Why Are We Doing This? by Jenny

Te Araroa Pilgrimmage

 

A pilgrimage generally denotes a journey made to a sacred place for religious reasons, or it can refer to our journey through life.

 

So why the Te Araroa?

 

When Te Araroa was first opened in 2008, the Scout Assn was invited to participate by walking the section of the trail nearest them. We walked from the Lewis Pass road into the first hut on the way to Lake Sumner. So I have been aware of the trail for over a decade. This was heightened when Kate Bouwsema came home from Canada to do the length of NZ alone.

When caring for Deborah I used to lie awake at night and wonder how it would look if she was actually healed. On consideration I decided our best plan would be to walk from Cape Reinga to Auckland. This would 1) prove she was healed, 2) give her time to adjust to being able to walk and talk again away from public scrutiny, 3) give us a space between the old life and the new; and she loved walking. As it turned out I needn’t have worried about that transition, and when she died I felt too old and tired to resurrect the walk idea. Then Joanna comes along with the definite idea that we do our walk in February, immediately following a wedding they have in Auckland.

 

Planning for this has been life giving for me, in giving me a goal, a reason for getting out of the house walking and a distraction from both the absence of Deborah and the approaching loss of Naomi and her family to foreign climes.

During this time I have come to consider this walk as a pilgrimage, a gift. A time to draw aside from the hurly burly of life which often agitates us with no discernable progress being made. Maybe Te Araroa will birth something new within us, or maybe it will be complete in itself. Never-the-less I hope we will walk intentionally, slowly, attentively, listening to whispers of God in the world through which we walk. Contemplating and absorbing and acknowledging the beauty around us, within us. Cleaning out our systems of rubbish, wrong attitudes, bad habits. I hope that we carry the Christ light within us, leaving his aroma as we walk the trail and on those we touch along the way. At the end of it I hope we will be closer to one another, especially to our spouses. I hope we will have a deeper assurance of our place as the Beloved of God, and more energy and commitment to channel that love to others. I hope we will have blessed the land we walk through and the people we walk with. This pilgrimage and my companions are a gift to be accepted, treasured and enjoyed.

I am grateful for the chance to do this. To Joanna for suggesting and activating it, to Ross for driving us so that it is doable, to Christine and Gordon for joining us, to Bruce for carrying my tent.(well offering to

Deborah singing with Hayley   



Now on to the adventure






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tawharanui Regional Park, the glass bottom boat and a picnic lunch.

Image
 We trooped down to the shore looking out towards Goat Island - according to the tour guide on board New Zealand has 22 goat islands, but this one has the distinction of never having had goats on it. It had two pigs, but they swam ashore at low tide, so he thinks it's mammal free - and bought tickets for the glass bottom boat. Three seniors and three adults. $220. The water was clear and the tour guide was informative. The larger fish had other places to be. We did see flurries of blue maumau, a range of different sized snappers, and lots of kelp. And quite a few red moki.  At 12 we lunched at a well placed picnic table overlooking the bay and watched the snorkellers. We ate a great assortment of leftover food from the fridge and then after a change of clothes set off for Tawharanui Regional Park. This is a hugely popular park, considering the amount of campers and surfers here, especially on a Thursday outside of school holidays.  We had high hopes of seeing Takahe, but ...
Read more

Sunday 26 February in Russell at the oldest church by Joanna

Image
Today was a rest day.  First we attended the St James anglican church at Kerikeri, at the Stone store Kemphouse mission enclave. The ships came into this bay from Australia with supplies back in the 19th century. Both places had interesting histories and we enjoyed our relaxing morning.  After lunch we took the ferry to Russell and the visited the oldest church in NZ and admired the pew cushions.  We went to a printing press - Pompalier house - where they set up a printing press to print Catholic books in Te Reo.  There was also a tanning industry in the same complex so we had a very informative tour. We bought indian takeways for dinner, and caught up on the laundry. Total steps for the day: 8820. Total steps for last week: 148703, or 104 km
Read more

Auckland Auckland! Our last whole day

Image
  Britomart and overpriced coffee.  That was the start of the day having taken the train from Otahuhu because the Onehunga line - like most lines in Auckland - is closed for repairs.  Then putting our best face forward we put on our grimaces and started the walks around the Auckland Streets. This turned out to be more interesting than expected, partly due to the ongoing search for the street signs saying where our next corner was.  Eventually we made our way to the bottom of Eden Park and Jenny insisted we depart the 20km route and go to the top of Mt Eden. And having done this, and hardly complained once, we had the best view of Auckland we could hope for.  Joanna had also requested a detour through the Wintergarden, so you can see some photos of this as well.  Then onto Cornwall Park, commissioned and paid for by the John Logan Campbell Trust - after Burger King for sustenance.  We side-swiped One Tree Hill (Bruce insisted we half summitted it) and o...
Read more