A walk about Takapuna!

It was a sunny and breezing day here in Takapuna so we decided to take a walk. To prepare for it we decided to bring our overcoats with us to the office. That is the best decision we have made since we got here and there have been many decisions! As we walked we saw some great things.

First off I was not aware that aloe grew so large nor did I know that it had flowers! It was very pretty and they went along the entire front of an office and they were all flowering. It was lovely to see it and to learn something new today. We wondered on and ended up at the beach. This is where we were before but today it was not raining nor was it dark. Makes a real difference.

I should have edited this before posting but this is a seagull that looks like the ones we have at home but I question wheather they are. These actually go into the water and clean themselves. I did not get a photo of him splashing about but that is what he was doing. There were people swimming without wet suits so I assume it was not too very cold. We did see a huge container ship coming down the bay.

This is a park called Gould Reserve that is between the car park and the beach. It looks so nice and actually has tables to eat at. I told Dad I wanted to get some shells but we never go to the beaches to pick them up. He said we could eat at the tables but I told him that we never have lunch. So we both have things to work on so we can do some of the fun and exciting things there are around us. IT was a great walk and we were all ready then to go back and work for a couple more hours. Enjoy the photos.

Jasmine

Jasmine Perrett has just as interesting story as Guy did. She is half Rarotangan which means she is from the Cook Islands. Her mum was from the Cook Islands and her Dad was from Australia. They had four children and then along came Jasmine. They were happy and contented with the family that they had so they put her up for foster care. This woman, in her late 40's, heard on the radio one day that there were 11 white babies and one mixed baby up for foster care. She heard it two weeks in a row and talked her husband into fostering the little mixed baby. That was Jasmine. Her foster parents were white Europeans that had immigrated to NZ and she was obviously not. They were members of the church and had been for years. When she was four years old her birth mother gave up all rights to her and she was adopted by the Napier family. Her mother came from a family of 15 children and loved children and loved this little girl. She was part of the family in every way. Her patriarch blessing says she was always meant to be a Napier. So she was raised in the church with brothers and sisters that loved her and cared for her as if she was born into the family. She served a mission in Christchurch NZ. They have two very nice boys...at least we think they are. Their oldest Jason is a returned missionary who served in Singapore 2007-2009. He is now studying medicine. Their other is a missionary in Melbourne which was his father's mission. What great people they are. She is a school teacher by trade and teaches 13-14 year olds which is like 8th graders. She teaches all disciplines and I would assume she is very good. She is our gospel doctrine teacher and I have never seen anyone that can write so fast on the whiteboard with a marker! We are so blessed to be able to meet and become friends with such special people!

Most Interesting New Friends!

We had dinner Sunday night with some people in the ward that we attend. They are Guy and Jasmine Perrett. Their story is great. May be a bit longer than I would like but I think it is worth sharing. Guy grew up in south Auckland and was one of four sons. His father was a drinker and his mum a quiet, gentle soul. She turned the missionaries away from her home when she was very young so later on when they came to her door again she let them in. She never told her husband that she was interested in the church as he would have been angry about it. When the elders were in the neighborhood his father would open the window and yell at them or go out on the street and harrass them so she kept quiet. His father would go to the bar each evening after work which was about 4:30-45. He would stay until they closed. At that time last closing was at 6 p.m. so all your drinking had to be done by then. Guy and his brothers would meet their dad at the pub and wait for him to finish drinking and then they would all go home. Usually with his dad behind the wheel. The bars were not open on Sundays but the people got around it by have Sports Social Clubs. On Saturday afternoon the pubs would move all their liquor down to the local cricket or rugby club and then they would serve the drinks from there. On Sunsdays he would be at the clubs with his dad and brothers and his mum would be at church with the mormons. She had callings in the church and all for years before she was baptized after their divorce. He went to a very small high school and anyone that played sports played all the sports. So he was on the teams with mostly the same boys but there were some others that played basketball....and they were members of that Maori or polynesia church...they were Samoan. Two of them were brothers and they were very nice to Guy and invited him everywhere. Their dad was stake president. Guy did not really investigate the church but learned good things about it and liked it. He said that during that period of time they would have firesides (this was in the 70's I would assume) called Firesides with a General Authority and it was with a GA. They would fill the font before the meeting and afterwards the missionaries would take their investigators into a separate room and have prayer with them and oftentimes baptize them. (I know we do not do this now!) One time they had a reception afterwards for the stake presidency and bishops and families etc and he was invited. The visitor was N Eldon Tanner. He asked guy if he was going to be baptized. Guy told him No Sir! President Tanner asked him if when he knew that the church was true would he be baptized and he told him yes. Elder Tanner asked that he write to him and tell him when it happened. Guy said that although he already knew that the church was true he was only going to be baptized on his terms. He joined a few months later and a year later received a mission call. His friend, the stake president, asked if he had written Elder Tanner yet. He admitted that he had not but did and Elder Tanner responded. He is a very educated and smart man, very careful with his dress and manners. He has served as a bishop. He was a land developer until the bottom fell out of the market three years ago and since then has been a consultant and went back to school for a masters with a certificate in sustainability. Maybe I will tell her story in a different post. Stayed tuned.

Sunrise, Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset

It is amazing that today is the first day of winter here in New Zealand just as you begin your first day of summer. It is the shortest day of the year today. Checking I found that sunrise was at 7:34 today and that it will set at 7:12 for a total day length of 10:36. Six months from now when we experience the longest day it will be 5 hours and 7 minutes longer. I wondered what the difference was in Utah so I checked. There is a 5 hour and 49 minute difference between the longest and shortest day. And I would have thought we would have more sunshine. Enjoy the day!

There is hardly a day that goes by that we do not see a rainbow. They are very pretty. Some are more vibrant than others and some are double but they are nice to see. They spend about 10 minutes each evening going over the weather for the next day. I am not sure if it is because there is one ocean on one side and a sea on the other and bays all over the place but they have very strange weather. I will say they have been pretty accurate until today. The forecast was clear and warm, up to 18 degrees C, and then rain in the late afternoon, with hard rain at night and then rain for the rest of the week. It was raining when we got up and has conitnued to for most of the day. It is very dark and gloomy. It is winter solstice tomorrow so it should be getting light earlier and dark later.

Thought the mailboxes were interesting. They are all over the place as well.

A walk along the sand

We decided last night that we were going to walk along the beach and nothing was going to stop us! So we did in the rain but it was nice. It was just getting dark and was a bit chilly and wet but we had a nice time. There were windsurfers in the parking lots who were rolling up their sails and paddleboarders still coming in. I kept thinkng how cold they would be. Of course they all had on wet suits but their feet were bare. The tide was coming in pretty fast so we walked along the street where all the little shops are to get back to the car. There is a little fish and chip place that we have wanted to try so we went there...we had F/C for lunch so we were just going to look. Anyway, there were three couples eating when we got there and one of them asked: Are you really fans of BYU? Dad had on his Y jacket. I think they were very disappointed that we were not Kiwis! They were from Provo and had just gotten in that morning. One had served his mission there 40+ years ago and was married to a Kiwi. The others were family...a mom and sister I think. The woman who was kiwi had been raised on the north shore and had been neighbors with the Dils and Roberts that I wrote about yesterday. It is a small world. One was an ortho surgeon that just retired from his practice...cannot remember the name exactly but it was McC.....something or other. Anyway. We saw them 30 minutes later when we were at the grocery store too!