Traveling up to Northland…

Okay, to start with you first get your New Zealand trivia! While living in Romania I thought that country surely was the sheep capital of the world but I think New Zealand has them beat! In he 1980’s sheep out-numbered humans, twenty to one! Even more interesting is that they now use Drones to herd the sheep! Those can’t be very loving shepherds! Poor sheep!

You remember that child’s song “Kookaburra sat in the old gum tree; eating all the gum drops he can see. Stop, Kookaburra, stop! Leave some there for me!” (or something like that!) Anyway, according to the information we were given, there is only one Kookaburra bird left in New Zealand! He is about twenty years old and those birds live to be over a 100! Sad, lonely life for that little bird! There are Kookaburra birds in Australia but I guess it is too hard for him to “jump the ditch” (as they say) and go over there to find some friends! However, there are gum trees here and it is something they do export.

Since arriving we have been busy, but also a little bit in limbo as we did not get our final assignment until this past Friday! It has been fun getting to know members and elders in the Papatoetoe community and it has also taken us these two weeks to learn our way around our apartment area and figure out how and where to buy food, get a hair cut and find other services we may need. In he middle of all this it has rained, rained and rained! They say winter is pretty much over but someone needs to tell the sky that!

We will always remember Elder and Sister Plehn as they are the ones who have really taught us to adjust in this wonderful country. They live in the same complex we do and are serving as record extraction missionaries.

I still find myself looking the wrong way for oncoming cars when crossing the street but John is doing pretty well with his driving now. Only once has he made a right hand turn  the way we would do it in the U.S, Unfortunately a car was coming right then and John had to do a fast wheel-turn to the other side of the street to get out of his way before colliding with him. The people looked sternly at us and probably thought we had been drinking a little too much! Maybe Mountain Dew? He did drink one of those here and he rarely drinks any soda pop!

Anyway, another thing we have been doing is going on walks through our community. The first day we did fine and enjoyed seeing the differences in the homes, and checking out all the flowers that are coming into bloom now that summer is almost here. I love the flowers and John is patient when I have to stop and smell them all!

The second day we went for a walk we got very lost! We went the same way we went the first day but somehow, when we thought we were heading back to our apartment complex we saw nothing that was familiar! We asked an Indian lady for directions and in her broken English she cheerfully pointed out the way. Not! We finally found a street worker who did guide us back and we made it home. All I can say is that there is  lot to be said about the way Brigham Young laid out the streets in Salt Lake City! The third day we walked we took our GPS and let it do the guiding for us. No problem—-we made it home just fine! I mention these things to tell you that in-between doing missionary work we are able to lead a pretty normal life and are enjoying getting to know this new country we will be living in for the next year and a half.

Last weekend President Walker sent us on an exploratory assignment to check out the Branches and Wards up north. There are two Stakes in the northern part of the island. However, half of the units are branches and are very small. Even some of the wards are quite small. There has not been a couple serving in that part of the country for quite a while now and he wanted us to report back so he could decide if a couple was needed up there.

We loved the trip! Once you get out of the city of Auckland the scenery is beautiful. Everything is rolling green hills with beautiful trees and bushes. It is like looking at a groomed park that never ends! The ocean is on your right side as you travel north and is also very beautiful with bays and islands all over the place! We first went to The Bay of Islands and met the full time missionaries at the Branch President’s home. He lives in a very lush area. He invited us in to meet his family and his oldest son formally welcomed us to New Zealand.

We had a really good visit with both Bishop Smith and the Elders. They told us of the needs in that area and also gave recommendations of the needs for other Branches in the Stake. Of course they would like us to stay there as couples are so wanted and needed in all the Branches in the mission field. The church would love to have several thousand more couples serve for this reason.

After our visit we were invited to dinner. In fact we weren’t even invited! They just started serving it and expected us to eat with them. The dinner was rice bowls with chicken and vegetables in it. You got to choose the sauce you wanted and it was very good. The bishop couldn’t help telling us about when he was on his mission to the Philippines and the members there served he and several other missionaries dog for their dinner. Needless to say they weren’t told until the dinner was over and the person who cooked the dinner proudly showed them the head of the dog they ate. I won’t go into how the missionaries reacted to that but the bishop assured us he would never feed us dog! Well, thank goodness for that!

The elders in this photo were doing a service project today.

Notice we all have our shoes off except John! I think I fit right in here!

That evening we stayed in a nice resort hotel in The Bay of Islands. It was so fun to be close to the ocean and have dinner next to the sea. By the way, their fish and chips here are probably the best we have ever had!

The next day we attended church in the Bay of Islands ward. There were about 70 people there and the speakers spoke about prayer. I love how friendly and welcoming everyone is no matter where we go! This ward was no exception!

After Sacrament meeting we had to hurry and leave and head further north to the West side of the island where we met President Beatson of the Kaikahe Stake. On our way there we found ourselves driving through the Mangamuka gorge . This road turned out to be windier than any I have ever been on! It was like following the track of a Side-Winder snake! It went on for many kilometers and not once was the road straight. Besides going sideways, it went up, up, up and then curved down again before finally going up and coming to a summit. John and I had to get out of the car at that point and walk around for a little bit to get our heads back on straight before continuing on. It was crazy but it was probably one of the most beautiful drives I have ever been on. That gorge is stuffed full of all kinds of trees, bushes, flowers and lush grass. It was like driving through a “garden of Eden” park!

We had a great visit with President Beatson. This stake covers almost 1/3 of the Northland and it takes several hours to drive around it. He probably has a half dozen wards in the stake and maybe five branches. He said that he has had a feeling that he was supposed to get missionaries up in his area He doesn’t know if it is us or not but hoped it would be. We did too!  He talked about two specific branches he needs help with and one way or another, we hope he get the help he needs. We are learning that even though many people in New Zealand have joined the church, many, many of them have become inactive. Everywhere we go people say hello and are very friendly. They tell us they were once members too and maybe they will come back one day. We have our work cut out for us and know why we are here!

After our interview with the President, he insisted we come home with him for dinner and to meet his family. Just like the bishop, he would not take no for an answer. They are a great family and we enjoyed very much our time with them. One daughter had just come home from a mission two weeks ago and still has that missionary spirit!

After dinner, consisting of salad, sausages and chicken, the president and his wife took John and I out behind their house to the beach. We had no idea we were that close! He drove his car right out onto the sand and said that this is the “Ninety Mile Beach”. He told us that it is a legal road going all the way up to the top of the island! The sand is hard and people have to obey traffic laws and drive the same way they would on the street or they could get a ticket. At certain times of the year you could not drive it, but most of the time it is drive-able and is a beautiful ride right next to the incoming waves. He also told us that this strip of land is sacred to the Maori people. They believe that when a Maori dies his spirit runs all the way up the beach to the tip of the island where there is a an ancient tree that hangs over a cliff. When they reach the tree they climb it and leap into the ocean where their spirit is set free from this life.

When we left the Stake president’s home we drove back to The Bay of Islands to spend the night again before heading back to Auckland. We had a lot to talk about on our way. We took a different route back and frankly, I can’t decide which part of this land I like best! President Beatson would like us to work with the Waihou branch and the Matauri Bay branch. Matauri Bay is a branch at the farthest, northern tip of this island.

This trip I have talked about here was over a week ago and was pretty wonderful. Again, this past weekend, we left for the weekend and visited another area and Stake in Northland; more on that later. We have decided that it does not matter where we serve. The needs are great everywhere and the people are great everywhere we go!