When we embarked on this trip, we had a slew of reasons to give up our jobs, our apartment, and our way of life to travel extendedly. And while all those reasons still stand, we’ve found this trip isn’t just about seeing exotic locations or even just about learning new skills like farming and alternative living.

Our time in New Zealand is really about making connections with people.

Before we left, Drew felt like God was telling him this next year would be a year of connections. We knew we would be connecting with different host families while we were traveling, but I’m not sure we expected our connections to impact us quite as deeply as they have.

And we’ve made some pretty crazy connections as well.

You might remember how we met our hosts in Kerikeri because I got stung by a wasp.

Then we stayed with Julie and Dave in New Plymouth because she came to Memphis for a tour of Graceland and met the 12 year old me at a dinner hosted by the Mustangs of Memphis.

After visiting Equipper’s Church in Auckland, we wanted to visit their Wellington campus as well. Not only did we meet a NZ sign language interpreter there, but a sweet girl named Jess invited us over for lunch, and an awesome guy named Alistair offered to let us stay at his flat the next night.

When Alistair heard we wanted to visit the glaciers in the South Island, he connected us on Facebook with a friend of his from Michigan, Justin, who leads glacier hiking tours at the Franz Josef Glacier.

So Justin invited us to stay with him in Franz Josef!

We’re so blessed to call him a friend now. When we arrived, he took us out for dinner, then showed us one of his favorite places–a chapel tucked away in the woods. There really isn’t any Christian community in Franz Josef, so it was great to connect with Family like this and encourage him. We came back later and took some pictures of the view.