So it was time to move on, we jump in the car and headed out.  On the way while driving we stopped and started talking to a bird. He was a very special bird that was telling the story of the fish that he caught. I snapped a picture of him telling us how big the was. But we all know the fisherman story and how it gets exaggerated.

There was a long drive ahead and as I looked at the dashboard I noticed that it didn’t have a cd player in it. It had one of those old things called a cassette player, so all those cd’s I brought were pointless. And since I was going to be driving through the middle of nowhere, it was going to be a really quiet trip. A TRUE QUIET TIME with GOD :).

I have to be honest, prayer is not my specialty. I love to speak to God but sometimes it is hard. So this was going to be an amazing opportunity for the next 5 days to fully surrender my heart, my will, and everything about my life to Him. So I went on about praying for all my friends, family, and everything else that would come to mind. As I was praying, It started to rain. So I even prayed about that! He didn’t’ stop the rain right away, I think because he wanted to answer the prayer of the farmers who needed the water. But as I got closer to the mountains, it stopped and the skies started to open up. Rainbows started to shine through the clouds and the mountains started to slowly peak out revealing the purity of snow on top. Again I think God was just sitting there with a smirk on His face saying, “Ask and you shall receive.”

We finally made it to lake tekapo which was amazing! There was a small historical church sitting on the lake with a beautiful view of mountains covered in snow in the background. Like something you would see in a postcard. So we pulled up to get some pictures of it and all of a sudden tons of little old Asian men came running out and took over the land. There were cameras everywhere, people walking in front doing selfies, others walking right in front of everybody’s cameras. It was a mess so I decided to jump in the car and drive about 2 hours out to Mt. Cook.

As I pulled out of the driveway I notice a guy with a cardboard sign that said Mt. Cook. So thought, hey I am going to Mt Cook; he wants to go to Mt Cook. I have 3 extra seat so why not? So I slammed on the breaks and pulled over to pick him up.  “Mt Cook?   Jump in.”

He was a really nice kid so we talked for hours, while stopping on the way taking pictures and enjoying God’s creation. I figured, he wasn’t going anywhere so why not share the good news of Jesus Christ. Captive audience and the only way out is by jumping out of the moving car going 70!   So I shared the good news with him and he really received it. Just as I was talking about Jesus all of a sudden this huge behemoth comes out of nowhere and almost bull dozes the Nissan Sunny over, so I slammed on my breaks and swerved away from this thing and looked over to see a cow smiling at me.  What is up with these animals smiling at me???

After a long trip I dropped him off at his hostel and was going to check to see if they had a vacancy, but they were totally booked.  So what were we going to do God? So jumped back in the car and headed back for a two hour drive to the church.

On the way back I don’t know if the rabbits really didn’t like living in the middle of nowhere and wanted to end their lives, or they just felt like playing frogger.  I kid you not, I must have missed about 4 rabbits by inches.  The funny thing is they say that New Zealand doesn’t have any deadly animals!  I beg the differ!  I have had more close to death encounters in New Zealand than I did in Australia!

Moving forward, when we got back to the church nothing had changed, there were still tons of little old Asian men everywhere. The only difference was that since it was pitch black, the only way to see them was by looking for the glow coming from the LCD screen on the camera shining on their face.  Once I plotted out the path on how to get to where I wanted to take the picture, being extremely tall, I just stepped over a few little old Asian men, found a spot and set up shop to get  some pictures.

It was full day and I was tired from trying to stay alive from the attack of the cows and rabbits and birds, so I jumped into the car to find a place to pull over and sleep. I found this really awesome parking lot. It had 5 other cars, all which I think were doing the same thing.  So I cramped in the back and crashed out, not being able to move an inch, but ready to see where the Lord would bring me the next day.

The Journey Continues!!