We're home again and adjusting to the cooler southern weather.
We stopped over again in Auckland for a few days with Sofi and Aaron and attended church with them on Sunday. I wanted to show you the altar table, dressed by one of the Pacific Island congregations. I thought it was so pretty I had to photograph it.
On Monday we spent the day over in Devonport - drove 40 minutes to get there and didn't leave the city. We small town people aren't used to those sort of distances in the urban area :)
Devonport is a nice little village with a lot of well kept colonial style houses and I suspect, a lot of money. I tried to take some pics of the houses with their delicate iron latticework and white picket fences but the car was travelling just a little too fast.
After some op shopping, where some of us found stuff to buy and others decided they couldn't fit anything else in their bags we found a nice wee cafe for lunch...
...and then decided to go and explore the Naval Museum.
Below is a model of HMNZS Otago which my brother served on and went to Mururoa Atoll with when the New Zealand and Australian governments sent ships to protest the testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific in the mid 1970s. The man in the photo is our then Prime Minister Norman Kirk who died in office a few years later.
And this is the medal awarded to all personnel taking part. The New Zealand Special Service Medal (Nuclear Testing). My brother didn't apply for his medal but his twin sister decided it belonged in the family and applied on his behalf - and received it!
Then it was time for coffee, or tea in my case, and a chat then we went outside to play :)
Captain and crew, Bob and Aaron.
Admiring the Auckland CBD across the harbour and rainbow spotting. We guessed it had been raining where we'd come from so a good day to get away for a while.
Aaron and I 'played' chess. Well Aaron did and I pretended to. I've only ever played on the computer and that was years ago so he finished me off in about three moves, mainly because the only moves I could remember were the pawns and then I went blank 😂
Then it was time to head home and pack our bags for the trip home the next day.
And guess who was waiting to board with us? Mary Poppins! was my initial thought but then - no, it's one of the Marx brothers!
I'll do my best to catch up with some blog reading over the next few days. Have a good week.
Diana