Part of the Ngongotaha Valley north and west of Rotorua, Mamaku was originally a logging town. With a population of less than 1,000, Mamaku's major industries now are sheep and dairy farming, blueberry winemaking and off-road biking. (Wikipedia) It is a lovely drive through rural landscapes. The Fairy Springs Ward Picnic was to be held at the Mamaku Primary School, where one of our ward members is an administrator.
I love this Maori-style heart design. I may work it into a quilt sometime next year when I am back in Fruitland.
On Monday we had dinner with the Winiatas, whose friend Rinipeta (?) was present. She has worked hard all her life and we had an interesting conversation.
I don't know where the Winiatas got their family Christmas stockings. I don't see much in the way of Christmas decorations in any of the stores.
The Fairy Springs and Tarawera Elders, including Elder Marble from Utah, who is replacing Elder Kema, playing some sort of object-lesson missionary game that Elders like so much.
We found a few lame decorations at K-Mart, which had been picked over so there was hardly anything left by December 12.
No stockings, but we got these gift bags instead of stockings, Santa hat chair covers, a 4' tinsel tree, Christmas crackers, and bags of Whittakers chocolate.
We invited the Elders and Sisters over for Christmas Eve, so Whittakers chocolate is a necessity. I like the Coconut Slab and Hokey Pokey Crunch best. It is made in New Zealand and they are justly proud of it.
On Tuesday the mission office called to see if we would pick up a new washing machine for the Elders' flat. Elder Rooks had previously installed ours, so we knew what to do. The Elders were glad they could wash their piles of dirty clothes. They are not lucky enough to have a dryer, as senior missionaries do. All in good time.
On Wednesday Elder Rooks replaced Pres. Winiata's bedroom doorknob, which he had looked at on Monday. We found a replacement at Bunnings, the Lowe's of New Zealand. While I was idly waiting for Elder Rooks to do his magic, I saw this beautiful kete hanging on the bedroom wall and had to inspect it and take pictures. The handles are of scraped harakeke fiber.
Such nice detail. The inside is finished off with a plait, which attaches the handles.
We were asked to host the dessert portion of the combined Tarawera-Fairy Springs Ward Relief Society Progressive Christmas Dinner. Fortunately we had been weeding the mess under the trees and planted the flowers Elder Rooks gallantly carried all the way home from the Mitre 10 MEGA garden section.
I had to put bricks around the begonias and impatiens to protect them from being walked on, because the guests at the AirBnB next door seem to like coming into our yard, taking pictures of things, and inspecting the unripe fruit on the trees. We have had a group from India and a group from China do this.
Thursday we had another zone conference in Tauranga, with an attendant Christmas feast. We have been doing some major eating of food this week. Watermelon for Christmas, of course. We all watched The Christ Child Christmas Nativity, which always makes me cry.
Silly games followed, but this 6'6" Elder was a good sport about it. The other elder was a 4'6" Filipino, also a good sport. It was easier for everyone to ring toss onto his antlers, which is why they had the taller elder sit on a chair.
Our cute district Sisters: Sister Nessen, who is studying piano performance; Sister Linton, our senior sister in Rotorua; Sister Brown, and Sister Perkins, in her first area in New Zealand.
All of us together again.
Thursday evening we were invited to a roast lamb dinner at the home of Carmen and Andrew, from South Africa. Dessert was "Melktert," a South African custard tart with a doily stencil of cinnamon on top. The Nishes have relocated to Rotorua because, as Andrew says, "Rotorua is where it's at." He can swim in the lakes, fish for 7 pound trout, and go mountain biking with his dog in the redwood forest, all within a few miles of home.
President of the Tarawera Ward Relief Society, Leonie Rorason is giving us a spiritual message. On the table are things from our gardens we are sharing with the other sisters. I brought two boxes of cherry tomatoes, and came away with a giant lemon.
Yours Truly accompanying three sisters singing "Away In A Manger." Pania, on the right with the chin moko kauae, is going to teach me how to weave in return for me teaching her piano. She sang an amazing spontaneous soprano descant.
My tinsel tree at Relief Society
We went to the Myler's home on Kawaha Point for the main course. This is the Michigan family staying in Rotorua for a year while Conrad, the father, is a doctor at the hospital. Rebekah says this home is a VRBO they found where they can live for 12 months, since short-term rentals are otherwise impossible to find
Chatting over a delicious meal. There were sisters on the patio and sisters sitting on the carpeted floor.
We had an overabundance of desserts show up at our house, including lemon meringue pies (in rectangular aluminum pans, not pie-shaped ones since there aren't any,) and these mini-meringues. The Kiwis love Pavlovas, meringue cakes with fruit.
The weather was perfect, and our yard even looked good. We may have to put the fence back around the tomato plants, however, because Saturday morning the AirBnb Chinese lady, after waving at me through the bedroom window where I was making the bed, helped herself to a few of the riper tomatoes.
Saturday we drove to Mamaku, where the Fairy Springs Ward Christmas Picnic was held. It was a beautiful drive, not much traffic, no deep gorges and only moderately winding roads.
Elder Marble ready for Christmas. The school has an indoor swimming pool, and the day was warm and sunny. Unfortunately Elders and Sisters aren't allowed to swim, so they did child-spotting duty. Elder Rooks and I would rather take naps, frankly.
Sis. Toma and Sis. Myler discussing mom things. In the background you can see Robyn Barnett Smith, the school administrator, cooking mini pizzas for everyone in a pizza oven made by 8th graders.
Made of concrete and fire brick and stoked with wood which has burned for an hour. Her crust recipe is made with self-rising flour and lemonade, which reacts with the baking soda in the flour.
They were so good Elder Rooks made himself a second one
Kiwis and our Aussie Elder Cowell throwing the rugby footie around. Elder Marble didn't do too badly for an American.
Edos wearing his black sheet bathing suit wrap. I told him I thought it suited him very well. Instead of swimming, Elder Rooks and I said goodbye and made the journey back to Rotorua where both of us took long afternoon naps and didn't eat for awhile.
Mr. and Mrs. Pukeko showed up one day in order to keep the bug population down, but we haven't seen them since. I still hear screeching every once in awhile, so they must not be too far away.
