One Tree Hill - but without the tree !

I went up One Tree Hill in Auckland recently which was great. However I know I sometimes get things wrong but shouldn’t there be a tree on One Tree Hill ? There used to be one until 1999 when someone cut it down. There must have been a real shortage of timber ! It was actually a Maori activist who took offence to a Maori sacred site being westernised. Ah well, it was a nice walk. I must let U2 know as they will have to rename their song now to One "treeless" Hill !

The real Rich !

Thanks for the all the mails and texts you have been sending, especially for Rob's birthday. Some of you have asked whether we have any photos of Rich. Well now that you mention it I do. We have really seen from our time in St. Pauls that he is a gifted church leader with so much to offer. But the other night he just lost it and insisted on giving Ethan beer. If you ever want him to baby-sit, let me know and I will give you his details !At least the beer was VB, the nicest beer outside the emerald isle. Hope you like the photo Sulu ?

Rich and His blog

Hey guys, Just a quick post to point you to the link to Rich's blog. Its on the right. Some of you have been asking about him, well you can find out all you want on his blog. He is a true blogger and sets the bar high. Great guy and its been fab to get to know him better. The blog is excellent, check it out. Also you can follow the link to his combined blog for him and Kath ( wife ), which is also to the right. More to follow very soon ....

Tane Mahuta

Well after many years waiting, Rob finally made it to one of his all time places ; Tane Mahuta. For those of you who are not in the know, this is the largest tree in NZ and could be in the top 100 biggest tress in the world. It is about 200 feet tall and has a massive volume of 250 cubic metres ( or about 230 tonnes!) As you can see from the weather, it was very bad, but that didn’t stop us. So glad we made the trip. Now all Rob has to see, from a forestry point of view, is the tallest tree ( In USA - Giant Redwood ) and the oldest ( Ginko Belluba in China ). Sad I know ! Ethan is doing really well, despite nearly being eaten by stingrays and soaked to death in a NZ rain forest ! Great parenting. Hope all are guys are good ? Thanks for the message Eoghan. We will ring you soon. Not sure who the guy Paul K- Smith is who left the other comment ? Some loser I suppose.... Only kidding safe trip home Paul and Laura. SULU WERE ARE YOU ?

Penguins

Today we all went to the aquarium in Auckland to see the penguins. Ethan loved it and wanted to go walking with them ! We also saw the sting-rays being fed and Ethan nearly became lunch as I was balancing him on the rails and he slipped and nearly fell into the tank ! Don’t tell Dilys and she didn’t see !!! I got my results yesterday at 4 in the morning ( Thanks Barry / Jamesie! ). I got through ok and so now am officially in my final year. Hurray. Not long now. All the CITC class (Ordinands ) did well. Keep the world cup results coming Barry. All is well in St Pauls and we have got to meet a wide rage of people and learnt about the set-up process, structure , ups and down etc. They have been great to us and so helpful in ensuring we get the best out of our time here. Yesterday we went bowling and also went for a nice ( but bizarre) Chinese lunch with all the staff. It was Chinese food rapid style , with one of those swirly turny bits in the middle of the table which proved great fun. Plenty of eating, spinning and laughing. I'm afraid the kiwis won the bowling; another Irish defeat ! Thanks for all the mails etc. Great to hear from all you guys. Sulu were are you ?!!! Another post on Saturday.

Just wasn’t meant to be

I wish the picture to the left was at the full time whistle, but it was a photo of the flannery try. So near but yet so far is a good way to sum up last Saturday's game. At first it looked like a rout after the All Blacks scored early on. But all credit to the Munster boys they really got the team going and changed the tide. O' Connell was immense. At one point he tackled Ritchie Macaw so hard I thought he had killed him ! It was a good game to watch, both myself and Dilys went together and there was much shouting. The Irish crowd were great and we were right in the thick of the green army. As some of you will know we were meant to be going to a lunch with the players, but the IRFU neglected to tell us that it would cost us $350 ! So we decided against it. The ski pass in Queenstown took precedence ! Sorry Burkey. All is well with us here and we are really enjoying our time in St. Pauls. Rob has preached twice now and after he had finished the congregation clapped. This is a bit strange as you don’t get this at home, but it's nice to get some feed back.....! Dilys leaves for Dunedin early next week which will leave me in Auckland for a week on my own to spend much time going to the pub and watching the world cup conclusion. Opps I mean prayer, fasting and generally being holy ! Still no sign of my results , probably still trying to read my answers !

Blackout..

Well kids, hope all is well in our past. Being 11 hours ahead is great ; you can set the tone ! All is well here in Auckland. Yesterday we had a 5 hour blackout which was fun. Traffic lights were out, no coffee etc. A real trial. It reminded me of Dublin in the 8o's when the power was off more than it was on. Some of the kiwi's have been slagging us and saying that we should be used to having no power as we only got electricity in the last few years! Dilys and Ethan are well and really enjoying life in Auckland. The church is really great , with such a warm atmosphere and culture of welcoming. Apart form Rich Johnson, he is a nightmare. HA HA hope you are reading this Rich ! Only kidding, its great to be able to hang out with Rich and Co. Well must go. Thanks Barry for the results. Come on Tobago. Burkey , keep praying for the next test on Saturday.

So Close

The headline ( left) in this mornings New Zealand herald said it all. It looks like us Irish really gave them a run for their money. But not far enough. Well it was a great night and we came so close. With only 12 minutes to go it looked like 101 years of waiting had finally come to an end and Rob was there to witness it. However as often is the case with the All Blacks, they came back right at the finish. Not even the Munster effect could stop them and O Connell’s intercepted pass at the end along with ROG's missed penalty were the turning points. Burkey, it was great and it would have been great to have you there. Lets keep hoping and praying that next weekends game can reverse the trend. Here's hoping anyway…. Can you let Rob know the world cup results. It’s a football desert out here ! Dilys is delighted.

Here at last !

Well after nearly 35 hours travelling we arrived in Auckland. The flights went really well, as we got given 3 seats for myself and Dilys and a bassinette for Ethan. Because of this Ethan slept most of the two flights which was great. I wish I could say the same for myself and Dilys. We probably slept about 4 hours in total ! We stopped over in Singapore for 5 hours and had some sleep there so that really helped. We are still not over the jet lag, which is the worst we have experienced, Ethan is the best of all 3 of us and he is sleeping 12 hours a night ! Auckland is great and the house is amazing. It's a ten bedded house near the centre of town and within walking distance to the church. It’s a fifteen minute walk to the sky-tower (see photo) which Dilys will be bungy jumping off very soon ! All is going really well in St. Paul’s so far and they are so nice and have been so welcoming to us. They have a great program for us which should give us some great experience. Rob is speaking for the first time on Sunday morning, so that should be interesting ! This Saturday Rob and Mike ( leader of the St. Paul’s ) are going to the All Black game. CMON IRELAND ! If we win I doubt Rob will make it back to the church for Sunday morning ! We will post photos of the game after the weekend. Keep an eye out on Sky sports for rob. He will be the one streaking. Well must dash, we will post more regularly now as we have found an internet cafe very near the church. If you want to check out the church, click on the St Paul’s link to the right.

Off we go !

Well at long last we are off today ( Saturday) to New Zealand. We are flying out today at 18:00, then onto Frankfurt, then onto Singapore and then finally arriving in Auckland 30 hours later on Monday morning at 10:30 ( 21:30 Irish time). We can’t wait to get going. We will keep the blog updated hopefully 2-3 times a week. Enjoy June and July. We will have our mobile with us , but only can receive texts. We will try to text back from our Vodafone online webtext. See you in cyber space !!

Made it......

Well Rob made it to the end of his exams in one piece ! Only 1 year to go now. The next couple of days are going to be pretty busy until we fly out. But it's so exciting to be going to NZ! Especially to see the Irish rugby team beat the All Blacks. Well we can dream anyway......