January Outing Going Missionaries

Saying goodbye is quite sad as we may never see these missionaries again but on the other hand it is a happy occasion because they are going home to their loved one. We can always keep in contact on FB. I think when I get home I will need a couple of hours every day so that I can remain in contact with all our friends.

These photos were sent to us from the air port. Not that we are getting trunky but that will be us soon.

 

Taranaki - Rainforest!

We reached our first destination which was in Mania. The Elders had recently been moved out of the flat and we needed to check the tidiness and cleanliness. We have no idea if more missionaries will be moving in there or not. Either way it needed to be sorted out. We met Elder and Sister Cochran there and had a lovely chat with them. Then we travelled to New Plymouth to stay the night at an empty flat waiting for a new Missionary couple to fill. We decided to follow the satnav , not sure if that was the right thing to do. But I guess this signpost meant we were going in the right direction.
It was still raining so the visibility was quite poor but we just headed in the direction the satnav told us to. Although we started to go up a hill which is not normally the way to go back to Taranaki. The bush was all around us but the trees were just a little different and the road was getting narrower. It is times like this when I wish we had a map in the car. We crossed over several one lane bridges as we wound around the road. The hour long journey was almost coming to the one and a half hour mark. Thankfully it was not getting dark. We eventually started to come out to more open spaces and we could even see some road sign. They were on the other side of the road so I looked around as we drove passed. Hmm! Welcome to the ………..Rain Forest. I just knew that we were going up Mount Taranaki into the bush lands, ha ha ha. We may even try that route again when it is not raining as it did look very pretty from what we could see.

 

Taranaki - 1

Our trip to Taranaki was quite eventful. Our journey down was the worst weather we have ever travelled in. It rained all the way, that’s about 4 hours. It wasn’t always heavy rain but none the less the blue skies did not appear for us at all. Which really is unusual.

We were held up in traffic for about 30 minutes just before the first tunnel on the route down to Taranaki. There were two cars in front of us with quite a big space between then, the the road bent around to the left. A long artic lorry was parked on the other side of the road facing in our direction and there was a long queue behind us when we eventually moved off. One of the drivers behind us got out of his car a went to see what was happening. When he came back he stopped at our car and explained that a motorcycle had hit the artic lorry. He also explained that the motorcyclist was not moving. Oh dear! Then another man came by and said he was now moving, thank goodness. Unlike in England when an accident happens everyone stays where they are, in this county members of the pubic seem to get involved. Sometimes they even move bits of the damaged vehicles out of the way. In this case nothing needed to be moved but the occupants of the cars in front of us started directing the traffic around the cyclist. That is why we were only delayed by 30 minutes and I should add that no emergency vehicles arrived during that time. About 30 minutes after we had left the scene we did see an ambulance and police cars coming in our direction. Sadly the motorcyclist had died, very sad.
The fatal accident had only happened just minutes in front of us and that was about 10 minutes after the motorcyclist had overtaken us which I must add he was not driving dangerously. Life is so precious!

 

Near the end of our day

So after installing the washing machine at Opotiki we headed for home. Of course we had to stop by the beach for our picnic before driving to Whakatane to deliver one letter and one DVD. Even the one is important. 

Last stop of the day in Tauranga. It's been a long sunny day and we're glad we don't have to prepare dinner tonight as we had a phone call during the day inviting us over tonight. Big smiley face. 😄

Long Day

We started the day early and were in the office just gone 7.30. There wasn't much post so we left the office by 7.45. With a new washing machine and supplies and post for the missionaries. First stop Rotorua. It's on our way to our main destination at Opiotiki to deliver the new machine. As always we had a friendly welcome from the Zone Leafers. 

Now this was funny. We heard shouting coming from inside the flat and the Elder was disconnecting the washing machine before turning off the taps. I did ask him to recreated the incident as it would take a really good picture but he refused so you just have to make do with this pose. 

Water all up the wall, on the floor and all over his tee shirt. 

Happy New Year

We had planned to go to New Plymouth Taranaki on New Years Eve. Elder Saunders has supplies that they need plus he has to check over a flat that has just been vacated. But I was really poorly and when Elder Saunders said he didn't mind if we stayed at home I jumped st that chance. It also meant we had to cancel our evening plan of staying over at  Elder and Sister Sprouses but we hopefully can arrange that for another time. 

That didn't stop us celebrating our New Year in New Zealand with our children in England. The time was 11 am for them. Sorry Paula didn't make it. We also tried to celebrate England's NewYear with them again Paula wasn't there and Chelle missed us by minutes trying to set up computer. 

We did have a relaxing start to the year but that was only because I was too weak to do anything. But I'm almost back to full strength now and travelling around the country, that's for the next post. 

The Wedding

Our first wedding.that we've been to in New Zealand. Peter Decker and Louise Hughes. They met here as missionaries. Louise is from Australia and Peter from the states. She looked stunning and couldn't keep that smile off her face. 

What was so yummy was the wedding cake. It was a German chocolate cake. I must get the recipe.