Blessed are thy Creations dear Lord

We do have a very diverse neighbourhood here in Papatoetoe where we live. This we found one day while traveling around the neighbourhood. It is a Hindu Temple. Very beautiful and interesting. Many of the people here in Papatoetoe are Indians from Fiji.

This week we had our first Zone Conference in Whangarei. Since it was on Friday and Saturday was our preparation day, some of the Senior Missionary couples decided to see some fun things in the Northland of New Zealand. This is us at the Kawiti Glow Worm Caves. Elder and Sister Ashby, Elder and Sister Woodard and us.

We have just enjoyed the beautiful glow worms. The actually glow a greenish blue. Glow worms are actually fly larvae. They live as a worm for about a year. The glow worms are very interesting. They are about the size of a match stick and one end glows. They adhere themselves to the top of the dark caves and produce what is like a fishing line hanging down as much as about half a meter. They attract flying insects by their light and the insects get caught up in their lines and are instantly paralized by the chemical makeup of the line. This line is also very poisonous to humans and if swallowed it would cause instant death. So we were sure to keep our mouths shut while we went through the caves. We were not able to get any pictures inside the cave since it is very dark and flash photography will cause the glow worms not to glow. Once the larvae goes through his whole cycle it becomes a fly that only lives for 3 days.

This is our glow worm cave guide and his wife. We found out he was a Maori and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had a very informative time with him and we feel blessed to have met him.

We spent the night in Paihia and when we went to breakfast the next morning we were blessed to see this beautiful sunrise over the Bay of Islands.

Of course we had to get in the picture.

The highlight is always the Hole in the Rock. We didn’t go through it at this time since the ocean was a little rough.

We had a good time together and met some wonderful people from India who had been vacationing in New Zealand for 25 days. The father was a software engineer and his wife a doctor. They had two lovely teenage children, a boy and girl who were very friendly.

Bartletts and Ashby’s with our tour boat in the background getting off at Russell to spend a little time in this quaint little whaling town.

Of course we couldn’t do our blog without putting in one of the beautiful flowers that blooms in the winter.

All good things must come to an end and this is no exception. We had a wonderful time with these other Senior Missionaries and enjoying the beautiful earth that Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ created for us. Please take the time to thank Him for our earth and all he has put here for us. Also share with others what you have and the joy that you feel. We love you all and will say goodby until next time.

Love Elder and Sister Bartlett.