Beautiful replica of the Christus in the Visitor's Center of the Hamilton Temple
The weeks seem to fly by as we are busy at the office most days and the weekends are filled with as much fun as we can squeeze in! Many Sundays find us attending the Chinese Branch and the Takapuna Ward, where I get a lesson or two in English!
Many wonderful people here of many nationalities. Tongan, Chinese, Samoan, Maori, European and even a few Americans running around!
You may think this silly, but one of the other missionary sisters came over and helped me cover our dining room (horrible) chair cushions...now they look very ""smart!
By our parking garage there is this brick wall with the most
beautiful vine on it...and behind the wall is a very nice pool!
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| Pretty temple dedicated in 1958. They will be closing it one of these days to reinforce the foundation....making it earthquake proof. |
We made the two hour trip to the Hamilton temple. It was a beautiful day! They say the summer has been chilly, but we are loving it!!!!! Auckland is much like San Francisco and Hamilton is more like central valley in CA...was much drier and warmer. |
Friday night Jan 31 was Chinese New Year, so we joined our little Chinese Branch and celebrated.
These are three adorable sisters from mainland China. Sister Dong, in the center came with her sister on the left to visit their sister who lives in NZ. The missionaries talked with her and she was baptized on Christmas Day. She bore a beautiful testimony on Sunday and is now on her way back to China to help "save her people"!!
This gal did a traditional sword dance. Was very controlled and graceful
These three cuties had fun with the balloons! (The one in the middle is named Ariel!)
This photo is for Mel Marker....a corrugated metal elephant at the zoo!
At least it doesn't eat much!
Yes- we went with the Taylors to the Auckland zoo on Saturday. Was fun and the setting for the zoo is quite natural. After being out in the wild in South Africa, I feel sorry for the animals confinement!
This lioness moved very stealthily from the shade to the edge of her pond...following oh so quietly the movements of a medium sized Koi....finally she leapt, but sad to say (for her) she missed!
This NZ Kea bird is the size of a large Falcon and incredibly drab (olive drab),
until he spreads his wings....then..wow!!
Had to pull an image off of the internet so you could see how pretty
they are in flight
Kiwi's are nocturnal, so there is little hope of finding one roaming around...this
was the picture outside of the area where they were simulating
night...complete with moon and stars....still no Kiwi to be seen!
They are flightless, have huge eggs and can live up to 35 years!
This boy was rather unconcerned about being gawked at!
At beautiful Muriwai Beach, we saw a Gannet colony. Very interesting.
They fish Kami-Kaze style and are rather amazing to watch!
Thousands of them on these cliffs. They migrate to Australia and
return each year...always finding their mate!
Very graceful and a bit bigger than a seagull
This beach is on the western side of NZ where the Tasmanian Sea is so gloriously blue!
