Auckland

Thursday, 15 October, 4 PM Auckland New Zealand

Dear Family and friends,

The thought occurred to me that I might have to change the name of my blog (All the Places you Never Want to Go on Vacation) since we will be working in Samoa and Tonga on this first-time-ever trip.  The hub we fly to and from and where the church offices are in Auckland, sits within walking distance of the Spencer Hotel that they have booked us into.  We arrived in NZ mid-afternoon after two very long flights.  If we had flown on NZ Air like the other couples do directly from LA, the cost would have been considerably more than the Cathay Pacific flights we took—first to Hong Kong for 14 ½ hours, and then down to Auckland for another 12 hours.  It was to our great happiness and surprise that on the first and longest flight we got bumped up to business class and got a bed!  My dinner was the most tender and tasty fillet—probably the best steak I can ever recall eating in any fine restaurant.  It does not happen very often that we get this pleasure, but we thought it was a great way to begin our travels; nevertheless we were feeling rather dopey and crabby after our two long flights and the 6 hour layover in Hong Kong. 

Enjoying business class with bed, larger TV screen, and my incredible dinner!  I even have my own tablecloth…sometimes life is good! 

The kitchen in our hotel room; behind the long cupboard is the washer and dryer!

They booked us into an over-sized and incredibly accommodated room.  We have a washer and dryer, microwave, dishwasher, small kitchen, ironing board, living room and bedroom with ample furniture and incredible views.  But we are terribly under-dressed.  It was cool and windy when we got out of our taxi.  We are so used to the hot and humid, which we do expect though on the other islands. 

Picture this with more saturated colors—from the air and through the window doesn’t do it justice.

From the air, all we could see when the clouds parted was bright green fields with sections of very dark green forests; the ocean was an incredible emerald color with large rivers winding here and there throughout the terrain.  It is so beautiful here.  The people in the Auckland office tell us how much they love it here, that the weather is like Seattle and that there is so much to do and see.  We haven’t talked with anyone who’s ever been here that didn’t want to go back for another visit. We’ll have one extra day coming and going, so maybe we’ll get to see some of the area. 

Elder and Sister Winters, who we’ve been working with by e-mail and phone calls were going to be here, but had an emergency back in the States so we won’t see them till the end of our trip.  Another couple is supposed to get us to the office on Friday and to church on Sunday.  We are anxious to leave the very heavy donation bag stuffed full of the T-shirt dresses at the office.  The soft bag has no wheels…  We have been told that they will distribute them to Samoa and Tonga when they take a container there, or couples will bring some of them with them when they travel. 

Well, maybe we can go get some dinner in hopes it will wake us up so as to make it to bedtime, ha, ha.

Below: beautiful views from our hotel window.

Love, Mom & Dad, Elder & Sister Greding, Jim & Karen