Awesome ride

Recently a friend (Evan Hunt) and I met for a weekend catch up. He's living on the West Coast and with me here in Christchurch the obvious place was Arthur's Pass; well just east of there at Bealey Spurr (see Google Maps, the link would not paste). The photo on the left is of Arthur's Pass from Klondyke Corner.

The weather on the Saturday when we met was pretty rough with horizontal rain! Undeterred by this we managed to find a great track running along side the Waimakariri River and had a good hike followed by some hilarious and utterly fruitless fishing. "Local knowledge" Evan kept saying that's what we need, "local knowledge!" So, off we set to get just that: "no fish for 30k either side of the pass, the waters are too turbulent!" Well that explains it, I said. It didn't tell us if the local lakes were any good nor did it explain why there was a fly fisherman stalking along the banks of the river. I began to wonder if the local knowledge we were given was to protect our informant's own fish stocks - not that we were ever a serious threat!!

The highlight of our time was a ride to the top of the Craigieburn ski field road, a 60 minute hill climb - quite a grunt but well worth it.

The following map shows the Craigieburn Forrest and the track we road is shown in red up until the dotted yellow line. Click on the map to enlarge.



The photos: below left: along the road (somewhere!) and right is taken from the second gate as you head up the road looking up the valley where we stopped for lunch. You may be able to just make out a dark line running left to right in the distant trees. This is the road leading to the point of our lunch stop. Above this you may see another dark line in the trees (a little less obvious) running upward, right to left. This is the final hill climb to the skifield car park. (This photo enlarges really well if you click on it).




We lunched just above bush line. The road then cuts back over towards the next ridge to the left. The valley just out of shot on the left is where the ski field is. So, lunch with amazing views, a cold beer chilled in the waters of a mountain stream and a play in the snow on the main field for me while Evan worked his camera.



An awesome ride! Not to mention the 15 minute ride down - where were those gates again Ev?!

Our return to Dunedin

As some of you will know (from the post on Nov 12) we are returning to Dunedin. How did this come about? When we left Dunedin we were fully expecting to "emigrate" to Christchurch and we were willing to say, "good bye", to a wonderful home. with a self contained flat. A flat that we had hoped we could make available to those from out of town who have relatives in hospital. Our thinking was that, "perhaps we could pursue this dream in CHCH in the future?"

The time came when, if we were to stay in CHCH, we needed to put our house on the market. As we came to sell the house we needed to set a reserve and we prayed about this gaining a real peace about where we were to set it. We knew this was going to be a fleece as far as we were concerned in terms of God's will for us: if he wanted us to stay in CHCH then the house would need to sell (no problem for him) and if he wanted us back in Dunedin then the house would not sell.

All was fine until I (Blair) heard a message at Spreydon Baptist Church by Mike Duncan (some of you may know him from his time with Servants). His message was summed up for me by the comment he made, "Live the dream - are you living the dream?" The context of this would take too long to explain here. As I considered this in the context of his whole message, I believed strongly his message was clearly for us, so I got the CD and left it for Ann, "listen to this and tell me what you think." To cut a long story short we both agreed that God could be saying return to Dunedin even before the auction. What to do? We agreed it was important that we follow through on the auction.

In the mean time we began to think about the flat as a ministry and a business. You can imagine our excitement when we noticed that the speaker for the coming week at Spreydon was speaking on, "Business as Mission" not just business for mission. I was amazed at the timing of all of this and how things were dovetailing together. What nailed it for me was when the speaker, Peter Shaukat Business As Mission finished by asking, "will you serve God wherever, whenever and however?"

Why was Peter Shaukat's closing statement so significant for me? Just before I left Galmi Hospital in West Africa, back in 1990, God asked a very specific question of me as plain as day - "Will you serve me wherever, whenever, however and with whomever?" In all the years I have been back I have never once heard a message where the same phrase has been used. When I head these words I was stunned. For me this was conclusive that our return was of God: God saying that our thoughts re the flat is not just of Ann (it has been a long term dream for Ann to be able to do this) but that this is clearly of God and is for both of us.


We have no regrets about coming to CHCH and believe it was God's leading that brought us here. We have loved our time in this family friendly city and will find it hard to leave, especially the neighbourhood of Gilders Grove, it is like none other. The kids have so much freedom to roam safely and have such good friends in the street. But, we also have a real peace and in fact a sense of excitement, about returning. In our time here we have learned much and done heaps. We have also had the time and space to think. As one friend put it to us, "perhaps this time was meant as a sabbatical for you?" This is how we now see it.

December 2007

Dad and Samuel time

Recently with Ann at work, Alana at a friends and Danielle at a birthday party it was time for the boys to escape! Years ago I used to be an archer (some of you will know this). A very expensive and time consuming sport that I liken to fly fishing as far as gear and maintaining gear goes. Anyway Samuel and I headed off to the local indoor archery range, AimTru, for some fun.

My one consolation was the staff member who asked if I had "...shot before? " "Ah hem, years ago when I was a student, not for a long time." "You can tell, your technique is still very good." Ego suitably massaged we set about shooting. The targets say it all: the one on the left is mine the image below is Samuels' and well - the bulls eyes are all Samuel's!!

Amateur Philosopher!

As some of you may already know we are moving back to Dunedin!! I'd need to do another blog to tell the story of how this came about. The night we were telling the kids that this is what was going to happen Samuel came out with a classic comment where he really nailed it!

"Well Dad, I half want to (go back) and I half don't - (sigh) I guess life's just like that."

Rachel Hunter be afraid - be very afraid!!

Concert Performance

Last term Alana started to learn the flute and she has come along way from first trying to make any sound at all to her first performance at a school concert. We were fortunate enough in that we were both able to go and see her play - MAN WERE WE PROUD OF HER! Ann had tears in her eyes she was so proud of her. In fact all the kids at the concert did very well.

Holidays

During the last holidays, before the current term, we headed off to central to enjoy Cromwell with very good friends, to enjoy the rail trail (yes again - I could live on it!). We came home via the Lewis Pass and Tekapo a truly magical part of the country and so was the weather as you will see from the photos!



After our time away we fully expected to have Macey and Erica back with us. Sadly this was not to be. There was a message on our answer phone asking us to call. Even before we did we realised what it was all about. While the process was less than ideal, the interim outcome was a very good one and now we hope that the next stage for them both will be equally as good if not better. While there was no acknowledgement of our need, or theirs, to say goodbye we set it up so that the kids could all have a final play together and we could all get closure. They were very happy when we last caught up.

A Great Laugh

Have a look at this and if you are married with your spouse!