Trip to Feilding

This weekend we were scheduled to speak at a Ward in Feilding (yes, spelled correctly), about 2 hours north. So we spent part of the day preparing. In the afternoon, we cruised around a few of our local towns, Porirua, Titahi Bay, Plimmerston.  We managed to find the sea, the Tasman Sea.

Here are a couple of the trip up there. In addition to the sheep, we did find some cattle, but they were on the other side of the car, so didn't get some of them. The valley we drove up was so beautiful, with the sea to the west and mountains to the east.

Feilding building. Most of the LDS buildings here look the same to us.  The interesting thing is that they don't heat much of the building, so people wear their coats during the meetings, except the Islanders, like the Samoans. Several of the men would wear their lava lava's (traditional skirt) and sandals . Sorry no photos of that yet.

Just a short one this time, to get caught up. 

National Archives

I thought that we should give a general view of what we do each day at the New Zealand National Archives. We are completing a multi-year project the church has had with the NZ government to film their probate records (wills, etc). The archives are located in downtown Wellington, next to the harbor. From the top floor, there is a break room that overlooks the harbor. Here is a photo. Some days are sunny too.

Our workrooms are between two floors, with access from the stairwell. The room has no windows, which helps with the photography since we can keep the same level of light all day. This first photo shows a painting that a previous missionary sister painted, to make the room more inviting. This bird is the Moa, which has been extinct for a few hundred years. The Maori over-hunted it after arriving on the islands.

This is where I sit to photograph the probate records. The bird behind my head is the Kiwi. (sorry for the blockage) In the cabinet on the right are the records that have been unboxed, and flattened (unfolded, now being pressed flat prior to photographing).

This work table is where the probates are taken from the boxes (in foreground) and flattened, then sorted individually. Lois normally does this work. So far we have been able to capture about 3,500 images in a week. (the record here is about 15,000). Hopefully we will get better at it.

We are in the central business district. The National Library is one block away. Parliament is about 2 blocks. Here are a few photos of those buildings.

The next photo Lois took near Parliament. It is the Silver Fern, the national symbol of New Zealand. It can grow up to 20m (65 feet) high. 

Even though it is winter here, it is quite temperate. Some bushes are already blooming and some are waiting for spring.

Wellington is a very diverse city. People from all over live here. There are very many types of food. Many small restaurants in our area cater to the lunch crowds. We have tried Thai, Vietnamese, New Zealand style bakery, fish and chips. It has all been good. 

Until next time.

Seals!

On Saturday, Aug 20, we had beautiful weather, so decided to go exploring, and to see if I could really drive on the wrong (left) side of the road. We drove east to Lower Hutt (Maybe named after Mr. Hutt?), then into a secluded valley town called Wainumata. From there we drove to land's end going south. At the end of the road we walked about an hour to a rocky area where there is sometimes a colony of seals. The first person we asked said that there were no seals, but we kept walking. The second person, who had been diving for Abalone, said that he had seen several.

The road ended at a sheep station (a ranch that raises sheep), at the Orongorogno River's end. Looking upstream (with the tourists) and downstream into the ocean.

This is the rocky outcropping that we hiked to. Note the seasoned stalker headed down to the unsuspecting seals.

Closing in to the unsuspecting beach crowd.

This last guy decided I was a bit close, but I held still and got the following video of him.

Last shots before we left.

We were so excited to see them. So, to reward ourselves, we stopped to get our first real fish and chips. That was stressful-they had too many choices-just couldn't walk up and say "1 order of fish & chips". Three kinds of breading on the fish, two kinds of fish, even grilled fish. Then regular chips (fries), or wedgie fries, or kumara fries (sweet potato). Lois isn't much of a fish eater, so ordered Spring Rolls, just in case the fish was too "fishy". But we both loved it. It is on our list to return to.

A New Beginning-Welcome to Wellington

After flying all night, we forgot to take some photos upon arrival. We went through customs in Auckland, rechecked our baggage to Wellington, then walked from the International terminal to the the local terminal. It was so different than Salt Lake. It was very cool and rainy, about 45 degrees. We were glad to have jackets. Wellington was sunny and cool. Arrived at 9:30 am Wednesday, which was 3:30 pm Tuesday in Salt Lake.

We were met in Welly (local terminology) by the Taskers and Gowans, each with a car (remember the 282 lbs of stuff?). Two car loads.... They drove us to our new home in Porirua, about 20 km from downtown Wellington. It is a flat (apartment)-very nice. One bedroom, an office, dining room, living room and kitchen. Unlike many homes in NZ that just use space heaters in the room you happen to be in, we have a small heat pump AND a space heater. And a car-a Holden (Chevy) Cruze. With gas at $1.76/liter, a small car is best for us.

The view from our flat is this.Taken just after sunup. About 35 degrees, and it had rained all night. Got about 2.25" of rain, which is more than Page has gotten all year.

Porirua is on the west side of NZ, and has a harbor. It opens onto the Tasman Sea. We are about 1.5 km from the harbor. We have shopping just across the Motorway (like a freeway). Our church is about 2 km away. (You can figure out the conversion to miles. Our car doesn't...) Following are photos from the peninsula on the far side of the harbor looking inland to Porirua proper. Shopping is around the tall building. We live off to the left up a little valley.

Here are a couple of shots that Lois took of the harbor, near the church.

This last photo is from the National Archives in Wellington, where we are working. The water is part of the harbor in Wellington. The building on the left, above the cars and street is called Westpac Stadium. They have rugby teams, cricket teams, and football (australian style) teams that play here. If you have heard of the "All Blacks" Rugby team, they aren't here, but they play here. They are a combination of several regional rugby teams that play internationally. Next game: Aug 27. The Inter Island Ferry and many cruise ships dock just beyond the stadium.

Until later.

MTC Part Two and Bon Voyage

After spending the weekend with Leslie, Rob, and the girls, we returned to the MTC for week 2. It was a totally different pace from week one. Here we began learning how to set up the camera for taking photos in the New Zealand archives. The system is quite complex, from the $25,000 camera to the computer and hard drives, to the lights and flat table that had to be set up to capture the images quickly. We learned that many couples can capture up to 3,000 images a week. We spent 4 days at the MTC, and one day at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake, where we met staff from the various groups that provide assistance to the missionaries.

Well, we must have done okay because they said that we could still go to New Zealand. We returned to the MTC after class and picked up our small load of suitcases...

That, folks, is 5 suitcases and  2 carry-on bags totaling 282 pounds (oops, I meant to say 128 kilograms), plus a jacket each and a purse, and computer bag. There are a few excess items there that were returned to Page, and a few leftovers that Leslie is storing until we return. (Those were what we had to pull to get to 282 lb. We final weighed at a post office)  

Friday night, I did what everyone said was crazy. I drove our truck to Phoenix to leave with Ty. Half way Friday night-to Page, and the rest of the way Saturday. Flew back to Salt Lake Saturday night. The only excitement was a tire that began a tread separation-luckily for me I didn't throw tread or blow the tire. Limped to the tire store 3 miles from Ty's and an hour later, had blown money for a new set of tires. (Lucky Ty) (in picture below, note the top of the tire has a bulge, rather than being flat across). 

Monday we did the final weigh-in (as noted above) then headed to the airport. Max and Nancy, Lois' sister and hubby, drove us, for a noon arrival. 

Our flights were Delta from Salt Lake to San Francisco; then Air New Zealand to Auckland and on to Wellington. What we awoke to was kind of scary--Delta had experienced a computer outage overnight and had grounded their fleet. But they were able to start getting the flights going again, so we only had a 2 hour delay. Our layover in San Fran was 5 hours, so we had enough wiggle room. 

While waiting at the Salt Lake Airport, we celebrated our last US meal by making it Mexican food, since we hear that we may not have another Mexican meal until we return-so did it in style at Cafe Rio--at the airport. (Note to readers: Cafe Rio has added another meat flavor-Spicy Green Chili Pork--to their menu. It is awesome)

Air New Zealand flight left about 10pm, and lasted 13 hours. We lost Tuesday because of the International Date Line, so landed in Auckland on Wednesday about 6am local time. We also lost 50 degrees and 5 hours of daylight (desert summer to coastal winter). We also seem to have lost some sleep. 

More next time: our start in Wellington.

Leaving Home and a New Beginning

We left Page on July 22, and drove to Lehi, UT, to stay with Andrea and family for the weekend. 

Then on Monday morning, we entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on the BYU campus in Provo, UT. This photo is of the world map located in the main building at the MTC. Many missionary photos have been taken here. 

They have rooms for the Senior Missionary couples (that is what we are called). Our group for the week is 20 couples and 2 single sisters (ladies). They are going to go all over the world. Examples are: Trinidad, Denmark, Ghana, Hong Kong, North Vietnam, Philippines, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Australia, Mexico, Mongolia, Botswana, and several in the USA. Plus us going to New Zealand. This was called a "small group" Three weeks ago they had 130 people in for training. 

They divided us up into Districts of 4 couples each for the week of Preach My Gospel training. We had young return missionaries as trainers to help us learn what we need to know. They were really fun, and good at helping us feel like we were making progress. Our group are going to Netherlands, Denmark, New Zealand, and Trinidad.

One of the most fun things we did was eat in the cafeteria with 2,500 young missionaries. They have such enthusiasm and energy--and appetites. We would get a plateful of salad and a small main course, and many of them would show up with a couple of overloaded plates. One young man sat beside us with 2 huge bowls of Fruit Loops (for lunch). Lois told him he would never get away with that in her home. He said that he wasn't allowed sugar cereal at his home, so he was going to eat this way for his 2 years away. Then he told us that he was going to Guam. Lois said, "eat up", you will have rice and fish there....

This next week we will get the technical training we need to photograph the records in the New Zealand National Archives. More on that later.

We are so excited to begin this adventure, and are even more sure that this is what we are supposed to be doing in our lives right now.