Northlands

We've recently made two separate trips to do some training in the stakes in the Northlands that we serve as Area Family History Advisors for: Kaikohe Stake and Whangarei Stake.   Our take away from these trips is the old maxim: When at first you don't succeed, try, try again.   Our first time up had several snafus, ranging from inadvertently leaving behind our wireless mouse for our computer at a hotel where we stayed to getting hopelessly lost late one night on a scary road (which I referred to briefly in my last post).  We tried our best to connect with folks on that first trip, but for a number of reasons some of those meetings either didn't happen at all or didn't go as well as we would have liked.  It was a bit discouraging.

The second go-round was much better.   We made it to every single appointment and had really great communication with each person we met with.   The various places we needed to be were all quite a distance apart, so we spent a lot of time riding in the car on long, twisty roads.  (On Wednesday we left Auckland at 7:30 AM and were on the road till 9:30 PM with three meetings at various places along the way.)  It was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.

We worked hard, but we also got to stop to stretch our legs and take a few short hikes between stops since we were covering so much distance.

Here are a few scenes from our travels:

Steps to Maori Fishing Village in Kerikeri

Paihia - Bay of Islands

Rainbow Falls near Kerikeri

Whangarei Falls

Haruru Falls

Lynda at Whagarei Falls

Larry on the trek to Whangarei Falls

Hike to Rainbow Falls

View of coastline from Portland, NZ

Cape Reinga

Confluence of the Pacific Ocean & the Tasman Sea at Cape Reinga

Lighthouse at Cape Reinga