Been There!

This is the list of countries I have visited so far in my life.
The criteria I use for this list can include, but is not limited to, following:
a stay of at least one day,
at least one item purchased,
a mingling with locals,
having been confused by the local language.
So far the list stacks up to 24 countries.

Australia
Austria
Brazil
Canada
England
France
Germany
Greece
Israel
Italy
Jordan
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Mexico
New Zealand
Peru
Russia
San Marino
Scotland*
Slovenia (when it was still Yugoslavia)
Switzerland
United States of America
Vatican City*
Wales*

* Yes, i know that Wales and Scotland are part of the UK, and that Vatican City is technically only a city, but they all claim independence in some way. I also acknowledge that Greece was seen by me at the age of 9 months with my grandmother. I am sure I did stay more than one day and I bet G-ma bought me something:)

It's permanent.

Jaimee and Travis Newick
September 20, 2009

In and about Canberra

After a short stay in Sydney (with no photos except for the sunset, for some odd reason)

I hit the road to Canberra, eager to see Australia's capital city. It was a bit of a drive, but the road signs look pretty familiar, aside from some of the odd names, so it felt like any good ol' fashioned road trip.

Road Sign
Heading out of Sydney

Even Canberra is said funny down here.
The way it is said seems that it should be spelled CanBURRa. Anyhow... when in Rome, right?

Well WOW!

Those Aussie's did a great job on Canberra. The city is lush, relatively easy to find your way around in,and the locals are really quite friendly.
Not remembering that I was on NZ time,
I was up at about 5:30 every morning
and hit the trail to see what I could see.

Parliament House.


















The sign over the entrance to
Parliament House.












The bird on the sign that created a diversion in my journey.
Who willingly walks underneath birds anyhow?













Hot air balloons over the city.
As seen from the front of the parliament house at 7 AM.















The US Embassy.
Yes, I cried a bit seeing "home" so far away from home.


















The Australian War Memorial
An amazing, very moving tribute.












Maybe a relative?
It is a small world after all...











A view from Mt. Ainslie.
Parliament House is in the distance, one the other side of the lake and behind the long white building

Upside Down

This is my first glimpse of Australia.
Flying into Sydney we saw the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, but I was so excited that I completely forgot to take any more pictures before landing.

So now I have officially added another country to the list of "Been There!"*.

Though it was a really short trip, Aussie makes it high on my list and I am hoping to get back over there soon!

* I do actually have a Been There list, and will add it here someday soon.

45 South

A quick ride up the two lane highway that runs through town will lead you to this stone.

When you park your car and hop out into the breath snatching air, you are officially standing on the 45th parallel. You are 45 degrees south of the equator. In fact, you are almost exactly half way to the South Pole on a southern bound path from the equator.
There could be a huge globe poised nearby with the tiny area, where you stand hunched against the cold wind, being pointed to by an obnoxiously red arrow and a line that reads
"You are here".

I love that a short trip north of town gets me to this sign. It is so convenient to know where I am in the big picture.
Amazingly, I can never ever be so far south of anywhere that I cannot be found.

Sometimes it is easy to feel lost,
lonely,
forgotten.

But never once in the mind of God is your position forgotten. Anywhere on this massive spinning planet is easily labeled with a "You are here" tag. God never loses you. His eye is watching the lilies, the birds and most certainly YOU!

You are precious to God. You hold a place in His heart that can never be filled by someone else.
And He never loses sight of where you are.
Even when it's 45 south.

Spring creeps onto the scene...

Warmer weather seems to have arrived.

To celebrate this glorious event, some of us went daffodil picking and filled the church with flowers.
It was so awesome to see people walk into the church and smile when they saw all the flowers peeking back at them.

Our team of adventuring girls had a blast picking hundreds of daffodils.

The field of daffodils

Perisi shows off a beauty

Rose with a bundle of happiness

Use your bum

Long, long ago, in a state now far, far away, I once tried snowboarding. I wound up wounding a thumb and never did go very far while standing on a snowboard despite my friends all saying how easy it was to do. I distinctly remember ending the attempt with a snowboard dangling over my head and a young man I had never met saying "Dude, that looked bad...are you OK?"

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, when the church here said there was a snow day coming up and we got to the mountains, I decided to give snowboarding another go.

And I had a blast! My friend Marie was down for the weekend and we geared up together and got an instructor for about an hour and then swoosh,crash, bang - down the hills we went.

The views were amazing.Looking down into the valley from Mt. Oahu

Looking up the mountain


The company was fabulous.Marie enjoying a break


Tuhi and I sitting in the snow

Never before has sitting on my bum been so much fun! It was a great reminder to me that even when something has at one point proven to be insane, trying it again can change the outcome. And now, if anyone ever wants to buy me a snowboard, I would be most grateful:)

The Birds

Alfred Hitchcock has nothing on the Otago Peninsula. This jutting, ruggedly beautiful, motion sickness inducing peninsula is home to a wide variety and number of birds.

The Royal Albatross Center* is on the Otago Peninsula. The Penguin Place resides in a curved nook of shoreline, and shags take up residence in any cliff face that looks like they could accurately aim for a passerby's head with their long range emissions.

A Shag at home



My first penguin sighting in NZ!



A close up (Yellow-eyed Penguin)



A Little Blue Penguin in a nesting box

*The albatross were not flying the day we went out. I was told to come back in February. And they spell center wrong by my standards writing it as "centre".