Tuesday, April 08, 2014

From Cardboard To Natural Cathedrals

It's Tuesday night as I write this and I apologize that I haven't been blogging for the past few days and now you're going to get a couple of posts in a short amount of time. I want to take you back to Sunday morning when we worshiped at the Cardboard Cathedral. The Christchurch earthquake made the Anglican Cathedral too unstable to worship in, so someone came up with the idea of building a new cathedral out of shipping containers and cardboard. The end result is quite incredible. I loved the simplicity of the new Transitional Cathedral, as the congregation refers to it.
We attended a Vespers service here and between the singing, the beauty of the building, and the parts of the service which were in Maori, it was quite lovely. The only thing which got in the way was my insane coughing fit during the reading of the gospel. Blah :(

After the service we went back to the Botanical Gardens to see the New Zealand gardens. They were unique and beautiful.
Then we started the first leg of our road trip. New Zealand highways are unlike any I've ever been on. The speeds are fairly fast (100km/60 miles per hour), considering how twisty, narrow, and hilly the roads are. We stopped at a winery to look around and to catch our breath :)
We then continued on our way until we saw a sign for a "Scenic Route" and decided to take it. We eventually ended up at something called "Cathedral Lookout." It was incredible! The views were indescribable and I don't even know if our pictures captured it.
And eventually, after about three hours of driving, we ended up at Lavendyl, the lavender farm where we spent the night. It was very inviting after our first day of road tripping.

*To read about how I spent Day 4, go here. To read about how Dave spent Day 4, go here. 

6 comments:

  1. And the roads only get better (and by better I mean worse! haha). We were on a few that felt like rollercoasters and I didn't exactly trust our van a whole lot. It's a wonder we're still alive.

    As always, sitting here SO jealous and looking forward to more posts! :)

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    1. Yeah, looking back on it I'm surprised we all made it back in one piece. It was intense!

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  2. A lavender farm?!?! That is so neat! Also, a cardboard cathedral sounds so cool!!

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  3. My goodness, that cathedral is beautiful! I love the picture of you and Dave by the ocean. That's a framer!

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  4. Ok so I am going to read about your whole trip now from start to finish.... (I am also making myself walk on the treadmill while reading...nothing like motivation to exercise if I get to read about fun New Zealand adventures!!!)

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  5. So I have been really hoping for some leisurely time to sit and read through all of these posts about your travels (living vicariously through you again), but I just can't win. It has been such a busy time of year for us. Spring is definitely our busy season with birthdays, sports, work, etc. I love that Cathedral...who knew you could make something so beautiful out of cardboard and shipping containers! Ugh, I don't think I could handle the twisty roads in New Zealand sadly...my motion sickness would be unbearable! But those pictures of the coastline and peaceful countryside would make it worth it! Just stunning!

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Thank you for being interested in my life as I blog it and for leaving a comment. Comments make me happier than reading a good book and drinking a cold Coke. Almost :)