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The Cute Family, plus a new baby, that is living in our home in Providence, Utah
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Layover in Auckland
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We arrived safely in Wellington, NZ and were met at the Airport by our Mission President, Michael Kezerian, his wife, Sandy and the Assistants to the president.
Two nights were spent in the mission home with another senior couple, the Browns who are serving on the South Island in Greymouth and the new office couple that we actually met in the MTC the McGregors.
Rob received his first and only driving lesson (from young Elders) using the left hand side of the road and the steering wheel on the right side of the car, which was quite an experience. They say you can always tell the tourists in New Zealand because they have the cleanest windshield's in the country. You see the controls for the windshield wiper and the turn signals are opposite from the United States. At any rate he did pass and our new Toyota Corolla Hatchback was delivered to us the next day. The Church leases our car and we pay $175 a month plus our gas, which we think is a terrific deal.
Our time in Wellington was short but we did take a few hours to meet the Records Preservations Missionaries there and learned a little about what we would be doing for the next 17 months.
The weather was perfect for our ride across the Cook Strait to the South Island and Picton. We had great conversations with other travelers around the world and even met a lady who grew up in Salt Lake City. She and her husband basically live on a small sailing boat and travel from ocean to ocean. The boat is equipped with many home conveniences and can be heated by solar panels and converts salt water to pure drinking water.
One Happy Couple
Our first night on the South Island was spent in Nelson at a beautiful Bed and Breakfast. We took a long walk and enjoyed the sights of this lovely little tourist town.
The next stop was at the Abel Tasman National Park. It sits along the coast which enables you to see the North Island as you walk the trail along the side of the mountain. Our 3 mile hike was just perfect. We especially enjoyed seeing the Fern Trees. Yes little fern plants as we know them are the size of small trees. The weather was perfect and our bodies up for a good work-out after days of sitting in a class room and a very long flight.
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A real live Fern Forrest.
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Notice the mountains of the North Island in the distance.
After several hours in this beautiful park we headed down
the West Coast to Graymouth where we spent the night with the Browns (A senior missionary couple we met at the airport in Salt before we boarded the plane.) They had flown from Wellington and we took some of their extra luggage in our car and delivered it to them in exchange for a nights lodging and dinner. It was a gorgeous drive on small windy mountain roads as well as times along the coast. Rob did a great job of staying on the correct side of the road as my hands waved up and down trying to keep my mount shut when I thought he was taking the curves too fast. This was not a time for taking a nap.
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Touring in style!
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Pancake rocks just north of Greymouth.
And there were plenty of opportunities to organize.
