New Zealand

Before I ventured into Tahiti, our family along with four other Mission Presidents, had the opportunity to stay a few days in Auckland, New Zealand. This is the part where everyone's brains registers *Lord of the Rings!* No, I didn't see where Lord of the Rings was filmed. But where we were was absolutely beautiful. My parents had a lot of meetings, but during that time, Marie Cook (the former Mission President in Auckland's daughter) took me and the other teens out to see the city. (Jessica Porter age 17, David Porter age 12 and Hyrum Jolliffe age 16.) We had a wonderful day exploring. We went up onto Mount Victoria to see the most breath taking view of the entire town. We took the Ferry across the waters to see the main parts of the city. One of the highlights of my day was walking into a gift shop only to hear "Violet Hill" by Coldplay being played. Felt like home. :) One funny moment while staying in the hotel... My parents were at meeting #4232, and I was alone in the room. When it was time for church, I went downstairs only to realize I had forgotten my scriptures. Earlier, my parents had locked the doors by pushing the latch over the door so you couldn't get in even if you had a key. Well, somehow when I closed the door upon leaving.... the latch seemed to bounce somehow locking me out! Both of our rooms were locked that way, so there was no way that we could get in! Later on an engineer came and somehow fixed it for us. Talk about klutzy!

The tired me. Straight off the airplane.

The view from our hotel room

The Sky Tower

All the new Mission Presidents of the area, Elder Baxter and Elder Hilbig

Me, David and Jessica Porter. (Not picturing Hyrum Jolliffe)