a heavy heart...

as much as it pains me to say it, the team and i will soon take our leave of New Zealand.  I have come to grow fond of this beautiful country and I will miss it dearly.  I will miss playing ultimate frisbee every night after dinner and running around until we feel like chundering.  I will miss our kiwi friends and everything that they did for us like teach us how to play rugby, or take us to the beach.  I will miss watching a different movie every night with almost everyone on the team.  Doing Tim tam slams, walking to Pack n save or the warehouse, laying out in the warm sun during our free time...all these memories and so much more are soon to be just that...memories.  when we head to Australia on saturday morning, we will be in sydney exploring the city, going to Hillsong (so excited, wish my worship team family from new hope could be there with me), and going on a small outback-like expedition.  I'm not expecting to really have internet access while im there so I will be off the grid for a bit.  Then on the 24th we fly to china for the rest of our trip.  im not sure what to expect when we get there really...it will be so different in comparison to anything i have ever experienced.  we got a small taste of it in Hong Kong, but Beijing will still be entirely different from that.  I am nervous, but excited at the same time.  this is the part of the trip that will be a challenge for us and i look forward to growing stronger as a team through our trials.  im most excited about trying the new foods and bartering at the markets and using the small amount of chinese that i have learned. when we are in china, we will probably not have wifi, so those of you that i text or snapchat...dont expect to get any of those from me for 6 1/2 weeks.  i will have internet, but some websites will be blocked such as facebook and youtube so i will definitely be off the grid more than likely.  not sure if my blog site will be blocked or not, but if you would like me to send you an email update (it will be to several people at once so please dont expect a personal email) then facebook me your email address ASAP or just email me at reinkehannah@hotmail.com.  thanks to those of you that have been praying for me and my team, please continue to pray as we go into the next leg of our trip!  *sigh* i will miss you Laidlaw college and Henderson.  i will miss the sun warming me...in china it will be about the same weather as it is in indiana in the spring so im expecting some chilly temperatures!  wish us luck! much love!  into the unknown we go...

bragging rights...

as i had said in my previous post, i came back from the bay of islands with an incredible surprise: flowers from brian!  when we got back, i went to the restroom to freshen up before dinner and when i came back, i saw our female leader, Liz, leaning over my desk.  my first thought was that she was snooping around for something so tentatively i asked, "umm..whatcha doin Liz?"  as she turned around, i saw a beautiful bouquet of roses and sunflowers and almost immediately burst into tears.  along with the flowers was a card with a sweet, but not too cheesy poem.  im so blessed to have brian in my life.  even half a world away, he manages to make me smile every day and make me feel like a million bucks.  having flowers sent to me made me feel like i was in a dream.  this kind of thing just doesnt happen to me.  thank you okcupid for introducing us and thank you bearcat for being a one of a kind guy and being the amazing man that you are:)  you rock my socks

valentine's day surprise...

valentine's day!  the day that everyone loves to say that they hate, but you know they secretly love it anyway.  a day filled with chocolates and hearts from your lover.  this valentines day was unlike any other for me.  we started our day off with some great breakfast and mingling.  after everyone was awake and up, we were given snorkeling gear:))) gaahhhh it was so cool!! we were instructed on how to snorkel and did a funny little penguin dance to wake us up and warm us up a bit more and we jumped into the ocean!  while we were out we saw a few stingray, heaps of fish, and collected kina.  it was really cool swimming around in the ocean with everyone and thankfully i wasnt too scared.  when we got back to the boat, we were able to crack open the kina and eat the egg sacks...apparently they are some sort of delicacy and super expensive in the states...it was absolutely disgusting.  for those of you that are in the mishawaka area, just imagine eating something that smells like the riverwalk. ya. i know.  but thats the curse i get for loving to try new things!  after another hour or so of relaxing on the boat, we made our way over to one of the many beaches around the bay.  if i could imagine one place that is the epitome of a honeymoon destination, it would be this place.  the water was a bright, blear blue and the hills were green and lush.  it was incredible!  after splashing around and soaking in the warm sun, our amazing travel weekend came to an end and we headed back inland and to Henderson.  When we arrived back at the school, some really awesome things happened.  amazing thing number 1- i was surprised with flowers from brian (more on that in the next blog post), and our guys made us a valentines dinner complete with music and valentines cards.  it was the most amazing valentines day i have ever had.  i love my pacrim family so much.

left my heart at the sea...

this was a great day...truly spectacular!  it started out with some of us waking up at 5:30 in the morning to go and watch the sunrise over the distant mountains and the ocean.  it was glorious!  started out a bit on the chilly side and it was a little touch and go on if the clouds would cover up the sun, but it turned out to be amazing.  afterwards, we went back to the hostile and moved out.  the fam and i headed over to Waitangi to meet up with one of the sweetest women I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.  Patricia is the author of one of the books that we had to read for our area study class and she just went more in depth with the beginnings of New Zealand.  she is so smart and inspiring.  this woman has traveled by herself all around the world and at 80 years old, is still a spit fire with a passion for the Lord.  very cool lady.
 after our meeting with 'ole Patty, we headed out to eat lunch and see Marsden's Cross.  another hsitory check for you, Marsden was the first european missionary to come to New Zealand.  so we went out and saw his tombstone.  it was sweet as!  we had to do a little bit of a hike to get out there and once we reached it, it was on the hillside by a beach so we got to see some historical importance and soak up the sun a bit.  After spending some time there frolicking around, we headed back to Paihia to board our "cruise."
this isnt your typical cruise, the boat we were going to be on used to be a ferry to transport cars.  it is now a double-deck sea worthy vessel with all the amenities needed to have a great and comfortable time.  the crew consisted of 6 members who were lively and friendly.  along with the pacrim team, there were a handful of other passengers from different places of the world.  once we boarded on The Rock, the crew members introduced to us a name game unlike any other I have ever played.  the put a plastic duck in the water and we got to shoot at it with paintballs.  it is by far the funnest name game i have ever played in all my years of life.  unfortunately, i did not hit it...sorry dad, put you to shame!  but it was fun none the less.  after we all had a go at shooting at the duck, we hung around the boat playing pool, talking to the crew or other passengers, or just relaxing.  after we anchored, we were given the opportunity to fish off the back of the boat.  although i hadnt fished since i was a kid at peterson pond, i had a great time! fishing is something i can see myself doing more often...i love how relaxing it is and how rewarding it can be after you get a catch.  i ended up catching 3 fish so that was pretty cool too.
unfortunately, none of the fish that we had caught were big enough to keep and eat...but that didnt stop us from feasting on steak and potatoes!  and now to the coolest part of the weekend and one of the most fascinating times in my entire life thus far.  once the sun went completely down, we were split up into groups and taken out on the water in kayaks.  holy smokes folks...it was incredible.  once we were out on the water and away from the boat, you could look up into the sky and see thousands upon thousands of stars.  since the moon wasnt out, all we could see were the stars.  we saw the milky way and two other galaxies...we saw several constellations outside of america's sky...it really made you feel small.  i would lay back in my kayak and just stare up at the sky in awe of it all.  i would have loved to photograph it but it would be impossible to take a picture on the kayak.  guys, i wish i could just describe it to you so you would understand how fricken beautiful it was!  imagine the most beautiful thing you have ever seen, and multiply that by 100.  maybe it will be close.
another sweet as thing as we were out on the water, is that we were in water with phosphorescent algae.  now im sure you are asking yourself, what the heck is phosphorescent algae??  well folks is this super sweet stuff that stores up energy from the sun, and then as it gets disturbed at night, it begins to glow.  as i was in my kayak, i would stroke the water with my hand and it was like something out of the movie avatar.  the small patch of water i touched would glow bright green.  its unreal, its ethereal, its God.  all i could think of is how creative and amazing our God is.  to make something like glowing algae...its incredible.  the work of his hands is just breath taking, to him be all the glory!
after we made our way back to the boat, i forced myself to face one of my biggest fears head on:  i jumped into the open water and swam around.  i was terrified the entire time, not gonna lie.  who knows what the heck is swimming right under me??  after splashing around and freaking out a little bit, i warmed up with a hot cup of tea and slept like a rock

bay of islands travel weekend...

Whew!  what an incredible weekend!  pre-apologizing because this might end up being a pretty long blog post.  so we left for the bay on Thursday the 12.  we piled into our rented vans and drove about 3 hours north...im very thankful for the shortness of this van ride in comparison to the 9 hour one we had going down to Wellington!  ok! so Thursdays activities:  drove down and made it to the town called Paihia.  Once we arrived, we got settled into our hostile.  Not gonna lie, this was my least favorite of the hostiles thus far.  it was on the dirtier side and at night the other backpackers were pretty rowdy and loud, making it difficult to fall asleep.  but whatever, we survived!  so anyway, after we got settled in, we headed over to the Waitangi Treaty grounds.  A little history background for you, the Treaty of Waitangi was made so that the Maori and Europeans could live together equally, and fairly.  Unfortunately, the europeans kinda cheated the Maori out of some of their rights...etc...its a pretty big thing still and people are still sore about it.  but it apparently seemed like a good idea at the time.  so after getting some cultural history in, we were given some time to go and explore the town for a bit.  here in New Zealand, most of the stores close anywhere from 5-7 in the evening!  super early i know, its something that is very hard to get used to.  so exploring the shops was difficult because most of them had already closed.  its a pretty cute town though, nice and picturesque and touristy.  on our way back to the hostile, it began to rain and got pretty chilly.  some of us were really looking forward to the hot tub that was advertised back at the hostile.  when we returned and were donned in our togs (swim suits) we headed over to the hot tub!  or shall i call it, the lukewarm tub.  it was gross as ill get out.  yet still Joy and i sat in there for a while out of boredom and practiced our chinese.  after having a delicious dinner of haystacks, we headed back into town for some DELICIOUS ice cream.  the kiwis do it right when it comes to ice cream, thats for sure!  I got maple walnut and holy smokes...it was heavenly.  after ice cream we headed back to the hostile and attempted to go to sleep...which once again was quite the challenge thanks to the party crew right outside out door.