May 9th Saturday

We have had a week of rain and cool weather so we weren’t sure what to do this weekend but when we got up Saturday the skies were just partly cloudy so we took off to Cathedral Cove.
Cathedral Cove is one of the locations that were used when they filmed the second Narnia movie. It’s about a 3 hour drive down south through Auckland and up around the peninsula to the East coast. The drive through the Coromandel forest was amazing but it was a really windy road and that’s why it takes so long to get there. It seems that anywhere you drive here is beautiful and the forests are so thickly wooded that you can’t see very far into them.

When we arrived at the parking area, we stopped at the look out and it was so spectacular. The sun had come out and the ocean was turquoise and there were little islands all around the cove.
To get to the actual arch that was in the film, was a 45 minute walk up and down a pathway that dropped about 200 feet down to the beach. It was a bit tiring but well worth it. It’s important that you go when the tide is out because if its high tide the water is about 6 feet deep and you can’t walk through it.

We spent some time walking around, taking pictures and then hiked back up to the car. As we were walking back we were talking about how blessed we are to be able to see so many beautiful places that God has created.

Earlier in the week I was feeling so homesick and wanting to be home with Natalie for the birth of our twelfth grandchild. Natalie gave birth to Elizabeth Hannah on the sixth and I was having a pity party for myself because I couldn’t hold that little sweetheart and kiss her neck. So the Lord blessed me by letting me see another beautiful creation on this land.
Elizabeth Hannah is named after one of my great great grandmothers and one of the most amazing things is that her birthday is also May 6th. Nat said that Grandma and little Beth were plotting all this in heaven.
Sunday May 10th Mother’s Day was another hard day for me. We went to church and in Relief Society the Priesthood brought us a hot chocolate mug full of candy. But the thing that got me was when the Primary children came in and sang mother’s day songs. I could just envision all my cute grandchildren singing them to me. I started to get a little misty and had to pull myself together again.
Monday May 11th
We got up at 3:15 AM to get to the airport in time to catch a plane to Tonga. It was raining like crazy which made it so hard to see the street signs as we wove our way toward the airport. We had prepaid for long term parking and needed to find the correct lot. As we pulled into the airport we saw a sign that read “Long Term parking.” There was an electronic gate where you had to take a ticket which we thought was strange but since it was the only lot we could find that said long term we went in. Big Mistake.
Once in there we quickly realized that it was the wrong lot. We tried to leave but the electronic gate kept saying that we needed to pay to get out. The problem here was that there wasn’t anyone around that early in the morning, it was still pouring rain and we had no idea how to pay to get out. We drove around and around but there just wasn’t a place to pay.
We didn’t want to just leave our car there because we had already paid for some other lot and it’s really quite expensive to pay again. About $150.
We finally saw a lady walking from her car so we ran over to her and asked how we could get out of the lot. She said we had to walk over to the kiosk near the terminal and pay the ticket and then come back and put it in the gate keeper machine and it would open. We ran through the rain sloshing all the way, made the payment and then rushed back to our car. Soaking wet but no worse for the wear the gate did open and we were free at last. This little misadventure had wasted a lot of time but we knew if we hurried we would still make our flight. We finally stopped in a gas station and a taxi driver directed us the proper lot. What a relief. We made it just in the nick of time and were off to Tonga.

We were met by our new friends; Mele and Afu are public affairs director for Tonga. They are really sweet people and are so willing to do the Lords work.

Tonga almost reminded me of living in Utah with so many chapels dotting the whole place. The LDS ones really stick out because they are the only buildings of any size and are so well cared for with beautiful grounds around them.
I said that Tonga almost reminded me of Utah with all the LDS churches, but the resemblance ended there. Tonga is very flat, and has lots of vegetation like a jungle. The highest point on the island is around 15 feet above sea level. So if a Tsunami ever hit, the whole place would be under water.
As we were driving around the island, I asked them how they had met and they told me that they met at Church College of Hawaii. I said that I had gone there also. I then told them that I had a roommate from Tonga and that her name was Faulatua. They looked at each other in amazement and then told me that they knew her and that she was Mele’s best friend. I said “Could it be the same person” and they said that there was only one person on the island with that name. They told me that she was married to the Area Seventy and had 10 children.
I thought that it was amazing to be on the other side of the world and run into an old roommate. Mele said that I wouldn’t recognize her and boy was she right, she must now weigh 275 lbs. We went to lunch with her and her husband and had fun talking about school. She couldn’t really remember me since I was only there for a few months but she remembered some of the other girls that stayed longer.

We drove all around the Island and found that it pretty much looked the same everywhere. Everything looked old and nothing was in good repair except for our churches. We did go to a beautiful beach area called the Blow Holes. The waves were amazing and when they hit the lava shelf, tons of water shoots through the holes in the lava. It’s really quite pretty.

We stayed there two days and just one night but were able to meet with the PA Director and the next day with the whole committee which is what we had hoped for.
As we met with the committee they related several stories to us about how faith and prayer had helped the church on the island. One of the best stories was when there was a problem with the land rental. The nobles own most of the land on the island but will lease it to the church on long term leases. The Liahona School, the distribution center, church office and all the housing for the missionaries and teachers is on a lease with one of the Nobles who happens to be the son of the King which makes him a prince.
He came to the Church about four years before the lease was up for renewal, and asked the church to renew the lease early at a higher price which would begin right then. He apparently needed some money because he is not rich and didn’t plan well. The church said no and indicated that they would wait until it was up. So four years later, when it came time to renew it, the prince was mad and said that now he didn’t want to renew it. Matters went so far that The Catholic Church was stopping by to check the place out and were planning all the great things they could do with our buildings.
Church headquarters sent Elder Groberg and Russell Nelson down to see if it could be renegotiated but they were not successful. So the Priesthood leaders decided to do a special fast with just the Priesthood leaders they didn’t want all the members to know what was going on because it might cause a panic. So they fasted for a couple of days and when then went to see the Prince. He informed them that he had changed his mind and would renew the lease. I guess other church leaders and government officials didn’t want him to renew it and if he did they told him he must keep it to just a few years. This just made him mad so he said that he was going to do it for 49 years. They pushed even harder which made him angrier so he said that he would renew it for 99 years and did. What a wonderful answer to all those prayers.
In meeting with the public affairs committee, we asked them what problems the church was having in Tonga that we might help with. They thought about it and said that they were having a problem with church members airing their grievances in the local paper. Every time the members did a service project that involved any work around government property like cemeteries, schools etc. They would write nasty letter to the editor saying that the church was wasting time and money to support a bad government and that the government should take care of the land they owned. They also complained if they didn’t like a bishop or Stake president who had been called.
We wondered if anyone had spoken with them but since they use a fictitious name, no one knows who they are. I guess the letters get other members stirred up so they wanted us to come up with a solution. We told them that we would have to think about that one for a while and we still are. I can see that we are dealing with a whole different set of circumstances than we encountered in Taiwan and will have to be very creative to help solve the problems we find down here.
We had a wonderful time in Tonga and are really looking forward to working with Mele and Afu over the next year and a half.
Tuesday night we flew to Samoa. They are so paranoid about swine flu that when we landed a nurse came on board and gave us a paper to fill out and looked us all over. Then when we disembarked the plane there was a row of nurses there to take everyone’s temperature. Luckily we passed.
Our hotel was beautiful, on the beach and reminded me of Hawaii but by the time we got there it was 11PM and we had to fly out early in the morning to America Samoa. So we just went to bed without any dinner and started over the next day.
To our surprise the next morning our airplane was a little puddle jumper ten passenger job.

Paul helping jump start the Plane

Since weight affects the performance of small planes, we had to get on the scales along with our carryon bags to see where they would seat us. I thought I should get a discount because I was the smallest one on the plane by far.

They put me on one side of the plane, a single seat, and Paul on the other side with double seats with a huge Samoan man.. When the plane took off Paul could only put one cheek on his seat and the other hanging over the isle. Luckily the man sitting by Paul moved up to an empty single seat near the front, giving Paul room to breathe and it was only a 40 min. flight. These small planes stay fairly low and the view of the island was spectacular as we flew over it. Paul said that he counted over 20 waterfalls. The water was gorgeous and it was a very smooth flight. I thought about how my sister Kathy would react to this teeny tinny plane. We would have had to put her to sleep.

We were greeted in America Samoa by Su’u, the director of Public Affairs. What a nice man. He took us to our hotel and then for a short tour of the island. The island is made up of mostly very steep mountains so the only place to live or work is the narrow belt of land around the coast. You pass small villages along the way, some with open walls on the homes where you can see right in. People would pay millions for the beautiful beach front lots if only they could be sold to outsiders. Instead they are occupied by what look like run down shanties but this is home to most of the people. Our little tour was cut short by unbelieveable rain that made it impossible to see past the front of the car. We decided to turn around and go back to the little town for lunch. The little café served wonderful sword fish steak for just $8.00. Paul had that but I made the mistake of ordering chicken teriyaki. It turned out to be stringy thigh meat which was not good at all.

We met with just Su’u the first day to get an idea of what he knew about Public Affairs and to find out what training he and his committee would need. He outlined some of the problems that they were having and most seemed to be within the Church rather than with Government or other denominational leaders. He didn’t feel that he or his committee was getting any respect from Stake or ward leaders and mentioned that he had never even been set apart for their calling. They were having a very hard time getting any cooperation for other leaders and thus nothing was really getting done.

The next day we met with his whole committee. His daughter who was pressed into service at the last minute is about 40 and is so cute and friendly. Paul was desperate trying to communicate with her dad, Su’a over the past month or so, but could never find him. He finally got her one day and they struck up an immediate friendship. When she told Paul that her father was a chief and that we should address him by his chief name, Su’a, rather than his given name of Carl. He asked her if she was then a princess and she replied “no I’m just a gopher” so Paul dubbed her “The Princess Gopher". And it stuck. She is officially the committee gopher and a darned good one too. You would never know that she was Samoan by the way she talks, her English is perfect. We had a great lunch meeting and found lots of things we could help them with over the next year or so. They were all so friendly and Su’u kept telling us how grateful he is that we are going to be so close to help him.
After the meeting we rented a car and drove down to the end of the island. The roads had huge; and I mean huge pot holes in them. You are dodging them the whole time. Of course they drive on the right side of the road like all Americans so now Paul, who finally got used to driving on the left hand side was back to turning on the windshield wipers every time he tried to use the turn signal. The poor boy just gets use to doing it one way and then has to go back to other. I have now taken over turning on the wipers and he operates the signals.

Paul found a boat he could pick up really cheap

We left the next morning to go back to Samoa. And had another interesting airport experience. After we checked our bags and were waiting to go through security, we saw people going through a door to the security area so we thought we should go there too. so we did. We realized that after going through the door that we had bypassed the X ray security check. We looked up and an attendant just waived us to come on over to the seating area. He came over and chatted a bit, it was obvious that he was a church member and I guess figured that we didn’t need to be checked. We just got on the plane and off we went. It was another small plane like the first but we made it safe and sound. This is the arial view of the Apia temple and our complex

We were greeted in Samoa by Hatu who is the service center manager for Samoa. He was proud of the fact that his name was Utah spelt backward. He asked Paul if he was a Utah or a BYU man, and of course we all know the response. Hatu said “Good, we have too many BYU fans here. But after further examination we noticed that he had on a BYU tie so Paul gave him the usual crap and Hatu said “hey man it was free” we all had a good laugh but I think in reality he does have blue leanings.
We had a tour of the service center and then went to lunch. I think that he really liked us right from the start because he wanted us to live next door to him. He then took us to the complex that we are going to stay in. There are probably 10 homes in this gated area, which is a ten minute walk to the service center. We stayed in the temp unit next door to the one that we will be living in. There is a couple living in ours now but they are leaving in two weeks.
We went in and started to unpack. I looked around and noticed that this unit was kind of grimy and there were live ants, and a few dead centipedes and those little dead worms on the floor. I started sweeping immediately.
The first night it was so noisy because this unit is just off the road. At 5 AM the roosters start crowing and a few dogs weren’t too happy and started barking. It was hot and humid and I decided that maybe this location was going to be my trial.
Hatu arrange for us to have a car, so on Saturday, we drove around the north end of the island and it took us just a couple of hours to do so. The island is beautiful and has LDS chapels everywhere. We didn’t see many beaches because they are small and you have to go down jungle roads to find them. We thought we would wait to move there for that experience.

The other main island of Samoa is just a little south of here, about a 30 min, ferry ride. And everyone says it has the most beautiful beaches and wonderful snorkeling and other water sports. We thought about going there but Hatu didn’t think we should because we would be flying out on Sunday and if the weather turned rough, the ferries stop running and you can get stranded for the night and miss your plane. I guess we will wait for that adventure as well.

I’m thinking that we might get a little stir crazy on this small island after a few months there. Having lived in Taiwan with 5 million people in the city and in New Zealand with so much to do, this just seemed so small, I’m sure we will adjust and anyway, we’re not here to play and there’s plenty of work to do.
There is only one main road around the island and you couldn’t get lost if you tried too. We found a McDonalds and treated ourselves to an ice cream. That is the only fast food American restaurant that we could find. We did find a great place for coconut battered sword fish that was yummy and they had a great salad, so all is well.
We went into a lot of stores and they actually have more American products than New Zealand does except it’s quite expensive. A box of cheerios is $12 US dollars. On the other hand, they have a small theater, kind of like the old days with broken seats and all. They show first fun movies and it only costs $2.00 U.S. We took in two movies since we couldn’t watch TV and they were really fun. All the little kids were laughing and having a ball, just like the old days. It was great.

Paul has gone native and this is outside our home
We met with the PA Council and it was about what we expected. As we spoke to them about Public Affairs the director just sat there with a blank stare and wasn’t taking any notes. We asked him about the normal projects that public affairs is over and he would just say “, we can do that once you get here” I think that he is hoping that we will do his job for him. We now know why this is the place for us to be. This council needs some major help.
Later in the evening we met the couple next door and were able to tour their(our) house, and it was much better than the one we had stayed in so I was a little more enthused. They told us how much they had loved it here and we’re sad to be leaving. That also encouraged me.
That evening we ate dinner with this cute couple and Hatu’s family. She made fish and chips and it was delicious because the fish was fresh Mahi Mahi or maybe fresh tuna. It depends on who you asked. She told me it was Mahi Mahi but Hatu told Paul it was tuna. Hatu’s wife is darling and has such a cute personality and it was fun to be around their 5 children.
I wanted to take her little six year old and kiss him to death. Hatu is from Nuari (an Island off the coast of Australia) and his wife is Maori from New Zealand. It was so fun to be around them.
Sunday we joined them for church at 7:30 AM. There are two wards that meet in the same building and they start early because it’s too hot in the afternoon. I thought 9 AM was early!!!!
When Hatu took us to the airport he asked us which of the homes would we like and that if we wanted a three bedroom one he would give it to us for the same price as the two bedroom one. He said that he would take good care of us and get us anything we need.
There are three TV stations, one plays music and shows different vistas, one is the BYU channel and the last one is in Samoan. So I think cable is going to be a must and hopefully a little more variety. By the time we left I was a little more excited because everyone says they love it and it is a beautiful place with absolutely lovely people

May 2, 2009
The weather is so different here, we have a warm morning and by afternoon it’s cold and rainy. We have a 15 minute walk everyday to work from the Church where we have to park, so we enjoy the walk unless it’s raining. They do have a shuttle that goes back and forth to the Area Office and this cutest guy name Alan drives people to and from work if they desire. On the rare days that we take the shuttle, he and Paul are always exchanging funny comments. His accent is so darling and he has the cutest personality. I wish I could get this accent down but we have lots of Auzzies, South African and New Zealanders working in the office so it’s hard to tell the difference. They think we are nuts not to figure it out but then they think we have a Scottish accent. Go figure.
It was a busy work week and we are making some progress in our contacts in the islands but I think that after we go there next week we may build a better bridge of communication.
Our little office cubicles are like a hallway and everyone stops and chit chats with us. We usually have candy or cookies at our desks so everyone loves to stop by. You know how unfriendly we are. Sometimes it’s hard to get things done but we enjoy the senior couples they are such choice people.

I guess some people don't like the Utes

We had planned to go to Cathedral Cove and the warm water beach this weekend, (That’s where the Narnia Arch was filmed), but it poured down rain all night and just kept going after we got up. It was cold and rainy all day so we just stayed home and sat by the gas log fireplace and read.

On a more spiritual note we had a wonderful time with Elder Scott this week. As mentioned before we had a family night with just him and the senior couples and then on Thursday he was the main speaker at our zone conference.
We didn’t think we would make that one because we had made an appointment two weeks ago to go get our finger prints taken at the police station and it turned out to be at the same time. We didn’t want to reschedule because we would have to wait two more weeks and that would just delay our getting a visa to Samoa that much longer.
We decided to take a chance and go early to the police station and low and behold, the person prior to us didn’t show up so he was able to do us right then and even though the meeting was way out by the airport, we were able to make it just a few minutes after Elder Scott started speaking. Needless to say it was a most up lifting and instructional meeting. Four straight hours of listening to an apostle, Area presidents and the mission president was amazing. We were truly well fed, spiritually that is. Temporally we were starved.
We had eaten just a small bowl of cereal for breakfast at 7am and it was now 5pm. We jumped in our car and headed back for Auckland, the traffic was horrible and seemed to take us forever, finally we could take the hunger pains no longer and with our last bit of energy, took the next exit off the freeway, and there right before our eyes was the most beautiful thing you could ever see. Kentucky fried chicken never tasted so good. That could be our staple from now on.
Now back to the spiritual part. Paul was having really bad neck and upper back pains for the past week or so and our land lady had mentioned that a new Thai massage had opened up just across the street from where we live.
He decided to give it a try and as you might suspect, it was wonderful and did the trick. It seems that during the massage, he struck up a conversation with the Thai lady about our mission and she mentioned that she remembered as a little girl, missionaries from U.S.A and the state of Utah had visited her home. She says she had always loved reading the book that they left but that her father would not allow them to join. She had become Christian when she met and married a man from New Zealand some time later.
So when Elder Paul-e-wog went for a follow up visit this week he took her a Thai language Book of Mormon. That is now the first and only Book of Mormon placed by us. “Woo Who” She was so grateful and said she would read it every night with her younger daughter. She then started singing a church song in Thai that the missionaries had taught them, I believe it was “I am a child of God” but couldn’t be positive. She is a real sweetheart and I hope maybe this could lead her to the Church. Only time will tell. One thing’s for certain, it gives Paul a reason for more massages.
We thought that you would enjoy some of our finds at the beach.

In Taiwan we saw the most beautiful mirror with its frame made out of seashells so every time we walk on the beaches we pick up the interesting ones. As you can see we already have a great start. The make great necklace's too.

They have the most interesting trees here and I love the root system. This is Shakespere Park

April 28, 2009
This week has been a week of trying to get responses from our Public Affairs directors on the various Islands. Paul has emailed them, called them and emailed again and again…..but we only hear from one of our islands. We are trying to plan a visit to Tonga, Samoa and American Samoa, sometime in the next two weeks so that we can determine where they stand and then provide

any training and help that they may need.

These are the other two Public Affairs couples that work in the office with us. The Clarks and the Webster. Both couples are in their seventies.

Our office workday is like an 8 to 5 job. We work on the computers and phone all day, which is kind of boring, so when we put pictures on our blog, it’s mostly our weekend trips. Most of our family thinks we are just down here having a vacation but to those who know Paul and I really well, know that putting on a dress, nylons, ties and suits to sit at a desk for 8 hours, five days a week is definitely not a vacation. We do have lots of fun because we have our weekends free and can take off to see the beautiful sites.

Last Saturday we went to Orewa which is a half hour north of our house. It was overcast, windy and some rain but we felt we had to see something and had a great time.
We found a great little Mexican restaurant, owned by a guy from California, had some lunch and then walked around the little shopping area of the town. I love their fruit markets and bakeries. They have the most wonderful looking breads and pies. They also eat a lot of meat pies and Panini’s here. So there is never a want for food.
We sat on the beach for a while and there were tons of kite surfers, wind surfers and three wheeled carts with a sails on them. Those things looked really fun and really tear up and down the big flat beach.

They even had beach skateboard surfers with a sail pulling them along on the wet sand. The wind was really howling and I could hardly talk into it. It took your breath away. We just sat down and watch the action.

It wasn’t cold and the whole beach was dotted with the colorful sails and kites.
Some of the kite surfers were going 10 to 15 feet in the air and landing it. It was amazing. I kept thinking how much fun it would be to have all these toys at Bear Lake. I could just see the boys flying through the air when the wind blows.

The three wheeled cart looked like a real riot. They were zipping across the sand on three wheels and then would tip on to two wheels. I wanted to get on it and fly across the sand. People here don’t mind wind, rain or cold, they are out having fun.

We have been trying to get our visa stuff done AGAIN!!! (For Samoa this time.) We had to go to a doctor here and do new chest x-rays and fill out all the paper work again. We have to be finger printed and have an FBI report done. We hope we can get things done so that we can move by the middle of June but it’s looking more like July now.

Every Monday we get together with all of the senior couples for FHE but last night was the most wonderful family home evening yet. Elder Scott is here touring the Islands and he invited all the senior couples to an evening with him. There were 10 couples and the Area Presidency. We met at Elder Callister’s home, a member of the Area presidency. His apartment is near the beach overlooking the ocean. It makes our place look like a dive but we still like it.
Elder Scott asked each of us to stand and tell him our assignments and then to say two things that we appreciated about our spouse. We were each able to do that. He then gave us some good advice. He said that we should take time away from missionary work and go somewhere for a couple of days and relax and just think about what the Lord would have us do to be successful in our assignment. He said that we often get too involved in just doing work that we really don’t get the spiritual guidance that we all need. He also talked about keeping a private journal of your thoughts when you have promptings from the spirit. He said that it should be kept where no one else can read it. He said that he keeps his on the computer with a secret pass word. When he dies, it will die with him.
It was a wonderful evening and we were all able to shake his hand and talk to him personally. This is one of those great rewards that you get while serving a senior mission.

This is Cornwall Park. This whole huge park belonged to Sir John Logan Campbell. He wanted the Kiwi's to have a fun place to visit and do family things so he donated his family farm to New Zealand. They wanted to name it after him but he was such a humble man and said to just name it after Cornwall.

These are our fun friends the Nalley's, Lon and Kaye, we have loved them from the first day. Paul and he give each other lots of trouble.
This is the cute Tea house were we ate lunch on our Kayak trip.

Just enjoying the river with the Nalley's.

April 19, 2009

It seems like we have been on the go for days. Last week was Easter and we had four days off. So we decided to take off to the south. It took us five hours to drive what is normally a three hour drive because it was a holiday and everyone was on their way out of town. It took us 2 hours to just get through downtown Auckland.

We had made reservation at a bed and breakfast called the HillTin. We thought it was just a clever way to tap into the name Hilton but in fact it got that name because it is really made out of corrugated tin. The entire house including the shower had cement floors and the walls were tin. It had several bedrooms so they changed it into a bed and breakfast. We arrived at eight thirty using our TOM TOM GPS. When it said “you have arrived at your destination” we were out in the country and there were no homes in site, we couldn’t figure out where to go because the only other road was a gravel one that went through a farm field and then angled straight up a very steep hill. We called and asked where to go from here and she said “Oh take the gravel road” and that we would see the sign. We saw a sign made out of tin with hand written letters saying “Hill Tin” we went up the road which was completely dark and wound our way up a hill. We arrived at our place and it was just a unique little home. We were greeted by Chris, the owner and shown to our room. It looked like someone’s bedroom and if we wanted to watch TV we had to go into their family room and watch it with her.
In the morning she made us poached eggs over toast with cooked tomatoes and bacon. It was really good. The view from their hill top was spectacular and you could see the entire valley from their patio and kitchen. Quite a beautiful site.
After Breakfast we said our goodbyes and headed off to the Waitomo Caves, ” Wai” means water and “tomo” means holes or caves. The caves are all formed from limestone and are a result of millions of years of water running and dripping through the rock. The area is honey combed with caves running all over the place.
You can explore several different caves depending on the experience you want and all the caves have glowworms in them. Glow worms are the larva stage of a fly and they hang from the cave ceiling with a little speck of glowing tail. They hang a silk like thread straight down to catch other bugs which they then eat. It is really quite amazing to see thousands of these little specks of light lighting up the cave which would otherwise be in total darkness. We had reviewed the many brochures and planned on doing the black water rafting, where you float the cave in inner tubes but when they told us that you had to jump backwards off a five foot high shelf into the cold river, and in total darkness to boot, “I said NO way.” They also mentioned that there were fresh water eels all through the river. Well, that sealed it, we took the rubber boat. Besides it was a cool rainy day and I was already cold in my sweatshirt and windbreaker so I wasn’t about to get into a bathing suit and jump into a cold river with eels.

I did get to feed some goat meat to one of the eels and it was huge!!! The boat trip was great and we were able to see the glow worms up close. The Glowworms are the larvae stage of a winged insect that can only survive in damp dark places. The light glowworms emit is call bioluminescence, a mixture of 4 chemicals. The whole top of the cave was covered with glowworms.
We also walked through another cave with stalactites and old fossils of the Moa bird which is now extinct. We hiked to the end of the cave and saw several sink holes where animals had fallen into the caves and died, leaving just their bones.

After we finished the last of our scheduled caves we took off for Lake Taupo in the middle of the island. Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in Austral-Asia area and roughly the size of Singapore and it’s famous for its rainbow trout fishing. I wonder why we went there??? We got there in time to charter a fishing boat for the next day and had a nice dinner at Burger fuel overlooking the beautiful lake. In the morning we ate breakfast and then drove to the famous bungee jumping site. It was set up on a long platform that hangs over a beautiful river and was about 200 feet above the water. I could hardly walk out on the platform because it was so high. I couldn’t believe anyone would want to do that but Paul wanted to do it. So he got into the line to pay and discovered that it was a 3 hour wait. Our fishing boat was scheduled to begin in an hour and a half so it was wait in line or go fishing. We went fishing.
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to get a license but Paul talked me into it.

We had been out about ten minutes when we had the first fish on. Paul was reeling it in when I had one on. It was a fun three hours and we caught 9 fish and 3 got away. Paul got the record for the biggest and I caught the smallest.
We walked around the town which was so cute. It reminded me of how shopping was 30 years ago in the states with lots of little shops and bakeries all over the place. All of the restaurants on the water front had tables outside so you could eat outside and look at the lake. It was so quaint. We spent two days there and then back to Auckland.

It was a fun weekend. We are trying to go somewhere every weekend because we are going to Samoa in June.
Monday seven of the senior couples went on a kayak trip up north at a place call Poipu. You can only go when the tide is up because it’s a tidal river that empties into the ocean and only once a day is the river full enough to paddle down. We had so much fun racing, splashing and relaxing with such great people.

One couple, Sandy 75 and Reese 79, were giving us a bad time because we were paddling in sync, so we threw them a rope and started to tow them down the river. A few minutes later unknown to Paul, we were towing 4 couples. Each had passed the one behind a rope. We turned around and they were all laughing at us. Paul thought it was getting harder to paddle.

For lunch we went to a place called the Tea House which is only opened at lunch time. It’s just a small house and the owners cook up three main dishes. They had these biscuits that were to die for and they came with homemade raspberry jam, cream, and butter. It seemed like we had stepped back in time to England and we’re out having a tea in the country side.

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Tuesday
We were in a Public Affairs conference all this week. It started off with a devotional with President Baxter our Area president. He is from Scotland and is a great, spiritual man, but has a cute personality too. We spent the rest of the day getting binders and all training material ready for the conference. We left around 2:30 to go to Hamilton a two hour drive for dinner and to go to the temple. The temple is beautiful but a really different design. You have to walk through the chapel to go to the changing room. It was a long day and we didn’t get home until 10:30. The rest of the week we were in training from 8 to 4:30 every day.

Friday after the conference all six couples went to Rotorua for a night and a day. It’s a three hour drive southeast from Auckland. They have a park called Te Puia and it has a cultural show, at which Paul and I both got picked to perform. I had to do the poi balls and Paul had to do the Huka.

Paul our Maori pole God. I think he finally has the tongue thing down

In the park there are Maori villages, geothermal geysers, and mud pots. The whole town smells, in fact the locals call it stinky town because of the sulfur smell.

After the park we went walking around town and of all things, ran into people from Utah. Paul had his U of U hat on and a lady came up and said that they were from southern Utah. They were there on vacation and their husbands were off hunting deer and elk. It was fun to talk with them for a while.
We ended the day by going to a place called the buried city. The city was covered with five feet of mud after a volcano had erupted and the whole town was cover with a huge wall of mud. Before the disaster there was a pink terraced waterfall that was beautiful and tourists would come from England to see it. Unfortunately it was all buried under the mud and destroyed. We hiked down to the river and saw another waterfall that was so beautiful and well worth the hike. The streams had huge trout in them and it about killed Paul to look but not touch. We got home around 9:00 and are exhausted today.
I kind of feel that we are like Chevy Chase in the movie “Vacation” when he had only a few minutes to see the Grand Canyon. His head bobbed up and down a couple of times and he was off to something else. We look about the same as we are trying to see so much of New Zealand in such a short time.

Second week in New Zealand

Working hard at the office

Auckland from our car

Hole in the rock

March 22
Our first week at the office was one of introductions and getting all our office equipment, email accounts set up, figuring out the phones and receiving our cell phone. Orientation on how to use the printer, phones etc., what meetings were required and we met with Elder Baxter the Area President. There are two other couples that work with us. The Webster’s are from Bountiful and the Clark’s from North Salt. Each couple has certain areas that they are assigned to work with. We have Tonga, Samoa, American Samoa, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, and Christmas Island.
The people here are lovely and so friendly that you love them immediately. Richard is excited to have us here and has told us that several time. He says that “We get it”. We have had several meetings with him and the other couples and we are getting our jobs redefined. We had a phone conference with Alan Wakeley who is the director of public affairs for Australia and boy did he pile the work on us. We are on the Opinion Leader committee with him and the Pierson’s and we were on the phone for 2 hours getting instructions. After that conference call we both felt exhausted and had to go to Burger King for a coke.

We are still using the GPS "Tom Tom" because we can’t remember how to get to places. This weekend we went to Paihai a beautiful city on the east coast which they call the bay of islands. It was a three hour drive through some of the most beautiful and interesting country side. There were huge palm trees mixed with pine trees and shrubs and hundreds of shades of green. I really do think that this is where the Garden of Eden should be. So many times we wanted to stop and take pictures but there were no places to turn off the highway. I kept thinking that there should be a place for Scenic Overlook but then they would have to have them every 2 miles. The roads wind up and down and all over the place and the speed limit is 100km/hr so the drive was quite exciting.
We took a great four hour boat trip all around the bay of islands and ended up going through a place called Hole in the Rock. What gorgeous landscape all around this island. There was a really cool light house out on the end of the island and I immediately thought of Tricia’s because she has always loved them.
We have found that everything closes early here. All the shops were closed at 4:30 and yet the restaurants don’t open until 6:00 so you can’t eat early or shop late. Even the mall closes at 6:00 PM. I guess the people here just go home early and then stay there because nothing is open past that time.