Hi everyone! We're having a great time in Auckland, New Zealand for the past three days. The weather was not our friend the first two days due to rain, but today was gorgeous. We're in the middle of their winter, which consists of people in t-shirts and shorts at the beach.
When we arrived on Friday, New Zealand time, we were accquainted with the city of Auckland and went to the top of Mount Eden, which is one of New Zealand's many dormant volcanoes, which have developed into beautiful parks. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking, although the high winds made it rather cool.
We then checked in at our hotel and settled down before dinner, which was at the Mercure Restaurant/Hotel. The service and food was excellent and was more than you'd expect for a tour.
On Saturday, we went to the glow worm caves, and were cut out of most of our tour of them due to the inclement weather. However, we still saw the beauty of the cave and a few glow worms. Mass was also planned to be celebrated there, but the fast flooding made it impossible.
We then went over to a Maori native village, where we were accquainted with a different lifestyle. They use steam, from their thermal springs, for many of their basic needs, such as cooking and power. They were very generous to let us use their Catholic Chapel to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which we did with only two candles and a flashlight. Afterwords, one of the elders of the village explained how excited she was to see such a beautiful liturgy celebrated. She had made the arrangements for us to celebrate the Mass. She was constantly thanking us for doing this and was happy to hear the Latin that she heard many years ago in Australia.
Today, we went to a museum with very interesting historical artifacts of New Zealand history. We then went on a boat cruise to see Auckland's magnificent shoreline.
We must take this time to thank St. Patrick's Cathedral for their generosity as well in allowing us to celebrate Mass there on our other days in New Zealand. The rector has been very hospitable to us.
Monday is our free day before we leave on Tuesday, for Sydney and Pope Benedict XVI.
Right now the youth are out playing soccer. Messages from them will be posted soon.
Thank you all for making this possible for us and we will keep you in our prayers.
God bless you all.
1 comment:
Thank you for the detailed history of your experiences. All of it was very interesting! Say hello to everyone. We miss you and you are in our prayers.
Brenda Brnda
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