From New Zealand to Samoa

This is the New Zealand temple.  It is very beautiful perched up on a hill.  They are going to renovate to bring it up to acceptable earthquake standards.  The people are worried about the length of time it will take to be completed as their closest temple will be either Australia, Samoa or Fiji.

It was a 2 hour drive from Auckland to Hamilton where the temple is located.  We drove past the road which goes over to where the Lord of the Rings was filmed but of course we didn't go there but it was interesting.

This is our hotel room in Auckland.

This is our hotel called Spencer on Byron.

This is our group of missionaries going to Samoa.  We are on the ocean beach in Auckland just down from our hotel.

We got up at 4 am to get ready to fly to Apia from Auckland.
Above is our flight to Apia, Samoa.  To the right is our plane that brought us to Samoa.  It was raining but it was a very warm rain and it felt good to walk in it.
 There was a Samoan band playing in the airport lobby when we arrived.  A nice greeting to the country.

These are pictures of "Fales" or open walled houses.  There are many similar fales around, here are two pictures where you can see the family burial plots are in their front yards.  An interesting concept, to bury your family members in your front yards.

Above is our house in Apia (until this Tuesday when we go to Savaii).  This is our car and Ellis/Glenda you might note that it is not an AVION.  However, when you look at the picture below, you will note that it has the same problem as your Avion, the steering wheel is on the wrong side.

I have been giving the windshield wipers at many corners a good workout just to make sure they will work good when it is raining.  I am getting better as long as I think about it.  I am sure it will improve with time.

These are the small bananas but they ware very tasty.

This is the first meal we prepared in Samoa.   Peanut butter and jam sandwiches along with bananas and coconuts.

Mom is getting ready to eat.  This was the first coconut that I opened myself.  When you finish the coconut milk you crack open the shell and you can scrape the meat out with a spoon and it is soft like jello and quite good.  They told us after that it acts as a laxative but it didn't bother me so I guess I will try it again.

This is the fish market.  The fish are all laid out on the counter and you can select the fish that you want.  Some of them are pretty big.  They will fillet them for you if you want.  They go out fishing the evening before and bring them in for this morning market so they are quite fresh.  Notice the palm tree wands they use to keep the flies away.  The young men stand there constantly waving them.

There are all kinds of fish here.  Joanne bought some Masi-Masi (we actually shared it with two other couples because it cost 150.00 tala - about $75), a red snapper, a slice of tuna (see the picture below) and a piece of Wahoo.

The circular ones are one to two inch slices of tuna (yellow fin, I think).

You can see Joanne is trying to decide what kind of fish she should buy.  She had an advantage as Elder Layne (a dentist from Florida)  is an avid fisherman and was along with us to help us make good decisions.  It was an interesting experience and one that we will have to repeat when we come back to Apia.

The next two pictures are of the Apia, Samoan Temple.  It is a very beautiful temple situated on the corner of the Coastal Highway.

It is part of the church complex.  The complex includes: the mission home, the distribution center, the temple, the Transportation and PBO offices, a church high school and a middle school, houses for teachers and temple workers, dorms for temple patrons who come long distances, houses for senior missionary couples, a big rugby field and a soccer field.  It is quite a complex.

Hope you enjoyed this blog will try and put another one after we get to Savaii and see what our work load is.  Joanne says I missed some pictures from Auckland.  If I find them I will do another post.