R³

Today, I learnt a major life lesson while walking along the beaches of Gold Coast, Australia.

Justin and I took a 45min drive down from Brisbane to visit the Ozzy beaches. Upon arrival, I look a few minutes to let the reality of it all sink in. Ever since my kayaking days, I love the ocean and its waves. But up till today, I have never seen such raging yet majestic waves crashing onto the beautiful shores in real life. I found my self in awe of its power as though I was under some sort of hypnotic trance. I approached it fearfully, and at the feet of its waves, I found my next source of delight: skipping stones.

For the next 2 hours or so, I found myself combing across the beach to find these round and flat stones for me to toss. I kept my focus on the ground; quick to spot the ideal shapes and careful to avoid the menacing jelly fishes.

Time always flies when you enjoy yourself. Before I knew it, it was time to go, I skipped my last few stones, and begin to head back to the car. Only then, I realized. In my eagerness to skip those stone, I completely missed the whole point.

I was too caught up in the minor things, I overlooked the sole thing that counts; the ocean.

Even when it’s one of those few things that is capable of tugging my heart strings.

I stared at the waves once again, trying to lengthen whatever time I had remaining, then finally… I left.

Don’t we do this to God and with our lives ever so often?

How do you convert a person who has been Kiwi-nised in the last 3 weeks into an Ozzy in 7 days?

First, you bring him to a seaside with a scenery that rivals that of Mission Bay to eat feeeesh & cheeeeps*

Then, you bring him to Mt Coot-tha hoping that its panorama view of the city would beat the spectacular view from Mt Eden.

After that, take him out to dinner at a pizza place with free flow of pork ribs, making sure you let him see the killer sunset scene.

Last but not least, you bring him back to your place and make ice cream without a freezer…

Note: It is not a fool proof method. The subject might still choose to hang on to his or her personal preferences.

Credits*:
All photos were taken with my Nokia 6121 camera phone.
All Ozzy slang were contributed by Steph “Kiwi” Soh.
All locations were provided by Hope Brisbane, namely - Wesley, Nic & Justin

My plane left Auckland at 6pm. It took three and a half hours to reach Brisbane. The time was 6.30pm… So technically, I had a day with 27 hours?

I have always been intrigued with the concept of time manipulation.

[Joshua 10:12-14]
On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel:

So the sun stood still,and the moon stopped,till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!

Here are just some of the parting shots and videos I took…

A: Mt Helen crater shot
B: All that white dots are cricket players. Amazingly, I picked up the sport too!
C: Cheesy pizza. The pizza here rocks!
D: Yes Alvern. I did wear the scarf. A lot of girls liked it… Haha!
E: Check out the matching strips!
F: My proudest shot.
G: Included the tree for artistic purposes.
H: The bunch of people I throughly enjoyed hanging out and bumming around.

Trying to put the flower on Philip’s head.

The commentary of the beautiful Mt Eden done with a Singaporean accent.

Last day at the Soh’s

I realized why I really hate packing the luggage. It’s the feeling of having to leave your comfort zone that I really struggle with. Even when I came over from Singapore, I really dreaded the packing of bags. It’s like the sharpening of your own guillotine blade, taking you step by step through the things you have to leave behind again. This is especially hard when you gotten used to the environment and found yourself attached to it. That is exactly what the packing of luggages do to you; it makes you break each of these strings consciously and painfully. No wonder they say humans are creatures of habit. Oh well, if Paul could do it, so can I. I wonder how Jesus felt when He was packing his luggages for Earth.

For the Kingdom!

On wednesday, Auntie Angela brought me to Mission Bay to savor their finger lickin’ fish n chips! We ordered the chips to take away, and we ate them beside the seashore… The views are fantastic! I was particularly envious of the houses that were build overlooking the entire shore. Here are just some of the pictures for you to get jealous over!

 Some other videos that are simply breathtaking.

Yesterday, the church sponsored me a 1 day tour of the north island of New Zealand. I was very pleasantly surprised! I really want to thank Auntie Angela, Sarah, Yi Wen & all those who have made this possible. I appreciate it very much!

I hope they work me much harder now…

Anyway, so here’s the travel log.
I had to wake up at 6am to travel to the location where the coach was slated to pick me up. We traveled up north to 2 places that holds 3 attractions. Firstly I went to Waitomo. Their big attraction is the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. It’s really cool I tell you. We actually went into the limestone caves which is underground and is really cold! You actually see the stagmites and stalactites. A bunch of them even dripped water onto me! We had to venture really deep and the lighting was really dim to create that kind of cave like atmosphere. The coolest part was when we took a boat through the river that runs though the cave. The cave was totally dark so that we could see these interesting glow worms. Their larvae clings onto the cave ceiling and gives off light. Hence when the boat travel through the total darkness, the cave roof just looks like a galaxy of stars! Sadly, we weren’t allow to take pictures inside the cave. However, I found a picture just to let you know how it looks like!

Next, I went to Rotorua. It was futher up north. The bus journey was so long that my butt went numb… Here are some pictures I took through out the entire bus journey. I was the only tourist that was snapping pictures of the hills. I think for the other tourists that hail from Japan and America, these shots are normal stuffs.

Don’t you think the landscape is so beautiful that it looks so fake? Especially the last one, it looks like Teletubbies’ La La Land! Note: those little things you see are either cows, sheep, or both. The farms are scatter all over the place.

Anyway, I arrived at Agrodome. That place is basically a we-farm-all-types-of-animal kind of farm. Took quite some pictures and feed the ostrich even… but its all in my other camera. (These pictures I’m posting are all taken with my phone.) Will post it if I have the time. Managed to see dumb sheep, huge buffalo-like cows, sheep dogs, ostrich, llamas (Raphael, I will definitely post that picture up.) , ducks, pigs and all sorts of animals. There was a light drizzle so I was really freezing. I got to see sheep sheering as well.

God’s favor was upon me. As we departed, the rain let up and we made our way to Te Puia to see the famous Pohutu Geyser. The whole geyser scenery was so beautiful that it made the whole trip feel so unreal! I actually pinched myself to check if I was dreaming! Being the depraved Singaporean, I never had the chance to see such things in my life! Below are some of the pictures and a video of the geysers erupting together. I waited 10mins just to see it erupt!

P.S: For all of the pictures, you have to click on them to see the enlarged version. That is where their true beauty lies.

Erupting

A video I took while starring out of the window. (Ignore the TV sound)

I cant fall asleep. Such a vision doesn’t allow me to.  (23 Apr 07, 0134hrs)

Just watched finished the Hope Peru church planters’ video. I must say it woke me up from my slumber. Been running too slow, too short a distance. I’m going to take up a new approach in life. Planned out my remaining years of life to include the things I’m going to do for God.

 No more growing up, I’m dying down.
I’m left with 60 Years.
So much churchs to plant, so little time.
Make my life count for you God.

“Nothing good can be achieved without sacrifice.”
-Julian, Hope Peru church planter