I'm in New Zealand.

Well, you're all probably wondering why I haven't blogged for a long time and the answer is, because I'm in New Zealand. We are here for about 11 weeks, Dads coming for the last 2 weeks after he's finished semester. So we have been lazing in the sun, enjoying being home with all of our extended family.

The plane trip was absolutely horrible, it was way too long. We flew from Louisville to Chicago, which was an hour long, then Chicago to LA which was five hours long. That flight was really hard because five hours is a long time and it was a little plane. Then we had the long flight, 12 hours from LA to Auckland, and the last one from Auckland to Wellington which was only 1 hour.

We have been here for about two weeks already. We came for our Aunty's wedding which was last Sunday. It went really well and everybody had a great time. Matthew was the page boy and Rachel and Joel were on seating people. My cousin and I had to go up to the front and read something out of the bible which we were really nervous about but it went okay.

Grandad has been taking us kids fishing which is something that we all love and Grandad has basically been fishing all his life so he is a a great person to go with. Rachel and I went with him and stayed over night for two nights, and fished for three days. Above is a picture of a 2 pound trout that I caught on a fly rod.

Anyway, we are heading to Hastings tommorrow to visit friends.

Day sixteen in Israel

Day sixteen was a free day and then a directors reception at our guides place that night. So dad and I and a few others from our group went to the Holocaust Museum and dad went and got a haircut by a Frenchman.


Going back to our hotel on the public bus. This was a huge experience, as the driving is horrible and they don't stop letting people on the bus even though it is clearly full!



This is the outside of the Holocaust Museum. It was a huge place as you can see from the picture. We were unable to take photos from the inside, sorry.

This is dad, a New Zealander, getting a haircut by a Frenchman, in Jerusalem.

Day fifteen in Israel

Day fifteen. On the bus at 7:30 and off to Sepphoris, Beth-Shean, "The Garden of Eden" for lunch and up onto a hill so we could look down on Nazareth. That night we would be returning to our hotel in Jerusalem. This would be the last day of our great Galilee trip.


We stopped at Sepphoris and saw the Mona-Lisa of Galilee. Joseph the father of Jesus possibly came to Sepphoris for employment as it was flourishing more than Nazareth.



Mosaics in Sepphoris. Probably date to around 300 AD, this one tells the story of Dionysus, he was the god of fertility and the god of wine in Greco-Roman mythology.

This is where we stopped for lunch. They call it the Garden of Eden, it had naturally heated pools that some of our group swam in. It was a beautiful day also.



This is on a hill overlooking Nazareth. Dad is looking out towards the Jezreel Valley in this picture. Jesus would have gone up their often as a child.


Nazareth.

Beth-Shean. It was amazing walking down the main street and seeing all the columns beside you. It was easy to imagine what it would have been like in those days.

The bottom of a pillar that had fell during an earthquake that destroyed the whole city in 749 AD.

Dad walked up to the top of the Beth-Shean Tel. This is him with the ruins behind him.