Celebrate the Ordinary: WELLINGTON

My favorite cow of all the MANY cows I saw in New Zealand

John's best friend.....

We may need to get our own milk cows!

We had quite a drive to Wellington from New Plymouth. As we were driving, we passed a huge cow in front of a building and Johnny had to flip around for us to get a picture of John with the cow. While we were on the trip, John enjoyed the New Zealand milk almost as much as Tip Top ice cream. John drank lots of whole milk, banana milk, and strawberry milk. Whenever we made a pit stop, John bought milk not soda or water. The tradition of motels in NZ is to give you milk for your coffee in the morning when you check in . We always got the WHOLE milk so that John could have that every morning.

This is the Toyota we drove for over 1,900 Kilometers on the North Island. It looks much like Johnny's 4-runner. We rented a Toyota Prado for all of our trip. The cars all have different names than we are used to in the states. They have the same make and models, but totally different names.

As we arrived in Wellington, we were greeted with POURING and I mean POURING rain. Wellington is the capitol city of New Zealand. The parliament and all the government buildings are in Wellington. About 340,000 people live in the area. The mission home and office for the Wellington Mission is north of the city in a town called Porirua.

The bay in Wellington outside of the Museum

We decided to go straight to the Te Papa Tongarewa which means the Museum of New Zealand. The first exhibit we looked at was a giant squid. The squid is the largest ever caught in the world. It kind of creeped me out with its long legs and huge mouth. The museum is full of interesting exhibits, information, and Maori history.

New Zealand is famous for its corrugated metal reproductions

We had to have a picture of the Scottish influence in New Zealand since John's middle name is Scot for Scotland.

Brittney and I wanted our picture with a Maori Warrior

Johnny loves everything about the Maori's very much.

Standing in front of a Marea (Maori Temple) in the museum

After the museum, we drove to Porirua to show Brittney the Mission Home and Mission Office. We also wanted to visit two sisters that Johnny was very close to while he served in Porirua.

The Wellington Mission Office

The Wellington Mission Home where President and Sister Staples lived

We stopped by to see Sister Saili. She worked with the Staples while Johnny was in Porirua. She loved Johnny and would make his favorite dessert, Pavlova, whenever she knew he would be eating with the Staples. She is such an amazing person. She recently lost her husband to a heart attack as he was riding the bus to work. They had just adopted Brother Saili's sister's children the week before, because she had also passed away. She is such a faithful sister.

We visited Sister Kunz and Johnny was able to reminisce with her about former missionaries they both loved. Sister Kunz has done much for missionaries over the years.

We ate at McDonalds in Porirua and John saw this van in the parking lot. He got such a kick out of the title of the company. "Zoo Doo" "Number 1 for Number 2's" Yes, it is a fertilizing and compost company. Pretty witty, right???

Before leaving for the airport, we drove to the top of a famous lookout in Wellington which allows you to have a 360 degree view of the city. The wind blows 173 days a year in Wellington and so the city is called Windy Wellington. These winds are about 60 miles an hour. The wind was living up to its promise the day we were there.