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)