Murupara

Murupara is a town in the Whakatāne District and Bay of Plenty Region of New Zealand's North Island. The town is in an isolated part of the region between the Kaingaroa Forest and Te Urewera protected area, on the banks of the Rangitaiki River, 65 kilometres southeast of Rotorua. Indigenous Māori also make up over 90% of the population. (Wikipedia) At 2,000 residents, it is about the size of Nyssa, Oregon. 

On Sunday morning, Elder Rooks and I accompanied Sis. Pancheri and Sis. Linton to the Murupara Branch, a small congregation in the forest and logging area southeast of Rotorua.

Sis. Pancheri, who was driving, said the road to Murupara was one of the straighter roads in the North Island, not too winding to actually use cruise control.

It was a rainy day, and with the sun shining through with bright blue sky, the clouds were fantastic. As a fan of clouds (being a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society), I took lots of pictures of them, which you will see in this blog post.

We saw many commercial conifer forests along the way. This one has been harvested and clear cut

while this has been replanted

Cleared fields

More clouds over the green New Zealand hills

Brick homes in Murupara. Murupara's main claim to fame is that former Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern spent part of her growing up years living here. The average annual rainfall is 61.3", with a monthly average windspeed of 10 mph.

The little LDS church, with a chapel, a few classrooms, and offices. The sisters were warmly greeted by all the members, although several families were out of town because this was New Zealand's Labor Day Weekend. I played hymns on the piano for the meeting. The talks were wonderful and the spirit of testimony was tangible. We would like to have stayed longer, but I had to get back in order to play the piano in the Tarawera Ward.

On the way back we saw cows on the hillside

More cows

Also sheep

You can see gorse growing along the roadside

Getting nearer to Rotorua. We had our monthly Family Home Evening with our Fairy Springs Ward members--Bro. Barber gave the lesson and Sis. Barber did the activity. Then we all chatted over refreshments. On Monday we had a Family History session with Alleen, who is finding all sorts of Scottish ancestors, and a Family Home Evening with Karla, which was delightful.

It was Transfers on Tuesday. We lost Elder Rippon to Tauranga, where he is now a Zone Leader, and gained Elder Watson, from Texas, who had been serving in Taupo. He seems to fit right in with our smart and appreciative district missionaries.  Elder Rooks and I fed dinner to the Fairy Springs Elders and Sisters on Tuesday and the Tarawera Elders and Sisters on Wednesday. Then a District Council Meeting on Thursday after Family History with Mary, then Alleen again on Friday. 

I've been trying to weave a kete, a type of Maori bag, using my strips of prepared harakeke, New Zealand Flax, and instructions from the FlaxWorxNZ youtube channel. I'm afraid my strips are getting worn out and stringy from all the mistakes I have had to pull out. But I am learning.

Here it is so far. It doesn't look much like the instructor's example. I ran short of strips, but Elder Rooks parked next to a large plant in the Mitre 10 Mega store parking lot. I whipped out my little scissors and cut a few. You can see the darker color of this particular plant in the pattern. The leaves were not as heavy as the Phormium Tenax species plant, so they tend to curl up and are not as strong. The strips will get too dry so I keep a spray bottle of water handy.

Elder Rooks using the bow saw he bought at Mitre 10 Mega to cut up some of the logs lying around the yard. The trees were all trimmed last year because they were overgrown. Elder Rooks needed more exercise so here he is adding muscle to his arms. Well, the muscles he has are getting stronger. 

When he asked for a bow saw, nobody knew what he was talking about. It ended up being called a pruning saw and was near the gardening section.

Here he is with his pruning saw and the little hatchet we found under the leaves. He's made remarkable progress, especially since the wood is not dry and his tools are not what he is accustomed to.

We have been watching for both Pukeko chicks, but there seems to be only one now. Mrs. Pukeko watches over it with constant attention. It is twice as big as the last time we saw it. Eddie Barber says the biggest predators of these ubiquitous purple chickens are cats. We suspect Mr. Fabulous, or more probably, the half-wild ginger cat, may be the predator here.

The New Zealand All-Blacks

 If you live in New Zealand, you will know that the All-Blacks are the rugby union team known for their all-black uniforms. You will also know that they won Ireland last week in the quarter-finals for the Rugby World Cup (three of the members of the Ireland team are from New Zealand) and hammered Argentina this week in the semi-finals, 44-6. 

They are kind of scary 

This is my All Blacks shopping bag because, well, why not.

Next week the All-Blacks play the winner of the South Africa/England semi-final game for the World Cup Final, their fifth so far, a world record. 

Also in the news this past week was the October 14 election of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon of the National Party, to replace Jacinta Ardern's successor Chris Hipkins of the Labour Party. The election was a rout across the country.

This Rotorua Daily Post cover is about Rotorua's newly elected Member of Parliament Todd McClay of the National Party

We had a fun visit with the Smiths and the Woolfs, senior Member-Leader Support missionaries serving in Thames, on the coast of the Firth of Thames southeast of Auckland, and Tamauranui, about an hour west of Lake Taupo. They got to know each other in the Missionary Training Center and are taking a day out seeing the sights of Rotorua. They went on the Redwood Tree Walk and had a hangi dinner at the Marae Mitai Village in Fairy Springs.

I was counting how much New Zealand cash I had so I took a picture. There are no $1 bills or pennies, but there are coins worth one New Zealand dollar, two dollars, fifty cents, twenty cents, and ten cents. These are confusing to me so I don't spend them and have a big pile of them. The bills are in different sizes and colors.

Mr. Fabulous, giving us a visit

Elder Rooks repairing his $5 golf club, which did not hold up long, unsurprisingly. He glued it with epoxy and it is still in one piece.

Elder Rooks was asked to give one of the elders a blessing. This elder has had many health challenges and still has a good attitude about missionary work. This is where four elders live in Koutu.

They have a nice view overlooking the lake. One set of elders is on bicycles, so they are glad the weather has been good.

Monday night we went to dinner at Pres. Winiata's house. Sis. Pancheri on the left is always upbeat and faithful. She has a gift for teaching those interested the restored Gospel. The man on the right is a Tongan member who is bringing his girlfriend to church.

A view from the Winiata's house, in Pomare, off Pukehangi Road

I could smell something so sweet and delightful, which is not the usual state of affairs when you live next to Kuirau Thermal Park. It was our neighbor's wisteria, which are blooming profusely. I don't know what the gnarly red tree is in the foreground

Elder Rooks planted some sprouting potatoes in the dirt he dug with a pitchfork and a hatchet, and they seem to be growing. Potatoes in New Zealand are quite good.

While digging we keep coming across rusty farm implements like this one

I haven't seen this tree before, but I am pretty sure it is a horse chestnut

The apple trees are in bloom

We walked to Mary's house and saw gorse growing wild. One of the mothers in church was telling us about trying to cut these down with a chainsaw.

Mary's gutter repair is holding up just fine

I realized Mary had a back yard planting of Harakeke, New Zealand Flax, so I asked if I could cut some, and she said I could, so Elder Rooks got to carry them home in a shopping bag.

This is a vacant lot where a new housing development is planned

Beside the Utuhina Stream I could smell this yards and yards away, strong and very sweet. I think it is jasmine.

Here I have split, scraped and boiled the flax leaves. The straight shorter green ones haven't been scraped yet and are beginning to curl. I used the back of a butter knife. You do it like curling ribbon. This breaks up the tough cells, makes the strips more flexible, and allows moisture to escape. The strings of fiber are stronger than thread and not easy to break. I am watching YouTube videos on weaving a kete, a Harakeke bag.

I'm putting this picture in because my three sons are working on framing my oldest son's basement, which was recently dug out and cement walls and floor poured. They borrowed Elder Rooks' miter saw and nail gun, which have come in handy. I love these boys.

Mr. Pukeko, who has been lying low, is stepping out now.

I heard some plaintive shrieking from Mrs. Pukeko and found the reason I hadn't seen them lately: two fluffy black white-beaked chicks. Swamp hens usually have four to six chicks, so something may have happened to this hatch.

Mama Pukeko kept track of her chick,

but Papa Pukeko lost track of his. The one on the right looked around for his papa, didn't see him, and took off running for the hidden nest near the thermal stream.

I imagine this is Papa Pukeko apologizing. At least, he is feeding worms to his baby.