The Lonliest Number in the World is ...

I'll tell you what it is - it's ONE! That's what I am this week, al one! Dad is off to the wild corners of the Pacific, where they don't want white women to travel. So I'm here at home, and he's there, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. If you remember any of your WWII history, Guadalcanal was a major battle in the Pacific against the Japanese. That's in the Solomon Islands. As recently as the 1930's cannibalism wasn't completely done away with yet. The Solomons really haven't been on the Church's radar too much, because the political unrest there has had things stirred up alot until recently. We now have a Polynesian missionary couple serving there, and there are so many unmet needs in that country. One of them is medical care. So Dad's trip there is hopefully going to open up some doors for the church to go in and offer some humanitarian aid in the way of medical equipment and knowledge. When he gets back, he'll be able to tell us more. After leaving the Solomons, he was headed for Papua New Guinea to do more of the same. We actually have a presense there, with a service centre, missionaries, and even a country welfare manager who works under our direction. This is a picture of Dad and Desmond when we were in Sydney for our seminar earlier this month. I call them the salt and pepper team! They'll have a great time together this week. We became great friends with him while we were in Sydney. He's quite a character!

So left to my own devices, what am I to do? I normally start baking, which I had already done this week. But I had all day Saturday to fill up, so I decided to have an adventure of my own. I slept in as long as I could, then got up, ready, and drove down to Devonport and took the ferry across to Auckland. John and Shona, I was thinking about you!

Driving downtown isn't fun, especially when I don't know my way around, parking downtown is impossible, so the ferry seemed the best way to go. That put me on foot, which I love anyway, so I explored over a big part of the central business district. Last night, tonight and tomorrow night are the annual Chinese Lantern Festival nights. I knew that the best time to see the Lantern Festival would be at night, but I wasn't up for walking downtown streets and riding the ferry after dark. So I went to Albert Park, where the festival began last night, and walked all around, seeing the whole display of lanterns. They can make ANYTHING into a lantern. Needless to say, I couldn't take pictures, since the camera is with Dad, so I just took it all in, and then got on line and pulled off the pictures of things I saw there to post. I would loved to have seen it at night, but this way was fine. And I missed the crowds that will be there tonight, too. The big old trees all over the park were hung with lanterns, some very traditional, and some not, like watermelon slice lanterns! Couldn't find any pictures of those though. But enjoy. I did. And got in my walk as well. Altogether I walked about eight miles before I got back home.

This is the entry way arch.

Of course there had to be dragons!

Chinese (lantern) food...

...and tea.

This IS New Zealand, after all, and you have to have sheep (lanterns)!

After seeing all there was to see at the festival park, I wandered around other places we'd been to before, such as the Auckland Domain, Auckland's first park, and more of the main downtown streets. I also managed to find a cemetery (imagine that!). It's the first burying ground in Auckland an is in dispicable shape. I wandered through it a bit, but kinda got the willies when I saw sleepingbags tucked away under a bridge that runs above part of the cemetery. Who wants to sleep in a cemetery - I mean, until you have to! Like I said, being alone is a lonely business. I need my buddy back to share things with. Now off to watch a movie, then go to bed. 'Night!

Cathedral Cove

We'd heard that Cathedral Cove is one of the places you don't want to miss while you're in New Zealand. We also heard you have to be there at low tide. So we looked up the tide schedule and saw that low tide was going to be at six a.m. on Saturday morning. Trouble is, it's about a two and a half hour drive away. But we were determined to do it right. So the alarm went off at 3:40 on Saturday morning (ugh! sacrifice!) We were on the road shortly after, and arrived at the car park just as things were beginning to get light. We had hoped to catch a pretty sunrise, but unfortunately, it was a grey day, and sunrise was kind of a non-event. So off we went down the trail to the cove, about a 45 minute walk. The actual cove is just tiny, but it was a very nice time of day, and we were the only ones there. This is what we saw when we arrived:

The "cathedral" is a big rock that cracked and has been hollowed out by time and the waves.

From inside the rock

and from the outside looking in.

This is the rock you see looking through the opening in the top pictures. See how the ocean has worn away at the base of the rock.

Lots of boulders in the next little inlet.

LOTS of them!

This was the view from the cliffs above.

And in the other direction on top of the cliffs, a valley in the far distance - really beautiful!

On the hike up from the beach, we saw several California Quail. Early in the morning there were two big ones and their "covey" of ten little ones skittering around all over. They have a big plume on their head.

This was a wild lilly growing among the scrub. It looks almost like an Easter Lilly, but see the maroon veins on the outside.


And our favorite find - blackberries! TONS of them! There were so many that we didn't begin to touch them. Not knowing we would hit a gold mine of berries, we had brought nothing to pick into, so we just had to eat them all! I don't think I've ever eaten my fill of blackberries, but we ate handfuls of them this time. Yummy!

As we were leaving, people began pouring into the cove, and we were glad for our early start! We drove home, had a nice afternoon nap, and were invited downstairs with our old lady neighbors to join them for a fish 'n' chips night. Another good New Zealand day!

Ten Days in Sydney

This is the Sydney Opera House at night (even though we didn't see it at night). It almost looks like it's floating on the water of the harbor. Very beautiful sight!

We did walk around it during the day, though. Here it is with the city behind it. Quite a different architecture. The roof is completely covered with 4-inch ceramic tiles!

We discovered our first morning (about 5 am!) that Sydney has many more and different birds than we've ever seen in Auckland. They're beautiful, but make the most unearthly racket, squawking, screeching and being obnoxious! Dad managed to coax these beautiful cockatiels onto our balcony to feed them crackers. They pick up the crackers with their beak, then hold them in their claws to eat. All the white dots on the grass below are also cockatiels. Below are the magpies, which came in droves for crackers as well.

The purpose of our being in Sydney was a Welfare Training Seminar for all the Welfare, Humanitarian and Employment Center employees, missionaries and volunteers from the Pacific Area. We had thirty attendees from nine different countries! Every flavor and color, and we had a great time together! Dad spent the week training on emergency response to disasters, humanitarian projects, and other welfare issues. He'd spent weeks before creating PowerPoint presentations and really put his heart into it. The Country Welfare Managers learned alot from that. My job was the logistics of the whole thing, and, once we were there, to make sure they had breakfast, "morning tea", lunch, and "afternoon tea", get reservations for dinner, etc. We were busy bees, before, during and after the seminar. Good experience! But it's taken me a week to recover.

Days began with breakfast at 7 am, then training till afternoon. In the evenings we had various activities planned together. This is most of the group in the training room. We were a varied group, representing the entire South Pacific.

This is our fearless leader, Steve, the Area Welfare Manager. He was raised in New Zealand by British ex-pat parents, having been adopted as a baby. His heritage is Samoan and Lithoanian.

Our Country Welfare Manager from Samoa, Felix. He is of Samoan and German descent, and his wife is of Maori descent. He has a Ph.D from Cornell University, and is a chief in his village, and pretty influential in Samoan government.

This is our Fiji Country Welfare Manager and his wife sitting with us. He is an international businessman, frequently traveling to Asia, and has been involved in politics in Fiji in the past. (You did notice the flower in Dad's ear??)

Our Country Welfare Manager, Desmond, from Papua New Guinea and...

...Burentia from Kiribati.

They were both astounded and fascinated by the tall buildings and everything about such a busy, vibrant city. Nothing like that at home! PNG and Kiribati are both very poor countries. These are both very humble men who spent their working lives employed by the government, and are now retired (mandatory). Their time is now spent trying to make a difference in the lives of their people. Desmond is funny and bubbly and just giggles when we talk on the phone. A cute guy! Burentia is very quiet and almost shy, but currently has more humanitarian projects going in his little country than anywhere else in the Pacific.

And these are our newly called Country Welfare Managers from Tahiti. This was quite an adventure for all of us! This couple speaks only French - and we sure don't! Tahiti belongs to France, and is really called French Polynesia. We did a lot of pantomining and had a great time.

I had to include another picture of him. He reminded us of a short, stocky little French version of Robin Williams.

This lady on the left is also from Tahiti, and manages the Employment Center there. Her daughter, Miriama, lives in New Caledonia, and just flew in to spend the week with her mother. She speaks great English, and offered to do the French-English translation for us! Whew! She, Miriama, grew up in Tahiti, attended school in France, BYU-Hawaii, and BYU-Provo, married an MBA student from New Caledonia, and now lives in New Caledonia. Really added alot of life to things, and was our unofficial photographer besides. She was a ton of fun and everybody loved her. Her mother is just as outgoing and enthusiastic. They made wreaths of fresh gardenias to wear in their hair for our cruise. For those of you from Houston, Miriama reminded me alot of Puanani.

Here's our cute Miriama with the Harbor Bridge in the background.

A true Polynesian at heart, she was by no means shy and retiring. Here our group was walking around at the Sydney harbor, and just spontaneiously decided to entertain. Some of them had brought their guitars and a ukulele, so they began singing and Miriama danced. Quite a hit with the bystanders!

Later on in the evening, on a downtown Sydney street corner, again they broke into song and dance. You can see from her mother that Miriama came by her outgoing nature honestly!

In fact, nearly everyone joined in. Again, the bystanders were very entertained!

That evening all thirty of us boarded a boat at Circular Quay for a Harbor Dinner Cruise, cruising around Sydney Harbor, under the Harbor Bridge, around the Sydney Opera House, etc. It was a nice night and everyone was enjoying it. After dinner, again the islanders again brought out their instruments and sang and danced for all those on board. Miriama's mom grabbed two spoons off the table and played them, and the guys playing were a Tahitian, a Tongan, and a Samoan. Even though their languages arent' the same, somehow they're able to perform together and all seem to know the same songs. I have no idea what language they sing them in, but it was great! All the other passengers gathered around and took pictures of them performing and Miriama dancing. Then one of our Auckland guys picked up a serving tray and began passing it around for collections - and got some! We all had a good laugh out of that!

Our French-only speaking lady gave me a flower she'd made for me to wear in my hair. It had a black pearl in the middle of it. However, my hair and ears were never made for that and I couldn't get it to stay in for a minute.

We'll never make it as Polynesians, but we had a great time with our island friends this week. We've had personal invitations from each one of our Country Welfare Managers to come to their country on our way home! Boy, how do you choose?

One more group picture before we left the wharf after the cruise. There were more of us there, but so many were taking pictures that they didn't all get in it!

And last but not least, on the last afternoon before everyone started back to their countries, Dad handed out genuine Australian boomerangs to each participant as a souvenir of their trip to Australia. These were made by Aboriginals of native wood, and painted with their distinctive "dot painting", their traditional art. Each boomerang had a different design. Really quite pretty! Many of those attending, like us, will probably never get back to Australia, so the boomerang and all our pictures are the mementos we'll take back with us.

Our Adventures Take Us To Sydney

Diane and I went to Sydney a couple of days before the start of our seminar to purchase some materials for the seminar attendees and to do some reconnaissance for some planned activities later in the week. That meant that we had to make a couple of different trips to downtown Sydney. While there we had a great time seeing the sights and playing the tourist role.

One of the first things we noticed was that like many large cities we’ve been to, there were many sidewalk vendors and performers. In this case an Aboriginal, playing a Didgeridoo, was willing to have his picture taken for a small voluntary contribution. Diane didn’t want to saddle up too close, as you can see.

This street performer calling herself, “Bendy Em,” was quite amazing, except she put on a hard sell plea for contributions.

As a contortionist, she twisted herself into several unattractive and painful positions, and then climbed into a clear plastic box that was not much bigger than a milk crate. If you’re interested, she has a web-site: bendyem.com.

Both Diane and I posed for pictures of famous landmarks in the background. Here we have the Sydney Opera House. We have dozens of pictures of it.

Diane is sitting on the wharf beneath the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It is a beautiful bridge, and seems to just beg to have its picture taken – so we obliged.

Another of our street performers didn’t perform much. He just sat there motionless for hours on end – spray painted silver—while people (not us) put money in his box. Some folks will do anything for a buck. In this case he has to rent his space (on the sidewalk) from the city of Sydney.

This performer wasn’t trying to perform; nevertheless more than a few of us tourists took its picture. It was sitting on the railing of an outdoor café.

This guy, and all of his cousins, kept walking away from us when we tried to take their picture. That long beak was very handy for them as the grubbed around under the trees.

While I’m on a roll with pictures of birds, we enjoyed watching these Cockatoos dance around with each other. They sure had a horrible sounding squawk, though.

I never did find out what kind of bird this was, but it was pretty with its colorful markings and longer than normal legs.

We were both fascinated and repulsed by the thousands of flying foxes we saw in one section of the Sydney Botanical Gardens.

We were there just before dusk when they were all coming in to roost for the night. They were not the small little bats that I’ve seen elsewhere – these guys were enormous. Diane read where they have become a major city attraction.

After those grotesque bats, you probably won’t mind looking at a little bit of architecture. Every new city I visit, I am fascinated by the unique architecture.

Here is a beautiful, yet very old, Catholic cathedral of the Sydney Diocese. We stepped inside, but they were conducting mass so we didn’t see much of the interior.

In stark contrast to the cathedral, is the modern ultra-modern Sydney Opera House. This picture was taken from out in the harbor on a cruise ship we were on. The ”cruise” only last a couple of hours, but included a very fine dinner.

I was very fascinated with the roof structure of the Opera House – not just the shape, which most people are familiar with, but the materials.

Here Diane and I are up close so you can see the white ceramic tiles that make up the exterior. They a glazed 4X4 tiles set in an intricate pattern. It must have taken some poor bloke a very long time to lay all those tiles on that curved roof.

Certainly you didn’t think I could go to Australia without getting out in the wild, even if just for a little bit.

Not too far west of Sydney are the Blue Mountains. They are called the Blue for the same reason the Blue Ridge in Kentucky are.

Although the day we were there it was raining pretty steady, it was fun to be out and I saw some very beautiful country. They warn hikers to be careful about getting lost. It didn’t take me long to see how utterly easy that could be. (I didn’t, but I could easily have.)

While we were in Sydney, Tropical Cyclone Oli – a category 4 storm – hit this small outer island in the French Polynesia Archipelago, called Tubuai.

Consequently, I spent a fair amount of my time while we were in Sydney coordinating emergency relief efforts for the residents of this small island. They had more than 500 homes completely destroyed.

Here we have a group of volunteer workers cleaning up sand out of buildings. The sand was washed ashore by the tidal surge. You can see some of the destruction inside this building.

Less than a week after Tropical Cyclone Oli plowed through the middle of the island of Tubuai, another Tropical Storm (Pat) devastated this island paradise – the island of Aitutake (part of the Cook Islands).

This picture was taken while the storm was still raging.

As you can imagine, if a concrete block structure comes down, the stick frame homes on the island didn’t stand a chance.

More than 300 homes were totally destroyed on this small island.

Again, we have been busy coordinating relief efforts – which are still in progress.