Great Weekend

Well, we had such a blessed weekend, although were thoroughly disapointed with the Lions result on Saturday night - it was a bit of a shocker!!!

On Friday night we celebrated our wedding aniversary in style - a couple from St Paul's paid for us to spend a night in a penthouse suit in a very posh hotel in the centre of Auckland; we were up on the 11th floor so had spectactular views through our 2 story high window. We went out for dinner also, at the revolving restaurant at the top of the sky tower which was awesome - such an incredible meal, and felt so cheap in comparison to what you pay in England!!!

We moved into our flat on Saturday morning and we love it - although we dont have any furniture yet apart from a bed, it is just so awesome to be so close to the sea and a great promenade with awesome coffee houses all over the place.

Sunday went really well, and I am starting to feel a little more settled as the worship leader - we still are in need of more musicians so will be praying them in over the coming months.

Laura has been looking at Jobs today and trying to sort the few possesions in our house - its really incredible how much mess can be made with so little stuff - she will write again soon when she gets the time; we still dont have a computer so its only when she comes into work with me that she can use the computer.

Well i have a meeting to lead worship at, so I'll be off. Please keep in touch; we love receiving your emails - sorry if it takes us a while to respond, it will improve!!!

We have a house!!!!

Well, news on the street is that Paul & Laura Kingsley-Smith have a new address again!!! We have just signed our tennancy agreement today, and will be moving into a new flat on Friday. This is going to be our permanent address for the forseable future. The address is...

3/20 Patteson Avenue
Mission Bay
Auckland
New Zealand
Home Phone : 0064 952 17 139

The telephone will be up and running from friday, so please don't try to call before that - also please do bear in mind the huge time difference when calling us; although we'd love to speak to everyone, we'd prefer it to be at sociable hours!!!

Well, the flat is perfect, its a little 2 bedder and is a one minute walk to the beach - if you want proof please check the map by clicking here. If you would like to know more about our new local area, click here.

Things here are going really well - i'm sorry that this is the 1st post I've made since we've been here; I have been pretty busy, and have not had much time to email people or put up blog entries. New Zealand is a fantastic place and we are loving it already.

Please do keep in touch - I'll be more regular in the next week or so.

Love to you all

Finding our new home

Well the past few days have been spent searching the web and estate agents trying to find afordable appartments in good areas of the city so we can set up home. We'd seen three places over thurday and friday and felt very disapointed with the results as they were either very tiny, a long way out of the city centre or just horrible! (Although one of the houses was next door to a very well known popstar who comes here for a few weeks of the year!?) To try and make ourselfs more at home in our little tempory flat we went to the warehouse (a bit like wilkinsons, but in a warehouse) and bought a washing basket and some coathangers which helped us loads in clearing the mess in our bedroom and getting rid of the suitcases from the floor and into the cupboard.
We went out again today (Saturday) with friends Kim and Bruce and found this really cute little flat right next to the beach which we fell in love with straight away, the only gutting thing is we have to apply to rent it and wait for the owner to choose an applicant-please all pray that we get it!
Other news is that Esther (my best friend form Somerset) called me this morning to tell me she was engaged and would i be her bridesmaid! As you can imagine- i was VERY excited!!
We are finding everything so cool here, everyone has been amazing and we are overwhelmed with the Kiwi's kind and friendly nature. Well worth a visit for all those needing a good fun holiday!!!

Our Tempary Address

Just to let everyone know that you can send any mail to us via the church until we get our own place, it is: 28 Symonds Street, Box 6349, Wellesley Street, Auckland, New Zealand.

We've arrived!

Hi everyone, well, we've arrived!

Its Monday afternoon on my birthday and things are so amazing here. We arrived on Friday evening, 12 hours later than we hoped so our journey in total was about 40 hours door to door, however my body has adjusted really well and i slept all the way through the night for the first time last night so all seems to be well. We have been made to feel so welcome here, eating out every day so far, and whilst Paul is working (he started on Saturday afternoon) i've been taken out for coffee or lunch or shopping with some of the girls which is wonderful!

Before i go on I just want to thank everyone for being so great and helping us so much before we left, especially Becca and Adam, and to all those who gave me birthday presents to take with me-it was so nice this morning to open some pressies on the bed!

I can't believe how at home we both feel; although we've only been he two full days, it really feels as if we've been here alot longer already. Everyone has gone out of their way to help us and we've already been lent a car, a tv, a stero, and a sim card to use.

Church was great yesterday; we went to both the morning and evening services and met loads of people and went to the pub after for drinks. In the morning service there were loads of really cute babies so i felt very broody! Talking of babies, Mike the vicar here, and his wife Bex gave birth to a little boy in the early hours of this morning which is very exciting, not only becasue i love babies-but because we also share the same birthday!

New Zealand is beautiful! The weather has been good considering its winter here, today it is sunny and some people are still in shorts although i've opted for the jeans and jumper combo (note there is no need for a coat in winter!) as i often feel a little chilly inside as there is no central heating.

Ok, i'm gonna go now, i'm sorry for all those who we told we would have internet straight away as we don't (i'm using the church computer) so forgive us if our communication is not as regular as we would like to have it. Our postal address is also not the same as the one we posted a few weeks ago but i don't have our new one! We will post you our address and phone number as soon as we get one!

New Photos

Well we're finally down in Watford, the penultimate leg of our Journey before flying on Wednesday. We enjoyed a fantastic barbecue at Lauras parents over the weekend and have posted some photos of the evening in the photos section of the website. We hope you enjoy them, and we'll post again soon...

The Gospel According to Chav

Well with so much talk at the moments about Chavs, I find this yesterday and it made me laugh!! Read on

There's this bird called Mary, yeah? She's a virgin. (Wossat then?)

She's not married or nuffink, but she's got this boyfriend, Joe, innit? He's does joinery an' that. Mary lives with him in a crib dahn Nazaref.

One day Mary meets this bloke Gabriel. She's like: "Oo you lookin' at?"

Gabriel just goes: "You've got one up the duff, you have."

Mary's totally gobsmacked. She gives it to him large.

"Stop dissin' me, yeah? I ain't no Kappa-slapper. I never bin wiv no one!"

So Mary goes and sees her cousin Liz, who's six months gone herself.

Liz is largin' it. She's filled with spirits, Bacardi Breezers an' that.

She's like: "Ooright, Mary, I can proper feel me bay-bee in me tummy and I reckon I'm well blessed. What wiv the extra benefits an' that."

Mary goes: "Yeah, s'pose you're right."

Anyway, there's the census y'knaaa? Mary an' Joe ain't got no money so they have to twock a donkey an' go dahn Bethlehem on that.

They get to this pub an' Mary wants to stop, yeah? To have her bay-bee an' that.

But there ain't no room in the inn, innit? So Mary an' Joe break an' enter into this garridge, only it's filled wiv animals. Cahs an' sheep an' that.

Then these geezers turn up, looking proper bling, wiv crowns on their heads. They're like "Respect bay-bee Jesus", an' say they're wise men from the East End.

Joe goes: "If you're so wise, wotchoo doin' with this Frankenstein an' myrrh? Why dincha just bring gold, Adidas an' Burberry?"

It's all abaht to kick off when Gabriel turns up an' sez he's got another message from this Lord geezer. He's like: "The rozzers is coming an' they're killing all the bay-bees. You better nash of to Egypt."

Joe goes: "You must be monged if you think I'm goin' dahn Egypt on a minging donkey."

Gabriel sez: "Suit yerself, pal. But it's your look-aht if you stay."

So they go dahn Egypt till they've stopped killing the first-born an' it's safe an' that. Then Joe an' Mary an' Jesus go back to Nazaref, an' Jesus turns water into lager.