The Road Goes Ever On

Well friends, I’ve returned.  I do apologize for the silence as of late, though I’m afraid to say it will happen again in 6 days time – when I head off to live and work in a Papua New Guinean village for nigh on two weeks.  But before we go forwards, we must go backwards… to the land of Hobbits and Stoats, Glow-worms and Alpine Parrots, and to a glorious reunion with my own Ma and Pa.

They say it’s bad form for a missionary to blog about vacation – but I will attempt to give you two good excuses for doing so.  First, this trip was a gift (and a grand one at that) from my loving folks – so you needn’t fear any questionable use of support funds.  And secondly, almost every soul who reads this blog already knows I went to New Zealand for a week.  To not blog about it would seem highly suspicious.  And suspicious people have a history of being tortured mercilessly (a fate which I would like to avoid if at all possible).

Let us begin with the glorious landscape:

We (Ma and Pa and myself) arrived in New Zealand at 5 in the morning after an all night flight from Australia, where my parents spent the previous week avoiding bats the size of beagles (no joke).  In typical Halbrooks style, we hit the road immediately with our trusty driver and headed north.

There was a heavy fog rising above all the fields and lakes and the mountains loomed ahead.

Within minutes, it was clear why Frodo Baggins called this place his home.

Over the next few days, we saw multitudes of waterfalls:

Fields to the brim with lupines:

Rivers flowing with glacier water:

And misty mountains that would make Gandalf proud:

This, so you know, was what our road looked like a good bit of the time:

Finally, I’m happy to give you some “People Shots” – but I use the term loosely:

But that, good folks, is only the beginning.