Home Again!!!

Salutations and Greetings from the San Francisco Bay Area!

While we have finally reached the end of our world tour, in many ways we feel like a new adventure is just beginning. Traveling around the world has been a terrific challenge and blessing to us both, but it wouldn't have been half as exciting if we hadn't had such wonderful family and friends to look forward to being reunited with upon our return home. At present, we are most looking forward to catching up with many of you as we begin to anticipate what this next stage of life will have in store for us!

Carol and Joe on Robert Ridge above Lake Rotoroa

Before signing off though, we thought it would be best to wrap up our our account of New Zealand for the record. After saying goodbye to Sean and Stephanie, we decided that a few days of contemplative prayer and reflection on the events of the past nine months would be appropriate before heading home. On our way north, we camped out at Gore Bay where we fell asleep to the sounds of waves crashing on the shore and enjoyed a morning cup of coffee on the beach while watching a local surf competition. Thinking that the North Island would be a good place to slow down for a few days, we kept heading toward Picton (stopping to say hi to the seals in Kaikoura) until Carol noticed Nelson Lakes National Park on the map and suggested that we turn west in the vineyard strewn region around Blenheim to spend a few days camping around the lakes.

Her hunch was brilliant, and after learning from the DOC site at Lake Rotoiti about some amazing campsites in the mountains, we decided to rapidly throw our backpacking gear together and hit the trails. It was already two in the afternoon, but we managed to organize ourselves for an eight hour trek and three days on a mountain top quite successfully in an hour, and pushed relatively hard on the steep switchbacks up Robert Ridge to get to Lake Angelus just before the sun set. The trail was almost nonexistent in some places where scree had covered or carried it away down the mountain, but we enjoyed picking our way across the rocks and marveling at late afternoon views of yet another inspiring mountainous landscape.

Sunrise over Lake Angelus

Angelus Hut sits next to a small mountain tarn nestled in a nearly conical depression in the mountain range between Lakes Rotoiti and Rotoroa. We spent one night in the hut, and two more in our tent, simply participating in the almost frightening stillness and solitude that can only be found in such places. To keep our blood moving just a bit, we also enjoyed day hikes up to nearby peaks Mt. Angelus and Mt. Cedric.

Time was running short by the time we finally caught a ferry boat back over to Wellington late one night, and the next day found us almost entirely in the car with one brief stop at Kerosene Creek to refresh ourselves in the thermal pools. We still had a day before flying from Auckland, but before leaving we hoped to participate in a trail run not far from the airport that we had found online.

Riverhead Rampage Finish

After miraculously finding the elementary school where the race was to be run the next day without a map or directions we camped out that night in Helensville and the next day found ourselves participating in the first annual Riverhead Rampage. Carol and I took on the 5k and 21k races respectively, and regardless of who we may or may not have been racing against, Carol took 3rd place overall (2nd place female), and I came in 5th! Most important of all, we both really enjoyed the trails, managed to not injure ourselves in the process, and got a free drink from the local brew pub Hallertau after the race.

The rest is history... or at least boring enough not to force anyone to read it: returning the Emina, finding new owners for all the camping equipment that we had acquired, listening to the insane gentleman at the campground talk about fake moon landings and mass government mind control, saying goodbye to Basil Plant, throwing away clothes that had nearly disintegrated on our travels, and so forth.

And now, we have once again reached the shores we have called home for so many years. Because we were on the road continuously for many months, backpack carrying capacities limited the number of souvenirs we could acquire along the way. But, the souvenirs we bring home with us are far more valuable and are all the intangible gifts given to us by the people we met around the globe through their examples of sacrifice, faith, joy, service, selflessness, hospitality and encouragement.

We like to say thank you again to some very dear and wonderful people who made this trip so special. Some are old friends and some are new but all are what made this trip so incredible! We have experienced some of the most amazing generosity these past nine months and hope we can replicate what we've seen back here in the US! Thank you!

Ulrich

Si
Hannah & Tristan

Aiden & Juliet (+ Juliet's family)

Jenny & Brian

Emily

Lydia

Andrey & Irin

Tom & Ali

Don and Amy (+ the whole ELI family)

Regula & Andrew

Paul & Kerryn

Jeremy & Jenell

Ross & Margaret

Renee, Peter and everyone at Ebenezer

Leonie & Louis

Tanya
Mel

Hein & Lydia

Todd & Anna

Kerri-Ann

Mark & Heidi

Farzeen, Ashraful, Inma

Julie & Isaac
Paul & Robyn

Brett, Maddy, Marisol, Andreas, Dara

Jason

Mr. S, Mr. R, Brenda & family

James & Paul

Ed & Lisa

Steve

Sean & Stephanie

And of course, a humungous thanks to all our family members and friends who were willing to support us through prayer and encouragement as well.

Finally, we have to thank God for everything! Specifically, His incredible grace this trip! We cannot believe the consistency with which we were recipients of miraculously good health, safety, provision, guidance, and timing. It is our desire to always remember, in every stage of life, how He leads us perfectly from place to place while providing for all our needs.

In His Love,

Joe & Carol