"Good as Gold" - native Kiwi

The Kiwis here are so nice. And I thought that quote fit pretty well with describing this place. Kaikoura is amazing. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful this place is. It’s like the Pacific Northwest’s rolling hills and trees combined with wide open grassy fields and meadows, and sheep galore. So many sheep! In at least every other pasture we saw! I’ve heard that the number of sheep are more than the number of residents here in New Zealand. I believe it now.

I’ve been up for almost 41 hours (can’t sleep on planes...bummer, I know) and I’m exhausted, but we got here safe and sound, and for that I’m grateful. Kaikoura is a coastal town about 2.5 hours out of Christchurch. There are huge mountains with snow caps to one side of the town, and the other is miles and miles of ocean – it’s amazing! It’s literally what you only see in photographs and can’t ever imagine some place to be that beautiful.

We’re staying in an old convent that we’re renting out from the owners – eventually CCSP is going to buy this place for it’s permanent location for the program. We can see the mountain ranges from out backyard, and the ocean from the front. So cool! There are 23 of us total in the group, and only 4 guys! Lol. I am sharing a room with 2 other girls – Catherine and Laura – and we have the best view from our room, of the mountain ranges. I can’t believe I get to wake up each morning and look out my window at them! Wow! The major downside to the room though is that we have HARDLY any storage places (ie: shelves, drawers, closet space). So pretty much I have to live out of my suitcase for 4 months – yuck. Oh well, can’t do much about it.

On landing in Christchurch, though, my trip didn’t exactly start out well. I lost my wallet! All my credit cards, license, insurance card, some pictures  completely gone. I searched everywhere, and couldn’t find it, so I had to file a lost items report with the police, notify the airlines I lost something, and had to call my parents so they could put a hold on my accounts until I either find it or cancel everything. One good thing is that I still have my passport. But it still sucks soo much!!! I have absolutely no money with me, so I have to depend on other people for as long as it takes to figure this thing out. If I have to cancel cards, apply for new ones, then get them sent here, it could take 3 weeks! Ugh. Not happy about that at all.

And to top it all off I learned that we’ll probably be getting limited internet access down here, so I won’t be able to talk to anyone back home, aside from emails and this blog. That is going to make me so lonely.  It’s not set in stone yet – they haven’t even set up the internet to this place yet (hope to in a couple days) but it’s not going to be unlimited. And esp with this wallet emergency, I need to talk to my parents now!

This is definitely not the way I wanted to start my trip. I’m frustrated, I’m scared, I’m lonely (lack of sleep helps too). I’m wondering if this is God’s way of saying to trust in him completely, and don’t depend on money or loved ones or anything but him while I’m down here. I do want him to work in my life, but I didn’t think it would be this hard. And all in the first day. It’s going to be tough these next couple days as I try to get though this, but trusting Him is really all that I can do right now.

This blog is really long. Normally they won’t be like this. And I’m hoping to add pictures too, but we’ll have to see how good the internet is for that kind of stuff. Doesn’t sound too promising. Well, tomorrow’s another day, and I’m hoping it will be better than this one. Can’t be much worse – I’m in one of the most gorgeous places on the earth.

Leah