Wellington Ward Talent Night

One fun activity just a couple weeks ago was a Wellington Ward Talent Show.  It was fun to watch and there were some very good and very interesting performances!

Here Raphael does a great job with the piano

Sister Butters with the Young Women had a lot of fun!

Here's Jan doing a piano number.

The missionaries with the help of Sister Kennach did a Samoan hymn.

Brother Humphries teaches voice professionally.  He's got over 50 students he works with and he's pretty good himself!

Don't mess with Sister Broczek.  That's a 2" board she whacks right through!

Here's a couple a couple young ladies doing a taekwondo routine.

If there was an award for fun and funny, the Vailea family would win the award.  They were in time together and had great rhythm!

Sisters Broczek and Mueller did a great Abba duo

Rangi did a modern dance program.

Did not expect this one.  Bro. Mueller with the electric harmonica.  He and Neil Young & Crazy Horse would be great together!

The crowd was into the preformances.  Here Mia watches mom or dad.

Bro. Humphries, our resident expert, really had a good time watching the performances.

Westside Studios

One of our outings the past three months was to Westside Studios here in Wellington.  They rent out equipment to parties and the equipment is themed.  You can see all the variety below.  It was fun to walk around their studio and see the various images that they used for activities.  It wouldn't be too much different in the states.  They are so realistic, I don't think that any description is needed.  Star Wars was a major part of their offering!

U.S. Pacific Rim Marine Corp Band

In June the United States Pacific Rim Marine Corp Band returned to Wellington in remembrance of the the Marine Corp arriving on New Zealand 70 years ago (1942) during WWII.  New Zealand became a major jumping off location prior to going into battle for the marines.  The music was focused around the WWII timeframe and was absolutely outstanding.  The pictures below (some come from the US Embassy website) depict the performance which was once again in Old St. Paul's Cathederal.  You can see the U.S. Marine Corp and U.S. Flags that fly here 24x7.

U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand David Huebner welcomes the audiance.  He appears to be really like by the Kiwis!

One of the two band conductors is really into his job of directing the band.  He's really fun to watch.

This is the second (and appears to be the higher ranking) conductor.  He also sings and did a very nice job.

The pictures below will be shown without comment.  From the intensity on the faces of the band members you can tell that they are really into their performance....oh, did I say the a 2-star and a 3-star Marine Corp General were present?  That's Lt. Gen. Duane D. Theissen, Commander, U.S. Marine Corp Forces Pacific and Major Gen. Bailey, U.S. Marine Corp.

This brass group was outstanding!  And in the picture below the brass group you can see a group dressed the part of WWII marines and they acted out a few parts that were really funny!

Trip to New Plymouth and back - May 26th, 2012

Our May outing was a 5-hour trek north to New Plymouth and 5-hour trek back to Wellington.  We tied this on in one day.  In total five couples met up along the path as we drove north to meet with the Hirschi's who live in New Plymouth.  They have been kind enough on a couple of occasions to make the trip south so we felt that we should reciprocate and make the trip north.  It actually took us through two cities whose courts we would be digitising so that knocked out two for the price of one + the great company of other seniors.  The map below shows the trip in red.

On the way up we stopped at Cape Egmont on the western coast with Mt. Egmont (Taranaki) in the background.  It's a beautiful setting!  Below are McVey's, Overton's, Chesley's & Shepherd's.

We met up with the Hirschi's and they showed us the sites in town.  Below are some of the group shots we took while touring.  It was really...really fun!

And of course had to end with the traditional dinner. 

This time at Cobb Restaurant...yummy!

Below we'll show you some of the sites we saw on this trek north.

Here's Cape Egmont lighthouse with Mt. Egmont (Now Mt. Taranaki) in the background.  Mt. Taranaki rises nearly 8,500 feet and is quite amazing being that it's like next to the ocean.

These next 2 photo's of Mt. Taranaki are compliments of the internet.  The day was very overcast and you could not always see the mountain.  Tradition has it that she (Mt. Taranaki) never let's first time visitors see much of herself.  That held true on our trip so it must be true!

Our next stop was at the Pukekura Park in New Plymouth.  It was still overcast and a little drizzly, but what a beautiful park!  We'll just show pictures with no comments below.

Next we made a visit to the Te Rewa Rewa bridge made to frame Mt. Taranaki, but because it was overcast, we could not see the mountain.  It looked like a monster whale carcass to me!

There seems to be an LDS Chapel in every little town you go through and on this trek that continued to prove true.

 

The shoreline in and around New Plymouth is really georgous!