September behaved itself beautifully in that I was able to do most of the gardening I planned, with rain coming at convenient, even necessary, intervals, and enough dry weather to finish the digging. So today as it rains out there I can happily sit indoors catching up on correspondence.
There were two outstanding events in September, the main one being the visit of Janet and Johnny. They were only here from Monday to Saturday, but we had a good holiday. They treated us to a stay from Tuesday to Thursday at Taupo's best motel. I do not know that the motel would claim that title, but for me it could not have been better. We had the executive suite with two bedrooms. There was a huge high definition TV screen with tens of channels. Johnny could watch sports to his heart's content. There was a huge window overlooking the lake to the mountains beyond, out of which I could gaze to my heart's content. There was a large balcony outside our second storey unit, but unfortunately the wind was too cold for us to sit out there. We went out there to take photographs, and that was it. Across the road was a small shopping centre, with a little café where we had our lunches at a table on the sidewalk, conveniently out of the wind. The service was as good as the food. Just down the road was the lake, with a walkway alongside it that went for kilometres. Not that we discovered how far it went, because we did not follow it beyond a certain point. Ray and I went exploring the streets up past the chapel, and we wandered around the shops which sported all the countries' flags for the Rugby World Cup. Ray bought me a little Welsh one. On the way home we stopped by Huka Falls.
The other event was a preview walk along a new part of the Waikato River Trails. There was a notice in the local paper inviting people to register for this event. Naturally I promptly did so and dragged Ray along. It was to be a 10km walk. The first part was down a really steep hill. We should have counted the switchbacks coming down that hill. Ray was not looking forward to the return at the end of the walk. Then we walked up alongside the river as far as a stalwart suspension bridge newly completed over the Mangarewa Stream. That bridge spanned a deep gorge. We could not see the water at its bottom because of the trees on which we were looking down. We could see where the stream came over the rocks a little upstream. We all walked over the bridge to try it out!
At this point, our leader, the man in charge of the Walkways, Glyn Woller, said he was going to run back and drive the van, in which we had arrived at the trail head, down to the quarry at the foot of the hill. He could see that a few of his guests would make heavy weather of going back up the hill. There were only ten of us on the walk, Glyn and a woman named Heather who was also a Trails employee, and eight of us guests, three men and five women. Ray had a good time talking to the ladies. It was a leisurely walk, with lots of time to stop and stare or stop and chat. It was also a lovely day. So we not only got the drive back to base, but got to see the quarry, which being private property, and out of sight of the road, we would never otherwise have experienced. It was a large, busy place. Now whenever we see crushed stone we know where it comes from.
We had our little expeditions to Tokoroa and Matamata, and our little adventures in those places. Ray got his hair cut in Tokoroa, the first professional hair cut in 40 years. Why? Because it was free! Like the Walkways outing, it was part of community program called “Involve”. Students at a local hairdressing school did the haircuts.
Bishop cornered me and asked me to give a talk the following Sunday at church. He asked me to talk on a current Ensign article that impressed me. No problem, I had already cut out an article from the 'middle pages' by Elder Kevin Pearson the First Counselor in Pacific Area Presidency. It was on the Power of Personal Prayer, and I cut it out because I really needed to study it for myself. So I got to share it too. Incidentally I may not have mentioned that I have been released from teaching the Gospel Doctrine class. Released “from an eight year calling” somebody said. And that was just the most recent stint! I have an immense sense of freedom! Now I look askance when I see the Bishop approach. I want to keep my freedom!
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