The New Zealand Experience - November 15th, 2006

Queenstown, the adventure capitol of New Zealand—we are finally here! We will spend two days here at a local hostel, the Pinewood lodge.

After a long weekend tugging around in RVs, we were all very happy to have a place to stay and get some showers as well as much needed rest from last nights events.

Mark shared with the group from God's Word today. "How do we find our purpose for God? Don't let other people's expections of you bog you down, because you are not worthless, God does have a plan for you even when you can't see it." Very encouraging. I can see moments in my life where I followed the crowd and tried to be "cool" as well, it only gets you into bad situations. It's OK not to be cool, because who needs to be cool when you have God, the best friend in the world.

After lunch a small group of us headed to Arrowhead. Arrowhead is a small town preserved and kept up as it was when the people first settled during a gold rush here many years ago. There are some awesome and cool switchback trails to hike on, some that ended with spectacular sights overseeing the town and the mountain ranges.

After another awesome dinner, Rowan, Katie, Susan, and I went out to get some sunset pictures and some over looking the city night lights. I'm pretty happy with the results I was getting, photography is making alot more sense to me in the points I have struggled with in the past. I can't wait to see what tomarrow will bring as we veture into Queenstown and check out the attractions and the lot.

—Jonathan Briedwell from Oregon, USA

View the gallery of today's pictures