FATHER'S DAY IN SEPTEMBER

Here it is, now we’re in September.  Some of my thoughts in that regard are that Sister Gubler and I are settling into the routine of missionary work, we are familiar with our surroundings now and are developing confidence in our abilities, and although we miss our family, it feels like the time is passing quickly and we can last the full 1 ½ years.  The weather this past week has been dry, sunny and quite pleasant, maybe we have survived winter and spring is on its way.

Thursday Alisa and I worked until around 1 p.m. then packed up the car and drove to the Auckland airport.  We caught a JetMax flight to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.  It would have been about a 6 hour drive, but was barely an hour by air, and the tickets were quite reasonable, about NZ$90 each way.  Since Alisa is working with the Public Affairs department of the Church here, they had some meetings in Wellington on Friday, and I had to go along as the spouse on this one.  We all stayed at the Bolton Hotel, in the downtown area not far from the waterfront.  Actually, I thought Wellington was one of the prettiest and cleanest capitals I’ve seen.  The part of town where the government offices are is surrounded by the bay on one side and hills on the other.  Geography-wise, it felt somewhat like San Francisco, just smaller and cleaner.  The group walked down to the waterfront Thursday evening after we had unpacked in our hotel rooms, and found a nice restaurant for dinner.  I had a nice ribeye steak and chips. On Friday, while Alisa was in classes, I had free time.  So I hiked to the Wellington cable car station, and purchased my ticket.  It is very much like San Francisco’s cable car lines, except this one just travels up the side of a large hill to the top, about 120 meters in 5 minutes, one line only!  I had a stunning view of the bay and of the city from up there.  I toured the cable car museum, then instead of taking the cable car back down, I just walked back down through the botanical gardens.  Quite impressive, many native plants, a rose garden, an Australian garden, begonia house, flowering trees everywhere.  I changed into a suit and had lunch with David Thomson, a local stake president and a civil servant employed by the Ministry of Primary Industries in their agriculture division. We visited about his job and how the national government works, and he treated me to a lunch of Subway sandwiches.  In the afternoon I took a tour of the Parliament building, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals.  After Alisa finished her meetings around 7 p.m., we walked down to the water front again for dinner at the Crab Shack.  It is the annual Wellington hamburger festival, and each of the many restaurants have concocted a specialty burger to entice customers and to be judged by.  My burger was quite good, some type of pulled beef and seafood burger. 

Saturday we slept in a little.  Then we hiked along the waterfront to see an Underground Market, a band, boats being rowed and sailed.  We hiked until we reached the Te Papa museum, a well known museum throughout NZ.  We spent a few hours there visiting Maori history exhibits, artwork, and my favorite, a section devoted to the fierce battle of Gallipoli in WWI, where over half of the NZ soldiers were killed.  On the way back we stopped by the Underground Market again, where I had a wonderful bratwurst sandwich for lunch.  We checked out of our hotel and caught a taxi to the airport for the return flight to Auckland.  We arrived back at our apartment around 5 p.m.  I had some free time left, so I watched a couple of videos from the video collection at the office.  The first was an old Clark Gable western entitled The King and Four Queens.  As soon as I saw it I knew it had been filmed in Snow Canyon in Southern Utah, and confirmed that by researching online.  I believe this is the movie that Uncle Shelby helped the camera crew and actors with for horses and scenery shots, since he was familiar with the area.  The second video was an old Doris Day romance entitled The Glass Bottom boat, filmed around Catalina Island.    

Today was Father’s day in New Zealand, don’t ask me why they celebrate it in September in NZ.  I got to speak with our kids by telephone, and we had a Father’s day program in church then a linger longer, with soups and bread.  

Wellington's cable car

Wellington's botanical gardens

Wellington's waterfront

New Zealand's Parliament building and Beehive

Gallipoli war exhibit at Te Papa museum

Bratwurst at the Underground Market

Saying goodbye to Wellington

Video of our friend the seal at Muriwai beach lat weekend

KEEPING BUSY IN NEW ZEALAND

Another week has sped by.  It seems like we always have plenty of issues at the office to review, research and deal with, which keep up hopping!  We finally got an appellate hearing date in mid March 2020 on our appeal of the February 2019 High Court decision which held that donations to the ward mission fund are not deductible for the missionary, parents or grandparents, but are deductible to other relatives and friends.  I’m looking forward to attending that hearing and argument before the appellate court.

Tuesday evening there were fewer than normal players at the indoor pickleball courts, such that as soon as we finished one game, we were into the next one.  After 2 hours I had worked up a pretty good sweat.  I probably played the best I have, but my serves are still a little suspect and inconsistent.

Thursday evening we were invited along with the Miekles to the Walkers’ apartment for dinner.  We had lasagna.  Then we watched slides of the Walkers’ trip to Vanuatu (they are welfare missionaries).  One of the islands in that chain had a volcano erupt a year or 2 ago, which covered the island with lava, such that the entire population of the island had to move off it.  3 LDS branches decided to relocate to another nearby island, and start over again.  The members have been living in tents for the last year and knocking down vegetation in order to farm.  They are living in pitiful circumstances as refugees, even their chapel is homemade, it looks like it was built out of drift wood and scraps of wood.  The Church’s humanitarian efforts to help refugees are usually pretty dramatic, but even more so when the refugees all happen to be members.

Friday we went out to dinner with Gordon and Julie Tanner, then went over to their apartment to play card games.  I particularly liked one called “Cover Your Assets”, and they happened to have 2 sets of the game so I bought one to use when we have spare time.

Saturday morning we drove with Elder and Sister Riggs to Muriwai beach, about 45 minutes away, which is home to a gannet (albatross) colony from August through February.  The shore line and area reminded me of Hanalei bay and the Napali coast on Kauai. The gannets nest on the cliff tops, wiIl hatch their young and teach them to fly over the next few months.  It is amazing to see so many nesting birds so close together, I’d like to go back and see the new hatchlings learning to fly.  We also found a baby seal hiding in the rocks which then made its way into the water, and we explored a cave.  Back at the apartment we grabbed a bite to eat, then went to a ward member’s rented home, Zara, who is originally from Iraq.  It was a service project by the young single adults to clean up the yard, trim, and pick up brush.  It was nice to do manual labor for a couple of hours.  In the evening I did lesson prep to teach our Starting Your Own Business class, and then Alisa and I watched an old movie, Sabrina, before bed. 

YSA service project at Zara's home

Muriwai beach looks like Na Pali coast in Kauai

Gannet/Albatross

Nesting gannets (albatrosses) at Muriwai beach

Video of our friend the seal

Beach cave

10 legged star fish at Muriwai beach, standard in NZ

VOLCANIC ACTION!

Lots of rain this week.  They say that in New Zealand you can experience all 4 seasons in one day.  I experienced that one day this week.  The elevator in our office building has been broken for a couple of weeks, they are waiting on a part to arrive so they can fix it.  My office is on the top or 3^rd floor (in NZ the ground floor doesn’t count as a numbered floor, so we’re really on the 4^th floor).  It was the end of the work day.  I looked out the window and it was sunny out.  So I put on my coat and walked down the stairs.  As I got to the front door on the ground level to leave, I noticed it was pouring rain.  So I climbed the stairs back to my office on the top floor and retrieved my umbrella, then walked back down the stairs.  By the time I exited the front door, the rain had stopped and it was sunny again!  So I just took my umbrella home with me, rather than climb the stairs again to put it back in my office.

The work week always seems to fly by. That means we are keeping busy trying to keep up with the work flow.  I am jogging or playing pickle ball about every day after work, as well as walking to and from work, so I’m feeling in pretty good shape.  Alisa and I have had no colds or sicknesses while here. 

Friday I went to work a little early, so Alisa and I could take off around 3 p.m. for the weekend.  We had packed the car the night before.  Even leaving a little early we got caught in rush hour traffic trying to leave Auckland.  We lost about an hour in slow moving traffic on the freeway until we were well beyond town, many people must have been leaving for the weekend.  Anyway, it took us 4 hours instead of 3 to get to Rotorua, our intended destination.  This is a well-known tourist town of about 10,000 people built over a volcanic hot spot.  Steam comes out of the ground, water, gutters, everywhere that there is a hole, and there is a mild sulfur or rotten egg smell everywhere.  The town is quite picturesque, out in the country with rolling hills, again it reminds me of the San Joaquin valley in the spring when everything is green.  Because it was about 7:30 p.m. when we arrived and we were tired from traveling, we drove straight to our bed and breakfast, and just ordered pizza delivery for dinner.

Saturday we spent touring.  We started at the tourist information center in town, where we got oriented and found out what was happening.  We then walked across the street to a little bakery where I had a steak pastry pie and Alisa had a bacon and egg pie for breakfast.  Then we walked through the downtown area, quite quaint, to the city park.  There we ran into a farmers’ market and enjoyed roaming that.  There were plenty of hot steamy spots in the park, and a wading pond where we could soak our feet in the hot mineral water.  We hiked around the downtown and lake back to where we had parked our car. Then we drove to the nearby redwood forest to hike around that.  It is an interesting place, over a hundred years ago someone brought back coastal redwood seeds and planted them, such that it is now a forest with lots of native plants and ferns growing as well.  Someone gave them a slab of giant sequoia from near Visalia, which they have on display with dates marked on the rings, going back to Christ’s birth, similar to what’s found in Sequoia Natl. Park.  Unfortunately, someone varnished their slab, apparently to preserve it, such that it looks unnatural, almost fake.  They even have a suspension bridge about 30 feet up in the grove and about 500 meters in length that you can walk around.  We decided to save the bridge for next time we visit.  Instead Alisa and I just hiked around the grove, it really did feel like hiking through the coastal redwood park in the bay area.  From there we visited Te Puia, a Maori tourist village.  We started with a buffet lunch then walked around to see the geysers, and even saw a kiwi, NZ’s national bird which happens to be nocturnal so it’s hard to see (they had a darkened kiwi house).  We were also treated to a Maori song and dance show, almost felt like the PCC in Hawaii.  By then we were tired so we went back to our house for a nap.  At 6 p.m. we drove to Hell’s Gate, which was in the mountains nearby.  There we first sat in a hot mud bath, then showered off and then sat in some natural heated mineral baths for a while.  There was a light drizzling rain that provided an interesting contrast.  After we showered and dressed again, we stopped by a gas station to fill up the car and buy some milk for breakfast.  We were tired so we went back to our place and got to bed early. 

This morning we dressed and attended one of the 2 local wards.  Their church house was on a hill, with good views.  There were a lot of friendly church members there, it reminded me of my home ward growing up.  There were Maori’s, people of European descent, Philippinos, us (Americans) and even a Japanese family, quite a melting pot.  After church we walked around a local Anglican Church down by the lake, and a nearby Maori village.  By then we were ready to head back to Auckland, which we drove in an easy 3 hours.

Geysers at Te Puia

Maori wood carving

Getting muddy at Hell's Gate!

Steaming in Rotorua city park

TWO MONTH MARK

It has been a rainy week here in New Zealand.  But the days are beginning to get longer, and I’ve noticed the buds are beginning to swell, for instance on a cherry tree I saw yesterday.  That tells me that Spring should be here soon.

Today is the second class of my Starting and Running Your Own Business class, where Alisa and I are the facilitators.  Last week we had 14 students attend, all with enthusiasm and ideas for businesses they want to start.  A fun class.  Monday evening Alisa and I gave the monthly FHE lesson for the YSA ward.  They asked us to speak about being good citizens.  We showed the CBS news video of our family, and spoke about my time as mayor of Visalia.  It was well received. 

I’m getting caught up at the law office.  Now that I’ve learned the office software and how things were filed and stored, this week I spent a good amount of time reviewing old matters that were started by prior attorneys but that were never completed.  I sometimes think that indecision by some attorneys drag things out and cost their clients’ money.  Most of these matters were issues that prior attorneys stewed over for a few weeks, then turned their attention elsewhere without ever resolving.  So I’ve been tracking down their documentation on the computer, to the extent that any documentation exists, then reviewing, handling, and closing the files.

Friday after work, to celebrate finishing another work week and making it through 2 months on our mission, I took Mom to see the new Lion King movie at a local theatre.  We enjoyed that, I thought the animation was great, although the music wasn’t as good as the first time around.  We decided to take it a little easy on Saturday.  We drove over to Devonport, only about 5 miles away on the coast, and hiked some trails along the beach there.  We visited the Royal New Zealand Navy Museum, which recounts WWI, WWII and other battles that NZ has been involved in.  We hiked up to North Head, a historic reserve built on a volcanic cone, where there are still bunkers and gun emplacements from WWII.  We came back to the apartment for the afternoon so I could prepare for our business class.  In the evening we attended the fun YSA’s ward social, where they enacted and spoofed songs and scenes from The Lion King.

Looking out from the North Head volcanic cone towards Mt. Victoria volcanic cone

Royal New Zealand Navy Museum

Cast from the YSA production of The Lion King

Scene from The Lion King "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"

TRIP TO NORTH COUNTRY

The legal work continues to come in and keep us busy.  Seems like lately I’m dealing with banking, tax and contract issues.

Elder and Sister Whatcott finally arrived from America.  We met them at the MTC, but they had visa issues, so they spent the first 6 weeks of their mission at the family history center in Utah, before arriving this week.  They are working at the Institute in Auckland teaching classes.  We had them over for dinner Friday evening and a visit.

Saturday morning we invited Elder and Sister MacMurray to go with us as we drove to the north of Auckland for the first time.  There was beautiful countryside everywhere, very green.  We drove to the town of Leigh, where we did the Matheson Bay Bush walk, then we hiked the Leigh coastal walkway.  We had intermittent sprinkles.  As we drove back we stopped in the small town of Matakana where they had a farmer’s market going on so we stopped.  We enjoyed seeing the various booths at the Matakana Village farmer’s market.  I bought some tiny yams, but otherwise this farmer’s market was a little pricey.  Finally we stopped at Charlie’s gelato which all the senior missionaries rave about.  I treated everyone to a cone. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for our first class which we will be the facilitators for, How to Start and Grow Your Own Business, at the YSA ward beginning today after church.  It is part of the self-reliance courses which the Church has put out.  Monday night Alisa and I are in charge of the YSA monthly family home evening, discussing how to be good citizens.

Elder and Sister Gubler at Lee Coastal Walkway, Pacific Ocean

Mighty Kauri tree, native to New Zealand

Sister Gubler and Sister MacMurray at Matheson Bay Bush Walk