White-faced Heron in Tairua

As I mentioned before when we arrived in Tairua it looked like someone had pulled the plug on the bay and all the water had been drained off.  We still took a walk and were rewarded to be able to see a white-faced heron.  I will only share a few of the 100 plus photos that I took of this fascinating creature.

Here is the mud bay.  When the tide is up all of this in under feet of water. 

Nate saw this bird off in the distance and asked "what did of bird is that?"  Thankfully I had a zoom lens on my camera and was able to get a close-up of the creature.  

He was searching for his supper and I was happy to see that he found something to satisfy his hunger. 

It was so fun to watch his graceful walk...almost a strut!

I could swear he knew we were watching him... just a bit of showing off don't you think?

Hot Water Beach

After Nate and Alison arrived in Auckland we drove to Tairau.  It is on the Coramandel which is always lovely.  It was low, low tide when we arrived and although our room was just across the street from the beach all we saw was mud!  But we had a nice walk and saw some great birds.  We drove up to Hot Water Beach because we had been told it was the BEST!  Everyone said that when you go to that beach you dig a hole in the sand and it fills up with hot water and you have your own personal hot tub!  There is signage with cautions about how hot the water could get.  They said it could be 140 degrees F.  Well, what we were not told is that you need to arrive at a certain time based on the tides (or the moon or maybe sun and the stars).  We did find a beautiful beach.

Notice the green color of the water.  That is because the water is relatively shallow.

Nate and Alison got right to it to dig a hole for the hot water.  We were able to "rent" the shovels and beach towels.  What a great thing to not have to bring sandy towels back to Auskland at the end of the weekend!  (They were supposed to be $5 for a shovel and two towels. Robert, the manager of the hotel and a German gave us two sets for the price of one!)

I let them continue with their excuvationg while I continued with my camera and just took pictures.  Don't you think this is cool looking?

Although the hole did not produce any water to sit in they pretended for the purpose of a photo.  Aren't they cute?

Love the spray of the water!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Each year the Office does some fun things to celebrate the season.  There is always a food collection:  canned goods, cereal and other dry food. They have a toy or game collection.  There is a luncheon and a devotional.  This year they have divided the office into groups and each day one of the groups goes Christmas caroling on the four floors of the office.  We were in the second group.  Monday the group sang at our luncheon.  One time.  Today the group sang at the devotional. One time.  Yesterday was our group.  We went to all the floors and sang 11 times. We sang Stars Were Gleaming from the primary book.  Then we were going to sing the Kiwi 12 Days of Christmas.  I will post about them next.  I have to look up the things that you get before I talk about it.  Anyway, one of the lady's in our group was dead-set against it.  She things 12 Days is really dumb.  Stupid.  (Maybe it was because I told her I did not like Deck the Halls.)

Today, the group that sang included the Area Presidency.  They sang Christmas Bells which was lovely and then the gave us all a candy cane with a piece of paper wrapped around it.  The title on the paper:  The Meaning of  the Twelve Days of Christmas.  (I had to laugh.)

I thought I would share.  The story goes that from 1558 until 1829 people in England were not allowed to practice their faith openly. During this ear, the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written as s subtle way of celebrating Christ's birth in public without rick of prosecution. The song's lyrics had a hidden meaning know only to members of the church, each element of the twelve days offering code meaning for a religion reality.

1. A partridge in a pear tree stood for Jesus Christ.

2. Two turtledoves stood for the Old and New Testaments.

3. Three French hens stood for faith, hope and charity.

4. The four calling birds were the four Gospels.

5. The five gold rings represented the first five books o the Old Testament. ..the  Law.

6. The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of the creation.

7. The seven swans a swimming stood for the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit.

8. The eight maids a-milking represented the beatitudes.

9. The nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Spirit (see Galatians 5)

10. Ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments

11. Eleven pipers piping stood \or the eleven faithful disciples.

12. Twelve drummers drumming symbolized the Twelve points of belief in the Apostles Creed. 

Whether or not the story is based on true  occurrences--each element of the lyrics offers a positive reason to celebrate Christianity. With the deepest meaning to contemplate, the song becomes a lighthearted anthem of praise and a tribute to those who dared celebrate their gratitude for Christ. Aren't we blessed to be able to worship the Savior without fear of harm? Maybe we should stand a little taller and be more open in sharing the gospel with those who don't yet have the truth. Aren't we blessed to have the scriptures to read and ponder? There are only a few days before December 25th. Next time you hear the Twelve Days of Christmas celebrate the blessings of being able to openly and wholeheartedly celebrate.  

The Bus

Each modning in Korea we would leave the hotel by 8:30 and go to the Korean Service Center for the church.  We always road the same bus. It was just the right size to all of us.  I had to take pictures of it.  

Now that is what I call "class".  

A View Out Our WIndow

When we went to Singapore on our way to Korea we chatted with a girl who worked at the hotel and she told us she was Korean. We told her we were going there the next day. She asked where we were staying. She told us that if we were on the correct side of the hotal we would have a beautiful view out our window.  I guess we were on the correct side as this is what we saw.

Whales and Dolphins and Birds! On My!

We went one a whale and dolphin cruise a few weeks ago.  Those of you that know me pretty well are aware that being on a boat that is moving fast through the water is not usually my cup of tea.  I made sure I had taken a sea sick pill before we started. I admit, it was an amazing afternoon.  I have learned that being in the front of the boat in the breeze is the best way for me to enjoy such an activity so we went right to the front and sat on a step and watched the land go by as we left the harbor.

We were told that we needed to look for large flocks of circling birds.  Finally we saw some.  Many of the birds were gannets.  You can read about them back many months on this blog.  They fly here to NZ to mate and lay their eggs and then when the chicks are big enough they fly back to Australia...just 1400 km.  On this excursion I figured out how they would do that.  They are like ducks in that they can float on the water and they drive into the waters to spear fish with their beaks.

Here is the first flock of birds that we found.  They were so awesome to watch.

This photo is of a gannet dive-bombing into the ocean.  They hit the water going up to 100 km per hour. I guess it is a good thing that they do not have nostrils on the outside of their beaks or they would drowned from the impact. 

Not too long after we saw these birds doing their tricks than the captain came on the air and said that he had been told there were dolphins about 10 minutes away from us. We took off like lightening.  Then he came on again and told us that we were in store for a real treat as we were approaching a super-pod of dolphins!  That meant between 1000 and 2000 of them.

Can you see them jumping?

Here two, up close and personal, are right under the front of the boat.  The captain said that they like to swim by or near or under the boat...it is like a racer drafting behind the others. 

Here is another one.  I probably took 200 photos of them and these are the best I got.  They gave us a CD with all sorts of photos that they had taken but I wanted to use only mine. 

This last one is of more fish but if you look to the left side of the photo you and see the water spout of a whale. 

These next two photos are ones that they gave us. My camera, as good as it is, could not capture them.  They knew what they were looking for and what was happening so they got really good shots.

These were not even taken when we were there but they are from the waters here about!  Top one is an orca and the bottom a humpback.

Good Morning Sunshine!

We sleep with our window open and the shades up about 6 inches so the air can get in.  The other morning, as I awoke, I saw the most beautiful sky.  It was so pretty, in fact, that although it was only 5:05 am I had to get up and take a photo.  I hope you enjoy the beauty of it.