A Week of Adventures: a Maori village, thermal pools, and a tree walk

What a week!

Tuesday I was with some missionaries.  One of them, Elder Kim, is from Korea.  As we visited, I told him that I had been to Korea and he asked me to share some of my experiences.  One story I told him about was meeting a young woman at the Temple in Seoul.  She is the only member of her family to join the church.  She wants to serve a mission but can’t so she does family history work as her mission.  She gave me and Katie Fitt names to do for her ancestors in the temple the day we saw her.  She lives south of Seoul and comes to the Temple whenever her branch comes or she can get a ride with someone.  Elder Kim told me that he thought he knew this young woman.  I still correspond with her on Messenger so I showed Elder Kim her picture.   They are good friends!  What a small world!!

Elders Cushing and Kim

Wednesday morning I got a new car - a Toyota Corolla.  When I picked it up at the mission office it had 17 kilometers on the odometer.  I had to take a missionary to the doctor so by the end of the day it had nearly 90 kilometers.  What a dream to drive.  Even though my other car was a corolla, this one seems more quiet and comfy.  Maybe just my imagination but…

Wednesday evening I went to dinner with Elder and Sister Wright, Elder and Sister Lewis and the two assistants to the president, Elders Brodie and Fukofuka. We had been talking about going to Korean BBQ so we did!  Delicious food and great company.

Early Thursday morning I left for Rotorua with Sister Bunker who works in the Pacific Area Office and her niece from Arizona, Stephanie.  Stephanie brought a friend, Rachael.  Our goal was to see as much as possible of the area around Rotorua in two days so we left at 5:30 in the morning.  It was a 3 and a bit hour drive through some fog and winding roads but it was fun.

Rotorua is known for its geothermal sites.  Read more about Rotorua.

We first went to Whakarewarewa which is a living Maori village.  Here is a link to read about   Whakarewarewa.

I have a lot of pictures so I hope you don’t mind the photo-overload.

Entrance to the village and monument to soldiers

Entrance to the village and monument to soldiers

This house is abandoned now.  The people who lived here woke up one morning to a
steam vent in the middle of their kitchen floor.

The ancestral meeting house

The pool where the vegetables and other foods are cooked.  I believe the guide told us the
water temp at the surface was about 200 degrees F.  It gets hotter as you go deeper.

This sign is near the cooking pool.  When I Google translated it, it means  “like that”.
The guide said it indicated this is the place to cook your food.  Doesn’t make sense to me. 
Must have misunderstood.

This is also a communal cooking hole in the ground.  Meats, etc are cooked here.

Another hot pool

Communal baths  still used daily by the residents of the village.
Closed between 8:30 – 5:00 so tourists can visit.

We walked along the boardwalks over the mud pots, thermal pools, and steaming lake waters.  Then we took a guided tour.

This is the geyser basin you can see.  The one spitting water is Te Tohu I believe. 

I waited for quite a while hoping to get the full version but this is the best I could get in the time I had to wait. 

Above the ground cemetery in this area.  No surprise there!

We attended a show presented by some of the village entertainers.  Since I showed so many videos of hakas and singing in earlier posts, I am only posting this short video to share a little of the entertainment we enjoyed.

We ate lunch and had a great time in the village enjoying the wonders of the thermal area and Maori culture.

The hangi pie is filled with minced meat and vegetables in a gravy.
 The crust is flaky croissant-like texture.

There used to be 3 houses in this area where there is now this steaming sink hole 

After the village experience, we went to downtown Rotorua for the Thursday night street market.

Wall art

Wall art

The most delicious steamed pork bun I think I’ve ever eaten.

Most of the vendors were selling food.  There were a few clothing
vendors but I only took foodie pics.  LOL

We ended up going to a Thai restaurant though because we hadn’t eaten a full meal all day and wanted something we could sit down to eat.

Tom Kha Gai (chicken coconut mushroom soup)

 Pad Thai

Friday morning we walked around by Lake Rotorua.

We walked around the Government Gardens.

From the gardens we walked back to a different area of the lake.

.

Our next destination was the Polynesian Spa where we soaked in the mineral hot pools.

Sister Bunker, Stephanie, and Rachael

The temp of the pool is 105.8 F   Made my arthritic knees feel good.

I somehow lost the pictures of our lunch but we had delicious Indian food before going to the Redwood Forest.  In the forest we walked the Tree Walk which is a 75 meter walk suspended above the forest floor.  You may read more about this Redwood forest.

Saturday I went with Elder and Sister Lewis for a tour of Devonport.   More about Devonport.

An investigator, Coral, has lived in her family home there and knows the history of the area.  We only had a little time as I received several calls from missionaries with health problems and one of them needed to go to an urgent care for stitches in his finger.  He was doing a service project using a weed whacker.  He tried to cut a weed whacker string with a machete and ended up cutting his index finger quite deeply.

We had to cut the tour short so we plan to return another time.  The little village is quaint and charming so I look forward to more history of the area from Coral. Here are a few pictures of Devonport.  More when I go on another tour there.

I was awed by this Moreton Bay Fig or Australian banyan tree.  More about the tree.

The root system above ground is amazing!

I have been thinking about Mexican food and wanting to make chili verde so I invited Elder and Sister Wright (not the same Wrights who went for Korean food but his brother) and Sister Bunker to dinner on Sunday.  I put the chili verde together on Saturday evening so the flavors could meld overnight.  I warmed it in the crockpot and made Spanish rice Sunday afternoon.  Sister Bunker brought refried beans.  What a fun dinner and I got my Mexican food fix for a few days.

Monday I went to another doctor’s appointment with a missionary.  Then I made a “dry run” to the airport.  Tuesday I am taking a sister to the airport to fly home and since I had not driven to the airport before, I thought I should make sure I knew where I am going so that I did’t get lost and cause the sister to miss her flight.

It seems I have been all over the place this week.  Fortunately I can take calls and administer advice no matter where I am located.  I am happy and doing well.  I am so very blessed to live in this beautiful world so full of adventure and new delights.

Make me think of a Primary lesson I taught many years ago.  I had to look up the poem but I want to share it with you:

My Five SensesI have two ears, which let me hear.
I have a nose, to smell.
I have a tongue to taste the food
I like to eat so well.
I have some skin—it covers me
And lets me feel and touch.
I have two eyes, which let me see
The world I love so much.

The prophet Nephi wrote: “The Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it” (1 Ne. 17:36).

How grateful I am for my loving Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ for the gift of this earth that I have enjoyed this week.

I love my Savior.  I love you my family and friends.

I have already added many pictures but I want to share the flowers and other pics that are so gorgeous.