Last night on the way to watch the All Whites game at Darling Harbour I detoured through the Opera House to see the sails of the building be lit up as part of the Vivid Sydney festival of light.

The different patterns and shapes projected onto the opera house are awesome and poor photos from my cellphone simply don’t do it justice. If you are in Sydney go and check it out.

Tonight both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were on TV. It was good fun watching the movies back to back, particularly as I have not seen Toy Story in a number of years, and I have never seen the sequel.

The best thing about Pixar films is the number of references to other movies and items from the real world they hide in their movies. IMDB has a massive list of trivia on their site for both of the movies, one of my favourites is the use of the use of the utah teapot in the original movie during the tea party. One of the more interesting references that I only picked up on tonight is a reference back to Logan’s Run. In that movie they must escape carousel, in toy story they must escape the claw.

After the postponement of Rob Bell’s Drops Like Stars tour in April due to overwhelming demand the tour has now been rescheduled to June and in addition to the Drop Like Stars Nights Rob Bell will also be doing a series of Poets Prophets Preachers conferences.

The dates are:

• Sydney – Drops Like Stars – Sunday June 20 7pm
• Sydney – Poets Prophets Preachers – Monday June 21 9am
• Melbourne – Poets Prophets Preachers – Wednesday June 23 9am
• Melbourne – Drops Like Stars – Thursday June 24 7pm – Melbourne Town Hall
• Brisbane – Poets Prophets Preachers – Saturday June 26 9am
• Brisbane – Drops Like Stars – Sunday June 27 7pm
• Christchurch – Drops Like Stars – Tuesday June 29 7pm – Majestic Theatre
• Christchurch – Poets Prophets Preachers – Wednesday June 30 9am – Majestic Theatre
• Auckland – Drops Like Stars – Friday July 2 7pm – Auckland Town Hall
• Auckland – Poets Prophets Preachers – Saturday July 3 9am – Mercury Theatre

The Drops Like Stars Nights are described as:

We plot, we plan, we assume things are going to go
A certain way and then they don’t and we find ourselves
In a new place, a place we haven’t been before, a place
We never would have imagined on our own,

And so it was difficult and unexpected and maybe even
Tragic and yet it opened us up and freed us to see
Things in a whole new way

Suffering does that—
It hurts,
But it also creates.

How many of the most significant moments in your
Life came not because it all went right, but because
It all fell apart?

It’s strange how there can be art in the agony…

The Drops Like Stars tour is a two
Hour exploration of the endlessly complex
Relationship between suffering and creativity—
And I’d love to see you there.

The Poets Prophets Preachers Conferences as:

A one-day teaching seminar exploring what it looks like to compellingly communicate the provocative, dangerous, fascinating, convicting, subversive, beautiful message of the resurrected Jesus.

Whether you’re a teacher, preacher, leader, artist, activist, or organizer, this seminar is for anyone fascinated, frustrated, intoxicated, or exhilirated by the creative process and how it shapes, relates, and informs the life of faith.

8:30 am doors open

9 am where do ideas/content/inspiration come from? how does that become a teaching? how do we live so that we can do this great joy year after year?

10 am the science of homiletical architecture (why some sermons work and others don’t). all of the suble things like pace, tone, pitch, tension, and arc that shape what it is you are giving people

11 am Q+A

12 pm break for lunch on your own

1 pm insanely practical things like memorizing, preparing ahead, making outlines, daily and weekly disciplines, and rhythms that make Sundays better

2 pm a few thoughts on church, culture, and keep your own fire burning

3 pm Q+A

I can’t wait.

Rob Bell also has a new video released a few weeks ago:

Great news this morning, Mighty Ape New Zealand’s Best Online Store has swung its way across the ditch to launch in Australia.

Visit the jungle and check out their massive grand opening sale.

They also have a very active community on Facebook and Twitter.

It is time to go Ape!

It is not often I will call a weekend away Paradise, normally awesome, cool, wicked, fun, great, brilliant would suffice but in this case Paradise is the only word that can truly describe just how much fun and enjoyment I had.

I flew to the Gold Coast on Saturday night with a friend, got picked up from the airport and driven the 50km south to Byron. The best thing about Saturday night was the rain, it is still very odd to be living in a country where rain is a rare commodity and when you see it falling you smile.

Sunday was spent hiking in the Nightcap National Park. Initially we were meant to just walk a 7.5km and 4.5 hours on the Minyon Loop Track to the base of the Minyon Falls and back up. Problem was despite stopping for around 30 minutes for lunch we managed to complete the track in two hours.

Minyon Falls

Rather than waiting 2.5 hours for our transport back to Byron we decided to head up to Rummery Park Camp Ground via Boggy Creek Track. This took an hour and once we had stopped again for food and wildlife spotting we decided to head up a fire break to try and spot Cape Byron and its lighthouse.

Cape Byron + Lighthouse

Once we got back to Byron Bay we had a beer and danced at the Byron Beach Hotel where Lisa Hunt’s Forever Soul band was performing covers of many songs from the 60s – 80s. The great thing about the Beach Hotel was it didn’t matter who you were, how old you were or how you were dressed everyone was having a fun time; it was a very relaxed and friendly family environment.

At 5am on Monday I got up to catch the Sunrise over the Tasman Sea. Getting up to see the sunrise is one of the best experiences you can ever have and it is a tradition of mine to do so when I am in the bush or a beautiful country environment. The sunrise over Cape Byron certainly did not disappoint and was well worth getting up so early for.

Monday morning was spent sea kayaking in Byron Bay. Getting out through the surf at Byron Bay was a fun experience as there was around a 2m swell onshore and further out some of the waves on the reef were breaking a lot larger. I was fortunate that I only got tossed out of the kayak once on the way out. Once we got about 2.5km offshore we were able to spot fish jumping, green turtles and a pod of bottle nosed dolphins. It was one of the most fun and spectacular things I have ever done in my life, I may love the mountains but being in a kayak, offshore around 20m from a pod of dolphins is awesome.

Once we got back from our tour we headed into the surf to do some boogie boarding.  The rest of the day was then spent getting a very late lunch and looking through the town. Overall this trip was Paradise. If you plan to go to the Gold Coast do not go to Surfers Paradise, instead head to a real piece of Paradise – Byron Bay.

Byron Bay - Paradise

I filmed this a few weeks ago but forgot to upload it until now, it is a little random as I just let the computer decide what to chop together.

Seriously Awesome Short Film from Godzone

Hat Tips: @vodafonenz and Get Frank

From Darling Harbour on Sunday night, almost the entire show (missing first few seconds).

The video was automatically cut together by my movie making software so it is a little bit random in places.

After being in Sydney for around two and a half weeks I am still raving about the public transport system in particular the trains. In the last two and a bit weeks I have probably caught more trains in my entire previous life as well. The locals think I am nuts because apparently the system is meant to be bad.

I will let some photos do the talking.

Auckland trains:

Sydney trains: