Wanaka!

 Our New Home in Wanaka!

A week ago we arrived in our new home, Wanaka! Wanaka is a beautiful town nestled among the pristine alpine mountains within the Mt Aspiring National Park. It is a destination for many tourists – the beautiful Lake Wanaka, tramping/outdoor activities, and wineries attract many in the summer season, and the nearby alpine ski resorts attract the snow enthusiasts in the winter. Jacob and I were drawn to the beautiful, peaceful location, the access to multiple outdoor activities including tramping, the small town feeling, and of course the remarkable mountains! (we always seem to find ourselves near the mountains)

We cannot describe how happy and excited we are to settle down and be apart of a community. It has been a joy traveling and tramping, but after so many on the go meals and living out of our backpacks, we are ready to actually have a place to call home, a kitchen to cook in, and beds to sleep in. We are thankful for the past season and are looking forward to this upcoming season in life together. We have so much to be thankful for and truly feel blessed! We are living in a beautiful home, with a fabulous garden full of vegetables and herbs, that we love cooking with! We are living with a kind woman who has welcomed us and really helped us get connected with the community. We live in a great location, near numerous walking trails, which we have enjoyed exploring a bit, and some lead right into town. We have met lots of kind people in Wanaka who we hope to further our friendship with. Jacob has already gotten connected with the Wanaka Gun Club, where he has met a few guys to share his bow shooting and hunting hobby with. I have gotten connected with the local volunteer center, and hope to soon be involved with a youth club and older residential community. The Lord has provided us with relationships, friendships, opportunities, a home, food, good health, and so much more!

As many joys and praises we have from the past week, it hasn’t gone without it’s challenges. It has been a long week of job-searching and we are both very eager to find work and get into a more regular schedule. It is a slow time here in Wanaka between summer and winter season, therefore, there are not many job opportunities. However, we continue to be persistent and refuse to be discouraged, as we know the Lord provides and His plan is greater than ours. We are praying for opportunity and that He will guide us where we need to be, and we will respond with open and willing hearts. We appreciate all your support and continue to ask for prayers of guidance for our place here in Wanaka.

Love you all!

PS Our new address is:

23 Farrant Drive

Wanaka 9305

New Zealand

Feel free to write, we always enjoy a letter from friends and family!

The Daniels and Hirsts Reunite!

MOM AND DAD VISIT NZ

Jacob and I are very blessed and so thankful that my Mom and Dad were able to come visit us in New Zealand. Living overseas is an adventure and so wonderful, but traveling also has it's challenges. The hardest part of being abroad is definitely being away from family and friends. We miss family get togethers, birthdays, important celebrations, and just being close to family as we all go through what life throws our way. It was a huge blessing to get to spend ten days with my mom and dad, and I think the older we get, and the further we are apart, the more we truly appreciate the time together. It was a whirlwind of a holiday, and like most visits, it seemed to go by all to quickly. As we take some time to look back, we realize how many fun memories we got to share with Mom and Dad. We will share bits and pieces of the Daniels/Hirst road trip around New Zealand.

Day One: Mom and Dad arrived in Auckland, New Zealand after nearly 24 hours of traveling. Mom and Dad stayed the night in a hotel in Auckland and tried to get a bit of rest. If anyone has traveled internationally, you know there is a lot of transitions to make as you adjust to a new time zone, culture, etc. that can be exhausting. They adjusted well and hit the road running! (meanwhile, Jacob and I are finishing up tramping the Te Araroa on Stewart Island, eagerly waiting for them to reach Bluff where we will meet)

Day Two: Mom and Dad fly from Auckland to Christchurch. Welcome to the South Island! They pick up their sweet camper van (actually a really nice motor home) in Christchurch and start heading south!

Day Three: Continuing on their journey, they drive along the east coast of the South Island headed towards bluff. They are making great time and Dad is adjusting well driving on the left side of the road. When in doubt, Keep Left! They arrive in Invercargill and are ready to meet us at the evening ferry. Unfortunately we didn't arrive. Jacob and I were bumped to the morning ferry due to mechanical issues on the ferry. Meanwhile, we are stuck on Stewart Island, anxious to get to Bluff and see the parents!

Day Four: Mom and Dad camped out in Bluff waiting for us to arrive. After a beautiful ferry ride from Stewart Island, we are reunited at last! Smiles, hugs, tears, and happiness! Mom and Dad met our friends we have been tramping with, Susan and Duncan, and we have a lovely tea break to all grasp that we are finally together! Overwhelmed, excited, and so happy! We spend the day in Invercargill. The boys find Jacob a nice barber to finally cut his hair and shave after 3 months of tramping. I must say, he was looking very handsome and clean shaven! Meanwhile, Mom and I are enjoying a nice girls afternoon with lunch, Starbucks (most southern Starbucks in the world), and pedicures! It's great to be together, but still hard to grasp that the holiday so long awaited is finally here!

Day Five: We made it to the beautiful town of Te Anau, located on the beautiful Lake Te Anau and the gateway to Fjordland. We walk around town, explore a bit, and Mom and Dad have their first NZ Pies! Pies are a traditional food everyone must try when in NZ. Yum!

Day Six: We head to Fjordland, enjoying the breathtaking scenery and natural, preserved land. We went on a cruise in the Milford Sound, learning all about the sound and the NZ and maori culture.  The cruise was relaxing, breathtaking, and so fun! We spent the evening at a nearby campground in Fjordland. The evening was so peaceful, being surrounded by beautiful mountains, lakes, and creation!

Our friends Jacoba and Justina, on the way to Milford

Mum and Dad!

Excited for the Cruise!

Awaiting the Milford Mariner!

So gorgeous!

the four of us at Milford

Day Seven: After a refreshing morning nature walk around camp, we head to Queenstown! We enjoyed and took in Queenstown's pristine location nestled among the beautiful Remarkable mountains and Lake Wakatipu. We enjoy the famous "FERGBURGER" and Dad is convinced he's had the best burger ever! The traditional Kiwi Burger includes beetroot and egg, a wonderful combination that we have grown to love!

The guys hanging out at camp

Day Eight: We go for a lovely walk around the Queenstown Gardens, especially enjoying the beautiful rose gardens. It's only been a brief stop in Queenstown, but we are on the road again, headed to Wanaka! After a short drive we make it to Wanaka, and Mom and Dad get a taste of our future home! The colors are changing and autumn is just around the corner. Lake Wanaka is beautiful, nestled beneath the mountains and surrounded by beautiful, colorful trees.

The Two Adventurers

Day Ten: It's a rainy day in Wanaka, which makes for a great day of hanging out, reading, and lots of tea! We spend the afternoon in town at some local shops, while the boys go for a walk around the Lake. We enjoy the local happy hour and a Mexican fiesta dinner night!

The four of us at Lake Wanaka

Day Eleven: We start the day with an early walk around Lake Wanaka, and after a nice little picnic on the lakeshore, we are on the road again to Lake Tekapo. We are really blessed with beautiful weather. We get clear, stunning views of Mt Cook and the Southern Alps from Lake Pukaki. We arrive in Lake Tekapo and camp at Lake McGregor, a camping area Jacob and I have previously camped on the T.A. The skies are the clearest in NZ in this region and the stars are out!

The Beautiful Mt Cook

A calm evening at Lake McGregor

Day Twelve: We visited the Good Shephard's Chapel, a beautiful little church right on Lake Tekapo. People come all around the world to get married in this stone church. After a nice visit to the historic church, we were on our way to Christchurch! We make it to Christchurch just in time to turn in the camper van, and we can hardly believe that the holiday is already coming to an end.

The Good Shepherd Chapel

                             

Day Thirteen: We wake up before the sun and take an early bird flight to Auckland, where we greeted by Eric, Jacob's cousin's husband. The Daniels and Hirst relatives finally meet and we enjoy the day together. We are really blessed, as Eric and Tania opened up their home to us and my parents for the remaining three days in NZ. Mom and Dad had a great time getting to know Tania and Eric, and enjoy being in one place for more than a day.

Dad trying Marmite!

One Tree Hill. One of over 50 volcanic peaks in Auckland.

The crew at the top of One Tree Hill

enjoying a beautiful day at the park!

1, 2, 3, Cheese! Loving timed photos!

Day Fourteen: We all explore Auckland a bit, and make our way to One Tree Hill, where we have a wonderful picnic with Tania, Eric, Grenville, and Amy (Jacob's cousin and his daughter). Mom and Dad get to meet more of the Hirsts throughout the day, as we also had a wonderful dinner with more relatives! Eric prepared a beautiful lamb roast for dinner (lamb is another NZ staple you must have while here). It was a fun evening all together.

Day Fifteen: The last day here, and of course we fit in all we could! Experienced a local farmers market and all the fresh goodness that entailed! We headed down the road and enjoyed a delicious lunch and lovely afternoon at a local vineyard. A gourmet fruit and cheese platter and seafood platter hit the spot! We concluded our afternoon with a refreshing walk down to the Hunua Falls, within the Hunua Forest, just down the road. The rest of the day was spent packing up, and we soon were off to drop my parents off at the airport. As quickly as they came, so they were gone.

An afternoon at the vineyard

The ladies at Hunua Falls. Love these two!

I've shared just a few of the highlights of each day, but the most memorable moments really were the everyday ordinary moments. Cooking and sharing meals together, playing cards all night, taking in the beauty as we drove around the country, and just visiting and being together. It was fun to explore New Zealand together, share a little bit of the life Jacob and I have made here, and spend some well-needed family time together!

Stewart Island & the Completion of the T.A. Journey

It's been quite a while since we've updated our blog... once again time has gone by too quickly and so much has happened since we last posted in Queenstown. Apologies graciously accepted for your patience, life has been happening and we have been caught up in it! Since Queenstown we have completed our Te Araroa tramping journey, had a wonderful visit from my mom and dad, and are now looking into the future at job opportunities and a place to call a home for the remaining six months we will be in New Zealand! This particular blog we will dedicate to the conclusion of our TA journey, and there will be more blogs to come to share our wonderful holiday with my parents and future to come!

From Queenstown we began tramping in the Southland region of NZ. A beautiful place I must say, although we only got a taste! It was along our first track after Queenstown when we decided that instead of sticking to the Te Araroa tracks down to bluff for the last ten days, we were going to go to Stewart Island and do the Northwest Circuit, also a ten day tramp. Ever since we had heard about this tramp from some friends we had met on the trail (and continued to run into along the journey), Susan and Duncan, we had been intrigued. Stewart Island is a small island just south of the South Island. Most New Zealanders have never even been there and it is known to be a special place. A place where animal and plant species are found no where else in New Zealand, or the world! An island where a small township of less than 400 people live and the remaining 98% of the land is preserved and protected. It sounded like a magical place, and it was while walking we decided that Stewart Island was where we wanted to spend the last ten days of our journey.

WE LOVE PEOPLE

From this point forward, we were incredibly happy with our decision and so thankful for the experiences and adventures we had on Stewart Island. If you have followed any of our previous blogs regarding the Te Araroa, you have found that the people we meet and the relationships we create along the way are a highlight of our journey. This continued to be the case. From the minute we decided to head to Stewart Island, we met a series of people giving us rides who again showed us the meaning of love and generosity. The first was a kind gentleman who gave us a ride from the campground where the trail ended an hour into town the nearest town. A very friendly person who believed "do unto others as he would want done to him." The golden rule we often need reminding of. As he dropped us off he gave us Chocolate Easter bunnies, "in the spirit of Easter!" We then met a couple who picked us up that had recently lived on Stewart Island. Excited for our adventure, they told us all about the island and what we had awaiting for us. As we left, they gave us sea sick medicine (the ferry ride is known to be very rough), along with a bag of fresh venison sausages! (we had a fest for dinner!) It doesn't end there, as we were shortly picked up by another gracious fellow who gave us a ride we received from a commercial logging truck driver. What a fun ride that was, getting to ride in a big logging truck! Again, our appreciation deepens for those willing to take in "weary travelers," or "strangers" and simply give us a ride. We've learned it's much more than just a ride...whether that means a good conversation, warm smiles, chocolate Easter bunnies, insight to the country we are in, or sea sick medicine and venison...it's the little things that make the biggest difference, and we have grown to appreciate them greatly!

STEWART ISLAND

Onto our journey of Stewart Island...one of the most exciting parts of tramping Stewart Island was the fact that we were getting to tramp with Susan and Duncan, the couple we had met at the beginning of our T.A. journey, and had run into them again multiple times. A friendship waiting to happen. From the moment we got onto the ferry, Jacob and I were so happy and glad we decided to do this walk with our new friends! Oh the good times we had!

We had heard from lots of people that Stewart Island was a special place, but we didn't fully realize until we were there what that really meant. It was indeed a special place...hard to fully describe it, but to put it in a few words I would say tranquil, peaceful, exotic, undisturbed, and an island all to our own. We saw more wildlife than we had seen on the entire South Island. Different bird life, wild white-tailed deer, the NZ Kiwi (usually only seen at night if lucky), penguins, and even a shark! Not only was the wildlife abundant and diverse, but the ecosystem was also very diverse and different than any of tramps we had been on. We would start out the morning walking in dense bush and by mid-day be on a sandy beach. An hour later we would be back in the rain forest, and by dusk we would be boulder hopping along the rocky beaches. Besides the exotic flora and fauna, we enjoyed our company with Susan and Duncan--tramping in the rain, relaxing on the beach, playing cards, getting to know each other better, and just being in awe and constant thanksgiving of having the opportunity to be where we were. A couple other highlights included meeting a group of hunters half way through our tramp who graciously gave us fresh fruit, snacks, and bread (any tramper knows there is nothing better than fresh food, and more food in general on day five!), learning new card games, enjoying the hut life, submitting Mt Anglem (the highest peak on Stewart Island), and tramping through lots of MUD! Ten days went by quickly, but it was a special and sacred time spent with a couple we would now consider good friends.

FINISHING THE TE ARAROA

Stewart Island concluded our "Long Pathway" journey. 1400km, 71 days, and we made it to Bluff. We ended our journey in a different way than anticipated, but are happy none the less that we chose the route we did. It's hard to believe, it's bitter sweet, and yes, we are ruined for life because we have fallen in love with tramping and the outdoors all over again. A short reflection can sum up what our journey and tramping means to us.

TE ARAROA MEANS...
- "The Long Pathway"
- Being in nature, raw beauty, and amidst the beautiful creation our God so intricately made
- Getting away from business, pettiness, worldly stresses, desires, etc.
- Sore legs and aching muscles
- Layers, layers, layers!
- Lots of Muesli, Couscous, Noodle, and Dehydrated Food!
- Playing cards by candlelight for hours on end
- Waking up with the Sun and going to bed when the sun goes down
- Reading! Lots of books!
- Undisturbed time to just be present and take in the moment with those you are with
- No showers and learning to love bathing in the creeks
- Meeting strangers mid-day and by evening you're sharing stories, enjoying a cup of tea, and playing cards together as friends!
- Being challenged like you've never been challenged before and pushing your limits
- Trying new things
- Stinky feet and wet socks
- Hot tea on a cold, rainy day
- Roaring wood fireplaces that warm your body, mind, and soul
- Stillness and peace
- Beauty...natural beauty
- Sharing experiences and ideas with fellow trampers
- Pushing each other when we have no energy left.
- Breathtaking sunsets and sunrises
- Appreciating the little things, appreciating what you have, and the many blessings throughout the day
- Sleeping in cozy sleeping bags on a cool, crisp morning
- Time to think...about anything and everything
- Feelings of exhilaration and joy when finally reaching a saddle, submitting a peak, and the hut at the end of the day
- Can't forget the endless days of tussocks, muddy bogs, barren land, and road walking that seem to never end.
- Enduring through the tough times, and appreciating them for what they are

Check out our sweet ride!

Welcome to Stewart Island!

The itinerary of our tramp on Stewart Island

Day one and in awe of this beautiful place already

loving these shells

Unique find of the day...this guys was on the beach

Beautiful sunset at the first hut we stayed in. Serenity.

So many beautiful beaches!

Murray beach

The Muddy Bogs along the trail up to Mt Anglem

Jacob and Duncan at the top!

We Made It!

So neat to look all around the island from up here...

lovers...

and our friends! Susan and Duncan!

Yankee River Hut. Home of the sandflies.

A Beautiful estuary where our hut was situated

In awe of every sunrise and sunset. Magnificent!

Cool view of the sand dunes below

Kiwi hunting...these are the tracks of the mysterious Kiwis!

Found one! You can barely see him, but there is a grey Kiwi foraging around bedding those trees! A bit of a blur!

Perfect place for a little swim. Shortly after when we continued walking we saw a shark! yes a shark!

Such neat rock formations

Cliffs next to Long Harry Hut

Long Harry Hut...

a homestead along the walkway...

Overlooking the East Ruggedy Islands

Beautiful!

Looking inland at a completely different terrain.

The four of us on the beach. Good times spent with Susan and Duncan!

beautiful bay from the town of Oban

Concluding our Stewart Island trip and ready to head to Bluff!

We did it!

At Bluff

As we finish the Long Pathway, it seems as though the journey has just begun...

We really want to thank all our family and friends who have supported and encouraged us along the way, and all those we got to share the journey with as well. From the stage of preparation and planning what to pack, to those who sent us encouraging messages when we needed them most, to the fellow trampers who we got to share the many joys and challenges with. We are grateful and couldn't have done it without you!

Agape'

Jordan and Jacob :)