Welcome to New Zealand

We finally arrived in New Zealand, Monday, September 22, 2014.  Yes, we did leave Saturday night.  We crossed the International Dateline during our flight, so we lost Sunday.  When we arrived it was Monday 5:25 AM.

Upon arriving we went through customs - They have a unique way to do customs here called "smart gate".   You insert your passport into the kiosk and follow the instructions on the screen.   It reads the barcode and issues a ticket.  Then you proceed to a gate and insert the ticket you received at the kiosk.  You look straight ahead while your face is compared to your passport photo.  Finally you retrieve your ticket, go through the gate, gather your luggage and proceed to the custom's desk.  You give your ticket and arrival card to the agent and that's it.  It was all very slick.  Only people with US, New Zealand, Australian, or UK passports can use this method.  It made the customs process very smooth.

Yes! We were photo bombed.

The Reynolds, the couple we replaced, were there to greet us.  We went outside to put our luggage in the car and it was raining.  The wind was blowing hard as well.  By noon it had blown over and turned out to be a very pleasant day.

We were taken to our hotel.  The hotel is only a five minute walk to the area office.  We showered and found some clothes that were not too wrinkled.  Task was completed and we were taken to the area office where we started our mission in New Zealand.

View from our hotel window

Since there are many employees at the Area Office we had an brief orientation from Human Resources.

We had a meeting with the Area Seventy from Samoa who happened to be in town.  We talked about the proposed diabetes initiative.  Following this meeting we received training on how to use the office phones and learned our new email addresses.

Gary, Elder Fata and Susan

Elder and Sister Reynolds took us to lunch at a little restaurant where we had great "ethnic" food.

Upon returning from lunch we received a guided tour of the office building.  As we exited the office of one of the men who works in physical facilities, we noticed the last name on the door was "Scirkovich".  We walked back in and asked if he was related to a young man with the same last name in the Adriatic North Mission.  Turns out he is the father of Elder Scirkovich whom we served with.  Gary also renewed friendships with many people who he had worked with in various other parts of the world during his career in church welfare.  Gary has been dubbed "Winters-pedia" in regards to welfare.  Hopefully we will be able to meet their expectations.

Monday night we joined the senior couples for family home evening in the area office.  Of course by this time we were ready to drop, but we knew it was best to push through and not go to sleep until near our normal bedtime.  We were only able to stay up till 8:30 pm.

Every Tuesday morning the area office holds a devotional.  This particular one was on using social media to spread the gospel.  We were challenged to share our beliefs via social media.  It's nice to have positive things about the church on the Internet.  When someone Googles "Mormons"it's great to see the good news in the top 10 picks.  You may find this article interesting.

http://www.ldsliving.com/story/76964-10-things-people-ask-google-about-the-mormons-and-the-answers

In front of the office building - notice Susan's hair.  It was a bit windy.

Elder and Sister Reynolds, Susan and Gary

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was spent in learning procedures and "getting our feet wet".  Thursday morning we took our bags to the new apartment.  Thursday night we unpacked.  We were fortunate enough to be invited to dinner, so we didn't attempt to cook yet.

View of Takapuna Bay just down from the Area Office

 Friday we were on our own.  Friday night we continued to find places for "our stuff" in the apartment.
We also had our first "sticker shock" as we went grocery shopping.  The nectarines that we could go out in our backyard and pick off the tree - $7.99 a kilo.  But we will survive.  This is a wonderful place and we are excited and thankful to be here.