Muriwai Beach and a haircut

Saturday and great weather sent us to the west coast. The sea on that side of New Zealand is called the Tasman Sea. All the sand is black. Very soft and very cool. We went with the Duvalls, who are senior missionaries in the Aukland Mission. When you go to the web album you will see alot of birds. They are called Gannets. This is a Gannet colony. They are all nesting on this big rock and cliff. They lay one egg. If you look closely you will see some baby birds underneath their mummy. The birds learn to fly then take off to Australia. Eventually they return to the same nest they were hatched in to lay their own egg.

The ocean is very cool here. Lots of people fishing and having a great time. There was a group of guys waiting for huge waves to come in and they would jump into them. Check out the movie clip. It looked like a blast. There were a lot of surfers catching the waves. The drive out to the coast was very nice. Lots of vineyards and sheep. So we learned about birds, saw some very cool coastline, and had a nice time.

Well it was time for my first New Zealand haircut. You all know how I procrastinate getting the haircut. Most places are about $20. Well, Miriam and I saw a place down a little alley with a sign that said. "Tattoos, body piercing, and haircuts" and the haircut was only $10!. So we decided to give it a try. After work on Monday I went to the little shop in my suit and white shirt. I said, can I get a hair cut? They said sure and a nice Maori girl showed me to a chair. They asked me where I was from and I told them Utah. Then the owner came over and asked...Are you an Elder? I said no but I work for the Church. Do you know the missionaries? Yes! she said, we cut their hair! I told them my wife told me to come and get a haircut and make sure I don't come home with a tattoo or any body piercing. They thought that was funny. The Maoris have very coarse hair and while she was cutting my hair she started to pet it and say your hair is sooooo soft!

They were very nice people and they did a great job. On the way out I ran into another expat and he asked me where I had been. I told him the tattoo shop getting a hair cut. He was shocked but now he is going next week!

Long Bay, New Zealand

It has been an eventful week. It was full time missionary transfer week and now that Miriam works in the mission office she was very busy. New Elders coming in and missionaries moving around. Miriam attended the transfer meeting and helped out in general. At the same time the Church was running a "Joy to the World" campaign on TV, so the office got almost 200 requests for a DVD just in the first day alone. That was exciting but it made for a busy but fun week for Miriam.
Miriam and I went and visited the little old lady that she met in the grocery store. Her name is Dorace. We went at night because her home is on the bay and she wanted us to see the beautiful view from her windows. I took a night picture with my cool camera that our kids gave us, so you can all enjoy it also. Dorace also has two borders at her home. Two young ladies, one from Taiwan and one from Korea. Well they weren't so young, one was 26 and the other was 39. It was fun to meet them and visit with them.
Saturday we drove up the coast a bit to a place called Long Bay. Its a huge park with lots of beach. It was a sunny day so a lot of people were out doing their beach thing. We saw some dolphins out in the ocean (we could see them jump). We took a trail that took us up to the top of some cliffs overlooking the ocean. There were two men up there para-sailing. They landed up where we were. We had a nice visit with them and they explained their sport to us a bit. So when you see a para-sailor in the pictures it is NOT me. But it sure looked peaceful and relaxing, and exciting.
We had a nice day walking the beach and enjoying being together. Sunday was a very nice day. We were invited to some other ex-pats home for a nice dinner. They work for the CES department. With a lot of schools in the islands they do a lot of work on the islands with teachers, seminary, institute etc. Enjoy the pics, we enjoyed being there.

Another Weekend Excursion..another museum

Ok one last attempt. We went to another museum. I know that's not like me but new stuff is good. We went with the Mackeys who are missionaries in the mission office. Enjoy the pics... Oh someone called Miriam a smiley face today! (surprise, surprise)

A Common Question, "What does Miriam do while Bob is at work?"

Okay, I will confess that I have loved the last 2 & 1/2 weeks where I didn't have any obligations except the ones that I put on myself. ie: P. S. E. J. St. R. S. C--Close family know what they are. I have loved keeping up with family & friends on the computer, my 2 hour walks, reading at the library, wondering on the beach and even wandering the store streets. I do get up with Bob at 6 am and accomplish those things. But I have felt like I have a bit more to offer than that so I will tell you what took my time this last week. Monday I walked into the Auckland Mission Office and asked if I could help out . These people could not have been anymore excited. They all indicated that the woman who was their receptionist and help, left 2 weeks ago. They just knew that if they were patient and had faith the Lord would provide. Pres. Cook said he prayed me there. I will be called as a Church Service Missionary. I am a bit nervous about it but I will try to relax. I didn't sleep very well that night but when I went in the next morning it was Grand. (As Joey would say..oh, by the way, you need to look at his blog this week, he had a great letter.) That afternoon I was able to go on a split with the full time senior sister missionaries. Wow, that was awesome. I wish I could do that everyday. But I am pretty sure they will try to use me once a week. I worked with a Sister Jackson from Syracuse Utah. Her youngest son is on a mission in Mexico and her husband has passed away. She is so awesome and we had a terrific appointment with an investigator.

On Wednesday a few ladies from the ward drove me down to the Hamilton Temple. It was Stake temple week. People take days off of work and even find places to stay down there to do it. We drove 2 & 1/2 hours to get there. Served all day and then drove home. Elder Nelson and his wife were in the last session with us. We shook his hand a few times that day and had a little chat. It was so sweet. It was such a beautiful drive and I enjoyed getting to know these good ladies and NZ from real NewZealanders. Although the one is from South Africa and the other from the UK. It is fun, the aussies, kiwis, english, south africans, etc. They all can tell where the other ones are from because of their speech. There is a cute, fun bantering back and forth between them. ("Kiwis are this..", "Aussies are that..") It is all in good fun. (Our Sunday School teacher counted 17 different nationalities in our class)

Thursday I walked to visit a 80 year old woman that I met in the grocery store 3 weeks ago. I ended up staying the day with her learning and enjoying her life with her. What a truly wonderful woman she is. She has never married and lives in the same house she was born in just 50 min south of me. (by foot, I haven't needed to drive yet, I still need the exercise.) I was sent home with fresh things from her garden. I hope to visit Dorace often. It was such a lovely day. I will get some pictures of her on the blog in the future. Friday I worked 5 plus hours at the mission office. I answered phones. Spend 1.5 doing the mail and several hours filing. Visited with quite a few Elders and had a really nice day there. So there you have it. It was a wonderful week and one I would love to do time and time again. I will go into the mission office three to 5 days a week, just depending on their needs. A bit more than my last calling as a Church Service Missionary for the YW in SLC.

Go Ahead...Make my Day!

OK its my turn to blog. Lets start with the picture on the blog. Yes that is a AK47 terrorist issue semi-automatic weapon! And it was awesome to shoot. 25 rounds in about 7 seconds! Weekend High Priest Activity. We went out to a beautiful farm and had a great time shooting all sorts of guns. We started with your standard 22 then move our way up to all sorts of guns I have never heard of. We finished out with clay pigeons and the AK47. A good time was had by all. Visit the picture link and go to the high priest activity album for more pictures. On that album you will see other pictures also. Miriam and I talking a nice walk on the beach, me in front of the area office, some elementary school kids and some cool trees and stuff. Things are going well down here One of our favorite things is to contact our family and friends back in Utah over the computer. It keeps us connected and we love it. Sorry if you all are tired of talking to us but we need you. I am planning my first trip to the islands. It will be at the end of November. Its a combined trip to Samoa and Tonga. We will be doing some management training, performance training, etc. We are excited about that. Hopefully Miriam can go with. That's the plan. Walking along the beach is great. There are beautiful homes and beautiful views everywhere. We will put captions on the pics for all to enjoy. Miriam my spend a few hours in the Mission Office helping out. She is going to check into that this next week. This next week is what is called Temple Week for our stake. People take off work if they can and everyone drives down to the temple and stays in the housing available for the entire week if they can. Miriam is going to go down with some RS ladies on Wednesday just for the day. Kia Ora and G'day mate!

Labour Day in New Zealand

Before I get into our Labour Day (New Zealand spelling) I will tell you a bit about our Sunday. We went to our new Ward in Takapuna. I was very much like home with wonderful speakers and teachers and the spirit bearing witness that what they said was true. I didn't know anyone else there but a beautiful Moari woman came up to me and wrapped her arms around me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She told me her name was Victoria. We will be friends. That is quite an ice breaker don't you think. After we came home I had time to try out some of my recipes from home with my forced improvised ingredients. The oatmeal raisin cookies with molasses instead of light corn syrup will not be attempted again. Just getting the oven to work was quite a feat. There were 3 or 4 options to bake on alone. We found the instruction book and it worked pretty good. our dishwasher is really cool. We have two half dishwashers. This works great because you don't have to empty your dishwasher before you clean up your kitchen. We haven't been so lucky with the microwave. We can't find an instruction book and it is just trial and error. I try to avoid it.

This morning when we woke up we had planned to do a tramp out of the book that Laura gave to us. It would have involved a 2 hour drive. Half of which was on a dirt road. We took the easier options to Auckland downtown district. It may not have been easier. We have been dreading the drive into the busy city. We studied the maps and made sure we knew where our streets became one way and started out. It worked out well. Bob did great. He remembered to stay on the left and yeild to the right and use his blinker instead of his windshield wiper all day. We spent 4 hours in the National Maritime Museum on the Harbour (another NZ spelling). Any of you that know Bob will know that this is amazing for him. He really did enjoy it (or was awfully patient with Miriam). We loved the New Zealand History lesson that we gained there the most. Then we walked the busy historical streets. It kind of reminded us of San Fransisco. In one of the pictures that we will post you will notice behind Bob how steep the streets are and the wonderful architecture of the buildings. In all but one shop the owners were chinese (or asian). This is sweet for us because it reminds us of Joey. But I can not get the language. I seriously need a translator when I talk with them. New Zealand English is hard enough but then you through in a chinese accent on top of that and I have the hardest time understanding. Well this is the second time I have posted the same blog. I will learn. The Senior Sister Missionaries called and I get to go out with them tomorrow. That will be fun. Check out the pics of the museum!

Hanging out in Rangitoto

Saturday October 20th 2007 we decide to visit a volcano. This volcano rose out of the ocean 600 years ago. We took a ferry from Devonport to the island. It takes about 2 hours to walk up to the top of the volcano. Now the place is covered with trees, ferns, moss and flowers. There are alot of volcano flows that you hike through (lava rock). Once you get up on top you can see Auckland, and all of the other islands in the area. SCROLL DOWN to New Zealand pictures on the left side of the blog and you can see a bunch of pictures of our little trip. On the way back to the main land we were visiting with some people from Denver and the boat started to pull away and we hadn't gotten off yet! They backed up the ferry for us and lowered the gang plank for us to get off. Crazy tourists! Why do people still honk at me when I drive? submit your answers to this site.

As you view the pictures you will see our wonderful accomodations on the plane. We each had our own little bed, movie screen, etc. You will also see a tour of our apartment. Its a three bedroom 2 bath place on the third floor. Our balcony looks over a nice swimming pool. The flowers came from a nice lady that had a birthday in our apartment and we are enjoying them while she is out of town.

Work is going well. Friday I called all the islands and spent some time getting to know the managers at the service centers. They are looking forward to us coming to the islands and working with them. Well, enjoy the pictures have a great week. We have enjoyed talking to you. We look forward to church on Sunday. cya :0)...cheers..Bob

My Computer Is Possessed

When I turned my computer on this morning I had a window come up telling me of a problem with it.  I emailed Dan and asked him what I should do.  I put a load of whites in the washer.  That did take a bit because I had to learn about these different machines down here.  I came back to the computer and it was like a ghost was all over it doing all kinds of things. It seemed almost like magic watching his masterful curser fix things. The problem was minor for him so he did all kinds of things that were nice to have done.  He gave me a new internet home page.  I have all the kids blogs come up there automatically now if I haven't read a post. I have current times of all our family all over come up, and a host of other things that I really like. He also showed me how I can put my contact groups together.  Over 7 thousand miles away and we were sitting at my computer together.  It was wonderful. Today, Bob will post. Gday.

We are now connected.

We were finally able to get our internet up and going so we aren't running off to the library or Bob's work.  His work is only 10 min away and the library is only another 5 min from that.  But it is nice to have the computer in my lap.  I have had fun.  I talked with Scott this morning, Daniel this afternoon and Teisha after that.  WE had our web cams on.  I gave Scott and Teisha a tour of our wee home.  (They use wee a lot hear, it is cute) All of you join so we can see and hear from you.  Look up msn messenger.  When you get on line then click on it.  If we are on then if you are about your house it will ding you that someone is one line.  Or we can see up a time to meet you online.  7 am here is noon in Utah.  Or we could meet you at noon or after our time.  Bob sometimes comes home for lunch.  Well we are getting used to things.  Shopping is challenging.  Trying to find our how much things are is good for my brain.  Putting them in a recipe is also a challenge.  Eating closer to the farm is the best idea of all. (Zonya) But trying to cook low fat is almost impossible here.  They sell cream in 3 Leter container like milk. (less than a gallon) It is all fun and challenging.  You'll all love me when I come back much larger???

 

Okay, for the fun of the day.  I went on a great walk.  I was gone a couple of hours. I went east to the beach. I stopped off at a elementary school and dropped off an envelope from Pauline to communicate with her class.  Then found the beach.  This area is north of where Bob and I have gone before.  It was full of large lava bolders.  It was really cool. The homes on the beach were really something else. There was a pretty good trail.  I walked north about 40 min. I passed a lot of people.  All but one was oriental.  Very friendly people.  I found a place to cut up the the town and walked south to the city center.  I found a Pita Pit (Joey's favoirte place).  It just opened & is the first one in NZ. They told me that they are starting to open them in Taiwan now too.  That will make Joey happy. Found a few more postcards and a I shop.  That is a information station.  They gave me a few more maps.  I wish one of you were here to Walk to Devenport with me.  I will have to take Bob's phone number and have him pick me up that day.  I made my way to the library where I had all the right paperwork to get a library card now.  I already have books I am reading so I got 5 info videos to listen to while I work on my stitcheries. (I do plan to get started).  I will be learning about Samoa (might go there in Nov), The Mystery of the Minke, The beatles, etc. It will be fun.  Then on to home from there.  I noticed a lady with a missionary badge on.  I ran up and talked with her.  She is a Family History Missionary.  She told me where I need to go to learn to do it.  I walked with her to her office.  (The area office where Bob works).  So I came home and found it on the computer.  I forgot my FOB so I couldn't get into the apt. although I had the apt. key.  I remember my neighbor Ann and she let me in.  It is great to know your neighbors.  Although they have always helped me out more than I have them.  Ann took me shopping yesterday so I could learn where to get my vegetables, fruit and meat. The meat was really high.  I think we will become vegetarians. 

Raining on a clear day

Home is a short 10 minute walk from the office. When I started for home it was cloudy and windy. I thought no big deal, I can make it home before the rain comes. Well, 5 minutes into the walk it started to pour. No problem! I had an umbrella. Umbrellas only work if the rain is falling in a vertical pattern. This rain came more in a horizontal way. By time I got home the only thing dry on me was my head. I was drenched to the bone. I could feel water running down my legs. Miriam had to iron my suit(can you do that?) and dry out the tie and shoes. I think I need something other than my small umbrella. Either a full body rain suit or an umbrella that encompasses my entire body.That was our Monday. Tuesday was a much better day. More rain expected on Wednesday.