DOWNTOWN AUCKLAND

We’ve basically finished our first month in the mission field.  The last 2 weeks have been spent in New Zealand. I’m beginning to feel like I’m getting my feet under me.  I’ve got the basics down on the Imanage and InfoGuide software programs the church is using, although I must admit they’re not very user friendly.  InfoGuide is similar to my Managing Partner at the old firm, just not as easy to use. I’ve been handed off 3 ongoing litigation cases from Elder Gordon Low, a retired Utah judge who is our attorney in Sydney Australia, cases which mainly deal with data privacy.  For now I’ll be handling new matters that arise in New Zealand and the Cook Islands.  Eventually I suspect that I’ll get all the cases from all the islands and Australia as well.  Also, it looks like “government affairs” will be handed off to me also.  As we get busier I suspect I’ll have more work dumped on me.  I’m trying to take my own advice that I gave to my new hires at Gubler & Abbott, which is to just hang in there for the first 2 weeks, and after that things will go more smoothly.  At first you feel inadequate and like everyone else knows it all, but after 2 weeks you feel smarter and realize that the others just have been on the job longer. 

On Saturday we took the NX1 bus across the Harbor bridge into downtown Auckland to explore.  It is one of the nicest big cities I’ve seen, quite clean and hospitable, lots of skyscrapers and a beautiful bay.  It reminds me a lot of Vancouver, Canada. We walked along Quay Street along the docks, then up Queen Street, where they have their Gucci store and other fancy stores. We went up to the top of the Sky Tower to see the views of the city, then visited the art museum and war museum, hiking around and using buses.  6 hours later we returned to our original bus station and walked back to our apartment.  We intend to try to explore a different site each weekend, and will start branching out to farther and farther destinations as we go.