More pictures: Over the waterfall Where's the raft? There's the raft-but where's Rach? There she is-out of the boat! We made it!!!!
Posts
Time Flys
Well, 3 weeks ago we discussed getting back on weekly blog posts and now 3 weeks later I am finally getting back to it. We have not been sitting around doing nothing though and in fact we had almost a week with a lot of fun activities because of visits from several family members. More on that later. Since the last post, we had a transfer week which was relatively small but still busy with all of the extra events associated with it. Around that time, I took a trip up to South Auckland to evaluate a flat(apartment) that was hastily vacated by a pair of elders, due to an unfortunate circumstance. We were hoping to move a set of sister missionaries there because we were concerned for their safety. They had been stalked at their flat by someone who was knocking on their door and windows in the middle of the night. The President felt we needed to move them ASAP. Upon my evaluation, I found the location to be acceptable for sisters, but t...
Work is the key!
Our world is generally busy and stressful at times. We discovered a very peaceful place above the hustle and bustle this week. It is called Till's Lookout. Doug rode his bike and I walked several mornings for exercise. The views are so beautiful and we arrive just as the sun is rising. The bike/walk path leads to a very peaceful Arboretum with a large variety of trees and plants. The quiet atmosphere of this place promotes meditative thoughts and spiritual insights. It is a wondrous way to begin the day. Wednesday, we were able to drive to a town called Matamata to meet our friends the Brocks and Chidesters whose cruise tour group was touring the Lord of the Rings movie set callled Hobbiton. We joined them for the tour and enjoyed some time together visiting. Thursday, we drove to a place called Tamaurunui to tour a flat (apartment) that we are leasing for a senior couple arriving this month. We found the flat to be a g...
Wow, it has been 2 weeks since our last post. Time was not our friend last weekend. We took a weekend trip to one of the far reaches of our mission, Gisborne (pronounced "gisbin") It is a town on the East coast of the North Island. It is a 5 hour drive from Hamilton. We have learned to look at travel in New Zealand by time and not distance. Gisborne is only about 160 miles from Hamilton but the roads are narrow, windy, and not direct to most areas. We combined mission business with a little pleasure. A few months ago a senor couple vacated a flat in Tokomaru Bay. It is a town on a beautiful bay about 1 hour North of Gisborne. There was several mission owned pieces of furniture left behind that was being stored by the landlady. So that was the mission business we needed to complete-to pick the stuff up and transport back to Hamilton. We arrived in Gisborne Friday afternoon. The next morning, we drove up to pick up the stuff....