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!