Talofa everyone.

Today is March 13, 2013.  February just flew by.  We left on Wednesday, February 27th to go to Auckland New Zealand.  We stayed at the Spencer hotel in Takapuna for ten days.  We, along with two other ITEP missionary couples went early to the meetings to set up a literacy plan for all the Pacific Church Schools.  We were in the office from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. most days.  They let us have a van and visit a couple of malls to do some shopping.

 When we arrived in Auckland on Wednesday it was rush hour traffic time so our shuttle driver took us up to the top of a crater to a place called Eden Park because he was going to drive right past it to avoid the highway traffic. You can overlook the harbor and city of Auckland and Takapuna and other cities.  It was a beautiful 360 degree view. The red sail is Team New Zealand's ship for the America's Cup out practicing.

 The Sky Tower and downtown Auckland.

 Looking down inside the crater.

 Elder and Sister Spencer with the Sky Tower and city of Auckland behind them.

Eden Park lookout between Auckland and Takapuna.










On Saturday, March 2nd they let us have a break and we took the van on a trip. We drove to the Coromandel Peninsula which is on the North Island,  east across the bay from Auckland.   It was beautiful day, sunny and very warm.  We drove through a lot of country that was very dry. They have had a hot dry summer and are worried about their crops and cattle. We passed a lot of dairy farms.

First stop was a little town called Tairua.  They had a Saturday market going on so we stopped, walked around and visited the visitors center.  Then we headed to Hot Water Beach.

 They had all kinds of vegetables and fruits here.  They looked very good and were reasonably priced.  Wish we could take some back to Samoa!

 Elder and Sister Spencer on a foot bridge with a nice island behind them.

As we drove out of Tairua and headed to Hot Water Beach we stopped at this overlook and just enjoyed the view of all these little islands everywhere. 

Next stop was Hot Water Beach. The tide was in so we did not get to see the hot pots under the ocean. They said if you dig in the sand you hit water that is 140 degrees. That would be hot!

 Elder & Sister Budget, Elder Johnson, Sister Spencer and Sister Johnson (Elder and Sister Johnson are serving in Tonga).   We are heading down to Hot Water Beach.

 The waves were great.  There were a lot of boys, in wet suits, out surfing.

Reed and Nada posing on Hot Water Beach.  The picture to the right is of a surfer who just crashed. 

We walked along the beach and around some big rocks.  We had to work our way around the tide.  The town of Hot Water Beach was just tucked down there.  You could not see it from where we first started walking on the beach.

We then drove to Ha Hei and had lunch.  As soon as these people stood up to leave the seagulls swooped in to eat the food.  The owner ran out when she saw Reed taking pictures of it!

We drove down the hill and then back up another hill to the Cathedral Cove area.  This picture is taken right from the top of the path before you begin the hike down to the ocean.  It was a pretty good little hike that took about 30 minutes each way.

You can see how dry the grass is.  This was a little ways down the trail.  You could see the ocean from a lot of the trail and then other places you were in complete vegetation.

There were these beautiful fern trees all alont the path.

This is Cathedral Cove.  There were more swimmers here than we have seen the whole time we have been in Samoa.  The water was quite cool but the day was very warm so a lot of people ventured into the water.

The rock was almost white down here.  You had to walk through the arch way to get to the other side of the beach.

Reed getting out of the water. He has decided that he is going to swim in every ocean we visit.

Beautiful water, rocks and beach!

 The water was just so clear and blue.  You can see how it has slowly washed away some of this rock.

Looking back through the archway where we had just been.  The rest of the cove is on the other side and has more rock formations and trees.

 After we took all the pictures and Reed swam we had to walk out.  They had four sets of 17 steps each and then a couple of sets of steps with 10 steps to climb out.  That was the hardest part of hiking out.  The exercise was well worth it.  Wish we would have had more time to just enjoy!

We then took a cut off road over to the town of Coromandel.  It was mostly dirt road except when you came to little bridges. Then the road was paved.  We took a short hike to see some old Kauri Trees.  They are native to New Zealand.

 Reed showing you how big around the Kauri Tree trunks are.  There were not a lot of them.  They are tall, wide and very straight trees.

Then we drove for about an hour to the actual town of Coromandel.  It was a quaint little town.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints meeting house was right on main street.

As we headed back to Auckland we passed a lot of rolling hills like this.  There were sheep all up and down these hills.  Interesting how they look like they have tiers all down the side.

 

You can see how far the tide is out in this picture.  Lots of rolling hills that need water badly and all that ocean water right below it that you can't use!

Sunday we went to Church and then we went for a walk on Takapuna beach.  It was a gorgeous beach that we went walking on every morning for our exercise and on Sunday just because it was so beautiful.  We then went to Elder and Sister Jacobsen's for a very nice dinner.

 We drove through a town called Thames.  We drove up and down main street.  It was a quaint little town and most of it was closed when we drove through at 7:00 p.m.  We ended up stopping to eat at a McDonalds.

 

Auckland at night.  Reed took this picture from our hotel room balcony.  It was a beautiful site to see all day and night.

 

The actual area ITEP and principal conference started on Monday evening, March 4, 2013.  They had some of the area leaders and different people put on court wigs and put each principal on trial.  They would just interrupt the meetings and say it is now time for court.  The principals were found guilty of doing new and great things in their schools.  They were sentenced to eating one giant Cadbury candy bar in a single sitting.  It was fun.  Below is Jared Hester, he is the area finance guy.  He is handing out the sentence of one cadbury chocolate bar to a principal.

 

 

 Reed during one of his presentations to the area and principals.

Sister Johnson doing one of her presentations about literacy.

This is a group picture of all in attendance.  The front row are all the ITEP male missioaries. It was interesting watching some of those older guys trying to sit on the floor. The row sitting down are the women ITEP missionaries with Scott Wilde and Wayne Maurer the two big Pacific Area coordinators for S&I.  The next two rows are the other area leaders and all the principals from the Church Pacific Schools.

 

We had a great time.  We were able to do some sight seeing, go to church and meet lots of interesting people.  We were able to shop and even visit a regular super market.  Who would think you could be so excited to shop at a regular supermarket.  We brought a lot of chocolate back to Samoa for our teachers.  They all requested a Peanut Slab, of course we brought some back for ourselves, also!

 

Well, this is a long blog.  Hope you enjoyed our trip to New Zealand.  It is a beautiful country.  We hope we can see some more of it when we leave at the end of our mission and report to the area.  We are busy back in Samoa teaching and Nada has been helping in the Mission Office a little.  We love you all and love our Father-In-Heaven.  So long for now.

Love, Elder and Sister Spencer