Chapter 11 - New Zealand

Pacific Islands Area Mission (New Zealand) 2003-2005

 

New Zealand --- Land of the Long White Cloud.

 

Not much more than a year after returning home from Nauvoo, we learned from Van MacCabe (a former Nauvoo missionary) about an opening for a senior missionary couple in the Pacific Islands Area office.  (Elder and Sister MacCabe had attended the MTC with us prior to our Nauvoo mission, and Van had been called to serve, what was to be his fourth mission, as the Executive Secretary for the Pacific Islands Area with its headquarters in Takapuna –near Auckland—New Zealand.)  The Area office needed missionaries to take charge of the Area confidential records.  They needed help straightening those records out, as I will explain more, later in this chapter.  Jeannè and I talked it over and thought it sounded like we would enjoy the opportunity to serve another mission.  So we turned in our papers and it wasn’t long before we were on our way.  We didn’t even have to go to the MTC this time, as they were anxious for us to get there; we had already had the training twice before.  It didn’t take much preparation, as we had gone into our new Sandy condominium just days before leaving it in the hands of our children (mostly John) to watch over.  Our mission was from 24 November 2003 to 24 May 2005.  We flew from Salt Lake to Los Angeles and then to New Zealand – it took 15 hours to make the journey.

 

When we first arrived, the apartment we were to occupy was still being used by Elder Knollin and Sister Dianna Haws, who were serving as Family History missionaries and due for release in about six weeks.   We had been asked to postpone our arrival for a month or so, but since we had just sold our home, we were all packed ready to leave.   So we lived in the Spencer-on-Byron Hotel, just a block from the church office building, until the Haws mission was completed.  The hotel was good to us, in that they gave us a little break in the cost of the room, but it was still more expensive than the apartment would be.  The office for the Pacific Islands Area is located in the city of Takapuna, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, and one of the nicer, more exclusive towns within greater Auckland.  We made do in our cramped room in the hotel for the six weeks, except for one week that Newland and Marilyn Branham let us stay in their home, in the Mairangi bay area just south of Tapakuna, while they were visiting the States.   Newland worked for the Church in the Humanitarian Relief department, and was one of the first to go to any of our Area islands when help of any kind was needed.  [Sadly, he was killed in an accident while driving his motorcycle here in Utah not long after we came home.]   When the

 

        

          Garage and front door of the Stephens’ home.         Our apartment with Jeanné and our Toyota.  She

                                                                                  Is standing by our porch and front door.  All of

                                                                      the windows shown on round level were ours.

 

Haws left, we finally were able to move into the lovely apartment on Gretel Place, owned by Graham and Rosemarie Stephens.   

 

Their home was at the end of the street and up a rather steep driveway.   The driveway was so steep that Jeanné wouldn’t venture up or down it, on foot, all the time we lived there!   I did take the garbage down a few times, but it was a real task.   I finally got smart and started putting the trash into the trunk of our car to carry it down.  The apartment was in the basement of the Stephens’ two story home, with a ground-floor walk-in entrance.   It was light and airy with large windows on three sides, all of which could be opened to let a fresh, cool breeze in when needed. 

 

             The Stephens were not members, nor did they want to have anything to do with the Church, but I think they recognized that LDS missionaries were good stable tenants, who didn’t drink or smoke, or have parties.  They treated us very well while we lived there.  One of the windows looked out over their raised vegetable garden to the side of their home and Graham would frequently share the veggies with us from his garden.  We would leave a window in the kitchen unlocked, and Graham would push it open and place, on the counter, a nice bunch of corn, beans, carrots, broccoli, or whatever produce he harvested that day.  He also had some beautiful roses growing along our window.  New Zealand’s weather and soil produces some of the most delicious vegetables in the world.   We loved them and bought lots of them!   From our apartment we could look out over a large area of the many little suburbs of Auckland, and could see the large island, Rangitoto, out in the bay.  The homes around where we lived were on a steep hillside and looked as if they were stacked on top of each other.  We had to turn our car around and drive out down the very steep driveway – thank goodness they didn’t have ice or snow there, just lots of rain.

      

            

      Graham had a beautiful flower garden behind our             The raised garden next to the apartment was

      Apartment.  You can see the clothes line we used              always kept full or vegetables and when one

      above Jeanné’ head.                                                       crop would finish, Graham would plant another.

 

Upon arriving in our new mission we soon learned that one of our biggest jobs was going to be to instruct the Stake presidents in the Pacific Island Area how to correctly fill out and submit their Confidential Records.  At that time the Area included: New Zealand, Samoa, American Samoa, French Polynesia (Tahiti,) Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, and Northern Mariana (Guam).   There were five service areas to oversee the Pacific Islands Area: New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, and Guam.  I am not sure when the Pacific Islands Area was created, but it had to have been about three years before we arrived.  Most of the islands in the Pacific, including New Zealand, were all formerly a part of the Australia Area.  The headquarters for the Pacific Islands Area was transferred to New Zealand (A new Area was created shortly after we left which as I understand added Australia back and removed Guam, which was transferred into one of the Asian Areas.)   

 

I am sure New Zealand was chosen as the Area headquarters because of the ease of access from there to the islands.  After the confidential records of the Pacific Islands Area were transferred from Australia to New Zealand, there hadn’t been anyone who had been given complete autonomy over them.  They had more or less just been handled by one person after another, from pillar to post, you might say. Because of the time it was requiring to straightened them out,  the records had gotten into pretty bad shape.  We soon discovered that while all of the Stake Presidents spoke English, we found that they really didn’t completely understand it, especially when it came to legal terms, as confidential records are couched in

 

     

            Our original office on the second floor                               Our new office on the third (4^th) floor.      

          where we shared the space with Upolosi.                             Now we had an office all to ourselves.

   . 

When confidential records are sent in to Church Headquarters in Salt Lake, there are very strict rules to be followed in how they should be filled out, because of the legal requirements of the records.  If they were not filled out correctly, church Headquarters would return them to the Stake President, along with a cover letter indicating the paragraph(s) and subsection(s) in which the record had information missing or incorrect.  We found that the Stake Presidents didn’t understand what they needed to do to complete the missing information.   So the record just remained unfinished -- in the president’s desk drawer.  Our office would receive a copy of the stake president’s file and the cover letter from church headquarters, and therefore the record also remained in our files.   One record had been waiting eight years to be acted on -- and two or three years wasn’t unusual for other records to have been waiting!  That’s a long time for someone who had been waiting to be re-baptized into the church, or to have their blessings restored.  It was for this purpose that Jeanné and I were asked to serve this unusual mission – to our knowledge we were the only full-time confidential missionaries in the Church!   As we went through the records, it was often just a simple matter of explaining, in terms the stake president could understand, what was needed to correct the problem, so they could submit them again. 

 

Our immediate supervisor whom we worked under was Malcolm Sheward.  He was born in South Africa and had moved to New Zealand because he was concerned about the safety of his children.   His assistant was Upulasi Tupa’i, who was Samoan.   We really learned to love these two good men.  Upulasi had been one of the many who had the responsibility of handling the confidential records before we came, so he was a great help.  These men were helpful and patient with us as we learned our responsibilities. 

                                  

                                  Malcolm Sheward                          Upulasi Topa’i

 

Malcolm is very talented on the computer and helped us by creating a PowerPoint program that we used in the islands when we went there to teach the Bishops and Stake Presidents the correct way to fill out their records.  In Samoa, Upulasi narrated the program because he spoke the language and could explain it to them better.  In Tahiti, where they mostly speak French, or Tahitian, we had Freddy Riemer, the manager of the Tahiti Service Center, do the narrating while there.

 

Jeanné soon recognized that because confidential records are handled by the priesthood, I was the one that the priesthood leaders wanted to talk to when they called with a problem.  However, she was very proficient at filing and locating the records we worked on, and finding those records that needed help, so we worked well together.  We could turn to Malcolm and Upulasi for help any time we needed it and we learned to appreciate them.  Both of them always went with us as we visited Tahiti, Samoa and Tonga, some more than once, but we never did get to Fiji or Guam.   We had a meeting with all of the Service Center MSR Supervisors (MSR = Membership & Statistical Records.)  We didn’t have too many problems with the records from Fiji, most problems we just handled via the phone.  Guam is the Service Center for the Northern Mariana Islands.  It is such a primitive area that the mission leader didn’t take much confidential action when it came to sexual misconduct as he didn’t think the natives really understood what was expected of them because of their naivety and life style.  Another reason was it is very expensive to fly to Guam from New Zealand.  You have to fly to Australia and then to Guam – it often takes two days.

 

Much of our time on our visits to the islands was taken up with instructing the bishops and stake presidents the correct way to fill out confidential records (using the PowerPoint presentation produced by Malcolm.)   We finally, literally, worked ourselves out of a job, as we corrected most of the existing problems and were left mostly with current records. When we returned home, we turned the handling of those records to Brother Syd Shepherd and his wife, very capable Church-service missionaries who live in New Zealand, and they were able to take care of the work we had been doing in just one or two days a week.  They weren’t committed to a 18 month mission, as we were, and the last I heard they were still serving in that capacity.

 

The Pacific Islands Area office is located in a four story building owned by the Church in the Tapakuna business district.   It was originally purchased to be used as the headquarters for the New Zealand mission.   Until the Area headquarters was moved there from Australia, they leased out parts of the building to other people.  During our stay, they completely remodeled the mission office and it then occupied the entire ground floor.   Their former space was remodeled into an office for the Area presidency.   They then remodeled the fourth floor and moved our office up there.  When we left they were working on remodeling the second and third floors.   I should explain that in New Zealand they use the “English” method of numbering the floors:   What we call the first floor, they call the ground floor and then the second floor is the first floor and so on.  Therefore our new office was on the “third” floor – but it was really the fourth floor!  Got it?

 

 

                                                   Church Office Building – Takapuna -

                                         with four floors – we were on the 3^rd (top) floor

 

We were able to take wonderful trips to the some of the Area islands (as mentioned, we never got to Tonga or Guam), and were pleased to see the role the Church is playing in the islands.  The church buildings are clean and beautiful, and they are building many new stake and ward houses.  They are built in a unique way so that the chapel is kind of free-standing -- not really attached to the rest of the class rooms and office.  That makes it so the chapels are open on all four sides and the chapel windows are made of glass louvers which open wide to allow the breeze in, to keep them cool.  Some have ceiling fans to add to the cooling.  (Our stake house here in Auckland has ceiling fans.)  A couple of the stake houses even have air conditioning.  Because of the air conditioning, one Stake house we visited, in American Samoa, was so cold we needed a sweater!   All of the islands are beautiful, but for me Tahiti is the most beautiful of all, with its towering mountains and sandy beaches.  Jeanné, on the other hand, thought Samoa was the prettiest.  We had the opportunity to take a tour around all the islands we visited.

 

Tahiti

 

Beautiful Tahiti

 

We were privileged to visit Tahiti more often than any other island, visiting there three times.  The Islands of Tahiti have sugary white sand beaches, rugged mountains, and colorful history.  The capitol of Tahiti is Papeete, and it is one of almost numberless islands of French Polynesia, covering an area as large as Europe!  The neighboring island to it is Moorea.   We took a ferry and visited it one day.  The Tahitians are trying to keep Moorea, as near as they can, in the primitive state that all of the islands were originally.   There is a beautiful temple in Tahiti, and since we were there they have remodeled it and increased its size.  Today eight percent of the population of French Polynesia is members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

 

On our first visit to Tahiti we met with all the Stake Presidents one evening.   They had an opening hymn at which all the men stood and sang, in French, of course.   Jeanné and I were thunder-struck at the beauty of their blended voices.  So much so that though we knew the words of the song, in English, we just stood there unable to sing along with them.  I shall never forget that experience.   What a thrill it was to not only hear them sing, but to feel of their testimonies in their singing.  The presentation was handled by the MSR supervisor of the Tahiti Service Center, Freddy Riemer, who I understand has now been made a Stake president.  He spoke in French so they would better understand our instructions and I was only called on when there was a question about our presentation that Freddy needed help with.  That was quite an experience.

 

The hotel we stayed at in Tahiti as gorgeous.  It has a wide open-entrance foyer that we just walked in to the desk, with no doors to open.  Looking out the windows from our room we could see a beautiful garden with a waterfall, and a swimming pool that was right on the edge of the ocean.  The restaurant where we ate breakfast each day was built out over the ocean and we could watch the fish swimming in the water below us.  How beautiful!

View of ocean from our hotel room.

 

One evening we walked down the road from our hotel and ate at a place on the beach where they bring a number of trailers that have been fitted out to sell fast-food, and had a fun dinner.  While French is their main language, most also speak English as do all of the employees of the Churches service centers, so we had little trouble getting around or shopping in their shops. 

 

 

  The Tahiti Temple                                

 

Samoa

            Samoa is also a beautiful island (it used to be called Western Samoa.)    It is much larger than Tahiti, and while it is also comprised of several islands, we only visited the two larger islands in the Samoan chain, Upolu and Savai'i, and also the city of Pago Pago over in American Samoa.  Like Tahiti, it is mountainous and of volcanic origin.  There is little level land except along the coastal areas, where most cultivation takes place.  Twenty-five percent of Samoans belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   The MSR Supervisor in the Samoan office was Talitimu Toleafoa – we called him “Timu” for short.   The island of American Samoa, which is a short airplane ride out of Apia, the capitol city of Samoa, also has a church membership of twenty-five percent of their population.    In order to travel between the islands we had to take a plane to American Samoa, but it was only a short ferry-boat ride from the main island of Upolu to Savai’i.  In order to fly to Pago Pago from Apia, we had to fly in a small two-engine plane that only had about 20 seats.   When some of those big Samoans flew, they would take up two seats so the occupancy was much smaller!   In the plane you could see right through the floor – we could have spit into the ocean through the holes in the floor!   Fortunately it was a short flight.

 

A Typical Samoan Fale.

 

The temple in Apia, was built in 1877, and accidentally burned down while it was being remodeled just after we arrived in July 2003.   Fortunately the Angel Maroni was not damaged.  There had been a ward house next to the temple, and it had been rebuilt across the street so the temple could be enlarged.  The new enlarged temple was dedicated about a year after we left.  One of the most memorable features of Samoa is their many fales (rhymes with Valleys) which are sort of a roof held up on pillars (usually logs) under which they can be protected from the sun and rain, and provides them with cooling breezes to sleep or work under. 

 

Samoa has some interesting cultural ways.  When we had a lovely dinner following our presentation at one of the Ward houses, one of the brethren stood up, and spoke in a loud voice.   We couldn’t understand because it was in Samoan, and after he spoke, another brother stood up and spoke a few more words.  We couldn’t understand it all, as they spoke in Samoan, but we were told that the first man was telling everyone who could hear his voice of the great things that were being done, and the second man sort of answered him.  I never did completely understand the whole thing, but it was honoring us in some way.  Afterward the women served us all a delicious dinner, incidentally.

   

            Like in Tahiti, we had a local (Upulasi - from our office) give the presentation in Samoan – this was done so that they would understand it more completely than if we gave it in English. We gave the presentation twice on the island of Upolu and a couple of times in Savai’i, but only needed to give it once in the large Stake house in Pago Pago.

 

The three islands we visited were quite different.  Savai’i Island is smaller, and more rural, more primitive, with less expensive homes, and stores, etc.  Despite the lower income level of living there, the several Church Ward and Stake houses there are beautiful buildings.  Many who live on Savai’i take the short ride over and back to Apia on a ferry boat each morning and night to work.   Upolu is much more affluent and much larger than Savai’i.  On the other hand Pago Pago, the capitol of American Samoa looks more like an American city, with nicely paved streets with gutters, as well as fashionable shops and lovely hotels and restaurants.  There is a large Star-kissed Tuna factory in Pago Pago which employs hundreds of workers and undoubtedly influences the higher level of living there. 

 

Monument to David O. McKay at Sauniatu

 

          In 1927, David O. McKay (then Elder McKay) dedicated a large parcel of land in Samoa as a place of refuge for the Saints to live who were, at that time, being severely persecuted and called it Sauniatu (Saw-nee-ah-too).  It is high up in the mountains in a large valley surrounded by beautiful mountains, with its own chapel and homes.   The road to get there(not owned by the Church) was in bad condition when we drove up:  long and bumpy with lots of pot holes and ruts.   We heard that it has since been repaved.  There is a monument as you enter the valley with a plaque telling the story about it, and a picture of David O. McKay on his horse.   Today I think it is being used as a primary school.  The Church also has a good college in Samoa.  We stayed at a attractive hotel there by the name of Aggie Grey’s, which faces a large bay filled with sail boats.

 

       

                          Aggie Grey’s Hotel in Apia                       Looking toward the sea from Aggie Grey’s

 

Tonga

 

Tonga consists of 171 islands spread over approximately 140,000 sq mi of the Pacific Ocean. They are divided into three main groups—Tongatapu, Ha’apai, and Vava’u. 48 of the islands are inhabited.   Capital city, located on Tongatapu, is Nuku'alofa.  The kingdom of Tonga is a hereditary monarchy.   While we were there the king was in poor health.  He was really heavy (fat would be the best term), was trying to loose some weight, so he would come and swim in the pool at our hotel because it was the nicest pool in the country.   We are told this by a caretaker at the hotel, as we never saw him.   He has since died, with his son taking over the monarchy.   The late king was every good to the LDS Church and we hope his son will be likewise.   The king’s palace is surrounded by a fence and well guarded.

 

           

                     Tongan Temple                                                     King’s Palace

 

Tonga has the largest percentage of Latter-day Saint membership of all the Polynesian Islands at 32%.  The MSR supervisor in Tonga was Sione Ova.   Unlike the other two islands of volcanic origin we visited, it is a coral island, so there are no mountains in Tonga.  We only visited the main island or Tongatapu, and it is not very large.  We drove around the entire island in about an hour or so.   Like Samoa, they have “blow holes” which have developed in the beaches and as the waves come in, the water “blows” up through them like a geyser.  The geysers are very pretty, but hard to take pictures of because you never know quite when they will appear, but which is frequently. 

One of the unique features of Tonga is their beautifully decorated cemeteries.   The Polynesian people obviously care a lot about their departed ones.   The Tongans make the most beautiful quilts in memory of their deceased, and hang them over the graves 24/7 – and remember it rains a lot there!  All the Polynesians decorate their graves, but the Tongans graves are the most colorful and beautiful, I believe.

  

   Beautifully decorated Tongan cemetery.                  One of their beaches, showing some blow-holes

 

When we went to visit either Samoa or Tonga we would fly there at night, so we would always arrive in the middle of the night (like 2 or 3 A.M.)     Someone would always be waiting for us to take us to our hotel.   In Tahiti however, we flew during the daylight hours.   We would fly to the Cook Islands for a brief stop before continuing our flight.  The Auckland airport is quite a distance from the office and so we would get a ride from one of the missionaries, or take a shuttle.  When we traveled with Malcolm and Upolosi they traveled so much they flew business class and we were able to go with them into the business class section of the terminals.  That was nice.  Several times Jeanné and I had to drive to the airport to pick up missionaries or members of the area presidency and bring them to the office.  Though we didn’t get the opportunity to visit Fiji, the MSR supervisor that we worked with there was Seru Ratuvukivuki.

 

We visit the New Zealand Temple

                New Zealand Temple with Wally & Jeanné, Elder & Sister MacCabe, and President & Sister Sager

    President Sager was the president of Nauvoo Mission while we and the MacCabes served there.

Because we worked in the Area office, our hours were pretty much from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, like the church employees who worked there.  Now and then we would work later, but we did have Saturdays and Sundays off.  Also when the office was closed (e.g. for a holiday) we didn’t work.  Pretty tough mission life!  That gave us many opportunities to travel and see New Zealand -- which we were encouraged to do by our Area President.  Once a month we would take the 3 or 4 hour drive to Hamilton and attend the temple, almost always taking another couple with us, or going with them.   Hamilton is not only where the temple is located, but is also the location of the Church College and the MTC for New Zealand.  We usually stopped on the way home at the little city of Pukekohe where there were two ice cream shops, side by side.   They both sold the biggest cones and if we couldn’t find the flavor we wanted at one, we would walk next door to the other!   During the time we were in New Zealand they were rebuilding the heavily-used highway to Hamilton.  They never finished the project during our stay there.

 

At Christmas Elder and Sister King thought of the idea of instead of everyone buying presents for each other, we would buy white shirts to give to the missionaries, some of whom would come to the MTC without a shirt to their name.   They came from islands where they were not only poor, but didn’t wear much clothing (because of the mild temperature) and had probably never owned – much less worn - a white shirt in their life.

 

 

Allreds, Nelsons and Thorups delivering white shirts to MTC.

 

We could buy two white shirts for about NZ$20 which were quite nice.  The idea was so successful, and appreciated, that we continued the program until we all left to come home.   Jeanné and I along with others would purchase several every month or so and take them with us when we went to the temple.  We also invited anyone at home who would like to participate in the program to do so.  My sister, Vera Heiner, sent us several large checks during our mission that we quickly converted into many shirts.  I don’t know what the total number of shirts we donated to the MTC (it was sizeable) but the directors there were surely grateful for them.   When the directors gave the new missionaries their shirts they were so proud!  The missionaries from the various islands that are served by the MTC here in New Zealand are quite different in size; some are quite small (especially those from New Guinea and the Solomon Islands) while others can be very large, like the Samoans.  When they got those shirts they really looked, and acted, like missionaries!

 

Places we visited in New Zealand

 

Rotorua was one of the first interesting places we visited on the north island.  The nearby Waimangu Volcanic Valley is called New Zealand’s “Yellowstone,” in that it has a few hot springs and geysers.  You have to be careful when there as the Maoris (natives) sometimes bathe au natural!   They have there a replica of a Maori fortified village, with the Marae, meeting place.  That was the center of everyday tribal life, sheltering eating, sleeping, work places and most importantly the sacred meeting house, Te Aronui a Rua.   They also have a successful kiwi breeding program.  The kiwi bird is the national icon.  Their program in Rotorua is the first successful breeding program, becoming the first kiwi birds born in captivity without human intervention.            

                 

Geyser                                     Waimangu Volcanic Valley

 

While in Rotorua we visited the place called the Agrodome where they have a world famous . show.  We saw sixteen different kinds of sheep, all of which are raised in New Zealand.   They also had other animals on display, including goats, cattle, deer, alpacas and ostriches.

 

New Zealand is such a beautiful country with so many different, even exotic, kinds of flowers, birds and trees.  We took several opportunities to visit the Auckland Regional Botanic

Wally & Jeanné at the Auckland Botanic Garden

 

Gardens a short drive on the southern motorway.   This large garden opened in 1982 and has become Auckland's premier horticultural showcase. With a full selection of New Zealand native plants and trees, the Botanic Garden is a wonderful place to see and learn about the many beautiful species of plants, trees and flowers in the country.  We enjoyed the several self-guided tours complete with information signs that fully told about the plantings. We found the camellias and roses were especially beautiful.   We really appreciated the free admission, too!

 

New Zealand Trees

 

We loved the Pohutukawa (Poe-hu-ta-cowa).   There are two varieties, yellow and red.  We don’t recall seeing a yellow bloom, but the red one was called the “Christmas Tree” because it bloomed so beautifully at Christmas-time and they really did look like a decorated Christmas tree.  You have to remember that December in New Zealand is their summer, so that alone was somewhat unique for us.   The Pohutukawa trees are protected, in that you couldn’t even prune them without permission. 

 

Pohutukawa (Poe-hu-ta-cowa) tree

 

Our favorite of all their trees, I think, was the Kauri tree.  The Kauri is a protected species also, in that you can’t fell a tree without permission.   Unique to New Zealand, it is the second largest tree in the world.  You really have to look up to see them!!   They originally covered almost the entire north island; the few remaining are now saved in national parks. 

 

One of the sites we frequently visited was the Kauri museum.  The Kauri Museum at Matakohe in the North of New Zealand is one of the countries most amazing theme museums.  In it they tell the fascinating story of the early New Zealand pioneers use of kauri timber and kauri gum. Settlers first came to Matakohe and nearby Paparoa and Maungaturoto in 1862.   The wood from the kauri was used for furniture and construction – it was especially valuable for boat building because of the unique resin properties of the wood.   Because they can’t cut trees anymore, they now dig up kauri wood that they find in the originally swampy ground.  The trees have been in the ground for over a century, and since the wood is filled with resin, it does not rot, and is almost as valuable as it was when left lying there!  The largest tree they have found was 80 feet in diameter!  The wood is absolutely beautiful when finished.  There are many exceptional displays and dedicated galleries and the museum has a beautiful collection of antique kauri furniture.   They also have some restored machinery including New Zealand's earliest tractor, a 1929 Cat 60, and a turning steam sawmill, all of which are interesting to see.   Kauri trees were also tapped for their gum, and large areas of peat lands were prospected for fossil gum. The gum was used for paint, varnish and linoleum

McKinney tree in Parry’s Kauri Grove

Jones, Thorup, Allred, Branham, Chartrand, Nichols

                        

as well as jewelry and such. The gum industry died when cheaper alternatives were found from petroleum products.  The Kauri Museum also has the largest collection of kauri gum in the world, a replica boarding house, a school and an historic post office with a fantastic collection of telephones.  It was a fun place for us to take new missionaries to see.

           Kauri Museam – circles on wall represent size of largest trees.   One of the furniture pieces of Kauri wood

 

 

Shakespeare Regional Park

 

Another place we enjoyed visiting was the Shakespeare Regional Park on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula north of Auckland.   There is a long walk (which we never finished) that takes you past bays and wildlife with various birds and waders. Here the native forests contain beautiful karaka, kowhai and aged puriri trees.  There is a small stream running along the walk along with a few small waterfalls.  It is just a beautiful place.  There are various walks which cross the park, ultimately coming to a swimming and boating beach, which we observed from our car but didn’t use.      

     

Hiking through Shakespeare Park with Van & Joyce MacCabe and Elder and Sister Spencer Condie

 

The walk through this park takes you into some absolutely stunningly beautiful trees.  The many different trees kept it well shaded and made it a delightful place for us to visit when the weather was warm.

 

Auckland

 

Auckland itself is built on a volcanic field from eruptions which occurred some 20,000 - 30,000 years ago.   One of the larger volcano mounds is called, One Tree Hill, as at one time it had one tree growing on the top.  It is a 600 foot volcanic peak located in Auckland, New Zealand. It was an important memorial place for both Māori and other New Zealanders.    The summit provides views across all of the Auckland area, and we could see both of Auckland's Harbors.   Sadly, the pine tree at the summit had to be removed following several attacks on its 105-year-old trunk.   On one of our visits we decided to walk down the steep hill.  They have terraced the hill so that sheep can graze on it and we thought we could quite easily walk down on those terraces, but we found the grass was quite high and it made it very difficult to see where we were walking.   Jeanné held on to my belt to keep for falling as we walked all the way down.  She nearly pulled down my pants!  It was really quite humorous, and we have laughed about that many times.

 

We visited the Auckland War Memorial a couple of times.  New Zealanders are quite proud of the service they have given in the wars, so they have several memorials throughout the country, including one in Wellington (the nation capital).   The Auckland War Memorial is a large building sitting on top of a hill.  It is three stories high.   On one of the floors it has all of

 

    Sister Haws, Jeanné, Sister King & Sister Nelson                                   Auckland War Memorial

 

the names of the men who have lost their lives fighting for their country, segregated by which war they were in.   They have a show several times a day in which the local Maoris demonstrate their dances.  To announce the program, a couple of the dancers would stand out near the front of the building and encourage visitors to come to see them.  On our first visit I asked if I could take their picture, when Jeanné got there she held on to the staff of the dancer.  She commented, “Is this okay?”  He replied, “Not really.”  I took the picture anyway!   When we went in for the program, they invited people to come up with them on the stage, and Jeanné took them up on it.

 

 

                         Jeanné with Maori dancers                                   Jeanné learning dance on stage

 

The other two floors of the Memorial were used for a various purposes.   We saw many school children there.  One of the more interesting floors was one that had a lot of items from an earlier day including an entire early 1900’s business district!   They also have one of the few restored Japanese Zero airplanes that played so much havoc in World War II.  You can press a button and the motor would rotate along with the propeller.  Quite an interesting place with artifacts from all the Pacific island peoples that go back hundreds of years..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pacifica Festival

 

          Jeanné by some Pacifica Festival booths                        One of the many performing groups

 

The Pacifika Festival is held in a large park east of Auckland each spring and we attended it both springs we were there.  The festival brings people from all of the many Pacific islands together, in separate areas, with booths where they can show off their craft work, demonstrate their cultures, and sell the wares – which are all hand made.  Hundreds of people attend and it was always fun to see the many islands represented, and buy some of the wares.  They had dancing, singing and other entertainments during the day to showcase the cultures of the various islands.   One of them even roasted a pig over a fire, similar to the way the Hawaiian Islanders do.

                                                Gannett Birds

 

We enjoyed driving over to a beach on the western side of the north island to watch the Gannett bird colony.  The Muriwai beach was only about an hours drive.  The ocean on that side of the country (the Tasman Sea side) has much higher waves and the beach there is a prime location for surfboarders.  Along this beautiful sandy beach is a steep, rocky abutment.  It takes a long climb up wooden stairs, but when you get to the overlook you can look down on a large colony of Gannett birds.  These beautiful birds can have a wingspan of almost 6 feet.

 

 

Gannets love to glide around on the strong winds found there.  Gannets mate for life and come back to this spot when its time to hatch their babies.  Once their chicks are grown and airborne, they all head back to Australia where they remain for several years until it is time to return to raise their new broods at this location.  It was fun to watch them hatch their babies and then teach the “teenagers” to fly.  It is quite a fascinating sight. 

 

Hundreds of  Gannets nesting all with an egg or baby nestling underneath.

 Moms and Dads mate for life and take turns nesting and scouting for food.

 

Jeanné on overlook with Muriwai beach behind.

 

 

 

Glenbrook Vintage Railway

 

During our first spring in New Zealand we took a ride on the Glenbrook Vintage Railway, operated by “The Railway Enthusiasts Society.”   They have many different schedules for this vintage train, but once a year they have what they call a Seatrain, on which you take the vintage railroad train one way down the island and return back on a boat.   We rode the steam railroad train from a station in Auckland, passing near Hamilton and then turned south to cross through some farmland, through the Kalmai tunnel (the longest tunnel carrying passenger trains in New Zealand.)    After leaving the tunnel the train traveled the coastline passing what is called the Bay of Plenty and thence along the scenic shoreline to Maunganui.   After a brief stopover, we caught a catamaran from the harbor there back to Auckland, traveling just off the coastline, passing the small cities along the way as well as the many off-shore islands surrounding the country.  It was a full day’s trip and there were quite a number of missionaries, including a member of the Area presidency (Elder Spencer Condie) and his wife, who went with us.  I noticed the current price for the tour is NZ$175 each, which would be about US$120, but I am not sure if it was that much when we took the trip.  On our trip, one of the engines in the catamaran broke down, so we had to “limp” back at a rather slow half-speed.  But we got home safely and enjoyed the trip.

 

                       Vintage Steam Railroad                                                 View of inland from train.                  

                  View of southern island from ferry.                           One of the many outer islands - from the ferry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flea Markets

 

The Kiwis, like the English, enjoy their flea markets.  They had many flea markets in New Zealand (I think they had another name for them) almost every little town had one from time to time.    When time permitted we enjoyed going to a large flea market held at Otoko, a few miles south of Auckland.   This was one of the largest we ever saw.  Some times it was difficult to find a parking place; there were so many people there. They had numerous booths with just about any kind of food or clothing or whatever - that you imagine.  We found that when we would wear our missionary badges (as opposed to our usual travel clothing) that the people would come and say hello, talk with us, and frequently bring us food or goodies that they had “bought too much of.”     They “loved their missionaries,” and couldn’t seem to do enough for us!   The Mãoris are a very warm and loving people.

 

Australia

 

After we had been on our mission for a few months, we were approached about heading up a group of Church-service missionaries in the Pacific Islands Area.  Since we had served on several Church-service missions and were aware of the great value they could be to the Area, we readily agreed to take this assignment. It was decided that we should visit with a missionary couple in Australia who had been having a great deal of success with the program there.  They were to show us what they had been doing.  So toward the end of March 2003 we flew to Sydney, Australia to work with Elder and Sister Reber, who were in charge of the program there.  We spent four days with them in their office, which was located in the Area office which was adjacent to the Sydney Australia Temple.  Actually, it is in a suburb called Carlingford, about an hour outside of Sydney.  We gained a lot of information on their program, even going with them to a Ward to see how they operated.  We also took with us copies of most of the records that the Rebers had developed for their use.  I don’t know just how long the program had been being utilized, but it was quite successful.  It was a thrill to be able to attend a temple session one night.

 

    

                              Sydney Australia Temple                                 Elder & Sister Reber

 

While in Australia we found our former Nauvoo mission president, Richard Sager, and his wife, Lois, who were there serving on another mission.  President Sager is a lawyer and was working in the legal department whose jurisdiction actually encompassed our Pacific Islands Area.  His office was in a building across the street from the Area office.  He was working under another man, a full-time member of the Church, and together they handled the various legal matters.  For one thing, Pres. Sager was going to the various islands and making sure that our Church’s legal standing was in keeping with the laws of each island, all of whom are very much independent from one another – and they would often make, or change, laws that had a direct bearing on the Church – especially important for our missionary work and the men who handle finances for the Church.  It was a big job.  Anyway, we found the opportunity to have lunch with them most of the days we were there, and they took us to see their small apartment provided by the church.  Our apartment in Takapuna was a mansion compared to theirs!  President Sager was our mission president in Nauvoo, but he beforehand been the mission president in Tennessee Knoxville.  The Knoxville mission was divided off from the Tennessee Nashville mission, and comprised all of the areas that we had served in while there on our mission.  In 2008 he was serving as the temple president in the Nashville Tennessee Temple.  They are now home.

 

The Rebers, Thorups, and Sagers on ferry to Sydney.

 

Our Area president, President Robert Dellenbach, told us as long as we were spending time and money to go to Australia we might as well spend a few extra days and see the place.  What a nice “mission president” we had.  So we spent about four days in training, and that left us with a couple of days to do some sightseeing.  We spent one day (Friday) with the Sagers, and the other day, Saturday, we spent with the Rebers.

We rode the ferry with President and Sister Sager into Sydney.  The ferry travels down a river that runs past Carlinford to Sydney Harbor.  It was our second beautiful ride.  Arriving in Sydney, we took another ferry ride to Manley, where Reid had served during his mission.  We ate lunch on the beach at Manley, took a few pictures, and rode back to Sydney where we attended a stage production of The Lion King.  After which we took a train back to Carlingford – as we couldn’t see much by then on the ferry.

            

   The Sydney Harbor Bridge is widest bridge in the world.          We are in front of Sydney Opera House

 

On Saturday the Rebers drove us over to see the famous ‘Blue Mountains’ – one of the more picturesque places in the area.  The day was rather cold, but we did enjoy seeing that beautiful part of Australia.  At one point we took the Katoomba Railway (touted as the ‘steepest incline railroad in the world’) down to the bottom of the canyon where e could see the rain forest, some abandoned mines, and the beautiful Kattoomba falls.

 

A panoramic view of the Blue Mountains.

 

 

      Sister Reber showing steep incline                       Jeanne’ on horse statue depicting old mining carts

 

After viewing the Blue Mountain area, we stopped by the Featherdale Wildlife Park where they have the animals and birds native to Australia in a sort of petting zoo.  It was really fun to see them, and pet some of them.  They have a real assortment of them.  (See pictures top of next page.)

 

 

After our delightful visit, we returned home to New Zealand and attempted to put the Church-service missionary program into use.  I carefully transferred all of the Reber forms and documents onto sheets with the Pacific Islands Area name and address on them so they would relate to our Area, and spent a lot of time trying to influence the various islands under our domain to adopt the program.  It was adopted with a very limited success, mostly

 

because we were unable to visit the islands as much as we needed to and teach them the advantage of using these part-time missionaries.  I spent as much times as I could explaining the CSM program during our few trips when we went to talk about Confidential Records, but they had a difficult time to adopt the concept.  One of the Islands, Fiji, did get a small program operating and were happy with it.  But the success relied on finding a reliable person on each island to head up the program.  With all of their other responsibilities, the Stake Presidents were slow to grasp the value of it. 

Church-service missionaries can provide such a great help.  Brother and Sister Shepherd, who have now taken over the program were serving as Church-service missionaries in New Zealand where the program was working well.  We hope that they have been more successful than we were in getting the islands to accept the program.  If it did nothing else, it provided us a great opportunity to visit Australia!

 

South Island Trip 

 

During the week between Christmas and New Year (actually Monday, 27 Dec 2004 to Monday, 3 Jan 2005) we took a tour of the South Island with two other couples.   Elder Van and Sister Joyce MacCabe, Elder Gordon and Sister Betty Passey and Jeanne’ and I met at the office building in Takapuna with our luggage and took a shuttle-van to the Auckland airport where we took the direct one hour flight down to Wellington.   Wellington is the capitol of New Zealand. 

It is a beautiful city built right on the Cook Strait which separates the North and the South Islands of New Zealand.  Except for where it joins the Strait, it is completely encircled with steep

          View of Wellington looking out over Hawke's Bay– you can see the channel in background.

 

hills upon which homes are built about as close together as they are in Auckland.  The homes are

on very small lots, many of which are located on hillsides, some of which are on such steep hills that elevators are built into the side of the hill of some homes to take their occupants up and down from their garages to their homes.

                  

            We had a few hours free before taking a tour of the city, so we visited a beautiful museum called Te Papa.  It is huge, about 6 stories high, very well done – and free!  We were especially fascinated by the exhibit that showed how earthquakes occurred, especially interesting to us because of the devastating tsunami, caused by a 9.0 earthquake, which had just occurred the day before in the Indian Ocean (which we later learned took several hundred thousand lives.) 

           

            After visiting the museum, we took an interesting tour of the city which wound up and down the steep hills, with their very sharp curves, and ended up on top of Mt. Victoria from which we had a 360˚ view of the city.  Wellington is really composed of four small towns which all blend together; you can’t tell where one starts and the next ends.  The total

population of the four towns is about 400,000, which makes greater Wellington the

 

                                             Passeys, Jeanné, and MacCabes              

 

second largest city in NZ.  Greater Auckland, the largest city, has a population of 1.5 million.  Wellington is where all the government buildings are located; including the “Beehive” building that houses their parliament.

 

  Wellington Parliament buildings                                      Wellington College

 

Many of the older buildings in Wellington have been beautifully restored, including the Wellington College directly across the street from the new “Beehive” and the other legislative buildings,  It used to house the government offices, but is now used as a law university.  The college building is one of the two oldest wooden buildings in the world, and is made completely out of native kauri wood.  Kauri trees are some of the largest in the world, and one of the hardest woods known.  It should last forever!  Today the kauri trees can’t even be cut down – but the wood is so impervious to water that they dig up old logs that we felled years ago and use them! Our tour guide told us that many of the areas of the city have been built on reclaimed land, much of which at one time was beach-front property.  This extended the city several hundred feet out into the ocean.  How interesting.

  

Tuesday

 

We left early to be taken to the Ferry Terminal where we rode the ferry across Cook Strait and up the narrow channel called the Marlborough Sounds to the little city of Picton.  When arriving we walked a short way to the Tranz Coastal train station, and there took a diesel passenger train, equipped only with seats, every other one facing together with a table between them. The train makes the trip back and forth between Picton and Christchurch once each day.  Our luggage had been checked through to Christchurch so we didn’t have to worry about it. 

We left  Picton about 1:40 p.m. and traveled south through Marlborough and along the narrow coastal strip next to the picturesque Pacific Ocean along the Kaikoura coast that is pounded by the Pacific ocean, lined with high mountains all the way.  We passed through several small towns and arrived in Christchurch at about 7 p.m. where we took a shuttle from the train to the beautiful five-star Copthorne Hotel which is located right in the heart of the city overlooking beautiful Victoria Square, the Avon river and a southern view to what they call the Southern Alps.  Christchurch is the regional capital of Canterbury, New Zealand. The largest city in the South Island it is a coastal city situated midway down the South Island's east coast... Spelled as two words, Christ Church is the name of a college at Oxford in England.  We located a Subway sandwich shop and had dinner there.

 

Copthorne Hotel in Christchurch

 

Wednesday

 

We were picked up by our tour-bus coach just before 8 a.m. to continue our tour.  It was a long day of driving, passing picturesque lakes and mountains and valleys.  Unfortunately most of the weather was wet and cold, with low-hanging clouds which obliterated the mountain peaks.  We drove past the beautiful Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in southern New Zealand, but with the cloud cover we had to find a picture to see what it looked like!

     

                    Our bus                                                  Majestic Mount Cook -- on a clear day

 

There are large man-made canals that run through the area with the purpose of diverting water to hydro-electric generators which provide the majority of electricity for New Zealand.  All along the way we passed literally thousands of sheep, plus a lot of cattle and horses, on what they call the Canterbury Plains with its orderly paddocks and fence lines.   New

 

Zealand has approximately 45 million sheep! – Over ten times the population of the 4 million people who live here - and 4.5 million beef cattle.   There are over 5.1 million cows milked, but interestingly 85% of those are on the north island.  

 

                           Canterbury Plains                                                        Typical Sheep farm

 

     Tonight we stopped at Queenstown for two nights, a city that was created during the gold-rush days of the late 1800’s.  It is a resort town in the south-west of the South Island.  It is built around an inlet on Lake Wakatipu, a long thin lake shaped like a staggered lightning bolt, and has spectacular views of nearby mountains. We stopped for the night at the St. Moritz Hotel (which is built on a very steep road) on Lake Wakatipu.  It caused us some problems because Sister MacCabe could not walk up or down hills very well.  Therefore we had to take a taxi everywhere we wanted to go.  Elder and Sister Passey joined our tour group later than the MacCabes and us so the tour agent wasn’t able to keep our rooms together and so they had to settle for separate accommodations for a couple of nights due to the crowds who were visiting for the coming New Year’s Eve celebration.

We enjoyed the beauty of the lovely city of Queenstown.  It is sometimes disparagingly referred to as "Vegas by the Lake" because of its commerce-oriented tourism, especially adventure and ski tourism.   (Remember, it is summer here in New Zealand in December – no snow here now!)  It is popular with young international and New Zealand travelers alike and is packed today with mostly young people on a New Years holiday.  It reminded us of areas such as Park City or St. George with their teeming overpopulation during holidays.  We were definitely among the more mature people in town, most being college age I would judge.  Jeanné and I made it a habit of shopping each night for milk and orange juice, together with cereal and yogurt, so we could have a quick breakfast in our hotel room the next morning.   Again tonight we got sandwiches and drinks from a Subway and walked back to our hotel.  The last street was up a very steep hill, but we made it! 

 

                Downtown Queenstown                            Gondola overlooking Queenstown (on a clear day)

 

Thursday

 

We saw a cute show, included as part of our tour, entitled, “Kiwi Magic.”   It was well done, and using a comedian theme of getting lost one moment and crashing an airplane or such the next, they took us to most of the celebrated vacation spots in southern New Zealand.  It only lasted about 25 minutes, and we all came out wishing it had been longer.  Following the show we took a taxi to the Gondola ride, also included in our tour, which took us to the top of one of the higher peaks surrounding this little vacation village.  As was our luck on much of this trip, it was cloudy and drizzling so when we finally got to the top we could hardly see the city below!   We ate lunch while there, and afterwards the clouds began clearing and we were able to get some nice views.  They have a wonderful luge track going partway down the hill, after which you can ride to the top on a ski lift and repeat the experience.  We would have loved to have done that.  The view from there was spectacular.   Being rather rainy, and with the difficulty of walking up the steep hill to our hotel, we had an early dinner and retired for the evening.

 

Friday

 

   We left Queenstown early today and drove along some beautifully scenic countryside.  It is interesting to note that deer farming was introduced along this area and has been highly successful.  Forests, lakes and streams abound in the area.  Our driver stopped several times for us to get out and take pictures along the way.  Lupines bloomed almost everywhere we went, in gorgeous shades of violet, pink, red, white and yellow.   They were almost like a carpet along many of the valley floors.  We learned that most of the trees in the South Island (which the locals call the “Main Island”) are Birch, with a few other varieties thrown in here and there.  One of the lakes was called “Mirror Lakes” and a stream had the name of “Cascade Creek” all reminding us of similar names back home.   We drove through the very long Homer Tunnel, to emerge into the awesome Cleddau Canyon. 

 

      

                              Two views of Cleddau Canyon                                            Lupine in full bloom

 

A steep descent from there then brought us to Milford Sound.  Milford Sound is a long arm of the ocean that extends inland – not sure how far, but would guess over 15 miles – and is deep enough that large ships can sail the entire length.  The walls are almost vertical and there are waterfalls almost continually along the entire length – a lot like Zion Canyon, only higher.  Actually, a “sound” is formed by the action of the ocean, and a “fiord” is formed by glacial action, and while this is called a sound, it is actually a fiord.

 

Our boat tour took us the entire length of the sound and out into the Tasman Sea, where the boat returned back again.  Again, we saw lots of waterfalls cascading down the sides of the sound, but the clouds prevented us seeing most of the mountain peaks along this beautiful section of the country.  These pictures are the best I could do that cloudy day.

 

                                                             Two waterfalls in Milford Sound

 

          Rejoining our coach, we climbed back to the Homer Tunnel and then retraced our path to the hub of the Fiordland region and the attractive town of Te Anau, which we had passed through on the bus earlier in the day.    Bringing a truly memorable day to a close, we stayed overnight at the Fiordland Hotel retiring on New Year’s eve at about 9:30 p.m.   Being New Year’s Eve, we didn’t hear a single firework go bang!  (Seniors, we are!)

 

 

                               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, January 1, 2005 - Dunedin

 

 

The countryside around Te Anau was recently converted from desert to productive farmland by irrigation, and the dry conditions continue elsewhere through the area.   We drove this day to Dunedin passing some of the hills in the area that used to be the hiding place of whisky distillers during prohibition days. 

 

President Clinton made a visit to this area during his visit to NZ to see the very small town of Clinton.  The highway from Clinton passes next through another larger town by the name of, Gore.  The portion of highway between the two towns has been named the “presidential highway” by the locals.  (Gore was Clinton’s vice-president.)   Gore is the center of the Southland sheep farming industry, and the same environment continues all the way to Dunedin, the “Edinburgh of the South.”   Dunedin was settled by Scotch immigrants and is much like Scotland in its appearance and ways.  Arriving about 2 p.m., we then took a tour of the city and around Otago Harbor.  Many of the expeditions to the South Pole begin in Dunedin; those that don’t, generally begin in Christchurch.

 

                  

                                 All dolled up and ready for the mud!                           Royal Albatross

 

As a part of the tour, we stopped at a place named, “Natures Wonder,” and took another tour that put us in 8-wheeled Argo vehicles in which we had to wear heavy rubberized coats and hoods to protect us from mud and rain.  We drove up some very steep terrain (not unlike around Moab, but probably of coral rather than sandstone) where we could see some of the largest birds in the world: the Royal Albatross.  They have a wing span of about 9 feet and live here on what is called, Taiaroa Head.   We also saw some Yellow-eyed Penguins , some of the rarest penguins in the world, and a large group of fur seals.   The penguins are very shy and won’t even nest where they can be seen by another nesting pair.  Natures Wonder built a long wooden tunnel with hand rails that allowed us to walk (very carefully down a slippery floor) to where we could see the Yellow-eyed Penguins; they had cut little windows in the side of the tunnel with doors that could be opened so we could look directly out on the nests.  The seals were on the rocks on the edge of the ocean, many of whom had little babies playing in the little tidal pools near their parents.  One little one was just hollering so, but none of the seals seemed to care.  Jeanne’ felt sorry for it.  The mother seals go out in the ocean to feed every other day and leave their babies alone.  The babies were really cute to watch.

 

Very shy Yellow-eyed Penguin

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Sunday, Still in Dunedin

 

We found a LDS chapel and attended a very spiritual Sacrament meeting, with members often telling of their conversion; and an interesting Gospel Doctrine class. 

 

Mother and baby fur seal

 

 

 

Following which we had lunch and boarded our bus for the final leg of our tour back to Christchurch, arriving about 6:30 p.m.  Our

tour was over, so we stayed one additional night at the Holiday Inn where we had a very good, but expensive, buffet dinner.

 

Monday – January 3^rd

  

Christchurch is a college town, and the third largest city in New Zealand.   Today we returned to Christchurch and had the morning free, so we took a tour of the city.   There is a lovely LDS chapel there and the tour driver told us that the LDS Church had purchased a sizeable piece of land some time ago for the chapel site, with the intention of building on part and subdividing the rest of it.  A committee, including the local council, raised enough money to purchase part of the land from the Church and turned it into a beautiful park.  It has the river Avon running through it with ducks along the greenway, with lovely homes across the stream.  We bought a package of duck food (bread) and I got a picture of Jeanne’ feeding them.  The ducks almost attacked her.  She claims one bit her toe!  On the side opposite the river it is planted beautifully, including a large rose garden at the end that we all fell in love with.

 

    

      Jeanné feeding – or getting eaten by – the ducks.               Standing in front of the beautiful rose garden.

 

             This afternoon we boarded a plane back to Auckland and arrived home in the early afternoon after a glorious trip to, we thought, the most beautiful part of New Zealand!  It is no wonder that many people from the north are finding their way to the south island.  It is a wonderland.

 

Off-shore Islands

 

On our days off, we visited a couple of the many off-shore islands that virtually surround the north island.  Many are too small to be occupied, but several are large enough to house sizeable communities.  This tells of our visits to the islands of Waiheke and Kawau.. 

 

Waiheke

 

Five couples (Chartrands, Loosles, MacCabes, Nichols and Jeannè and I) took a ferry to a Waiheke Island, which is located about 35 minutes by ferry from Auckland. The second-largest (after the Great Barrier Island) of all the gulf islands, is also the most populated and the most accessible due to regular ferry and air services. Waiheke is the third most populated island in New Zealand.   Waiheke has a resident population of about 8000 people.  Each house must maintain its own water supply, most collecting rainwater in cisterns, and must install a septic tank and septic field to handle sewerage.  Waiheke Island is a popular holiday spot, and during the main summer season, especially around Christmas and Easter, the population on the island increases substantially.  Some of the residents that live on the ocean front have their own boat houses, with a nice boat in them.  It was a fun place to see.  For me, the highlight of the trip was when we stopped at a little place where the owner, Lloyd Whitaker, refurbishes old pianos and organs, of all things!  His show room was just packed with so many different kinds of musical instruments, and he and his wife gave us a tour, explaining the many instruments – and also playing them for us.  Some were quite unique, and I thought it was strange that he could find parts for them.  He explained to me that there was a company in New Zealand that made all the parts, and he had no trouble finding them at all.  We purchased a CD of him playing the old grand piano that once belonged to Ignace Jan Padereski, the famous pianist who visited New Zealand around 1900. Padereski took his pianos with him on his tours around the world, and apparently left this one in New Zealand.  Lloyd told us that his musical career began at an early age when he learned to play a variety of instruments by ear.  By 10 years he was playing the mouth organ, accordion, piano, pedal organ, mandolin-guitar, and concertina. He was also accompanying the school choir and playing 'extras' at country dances attended by his parents.  

 

 

               Bay on Waiheke Island                                 Lloyd Whitaker at the Padereski piano

 

 

When he retired he now spends his time re-conditioning old musical instruments, demonstrating and performing on them, with his wife, in his store on Waiheke island.

 

Kawau

 

On another day, a group of us visited Kawau Island.  It is in the Hauraki Gulf close to the north-eastern coast of the North Island.  This island has a small population of permanent residents and many holiday dwellings, and is a popular destination for pleasure craft cruising.  The island was bought by Sir George Grey Governor of New Zealand, in 1862 as a private retreat. He created the Mansion House, which still stands, and made the surrounding land into a botanical and zoological park, importing many plants and animals. The reserve is public land and covers ten percent of the Island, and includes the old copper mine, believed to be the site of New Zealand’s first underground metal mining venture.  

 

    Sisters Nichols, Loosle, Thorup, Chartrand & MacCabe    Elders Chartrand, Nichols, Loosle, MacCabe & Thorup

All standing in front of the Mansion House – the third from the left of the sister missionaries is Carol Mylius - a member of our Hibiscus Ward - she pronounces her name “Coral” in typical Kiwi jargon!

 

New Zealand Birds

 

          New Zealand has so many indigenous birds that I could not tell you all of them.  But there were a few that we saw that made an impression on me.

 

Kiwi

           

 

The Kiwi bird has become a national symbol for New Zealand.   Today, New Zealanders overseas (and at home) are still invariably called "Kiwis". The Kiwi bird has become a national symbol for New Zealand.

          The Kiwi is the most ancient bird found in New Zealand. It has been there for over 60 million years and is unique to New Zealand. It is a nocturnal bird with weak eyesight, is flightless, rather small and sturdy, and has a long beak.  It nests in holes on the forest floor.  Despite its awkward appearance, a kiwi can actually outrun a human and have managed to survive because of their alertness and their sharp, three-toed feet, which enable them to kick and slash an enemy.  Kiwis have been known to live up to twenty years.

 

            We saw many stuffed Kiwis, but only a couple of live ones -- when we visited Rotorua.  They kept them in a darkened glassed-in cage, as they are nocturnal.  Otherwise no one would have been able to see them moving around, they would have been asleep.

                    

Tui (Two-ee)

 

          The New Zealand Tui has a distinctive croaking and gurgling song that can be heard echoing through most parts of New Zealand.  We had one that perched in the tree just outside our apartment.   It has the strangest “croaking” then switching to “gurgling” song you can imagine.   It starts out with a sweet little song, and then switches into a rasping “caw, caw” that is very unique.   I tried to get a picture of the little guy, but he would move away every time I even got close!  These I pirated from elsewhere –

                                                                                               

Tui

 

Pukeko (Poo-kee-coe)

 

Pukeko birds are found most places where there are swamps, or ponds.  We could always see them at Shakespeare Park and they were fun to watch, with their large scarlet bill, black and

                                      

                                                                                 Pukeko

white body, and long orange-red legs and feet.   They seemed to be fearless and would run all over the place.   They were also around the lakes at the Pacifika festival that I mentioned earlier.