We were asked to go to the areas north of Auckland, which they call Northland, to visit 5 Family History Centers and visit with two Stake Presidencies there. So we set up the appointments and off we went Monday, the 14th, to the north. We had a great time and have a few pictures and even a video, if it will work, to share with you all.
We appreciate those of you who are following with us on this adventure and have had several positive comments about the blog. So I guess we'll continue with it.
We'll start with the hotel in Piahia we stayed in:
It was a nice hotel, by New Zealand standards, right by the Bay of Islands and even had a tub, which made Sister Kite happy!!
Here is a shot from our room of the pool and Bay. The weather was still cool and not many ventured to the pool or beach though this day it was at least sunny for a while.
This is the beach in front of our hotel and you can see a couple of the small islands that give it the name of Bay of Islands.
A shot in of the beach in the other direction.
And a view of the main part of town in Piahia. There wasn't much there and we even had a hard time finding something to eat the first day when we walked down this street to the small town. There are a few shops that serve meals around noon and then close by 2:00. Then they open again in the evening around 5:30. But if you want something, you'd better time it to these times.
This is the first family history center (chapel) we visited. We had called Krishna McKay (pronounced McKie) to let her know we were coming to the a center in her area and she met us there. She is the mother of Ester Powell that Sister Kite worked with at North Davis Junior High School. After we finished our business at the Family History Center, we went to lunch with her as well. We can easily see why we love Ester so much as her mother is very delightful. We really enjoyed our visit with her. They live on the KariKari peninsula and her husband was out fishing for snapper, which made me wish I could have spent some time with him also!
This shot includes Sister Pure (pronounced "Pudi"), who is the Family History Director for the Kaitia area. The Directors work with the Ward and Branch Family History Consultants who, in turn, work with the members to encourage them and assist them in doing their family history.
Just west of Kaitia is the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It also is the beginning of the "90 mile beach". This is a shot to the south on the beach.
This is a shot to the north on the 90-mile beach.
And this is a shot of Sister Kite enjoying her visit to the 90-mile beach !! Actually, the wind was blowing and was not pleasant to be outside, despite the way the shots above look. The sea-spray made it hard to see very far, although the pictures above don't look that bad. This beach really goes about 90 miles to the very north tip of New Zealand.
This is another of the Stakes we visited and we are in the family history center going over the computers, printers and network to ensure things are working properly. This is Bro Shortland (1st Counselor in the Stake Presidency) and Sister Shortland (Family History Director) for the Whangarei (pronounced "Fangaray) Stake. Great people there and we had an enjoyable time giving them training and the renewed focus the Church is giving to Family History.
Another Family History Center and their Director, Sister Horsford in the Maromaku Stake. This center was located in the middle of cattle country and Sister Horsford pulled up wearing rubber boots and working clothes with additional clothes to change into for our meeting. She had been in the "cow shed" working just before coming to meet with us. She also teaches one day a week at the school, works at the hospital in Whangarei in the intensive care unit, serves as the Stake Primary President and a mother of six children. One son had just returned from a mission and one was about to go. What a great lady !! We have a fun visit with her and she was really greatful we could help her with her family history work.
This is a shot of some wild turkeys (especially for Lloyd Waite) we saw along the way. I must tell on myself about a stupid thing I did here. When I saw these turkeys, I knew I had to hurry and take a picture. So I quickly turned around down the road a bit. On our way back to where the turkeys were, a truck on the side of the road flashed his lights several times. I mentioned to Sister Kite "that man must need some help so we'll hurry and take the picture and come back to help him." So we quickly flipped back around and took this picture. While there, the gentleman in the truck came up to us and rolled down his window. He politely informed us that we were driving on the WRONG SIDE of THE ROAD". In my haste, I had reverted back to my U.S. driving skills !! I was embarrased and thankfully explained we were from the US and I'd try to remember which side to drive on again. We had a good chuckle about this.
This is another Family History Center where we met with the Stake Presidency and leaders and gave them the training. In the picture is Sister Cheryl Sadler (the Director) and Bro Rakete (Stake High Counselor over Family History). Again, great people. However, we must say that the people here in the Kiakohe Stake area have a greater struggle. We arrived a bit early here since we didn't know exactly where it was so we killed some time by sitting in the parking lot of the main market area. We perceived a darker feeling of the people here. Their vehicles were dirty, a lot of youth "hanging out" and a sense they were lost, several folks smoking, and in generally the town had a bad feeling. This was very different from the other areas we'd been to. We found out later after talking to President Higgins (our leader) that there is a lot of un-employment and drugs in this area. We feel bad for them and pray for them there.
Finally, we are going to try a new thing here. We shot some video with our still camera and want to share some "live" footage of our trip. Again, this is an experiment and, hopefully, this will work and we'll try to improve on the quality for the future as some of it is shakey. Also, the narration isn't great as we felt weird talking on film. However, here's hoping you all will be able to see it. I tested it and found the image quality isn't great since I had to reduce the size of the file. So you may want to click on the "view it on Youtube" button on the bottom and view it there as it is larger. If you have problems, call Haley and maybe she can assist you....sorry Haley, but I think you've done this on your blog before and may be able to help !! Thanks !!
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