Kia Ora

 I went on an adventure to the seaside town of Devonport. 

Church friends Sally Ann, Robyn, Sara, and Julie joined me as we toured Fort Victoria on Victoria Hill--a WWII lookout post with gorgeous views--

Left to right: Sara, Sally Ann, Wendy, Robyn, and Julie enjoyed the beautiful scenery and each other's company.

followed by a tour of the shops down the Main Street of Devonport. I bought fresh produce, nail polish, warm slippers, and socks then we all had lunch at a quaint cafe.


Later that week I went back to Devonport to collect shells and rocks on Narrow Neck Beach. I bought delicious bread at Wild Wheat and made yummy potato leek soup with sea spaghetti after learning about the nutritional value of seaweed at IE Produce--Takapuna's answer to Whole Foods--during a class night. 

While Giff held Area Council with the presidency and Area Seventies the women went to a market and shopped. Then to a ceramics factory for a tour. 

I bought a green pot and promptly planted it to beautify our front porch. Giff spoke at a special meeting followed by a nice lunch I helped set up and serve. 

Then we enjoyed an evening stroll on Takapuna Beach ending the week on the right foot-literally--and reminding us how blessed we are to be surrounded by the Lord's beautiful creations.

                                               Good evening from Takapuna Beach. 
 

Kia Ora

Meeting the Neighbors

 

Last night we attended a farewell party for the managers of these apartments, Jim and Margaret. We met the nicest neighbors, notably, Ken and Merryl Gayfer, who golf, entertain dignitaries and he served in the NZ Air Force his whole career.  They've lived all over the world, including Washington DC and she gave great advice about what we'll need to bring from the US that we can't get here (wide, heavy duty, aluminum foil) and invited me shopping to get all the wonderful things we CAN get here--along with recipes for how to make local delicacies.  All in all a great evening with very nice people. The Gayfers celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in June and plan a jaunt around the world from late August till early October to celebrate more!  Fun people.  Hopefully we'll continue our friendship with them.

The scenery is beautiful, the people are wonderful. We spoke at an area-wide devotional for all Church Employees yesterday and had a luncheon afterwards. Everyone greeted us warmly and we then had our photos taken for public affairs and any publications needed forever. The Area Presidency secretaries, Debbie and Sali are jewels! The new executive secretary and his wife, Breretons, are great. Patsy asked me to help her with food for all area executive dinners--starting this weekend. She felt inspired to ask me, especially to help with decor and table settings--talk about perfect inspiration!  I drove for the first time yesterday--a bit daunting--in rush hour traffic.  Getting to my destination was easy as GPS worked perfectly.  Coming home was an adventure. I pushed what I thought was our home destination and ended up nearly crossing the huge bridge back into Aukland proper!  took awhile to figure out how to get back home but I made it--a tad unnerved but much wiser and ready to tackle any future driving. 

We're healthy, happy, and honored to be serving the Lord among his choice Pacific Area children!

 

Kia Ora

Arriving in New Zealand--Long Version
 

Well, our New Zealand adventure is off to a fabulous start!  After enjoying family throughout the month of July we packed our bags and boarded a flight to New Zealand on July 28, 2014.

Goodbye Salt Lake

 The flight stopped off in Los Angeles at LAX (don't get me started--not my favorite airport) We deplaned and tried to find our way to New Zealand Airlines.  After a couple of wild goose chases down long, dingy corridors, we were steered in the right direction and told that it wasn't a long walk (famous last words) We discovered that that "easy" walk took us outside the airport and along narrow, crowded sidewalks, dragging our carry on luggage. I believe we began singing like the pioneer children after 10 or 15 minutes of walking up stairs and through crowds trying to find the hidden airline.

After asking several more people for directions we were told that NZ Airlines is at the end of the International Terminal that was just a few hundred yards further along the ancient sidewalk. We could have taken a shuttle bus but by now we were dangerously closer--within a mile at least:) So trudge onward we did. The exercise did us good and we arrived eventually. It reminded me of a movie where the same 2 bedraggled (sorry NZ Airlines) employees did everything. One woman took our tickets and we went through security again, a second time, no worries luckily there was a short line.  We walked some distance and made our way to the lounge, which by the way has the best lentil soup I've ever eaten. We found a private little nook where we ate, read, watched our electronic devices, then went and asked bedraggled employee #2 if it were time to go to the gate. He told us to wait and he'd call us. Call us he did, in about 15 minutes along with every other passenger who followed him like a herd of homeless puppy dogs to the gate where--surprise, surprise--B.E. #1 took our tickets. 

Ahhhh, relief is getting settled aboard an all night flight to New Zealand--let the movies begin! The food was great, the movies were retro and I loved them.

Peaceful clouds

We slept much of the night--I managed 6 hours and Giff got in at least 8, hooray--then I woke up slightly claustrophobic and watched two more movies and voila--we arrived in New Zealand around 5:30 a.m. We got luggage, went through two check points where we were paranoid about declaring food items (we knew someone who paid $400 for forgetting he had an orange in his carry on) and lugging 6 huge pieces of luggage we went out to meet the wonderful Haleck's who were on hand to greet us. Peggy lent me her lovely gray sweater which has saved my life this first week in New Zealand's winter wonderland. It is a humid cold and doable, but my feet have felt like ice cubes more than once and I hate getting ready for bed in my "meat locker" and can't wait to jump into my electric blanketed toasty bed to thaw out my icy feet each night.

We were greeted by Allan, our wonderful Church van driver who was getting yelled at by a surly security person, (who when we thanked him for his "patience" said, "Don't thank me! And don't come back!!!"  You can't win them all?) Everyone else has been perfectly lovely to us here. The people are patient, kind and very friendly to us. We love our ward--our bishop's family invited us to FHE and it was amazing! I've met many ladies in the ward and feel that each of them could be a special friend.  I've gone walking along the beach and near a lake with Peggy and others and I feel very much at home here. Two senior missionary couples, The Reynolds and The Oakes invited us to dinner and date night--an Agatha Christy play called, "Invitation to Murder" at the local theater--and we had the time of our lives.  Thai food--the coconut soup was scrumptuous!  All in all we are happy as two little Kiwi Clams here and hope we get to stay all of our possible 5 years!

The view from our balcony.