Sunday Report

This morning was Sunday, and we went to church in Auckland at Botany Life. Both Anne and I were struck by the beautiful thought that God's people are worshipping Him around the clock, at Sunday services in every time zone. The cultures are different, but the worship is the same. How awesome.

After church, we Skyped with the kids, had a quick panini lunch and hopped in the car to head out to Rotorura. We planned to spend the night at the Silver Fern, which is lovely, and attend a Maori Cultural Event/Show here.

We drove about three hours down from Auckland, where each curve revealed even more beautiful scenery. It also revealed that we should have splurged for a larger rental car. By the time we arrived, I had lost all feeling in my lower extremities. We saw lots of sheep and dairy cows along the way, and we drove through Hamilton and a couple other towns. We plan to do some shopping on the way back tomorrow.

We settled in at the Silver Fern where the staff was ridiculously nice (they saw us through the window all huddled around the radiator and so they brought us an extra space heater and lent us a jacket). The Tamaki village picked us up from the motel and drove us to their village. On the way, each bus chooses one adult male to be the chief and lead that "tribe" to the meeting place. So, you can imagine who was chosen for our bus, or waka. It was me. So, I spent the evening representing our waka before the Tamaki village. We'll post a video of the challenge, where the Maori warriors come out to see if your tribe has come in peace or not. Pretty cool. We wandered around the village, enjoying craft demonstrations, a performance, and then a meal and singing.

On the way back to the hotel, the chief was chosen to lead the bus in a sing along. This would be on my top ten list of phobias, leading public singing without the aid of alcohol. The driver asked me to pick a popular song from our culture to start us off. For some reason, the only song that popped in my head was Jimmy Buffet's "Why Don't We Get Drunk And Screw" so I decided to keep my mouth shut. Grandpa (who had been instrumental in making me chief) saved me by suggesting "Deep in the Heart of Texas." Having not sung that since the last time I watched "Pee Wee's Big Adventure," I was a bit rusty on the lyrics. But, we got through it, although the group of Japanese school children on our bus all looked terribly confused.

We got back to the motel and took advantage of the wi fi access to sort out some problems with our various banks, and then off to bed. Tomorrow we'll head back to Auckland, with a bit of shopping on the way, and Anne and I will meet with another DTS grad for lunch.

We'll update more tomorrow.