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.
