Skills to pay the bills

This was taken from a ferry on the way to Ragitoto Island. That is the NewZealand flag and the Sky tower in Aukland city. I don't know why the flag is red instead of blue.

This is a picture that was taken at Covenant church's family camp. Everyone is gathering right before Supper or tea. My dad spoke at this camp a couple times and my mom showed Japanese toys and talked about Japan to the kids. It was a fun camp. It was great meeting people in the church, going on a hike to the dam, going to the waterfall and swimming in the water, playing with other teens. I got a memorable injury at the camp which will remind me of NewZealand whenever I look at the scar. While playing spotlight in the forest at night with other teens, I ran fullspeed into a metal rod sticking out of the ground. It was around 11 o'clock in the night, it was dark so I couldn't see it. My leg was painful for a while, but at least it was worth an impressive looking cut.

Above is a picture of the waikato River(the longest river in NewZealand). It was very clear and pretty. This is what the river looked like at Taupo. This is the same spot Naomi and I went bungee jumping.

This is the famous Sky Tower in Aukland city.

Not so far from the sky Tower was this thrilling ride called the "reverse bungy" Including Naomi and me, 6 of us from Covenant church did it. It was scarrier than the bungee jump,I think. First, you sit in one of three seats in this ball shaped thing. Second, you get strapped in. Third, you get flung up in the air with the power of 5G. You get swung up and down for a while until you get let down. I sure had an adrenaline riush! It was freaky! I rode it with Naomi and Louise(she came as a short term worker ). The people in the picture above is Jonothan, Tadamitsu and Andrew.The "reverse bungy" is definetly one thing to do when your in Aukland area.


Above is Peter, Joshua, Gabriel, and Jonothan which are the people I went to Ragitoto Island with. The Island was off in the ocean 30 minutes by ferry away from Aukland city. It was cool hanging out with them for a day. We hiked to the top of the volcanic montain, which the Island is made of and went exploring inside lava caves. We didn't take any flashlights, so we used the flash on our cameras to see where we were going. It was fun.


On Waitagi Day(a famous NewZealand holliday), we went to Kawakawa bay to hang out at the beach. We took lunch and ate together. We also played in the sand, threw a rugby ball around, and went swimming. It was nice. 10 of us were there. The sea water was cleaner than the sea water in Japan I've been in.

This is a silly picture taken at Covenant Church in Manurewa the day before we left NewZealand.

From left: Jono, Louise, Mat, Naomi, Priscilla ,me


These are some other people from church.

From left: Jono, James, Gabriel, Tadamitsu, me
And a group hudle picture from the floor.


The main reason for us going to NewZealand was for my dad to speak at the camp and also to encourage people to think about Japan. I had the great 10 days or so catching up with people that came on mission teams in previous years to Japan and making new friends. It was cool going bungee jumping and seeing cool places. The scenery reminded me of Scotland. It was also nice to be in two weeks of warm summer weather while in Japan it was the middle of winter. Now I know more about NewZealand and the culture(Maori/Kiwi) there. I was also introduced to one new christian music band, "Mumsdollar" and one new Rapper, "Rapture Ruckus" both from NewZealand, so that was cool. It was my first great trip to the southern hemisphere. Thanks for all the people that were nice to us.