at the hostel!).
Then SUDDENLY, it was Bungy Jumping day. I knew it was something I wanted to do, but I was completely terrified to do it. Steve and I have both been skydiving before, but something about the fact that you have to jump off of a bridge with only something tied around your ankles seemed much scarier to me than jumping out of an airplane with a professional skydiver strapped to your back. I was so nervous! I couldn’t eat anything all morning, and I was so excited to do it, but at the same time so looking forward to getting it over with. As a Valentine’s Day gift to me, Steve decided to do a tandem jump, even though he had already bungyed before. The place we jumped was actually with the company who had invented bungy jumping, and on the bridge where it first began, so that was reassuring. It was also a very beautiful spot, over a turquoise river nestled between two tree covered canyon walls. The hardest part about it was waiting. We had to wait in line on the bridge, watching other people jump (or hesitating to jump, or really hesitating to jump) until it was actually our turn. Once we were up on the platform though, I wasn’t as scared. I was more focused on making sure that we jumped at the same time and in the way they told us to. Then came the countdown, 3,2,1, BUNGY! We were FLYING! All I could see was the blue beneath me and all I could hear was Steve whooping beside me. It was really fun! After a few boings and bounces, it was over, and we were dangling headfirst over the river with the blood rushing to our heads. Yay! What a big fear to overcome!
Our Valentine’s Day continued in Queenstown, where we enjoyed Fergburgers and took the gondola up to the viewpoint for the sunset. It was breathtaking up there! We found a grassy hill on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Remarkables, the lakes, and the other mountain ranges around us. We felt so small and insignificant standing there at the edge of the world.
If we thought we felt small in Queenstown, our trip to Milford Sound really put us in our place. We drove through enormous cliffs and valleys, with dozens of waterfalls trickling down hundreds of feet down to us. It reminded me of standing in the meadow in Yosemite, only magnified. We saw a Kia bird on the way, which we learned is the largest parrot in the world and has the intelligence of a three year old. When we saw it, it was trying to pick away the rubber on the car window to try to get inside (would a 3yr old do that? I don’t know). Milford Sound, (which is actually a fiord, since it was formed by a glacier and not a river), was breathtaking. We took a boat ride out to see the seals on the rocks and the multitude of waterfalls cascading over the cliffs. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. We were pretty blessed too, because it had rained that morning, creating several more waterfalls than are usually there on a sunny day. Incredible!
As our journey neared to an end, we had one last exciting trek to look forward to….but of course I can’t tell you about that muahahaha….you’ll just have to wait in anticipation for Steve’s account of our foray into Middle Earth :)
Instead, I can mention a few of our favorite things about our trip finale. For one thing, we encountered several lakes and streams that had been mixed with what they call “glacial flour.” There are over fifty glaciers on the south island, so all of the rivers and lakes that are fed by glaciers end up a startling baby blue color. This is due to the minerals that get ground up so finely in the water that they never settle to the bottom, but continue to float around, making the refractions of the sunlight cause the color to appear so different. It is really amazing.
We also enjoyed visiting Lake Tekapo, where we saw the famous little picturesque church and enjoyed a surprise hike overlooking the lake. It seemed that we were always finding little hiking trails and places to walk wherever we were. It was such a pleasant surprise to discover day after day that hiking was an option! Our favorite thing!
We ended our trip in Christchurch, where we found amazing Thai food takeaway, meandered through botanical gardens, and randomly met up with our Kidder Creek friend Ben Turley and his wife! We were staying in the same hostel on the same night in one of the biggest cities on the island. We had fun catching up and sharing NZ stories.
Overall, our dream trip to New Zealand turned out to be even greater than we had imagined. We loved every second of it, and feel so blessed that we were able to fulfill a dream that we had dreamed together. When we got back to our apartment we sang the lyrics, “Oh no, you never let go, in every high and every low.” We were so amazed to see how God had orchestrated all of the little details in our trip, from perfect weather to catching busses, ferries, and taxis on time, to bigger things like losing wallets and keys and getting them returned days later. It’s just so cool to know that we serve a God who loves us so much that he even cares about giving us a perfect vacation! We always knew he’d be there in the low times, but wow it’s so cool to see God so clearly in the highest of times as well :)
Happy Chinese New Year! Now that the first semester has ended, basketball season has finally concluded, tennis season has been long past, and Christmas only lives on in our hearts (and maybe also in our apartment, #ourtreemightstillbeup, #don’tjudge), we figure it’s about time to send out another update on our lives. Chinese New Year is when we get our break from school, so we’re considering this blog to be the equivalent of our Christmas Card to you this year. Sorry it’s a little late…
Since I’ve never actually not been in school, the beginning of the school year feels like the real beginning of the year, and since we’ve only blogged twice since this one, that seems like a good place to start.
In August, our arrival back in China started off with a GREAT adventure! We hopped on the bullet train with Mark and Robert and set off to see the GREAT WALL again!!!! Ok, well that was why I went back to Beijing, but really we were there because Steve’s family hadn’t been yet. We had a great time filled with Coco’s, ancient Chinese history, and THE GREAT WALL! Steve is actually planning on writing a blog about this which will probably pop up sometime when you least expect it (just like his magical winter blog suddenly sprang up in the middle of summer this year ;). In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek:
Back in Shanghai, we dove into school and a new tennis season! This was Steve’s second year coaching with our friend Ryan, and this year I decided to lend my assistance as well (who am I kidding, it was mostly so that I could play everyday). Tennis has definitely been a highlight of our year so far. The days were long, the weather was warm, and we got to play tennis everyday until sunset, what more could you ask for? First place at the end of season tournament? Ok that sounds good. Going to a pro match to see Murray play Federer? Even better!
It turned out to be a pretty fantastic season, and right now when I think about how warm it was it seems like paradise…
Fun story: while we were at the pro match, a guy came up to Steve and Ryan asking for their autograph! He thought they were a professional doubles team since they were still wearing their jerseys from the end of season tournament. This may have been a life highlight for these guys...
We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving at the Limkemans (actually we were over there every chance we could get this semester trying to squeeze in as much family time as we could while we still had it!), and we participated in three or four or five other Thanksgiving dinners put on by youth group, our life group, our school, our leadership group, do ya get the idea that Thanksgiving is a little over-done over here? It’s one of those holidays that Americans don’t want to miss when living in China so instead of missing out on one meal, we get to experience five or six turkeys. :-/
The Shanghai Half Marathon was my next challenge. Wow, what a different race than the Great Wall Marathon! We jumped into a taxi at 5am in the pouring rain and two hours later we had pushed our way to the starting line through more people than I have EVER seen in one place, soaking wet and in complete denial that I was about to run 13 miles. Steve was totally awesome and held an umbrella over me until the race started. Then his own marathon began…the Life of Pi read-a-thon! While I tried to maneuver myself away from the trample zone (which lasted for the first several miles of the race), Steve was reading his eyes out trying to finish the book Life of Pi. His challenge was to complete the book by the end of the race so that we could celebrate by going to see the movie in theaters.
Well both marathons were a success! I completed my run through the disgustingly cold, wet, and surprisingly Christmas-decorated city, and Steve was able to succeed in his mission as well. We celebrated first by eating pancakes, and then by going to the movies!!! It was a fun day!
Christmas was a big highlight for us. Even though our school only gives us two days off plus the weekend, we were able to feel like we could truly celebrate the holiday with family. Robert, Scott, Suzie, and Steve’s cousin Jon were all able to visit Mark and Karen in Suzhou for the week, and it was really fun! We played lots of games, ate lots of food, saw some amazing acrobatics, and generally enjoyed life together. One of our more special memories was our “living room worship service.” The brothers led us in some songs and then we listened to Josh Steely’s (Steve's cousin) Christmas sermon.
Here is a memento of our time together, and of the rampant inside jokes that were continually present in our conversation for those few days:
Throughout all of this excitement, basketball was in season. This last Saturday was our end of season tournament, and it was pretty darn exciting, so if you a sports fan, click on "Read More" below and read how my JV Girls did! It was just too good to resist, so here it is! I could easily make it a blog in itself so I hid it at the end....
Sorry about the long blog, our lives have just had so much life in them for the past few months! Not everything significant was mentioned, so at this point I will just sum up and post some random pics:
Our work with the youth group is on going and going well. It’s actually the main reason we feel that God has us in China!!
We are both enjoying our teaching! Steve has been getting a lot of praise for developing a new Chinese curriculum, and his boss even gave us a weekend at a nice hotel as a reward! Next semester I will be observed by the principals and the Chinese PE teachers as an example of how to teach PE well! yikes!
I tried acupuncture for the first time due to an ITB injury...it's really depressing to be injured, but I'm working on getting back in the game, and at least I got to try out some ancient Chinese healing...;)
We are currently reading Harry Potter. It's our first time reading the series and it's amazing.
The next three weeks we will basically be out of contact. We are going on our dream vacation to New Zealand, and we will only have access to whatever internet our hostels provide, as we have not yet succumbed to the smart phone world. The Hobbit hasn’t yet come out in China, so our only fear is that it will come out while we are gone and we’ll come back and it will have left. I guess that will be a small price to pay for actually going to Middle Earth….:)
Happy Chinese New Year! We are now beginning the year of the snake.....
Remember to click on "Read More" if you are a sports fan!