Our Sunday of miracles

I'm going to include a few scenery photos in this post, but thought I'd start with this map to give an idea of the general layout.  Unfortunately, Russell isn't marked on the map, but it's at the yellow pin.  The Bay of Islands contains 144 islands, many of which are just tiny.  I wish I had a drone today to give a bird's eye view of this beautiful bay filled with sail boats.

During the 19 months of anticipation for this trip, I worked on a spreadsheet of the ports of call on our itinerary. One of the things I looked at was when we would be in port on a Sunday. Using the Meetinghouse Locater on lds.org, I looked for where the nearest English speaking unit of the church met.  I found a ward that met in Paihia at (10:00 am), across the bay from Russell, where we were scheduled to go on a self-guided walking tour.  The Viking Sun would be at anchor in this port, which means we would be tendered to shore.  Guest Services on the ship helped me find that the ferry I could see on the map came to the same pier that the tender would use, and that they sailed for Paihia at 9:00 with the next sailing at 10:00.  Then I went to Excursion Services and managed to trade in our late scheduled excursion time to the earliest one at 8:00.  That should leave us plenty of time, right??

I need to mention that I had found another couple from Utah, Carol and David Daniels.  Carol was excited to find us and wanted to go with us to church.  We met up at the Star Theater at 7:45 as instructed on "page 3 of the Viking Daily", (we hear that phrase all the time from our Cruise Director).  Unfortunately, as we walked in, we were assigned to Tender #2.  Since this was the ship's first entry into New Zealand, it took quite a bit of time for the customs officers to clear us so the tendering operation could begin.  They finally called for Tender #1, then 15 minutes later, Tender #3.  By the time Tender #2 was called for, it was 8:50, which meant that we watched the ferry for Paihia pull away from the Russell pier as we were docking.  Our hearts sank, but Carol kept saying that things would work out.

I walked into the ferry ticket sales office to ask about the next sailing and was so delighted to be told that there would be another one in 15 minutes!! 

After buying our tickets, we walked around to the loading area and found this lovely man.  Wearing a white shirt and tie, we suspected he was on his way to church, which indeed he was.  His name was Clive Arledge.  He had been a fisherman in the area for many years and as some of his mates passed by on the pier they asked if he would "say a prayer for us".  His wife passed away 4 years ago and he lives alone.  He was so welcoming to us!

When we got off the ferry, I had to take a picture of the ferry captain, I was so grateful that we had been able to get across the bay!

The icing on the cake was Clive's friend, Gordon, who was waiting in his silver car at the sign welcoming us to Paihia.  After emptying the contents of the back seat into "the boot", we all managed to get into the car for the last leg of the journey.


I was grateful to be taxied by someone who knew where he was going, because the meetinghouse was in a converted store--no steeple.  There was talk during the meeting of a new chapel being built sometime in the future.

The first speaker was a little girl about 6 years old who walked to the pulpit from the front row with bare feet.  She delivered her talk without hesitation in front of a room full of adults.  The next speaker was an older deaf man who took some time getting up to the front because he was handing out copies of his talk.  He delivered it with a combination of sign language and verbalization, which, combined with the transcript, was understandable.

During the next talk, there was a little commotion in the back of the chapel with a few people getting up to help.  We later found that our Clive had fainted and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  His granddaughter was called and was on her way from Auckland.  We were told that the last thing he said before the ambulance door were shut was, "Make sure someone takes care of the Americans".  We hope he is ok.

I couldn't resist taking a picture after the meeting of the beautiful flower arrangement in front of the pulpit.
I will add this photo to the others of the elders we have found so far on our travels.  Elder Wilcox is from the Ogden area and Elder Barnes is from England.  The people were so welcoming!  We stayed for the three hour block and during Gospel Doctrine, found that getting the audio-visual equipment to work during a lesson was the same challenge it is at home.

After church was over, this lovely man took us back to the ferry landing.  Such wonderful people!

It was after 1:00 by then, so we stopped at this restaurant right by the pier to have lunch.  It's called 35 Degrees South.

We boarded the Happy Ferry again for the return trip to Russell, the site of the first European settlement and seaport in New Zealand.  At one time it was known as the "Hell Hole of the Pacific", for its reputation of lawlessness and prostitution, or Rororareka, which translates as "how sweet is the penguin".

                   There is a charming waterfront and beach which is a favorite with the tourists.


The weather was perfect today--72 degrees and no rain, despite the early morning sprinkles.

 Apparently the charming reputation  of the Bay of Islands is spreading--we were told there can be up to 3 cruise ships in the bay.








This is the flag of New Zealand with the Union Jack and the Southern Cross, the most well known of the Southern Hemisphere constellation.

                        Our "sail out" was beautiful, illustrating why this is the Bay of Islands.