Wanaka Adventures

This past weekend about 15 of us from TCC went to Wanaka for a Worship Convention put on by these people - Jeremy and Connie something or other from Toronto Airport something or other! As you can tell, I pay great attention to details!

When I say 15 of us went, I mean that about 5 of us WEREN'T actually related to John or Fiona in some way...it's quite funny that when I say TCC is involved in something, it normally means that the most people that attended was about 20 and half of them (literally) were related to John and Fiona somehow!

Anyways - back on track. It was a pretty good weekend. Wanaka is about 3 hours away from here and we had to literally drive up the side and over the top of a mountain to get there. Not good for Jacquie who still gets slightly carsick in the backseat while driving on the wrong side of the road. If I had been in the front I'd be okay but for some reason the constant climbing, winding and speed fluctuations were doing a number on my tummy. I had to close my eyes and put up with getting the "well you've never been to this country and you aren't even looking at the scenery!" - at this point I've started to figure that if I've seen one mountain (or if I've seen over a hundred), I've seen them all. Wake me up when one of them is made of gold, otherwise don't bother me! haha

I drove up with 3 people who aren't in John's family - but two of them are also in their 60's or 70's and one is a younger mother of 4. Now normally, for those of you who knows me, I'm not extremely keen on anyone over 30 (and even that's pushing it!). I shouldn't say that - I just mean that I have a much harder time trying to make conversation because I'm not used to grown up conversations! haha so it was a good stretch for me that I would be travelling and staying with people who aren't youth, and who aren't in the Steffens-Stevenson-Henry family.

When we first got to Wanaka, the first thing we noticed was the HEAT! It was about 35 there, easily. Bronwyn (the younger of the 3) and I decided to walk down to the lake where I promptly took off my shoes and ran fully clothed into my first body of New Zealand water (which was SOOO blue, might I add!) She just hiked up her skirt a little and walked around in the water a bit...but then she got jealous, probably figured "stuff it! i'm going in!" and she came in to join me in her clothes too! haha

That was one of the highlights of my weekend.

To be honest, I've always joked with the rest of the world about sermons having numbered points and alliteration for each point and whatnot...but I've realized now that it's probably the best way for me to be able to pay attention because everytime I've been here when a sermon doesn't follow that general structure, I completely tune out because it's just too all-over-the-place for me!

That's how these Jeremy and Connie people spoke. I didn't get a whole lot out of the weekend as far as the convention goes. There was nothing "blow me away" about it, neither did I learn anything new, nor did I enjoy the atmosphere (speaking in terms of YC "atmosphere" - it was just a hall with chairs. I suppose that's the difference between trying to appeal to an adult crowd rather than a youth crowd).

But, as my friend pointed out, I got something much more valuable than good music and speaking out of the weekend. There was a group of 6 people that I ended up sitting right beside during all of the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions (this was after I broke away from the rest of my group to sit up on the mezzanine floor...otherwise I couldn't see...*sniff*). Anyways, this group of girls (well, ladies, I guess...) and one dear man were SO wonderful all weekend - they were always saying hello and making sure they remembered my name and even invited me into their prayer group at the end of Saturday night when I found myself with no serious people to pray with when we were told to (I had some youth with me who weren't really interested). It was so wonderful how much they cared about this ministry and cared about me although they had only met me 12 hours previously! What in the world?! It was the greatest thing ever! So they have my contact information and since they work with the youth in their church, they want to plan a joint youth event sometime this year!

That was the second highlight of my weekend.

And the third highlight was SOOOO GREAT! It had absolutely nothing to do with the convention whatsoever, but right after the last session we could attend, I headed over to the Lakeside, handed a strange woman WAY too much money, got hooked up to a harness with a man behind me...and a PARACHUTE behind him! And we launched off the beach, pulled by a boat, flew 800 or so metres in the air, dropped the line to the boat and paraglided all the way back to the beach! It was SO great! I had always loved flying because I could see over so much - even if it was only through a tiny airplane window. But this was like...I could see EVERYthing - right down to the blues, greens, and turquoises in the different depths of the lake below me (note that I didn't mention brown's or sludge's). And I got to control the chute while Matt (my tandem pilot) took pictures of us. Then he took over as we got back to the beach and just above the crowd at the bottom, he started doing some wicked acrobatics - spinning and spiralling us around before taking in for a landing. It was WOOONDERFUL!

I will be putting up the pictures that were taking from the ground when I get a chance to (it always takes a really long time to upload them) so look for a "Paragliding" link in my photo album list on the side there and if it's not there yet, it will be soon!

So it was a good end to a decent weekend - we left immediately after I landed, prettymuch. I had a whole new look at the mountains while driving home, remembering what it's like to fly above and between them! I had not a hint of carsick the whole way!

The end - this is probably huge by now - I apologize. TEEHEE!