Weeks 24 and 25 in Tarawa (and New Zealand)

 

On February 26^th we left for the Principal’s Conference with our principal, Lita Iabeta.  She is an amazing person and has done much for the church as well as for Moroni High School.  She even assisted with the translation of the Book of Mormon into Kiribati.

We rented a car and drove down to Hamilton only to find that the temple was closed for cleaning on Friday, Feb. 27th.  We had a wonderful visit with the senior missionary couple from Farmington, Elder and Sister Monson, in the visitor center.  A week later, after the Principal's Conference was over, we again rented a car, drove the hour and forty five minutes and attended a temple session.  Sister Sumner was also able to do some initiatory work.  The temple was small but beautiful.  At the temple we met another senior couple serving in Auckland as name extractors.

 

Since the temple was closed, we drove in the rain to Rotorua, New Zealand’s “Yellowstone”.  We walked around looking down into bubbling mud pots, one of which spit some hot mud on me (no harm).  We walked along the lake edge and came to a Mauri exhibit of a war canoe that was pretty amazing.

Saturday morning, Feb. 28th, we decided to ride up on the Skyride tram and try out the mile long luge run.  Actually, I purchased the tram-luge run package without Sister Sumner knowing.  She was a good sport, however, and agreed to give it a look. You can see Rotorua and the lake in the background.

We took a picture of a family getting ready to go down the luge run.  Seeing little kids and grandparents going on the run gave Sister Sumner confidence to give it a go.  Afterwards, she wished I had bought more than a single run.

One of the attractions at the top of the tram was a jelly bean store.  These three pictures were made entirely of jelly beans!

There's Gollum admiring my precious!

We drove from Rotorua to Matamata to see Hobbiton, the set used for the Shire in the Hobbit movies.  We stopped at this visitor center in town and were informed that the tour would take three hours and cost $75 dollars each, so we took a few pictures and left.

The theme of the Principal's Conference was "Embark", the same theme for Young Men and Young Women this year.  We heard from the area presidency and our ITEP and Seminary and Institute leaders during the 3.5 days of the conference.  We came away recharged and refreshed to return home and fulfill our callings as ITEP missionaries.  We found it so helpful and enlightening to meet and discuss our efforts with the ITEP couples from the other islands whom we had never met before.  The "Embark" theme fit so well with the island schools in the South Pacific.

We loved all the decorations, but especially loved these table centerpieces.

This shows the layout of our conference meetings as seen from where we sat.  The principals sat in a large U in front of the ITEP couples.

Thursday afternoon, we went as a group to the marine museum in Auckland to learn more about the history of South Pacific island boats.  We toured this replica of a twin hull boat that was used to cross the Pacific in ancient times.  This replica was actually manned by a volunteer group from Hawaii who were sailing to many locations in the Pacific.  This replica, however, had very modern navigation and communication equipment on board.

We took a brief boat ride around Auckland.  This is a view of the city from our boat.

We were told to be sure and try the local fish and chips meal.  The meal was delicious for both of us and a handful of seagulls.  They would come right up to us at the table and take a French fry right out of our hand.

The Auckland skyline is famous for this needle-like structure, which can be seen from 30 or more miles away.  We could see it from the balcony of our hotel, the Spencer on Byron, in Takapuna, and even got to watch some fireworks launched from the needle to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Takapuna is known for its relatively recent volcanic activity. At low tide we went walking out on the lava flow where we could see the remnants of trees that had been destroyed by the lava flow, leaving circular rings and holes.

Being in New Zealand was a lot like being back in the U.S.  We realized, while there, that this was most likely our last excursion from Tarawa before our mission ends about a year from now.  It's hard to believe that our mission is one third over.  We feel so very blessed and privileged to be able to serve the Lord here.

We've been incredibly busy since returning, but will try to post a brief blog for week 26 in a day or two.