New Zealand Trip Part 3, Church and Traveling to Queenstown

June 22, Sunday

This morning, we got up early and finished up our packing. We were downstairs at the front desk before 10 AM to check out. We called an Uber and got a ride to Emily's house.

Auckland Harbour Bridge, on the way to Pinehill to see Emily

Emily's favorite grocery store

Street where Emily lives

She was still getting ready but she came out to greet us and help us bring in our bags. Actually, June came out to help us first. We thought she was going to be gone but she was still there and trying to get ready to get on the road. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to thank her for letting Emily live there and for being so kind to her. She had nothing but good things to say about Emily, of course. We met three of her grandkids, Layla, Ezekiel, and Seoul, and also Daniela, Emily's roommate. She was preparing a talk for church today and she did a great job on it. We sat on June's big white leather couch and relaxed a bit while Emily finished getting ready for church and packing her stuff. I called and talked to Dad for a little bit. When Emily was ready, we called an Uber and went to church. We were surprised at the ratio of men to women. There were hardly any girls but lots of guys. Emily warned us that they sing kind of quietly and it was true. Another girl gave a talk first, and then Daniela gave her talk and did a great job. She referred to Elder Bednar's talk about listening to promptings from the Spirit. She talked about listening to the first prompting so later I told her about Loren Dalton's talk. The third speaker said he's only been a member for two years and I thought he did a fantastic job. After church, we talked to a few people. We got to meet Emily's friend Stef who's the photographer. She talked to him for a little bit. We went outside and got some pictures.

We wanted to go see where Emily works so we went to the bus stop. Emily figured out what bus we needed and it came in the next seven minutes so that was perfect. It was fun to ride the bus with her. It dropped us off around the corner from her office so we walked down there and she showed us where June works and where she works and we got some more pictures. 

We wanted to get something to eat and there was a cute café across the street called the Honey Café. Emily said, "Yeah, I've always wanted to try that place; everybody says it's really good." I said, "Well, that's perfect then, let's go there," and that's what we did. Michael got a hot chocolate and a big breakfast. Emily got chicken and waffles and it was huge but she ate almost all of it. I got a mince and toast which was mincemeat (which tasted like a really yummy sloppy joe), a fried potato croquette, a poached egg, really hard ciabatta toast, and some mayo on the side. Of course, I also had to get a caramel slice that was in their little display. We had a wonderful meal and headed out. 

The beach was in walking distance so we walked down there. There were quite a few people. Emily said that's the most people she's ever seen at the beach. It was a beautiful day even though it was windy. We got some pictures and then called an Uber to go back to Emily's house. 

I am fascinated by these trees. They are so cool but they look fake to me. I've seen them multiple places. 

View from Emily's basement apartment

I really wanted to talk to Dad and the boys while we were walking to the beach but it looked like they were out and about so we called them when we got to Emily's house. We all sat on her bed and called them together. We talked with them for about 10 minutes and then Dad said, "Well, let's have a prayer while you're on the phone," so that's what we did. We went into the living room and knelt down and had a prayer with them over the phone and said goodbye to them. We changed our clothes and got all of our stuff ready. Michael was wearing a blue sweater that I bought him years and years ago, he thinks it was while we were living in Provo, over his white shirt and tie with some navy slacks and he looked so good! Once we were all set up and ready to go, we said goodbye to Daniela and called the Uber. It was our most expensive Uber at $70 US including the tip but it was all the way from Emily's house straight to the airport so that was nice. He dropped us off and we easily checked our bags and got through security. I liked how their instructions for putting on your bag tag were much more clear; you match up the teal dot to the teal dot. They set aside my suitcase and backpack for inspection at security but then immediately gave it back to me and said it was OK so I'm not sure what that was all about. We went to our gate and we were pretty early. We had a good hour and a half to sit and wait. 

We saw this on the way to the airport.

Michael and Emily got some food and Michael got the L&P soda. It's a New Zealand original soda that the bus driver was telling us about yesterday. It kind of tastes like Sprite. 

Our flight was delayed about 20 minutes. I really like the way that they board the plane because they just called the rows and have you line up and get on. The delay wasn't a problem, but when we were getting close to arriving, the pilot said if it's too windy and unsafe to land he'll have to turn back and go to Auckland so that was stressful. We decided there wasn't anything we could do about it so we weren't going to let it bother us and just pray for the best and it all worked out, thankfully. We were able to get our bags pretty quickly after we landed but an Uber was going to be $88 New Zealand and they didn't have an option for a "big boot" this time. So we thought we'd try our luck with the taxis and that worked out well. The taxi driver seemed to have a small car but he insisted he could fit all of our luggage and he did. It cost us $55 New Zealand to get to the hotel so that was better than the Uber. I paid him $60 New Zealand cash and said I didn't need any change and he seemed very grateful. They really must not tip here. We got a standard hotel room with two queen beds. It was a very nice hotel, right across the street from the water. It's the Crowne Plaza Hotel Queensland. We got up to our room and got organized and got to bed. The sliding door leads to a shared balcony, which we haven't been on because both times we've had the chance it was late at night. We were so grateful we made it to Queenstown and so excited for our upcoming tours!