Our Wellsford Branch President and his family invited us to go gather "Pipis" (clams) with them one evening near their home  in Mangawhai. 

Left to right: Noah, Peyton, Elijah, Alana, Ezra and Isaiah Pere.

We waded through the estuary at low tide, and in knee deep water dug down a couple of inches through the sand, and hit the Mother-load!  Within 15 minutes we had gathered our limit of 50 clams per person. We then grabbed some fish and chips and visited and ate at the Pere's home.

We took some Pipis home and let them sit in salt water overnight (to spit out sand) and then cooked them up with butter and garlic and enjoyed them with courgettes (zucchini) and tomatoes grown from our garden.

Elaine Chapman, Lisa, Sister Koehling and Sister Ferguson 




Our Wellsford district met up with us at the Chapman's home to do some yard work.

Brother Chapman is home from the hospital now, but is not able to do much work. So we mowed, weeded, drug around downed trees and brush 

and had a nice lunch in the shade of an apple tree.

Elders Nillson, Hunter, Guy, Soata, Johnson and England

David and Elaine Chapman


Lisa was asked by the Wellsford Relief Society to assist them with a Saturday craft activity.
Lisa  helped them make pajamas, did some quilting and also some pencil drawings. The Sisters each brought a plate of food for the "Grazing table" which  they enjoyed while they worked and played! It was good to have Katrina Fleming attend. We have been teaching her family and this was a great opportunity for her to meet some of the sisters in the Branch. Unfortunately....Lisa did not take any pictures of the event  :(

After the activity we went to Dargaville and visited a few people. We met Priscilla and Johanan and their children. Johanan has been involved in gangs and spent several years in prison. He is desperately wanting to change so that his children don't follow the path that he was on. He is working on getting his gang affiliated tattoos removed, will be coming to Church with his family on Sunday and will begin receiving the lessons from the missionaries.

Our last meal with Elder Hunter and Soata. They both were transferred to south Auckland. I spent one morning helping transport their luggage and belongings in our car since they could not fit everything in their compact car.

Each year on the 6th of February, Waitangi Day is celebrated in New Zealand. People of all communities and backgrounds gather at Waitangi in the Northland to commemorate the first signing of New Zealand’s founding document: 
"Te Tiriti o Waitangi" The Treaty of Waitangi, on February 6 1840. 

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her daughter.

This is a picture of Ngātokimatawhaorua.  When Kupe discovered New Zealand his waka (boat) was named Matawhaorua. But on his return to Hawaiki, it was re-adzed and named Ngātokimatawhaorua (‘ngā toki’ means ‘the adzes’). It was captained by Nukutawhiti on its return to New Zealand. The waka shown here was named after the original and built for the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1940. It is now kept at Waitangi, in the Bay of Islands.

Ngātokimatawhaorua can carry 80 paddlers and 55 additional passengers.
It is the largest canoe in New Zealand in current use.
It measures 35.7 meters long and up to 2 meters wide

A mother turkey and several of her chicks in the tall dry summer grass.

 A homemade "Caravan" (motorhome) traveling through Wellsford

Another Auckland Mission Senior MIssionary get-together

We have the perfect climate for growing Avocados, so I thought I would help out New Zealand by propagating a few more!.

And we....met up with Burtons and Barnes for a lunch in Port Albert and then headed to the Goat Island marine reserve to do some snorkeling, we mowed and weeded our neighbor's (Joleen and Michael's) yard, picked up and delivered bread from the bakery to the food bank, visited the Flemings, Brackens, Chapmans, John Edwards, Randells and Pricilla and Johanan, picked up an order of meat for the food bank, received two deliveries of canned goods for the food bank, did yard work at Gloria's, had our new Elders - Elder Hamblin and Elder Burkhardt over for dinner, Lisa took Gloria and her friend Jewell to the knitting shop in Matakana, yada, yada, yada!