Progress On Many Fronts

The weather in New Zealand has proven to be much cooler than we had expected. Mind you, it hasn’t been cold in comparison to most places, but it’s just been colder than we were prepared for. Auckland is situated on a very narrow strip of land which makes it quite susceptible to anything and everything that the two oceans send its way. The weather patterns literally change at a moment’s notice from east to west and back again, or from north to south and back again. The Tasman Sea is generally the coldest, so westerly driven storms seem to be the worst. We really don’t have much to complain about, comparing Auckland weather to other parts of New Zealand. The south island, which stretches half way to the Antarctic, is much colder. Our night time temperatures have been hovering around 3 degrees for the last two to three weeks. (Just like shelf prices in the store – that reflect Kiwi dollars, the quoted temperatures also produce “Sticker Shock” when we hear them, then we have to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit. Three degrees (C) is really about 35 degrees (F), which isn’t too bad. But without central heating, our flat isn’t always warm and cozy. Receiving some amount of rain almost every day seems to be the norm. But that is what makes it so green and lush – beautiful. In spite of these differences Auckland seems to be a much more outdoor climate than Houston, Dallas, or even SLC.

Last Saturday promised to have rain all day, but we decided to take our chances and we planned a trip to the Auckland Botanical Gardens. We enjoyed the day there and were only rained on a couple of times.

It was too late in the season for many of the fall flowers and colors, but the camellias were in full bloom.

Some of the camellias had already started dropping their petals.

We really enjoyed the day and the scenery in spite of the on again, off again wind and rain.

The following week was filled with work at the office until we had hardly any time to spare. I have two projects that are in the finishing up stages and consequently taking a little bit of extra time. We also have received approval for a couple of new projects that we are quite pleased with.

The first Project that is wrapping up involves the distribution of wheelchairs in Papua New Guinea. We sent a container load of wheelchairs to Port Moresby and another container load to Lae – almost 700 wheelchairs combined. Our partner on the ground in both locations was the Rotary Club, whose principle role was to get the chairs into the country without us having to pay heavy duties or bribes to government officials. The other partner was a group called National Orthopedic and Prosthetic Services (NOPS). They had responsibility for actually distributing the wheelchairs to the disabled. They also keep track of everyone who receives a wheelchair so they don’t get more than one, or sell the one they get – since we distribute them free to the recipients. It has been quite an education working in some of these locations where crime and corruption are so rampant. The wheelchairs we provided in PNG are known as “all terrain” wheelchairs. They are pretty neat chairs with extra wide tires, a very long wheel base.

The second project that is wrapping up involves the work of several missionaries that have been developing a program that will help Australian Aboriginals learn to speak and read English – Australian English.

We have produced 13 DVDs and 6 booklets that include pictures, words, and the spoken word to help them learn the English names of things in their own environment, basic conversational English, phonics and English grammar, and reading skills.

We have been duplicating these products to get them ready for distribution in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, AU. They have asked for 100 sets of materials, but I’m going to take 50 sets over to start with. Then we’ll see how well they are used.

We received final approval this week to purchase an electrical generator for a small village in Kiribati. The village recently constructed a community pavilion. It is the largest structure in the village and is intended to be used for community gatherings, celebrations, youth activities, etc. But there is no electricity in the village.

The only lighting is by way of kerosene lamps or open fires. So we are presenting them with a small generator that will be large enough to power some lights and some audio equipment. They are so excited about it that they invited the President of Kiribati to attend the dedication ceremony where we will be presenting our “gift.”

And finally, we also received approval for a school equipment project for Majuro, Marshall Islands. This project was the result of the Minister of Health and the Minister of Education working collaboratively to address a national problem – diabetes. They wanted to start teaching young children, their parents, and teachers how to grown their own “healthy” food. So with the equipment we are providing each school will be able to develop a “hands-on” vegetable garden that the children and teachers will tend.

The produce will go home with the children. Our role is to provide the gardening equipment, seeds, and books about gardening. The equatorial sun is so hot that one of the challenges in raising garden vegetables is shading them properly. In addition to these we are also helping them set up an athletic program for the schools, by providing all of the needed sports equipment. The country is so poor they can’t afford to supply their schools with these types of things.

We are now working with our people on the ground in Kiribati, Marshall Islands, and Vanuatu to identify villages for potential clean water projects. These will most likely be some form of rain water harvesting. More to come on this before too long -- I hope.

Wintertime Adventuring

With the winter weather setting in, we’ve been keeping a little closer to home for our adventures. Rain is the most consistent thing about winter, and wind is the next. We decided to bundle up and hit a couple nearby volcanos one Saturday. The town of Devonport is just south of Takapuna on a little jut of land out into the harbour. It’s actually where the first Maoris landed in New Zealand prior to 1300. It’s thought that they came from some of the eastern Polynesian islands up closer to the equator. Imagine paddling their canoes all that distance! At any rate, right there on the coastline are two extinct volcanos, Mt. Victoria and North Head. They are just pretty grassy knolls now, but have quite a history. We climbed up Mt. Victoria and the scenery was beautiful! However, the day wasn’t. Pretty cold and windy and grey, but, as you can see, we could look out all over, a 360 degree view.

Our classic skyline view with the Skytower

and the Harbor Bridge. We have two missionary couples living in the tall apartment building in front of the bridge. What a view they have!


Another skyline view from the top of Mt. Victoria

Because of this location, guarding the entrance of the harbour, Mt. Victoria and North Head became a strategic location for placing guns and other fortifications. The Europeans only began arriving here in about 1840, but have always feared attack from the north, either Russian aggressors in the 1870-80s, America potentially trying to gain a defensive location in the southern hemisphere, or preparing for Japanese attack in WWII. These hills are a maze of underground tunnels, almost whole cities! There are huge disappearing cannons that could shoot and then retract down into the hill out of sight, as well as gun emplacements on the top.

North Head, the second volcano, we saved for Queen’s Birthday, June 1, which is a national holiday here. North Head is only a mile or so from Mt. Victoria. Again, it was a bitter cold, blustery day, but sunny and pretty.

A much brighter sky! This is taken from North Head, looking towards downtown Auckland on the left, and the little hill on the right is Mt. Victoria. Doesn’t look like grass in winter, does it? Green New Zealand!


North Head still has remnants of the military housing and other military buildings that were built there. In an old cook house left over from the military days, they showed a pretty good film where we learned the history of this area. North Head, too, is a maze of tunnels and has a disappearing cannon. These cannons were fired at Rangitoto Island, five miles across the water, for practice. Luckily, it’s a different direction from Auckland. Rangitoto is New Zealand’s most recent volcano, erupting and forming an island only 600 years ago.

One of the many underground tunnel entrances

Rangitoto Island out in the sea

Because it was a holiday and the sun was out, there were tons of people out enjoying the day. The best thing about this place was how much fun the kids were having. First of all, all those tunnels to explore! And second was the steep, grassy hillsides. Every kid there had a piece of cardboard, and they were sliding down the hills. What a blast!! As you can see, these weren’t wimpy little slopes!

As we were walking along the top of this hill, we saw a narrow little gravel path take off down the hill. It led to a secluded, very narrow little stone stairwell that went down to the cliffs above the water.

We get so much enjoyment from our outings and love the beautiful scenery of of New Zealand! We hope that the pictures and stories we post will give you a little flavor of this great place.