On the Ground!

Oh my gosh, where to begin??? Once things started happening, they really did! We flew out of Salt Lake City on Thursday afternoon, December 11, had a couple hour lay-over in Los Angeles, and then twelve more hours in the air to reach New Zealand. It actually didn’t seem as bad as what we had expected. We had two great meals in the air (pay attention, U.S. airlines), and landed in Auckland at 6:30 Saturday morning. Right, we had no Friday, December 12 this year. Crossing the international date line is a real thing! It was weird to look out the windows on one side of the plane and see darkness outside, while the sun was shining in the windows on the other side. It was a beautiful morning, breezy and dry and bright as noon already when we cleared customs and got outside with our mounds of luggage! With all the hitches and changes we’ve had along the way, I always said I’d believe where we were when we finally stepped off the plane. Sure enough, when we did, the signs said, “Auckland”!

We were met by Susi, the Welfare Secretary in the Area Office, in one of the carpool vans. She took us to our flat (apartment) and we were pleased with what she had found for us. It’s about a mile from the office where we’ll be working. Thank Heaven for Susi! (Most other couples are paying three to four times what we are paying for their flats, plus ours has utilities included).

Our little flat isn’t what you’d describe as a dream house, but we feel like missionaries!! For as little time as we’ll spend there, it’s really very adequate. It’s above the community room of a little retirement village. It actually reminds me some of our very first apartment in Wichita Falls 40-plus years ago!
Then we did a tour of the Pacific Area Office Building where we will be working, and saw all the boxes of stuff waiting for us to unpack them and find out what it is we will actually be doing.

Susi showed us around Takapuna, the immediate little downtown area around the office and our flat, then handed over the car keys to Dad, with minimum instruction, and left us on our own. All she said was, “Keep to the left”. OH MY GOSH!! What a scary proposition that was!! In case you aren’t aware, Kiwis drive on the wrong side of the road, and the inside of the car is totally reversed. There are very few stop signs or signals – nearly every intersection is a round-about, so traffic is going every which way. Signaling has become the biggest challenge for Dad to overcome. I can tell every time he wants to make a turn, because the windshield wipers come on. We have the cleanest windshield in Takapuna! He gets so frustrated that he can’t remember that the signals are on the right of the steering column instead of the left. And the gearshift is on the left as well. Like I said, the inside of the car is completely reversed. After a while of driving around being lost and hitting the wipers time after time, his comment was, “I wonder if these people know how dangerous it is to be out on the road today?” Each day he gets it right more times than the day before, but every time the wipers come on, I get the giggles again. We’re old dogs, and new tricks are pretty hard to learn! I don’t think I’ll be brave enough to try it until I stop closing my eyes because I think he’s going to take off the side view mirrors of the cars parked along the road. The roads are incredibly narrow, parking on both sides, and no striping in the middle, so everyone just drives down the center of the street until someone comes the other way, and then it’s way too close for comfort!

We made it back to our apartment and unpacked and got things set up the best we could. Susi had scrounged some furniture and kitchen things for us and it's really pretty comfortable.

View from the front door of the big room, hall to bath, second room, and kitchen, which is back beyond the second room.

The big room is kinda dual purpose. On one side we have our blow-up mattress, a little bookshelf for a dresser, and the closet. The other side will have our couch, which is supposed to be delivered in a couple days, a coffee table with a little TV, and all our “stuff”. Since we’re upstairs and have a slanted roof, we have dormer windows that open out from the bottom, one in the kitchen, one in the extra room, and one on either side of the main room. It creates a great breeze and keeps the flat very comfortable. No screens on the windows, and NO BUGS! It’s so nice to sleep with the windows open, and even if it rains, it doesn’t come in because the windows open out. We have outside wooden steps up to our balcony and glass front door. If we leave the door and the windows on either side of it open, it’s almost a wind tunnel inside!

Right now we have the table and chairs in the extra room, and that’s where we eat and use the computer. We don’t have internet there, but we can still do other stuff. In order to use the internet, we will stay after work in the office.

Even the fridge is tiny - about up to my chin. It's short enough I have the microwave sitting on top of it and I can still reach it.

The owners actually bought us a new washer and dryer!! Boy, that’s a real plus. They’re like doll house size, but hey, there are only two of us. The dryer vents into the room through the door of the dryer!

The church is just up at the end of our street. We’re actually hoping to walk to church and work as well, even though we have a church vehicle – a little Corolla, of course! We attended the Takapuna Ward, and discovered about a half dozen other couples from the Church Office Building also attend there, as well as the Mission President and the Area President. They also have young elders and sisters assigned there who speak English and Chinese, and are from New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, and even one from Portland, Oregon. The ward is probably as good a ward as we’ve ever been in. The people are there early, the teachers are prepared, the talks are great, classes well attended – it was just a real joy to see how strong the church is. The counsellor in the Area Presidency, Elder Hilbig, told us New Zealand is as strong or stronger than the States in many instances. (We spent about an hour with him Monday because he is the member of the Area Presidency responsible for Welfare and Humanitarian Service). We had almost 60 sisters in Relief Society and there was wonderful participation and a great lesson. It’s really exciting to see that they’re not struggling here at all. Probably at least half the ward is some kind of Polynesian or Asian, but it is an English-speaking ward. There is also a Tongan ward that meets in the building.

Sunday after church and lunch, Dad and I took off on an exploration adventure. We’re not far at all from the beach, but we haven’t been there yet. We went another direction and discovered a very cool place. We have a little “key map” type of thing, so we took it along with us. They show lots of green spots, called anything from park to preserve to domain to bush. We found out a preserve is just an open space, like a big field where they aren’t allowed to build. We passed a little path that had a sign saying “Smith’s Bush”, so we walked in there and found several big grassy places, and then a path into a DARK forest, with a boardwalk through it. It’s not far from the backwaters of the bay, so apparently it floods in there from time to time.

The trees were SO interesting and big and created a very dark, dense canopy. We loved exploring in there. It’s not tropical here, but I don’t know what to call it.

They have a very pretty tree planted all over town that Susi referred to as New Zealand’s Christmas tree. It’s dark green, and covered with red or maroon blooms that resemble a bottle brush. So red and green – Christmas!

Monday we came into the office and Susi spent the morning walking us around all three floors and introducing us to all the employees and missionaries. There are about 85 employees and about 8 or 10 missionary couples. This is a mini-Church Office Building, patterned after the main COB, this one providing all the departments and personnel to maintain the Pacific Islands Area. Besides Welfare and Humanitarian, there’s S&I (Seminaries and Institutes, the new name for CES-Church Education System), Family Services, Family History, Finance, Human Resources, IT, Public Affairs, Purchasing, Distribution, Freight and Logistics, Temporal Affairs, Travel, Legal Dept, Area Medical Advisor, Translation, Physical Facilities, Fleet Mgr, Architect and Physical Facilities – the list goes on and on. The cool thing about it is that there are hardly any two people alike. A whole variety of countries is represented: obviously, Kiwis, which is what native New Zealanders call themselves (the bird is a kiwi bird, and the fruit is a kiwi fruit, but a Kiwi is a person!) There are islanders from everywhere in the South Pacific, Philippinos, Chinese, Koreans, Aussies, Brazilians, South Africans, Scots, Brits, you name it. My ears are just vibrating with so many new sounds!! And of course, there are those from “the factory”. Someone asked us if we were from “the factory” and we said we had just come from there, but our home was in Texas. Everybody seems impressed with that. “Oh, isn’t that where NASA is?”, “That’s where President Bush is from, isn’t it?” (The factory they’re referring to is Utah – imagine that??)

We got here just in time for lots of extra meetings and parties and activities. Sunday night they watched the Christmas devotional in each chapel ( a week late), but we skipped out on that and had our walk instead, since we’d seen it live last week. Monday after work, one of the couples sponsored at FHE with four little Asian kids who wanted to present a Christmas musical program. A little tiny eight-year old girl played did an unbelievable job on a classical piece, then two eleven year old boys played several violin Christmas carols –wow!. A girl eleven sang several songs in a beautiful voice that was much beyond her eleven years. They were all unbelievable! It was great. Of course, refreshments followed. Tuesday morning the Area President, David Baxter, held an Area Christmas Devotional at the Takapuna chapel for all the employees and missionaries. He was born in Scotland and raised in England and is a self-proclaimed “thrifty” Scotsman, with an extremely dry sense of humor. In announcing that afternoon’s Area Christmas Party for the whole office building, he said that the dress was fancy, which we found out later is the French term for costume. He announced that he would be coming as a Christmas elf, although he would be disguised as a G.A. He said he might look like a G.A., but underneath that disguise, he was really a Christmas sprite. At noon, all employees and missionaries were treated to a catered Christmas party and several fun games and activities. It’s fun to see that these G.A.s and the DTA (Director of Temporal Affairs) are just a bunch of funny, regular guys. Wednesday afternoon one of the missionary couples showed the DVD of Michael McLean’s “Forgotten Christmas Carols” for all the couples. Thursday afternoon several of us couples are to drive down to the temple in Hamilton, about two hours south of us. Next week is another couple Christmas party/farewell for a couple departing. Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, another couple is sponsoring a trip to Albany, about 20 minutes north of us,for the opening day of “Australia”. The Area Medical advisor and his wife are sponsoring a couples’ New Year’s Eve party in their apartment, which overlooks Auckland Harbor and the fireworks . Good Grief!! I don’t know if we can keep up the pace. Do all old fogies do this much socializing??

Tuesday evening we took a little walk and about ten minutes from our apartment we found Lake Pupuke (Poo POO kee), which is in the crater of an ancient volcano. It’s a beautiful place and so close by. Wednesday morning before work Dad jogged the whole way around it! There’s so much beautiful stuff for us to see!

I’m having a hay day with the accents here. I know that soon enough it will become second nature, but it’s so much fun to see the difference in English and English. The Kiwis (and the transplants who have become Kiwis) are a riot to listen to. Some of the Polynesians still have a little of their own accent, but there is definitely a New Zealand accent. They pronounce most e’s like i’s. For instance, this little Chinese girl who played the piano for us introduced herself as “Bitsy”, rather than Betsy as it was spelled on the program. Their a’s are a broad sound, like the a in fat or laugh. Of course, they drop most r’s. The phrase that is so indicative of a true Kiwi sound is, “Aaaaah Faaaatha in Hivin”. It takes SOO MUCH effort to listen at this point. Like I said, I know it will pass, but for now it’s just so intriguing. Even Dad, the self-proclaimed non-linguist, is starting to be able to say some things like they do. I’ve got to share a few of the words or phrases that have stuck out so blatently to us.

Travelator: The moving sidewalk at the airport
Trolly: The baggage carts at the airport
Give way: Yield - the sign is a red upside-downtriangle,
or "Give Way" painted on the road
Motorway: Freeway
Speed limit signs are about the size of a dinner plate, outlined in red, with a number, such as 50 in the middle of the circle – not 50 anything, just 50, although they mean 50 kilometers
Bonnet and boot: The hood and trunk of your car ( I mean caaaaaah)
Caaaaah paaaaaak: Parking lot
Serviette: Paper napkin
Nappie: Diaper
Lollies : Candy
Pop: Everybody “pops over” or “pops in” to wherever they’re going
Lift: Elevator
Indicator : Turn signal – no, not windshield wiper!
Mince: Beef mince or just mince – not mince meat, just mince, is
hamburger meat
Take-away: A take-out place

We’ve found in our two attempts to grocery shop, that it takes every brain you have. NOTHING looks familiar – nothing! I didn’t realize how used I was to looking for a certain “look” of a package, not necessarily reading what it said, but recognizing it by a glance. Many, in fact, probably most things I normally use, don’t exist here. For instance, there is no such thing as a bottle of dill pickles, or a bag of dry beans of any kind. Everything is metric, of course, so how do I know if NZ$12.99/kg of mince is a good buy or not??? (By the way, it’s not!) Chicken is terribly unaffordable, the only salsa available is equivalent to about 12oz and costs about NZ$8. It’s very frustrating to me to try to find something that doesn’t exist and then find an unsuitable substitute and try to convert weight and money to see if I really want to spend that much money. Our poor pantry is very meager at this point. Whew! This, too, will get easier, but this is all part of the adventure we signed up for.

We’re loving it, and will post soon again and share more of our adventures. If you have survived to this point, thanks for enduring.