After driving south to Invercargill i met up with some of the other leaders for the Stewart Island camp. Next morning we headed out on the ferry to Stewart Island to enjoy a life on the ocean wave, or a week at least. It was great working and getting to know a new team and the experience of sailing was a new and unique one. i learnt lots more new words (athjough i'm sure sailors just make them up to look smart and confuse the rest of us). What's wrong with saying left and right? and why would you call a rope a sheet when ther's massive great sheets (sails) hanging all round you. Highlights would have to include the morning swims (so cold)(well done James on the 3 boat challenge) mealtimes always lots of fun all squashed together and cooking on a boat, great beaches, discussion and singing times were very funny and often quite deep as well(good combination), climbing the mast and general climbing of things as well as our boys adventure. little surprise that my award at the end of the week was "The Dangermouse award for leading campers astray" nuff said. 
The theme for the camp was all based on water - makes sense on boats i guess, we looked together at stories from the bible that involved water and for me the main thing i thought about was that in the same way we cant live without water we also cant live fully without knowing Jesus ourselves. Did make me think about what i can't live without and whilst i am missing people back home guess i've not been away long enouh so the main things that came to mind were cheese and coffee, any body any other thoughts on that one?
One of the other cool things in our week was the wildlife. After seeing seals at Milford sound, we saw little penguins, lots of other birds both winging around the boat on the wind and the kind that couldn't fly all around the beaches. Also saw the biggest seagull ever, called a Mollymort, no kidding bout the size of a turkey!!! Not so cool were the thousands of Jellyfish, although were quite fun to throw at people. The highlight though was on my last morning. I left to catch the early ferry back to the mainland so at about 7am jumped in the dinghy and on what was the stillest sea ever with the sun just up we bombed around to the harbour. As we went i saw black shapes up in the distance coming out of the water, it wasn't rocks but dolphins. We drove over to them and about 4 of them each about the length of our little boat jumped around us playing in the waves. It was so cool and a great start to a long days journey.
The theme for the camp was all based on water - makes sense on boats i guess, we looked together at stories from the bible that involved water and for me the main thing i thought about was that in the same way we cant live without water we also cant live fully without knowing Jesus ourselves. Did make me think about what i can't live without and whilst i am missing people back home guess i've not been away long enouh so the main things that came to mind were cheese and coffee, any body any other thoughts on that one?
One of the other cool things in our week was the wildlife. After seeing seals at Milford sound, we saw little penguins, lots of other birds both winging around the boat on the wind and the kind that couldn't fly all around the beaches. Also saw the biggest seagull ever, called a Mollymort, no kidding bout the size of a turkey!!! Not so cool were the thousands of Jellyfish, although were quite fun to throw at people. The highlight though was on my last morning. I left to catch the early ferry back to the mainland so at about 7am jumped in the dinghy and on what was the stillest sea ever with the sun just up we bombed around to the harbour. As we went i saw black shapes up in the distance coming out of the water, it wasn't rocks but dolphins. We drove over to them and about 4 of them each about the length of our little boat jumped around us playing in the waves. It was so cool and a great start to a long days journey.
1 comment:
Hey Ian
It was great to have you on camp, you were a blessing to all of us.Hope you had as much fun as i did.
James
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