Kiwi Crossings

SM:
Walking to and from the office is always interesting.  We are so close to the traffic that we can easily high-five those driving by.  And they drive by fast.  When we cross the street we have to remember to look to the right first and then left.  I'm always forgetting. And that's not good because they come whizzing right by.  No room for error on our part. Yikes.

Once in a while, if we aren't in a hurry, we take the back trail that comes out near the Takapuna Croquet Club.  It's a pleasant walk if you don't have leather soles on your shoes. If you do then you keep slipping.  We do have access to the office shuttle and have chosen to take it on days that it's raining.

One lesson we seem to never learn is to always, and I mean always, take an umbrella with us. Last week while walking back to the office after lunch, it started to rain.  Jim headed back to grab an umbrella and I kept walking in hopes of quickly reaching a bus stop shelter.  It was farther than I thought and I was drenched before Jim got back.  I finally reached a huge tree that I stood under but it was really too late. Hair went up into a ponytail, as I've been doing a lot lately, and I eventually dried off.

While walking, we have to go past a house that is ready for demo.  The smell coming from it is outrageous. We try to hold our breath as we walk by but I can't make it the whole way past. The other day we walked over to Lake Pupuke.  Black swans float along near the shore. There is one tree that is beautiful.  Just the roots themselves are huge. We are always discovering things like this.  These little moments make up our wonderful adventure here in Takapuna. 

Walking trail to the office

Pupuke Park

Last Sunday we went to our assigned Glen Innes Ward that I mentioned in an earlier post. We met a wonderful lady, Leslie, that the young missionaries brought.  Hope to have more interaction with her. When Jim walked into priesthood meeting a young priest-age boy walked up to him and told him that the suit he is wearing makes him look like an Italian mobster. He didn't know if that was good or bad.  An older brother told him that that is a good thing coming from that young man.  We got a good laugh out of that.  Jim -- a mobster!?

This past weekend we were assigned to drive north to Whangerei (pronounced Fong-er-aye) and support the local public affairs specialists there and to cover the stake conference because that stake was getting a new stake presidency.  We drove up Friday in the rain in hopes of it clearing up and us being able to see a few sights. We drove to the Whangarei Heads with me  actually driving part of the way and then met up with Junior and Muriel Samuela, the public affairs directors for the Auckland area and up north, for dinner.  It continued to pour so we returned to our motel and had a relaxing night at the Lodge Bordeaux.

After our public affairs meeting Saturday morning we went to the Town Basin for lunch and then went to see the Whangarei Falls.  Saturday evening was a wonderful stake conference meeting with Elder Gifford Nielsen and Elder Walker speaking.

Sunday morning we were busy at Stake Conference.  Jim was greeting and taking photos of visiting interfaith guests, the mayor of Whangarei and three members of parliament that had been invited.  We had a photo session and refreshments for the visiting opinion leaders. An article will be posted on the Mormon Newsroom Pacific tomorrow about the changes in the Stake Presidency, the visiting General Authorities and government leaders. Great weekend.

Whangarei Head (notice profile)

Whangarei Falls

JM:
We left Whangarei about 3:30 in the afternoon and drove to Paihia, about one hour to the north. Paihia is a small town on the east coast and is the gateway to the Bay of Islands, a group of 144 small islands.

When we arrived we checked into our hotel, Kingsgate. When we got to our room we were both very disappointed. Not only was it old and poorly furnished, but the carpet was stained, the mattress was soft and the table top was dirty. We swallowed hard and went for a walk to the dock where the following morning we would catch our boat to the Bay of Islands.  We checked in at the office of Explore, the company that was taking us on the tour. While there SM asked for hotel recommendations.

As we walked back to the hotel we decided we couldn't stand to stay at Kingsgate. When we got back to the hotel JM called the three recommended hotels. Only Pioneer Waterfront had vacancy. Because it was about 6:00 p.m. and the only available room didn't have an ocean view the manager quickly reduced the price from $300 to $200 NZD. When JM hesitated the manager came down to $185 and SM said "take it".

We went to the front desk at Kingsgate and told them we weren't satisfied with our room and requested a refund. After looking at and rejecting two other rooms, Kingsgate agreed to refund our money and we went to Pioneer and confirmed that we would take the room.

While checking in at Pioneer we asked about a hike we had read about to the top of a hill overlooking Paihia Bay. The manager told us that instead we should drive to Waitangi Golf Club and there we would find an equally beautiful view. We took a five minute drive and found a very nice golf course and a spectacular view.

In his happy place

 

There are so many amazing trees in New Zealand

 

SM: 
We arose early Monday morning and went to dock #5 for a 9:00 a.m. departure.  As soon as our boat left the dock we were told that we would go immediately to the "Hole in the Rock" because the wind was expected to kick up.  The ride was rough but we made it though we didn't go through. The waves were just too big. There are 144 islands in the Bay of Islands. We stopped at the largest island, Urupukepuke, for a provided barbecue lunch as part of the excursion.  It's a three hour drive back to Auckland so we headed for home.  The roads are mostly two lanes and it takes a long time to get anywhere but the drive is beautiful.  I've never seen so many shades of green.

 
SM:
We love our mission and I think we are finally settled in and know a little of what we're doing.  We have experienced miracles and seen the Lord's hand in the details of our lives.  When we first arrived here and went through customs, our year's worth of expensive prescription medications was confiscated.  Apparently we are only allowed to bring in a three month's supply - which is different than we were told.  After about a two hour wait they did finally give us back a three month's supply.  They said we would have to get a doctor here to prescribe the remaining meds to us.  We saw a doctor and the meds were sent to her but after weeks of communicating back and forth she said that her insurance company wouldn't allow her to dispense them.  They would be sent back to Med-Safe, the company that was holding them, and then sent back to the U.S.  We were pretty worried that we wouldn't get them.


Three or four weeks ago we were in Hamilton.  We went went into the mall food-court and were just sitting there eating and a nice-looking man came up to us, pulled up a chair and sat down and said that he wanted us to teach him about our church.  We soon learned that he was joking with us and is LDS. He had served as a mission doctor in Mongolia recently with his wife.  He is an OB/GYN now practicing medicine in Hamilton for six months at a time. I told him of our struggles to obtain our medications and he said, "I think I can help you." We exchanged information and when we returned home we contacted our dr. and asked her to please send the meds back to Med Safe.  We told her we would ask Med Safe to send the meds to Dr. Lewis who said that he would dispense them.  She did so and we will pick them up tomorrow in Hamilton at the Visitor Center next to the temple. This has been a matter of prayer for both of us.  We are feeling very blessed.


A trip to Tonga is in the works for us.  We plan to leave on March 31 for 6 days.  Looking forward to meeting with the National Public Affairs director and committee while we are there and discussing with them their plans and upcoming events. There is never a dull moment here in the pacific area.


I had no idea of the Church's vast involvement in this area of the world. We have a Self-Reliance dept, Education dept., Legal dept., CES dept., Humanitarian, Welfare, Publishing Services, Materials Management, Human Resources, Family History, Records Preservation, Architect and Engineering, Medical,  Mental Health, etc.  And of course, there's PUBLIC AFFAIRS!!


Next week we will be attending a few sessions of a week-long Humanitarian Conference here at the Area Office.  We want to learn more of the Church's program to help eliminate type II diabetes here in the islands.  It is so prevalent and on many of the islands it is necessary to continually replace local leadership because of death or serious debilitation from that disease that is often reversible with some lifestyle changes.  Great things are going on here and its amazing to wake up each morning and discover what we will next be a part of.  If our family and friends were here all would be right with the world!