New Zealand Sentimental Journey

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We have returned to Te Aroha from a trip that was from Saturday until Wednesday and we are a little zonkered from so much socializing. I didn't take too many pictures because I wasn't able to use the computer much. We did check our e-mail whenever we could to check up on any news of Barb Decker.

Saturday afternoon, we ventured back to the big city of Auckland (actually South Auckland) to stay with our friends Grace and Lifi Ikiua whose daughter Anna stayed with us for a month about two years go. It was great to catch up with them. They had prepared a leg of lamb and roast dinner. The lamb just melted in your mouth.
Then, Pavlova and chocolate mousse (Grace remembered Chrissy liked chocolate) for pudding ( dessert in America). It was delightful! We went to church with the family and it was a wonderful service with a sweet spirit throughout. Anna was very pleased to introduce us to everyone. They have about 300-400 attending and seem to have a wonderful outreach programme (English influence spelling). We then had lunch and another friend came for lunch so we could see her and catch up with her also.

It was a time of seeing as many people as we could in the time we were there. Sunday night had us with one of our daughter, Peggy's best friends. She has stayed with us and her parents went on a 5 month trip around the States in 1990 and stayed with us also. She had roasted chicken and had a marvelous cold salad with pieces of cold pumpkin (or squash) and asparagus in it. The marinade was so good.Another Pav ( short for pavlova marvelous meringue - like dessert) for pudding and we were feeling very spoiled.

We then went to our friend's house to stay whose husband was in the nursing home, but she wasn't there since he had gotten very low and wasn't expected to last the night. The lady who met us was so gracious and we saw Betty in the morning. John was low and the family was staying with him round the clock. They have 5 sons and 1 daughter, so with all the spouses and grandchildren and great- grandchildren, there was always quite a crowd in the room. John hung on with no change until Tuesday morning when they were having family prayer and he just joined in. They were all shocked. He has stayed pretty alert and is eating and drinking again, so no one knows what will happen. We said good-bye again today and may see him next week before we leave for home.

Monday, we visited a friend who hasn't been well for a long time, but let us come and visit for a while. Then, we went for afternoon tea with an old friend whose daughter had brought him home for the afternoon to visit with us. Great time. We visited the hospital 3 times during the day.

On Tuesday, we discovered a couple from America that came to work on one of the churches here from New Mexico and visited with them and stayed for lunch with the team. Too bad I didn't take pictures. It was decided to have a reunion dinner for the other couple and us and anyone else who was around in the 70's and 80's on Saturday night at the Otara church. Jim signed up first thing. We kept visiting the hospital during the day and evening.

Wednesday morning, we said our good-byes once more. Went to visit a mall and came down-country to Kenneth and Dianne's. It was like coming home. We both had found new season local strawberries and had strawberry shortcake for pudding. Yum, Yum!

Sounds and feels like we are doing nothing but eating. Tomorrow, we'll go to our friend on the Coromandel Peninsula. Should have good pictures from there. We'll be back.

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