Queen Elizabeth II Cruise Ship

 There is a new cruise ship called the Queen Elizabeth II which made its maiden voyage from Auckland to Wellington on February 22.  It is one of the large new ships which are now being manufactured.  Because of the depth of the water this ship is almost too large to enter the harbor.

It was an overcast day but we decided to follow it out of the harbor when it left at 4:00 that afternoon.  We drove out to Seatoun and watched it leave the harbor and go out into the open seas.  We are now averaging about 2 to 3 cruise ships a week.  We always feel bad when they come to Wellington and it is either raining or very windy.

February 22, 2012

Masterton Records

The archives lost the listing for 10,000 probates for Napier so we have finished Napier for now until the listings can be redone.  This is Fiona, Ann and myself opening the first box for the Masterton Court.  It is a small court so it will take us about 5 weeks to complete this.  It is like going back in time.  In Napier we were up to the 1970's and now we are starting again in the late 1800's and the early 1900's.  The documents are all brown from age and more fragile to work with.

Temple Flat (Apartments)

 Behind the temple is flats which you can rent if you are attending the temple.  It was nice because they were only $50.00 a day as compared to $150.00 a night in town.  They had a small kitchen which was nice because we could cook some of our meals instead of eating out which was much less expensive.

 We felt like we were in Salt Lake with the South Temple, North Temple and East Temple.  The only thing missing was the West Temple.

Hamilton Temple Pictures

 This the Tom and Ann McVey and Don and I.  The McVey's work in the archives with us each day and we all traveled from Wellington to Hamilton.

 Tom McVey has a really nice camera and he took this picture of the temple at night.  At 9:00 p.m. they light up the temple and it stays lit throughout the night.

 This picture was taken at dusk.  Notice the beautiful clouds and the reflection of the sun on them.

 It rained Thursday night so when we awoke there was fog around the temple.  

There is property all around the temple and we wondered why they had never built around it.  Then when we were driving around we saw that the property is owned by the church and it is called Templeview Farms.  There is also a church college (high school) just north of the temple and it was in operation for 50 years but it is closed now because of the high cost of maintenance.

Hamilton Temple Trip

 The Hamilton Temple is located about a 15 minute drive outside of the main part of town.  It is located out in the country and is surrounded by green fields.  The temple grounds are beautiful with the many flowers.  This picture was taken just outside of the visitors center.  We had the opportunity of going there for the sealing of Anthony and LaToya from our ward in Wellington.  We arrived there on Thursday night and left on Saturday.

 This is the visitors center located directly across from the temple.

The temple is located up on a hill and there are many steps from the parking lot up to the entrance of the temple.  It is beautiful inside and it was exciting to be there for the sealing of Anthony, LaToya and their 5 month old baby Giovanni.

Lake Taupo and Huka Falls

 On Thursday February 9th we traveled from Wellington to Hamilton, New Zealand to the Hamilton Temple. We traveled up Highway 1 which goes from the south tip of the north island clear up to the north tip of the island.  It is the main highway but is still only a two lane road with intermittent passing lanes.  It took us about 8 hours to get there with a stop at Lake Taupo and a short side trip to see the Huka Falls.  The lake is a large lake and the water is crystal clear.

 We stopped and took a picture of this black swan (we think).  

 This was a picture of people enjoying the lake on a sailboat.  With all the lakes in New Zealand we are surprised that we don't see more water activities.

 This is a brave person who decided it was a good day for para sailing. 

 This is Huka Falls which is just outside of Lake Taupo.  These falls were created by the water from Lake Taupo flowing into the Waikato River.  This is the only outlet and when the canyon walls narrow the water flows rapidly through the narrow canyon thus creating the falls.

At the end of the falls it goes back into calmer water.

Sevens World Series

Wellington is never boring and the sights change from day to day.  On February 3rd and 4th Wellington hosted the Sevens World Series.  This is a rugby game which is played with 7 players instead of 13 players.  The time is shorter than a regular rugby game.  The regular game is 40 minute halves with a short half time.  The 40 minute halves are continuous running time without breaks.  However, in the sevens game it is 7 minute halves with a 2 minute half time.  Teams come from all over the world, even the United States.  They play at least 3 games each day and then it is eliminated down to two teams.  The last two teams were Fiji and New Zealand.  Of course New Zealand won 24-0.

 You might wonder what these pictures have to do with the rugby game.  Well only in Wellington did they decide to have a tradition of dressing up to go to the game and since the stadium is across the street from the archives we had a little surprise when we left work on Friday and were greeted by all of these people dressed up.  We thought that we had missed Halloween.  They go all out because there is a cash prize for the best costume.

All weekend everywhere that we would go we were greeted by more and more people dressed in different outfits.  Some of them were very creative. The two pictures above have made a flip flop that they carry on their backs.

February 3 and 4, 2012