Sunday Church and Sunday Drive

Aren’t Sundays made for going to church and then for a drive? They are if you’re a Davis. When I first got into Christchurch I drove by what was obviously an LDS church. I looked online to see what time the service started and showed up a few minutes early. There were tons of chairs set up and then someone told me that it was Stake conference. There was a visiting authority, the mission president, temple president, and lots of missionaries. It was a great meeting and I was glad I went. I have had many opportunities to worship with saints from all across the globe. It really is a strength to my testimony. After church, I left for my drive. I started for Arthur’s Pass again because I wanted to get some more pictures of the mountains and beautiful flowers. I came across this unique rock area and I stopped to have a look around. Most of the sites like this are Maori sacred areas. I climbed to the top of one of the hills to have a look around. It was so amazing. My ride continued along the Canterbury plains. Much of the LOTR scenes were shot in this area. I stopped at one of the big rivers to climb down to the banks and take more pictures. From there I headed back east to the East coast. I wandered through little towns, lots of pastures and fields of crops and lots of sheep and moo cows. I got to the coast and drove through the main port city east of Christchurch then up to the top of an old volcano. A spectacular view of the Pacific ocean, Christchurch, and the beaches along the coast. The top of the volcano is a very popular place to hang glide from. I drove down the other side to the beaches. Pretty lame beaches if you ask me. Little surf and lots of shells, wood, and other material washed up on the shore. There was a pretty cool rock formation that the waves had carved lots of holes and caves in. This was quite popular for the children. Well, that was about it for my Sunday drive. The rest of the time was spent working with a couple of different groups in Christchurch. For the most part, I really enjoyed the food. Good seafood, good lamb. The Kiwis are big on ice cream and that suits me just fine. I had Thai food one night and that was also quite good. Most nights I would eat by myself and that is one of the pitiful parts of being on the road. I often would just take my book and sit there and read.

Well, after several hours on the plane, I left the nice warm, sunny Southern Hemisphere for the FFT (Freakin’ Frozen Tundra).