Monday, June 30, 2008
Hello world...
I'm currently in Nelson, a quaint little town in Marlborough, which is in the southern island of NZ. In the last three days, I travelled from Auckland to Napier, back to Auckland, to Blenheim, and now I'm in Nelson. You probably need to see a map of NZ to get a better idea of where I've been. But basically, I started at the north and I'm travelling south. Tomorrow I will fly to Queenstown which is further south, and that's where it gets really cold. There's a week long winter festival going on and it's snowing, so it should be quite interesting.
Unlike Australia, where I was doing a lot of touristy stuff, I've been meeting lots of people in the food and wine industry here, from cheese to olive oil to king salmon to mussels and not forgetting of cos, the exquisite wines.
The past two days were a little tough becos I had to fly around a lot and there was hardly any time to take a breather. On Sat night, I stayed in a little cottage in a vineyard in Hawke's Bay. It's a charmingly scenic and beautiful place in the day. But being there all alone in the cold dark night wasn't easy. And yesterday, I flew in to Blenheim, stayed in an old colonial hotel - the type I hate! - so that wasn't an easy night to endure either. NZ is such a safe place and the most dangerous thing around is your mind, which starts playing weird tricks on you when you're alone. Anyway, thankfully, I made it through the two freaky nights and I'm staying in a modern and nice hotel tonight, in the city centre of Nelson.
It has been mentally draining, but I'm soaking in the sights and sounds of the beautiful island. I think this is how God intended the world to look like. NZ is an absolutely stunning, fresh and unpolluted land for people to live on. The people too, are so inspiring becos they really respect the land and take good care of it. The thing I'm most impressed is how environmentally friendly everybody is. From north to south, everybody sings the same tune. It's not just a government message that has been drilled into them. The people here are genuinely concerned about their environment and so, all the businesses they run are carefully thought through to do the least harm to the land. And the good thing that results from the green movement is fresher, cleaner, and more sustainable food and drinks. Buy NZ products!
Oh yes, while sailing out to a king salmon farm today, we saw a humpback whale in the water! Must be really lucky becos whale sightings in that particular strait of water are not common. That's the kinda footage you'd expect to see on Animal Planet and it's just amazing to be able to experience such a majestic creature so upclose.
Ok, gotta go for dinner now. NZ is 4 hours ahead. Do continue to pray for me, especially as I head to Queenstown where weather conditions can get crazy. Promise to upload tons of photos when I return!
Posted by Jo at 1:58 PM
