As I sit here writing my first entry for this blog, I am nearly at a loss for words of how blessed I am. Opportunities that have presented themselves to me are incredibly rare for a person of my age, and seem to come along about as often as major earthquakes do… oh, wait. I am not in any way joyful of the death and destruction that has happened in Christchurch, but rather have seen other ways to look at the situation. Without the natural disaster that occurred just last week, I would not have seen Wollongong, Australia, nor would I have met many of the nice people of this past week while helping clean up the suburban streets of Christchurch. Most importantly, a bus trip arranged by Lincoln University for nearly 100 international students around the South Island of New Zealand would not be happening in the near future. Blessings upon blessings -- a testament to how good He is.
I have spent more than a week away from home now. I have Skyped with both my parents and my oldest brother and sister-in-law, which has eased the difficulty of being half way around the world from the ones I love. However, I am doing well and having the time of my life. As I look back on my travel experiences and my time in Sydney, Australia with Annie, it’s hard to believe that much fun has fit into such little time. I realize details may cause this blog to get quite lengthy, so I will attempt to keep things on a ‘need to know’ basis.
Thursday, February 17th – Departure from home
I highly anticipated leaving for Australia and New Zealand since the end of finals in December. It was a long break with my friends at college, but I knew my upcoming opportunity would be well worth the wait. Leaving was easy for me; I am now a young man and my desire to travel has been growing inside of me since my return from a mission’s trip to Costa Rica in 2008. Leaving was not so easy for my mother however, who cried after my last dinner at home before I left. I have kept in close contact because of this, hoping emails every other day would ease the pain of having her ‘baby’ 15,000 miles away. Travel from New Jersey to Australia went swimmingly and despite the long flights, I was never once restless or jet-lagged. Annie, my good friend from Penn State, and I had a great hotel in Sydney, right along Darling Harbor. This lovely hotel was made possible by Annie’s father, who travels often for business. We arrived at the hotel on Saturday morning and had 3 full days ahead of us and absolutely no agenda.
As a young, college student, who is also Mennonite, we tended to be quite thrifty in our activities and kept on our tight budget. Once we were settled in our hotel, we developed a list of things to do. The only thing in my mind that was a ‘must see’ was the Sydney Opera House. Conveniently, Annie had the same thought. We spent our day Saturday strolling around Inner Sydney seeing the sights. We walked past the Opera House and spent the afternoon soaking up the beautiful Australian sun. We also saw the Botanical Gardens, a few parks, the gorgeous St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Parliament House, and many other historic buildings. We ended the day early, fatigued after traveling for nearly 30 hours.
Coming out of the dead of winter, both Annie and I were in desperate need of sun. Bondi Beach is one of Sydney’s most beautiful beaches, and a day at the shore is affordable and always fun. Being the expert travelers we are, Annie and I managed to decode the public transportation system and caught the bus to the beach. With the dozens of travel brochures Annie had, she pointed out a coastal walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach, only 6 kilometers long. After 2 hours on the beach, we realized we may have enough sun, especially when the ONLY thing I didn’t bring is sunscreen (well planned, I know). We walked the coastal walkway and saw incredible sights of cliffs, ocean-views, and waves crashing on the rocks. We tend to forget how beautiful God’s creation is until we experience these things. We arrived at Coogee about 2.5 hours later with a lot of pictures and some red faces. The walk may have been a little more than we bargained for, but something we both will never forget. In the evening, we scaled the Sydney tower for a birds-eye-view of the Sydney, followed by a late Thai dinner along the water. It was almost too much for me…until I realized I was living the dream.
Monday, which was supposed to be our last full day in Australia, was spent with Theo, a co-worker and good friend of Annie’s from Nantucket, Massachusetts (yes family, I got the right state this time). We took a ferry from Circular Quay across the bay to the Toronga Zoo. The zoo was beautiful and set on a steep hill with plenty of gorgeous views of the city. It was a great day relaxing and seeing the lions, and tigers, and bears (OH MY). It was sad to see our time come to an end, but exciting to think about our next opportunity – New Zealand!
Tuesday, the day that never ended: we got to the airport plenty early because it was obviously new to us. However, we made great time getting to our gate. I struck up a conversation with a man sitting across from me. He turned out to be from Minnesota and a former large animal veterinarian! We talked for nearly an hour about my future plans and came away with a lot of wisdom and his business card (I love networking). Before I knew it, boarding time was upon us; however the plane still had not arrived in Sydney. This was all in God’s plan, sparing me from possibly being in Christchurch during the time of the earthquake. After a long wait, we were finally told our flight was canceled due to an earthquake in Christchurch, and that we would be put up in a hotel. I was not a happy camper to say the least. Internet was nearly impossible to connect to, however I managed to send a few short messages to Jason on Facebook to let my family know I was fine. After I calmed down, I prayed for patience and for the situation. Things were starting to look up when we had a charter bus to a hotel down the coast of Australia. We had a lovely stay in Wollongong at a very nice hotel. Emirates gave us a free meal and a free stay (which I took advantage of by consuming the entire mini bar). We were woken up at 2 am saying “we have a flight to New Zealand.” The bus left at 5 am and we arrived at the airport being told we were being sent to Auckland (on the North Island) because Christchurch was still closed and not accepting international flights. However, Annie and I pulled some strings and found a flight to Christchurch. I was a little stern with the worker at the check-in, which was unfortunate, but justified. If they sent us to Auckland, we were responsible for our travel to Christchurch, and I was not having that. We also weren’t allowed on the Christchurch flight unless we had a permanent address in NZ, so a fib or two may have been told. In retrospect, God provided and had a plan the whole time, even though I did not see it at the time. We arrived in Christchurch around 5pm local time on Wednesday. We bummed a ride from our new friend, Pete, who was a resident of Christchurch returning home from mission’s in Nicaragua. Pete was God sent and made our lives much easier. We arrived at Lincoln around 6:30 and met our fellow Penn Staters. We missed dinner by 10 minutes but dessert was still being served; I ate an entire bowl of Jell-O because it was my only option and was also the only thing I ate all day besides a bagel at the airport. A long day to say the least, but I was finally at my temporary “Home.”
