Auckland - June 30, 2013

I woke up much happier today and had a dreamless night.  So I got up and going.   I went to the Sky Tower.  I have seen it in all my views of Auckland.  I can see it from my hotel window and from the ferry rides I have had.  I figured it was like the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower.  You just gotta go to the top, probably just once, but you gotta do it.  I must say it is quite a spectacular view!  

And it is cleaner and nicer than either the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower.  It is also considerably newer (1997).  There are spots on the floor of the first deck that have glass in them and you can see down to the street.   They are strong enough for you to stand on – as strong as the concrete surrounding them, but there is something really trippy about stepping onto those glass panels.  Once, I wasn’t looking and stepped onto one and saw just enough out of my peripheral vision that I thought I was going to fall.  My heart skipped a bit and I nearly screamed.   No need for bungee jumping off the Auckland Sky Tower for me – stepping on the glass floor was enough of an adrenal rush for me.

 While up in the Sky Tower I saw a lovely looking park and I decided to go there.  

I walked around for a while.  There are these kinds of trees all over Auckland.  I think they are a kind of fig tree and they are amazing.  They are Giants!  And there were several of them in this park. 

The next time I come to New Zealand I am bringing someone who likes to climb trees because these would be really fun to climb.  Where are my nephews when I need them?!  Seriously, I am not really a tree climbing kind of girl, not even when I was a kid.  But these trees just scream at me, “Come climb me!”  These are different than that tree I climbed on the beach.  It was a New Zealand Christmas tree – there is another name but I can’t remember it right now, something like Katuapawa…those are also really great trees and have branches that grow horizontally as well.

I returned to my hotel room and had not been there long when there was one of those tropical showers where it is pouring rain but sunny.  I was glad I could watch it from my room and was not out in it.  At 1PM I walked next door to the church to attend worship services.  There was a senior missionary couple in the congregation who invited me to come to their apartment for dinner after church.  They live in Devonport in this amazing apartment with an amazing view!  I couldn’t believe how beautiful their apartment is.  I told them I had to take a picture and that I should put it on-line to advertise for senior couples to go on missions.   The next 3 pictures were taken from their living room.

This couple is on a medical mission.  Elder Anderson is a retired doctor and he is assigned to work with mission presidents and doctors treating missionaries in all of the South Pacific countries.  Their headquarters is in Auckland but one week every month they are traveling to other countries and islands.  We had a lovely evening.  I sang for them standing in front of their amazing view.  It was good practice for the presentation in Brisbane.  They told me to let them know when I am performing, after their mission they will fly to where I am performing to come and see me.  It was great to feel so immediately loved and welcomed.  And it really is such a small world.  Sister Anderson served as a missionary in Nauvoo in 2009-2011.  She said that I looked familiar to her and when I found out she was in Nauvoo, I told her she must recognize me from the Nauvoo Pageant.  I played Eliza R. Snow in 2009 and 2010.  Now she is remarried and serving in New Zealand and just happens to be here while I am here.  Crazy!  It really is such a small world.

Elder and Sister Anderson brought me back to my hotel room and this is my last night in Auckland.  Tomorrow, very early in the morning, I am off to the Waitomo Caves and then to the next city on my itinerary, Rotorua.