No Two Days ....

It seems as though the last two of three weeks have been just a blur. We went from a little bit busy, to very busy, to insanely busy. One of the members of our team went into the hospital for a kidney transplant, and Diane has had to pick up her work – first she had to learn it, and then do it. That hasn’t impacted me as much, except she isn’t available to help me as much.

We’ve had a couple of interesting events that filled several days. Even though neither of them amounted to much, we have had to track them and make all of our contacts, just in case something materialized. The first was the 7.9 earthquake near Tonga which was followed by an underwater volcano.

Fortunately, neither of them caused any significant damage or injuries. But they interrupted anything else we might have wanted to do. Everything goes on hold when we have a potential emergency or disaster. In this case the only thing we have to show for it is a couple of pictures from others. The volcano its self spewed a lot of ash and rocks for several days and when it stopped there was a new island off the coast of Nukualofa, Tonga.

The second situation that interrupted our work for a while was a late season Tropical Storm that just appeared out of now where. I make it a practice each morning to survey what is going around in the Pacific that we might be interested in. What to my surprise, on Tuesday morning I spotted this Tropical Cyclone bearing down on New Caledonia. It continued in a south-southeast direction following the New Caledonian coast line for a couple of days until the cooler southern waters caused it to just peter out. In the interim it dumped a lot of rain along the western half of New Caledonia, and its winds kept everyone on edge for a few days. Again, no major damage, no injuries, and not even very much flooding, but I was pre-occupied, again, for a while.

In between potential disasters I have continued to work on a couple of Humanitarian Projects that have been in the mill for quite some time. The first is a wheelchair project in Papua New Guinea. We purchased about 700 wheelchairs to be distributed to disabled people, but somewhere along the way, the local group we were supposed to work with decided that they would charge a “fitting” fee to each recipient of PGK$150. That is not a lot (US$52.) but to someone who has no way of obtaining currency, it makes it almost impossible. We have been trying to negotiate with them for several months without success. Finally, a couple of weeks ago we decided to just work around them completely. That got their attention and they suddenly decided that they didn’t need to charge any fees. The wheelchair that we selected is a three wheel jobbie with wide tires. It is very stable in rough terrain and with the long wheel-base it can go just about anywhere.

The other project that I picked up was intended to develop a program to teach the Aboriginals in and around Alice Springs, Australia how to speak and read English (Australian English).

It has been tied up in copyright issues since we arrived. We are very close to getting all of them settled, but it is still a work in progress.

The missionary couple that I’m working with in Alice Springs returns to Blanding, Utah in May. They may find the church building different, but I’m not sure they’ll notice many other differences.

Alice Springs is a very remote area in the central part of Australia. It is truly what one would refer to as the “Out Back.” These photos should give you an idea of that country. The chapel pictured here is in Angula, NSW, Australia.

While all of this was taking place, Diane and I have been accompanying the missionaries while they taught a young family about the Gospel. We’ve really enjoyed that. And coincidentally two of the family members were baptized on the same day that Emily Gordon was baptized in Houston. For us it was a Sunday, for Emily it was Saturday. I was asked to speak at the baptism service and I told everyone that it was a special day for us – which it was kind of like a symbolic baptism for Emily. I then talked about the symbolism of baptism: as the candidate is lowered into the water it symbolizes the death and burial of Jesus Christ; and as he comes up out of the water symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thereafter, the candidate walks after the manner of Jesus – taking upon him Christ’s name and following His example. I further explained that during the time of Christ and for many years after a Kings would seal a letter with wax and imprint his ring in the wax. By doing so it was his way of authenticating the letter—confirming to everyone that it was from him. Nowadays we simply sign our names, our signatures. Before we sign a contract, we read every word and make sure we understand and agree with it; then we add our signature. Thus our signature is our symbol of our commitment. In like manner baptism is the symbol of our commitment to follow our Saviors example, and to keep his commandments.

Diane and I haven’t been on any excursions, treks, or explorations for so long that I really felt that we needed to do something. So we let our housework go, packed a lunch, and headed for the hills – mountains really. We went back to a range that we have been to before, but this time we started from a different trail.

We followed a stream most of the way, up, up, up we went and deep, deep, deeper we went into the bush (forest). It was a lovely steam, by far the best we have seen since we’ve been here.

It led us to a beautiful waterfall that was probably 150 feet high. After eating our lunch, we continued our trek up to the top of the falls. Only to discover, once we got there, that there were five other falls further up stream. They were one as big, but collectively they were magnificent and beautiful.

Deep in the bush we began looking at things on a micro scale. It is hard to see the forest and the trees at the same time, so we alternated between enjoying the magnificence of the forest, and the intricate beauty and variety of the smallest moss covering. How grand are the creations of God.

How much effort he must has made in giving us such a beautiful world with so much variety and yet organized to perfection! Hmmm.

When we got home from our 6-hour stroll (hike) through the woods, we were invited to a sausage feed at the retirement village where we live. It consisted of oven baked sausage, white bread with butter, and sauce (ketchup). Yum? Don’t make the mistake of thinking the sausage might resemble something you’ve had before – Not. They don't season with spices, and use very little salt. Sausage as it is sold here is just some type of ground meat in a skin (chicken, turkey, beef -- but not pork, for some reason). Yum? Not! The sausages aside, we enjoyed the socializing. One of the ladies played older songs on the piano, ones we remember as kids, and we all chimed in and sang, laughed and reminisced through music. I was surprised at how many US songs they all knew, such as the Tennessee Waltz, Red River Valley, In the Good Old Summertime, etc.

It was a grand week!!!

Work and Stuff...

We’ve been indoors the past couple of weeks, unfortunately. The rainy season seems to have begun. At least we’ve had more rain in a couple weeks than we’ve seen since we’ve been here, so we don’t have many adventures to report on. We did try to get out to a city-sponsored Polynesian Festival, but by the time we arrived there, the rain had too. So we didn’t stay long, and just got one really good picture. It was held in a huge park, and each different culture had kind of a village of their own. This picture was of a guy standing guard at the entrance to the Fijian area. Kinda fierce looking, huh?

The crowds were heavy and you just kinda had to be carried along with them, like going to the State Fair of Texas or the Houston Rodeo. So when the rain started down in earnest, we were happy to go. Auckland is said to have the biggest Polynesian population in the world. I believe that!

We have been so extremely busy at work this last little bit! Susi, our department secretary, received a late Sunday night call to check herself into the hospital because they had a donor kidney that looked like it was a match for her. So when we got to work Monday she had already undergone transplant surgery. That was two weeks ago, and her progress has been up and down, but hopefully things will improve and she’ll be on the mend. As a consequence of her being gone, we’ve had to pick up some of the slack. Specifically, I’ve taken on the education funding grant that she administers. We have a local donor who has sponsored many, many of the Polynesian kids in several island countries to help them get some training or education to help pull them out of poverty. Susi has worked with that, and Steve asked me to pick it up. With no instructions and no prior knowledge, I’ve kind of stepped into the middle of things, and hope I’m not making a mess of it. Luckily, we do have local people in each country that handle the paperwork on their end, and then send it on to Susi. So at least I have them to try to explain things to me. It’s been a challenge, but I think I’m picking it up.

Dad, of course, monitors the activity of the entire South Pacific on a daily basis. First thing when we get to work, he gets on the computer and checks all his meteorological sites, local news in each country, and whatever else he has identified that will tell him we have weather problems somewhere in our Area. There is an enormous fault line that runs right through things, and there are daily, sometimes hourly, earthquakes along it. It runs down right to the northern tip of New Zealand. All through that area are volcanos as well. In fact, most of the islands have been created by volcanos. We actually have 48 extinct volcanos within the city limits of Auckland. One of them is where the lake is that Dad runs around each morning. We don’t even think of them as being volcanos. They’re just pretty little round-top hills now. But the ones out in the Pacific, along with the fault line, give a lot of concern. With the underwater volcano that blew this past week, there was an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude, and the concern was tsunami waves washing over Tonga and many other islands. Tonga is very flat, with no mountains at all. One of the church employees there jokingly (but maybe not so jokingly) told us they could either climb to the spire of the temple, climb a coconut tree, or stand beside the grave, because there was nowhere else to go. Luckily, the tsunami alert was called off when nothing materialized that they feared.

Very few homes here have heating or air conditioning. We've discovered more humidity here than what we expected. When it rains, our apartment gets VERY humid, and I can't just kick down the thermostat like at home and dry out the air. We have to keep the windows closed or the rain comes in, so the indoors just steams up. The temperatures aren't cold, it's just raining. Consequently, I find myself feeling like a wet dog - and looking like it too. In the mornings I blow dry my hair, then use the curling iron, but when I get done, my hair is still wet. Too wet to comb. Finally in desperation a couple of the wettest mornings, I get to that point, and then just leave for the office, crank up the A/C in the car, and by the time we arrive, I can actually comb my hair.

So with no more pictures or things of particular interest to report, I'll just add more words and phrases to tickle your ears: at least they did mine!

Sport is a singular word: news, weather and sport
Test: In sport, when one team plays another, it isn’t a game, it’s a test.
Massive is their favourite big word. Every sale is massive. Everything big to an extreme is massive. If something is a big deal, it’s massive.
Sales are a “big save” (or “massive save”), not savings, but save.
“After leaving your message, press the pound key” – nope, here it’s the “hash” key.
When you make a call, if the line’s busy, it’s engaged.
You don’t check the box, you tick it.
Solo mums = single mothers
Through is used almost interchangeably with in: in answering the door, they’ll ask you to come through. If someone will bring you something, they’ll bring it through.
Wee: a lot of Scottish influence here, so lots of things are wee. Not a wee bit, just a wee. Take a wee nap. She has a wee baby. I’m a wee short on money.
G’day: there’s also enough Australian influence that g’day, or g’day, Mate is a fairly common greeting.
When you buy anything, rather than say, “$12.38, please”, they’ll say “$12.38 thank you”, all in one breath.
Numbers are just that – numbers. Rather than something being on page 125 (one twenty five), it’ll be “page one two five”.
Months are shortened to three letters when they speak: Valentine’s day is one four Feb. The middle of summer is Jan.
A water blaster is a power washer
Transport is anything that transportation would be – just not the –ation on the end.
Accommodation is always used in place of hotel, motel, apartment, flat, house, whatever.
Ay is tacked on to the end of sentences, kind of like “huh?” or “Isn’t that right?” It’s pronounced just like a long A, and no questioning tone at the end of it, just more like a statement. “Tomorrow’s your birthday, ay.”
Sign in a McDonald’s: “Pardon our mess whilst we’re expanding.” They really do use “whilst”.
The –ed on the end of words is frequently a t instead, such as learnt or spoilt or spilt.
Rather than say “yes” or “yep” or “un-huh”, they do a short, clipped, “yip!”
A batch is a not-so-great little summer beach house or shack. Most of them are disappearing now, but back in the day they were all over the place. Comes from the word batchelor. I guess just a little shack a single guy would live in.
This was a brand new one on us. As I said, there was a volcano that spewed up from under the ocean near Tonga this past week. It shot up, and then there was a 7.9 earthquake to go along with it. We got a tsunami warning for a good portion of the Pacific Area that Dad was following pretty closely until they cancelled it. But almost as soon as it happened, someone put video of the eruption on YouTube. Some passengers on a cruise ship or ship of some kind, had their video cameras on this eruption and it was pretty cool. Apparently, they were pretty awed at seeing a volcano up so close. One of the deejays on the radio said the passengers seemed to have been pretty “gob smacked” about it. We got a real hoot out of that phrase!

THE COAST AT LOW TIDE

With the rain, wind, sleet and snow that we’ve been having (NOT), I decided to share a side of New Zealand that Diane at least doesn’t think is very beautiful – the variable world at low tide.

Aside from the soft sandy beaches and pictures of sunrises and sunsets, the seaside is more interesting at low tide than at any other time. There is more to see and more to do. The NZ shore line changes dramatically because we have so many inlets and coves that are separated by steep cliffs and jagged rocks. The following pictures will present several variations and hopefully demonstrate some of the variety we have seen.

This is a picture of me walking out on the beach when the tide was out. This particular beach was mostly made up of broken seashells. There were others out that morning digging muscles.

Other beaches we have walked along at low tide quickly change from pretty rippled wet sand into a mixture of sand and mud, and then into more mud than sand.

Some places we’ve seen the beach sand just seems to go on forever like there is no end. In this case you can see a small stream that flows into the sea cut its way through the sand.

One of our favorite pasttimes is to walk along the “extended” beach and look for pretty shells that no one else has found. This beach is just a mile from our home, and about ¼ mile from our office. Our office is next to the tall building on the right.

This shot is just a little to the north of the last picture. The sandy beach suddenly became bed of lava from a past volcano. That volcano is about half way between the beach and our home. The island in the background is called Rangitoto. It too is an extinct volcano.

In other places the beach gives way to what is affectionately called (by others) "the wet lands."

This is a picture we took several weeks ago on one of our adventures. It is another view of the “wetlands.” They are really nothing more than marshy swamps that provide habitat for all of the undesirable species that are valuable only to the environmentalists.

A lot of the hiking trails that are published in the brochures for tourists contain advisories that they can only be “tramped” 3 hours immediately before or after low tide. This would be one of those.

Even at low tide some of the coast line is pretty difficult to navigate. Like in this case either the rocks are difficult to maneuver or the streamlets keep it pretty wet. (We are dry-landers).

This is a picture from one of our excursions along a coast line that doesn’t exist, except during low tide. The bay comes right up to the rock cliff on the left -- except during low tide. You can just barely see Auckland City in the back ground.

Low tide or not, some places are more than just treacherous – especially for those of us that are no longer very nimble on our feet. These rocks are covered with black and green algae, and are as slippery as snot, especially when your feet are wet.

Even though this area was mostly flat, Diane had to watch every step to make sure she didn’t land on her cabooska.

Because there are so many volcanoes in and around Auckland (48 I believe), the coastal areas have a lot of rocky shelves. In this picture the sandy beach gives way to rocks when the tide recedes.

Here is another area that is impassible except during low tide. The rock formations are fascinating and beautiful, but the only time you can see them is during low tide.

I don’t want to mislead you, this rock shelf is exposed even during high tide, at which times swimmers can dive from the point into the bay. At low tide, they would only hit sand.

We’ve hiked along some sections where we had to leave the coast and walk along the adjoining streets to get to the next cove or beach area. Even then the scenery is spectacular. This picture is of such a place within a 20 minute walk of our home. The town in the back ground is called Milford. I run/walk past this every morning during my workout.

We’ve seen several places like this one during our hikes. Some of them we have been successful in climbing over and continuing on, others we’ve just decided it was more trouble than it was worth and turned around. Either way, the coast provides beautiful landscapes and fun pictures.

I wanted to include in this “low-tide” report a couple of close up pictures. I mentioned the wetlands. This is a picture of some Mangrove seedlings on the water’s edge of a wetland we saw recently.

Again, I already mentioned that some beaches were made up of mostly broken seashells. Other beaches are mostly sand with pockets of shells accumulated here or there. On one beach we were at recently, we found three of four different caches within a few hundred yard of each other. Interestingly, each one was made up of completely different types of shells.

While oyster shells are pretty ugly, they do provide a non-slip surface to walk on. These are oyster shells with black snails on them.

Finally, here is one such area with the picture taken at sunrise.