Leaving “Aotearoa”

We are leaving the “land of the long white cloud”   this is the phrase the Kiwi's say for New Zealand.   We woke up in Temple View on Tues. and went to the temple.    Another beautiful day.   I hope no one is tired of hearing me say that.   Laurie and Rick were called to be the witness couple,.   What a treat.
This is Rangi, she has done all the recorded history of the church in NZ, beginning with the missionaries that arrived in 1854.
After the history, we took a tour of the church college. It is shut down at the moment, waiting for the church to decide what to do with it. It is a shame that the church is letting this landmark fall into such disrepair. The CCN was closed in 2009 (Dec. 5th)    The kiwi’s are very sad and some are trying to ask the church to preserve some of the buildings.    This is a waiting to see game at this point.   The temple and college were built 1958, and the country of NZ would not let the church put an angel Moroni be on the top.   There is still no angel on top.   This  is Penni, the Strothers niece. she is working at the Milk Bar up the road. She  is 17 and Graduates from High School this year.
Good night and in the morning we are off to Auckland to catch our plane for the USA.
 

Goodbye Rottenrua, Hello Temple View

We said goodbye to our condo and headed to Hamilton and Temple View.   Some of the sights we saw before we left, were old mail boxes and telephone bldgs. which N.Z. used for quite a while after USA used them.

At this lookout spot we could see a blue and green lakes, one was a Maori lake and one could be used by the Pakeha’s (the other people)      We drove to the SPA and it was quite beautiful.   The pools inside were, of coarse,heated by geothermal water. When we arrived in Hamilton we did a walk around there Lake Rotoroa (the Hamilton Lake).    It was a 3 + mile walk and we saw lots of nature.   These birds called Pukeko were beautiful.   Beautiful day.  This flapping wing bird is a dark Shag, which is a cormarant, indigenous to NZ.  I don’t remember but These black swans were so pretty.    A little train was along the side of the path.Our last activity of the day was going to one of Lynette and Sheryl’s sister’s home for family night.   6 of their 12 siblings and their families were there.   We told them about us and they performed for us.   This a very musical family.   At the end of our words the Maori’s have a tradition that you have to end your words with a song.    Rick played the guitar and sang a cricket song, Verne and I sang “Take me out to the ball game”    We need to prepare better and always have a song to sing!!!!!   This isn’t a bad idea for all of us.    It was a fun and emotional night.