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.

Day fourteen in Israel, Part Two.

Day fourteen, part two. On the bus at 7:30 again, and after we had gone on a boat on the Sea of Galilee, we went to Gergesa, Qazrin, the Jordan River, Capernaum, and we went for a walk down Arbel Mountain.


We found a crypt at Gergesa (sight of the demoniac in the tombs) that had a gate over it, but it wasn't locked so dad and I and some other guys went in. This is dad in a tomb. Notice the bones to the left of dad's shoulder.



This is Gergesa, some church remains.

Above is a reconstruction of a village that is similar to how a village would have been in the time of Jesus.

Dad and I with the Jordan River in the background. It was fairly warm that day which was nice.

Me standing on a bridge that goes over the Jordan River.

Capharnaum. This was where Peter lived and where Jesus often visited and stayed.

Dad by a statue of Peter, notice he has the keys.

This is on top of Mt. Arbel, the mountain that we would be walking down. Behind Dad is the Sea of Galilee.

This is what we walked down to get to our bus that was waiting at the bottom. This mountain was full of caves that we explored.

Day fourteen in Israel, Part One.

Since day fourteen was such a big day I decided to split it into two parts. So these are all photos of our boat ride. Our guide suprised us by planning a boat trip on the Sea of Galilee for us. It was a lot of fun even though it was freezing and really windy. When we got out on the sea the owners of the boat pulled out an American flag and hoisted it up next to the Israeli flag. Then they played the anthem and everybody stood up and sung, it was great. They also showed us how Jesus would have fished, out on a boat like we were. Here are some photos.

This is on the boat looking out toward Mt. Hermon. If you look closely you can see it, the white range of mountains, behind the hills.

The Israeli and American flag.

The boat that we went on.

Dad and I on the boat. As you can see it was very cold.

The owner of the boat showing us how they fish.

All of the seagulls that hung around wanting food.

Day thirteen in Israel.

Day thirteen. We were staying in En Gedi so we woke up and could see the Sea of Galilee out our bedroom window. We were on the bus at 7:30 a.m and headed off to Hazor, Dan, Caesarea Philippi and the Golan. It was very cold that day but we went to some very interesting places.



Our bus with Mt. Hermon in the distance.


This is at Hazor. It was freezing cold! Hazor was a large city about the same size as Nineveh or Babylon. See Joshua 11:10.

Dan. There was a lot of water and little rapids. Dan is the biggest spring in the Middle East, and the biggest source of the Jordan river.

At Dan. An excavation in progress. The original name of Dan was Laish.

This is at Caesarea Philippi. Behind us is the cave of Pan, one of the Greco-Roman gods. Notice the rock, it was here that Christ talked about building the church upon the rock.

Me on the Golan heights when the sun was setting. We were up there looking down on Syria.

This is a deserted Israeli military sight on the Golan. These are the stairs that led in and out of it. It was a lot bigger than I expected.

Day twelve in Israel.

Day twelve, we were on the bus at 7:00 a.m. Today we would go to Ceasarea, an aquaduct on the beach, Mt. Carmel and Megiddo. We wouldn't be returning to our hotel in Jerusalem that night, we would stay in a holiday resort in En Gedi, right on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.



This is a tomb that was on the side of the road. These were reasonably common around Israel.

This picture is self-explanatory.

We went to Caesarea, a palace right on the Mediterranean that Herod built and named it after his boss, Ceasar. I am standing on a fake chariot which is located on the hippodrome (chariot racing track).

Me on top of a smaller aquaduct.

An aquaduct that Herod built. This was probably the most amazing thing that day. It stretched on and on.

This is on Mt. Carmel (where Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal). We all found a seat on the rocks on the edge of the mountain, we had an amazing view. The man in the picture was our guide, Dr. Wright.

This is on Megiddo looking out towards Nazareth. You can see Nazareth, its the town on top of the range of hills.