Leaving New Zealand.....

Our assignment to work in New Zealand for the past 15 months has come to an end. It has been an experience of a lifetime. Over that time we have met many wonderful people and experienced life in the Pacific Islands. We visited Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Fiji, Kiribati, Japan, Honk Kong, Australia, Korea and Roratonga. Even though those islands are very cool and its neat to say we were there the greatest experiences we had and the experiences that will burn the brightest in our memory will be the wonderful people we met and associated with.

Often times we met people that had what appeared to be very little (our standards), but those people seemed to be the most content. They are happy with life, they love their families, and are quick to express love and acceptance of strangers. What was demonstrated to us over and over was that all of these people on all of these islands have one thing in common with us and people back in America. They love the Gospel and being members of the Church. It becomes the link that binds us to each other around the globe. Their testimony of the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, a living Prophet, blessings of the temple and their desire to serve their fellow man makes them all unified. We came to love them like family and will miss them deeply.

Back in New Zealand we worked daily with many employees in the Area Office and the Mission office. We had wonderful activities with the FHE group. They all became our family away from home. Its difficult not to long for the island of the Long White Cloud.

On the other hand its great to be home. Customs greeted us with a smile and NO luggage inspection. Even though one piece of luggage decided to remain in California for an extra day we are all now reunited and are happy. We left summer and were welcomed to Utah with a great Christmas storm that left a new foot of the white stuff in our yard and on the roads. As of today we have avoided any accidents, have only driven on the wrong side of the road twice and have used my windshield wiper as a blinker about a hundred times!

We loved it and love being home. We know we will never forget the experiences we had in the Land Down Under. (New Zealand, not Australia) Check out the PICS...in Albums.

Bob's Greenie

Bob's replacement is a member of our Stake Presidency. Garrick Parr is a tall, gray hair, distinguished looking kiwi who is about 5 yrs younger than Bob. They have traveled together to Samoa and Tonga. Bob has the luxary of having 5 weeks to train him. He has not really been in HR but will be a great asset to the church in many many ways. They have come back with fun companion stories. They have both had major flashbacks of their missionary days. They dress like missionaries and are together always. They stayed in houses on campus so felt like they were flatting again. They get up and walk early for exercise. They have companionship prayer. They eat a half a box of cereal while they study their scriptures and discuss them together. Then it is off to work. They hit a roadside stand to get their chicken hot dogs, frozen veggies and chips for dinner after they did a temple session. Then companionship prayer before going to their rooms for bed. They were thrilled to get home to their "real" companions even though they loved the 30 year flashback and their time together.

The Greatest Walk In The World!

Well if not the greatest it certainly is the wettest. But you get blessings when you walk the Milford Trek in the rain. WATERFALLS! Hundreds and hundreds of temporary waterfalls gushing down the canyon walls.

During our stay in New Zealand we had hoped to do the famed Milford Trek. Well we took the plunge and signed up for the guided walk. You walk in the rain during the day but enjoy hot showers, cooked meals(we gained weight), and soft beds at night. We had four young, friendly guides taking care of us and keeping us on schedule. Forty five of us enjoyed the 4 night 5 day tramp through some of the most incredibly beautiful country you have ever seen. And yes we took WAY to many pictures. (Miriam had the camera). But we really blame our children for giving us a waterproof camera and we put it through the paces!

Wee waterfalls, big waterfalls, granite cliffs, incredible vegetation, heaps of swing bridges, wonderful lodges, new friends and memories to last a life time. Of the 49 people walking only one person claimed to have dry feet and our guide said she was lying. But walking in the rain isn't so bad. We weren't cold and had the facilities to dry out at night. We started each day with dry clothes and high spirits.

We finished the trip with an extra day in Queenstown. To honor a promise made in Auckland I selected the LEDGE on top of Bob's Peak as the Bungy Jump of choice. Both Miriam and I took the plunge. (I jumped and she did the sky swing). ENJOY THE PICS..DONT OVERDOSE!

Thanksgiving in New Zealand?

OK when you are away from home and you are not around your loved ones you could have a tendency to be depressed. Some people are known to eat and eat and eat if they are in that state of mind. Well we are not saying that we were depressed or anything like that. We did miss everyone very much but we did enjoy the company of other Americans also separated from their families. In fact we enjoyed 2 thanksgivings! One on Thursday and one on Friday.

Thanksgiving #1
We were invited to the Mission Presidents home for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. While the food was being prepared we all sat down to a friendly competition of candy turkey making, using little jelly candies and toothpicks. The teenagers won, the adults struggled with their creativity.
We enjoyed a wonderful meal (no yams!). We took a survey and no one really likes yams, everyone just serves them because their mother did. We topped off the meal with yummy pie for dessert.
Following dinner we sat down for a great game of Apples to Apples.

Thanksgiving #2
We planned another thanksgiving dinner with other American expats that had no family to celebrate with. We had a wonderful meal and just enjoyed each other’s company away from work.
Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on all the blessings we have individually and as a family. Since the family reads this blog I will use it to tell them all that we love you very much, are thankful that you are all happy and doing well, and we look forward to Christmas when we will be able to see you in person.
Love Mom and Dad

KeriKeri Half Marathon

2,500 runners, 13 miles, going potty in the bushes, walking more than running, getting dehydrated, eating snapper, driving a very very long way and playing card games. All in all it was a fun and exciting weekend. We worked our way up to the half marathon by walking about 10 miles for a couple of weekends before the big race. So Miriam and I were kind of ready for the main event. It was a fun atmosphere and we all felt pretty good about our accomplishment. I got bit by a mystery bug at the Bay of Islands and my forearm is swollen and itchy. The Area Doctor is taking care of me and watching it closely. I have something called cellulitis. The medicine is working well. I just finished a quick trip to Samoa where I had a flashback experience to my own mission over 30 years ago. My replacement went with me. They put us up in a small house, we finished each night and started each day with companion prayer, wore white shirts and read the Book of Mormon each morning as we each consumed half a box of cold cereal. We have another trip to Tonga coming up. Then its vacation time in the South Island and home to Utah, just in time to shovel snow and enjoy a white Christmas.

Service Center Manager Seminar

We had a seminar in the Bay of Islands for all of the Service Center Managers in the Pacific Area. It was held North of Auckland about 4 hours. We had Managers from the Area Office and Managers from Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Australia, Papa New Guinea, Kiribati, and New Zealand. We also had Elder Hilbig in attendance. It was a great opportunity to build relationships, establish goals together and say goodbye to Clint as he is retiring at the end of the year. We also found the time to tour the Treaty Grounds, go on a cruise on a catamaran, paddle with the dolphins and enjoy the beautiful country. We got to know the managers much better and learned about their challenges and responsibilities on the islands. They and their wife's are all wonderful people with strong testimonies of the gospel.

A Week of Wandering (when we aren't at work)

After a busy week at work getting caught up on things, we found ourselves wandering up north. We finally made it to the Farmer's market & pottery shops. The best part of the day was finding the Tawharanui Regional Park. It is an open Sanctuary (pest free)for all existing native species and to reintroduce some others that have been lost. Make sure you find our pictures to the right. Monday was our Labour(yes, it is spelled correct) Day here in NZ. Our friends the Marshalls invited us to join them to Tiritiri Island. We took a twenty min. ferry from Shakespere. This island is a bird refuge. Many endangered species have been protected here. We saw tons of birds with the help of our enthusiastic bird guide. My personal favorite was the Takahe which is the Pukeko's closest relative. They are both colorful goofy looking things with large feet and big heads. Neither really flies. Both of these places had Kiwi on them. If we had stayed the night and went out with a torch (flashlight) we could see a Kiwi. They are very nocturnal. It was a beautiful place and fun to be introduced to the birding world. (It won't happen real often--our real love is to power walk the great trails but it was good for a change.)

Later in the week we had a senior missionary Halloween party. In NZ Halloween has not really taken hold yet. On Halloween we did not get any trick or treaters (except the President's son in our office). On Saturday I walked the coast to coast again with Wiki and Pauline Achee and Allyson Gurney. Bob hurt his back so he was home washing the car and doing laudry. (Miriam is a task master, isn't she)(Please check out the pictures to the right)

SatMap of Kiribati

There is surprising quality on this island, so zoom on in and check it out.

View Larger Map

Fiji, a Happy Accident October, 08

Side trip to Fiji.....The way to get to Kiribati is by flying to Fiji then connecting to Kiribati. While we were in Kiribati we were asked to provide some training and assistance to the Fiji Service Center. So, we landed in Nadi, Fiji..spent the night and caught a domestic flight across the island to Suva where we were picked up by Sia, an employee of the Suva Fiji Service Center. The plan was to work Wednesday-Friday at the Service Center. After settling into the hotel I left Miriam to wander around the city alone while I went into the Service Center. We were working on better defining the HR role of the employees in the Service Center and strengthening their “service relationship” with the management of S&I. So Paul and Mele and Sia and I worked on understanding HR and our role to the customers. On Friday we met with the salary survey providers to help them better understand our organization in hopes of ensuring the salary data we use makes sense and relates to our organization. The first night in Suva we were able to have dinner with President Ostler and his wife. They are serving in Suva as the Mission President. President Ostler’s wife is Brad Jensen's (my brother in law’s )sister. We had a great visit with them and enjoyed hearing of their great experiences. Thursday afternoon we went on a tour of the new Service Center that is being built next to the temple. They are building a Service Center, Mission President’s home, patron housing & distribution center. Paul Whippy was responsible for the dedication arrangements of the temple. Right before the dedication, there was a big political coup in the country so the government was not allowing any large gatherings. Because of this the dedication was changed to 60 people only. Paul shared with us many faith promoting experiences about the purchasing, building, and dedicating of the Temple. We toured the school campuses and met many wonderful people.Thursday evening we were fortunate to do a session in the Fiji temple. It was wonderful as you can imagine. Friday night was a stake music festival and dance. The saints of Fiji love to dance and sing. Miriam and a Fijian with great rhythm were one of the first couples on the dance floor. (much to her dismay!) A good time was had by all.. I even danced.Saturday the flights were full so we HAD to stay in Fiji one more day. We woke up to torrential rain and it rained alllllll day long. However we were determined to have a fun day in Fiji. We found a place called ZIP FIJI. The same company that built the zip line in Park City has built a zip line experience through the rain forest of Fiji. They said it would even be more fun in the rain so we went for it. So, suspended about 50 feet off the ground we zipped over rivers, through the canopy of the rain forest. Our guides were young Fijian men that looked like they could be return missionaries…and they were! After doing a lap of zip lines they offered us another lap, and we couldn't refuse. The second lap was more fun than the first because you are more comfortable. Things like hanging upside down, etc. The rain was torrential. We were soaked to the bone but had a wonderful time. We had brought a change of clothes but forgot a towel. We still had a fire walking demonstration to see. We changed in the car and used the heater to dry out Miriam’s un-mentionable’s ! We were back in the bush so there were not too many people to avoid. Off to the tourist trap place to enjoy fire walking and Fijian dancing. The torrential rain made the fire walking not to impressive. That night we took Elder Ramisima out for dinner. He was a full time missionary in New Zealand and we got to know him very well. He taught many discussions in our home here. He had to take a bus and taxi to get to us in Fiji. The buses are packed with people and he described his experience of getting to us. He said the doors were broken so everyone had to exit out the back of the bus. So when one person wanted off everyone had to get out then get back in. Quite a chore! The next morning we headed for the airport, flew to Nadi on the other side of the island then off to New Zealand. Flying in to New Zealand is wonderful. It is so green and pretty. We made it safely home but loved the experience. Enjoy the pics on the Album.

Kiribati, October 2008

Version 1 of our trip to Kiribati (Kiribus) The romantic version....
We flew from Auckland New Zealand to Nadi Fiji. We spent a lovely night in a beautiful room at the Tanoa International Hotel. The next day we boarded a plane to the country of Kiribati. Kiribati is a collection of long narrow islands. We noticed on the plane that we were definitely in the minority. White man and woman, man dressed in white shirt. We were greeted by beautiful people with huge smiles saying Maouri, which means “hello”. Everywhere we went the people went out of their way to greet us. We stayed at the Otientii Hotel. At high tide the beautiful lagoon was literally just a few feet away from our balcony. We ate a classic continental breakfast in a open air restaurant each morning. There is only one road in Kiribati, it goes straight through the island to each quaint little village.
We had our management training on Friday and Monday at the Service Center. One of our participants was Brother Tune. He is the pioneer of the Church in Kiribati. He is a Stake President now but in the 1970’s he was converted to the Church in Tonga. He returned to Kiribati as the first member and now there are two Stakes, and over 10,000 members. Missionaries are there and are very busy teaching and baptizing.
In the mornings Miriam would take nice long walks through the little thatched home villages looking for little kids on the beaches and in the trees. Every school on the island has their own uniform, including Moroni High. The kids looked very sharp in their bright uniforms walking bare foot to school each day.
On our flight was Brother Wall from SLC. His job was to continue working on the translation of the scriptures into the Kiribati language. He is a great guy. He can speak, read, and converse in over 8 languages. He was there to hire contractors to translate the Book of Mormon, D&C and Pearl of Great Price.
We met President Bleak, the Mission President and Senior Missionaries, etc. All tirelessly working to bring the gospel to the people. It can be very challenging because of communication and transportation issues between the islands. A nice Senior Couple fed us a great meal one evening.
We went to a celebration for Fiji’s independence. It was at our hotel and the President of the Country and his wife were there. We had a great conversation with the first lady. Her and the president have great respect for the Church. They have their children enrolled at Moroni High.
Miriam spent one day serving the students at the school and helped them learn how to read and understand what they were reading. We had an island tour of the WW2 relics. On the tour we walked the beaches, saw Japanese bunkers, large gun placements, visited markets, memorials, etc. The government has taken the position that they are being consumed by the sea due to global warming. Other opininions are that they are sinking due to geological plate shifting.
On Tuesday we returned to the airport to catch our plane back to Nadi Fiji. While waiting there a New Zealand sister missionary that returned to her home in Kiribati came to say goodby to Miriam.
Though poor the people of Kiribati are blessed and happy. The Church is an incredible blessing for them.
…..Now some people have accused us of being on one long vacation so we want you to now read the OTHER version of “our trip to Kiribati”. Everything contained in the description happened and is just another way for you to experience what we experienced.

The "other" version of Kiribati.

Yes we ate in our hotel restaurant ... a pig walked in and sniffed us. Not to mention the cats, dogs and birds inside the buildings.A nice missionary couple invited us over for dinner..they threw it out after all the weevil floated to the top.Miriam's nice walks to the beach? Every time she went, there was someone taking a dump. Miriam got sick for two days, still thinks she has worms. I woke up in the middle of the night with heart attack symptoms...it was just gas.The cute kids are running around naked on the island mugging for a picture. There is a tradition that if you burn a diaper it will burn the baby so EVERYWHERE there are used disposable diapers -on the beach, side of the road, in the bush, everywhere. But all the babies we saw were naked, so go figure. Out for a walk we accidently wandered into the mental hospital village. Two ladies followed us and wanted us to take them back to America. Miriam tried hard to teach in the school.. very frustrating because they can read but they don't know what they are saying.
We didn't buy any food... we packed in our food (tuna, noodles, rice). We boiled all of our water each morning. We had a extra bucket of water sitting in the shower because we were warned that the water goes out with no notice. The homes were little more that sheds, most people live in very poor conditions. You don't swim in the lagoon because it is well known that it is the sewage pond for the island.
We had a grand time.
Now you know the "other " version of Kiribati. Does that sound like a island vacation to you?

Coast to Coast Walk-Oct. 4, 2008

We took a bus ride into Auckland and got off on the east side at the harbour. This is the Pacific Ocean. That was our starting point for our 16 Km. 10 mile walk to the Tasman Sea on the south west side. With map in hand we walked down busy city streets, quiet neighborhoods, through parks, rainforests, up and down volcanoes and finally to our destination which was the west coast. Our friend Mark Pugh picked us up. It surprised us all how close we were to the route we take to the airport. Along the way we visited visitor centers, enjoyed high action lawn bowling , croquet and swinging from a long tree swing. We found large groups of Hindus dressed in their beautiful tradional clothing having a grand day in the park. We need to mention the sheep. Many, many, many sheep in the green, lovely parks around the volcanos. Enjoy the pictorial tour on the album page on the picture link at the right. p.s. The first 55 pictures are not the walk. We need to get rid of them. We will do it at a later date. It is late and we are going to Kiribati tomorrow. You will want to google that one.

Easton Davis Langford makes a grand entrance!

Easton Davis Langford became our 9th grandchild on September 25th. Even though the little bugger joined the human race some 60 days before he was supposed to, he is doing very well. He has graduated from the oxygen and the lights and his nurses are trying to fatten him up. He is gaining about 10 grams a day and we hope and pray he continues to gain and grow and develop. We are so sad that we cannot be in Utah to hug him and love him. Our congratulations go out to Scott and Teisha for being wonderful parents. Little Easton gets to stay in the NICU hotel for about 6 weeks. We hope Teisha enjoys the rest and maybe she can ask the nurses to try and have him trained to sleep through the night by time he gets home! Go to Scott and
Teisha's blog on the right to see many more pics.

August and September 2008

It has been three weeks since Bob has been home. (NZ) In August he was gone 19 out of 26 days. In the past I have had a tendency to get down. Being here alone and my family all in America for the last 11 months, I was at greater risk. The Lord has really taken care of me. I was very busy and actually did very well. I kept busy with lots of things happening in the mission. New missionaries coming in and old going home, zone conferences, projects, new Australia Sr. Missionaries and new area presidency devotionals. One Sat. a bunch of them called me and we went into Auckland to see the sites together. I was the lone duck but they made me feel welcome. I always had at least one day off in the week. I walked to see Dorace in Bayswater and found some fun take away places I hadn't used before. Being with Agnes and her family was the greatest treat. One really nice day I had Sushi with my new Japanese friend looking over Rangitoto on Takapuna beach. I did that to commemorate the day Bob was actually in Japan on business. Sundays would have been the hardest but not after Gurneys and Rodings invited me over for dinner and to go to a fireside of the Brown's Kirtland Restoration project. I had nice walks with Pauline, Allyson, Dianne and Pamela. We taught a couple of lessons to Antoni in our home (with missionaries). How could anyone possibly be lonely after all this and the Holy Ghost buoying me up (after prayer) when I might start to slide. It was noticeable. I am so grateful.

Since Bob has been home we have been really busy. We celebrated our 31st anniversary with the Pres. and Sister Porter. It was their 30th. We went to Stake temple day with the Nalley's. There were 225 in our temple session. The balcony was full. Afterward we went to visit the MTC Pres., we went into Hamilton for dinner. Elder Nally left his glasses in the MTC. As we were driving back the Pres told us he was holding them hostage so we would all speak to his missionaries at a devotional. It actually was really fun. It was great to be in the MTC. The Christensen's were here checking out NZ because they will be moving here. We had them to dinner and to see the gannets on the west coast. He is the new area lawyer. We wish we would be here at the same time but will be leaving before they come. We had 8 senior missionaries over for games at our flat. Ours is the largest. It was funny for Bob and I when we realized we were not just listening to conversations about food (the usual) but also about hearing aids and colonoscopies. We laughed that maybe we needed younger friends. But we are kidding. We love our good Sr. Miss. friends. We hope to be as faithful and diligent as they are when we are on our mission in 10 years or so. Last Sunday we noticed Susan Shea was back in town from Taiwan. She actually had Joey give her friend 2 lessons while in Taipei. She was born there and has been gone for 6 months. She came to dinner at our house and we had fun hearing about how wonderful our son is. She is pretty wonderful herself.

Two Saturdays ago Bob and I took a bus into Auckland and roamed around for 5.5 hours. We had a great time. Found some fun finger puppets to share with our kids when we get home. They are all forest creatures (mostly birds) from New Zealand. We found them in a street market. Then we found hundreds of people walking the beaches. This was our first real good Saturday in about 4 months of almost solid rain. It was wonderful. Opposition helps you to appreciate. Here is another example of that. Yesterday we took a tramp on the Okura Bush Walkway. We renamed it the Okura Mudslide. It was so so muddy. We were on it for 3 hours. Well we ran into 2 men from South Africa. They were ecstatic with joy of the trail and this country. It is so different than South Africa. So so beautiful they said. The one man said that he has traveled all his life and never been to such a beautiful country. The other was most impressed with the way of life. He told me he saw women walking the streets by themselves. He also told me he was at the beach watching the sunset last night. He is 35 years old and these are firsts for him. It is too unsafe for those things in South Africa. They were so grateful. So as we were sloshing around and thinking we wished it would have been drier, they were just in heaven.

Look at the two new picture albums "Okura bush walk" and "Temple, MTC, friends etc..)

Quick trip home

I had the opportunity to return to Utah for some training. While there I was able to visit all the kids, friends in the neighborhood, Miriams family, and a surprise visit with mom. She wasn't aware of my visit and we surprised her at a restaurant. She was VERY surprised and we all shared some hugs and tears, even the waitress cried!

The picture album shows some pics of the family and grandchildren, Temple Square, co-workers, etc. My apologies that their are no pics of the Crookston FHE. My camera was not working. ENJOY!

Korea Trip

I had the opportunity to go to Korea for a week to work on a compensation project. LaMont (my boss from SLC) flew in from the states and we met up in Seoul. It was very hot, humid and crowded. When I landed I took a bus to the hotel for 14,000 won. (trivia..how much did I spend for my ticket?). On Saturday I walked around (not far from the hotel) just to see what I could see. LaMont landed early Sunday morning and we were able to make it to the Korean sacrament meeting. When we got there we were given little translation headsets. A translator sat in the back of the room and translated the meeting for us. Sunday afternoon we strolled through a park not far from the hotel. Monday morning we went to work in the Korean office. We had meetings with consultants and worked on the Korean pay line. On Tuesday LaMont and I were asked to speak in the devotional. Either they all understood English or they didn't want to hear what we had to say. Each day the HR Manager took us out for a great Korean lunch. I actually got pretty good with my chopsticks. However I was never able to "catch a fly". On Tuesday evening we were invited to play volleyball. After a nice basketball warm up they put up the net. But something was a little strange...the net was up as high as a tennis net. We were playing a Korean game called foot volleyball. You can only use your head or your feet. The ball can bounce once between each hit. These guys are so good at this that they can actually set up a spiker and these guys can spike the ball over the net! We looked pretty silly trying to do it but eventually were able to hit the ball and we had a pretty good time. I was a little nervous about by past foot injury but everything went ok. It has healed nicely and it only hurt a little when I landed on another guy. We ended the evening with real volleyball and take out noodles. After finishing our project we got a little tour of the city from our good friend and visited the Korean palace and museum. They are celebrating their 60th anniversary of independence from Japan. We flew to Japan for a day of work then home to New Zealand by way of Brisbane Australia.

Visit the Cook Islands Yourself

This is Roratonga. Get close to see the magnificient peaks. (put mouse over it and roll it). Aitutaki is north 40 min. by plane. Go there and see the terrific lagoon. Hey, you really can! Just scroll 22 lengths of the screen north. You will go through non imagery till you get to the best place. Let me know if you found it. We snorkeled on the south western most little island area. We ate at one foot island on the east that looks like a foot. We stopped at several other islands, including the survivor islands. (Thanks to Dan for helping me put this on)


View Larger Map

Roratonga & Aitutaki

Well Bob "had" to meet with a couple of employees in the Cook Islands. We don't have schools or a service center there so there are only 3 employees that sometimes get neglected. Miriam came so we took a couple of extra days to do it up right. It was a four hour flight there from Auckland. It was almost 2 of their movies. (Need to see "Lars and the Real Girl"). First highlight was flying over the gorgeous island and seeing the impressive mountain peaks and ridges. Very green and very sharp peaks. That is not common on the islands that we have seen so far, Tahiti was second to it. We wanted to do the cross island trek but chose not to because of the weather. It was a good choice because someone we talked with took 7 hours and it should have been 3 hours. They felt like you needed ropes. It would have been very slippery with the rain.

Oh, maybe we need to talk about Bob's work here first. That is why we came. Bob met with the government agency regarding their retirement plan. Then met with the employees and went over contracts and enrollment forms. Everything went well. Now they are all legal and properly enrolled in their benefit plans. We had a very lovely dinner with them that night where we got to know them and their spouses better. While Bob was in meetings, Miriam had a great time wandering the town, looking at museums, shops, following the beat of the drummers (literally) and have a wonderful morning. (check out the photos for more info)

David Akinoa was kind of our host on this trip. He drove us to and from the airport numerous times. He loaned us his scooter to get around the island. He took us to his home and introduced us to star fruit.(love it) We learned about coconuts, bananas, palm trees and his star fruit. The amazing thing is that all these plants can be planted, grow to maturity and bear fruit in 6 months to a year. We saw lots of pictures of his wonderful family and heard their conversion stories and temple trips. His son is the champion fire dancer several times of the polynesian island games.

The third day we flew to Aitutaki. As you fly in you see numerous small islands surrounded by the most beautiful Lagoon you have seen in your life. Here is where most of "The Other Side of Heaven", "Johnny Lingo" and Survivor were filmed. We were told to get of the plane and ask for Tom. "Everyone knows Tom". We did and found out he was not there but his daughter was. She took us to our cottage on the beach and to our day tour of the Lagoon and other islands. The first island was Honeymoon Island. There we had morning tea consisting of fresh lemonade, homemade doughnuts (scones) and various island fruits. Most of the time when you "have tea" you really don't have tea. We went snorkeling in a wonderful spot. More fish and clams than youhave ever seen. White sandy bottom ocean floor surrounded by the corral. (see pics) We spent a lot of time on the island that survivor was filmed on. Puna (tour guide) wanted to explain what a wonderful financial blessing it was for the whole island. Although now they are in a slump again. We then went to One Foot Island, where we could send postcard and we had a superb meal. Puna's wife and son really had it all for us. (Notice the outhouse with a view in the pics)

Tareta and her four children took us on a tour of the island. Puffy picked us up to take us to her parent's restarant for a traditional meal and island dance show. Boy, do those girls know how to swing their hips. We enjoyed our meal with Repeta (the church employee) and her husband who is a 24 year old branch president. Great fun! After being awoken at 4:30 AM (again) by all the roosters we were greeted by fresh donuts from Repeta. She also gave us 8 pareu. (like sarangs). Here is a great story about Repeta's father and uncle. The island constitution requires that the sabbath be observed. Due to the poor economy the government started allowing Sunday flights to come into the island. The island people were so upset by this that they protested at the airport. Repeta's father and uncle ran out on the runway as the first plane came in. They also placed logs and wood on the runway to prevent planes from landing. They are now banned from flying the only airline that comes onto the island. (Do you think the Ensign would like this story?) Many of the locals feel that their economy is so bad now because of the planes flying on the Sabbath all the time now. Boy did we feel guilty flyiing home to Auckland on their Sunday. By doing so we were able to attend church. NZ is over the time line and our Sunday was the day before (their Saturday) so we got home on our Monday. (can you follow that?)

Back to Roratonga. Cruising around the island on David's scooter was a blast. It rained most days a bit. You would just keep going and in a bit you had dried off. (My hair was a sight though) We saw a wedding taking place on a little island across a lagoon. The bride and her maids were ferried across in a fun decorated boat. We called the Sr. Missionary couple and asked if we could come and visit them in the evening. Because of night blindness they don't drive after 6 pm. They live in the Black Rock Mission Home. We had such a wonderful visit. They are like our heros. They work so very hard. This is their fourth sr. couple mission. They have always been proselyting and loved it. They said that their island was kind of dead because they couldn't get anyting going with the members and the work. But his wife told us that in the last 7 months he has baptized 10 people. He will talk to eveyone and tract all the time. It works for them. Even though they are Senior Missionaries they keep the rules in the white handbook. This has given them success.

We enjoyed the Roratonga market on Sat. morning where we shopped and ate lunch. On Sunday David picked up our bags and had us ride the scooter to church. It started raining on us but we were dry when we got there. (Hair was great again) We followed a scooter to church that had his young child strapped to his back with a sash. When he pulled up to the church we could see that the child was asleep. They aren't really into safety here. No helmets anywhere either. Church was lovely. Going to the airport he invited us to get into the back of his truck and sit on his garden chairs. It was a wonderful trip. Next stop is Korea and Japan for Bob in 3 days. (look at pictures)

Underground Sewage, Stingrays, and Rain

July 26th was my birthday! So what does a 53 year old do in the rainy season in New Zealand? We found a place called Kelly Tarlton's that offered free admission if it was your birthday. I couldn't pass that up! We invited some people to go with us but for some reason they didn't think it was a good idea to go out when the storm of the decade was bearing down on us. But hey! We are talking about free admission to Kelly Tarlton so Mir and I braved the storm (they called it a cyclone) and off we went. Kelly Tarlton was a man that loved the ocean and everything in it. He had a vision to provide an aquarium experience for people. He found these abandoned huge underground sewage tanks . He went in cleaned the place up, and figured out a way to allow people to be inside the aquarium without getting wet. He came up with this glass tunnel that goes through his aquarium. The aquarium has turtles, sharks, stingrays, fish, etc. They have a large stingray pond and the employee got in with them and fed them. The stingrays were huge and they were all over her looking for food. It reminded us of the fun cruise we took with Dan and Joey where we fed the Stingrays. After all this work to do this project, Kelly Tarlton died in his sleep 2 months after his aquarium opened. It is a very popular place for kids. Oh yea! I nearly forgot...It also has King Penguins and they make over 2 ton of snow each day for the critters. Pretty cool place. When we came out the storm was even stronger but even with a huge storm there were adrenalin junkies trying to wind surf out in the harbor. They weren't doing very well because the swells were so big they kept falling over.

Miriam and I came back to Takapuna and drove down to Takapuna Beach to watch the storm. A lot of people had the same idea and beach had quite a few people just walking around (being blown around) and watching the ocean. We put on our rain gear and walked to the beach. We got our picture taken by another person watching the storm...check it out at the album. As I am blogging this the news is on and reporting that another big storm is on its way tonight. More flooding and power outages expected. (We lost 5 people last weekend, hopefully people will not be so risky) The lawns and parks are so soaked that the weekly soccer and rugby games that go on can't be playes because the fields are just mushy from all of the rain. They haven't been able to play for 6-8 weeks. So that's winter in the North Island of New Zealand. Rain, rain, and more rain.

That evening we visited with some Senior Missionaries that are being transfered here from Australia. Their furniture hasn't arrived so we sat on camp chairs and played games using their suitcase as a table. That was our day MY BIRTHDAY in New Zealand. I received nice cards, e-mails and phonecalls from my kids so I'm a happy guy!

Today was a special day in our Area Office. It was a farwell devotional for Elder Spencer Condie. He has lived outside of the United States for a grand total of 16 years for the Church. He and his sweet wife are excited about returning to the USA to be with children and grandchildren. He is a wonderful man with an incredible sense of humor. Whenever he speaks he always delivers a wonderful message usually mixed with extreme humor. We love Elder Condie.

CHEERS! OH..I can't forget my mother. Happy Birthday Mom! We all love you and miss you. (This is the only year in my 53 years that it is not on the same day) GO TO THE PICTURE ALBUMS!

Zone Conference and Winter Solstice

Ok this is a combined blog from Miriam and I. Today is the Winter Solstice. For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere it is the longest day of the year. For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere it is the shortest day of the year. So I better hurry and write because the sun is just flying across the sky! Today Miriam and I thought it would be a good idea to go and see the sun rise on the shortest day of the year. So we gathered our breakfast and went to the beach so we could see the sun rise. It was cloudy and a little rainy but as the sun came up some of the clouds turned pink and it turned into a pretty morning. We got some pretty good shots of the sky and beach. Hope you enjoy them. Even though it is the winter now we are going to a Luau to celebrate winter. Past performers of the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii will be performing.

The consolidation of the New Zealand and Australia Areas are well under way. It's a challenge to try and encourage employees from one country to take their family and permanently move to another country. It looks like a few families from Australia may come. We hope they will be happy working in New Zealand for The Church. Our economy here is not near as good as Australias. I (Miriam now) am still involved with the mission. All this week were Zone Conferences. We have four multi zone conferences every 6 weeks in different areas of the mission. I went to Hamilton this week with the Duvalls for the day to attend one of them. President & Sister Cook leave in ten days to be released and then the new President will be set apart. I have been to many zone conferences and I am always so so impressed and hopefully changed for being there. This one was particularly touching and meaningful. The Cooks prepared the missionaries for the transition like I did not think was even possible. There will not even be a hickup when the mantle is handed over to the new President. The missionaries will be ready to accept Pres. Porter's ways and love him from the moment he arrives. The Cooks have leadership and teaching skills like I have never seen before.

We had a man is our ward whose name is Kelvin. His wife got stomach cancer and within 2 months after her disease was diagnosed she passed away. That was two months ago. Kelvin was supposed to teach our Sunday School class last Sunday. He didn't show up so someone else taught the class. Some one was a little concerned and tried to get in touch with him. They found that he had had a stroke shortly before church. By 11:45pm he had passed away. Kelvin leaves behind a family of 6 children. Some are married but at least 2 or 3 are still at home. Kelvin worked for The Church in the CES Department. He worked at the Church College of New Zealand for 20 years. At the end of the funeral alot of the young men stood out in the courtyard and did the Huka. It is a sign of respect and love among the Maor people. If you are interested in seeing a Huka the BYU football team does it now at the beginning of their home games. It was made famouns by the All Blacks Rugby team. They do it at the opening of all of their games. Go to the All Blacks web page and you can watch them do it. http://www.allblacks.com/ It has been difficult for the employees here in the area office. Everyone's prayers for their family would be appreciated.

We have the boyfriend of a young lady I hometeach having the missionary discussions in our home once a week. His name is Anthony. He is 28 and he thinks he is in love with Miranda. He has started to attend church and seems to be pretty willing to learn about the Gospel. We hope and pray things will go well there. We are really enjoying having Elder Dinsdale and Elder Ramasima in our home every week. You should all try it. There is nothing like the full time Elder's in your home teaching the gospel.

Ok...a story about Miriam and her passion for fitness. There are no mountains close and she wants to get her heart rate up there. She discovered that walking stairs is a good way to get the ol ticker going fast. The problem is we only live in a 4 story building so Miriam climbs 4 flights, then goes down to the basement then climbs the 4 flights again, and again, and again. Well that got boring so one day when we were out walking we noticed the Spencer Hotel. This is a real nice hotel and its about 20 stories tall. So we went inside (acting like we live there) and took the elevator to the 2nd floor. Now Miriam can walk 20 flights before she takes the elevator back to the 2nd floor. She takes her Ipod and enjoys it. When she is done she takes the elevator down to the lobby and walks out. Now that's a passion for exercise for ya! But wait it doesn't stop there. We are walking around town and there is a new building that is like 30 stories tall. It is a condominium project. So Miriam walks in like she lives there and takes the elevator up a couple of flights. She gets off the elevator and finds the stairs and takes them up and up and up. Ok now it's time to leave and she goes to a door to get out of the stair well and guess what?? No door knob! So she figures she will just go to another floor. No door knobs. So she keeps hunting for a way out. She finally finds door knobs but the doors are locked. Panic is setting in about now..... finally she finds a emergency exit and she takes her chances that an alarm won't go off. She escapes. I think she wants to go back. She liked the challenge of the BIG building. A picture of the building is in the album. The one with the funny shaped top.

Science Lessons from down under the down under

If you are reading this and you live in the northern hemisphere ie: Utah, then answer the following questions. #1 When you flush your toilet does is spin clockwise or counterclockwise? #2 If it is a cold winter afternoon do you lay in the sun near the windows on the north side of your house or on the south side of your house? Whatever your answers are then they are just the opposite if you live in the southern hemisphere ie: New Zealand.

Now that we have been here over seven months now, we feel a wee bit "away with the fairies" that it took us this long to realize these things. At the first, we could tell you that our sky was obviously different at night. I so miss the big and little dipper and the northern star. We do have the southern cross but I can't find it as quickly. Just little things that make you think "wow, you aren't in Kansas anymore Dorothy". We were able to see orian's belt in the far northern sky at the same time you could see it in your southern sky. I don't know where it is now. I can't see it.

Last week a local missionary told us he had tomatoes coming up and he had some to give anyone who missed their gardens. (At home we wouldn't plant a tomatoe in the fall) I told him that we wouldn't be able to grow any because we are on the 3rd floor and the only windows we have are directly looking north. (He looked at me kind of funny) As I was walking home I thought to myself that it was strange that the sun was so far north and actually blinding me. In my flat, I noticed lots of sun right in the windows and all through that side of the house. So I looked at my map and checked the direction of our flat. Yes we were facing north, how could that be. In the winter time at home I always went to my south windows. It just takes some of us a bit longer than it should. Then at church today I was making fun of myself and telling a local kiwi. He told me to go home and let water out of a drain and notice which direction it goes. I called a freind when I got home from church. (10:40 pm Utah time--aren't you glad I didn't call you). I asked her to put water in her sink and tell me direction it rotates out. (Now that was an emergency wasn't it?) Another fun scientific difference that I would love to see is the aurora australis or the southern polar lights. (I saw the northern lights in my backyard in Layton years ago and they were "brilliant".) They are common over the south island but still visible from Auckland when everything is right. One report is of the sky so red that the whole city was alive with people ringing bells and honking horns they were so excited. Well, we took a tomato plant after all and it's doing rather well. It's grown from a 1" plant to a 3" plant in less than a week. It's a monster!

Hey we took our favorite walk to and from Devenport by way of the ocean at low tide. We found a fun glass artist that is so fantastic. Look at his web site http://www.peter-raos.com/ or http://www.raos.co.nz/ Notice the small album titled Relief Society Retreat and walk to Devenport. (what is up with this? only under 100 pictures)

Miriams cousins vist New Zealand

Miriam's three cousins --Mark Crookston, wife Camille, Marnita Hill, Myra Dalton, and friend Carolyn came to New Zealand to enjoy the festivities around the 50th anniversary of the Church College of New Zealand. They started in the South Island and worked their way up to the North where they stayed with us for a few days. They had a great time doing the tourist thing. Myra stayed in Hamilton a couple extra days where she served. We picked her up and had a fun drive coming home stoping at some fun places we wanted to show off to her. When Mark served his mission his last area was our current ward boundaries. At church he was able to meet people that actually remembered him. We all enjoyed Pihi beach together with the wild waves crazy surfers. They saw forests, beaches, bush and sea shells. We hope it was a vacation they will long remember. Marnita took the opportunity to stay a couple of days longer than the rest of the group. She and Miriam took the bus into the city where they visited an Art Gallery. Marnita stuck around for church enjoyed a visit from the missionaries, had FHE with the Senior Missionaries, visited One Tree Hill, and ate biscuits and ice cream. We want to thank our cousins for visiting us and our wonderful New Zealand. You know you are all welcome. It is getting a bit colder here as winter is approaching. Our homes don't have any heat so if it gets too cold we have little heaters we roll around to heat the rooms. Back to work, the mission office, zone conferences, cool ward firesides and preparing a high priests lesson for Sunday. Hope you all enjoy the pics of their visit. Cheers!

Heaps of fun, down under with the Huggins!

Hey our friends of 25 years from Layton came to visit us in New Zealand! We have been so excited. Bob had the vacation time so we planned a really great trip for them and us. We picked them up on Mon. the 7th of April at 6 am at the Auckland airport. We went straight to one tree hill for the sunrise over Auckland. We then drove down to show them the NZ Temple in Hamilton, then on to Rotorua. There we went to the "Living Village" where we ate a hangi (traditional Maori pit cooking over the natural thermal pits). We had a tour of their village and we watched their cultural performance were they did all their Maori traditional songs, dance and of course the huka. Then we were off to find our accommodations. It is very common for people to rent out vacation homes called a bach in NZ. Bob found a really nice one near Lake Rotoiti. We drove up to find a note and the most wonderful setting. Right on the beautiful lake. Lovely gardens, private spa, kayaks and dinghy. After Leigh and Ruth paddled back from their sunset on the lake Leigh said, "Could we just spend the whole vacation here?" Instead of going back for dinner we pulled out the rice crackers, flavored sweet Thai chili tuna and avocados. The Huggins got a good nights sleep after their long flight and day. And Bob and I are so so happy to have them here.


The next morning after Ruth and I had a walk in our New Zealand country side we had a little breakfast and took off for the Agrodome for the Sheep and Wool shows and exhibits. (Hey we are in New Zealand you know.) We learned that Ruth had great cow milking abilities even in front of over a hundred people. On the southwest end of Rotorua we found the Redwood Forest. We took the hour walk through them. This is what we all enjoyed most in the area. We ate a huge sandwich at the Fat Dog in town then drove north to the Peninsula. Bob only caused my blood pressure to elevate seriously once. He passed a car when another one was coming. Of course Leigh was way impressed and gave Bob a high five. (Shouldn't encourage him should we?) We stopped in a little town that had a lovely quilting and fabric store. After dragging Ruth out we continued up to hot water beach. We arrived at the beach just before dusk. It was high tide. We walked down a ways and planned our strategy for the early morning hours. Found our bach in Cook's beach. Most importantly after finding the torch (flashlight) we found the key under the house. Had a good dinner and went to bed. Our first alarm went off at 1 am. That was not planned. We did get up at 2 am and made our way back to hot water beach with our bucket and spade (shovel). Our purpose was to dig our own personal hot tub by finding the thermal water coming up through the beach at low tide. We got our toes and heals busy. We found 6 to 12 great sources of very hot water. It would scald your toes if you left them there. The problem we had was every 4th wave was a huge surge and would cover your spot. Come to find out there was a storm out at sea that was creating the surges. After a fun hour in the moonlight searching with our feet we did give up and went back to the bach and to bed again. It was a good memory though. In the morning we took off to get back to our flat in Takapuna. Stopped at the Pokenos for lunch and their famous ice cream. It was a beautiful drive around the peninsula.

Thurs April 10th we got out the door by 4:15 am and arrived north in Tutukaka by 8 am. Huggins had a dive day at the famous Poor Knights Marine Reserve. Bob and I had a "brilliant" day ourselves. We found a sweet beach to eat breakfast on. Then took off on a loop trail at Matapouri. We successful made a 45 min loop/return walking track into a 4 hour walk. We loved Whale Bay, Pebbly Bay and the other unnamed sites. Went down to most of the beaches and found a hole in the rock to Mermaid Pool. It was a really great day. We picked up Huggins and went to our Backpackers/KOA like accommodations. It was really pretty nice and very quiet for our full nights sleep. We all woke up in the morning and took walks and on the road to Kawiti Glow worm caves. We just walked around without going in. Then to Kawakawa to the famous Hundertwasser's Toilets. He is a famous architect that is such a great artist. We really enjoyed that little town. Ice Cream in hand we headed off to hwy 12. We stopped at the Hokianga Bay area. Took a scenic walk to view the Tasman Sea coast. Then down to the Kauri (Waipoua)Forest. These are really old and really big trees. Tane Mahuta (God of the Forest) has a girth of 13.3 meters (39 feet), 51 meters tall (150 ft). Tematua Ngahere (Father of the Forest) is about 2000 years old. It is now illegal to cut them down so they find them in swamps and make beautiful things out of them. Many of them are 50,000 years old from the swamps. We have a bunch of pictures on the link to the right. This was a good day but oh, such a long day of driving. It was about 10 hours for Bob. There are beautiful green hills and countryside everywhere. Leigh is wondering if people live in New Zealand. (We won't take him to Auckland for a while yet) We got home and were happy to find our pillows. The next day was Saturday. We got up to low tide so we went on a walk from Takapuna beach south. There are wonderful tall rock walls. It is all Lava from Rangitoto which is the volcano to the east of the beach. At low tide it makes a wonderful walk. We found ourselves eating lunch at Genghis Khan, a Mongolian BBQ. Then we set off to see the Victorian village of Devenport. There are two volcanic cones that Bob and I really enjoy. The tallest is Mt. Victoria. Bob's favorite is North Head. They have both been military defense sites for both the first and second World War. We brought our torches (flashlights) and wandered around in the tunnels. They leave them open for people to do just that. We came home and watched a session of conference on our computer together. We will miss church in the mortuary in Queenstown tomorrow because of flight times.

April 13th we went to the airport for our flight to Queenstown on the South Island. The visibility was wonderful once we got on the south island. The right of the plane was so green and the left of the plane was so brown. Very massive and steep mountains everywhere. This is fall and we saw many many glaciers on tops of mountains. Bob and Leigh thought the airport was so cool as the planes had to circle and come in between mountains to land. Leigh being a pilot was particularly intrigued. We found our rental car and YHA accommodations and then took off for Arrowtown. We ate our lunch by the side of one of the world's best gold panning rivers. We heard bagpipes so took off to find them. They were in the town square doing a concert. We enjoyed that a lot. Much of the south island has Scottish influence because of the early settlers. Dunedin even has a castle there. Being fall the town was full of color. Beautiful fall leaves everywhere. Took off to see the lake and town of Wanaka to the north. Very windy roads. Lots of deer and lots of sheep. It was quite a long drive. The locals go to Wanaka for holiday. Back to the YHA. It is a Thai New Years holiday so many many Thais were there. It was fun to see their traditional food they cook in the kitchen. The next morning we walked over to our jet boat excursion. It was so fun. Bob and Leigh were really getting wet. Ruth and I laughed and laughed. Jet Boats can run in 10 cm of water, are high speed, are very maneuverable and can do 360 spins on a dime. We then went back to Arrowtown to do some shopped that we didn't want to do on Sunday. We drove east and found the original bungy jump over the gorge of the Kawarau River. We watched 3 people drop off the old bridge. That was fun just watching them. Then to the cheese factory down the road for a lunch of cheese and crackers. We then drove back toward Queenstown and went to Glenarchy. This is where the scenery really started to change. Taller, greener, steeper mountains. More glaciers on the tops of them. We went all the way to the Routeburn Track. There was a 1 hour nature loop walk at the end of it. Two or Three swinging bridges. It was very mossy and tropical feeling. Actually it is more like the very top of the north island except the vegetation is probably different. We were getting done at dusk and drove home in the dark. Dropped the rental car off and walked back. It was kind of an uncomfortable night with noisy neighbors but all in all it was good.

After waking up on Tuesday morning we met our bullet bus in front of our YHA to take us to the Milford Sound. The bus was so cool. It was mostly all windows and the guys could even stand up in it. Windows even on the ceiling. It was slanted up so the back seats could see very well also. Our bus driver/tour guide, Gavin kept us both entertained and informed on the 5 hour journey to Milford. We made stops for walks, lunch, pictures, loo breaks and a very cool steam engine train ride. The Kingston flyer. We loved that. We reached the sound at 4 pm and boarded our ship, the Wanderer. There were 50 people on board. We got on board and the captain gave us a small presentation on safety etc. We headed out into the sound which is really a fjord because it was carved by an ancient glacier and not by running water. Its hard to describe. Very steep mountains (4000 ft) that dive right down into the water. The boat set anchor in Harrison cove and Miriam and 25 other guests hopped in their kayaks and went for a little cruise of the sound. The rest of the guests went in a small power boat for a little nature ride along the steep banks of the sound. We saw gorgeous waterfalls, ate great food, met wonderful people, shared a small birth (9 feet wide by 6.5 ft long) with 4 people, showers with people of the opposite sex (what goes on in New Zealand-stays in New Zealand), and had just a great time. We settled down for a good night and in the morning woke to a great breakfast, raised anchor and sailed out to the Tasman sea. Following that adventure we headed for the wharf. On our way in we were joined by a pod of dolphins that wanted to ride our bow wake. That was an incredible site. At times you could see four or five dolphins jumping and surfing the wake of our boat. They were having a great time. Off the boat, back on the bus, dropped off at the airport and home again, home again, jiggity jig. Special thanks to the Huggins on joining us on what we considered a vacation of a lifetime. Enjoy the pictures (they will be up in a few days yet)

The Big Trip (Australia, Japan, China)

Miriam says I need to blog. Ok work gave me the tough assignment of going to Sydney, Tokyo and Hong Kong. So a co-worker flew in from SLC and we started doing our work thing here in New Zealand, then we took off for about three weeks. Besides work, which was good, we had a grand time visiting these countries, trying to talk to people that didn't understand English, and being a traditional tourist. Some Hi-lights:
New Zealand...We took our good buddy Curtis to Goat Island for a afternoon of snorkeling. Curtis had never snorkeled before and we had a grand time. We found some big fish, the water was great and a good time was had by all. We also did a bush walk for some great views of the coast line.
Sydney Australia....We spent a Saturday touring the city of Sydney. A walk around the harbour, checking out Paddy's market (great place to get coin purses made from kangaroo scrotum's), china town, The opera house (very cool), their version of a sky tower (great views), Tim Tam Slams, 3 packages (delicious), and a pie and mashed peas with bbq sauce (an Aussie favorite). We were able to get tickets to a fireside with Elder Bednar which was great. He used a question/ answer format and the entire country could call. Mark Allen, the HR Manager in Sydney was a great host and we had a grand time.
Tokyo Japan...Language was a little difficult in Japan. Eating was a challenge also. We wanted to honor the country by eating what they ate. So, our host took us to a little diner and they put in front of us a plate that had boiled eel, and five piles of rice. Laying on top of the rice was a nice succulent slice of raw fish of different varieties. There was Salmon, Tuna, shell fish, and a couple of others. You would dip them in soy sauce and eat away. It was just OK. No it was hard to eat, but we did it. We visited the market, saw some temples where you can buy some blessings, drove around the Emperor's property, took a bunch of pictures.
Hong Kong. What a wild city. We got there around a holiday so we just had to go for it by ourselves. They have a great subway system so we took off. We visited all of their markets (flower, bird, fish, sportswear, electronic, ladies, night, jade). We bickered with market people all day, spent money for goodies and had a great time. We took a cable car to the top of a mountain for a great view. We crossed the harbour at night for an incredible building light show. We saw some old temples and our host Liana and her staff were great.
At all of our cities we were able to visit the REAL temple and do sessions and take pictures. We had a wonderful time. I really missed my sweetie and it was good to get home....Enjoy the picture albums.

Time "Alone" while Bob is away

Bob's coworker from SLC came about 2.5 weeks ago to do projects with Bob in New Zealand, Sydney, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Bob will be back at the end of this week. I have been really fortunate to keep myself really busy with wonderful things and people so the time has gone quickly. I have worked at the mission office, done my usual walks, swam a few times and met some neighbors, gone on a split as a missionary with Sister Tiatia from Samoa. (Wow, that was a story in itself). I tramped the Tongariro Crossing which I talked about below. I was invited to attend the Senior Missionary Conference where Sister Marsh and Sister Jackson were my companions for 2 and a half days. (What a very sweet and choice experience that was). I continued to do my Nursery calling and attend my Mandarin speaking class. (I said the closing prayer in Mandarin--I think). The Woottons moved in our apt. before Bob left and actually moved out early(yesterday) because the Turpins apt. was available when they returned to Bountiful early because their 31 year old daughter died. The Owens stayed a night here as well as the Sr. Sisters. Elder and Sister Wootton stayed with me on Easter Sunday and we had a nice meal together. (They actually were invited somewhere else but took pity on me). So you can see that I have been really busy moving people in and out and adapting to new situations. I loved my birthday where I was able to communicate with all my children. I so appreciate any emails I have received. Thank you so much. It is all very good even though I hate to have Bob gone the Lord has really blessed me. (I'll add some pictures when I get some-Bob has camera)

A great day on the Tongariro Crossing

Bob is in Australia, Tokyo and Hong Kong for several weeks. I was fortunate to be invited by some lovely people to hike through a trio of active craters and volcanoes called the Tongariro Crossing. To all you "Lord of the Rings" fans, you know it as Mt. Doom. Look at our pictures but also for a great description with pictures go to http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0510/sports/new_zealand_trekking.html (It now works.) I also just recently got the pictures up. Go to the picture link and click on Tongaririro Crossing. It isn't every day you get to tramp through 5 different ecosystems in a geothermic setting. It was kind of erie. Some people describe it as surreal. (I'm not really sure what that means but I will go with it). Starting in purple hills with heather, through badlands to steam weathered volcanic summits. Then up along the very windy ridge line (was able to put gloves on for the first time in about a year) with fumaroles belching out and smelling like Yellowstone. Then looking down into the red crater you see the wonderful dark brick red color. This one last erupted in 1926. On the ridge near this crater you can feel the warmth coming up through the soil. I loved the emerald pools. They were not hot. (How do you think I know that?) This is the most closely monitored seismic terrain in all of New Zealand. In 1995 Ruapehu went off. They had warnings so only 1 skier broke his leg. He wasn't supposed to be there. This one closed the resort for 2 years. They learned their lesson when in 1953 they lost around 150 lives from one of the volcanoes. The highest point was 6,187 ft. The lowest was 2,460 ft. We only hiked 11.5 miles. There were about 1000 people on the trail. We looked like ants along the way. I think I was the only American I talked to that day. We took a long time at 7.5 hours. We didn't need to hurry because the shuttle was scheduled to pick us up at a specific time. The last hour of the trail takes you back into the familiar New Zealand Bush with lush podocarp hardwood, many ferns and lots of other wonderful things that I don't know the name of.

The absolute best part of any trip for me are the people I meet. Naomi Waka (cook islander) from the lunchroom invited me to go with her. We drove down with Leah and Derek Couch.(Maori) We went down by way of Lake Taupo. We stopped for lunch and shopped in Taupo. We meet up with Naomi's sisters Fiona and Sharon. Also some friends Ala, Donna and Allen (Samoan and Maori). I was with them all for 3 days, eating, hot tubing, sleeping (5 in a room) and watching 2 episodes of American Idol. We had a really really great time. I learned a lot about the Pacific Islander culture and the Maori traditions. We laughed and laughed and laughed. What wonderful, fun and very faithful people. They call me pakeha and themselves, brownies. (And I drove through Auckland City by myself, I might add)