Christmas In The Park

Every year about 200,000 people descend on the Auckland Domain to attend the CocaCola Christmas in the park - it's a huge concert hosted by low rank New Zealand celebrities, and is actually masses of fun!!

I really didn't want to go and was very dubious of the whole idea, but around 50 young people from St Paul's went along together with our picnics and blankets; We sat in the park in our shorts and Ts from about 5 till 11!!! We spent a lot of time eatind drinking and singing.

There were performances of pop songs from various NZ celebs as well as some good old christmas carols. The whole evening finished off with a massive fireworks display. You'll be able to see more photos in the photo section.

Rich got Ordained!!!

Well, Rich has fastracked it all and got him self fully ordained as a vicar! We went to the service, and can absolutley guarentee it was one of the most boring things in the world!!!!

We've posted some photos and you can view a short video here.

It seemed that it didn't take rich long to get himself back to his normal self!! In the evening about 50 of us from St Paul's went to party in the park and Rich was to be found necking champaigne from the bottle - good lad!!!!

A Weekend In Waiheke

Well, on Friday Laura and I decided to have a weekend away - or a night at least!!!

We jumped on the ferry from Auckland city cetre and headed over to Waiheke.

It's a small Island about 30 minutes away by ferry, and it's worth taking the trip as the pace of life is even slower there than it is in Auckland. We stayed at a very quaint little homestay called Blue Horizon run by a sweet elderly couple in Sandy Bay.

It was very comfortable, and very cheap ($95 for an ensuite B&B) and provided a great base for us to explore the island....

Naturally our exploration didn't get a lot past the local beaches on the first day!! We headed out to Oneroa which is the main town (more like a village!!) We had fish and chips there and sat on the beach and comtemplated life. As we didn't take our car with us, everything was on foot which was great. Aucklanders have to drive everywhere because the public transport is so shocking, so it wa a welcomed break.

On Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful day, and incredible views from the deck that flowed from our bedroom - we took some photos and then headed to Oneroa to meet our friends Jeremy & Emily. We spent a fair amount of the morning and afternoon on Little Oneroa beach, where we built a sand mermaid, swam in the sea, and ate lunch!!!

Making the most of Jeremys wine expertise, we took an afternoon trip to Stonyridge Vineyard. Stonyridge make New Zealands most expensive red wines, and has a beautiful vineyard that we took a tour around. Jeremy used to work there so we got taken round for free and plied with alcohol :-)

Shortly after our wine tour we jumped on a ferry and returned to Auckland refreshed and relaxed...

Weekend Again!!!

So, were at the end of another week so thought we'd just write another little hello - it's been a mad couple of weeks and weve been incredibly busy. 2 weekends ago we had a first church weekend away; we went away to Waitomo, where there are fantastic glow worm caves; i genuinely just thought that glow worms were those little glow in the dark toys when i was a child!!!

So the weekend was absolutely exhausting, but brilliant - we saw God do lots with the guys from the congregation who all seemed to enjoy themselves. Sadly I was trying to fight off some sort of chest infection so was struggling to sing.

We were exhausted for most of last week, so spent most of it just trying to get our energy back up again. On our day off on Friday we went to a great beach called Muriwai - it was so long, that even after walking down it for an hour, we still couldn't see the end! It was really cool; we took a swim in the sea there and it wasn't actually as cold as we thought it might be; the waves were pretty huge though, so lots of caution was taken.

After church on Sunday we had a great barbecue at a friends house - played cricket in the garden which was great!!! WE LOVE NEW ZEALAND!!!

This week has been very quiet, although Ive been very busy at work writing for a talk for this weekend; I'd appreciate your prayers that it would be great.

Thats all for now - we'll get more photos on soon

Hi All,

 

Long time no see! Well christmas is coming quickly and we are very disorganised! The adverts are on the TV with everyone in summer clothes-very strange- also, beach towels are on sale next to the fairy lights and christmas trees, its all a bit much for me to take in, causing me to be a bit home sick- i miss you all!

 

The girls at work are behaving themselves and i'm slowly make new friends outside of church (other nannies etc). Paul is preaching again this Sunday which is very exciting- please pray it will go well! We'll be in touch again soon... 

Bad dreams....

Well I had my worst possible dream a little over 30 minutes ago! I dreamt that i was getting chased down a path by chickens..... it gets worse; The chickens appeared to subside until suddenly i noticed a whole army of them flying at me! This was enough to drive me from my bed and start the day an hour earlier than normal (5:45).

For those of you who know me well; you will appreciate that for me that really is my worst nightmare - i have a genuine fear of birds - perhaps it's something to do with the pandemic the media is preparing us for!!!

So i thought i'd take this golden opportunity to update you all on what we've been up to. This week has been the eternal week!! We had a great weekend - we had dinner with Rich and Kath on Friday night which was great, and then spent Saturday afternoon down at Mission Bay with a whole load of guys from church - very nice indeed.

This week has been really manic for us both - the church is having a weekend away this weekend which has commanded a lot of my time in preparation; we also are working on our christmas services and have been having the headaches of song choice etc - i have a choir master though which makes it all easier once the decision has been finally made!!!

I'm fighting off illness this week which is frustrating - i'm had quite a sore throat and a bit of a chesty cough. I'm hoping and praying that it wont materialise but we'll see. I'm taking pills galore though to keep it at bay!!!

Sorry this post is rather boring - I'm still fairly traumatised by the birds! We'll post again soon; This weekend we're off to Waitomo for a couple of days; Waitomo has glow worm caves, so expect some fun photos next week.... Love you all
Paul

New things...

2 new things to report - we have finally posted a tour of the house, although the qulity isn't amazing.
We have also posted some new photos which you can look at in the appropriate section!!! Enjoy
Paul & Laura xxx

Heads and shoulders.....

Rich forwarded this link to me; it is very funny!!!

Sunset

I LOVE New Zealand; Last night after dinner, Laura & I decided to take a drive out to the west coast to watch the sun go down - it was so amazing! We drove out to Bethells again, which is fast turning into a regular, and we spent a couple of hours there. We walked up and down the beach and took in a breath taking sunset whilst talking life and me taking loads of photos (they'll be posted tonight)

We were thinking back to our honeymoon in Devon; We observed lots of guys heading down to Bantham beach at the end of their working days, and we both said how much we would love to be able to drive to the beach at the end of a hard days work. Funnily enough, Sheffield never provided us with an opportunity even remotely like that!

Well, we are living that dream now!!! It is so amazing to head out to the beach at 7pm and it still be warm enough to go barefoot! We are looking forward to a long summer with plenty of surfing after work, plenty of BBQs on the beach, and lots of time spent out doors! It's only spring time here, and already we love it SO much.

So watch out for the photos from last night, and also our weekend with Dan & Emma - theyll be coming very soon.

Catching Up

This weekend we had our first staying guests!! Dan & Emma visited us on route to Christchurch where they will be living for the next couple of years or so. We had a fantastic time with them, although was not keen on the 7am pick up from the airport on Saturday morning; I think i was more worn out than the weary travellers!

So on Saturday, in our best efforts to keep the guys awake we headed into the center of Auckland and took a walk up and down Queen Street - we went up the Sky Tower which was a lot of fun; we hadn't been up during the day so was awesome to see the views from the top.

In the afternoon we took a drive down to Mission Bay for the legendary Movenpick ice cream followed by a walk down to St Heliers for a drink in Kahve - the rest of the day and evening we all spent recovering and were in bed at the early time of 8:30!!!

On Sunday I did church as usual in the morning which was interesting - we had a talk about drug proofing teanage children; something I'm not quite sure i'm ready for!!! We had our lunch with Rich & Kath, and then took a walk through the beautiful domain before heading back to church to lead worship again.

Monday was labour day which meant the first day off of the summer; along with a large crowd we headed off to Bethells Beach at 11 am; It was a stunning day, and we all enjoyed lounging on the beach, playing touch rugby and swimming in the surf, although we did get told off for not swimming even remotely near the flags!!!

On monday evening, we celebrated our day on the beach by eating fish and chips on the wall at Mission Bay, followed by a showing of The Last Samurai at our house - I love that film, and it was filmed about 4 hours away from us hear, so extra support is needed!

Dan & Emma left yesterday morning sadly, but we had a really great time with them here - we loved sharing our house with them, and will no doubt see them again soon; plenty of reasons for us to now go and visit christchurch!

It's Friday....

Well, we've made it through another week, and have woken on our day off to the news that Laura's parents have booked their flights to see us. They come on the 15th Feb and will be staying for a month.

Our 1st staying guests arrive though next Saturday; we're really excited to have Dan & Emma coming to stay for a couple of days, on their way to Christchurch.

So we've been totally exhausted this week - were not really sure why, but it has been. I put it down to the clocks changing 2 weeks ago!!!

We're both off today though, so will get a good chance to have a couple of long sleeps! I'm excited, as today I'm having a new PA system fitted at the church.

Later on today we'll see if we can put a little video tour together for your amusement.

Enough of me; hope to hear from you all soon

A night in!

We've had a great weekend having coffee, meals, and fun with friend etc, however Monday has come around ever so quickly again- is it just me or everyone, but I find Monday nights are always the ones where I'm unbelievably tired? I think the end of the week should be like that but its always on a Monday!

Anyway, work is going well and I'm bonding well with Stella and Holly, however today they got me good by vomiting all over me and doing a massive poo, so bit that it leaks out of the nappy all the way down the legs-maybe they feel comfortable in my care!

I'm very excited to have a night in to myself tonight, Paul is at a planning meeting and I was meant to be at another meeting but I decided last minute that a night in alone was more important for my health and sanity! I'm almost fully over my sore throat/chest/ear thing I had last week; thanks for everyone who prayed.

Illness!!!

Well, laura hasn't been too well at all the last couple of days; She is fighting off a throat infection and it's pretty much knocked her out - she has been slogging on with work regardless though, and is looking forward to the weekend (which starts tomorrow afternoon :-)

I'm praying for her speedy recovery, and it seems to be working to an extent!!! Please have a little prayer for her if you get a moment.

Well this morning i was reflecting on how lucky we are to live over here. Each morning i walk to work with a fantastic view across the sea to Rangitoto island; it really is stunning especially when the sun makes an appearance, which it generally does!

What if....

I got thinking today.... what if I had loads of money and could buy loads of things to help me along with my song writing, what would i buy?

Apple Powerbook G4 (17 inch model)
Logic Pro 7 Software
Propellerhead Reason Software
Absynth 3 Software
Rode NT1000 microphone
Apple iPod
Korg Triton Keyboard

So, if you have a few thousand pounds/dollars spare, and want to help me out please let me know!! Alternatively if you know anyone that has fair amounts of excess money that they need to shed, please let them know what i need!!! I'm still praying for miracles!!!

An unexpected blessing

Received our electricity bill in the post this morning and it had a letter accompanying it; it reads:

Dear AECT Beneficiary

The Auckland Energy Consumer Trust (AECT) is pleased to advise that your power account has been credited with your share of dividend income received by the Trust as the majority shareholder of Vector Ltd. The distribution is being made to customers connected to Vector's electricity network within Auckland City, Manakau City and parts of the papakura District on 21 August 2005.

So credited with $180 to our electricity account was a fantastic bonus; that should pay for our power for a couple of months now!!! Doesn't God move in fantastic ways!!!!

Bethells Beach & More

Yesterday we went to the most beautiful beach. Bethells is about 45 minutes druve outside of Auckland on the west coast. It is truly stunning place. It was a reasonably sunny day, so we were able to spend a fair amount of time lying on the beach in our shorts and Ts just basking in the hot sun.

The beach was probably 1km long, and i can honestly say there were probably no more than 10 people on the whole beach. There was one surfer out making the most of some fairly choppy surf which was fun to watch.

At one end of the beach is a huge cave - we walked into it thinking it was just a small entrance, but turned out to be a huge cavern, it was very grand and made us feel very small. Sadly our digital camera batteries had died so was unable to take pics.

Last night we had a lovely fish and chip meal with our friends Kim & Bruce, and watched The Notebook; we were both very moved by the film, it really is great - i reccomend it to anyone who has half an emotional side!!

The film made me feel very lucky to be married to Laura; It is so amazing for us to be on this adventure together; I love her SO much and wouldn't want anyone else here with me.

So, tonight the clocks go forward 1 hour which will make the time difference 12 hours between here and UK. I believe that in a few weeks time the English clocks will change making the time difference 13 hours. It's all going to be very confusing over the coming few weeks.

iPod

Think i forgot to say... we'd also love an iPod!! We're praying that in also. As we shed all our CD's before we left, we have all our music as MP3. It totally makes sense!!! Pray it in guys!

Kareoke

I decided to keep posting on the blog little and often, as I'm aware that we have only really been writing on big occasions. This way, you'll get a far more balanced representation of our life!!!

So... the sofa and the bed arrived and they are great; Last night I had an extremely comfortable night sleep, and was able to wake up and sit on the sofa in our lounge. For some reason, what used to be normality feels likea total luxury!!!

Last night St Paul's held a karaoke night at our local pub; It was quite a lot of fun although i really don't enjoy getting up and doing karaoke. Never-the-less, the evening was a great success; Every couple of months we have big church socials, and it is great to get people together and chat to lots of different people.

We gave out awards to several acts; Sadly the staff were exempt from prizes. Rich and I closed the evening by murdering My Way!!! I think everyone was glad it was over by that point!!
Thats my news for the day...

PS we bought a cheap toaster last night, so you can cross that off your prayer list!!! We desperately needed one for our latest breakfast craze..... Bagels!

New Sofa

Well this story is equally as awesome as the bed, car, and countless donations of money!!!!

As you'll probably know, we moved house little over 3 weeks ago, and for all of that time we have been living sofaless and having to sit on the floor. Now, I don't mind sitting on the floor all that much, but when you are having people over for dinner, it's nice to be able to offer them something more comfortable than a toilet seat!!!

Well, Laura's boss gave her a call on Monday (she owns a very very trendy design store called Eon). The shop has recently had a 3 seater sofa on display, and whilst on display one of its arms got scuffed. They fixed the problem, but because of the high standards of the shop and its trenyness, they are unable to sell it there.

So, guttingly they also didn't have enough space to keep the sofa in their store so she asked Laura if we would like to have it for FREE!!!! It's the same as the above photo!

This really is such an incredible blessing for us; This is a sofa that there is no way we could even consider affording - everything is seriously expensive in the shop, so to get it free really is awesome. The sofa arrives this afternoon which we are very excited about. Once we are furnished, we will do another video tour for all those absent!

God is SO good, and we're SO blessed by the generosity of the people here in New Zealand. If you want to continue praying with us, these are the things we're praying for now....

2 Widescreen TVs (one for us, one for Rich & Kath)
Coffee Table
Bedside Tables
Hi-Fi
Book case
Toaster
More money!!!

New Bed!!!

With a couple of different awesome stories of God's provision i thought i would split them up a little. As you may know, when we arrived in Auckland we had to borrow someones bed as we didn't have one, and certainly couldn't afford one!!! Well we have to give this bed back tomorrow as the Lady we borrowed it from is moving and needs it back.

We've been slightly concerned about this over the last couple of weeks, and have spent a fair old amount of time praying about it... On Sunday, someone came up to Laura at church in the morning and told her that she and her husband were going to buy us a bed. Sure enough, that afternoon we got a phone call from them; they were at Farmers (department store) buying us a queen size bed. In the shop, they were told that the bed could take up to 2 weeks to arrive.

Well, It arrived this morning with one day to spare!!! How awesome is God's provision; it's really awesome that he is able to use people to bless us when we need it the most - Praise God!!!

My guitar

So most of you will remember that before we left for New Zealand I arranged myself an endorsement with Avalon Guitars; I came away to Auckland with a beautiful L201 which is a sensational sounding guitar. There was a delay in me receiving the guitar because it had been sent off to Guitar & Bass magazine to be reviewed for their August edition.

So, I was walking along Ponsonby road on Saturday and found myself drift into a specialist magazine shop, and they had the guitar magazine in... And low and behold my beautiful little guitar was on page 30!!!

I took the liberty of visiting their website and purchased the article for download for nostalgia, and so that i could show you all what a beauty i play every week at church. You can download the review by clicking here

Hello!

Hi everyone, sorry we haven't posted for a while, things have been busy and we've been having lots of fun!

We've just return from the staff retreat in Waiheke, a small island about a 40/50 minute ferry ride from Auckland, and had a really nice couple of days together-getting to know one another and getting an idea of were everyone is going in their roles and ministries in the church. The island was beautiful and we had fun playing rounders, french cricket and rugby on the beach.
Other events include a new worship night Paul has set up called 'seek', which went really well and everyone enjoyed.

My new job is going well although i've been very tired with the early starts (however i also love the early finish as well!). Holly is gorgeous and Stella and myself are getting to know how each other work!

We so value your prayers, support, emails, letters and phone calls-please keep them up! I'm not sure if you know our new details so here goes...

Our new telephone number is: 0046 9 3020491
Our address: 427/184 Symonds Street, Grafton, Auckland, NZ
Hope to hear from you soon! xxx

All Blacks Game

I totally forgot when i blogged yesterday to write about the All Blacks game on Saturday. Firstly, It was fantastic to whitness them win; It makes a plesent change to be supporting the winning side after the embarassment of the Lions tour.

However, the NZ'ers just do not know how to support a team when they go to a match. There was pretty much no atmosphere whatsoever. It was a little dissapointing!!! Having been to an english football match, where you leave the stadium drained of all energy(through shouting and singing etc) I was heavily shocked that there was no singing, and relatively little crowd noise at all. We all just sat, very politely watching the 2 greatest rugby teams in the world, battle out the deciding match of the Tri-Nations competition.

Anyway, enough on that; Yesterday we picked up our new car - it's a Mazda Cronos 1.8i Automatic. It's a really great car for us, and we feel totally blessed by being given it! It's awesome how God is working things out here. This morning someone else came up to me and told me that God had told them to give us some money, wrote a cheque there and then and gave it to us!!!

Keep praying in the blessings guys!!! Love you all lots

The Move!!

Well, finally we are in our new flat and boy was it a mission!!! It was a total nightmare; I honestly never thought that moving house to be quite so stressful!! However, we are in our new place and it rocks!! It is warm, cosy, and cool!!

One of the stressful things (although minor) was that our sofas couldn't fit through the door - due to abnormal size feet and the doorway going straight in to a coridor there was no way of manoevering the things in. Needless to say, we finally gave up, and took a well over due trip to the Transfer Station (The Tip) and got rid of the sofas as well as a load of other junk that we have somehow acumalated in the 3 months that we have been here.

We are now SOFAless which is fairly frustrating!! So last night at home we sat down and spent some time praying; amongst other things, we pleaded for 2 things from God

1. That God would provide us with quality furniture
2. That God would provide us with a quality car (as we don't own one here, and have no way of being able to afford one.

We are faithful that God will answer prayer 1. This morning though I received a phone call in the office from a member of our congregation - he is getting a company car this afternoon with his job, and would there for like to give us the car that he owns... TODAY!!!! How amazing is that! God is so amazing! We feel blessed at this provision (although as I'm writing, Laura still doesn't know as I haven't been able to contact her!) and are more certain that God will provide every need we have.

Please continue to pray with us over the furniture, we really would love something to sit on!!!

Gotta go now, love you all

Another Video

Hey - thought I'd post a little video coverage from the boat trip on Saturday. Enjoy!!!

Click HERE

Things

Well, another action packed week in the house of Kingsley-Smith - we spent Saturday out on a friend from churches boat. When i say boat, it was actually a 45 foot power boat; we went out to a small island called Rukino which is about 15kms off the coast of Auckland. Considering it is the middle of winter the weather was just incredible. I made it into the sea for a swim, and it wasn't that bad at all, although i did have a shortie on. The boat had some canoes also so we spent some time exploring the beautiful coastline and enjoyd lapping up the winter sun.

This week we are preparing ourselves for our next big move - we're going to be moving to the city centre which will be so good as I'll be able to walk to church. This will save us considerable amounts of both time and money. Although we're excited about the move, we feel fairly unsettled at the moment. I think It will be good to really get comfortable there and settle in for the next year or so - it is really very nice.

On saturday I will be heading off to the Eden Park Stadium in Auckland with a freind Jeremy to watch the All Blacks play against Australia - after a narrow victory against the springboks on Saturday night, It's looking like it will be a scorcher of a match; Plus the All Blacks have got a new Haka which I'm pretty excited about seeing live. This will be the 1st time I've seen the All Blacks live, and am sure it will be a fantastic evening.

Laura starts her new job next Monday. She will be looking after 2 girls, Holly and Stella; She is excited, but again big change commands a lot of energy and we're both feeling a little under pressure right now.

So for your amusement I've posted a new set of photo's for you; click here to go to the photo section

New House

Well, here is hot off the press news of the day. We are moving!! This time just across the city to a more central location - we will be moving to a part of Auckland called Grafton. We'll be living on the same road that church is on, but about 15 minutes walk away.

It's a new build block, and we are going to be on the 4th floor in a very nice little 2 bedroom apartment. It was literally completed last week so has all mod cons. We have an impared view of the sky tower and a lovely courtyard. We'll put up some pictures in the following weeks.

It's late over here right now, so I'll be off to bed. Love to you all

A New Home?

Sorry its been a while since our last entry, life has kept us busy and things are all changing on this side of the pond. I (Laura) have been working hard as a nanny and loving it! and therefore have been looking for a permanent nannying job which i have now found.

I begin looking after Stella (2 years) and Holly (3 weeks) in just a couple of weeks in Mt Roskill. I will be sad to say goodbye to the twins, but i really believe God's hand is in this new job. Because of the location of the new job it is no longer possible to stay in our flat in Mission Bay as both of us would be travelling to the city centre (up to a hours drive in rush hour for me to get to work). For the past couple of weeks we have been keeping our eyes and ears to the groud for new places to live in central Auckland.

Apart from the new job and possible move our live is full of chilling out with friends, enjoying the winter sun, and walking along the beach-not a bad life eh?! No really, we are both working as hard as we're playing! Thanks again for all your e-mails, we love recieving them. XXX

Monday!

Hi everyone, Well firstly i would like to congratulate all of my fellow student friends on our graduation which took place just over a week ago. Today i recieved some photos from Anneliese and felt very proud of us all, but also very sad that i couldn't be their to celebrate with you having completed all of that hard work-you all look amazing.

Things here are as exciting as always! My tempory job as a nanny for 2 1/2 year old twins ends in 3 weeks as they are going to nursery and i actually feel quite sad, i'm very fond of them already but know that another job will turn up very soon-in fact i have an interview tomorrow night for another job so watch this space...

Our friends Rich and Kath arrived on Saturday morning which involved a 5am start-something we'll have to get used to i'm sure with the amount of visitors that have promised to come and see us. With the excitment of Rich and Kath arriving we also had to say a sad goodbye to Katie who has been working at the church for quite a while and organised our arrival and made us feel very welcome; shs is moving back to Nelson to be near her family-an emotional weekend!

Other news includes a possible move for us again-not another move accross the world but just to the other side of town this time- to Mount Eden. Our friend Jeremy and Emily live in a block of 12 flats there and it just so happens that one has come free in the past week. The flat is very basic and needs alot of work, but living there would mean we could save over $100 a week; money we could really do with having! We would really apprieciate your prayers that we would be wise in our decision to move and how we spend our money.

Please keep sending the e-mails to me-i'm sorry that i haven't had a chance to reply to all of them but its really great to hear whats going on at home.

Laura xxx

This will make you laugh

I found this song couple of weeks ago and it made me laugh so much i thought i should share it with you all also...