Down time in Oxford

After arriving on Saturday night we are now enjoying some down time in Oxford. We awoke to snow falling on Sunday morning and although it has all cleared by this evening, we are all looking forward to two weeks of school holidays away from the Invers…

It has been quite a hectic first six months to the beginning of this year; what with building issues, a new family store (well relocation), Community Ministries relocation, ministry effectiveness review and moving forward with the Corps leadership structure – And there were some that told us that we should be able to ease into our new appointment (Yeah Right!)

I must admit though that it is extremely hard for both Annette & I not to talk shop, after-all our ministry is very much who we are. There are a few things that we need to work on while we are away, but I’m sure we’ll get to that at some stage over the next two weeks – But for now relaxation, maybe a trip to Hanmer Springs and a few other things that will help take our minds off of events at home…

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A relaxing day @ home…

A relaxing day @ home – remember the Tui billboards (Yeah Right!)

Unpacked the bags; Sorted out the garage, so that all the suitcases can be stored ’til next time and the extra beds have been put away; Started cleaning up the house, washing, watering plants, vaccuming etc. (the cats – at least one of them has managed to leave fluff all over the place); Starting to get my head around some of the issues that we need to sort out in the coming weeks on top of the day to day ministry stuff and organise the plan of attack for the next few weeks or so; and cleaned out the fridge of all the leftovers that didn’t get eaten prior to our departure 10 days ago – Boy some interesting science experiments going on in there…

OK! So it’s not that bad but after spending such an awesome time away in the sun, enjoying the thrill of theme park rides, and the company that we were in; being away from long pants & hoodies and cold breezes that cut you to the bone, it sure brings to a halt the enjoyment factor of being on holiday… But then again we all need to make a living (although in our case in many ways it is more than just a living) so that we can afford to go on these extended excursions don’t we?

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The Last Supper…

Well Friday saw us preparing to go home and due to the time that we were going to be arriving in Christchurch we weren’t going to have time for the last supper – But lunch would definitely be in order at Pacific Fair.

After walking down to this popular mall we did a spot of retail therapy (yet again) and then had lunch at the food court before catching the bus back to the units.

Because we still had a bit of time up our sleeves before our shuttle transfer to the airport we spent some time soaking in the Vitamin D on the beach. Although I was the only one wearing shorts as all the others couldn’t be bothered changing once they got to the airport into warmer clothes as Christchurch according to the weather forecast was due for another sub-zero night.

On the way to the airport we got a chance to see some of Brisbane’s inner city due to one of the others on the shuttle being dropped off at the Casino (hard to imagine that not so long ago many parts of the central city were under water due to the floods they had here).

And so the great escape comes to a close as we head back to the cooler temperatures of New Zealand – We have all had a really kool time away from the everyday hassles… I wonder where we’ll be heading for our next major overseas excursion – SUGGESTIONS anyone!

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Movie World Revisited…

Thursday saw us returning to Movie World to do all the rides and shows that we missed out on last time. And for others to experience for the first time some of the rides that they weren’t to sure of first time around…

No sooner had we arrived and the first stop after dropping off our bags to the lockers was the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster. This ride had to be the most utilised ride in the theme park, as the younger ones loved it and pretty much after every other ride came back to Scooby for another go.

We then headed over to the Hollywood Stunt Driver arena as the first time around we missed this show due to the amount of people that were queuing up. However, today the crowds were a lot less and we were able to walk straight into the arena and got a front row seat. Grace even got to star in the show…

The show featured plenty of car chases (as well as a motorbike doing wheelies), gun shots and a spectacular explosion at the end. During the show one of the police cars split in half and as it was being chased one of the race cars went airborne, jumping from one roof top to the other before exploding into a great ball of fire.

We then moved on to experience some of the other rides around the park.

Emily at one stage in the afternoon came to Annette & I beaming as she had just done the Batwing Spaceshot, a rapid 4.5G vertical launch up a 60 meter tower. She ended up doing this ride at least 3 times, loving every second of it.

As the day wore on I even coaxed Annette into experiencing the Superman Escape which is according to the Movie World website “an unprecedented rollercoaster ride experience which travels 0 – 100 kilometres in just 2 seconds! With 760 metres of vertical climbs, weightless drops, head spinning twists and giant G-force turns, SUPERMAN Escape completely redefines the coaster experience.” Annette had done it but she was visibly shaking when she got off the ride for about 10 minutes afterwards vowing to never do it again…

This time around the whole group of us did the BATMAN Adventure – The Ride 2 which was an interactive adventure through Wayne Manor’s Library, the Bat Cave, and then into a computer generated flight simulator where we took on the villainous Catwoman, Mr. Freeze and The Joker.

As the day came to a close we watched the Parade and had another ride on some of our favourite rides before heading to catch the bus back to the units. So in the words of Bugs Bunny – that’s all folks! Well at least until the next death defining experiences that we get to enjoy…

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Rest Day – Well sort of…

Wednesday we had a bit of a rest day (well sort of) as the intention was to hang around the pool or down at the beach for the day and do pretty much nothing all day as since we have been here we’ve been on the go more or less every day.

However, this didn’t really eventuate… In the morning we had quite a lay in, but as the morning progressed it was a case of what are we going to do today??? So we headed into Surfers again as the girls wanted to do a bit of retail therapy at the Outlet Store, as they had seen some really cheap clothes that they liked the look of.

After what seemed like an eternity for us guys as we waited outside we headed back into Pacific Fair to have a good look around and to get some much needed supplies to see us through for the next few days.

On Tuesday night Jobe & Shyvonne had headed out for the night to Draculas to have dinner and see the “REDRUM CABARET” which according to the brochure oozes with retro horror creatures, in a fast-paced variety show that literally leaps through the cinema screen onto the stage. They had a thoroughly enjoyable time…

Then on Wednesday night Linda, Mike, Annette & I headed into Jupiters Casino to see the international stage phenomenon “STOMP” which has had an astonishing 9 years on the West End, and 16 years on Broadway…

We enjoyed an all you can eat buffet at Food Fantasy within the Casino to start with which was absolutely scrumptious and as always I ate more than I should have but hey it was delectable… Then we went for a quick look around the Casino – I just can’t see the attraction of sitting behind a machine for hours on end hitting the same old button time and time again in the vain hope that you might win more than you put in.

And even some of the games such as Roulette nowadays no longer involve human interaction – people starring at a computer generated image on a monitor screen telling you to lay your bets on a string of numbers so you can have the chance of winning money just doesn’t do it for me…

Anyways after a quick look see we headed for our seats and the show didn’t disappoint; with our own feet stamping, hands clapping and fingers drumming we were invited to participate in the show. With the adrenalin rushing and feel-good sensations flowing and the unstoppable energy & toe-tapping exuberance being shown on stage we were taken aback by the rhythms created by modern day clutter and junk – everything including matchstick boxes, zippo lighters and the kitchen sink was used to make sound that filled the theatre.

It was definitely an explosive extravaganza of percussion, theatre, comedy and dance as the brochure and flyers promised – STOMP’s infectious rhythms and “pure stage magic” are a must-see if you get the chance. And it was an awesome pulsating, witty, utterly irresistible theatrical event that you just had to clap and ‘stomp’ your feet too…

WE JUST HAD TO GRAB A COPY OF THE DVD!

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Water slides galore…

Ok maybe not quite as many as at “Wet ‘n’ Wild” but still enough to have plenty of fun at – Tuesday saw us take on the thrills & spills of the water slides at WhiteWater World which is located right next door to Dream World so with our 2 Park pass once we got tired of the water slides or wanted to warm up a bit and explore Dream World again we could…

Once we had all changed into our togs the first water slide that we challenged ourselves with was ‘The Rip’

We were “launched from the 16 metre tower into 12 metres of pitch blackness before being blasted into a massive whirlpool of high speed revolutions, we were eventually sucked into the corkscrew core and blasted through a huge curtain of water to experience a momentary weightlessness before plunging into the pool below”. Emily to start with wasn’t too sure of this ride but no sooner had we reached the bottom she was ready to go again.

We then headed across to ‘The Bro’, the Blue Ringed Octopus gave us the opportunity to go head to head in a competitive high speed race to the finish line at the bottom. Emily held on with all her might and appeared out of the tentacles first but Christina, Annette & I whizzed past her on the final sprint to the finish as we had a much heavy body mass.

We then took on the ‘Super Tubes HydroCoaster’ & ‘The Green Room’ which were both really kool! But by this time Emily was starting to get just a tad cold although the sun was shining the breeze was quite cool…

      

So while Annette took Emily to get changed into something warmer I took Patrick & Christina across to ‘The Temple of Huey’ & ‘The Little Rippers’ where we took on the ‘Screamin Right Handers’, ‘Broken Headz’ and the ‘Cut Snake’.

The others had all headed back to the changing rooms and it wasn’t long before Patrick followed suit so it left Christina & I to take on ‘The Wedgie’ (Jobe had already done this one earlier on in the morning but he was the only one game enough to take it on)

I got Christina to go first so that she didn’t chicken out and no sooner had she stepped inside the chamber, crossed her ankles and put her arms in the brace position she was gone plummeting down five storeys at breakneck speed emerging out the bottom with a splash.

Then it was my turn to experience the wildest drop of them all! No wonder they call it ‘The Wedgie’ at the base in the “splash down pool the Aussie Cossie braking system kicked in” and the rather fast tug on the butt-cheeks told me how this water slide got its bold name.

We then had a couple more goes on the Green Room and the Hydrocoaster before heading off to catch up with the others who had gone through to Dream World where we spent the rest of the afternoon going on some of our favourite rides from the other day.

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