"Oh, What Do You Do In The Summertime?"

Holidays, holidays, more holidays. We have been here six weeks now, and I don’t think we’ve worked a whole week yet! This week we had Monday off for Auckland Anniversary Day. Next week it’s Friday off for Waitangi Day, the day the Europeans signed a treaty with the Maori natives. Then I think we're in for a dry spell until about Easter. We're enjoying summer here now, eating a lot of fresh New Zealand-grown fruit like cherries, white nectarines, peaches, plums. Ummm! Dad got a bag full of all the above weighing about 15 pounds, and the cost was equivalent to about $4.50 U.S.

Actually, last week we spent four days in Hamilton, about two hours south of here. We had our annual Pacific Area-wide Welfare Training, about 30 people in all. We had four American missionary couples from Australia who run the Employment offices in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. We had five Tongans, three Fijians, six Samoans, one Tahitian, one Maori, and a few that were mixes. If you think that wasn't a smorgasboard of accents! It was really good training and we learned a lot about the challenges facing Employment offices, Perpetual Education, and each country individually. We met in break-out sessions with the Country Welfare Managers from Tonga, Fiji and Samoa, since they report directly to us and Steve, our Area Welfare Manager. They were very sharp guys. They serve as volunteers, but have contacts in government and with other organizations in their specific country. Peter Lee is from Fiji. He ran for Prime Minister and didn’t get elected, but maybe a good thing, because a military coup took over the government a couple years ago and have not yet set up a permanent democratic government. He wants to run again and thinks he can make it – once they allow elections again. Felix Wendt is the manager from Samoa. He was an ambassador to the Western Samoan Mission to the United Nations at one time during the Sr. Bush administration and told us he and his kids had their picture taken in the Oval Office with the President. Felix Wendt doesn’t sound very Samoan, but Samoa was once a possession of Germany and the Germans left their mark on Samoa. The manager from Tonga is named Sosaia Mateaki - sounds more Polynesian, huh? He told us just to call him the King of Tonga! So we did! Funny guy.

The first night about half of us went to a buffet and I actually appreciated things I might not have in the past, just because it was available and reminiscent somewhat of home! On the other hand, another night we had Susi with us and she wanted us to try an Indian restaurant. It was really yummy! The last night we were there, we were treated to a dinner and ride on a paddleboat down the Waitangi River, the longest river in New Zealand. We went about an hour up and then back. Dad got carried away again with his pictures, because it was a beautiful ride. Some of our group brought their instruments and entertained us.

We had missed so much work being gone that we spent most of the day Saturday in the office and accomplished a lot with no one else there. We knew we had Monday to play, so it wasn’t any big deal. We decided to get up real early and go find the sunrise on a beach. So we left before 5 a.m. and drove north of us a ways and found a great beach for pictures. Again, Dad went overboard. That day alone he took about 150 pictures. Thank heaven for digital cameras – he just shoots anything that looks good, then deletes and touches up when we get home. He’s having fun.

It was very dark when we got there, but this little teeny clump of land was silhouetted against the sky and lots of sailboats were out on the calm water. Very beautiful.

Then daylight started to lighten up the sky.

Finally the sun started coming up over the horizon. Brilliant, piercing color!

Then it finally hid behind the ever-present morning clouds. What a sight this was! The beginning of a perfect clear summer day. The clouds just had to make an appearance!

After it was too bright for pictures, we made our way to a nearby Regional Park. After our seven-hour outing last weekend in the sun, Dad was done to a turn, thoroughly roasted! He peeled all week long, and was still red in the face and neck. In spite of that, he still hasn't decided he needs a hat, but he did wear a long-sleeved shirt. We couldn't resist another fun day outdoors, so we just set out in the sun again. This park has a hiking path for a couple miles along the top of the cliffs above the ocean. Wow! Beautiful! But what a challenge after awhile. You may not be able to tell, but we were up and down, up and down, over hill, over dale, dozens of steep climbs. Oh my gosh!! I was exhausted by the end of that – which was about 4 hours! However, what a variety we saw.

See the steps built into the trail. We must have done fifty sets of those. I can't tell you how many hills there were! I'm still aching! On one side of the trail was a drop off down sheer cliffs to absolutely clear water and either beaches or boulders, and on the other side were rolling hills and meadows full of flowers.

It reminded me so much of something right out of “Sound of Music.” Makes you (me) want to take off running up the meadow singing, “The hills are alive.....”

Along the way we came across some cool stuff. This is a WWII bunker (gun emplacement). There are 118 of them along the west coast of New Zealand. They were built to guard the coast against enemy attacks. They're called "pillboxes." They were manned by three soldiers and guns, and had clear view of the coastline. Fortunately, they never saw any action, because a couple battles in the Pacific by 1942 stopped the threat of attack by Japan. The view from up there was wonderful!

We've come across a couple of cool kinds of fences and gates in our travels. This was a classic. I couldn't resist taking a picture of Dad climbing over a stile. Just have to say, "Piggy won't get over the stile, and I shan't get home tonight!" from "The Old Woman and Her Pig."

The trail followed just to the left of the tree line on the edge of the cliffs.

From the meadows along the trail, this is what we saw!! Beautiful. See the sheer white cliffs?

At the far north end of the trail we went down to where this river meets the beach, and came part way back along the beach - which wasn’t necessarily all beach.

We climbed over slimy boulders and rock ledges and slipped and slid and dodged the water – good thing it was low tide, because those places normally aren’t accessible. Finally we got to a beach – which just happened to be another nudist beach - and decided to go back up to the trail on the top of the cliff. However, there was a “sunbather” sitting right next to the trail up. Kinda awkward. This must be the land of the line-less tan. He wasn’t alone, either. There must have been a dozen others. Good grief!!! And no, Dad didn’t get any pictures!

The manager of our little Village where we live asked us to come and talk to the residents about what we do. The fear in renting to us initially was that we were missionaries and they didn't want to be bothered or preached to. So this was a big step. We went Wednesday afternoon and there were about a dozen residents there in the community room. Very attentive and shook their heads in agreement about things as we explained the humanitarian efforts taking place and told them we were the administrative "facilitators" to help with approvals and other details. I had pictures from some of our past projects, and stories to go along with them. It's fun to have access to the end results of what goes on. They seemed interested and were relieved, I think, to know they were safe from being proselyted! Afterwards, we had tea, of course. Tea is sort of a ritual with these old people, I think. Really just snack time, but it's their social time. Little cookies, cream puffs and sausage rolls. Really quite good, and we spent another little bit just visiting with them. There were two men and about ten women. One of the men got Dad's ear and was telling him war stories about being in Italy during WWII. When we left, they invited us back "anytime you hear our cups clinking down here", and specifically invited us to their next "fish and chips night". I guess we've been accepted.

More another time!