Saturday was as gorgeous as Friday was lousy. The sun was out and the birds were chirping. After a breakfast of weetbix, Trevor and I headed off to Cornwall Park, just over the road from their place. We climbed a few stiles and dodged multiple sheep pellets and cow pads and made our way up One Tree Hill, immortalized by the band U2 in their song honoring Greg Carroll, a Maori roadie who was friends with Bono and who was killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin.
The single tree at the very top of One Tree Hill was cut down after a Maori activist had a go at it--from which it never recovered. Before European settlement, this now-extinct volcano (one of around 70 in Auckland) was a Maori pa, or fortress village.
After stopping to give a few autographs to my fan base (pictured left), and taking in the great views of Auckland from the summit, it was a short walk through the park to the showgrounds for the Boat Show in the "City of Sails," though there were mainly power boats on display. Keep your fingers crossed for the free boat I might win. All suggestions on how to get it to Wisconsin welcome.
Our last stop while daylight held was the Waterfront. Movenpicks on Mission Bay has the best mango and passionfruit sorbet. Sitting on the beach, with 850-year-old volvano, Rangitoto, in the background, is the perfect place to think deep thoughts about the meaning of life for seagulls.
Last, but not least, 11 of us (elders and wives) gathered at the Red Elephant for an evening of great Thai food and laughter to the point of tears as we recounted elder retreats (including water-sport mishaps and races) and mission trips of yore. The last time some of us ate Thai food together was in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at a neighborhood "barbeque." One of our triumvirate piked out due to a "headache." The other was a self-proclaimed vegetarian. So, yours truly became the token meat eater when the "meat" (various oddly-shaped body parts) came out and was cooked over a little bunsen-burner contraption. That was followed by homemade rice rum. I have never been so sick in my life as that night and the next day.
We also reflected on the great work God is doing there through Auckland Bible Church, through a number of couples and families going to serve for multiple years.
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