Such an amazing morning, woke up fully stretched out and ready to go.  I heard Tunnel Beach was a must see, so we jumped in the car and headed out to see the sunrise.  We found a parking lot so assumed that this was it.  Took a chance and started to walk down the long trail to see what was at the bottom of it.  As we turned the corner I looked out and was just floored at what I saw!

I wish I could fully capture what I saw, but just being in the presence of God while looking out to His beautiful creation just made me wonder how people don’t believe in God?  How could all of this just be an accident?  So for the next couple hours I just sat and thanked God for everything that He has done in my life.  Why me Lord?  Why am I so lucky to be where I am?  Why do you continue to shower me with blessings?  And He said, because I love you.

So still having a full day ahead of us, what were we going to do?  Somebody mentioned a lighthouse which was an hour out on the point, so decided to head over there to try and get a picture of that.  The road was winding and very sketchy.  At anytime if you took your eyes off the road, there were no bunkers to protect you from the side so your car could have easily turned into a submarine on the point of impacting the water.

We get to the top and decide to go in to see if they have a bathroom, so we can continue to walk up to the lighthouse in comfort.  As I walk in, I was looking for toilet sign and a lady says “can I help you?”  I said “Yeah I just want to come in and use the rest room and then check out the lighthouse.”  She said “sure that will be such and such amount”.  I didn’t even hear what she said but really didn’t want to pay to go take a picture of the lighthouse, so I said “I just would like to use the restroom and take a picture.”

She looked at me not willing to budge and said “you have to pay to use the restroom, and if you want to buy a post card we have this one”.  Looking at it I said “that’s ok, it’s not very good, can I just use the restroom then?”  She said, “Sorry you will have to pay.”  Knowing she wasn’t going to bend the rules for me I kindly said jokingly “Ok thank you, I will just use nature.”  And with the most serious look on her face she said “Please Don’t there is a bathroom 2km back on the road you came”.  And I walked out bummed that we traveled an hour for this conversation with the lady who wanted me to pee my pants.

As we walked out, I looked over to an old jetty on the other side that actually looked like it would be a better place to get that picture.  Being that it was still early in the morning and we had time to get up to Oamaru, so we jetted back over the winding road to the other side, parked the car and started to walk out to see the best place for pictures.  I was trying to watch my step because it was really rocky and all of a sudden I heard something moving next to me.  So I jumped back in ninja position ready for anything and I saw this big lug sitting there sleeping.

I wasn’t sure if it was dead, washed up on the rocks but I slowly walked over to it.  It lifted it’s head, looked at me and then went right back to sleep.  So I wasn’t going to bother the thing in it’s slumber so continued to walk to get my pictures of the light house.  It was a perfect view, and a way better shot than I would have got being right under it.  So thank you God for working through that circumstance to bring me to a better place.

As I was shooting, I heard another rumble in the rocks below.  As I looked down, there was another seal lion in deep slumber.  I felt like if I was to make any sudden moves he would jump at me so I just stood there, put my camera on silent mode and kept taking a few pictures.  After I was done I really wanted to go up and pet it!  It looked so friendly so I walked up to it, and it started to show teeth, so I kept walking.  On the way back the other one was sitting there and couldn’t be bothered so I snapped a few shots and took off to Oamaru.

We arrived at the hostel, which was really nice and comfy.  The people that I met there were amazing.  One of the ladies was a self taught professional Harpist.  So she brought out the harp and began to play different types of cultural music.  There was a girl from Ireland, Germany, and a couple guys from Sri Lanka and then me the Merican.  We sat around listened to music and read poetry.  What a night!

It didn’t end there though.  That lead into a two hour discussion about God, Jesus, the gospel and evolution.  I sat there and listen to what they believed for a while and then when it came to me, I was able to give them the good news.  The German girl really had a bunch of bad experiences with Christians trying to push their agenda so she was hesitant to believe.  So God said just love her and keep speaking truth without judgement.  By the time we were done she listen and was deep in thought about God.  She said “I don’t believe but at least I will think about what is said and am open to it.”  The Irish girl was raised Catholic by culture but didn’t understand what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus.  So I was able to explain the difference in living by traditions and living by having a relationship with Jesus.  She took it in and said it made sense.  I think they were both encouraged to seek the Truth.

It was a great night and I know that God will water those seeds.  In the end, they were thankful for our conversation because they were loved and not forced into hearing the Trut.  So we all departed ways and went to bed.

The next day was the last day and you will never believe what God did, to give me final confirmation for New Zealand.

To Be Continued…