South Island

Just came back from 11 days, 10 night trip to the south island. Was there with Li Hsien, we started out journey from Christchurch and went down the east coast then moved on to the west coast, before making a full circle back to Christchurch. 2600 kms driven in all, thats alot of driving for such a short time!

The first comment to make about the trip is the beautiful beautiful scenery there. Li Hsien and I both had the words "What can I do, but thank you" stuck in our heards as we admired the beautiful scenery. It also become obvious why Lord of the Rings can be filmed there and where inspiration for songs like God of Wonders came from.

Also I took over 300 photo's!! First time I took so many shots, infact I think I took as many in the trip when compared to the rest of my life! Regretted not having a nicer camera with me. Definately getting a new one once I start work. It'll be added to my wish list.

Spending that much time with someone was also new for me. Though I can be noisy and outgoing, I also really enjoy my alone time and dont often share too much. So spending 24/7 was a new thing for me especially as I never had a room mate either. Although it was a new thing, we did well, often talking and talking and not keeping track of time. It made the car rides and the nights shorter. It interesting how different personalities we have yet think quite similarly.

Also, doing quiet time was a new thing... I had to do my QT it in front of someone for so many days!! It was wierd and we both had ours shorter than normal the first few days, but after a few days we both felt it. After that we did get used to how QT was going to be and we did spend more time with God.

The trip was a good break. Aside from the beautiful scenery which I really appreciated and enjoyed, I also got to know Li Hsien alot better. We also got to do many cool things, like horse riding, quad biking, two cruises... We also cooked our own salmon and even made out own muchroom soup!

Before that ranting, I must talk of how I had two near misses on the road and thank God for protecting us. Once as I was going up a windy road, the other car from the opposite side decided to overtake was 1/3 into my lane!! Thank God I decided for that corner to drive on the extra space on my side of the road, otherwise I'd have no reaction time (It was some slow car bay or something). Second time was on a one lane bridge (so only one side goes over at a time), I was waiting and was slightly over the waiting line and decided to reverse abit behind the line to be safe... The truck which was going real fast and the size of two shipping containers that was passing was so close to taking me out and would've if I hadnt reversed.

I could go on and on abt the trip, but I must stop. Right now I'm just afraid to work out how much the trip costed in total ;)