Adventure, Adventure, more Adventure

We’ve really been working hard the past several weeks. First our supervisor was out for a month with a heart condition. Then the Administrative Assistant went in for a kidney transplant; she’s now been out for six weeks. Diane has had to pick up her workload which, in addition to administrative duties, has been the management of the Perpetual Education Fund and another scholarship fund for Pacific Islanders. Between the two funds she has about 350 active accounts to manage. It has been a really heavy work load for her, considering no training and no time for a normal learning curve. On the other hand, I’ve just been playing around doing research, in between a few floods, tropical cyclones, etc. We have sixteen island nations in our Area. (I don’t know how many actual islands – several hundred) Any humanitarian aid or emergency relief that goes to these countries comes through our office. I’ve finally completed my research and have produced a sixty-five page report that recommends where we should be focusing our church-administered humanitarian aid to achieve the most impact.

Some of the countries have few on-going humanitarian needs, while others are in desperate shape. If my recommendations are accepted, we will be organizing several key healthcare projects in such places as Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Vanuatu. I’ve also recommended several clean water projects for Tonga, Tuvalu, and Kiribati. Even if they are all accepted they won’t be our only projects, but they will be our primary initiatives. We’ve currently got twenty-six projects in various stages of progress.

Naturally, when our day off comes around, we’re ready for our next adventure. There are 10 other missionary couples working in our office building; however, we are the only ones doing humanitarian projects.

Several of us decided to go kayaking down the Puhoi River. It is wide, lazy and beautiful. Just our speed.

With a few minutes of instructions and a little cruise downstream we were both acting like pros – well, at least we both had our paddles in the water at the same time.

After a couple of hours on the river, we all made our way to a local (English-style) Tea Room for a small lunch. We decided to have their quiche, but they also offered meat pies and Devonshire Cream Tea (not tea at all, but scones loaded with whipped cream on top). For the "Littleys" their menu offered "round sandwiches of jam, honey, peanut butter, or vegemite, along with a lolly, juice, and biscuits".

After lunch we decided to leave our friends and take a hike up a nearby mountain. The trail head was lined with a long row of huge Sycamore trees that were beginning to lose their leaves. (It is autumn here, you know?)

The trail was very steep. Unlike most that we have been on, this one was not cleared and paved with gravel. There were places where it took both of us to get up and over the obstacles. The untamed nature of it added to the natural beauty and ambiance. We really felt like we were in the wilds. If nothing else, we were breathing hard. When we reached to crest we really felt like we had accomplished something.

Obstacle course or not, quite frankly I was pretty glad for the bare roots. They formed a type of stairway up the mountain side, which would have been nearly impossible to climb without the layered roots giving us a foot hold.

We were well rewarded when we got to the top by some breath-taking views of the Pacific coastline. The inlet you can see on the upper left is the mouth of the Puhoi River.

But something that we really hadn’t anticipated was when we came upon these little guys. They were so cute. They just sat there while we took their pictures. (They didn’t seems to give a hoot.) They would cock their heads and just look at us. The flash of the camera gave them “red eye.” When we finished taking several pictures, they flew away.

Strangely, the trail down the other side of the mountain was well groomed, gentle, and spread with a layer of gravel. After a bit of a strenuous climb, it was a welcome leisurely walk down the other side.

Down at the bottom we walked along a black-sand beach that was littered with small striped shells. Since our flat is becoming overrun with shells and other "beach-find," we didn't bring any home with us.

We weren’t the only ones who had thought that this might be a good place to take pictures. The sun was setting on our day, so we headed for home – a long 40-minute drive.