Tasmania, Sydney, Brisbane, and Auckland!!!

Monday was a travel day. Domestic flights only require an hour before the flight leaves. Since we had to turn in our rental car, we added an extra 1/2 hour to our arrival time. Little did we know of the several different issues we would run into before boarding our plane. Let's just say we had to run to catch our plane. It started after we dropped the Garners off to check in since they couldn't do it the previous night. We missed the turn to drop the car off and had to circle around a second time. Then there was the really long walk from the car drop off to the terminal check-in. We printed our baggage tickets and boarding pass, then headed to security. Besides long lines, they decided to pull me out because of my sewing kit in my purse. Mind you, it had already gone through two different international flights, one to New Zealand, and one to Australia. But to go to Tasmania, I couldn't take the tiny little scissors in my sewing kit. I forgot they were even in my purse. By the time we cleared security and headed toward our gate, they were calling for the last call for our flight. I'm not sure, but I think we were the last ones on the plane. 

After we landed, we tried to find a place to go to lunch. The entire town shuts down at 2:00pm and reopens again at 5:00. We finally passed a restaurant with lights on, so we went in. The two employees talking looked at us a little funny. Sister Garner asked them if they were closed and they sheepishly said they were. She then asked if they would mind fixing us some lunch since we landed and hadn't eaten anything. They graciously agreed and made us a delicious lunch. We were so happy.

We went to our hotel and just chilled for the rest of the day. Sister Garner was swamped with work, and we were ready to do nothing. Hahaha. The Garners are the housing coordinators, and we had transfers the Thursday before. She was busy taking care of lots of issues that always occur around transfers. Luckily, most of her work can be done on the phone. That meant she had to work early in the morning and after we were done for the day. It slowed down a bit this week. 😊

Tuesday was a very fun and busy day. It was also a very cold day. No rain, but lots of cold wind. Well, the wind was because we are on a Tasmin Island Cruise. It was a pretty fast boat, hence the wind! Our tour was about 2 1/2 hours around the costal wilderness of the Tasmin Island. The weather was good, so we got to see both sides of the island. Most of the time they can only go to one or the other side of the island. We saw some incredible sights and a whole bunch of Fur Seals. 

After the cruise, we at lunch in a quaint little place called the Lavender Warehouse. They specialize in Lavender essential oil. They did put it in some of their dishes, but not everything. We had a very good lunch and enjoyed walking around their little shop.

From there, we head up the road a bit to the Port Arthur convict settlement. It was established in September 1830 as a timber-getting camp, producing sawn logs for government projects. From 1833 until 1877, it was the destination for those deemed the most hardened of transported convicts ― so-called "secondary offenders" ― who had persistently re-offended during their time in Australia. The recalcitrant offenders were sent to Port Arthur, which had some of the strictest security measures in the British penal system but was, nevertheless, also based on the idea that prisoners could be reformed while still being punished.

Our tour also included another boat cruise called the Harbor Cruise. It was only about 1/2 hour, and we were nice and warm inside the ship with lots of windows and NO WIND. They gave us more history about Port Arthur. 

On Wednesday, we traveled to Sydney. We met the Garners in the hallway on our way down to the car. They greeted us with a nice little birthday gift for my birthday. It was a beautiful set of blue earrings and matching necklace. I was so surprised.

Our airport adventure was almost as crazy as Monday. We were even earlier than the last time, but the lines were excruciatingly long. They started announcing our flight, but we couldn't understand what they were saying. It all sounded muffled. Someone overheard us talking about getting to Sydney and told us they just told us to go to the beginning of the line for check-in. That was Tender Mercy number 1. 

Then we went to the security lines. They were even longer, if that was possible. Karen asked one of the workers what to do since they were already announcing our boarding. He told us to get in line and if anything changed, he would let us know. Shortly after that, they started announcing the final call for our flight, so we got moved to the front of the line again. There were several other passengers and also got to go to the front. That was Tender Mercy number 2. It was a little crazy.

We went to lunch before going to our Hotel. I think we were in little China town. Most of the signs were in Chinese characters and English. We went to one that had sweet and sour chicken, so it was good. Then we went to our hotel. It was just passed the little China town. We got unpacked and relaxed a bit before it was time to go to the Sydney Temple. The Temple is beautiful, and we got there in time in spite of the heavy traffic. When it was time for the prayer circle, only a few couples got up. Steve decided to get up too. As we were standing in the circle another sister came up next to Steve. She looked SO familiar to me. I tried to figure out who she was and where I had seen her before. She looked at me with recognition too. We couldn't talk then. When I got to the Celestial room, she had already left. I said a little prayer to ask Heavenly Father if she really was someone I knew, then that we could please meet in the locker room. If not, then I wouldn't see her again. We were in the Celestial room a while before everyone was ready to leave. Just as I was folding my robes in the locker room, this sister came around a corner and spotted me. We immediately recognized each other, although I couldn't recall her name. Then I saw her missionary badge and name and knew exactly who she was. The reason I was having so much trouble placing her is because I have only ever seen her in a Zoom call. Her and her husband are the Area couple over our New Convert Initiative group. It was fun to finally meet in person and what better place than the House of the Lord. That was Tender Mercy number 3. Such a wonderful birthday.

Thursday was a fun day. We started our day with a tour of the Sydney Opera House. The architecture is incredible. The Sydney Opera House was originally projected to take four years to build with a proposed budget of AU$7 million. However, the reality was far more dramatic: it ultimately took 14 years to complete and cost AU$102 million, a staggering 1,357% over budget. Our tour guide told us all about the glass and brink and cement and everything else that was used to construct it. It doesn’t have pillars holding up the structure. So, it is very open. They have several theaters and venues for all sorts of performing arts. It was very interesting. 

After that tour, we took a Hop On, Hop Off bus tour. You pay for your tickets and then you can get off whenever you want and get back on again when the next bus comes along. You get to hear a wonderful dialog about the places and history of the city. We got off to take a picture of a beautiful fountain and then we at lunch is a cute little French restaurant. Later we got off so we could go see a harbor. It was a lot of fun, and we learned a lot about the Sydney. 

After that we headed back to the hotel. Later we played some games. It was so much fun.

Friday was Karen Garner's birthday. On Thursday, we bought her some fancy dark chocolate. She loves dark chocolate. We looked for some place to get a birthday card and couldn't find any in the few blocks around the hotel. When we got back to the hotel, I thought I would ask at the desk if they had any kind of little card that I could write a note on. They asked if it was for a birthday and I said yes. Then they asked if it was for a female and I said yes. Then they showed me two beautiful birthday cards they were just looking at and asked if one of them would do. Both were beautiful, but one called the person Amazing. I think Karen is pretty Amazing, so I chose that card. It was perfect. That was my Tender Mercy for Thursday. 

Friday was all about Brisbane. We flew first thing in the morning. There was going to be no way we were going to run for our plane again. Hahaha. We were plenty early and everything went very smoothly until we got to the terminal. We were standing in the center deciding which way to go. The Garners talked to someone and started in the left direction. We started following them, but before we got very far, we were stopped by a worker who said we couldn't go that way because of construction and needed to go the other way. I tried to call to the Garners, but they didn't hear me. At first the worker would let me go after them, but finally said I could go. Steve had to stay back with my carryon luggage. I caught up with the Garners and they were talking to another lady who told them to go upstairs, and it would take them where they needed to be. She then said she thought the upstairs was faster, but the way we were told would work too. Since Steve was still back at the original spot, I told the Garners we would just go the other way.

All I can say is, we should have followed the Garners like we originally started to do. We got to the baggage kiosk so we could print our baggage tag and boarding pass. Not many people were there so we thought GREAT! By the time we finished printing our stuff and putting the tag on our baggage and large group of about 30 oriental people got in front of us in line. None of them went to the kiosk so they had to go through the whole check-in, passport check, etc. process and get their luggage tagged before they could put their luggage on the conveyer belt. There were only two people check us in. I asked a worker if we could just put our luggage on the conveyer belt and head to the gate since we already had our tags and boarding pass. He said NO. We had to wait in line. After what seemed like an eternity, we got to person, who weighed our luggage and sent us on our way. It was less than 20 seconds for the both of us. I thought that was the last part, but we still had to go through security. That was also extremely long. By then the Garners had called us twice to tell us they were boarding and getting ready for the last call. I told them not to let the plane go without us. Hahaha. We eventually made it, rushing to the gate once more to catch our flight.

Since we were only going to be in Brisbane one day, we needed to see some sights the same day we landed. Our Temple appointment wasn't until 6:00 so we decided to do the River Walk. Well, the Garners did the river walk. We walked down to the river, but my hips and back wouldn’t let me go much further. It was a long walk already from where we parked the car. 

We had a nice lunch and ate outdoors. We were serenaded by a couple of birds nearby. We walked toward the river and bought an ice cream cone before we finally reached the river front. Then we took the long walk back to the car. I got over 12,000 steps today!

Our hotel room was a suite. We had two bedrooms, a living room, laundry room, huge bathroom, and a kitchen. Part of the hotel is for permanent residents, so I guess all the rooms are this nice. We were on the 39th floor. The view was incredible.

Lastly, we went to the Brisbane Temple in the evening. It was such a treat to be there. The Temple is beautiful, and we enjoyed our time there very much.

Saturday was just incredibly long. Our international flight back to Auckland went off without a hitch. We had a couple of hours to spare. Hahaha. Of course they want you there three hours before the flight. But still, everything went very smoothly. We had to go through lots of lines and show our passports at most of them. We didn't leave on time for some reason. It was almost an hour late. The flight was good. We were about as comfortable as you can be packed in like sardines. They served us a nice lunch around 2:30. Since we started late, we landed late as well. Instead of getting in at 5:20, we were out closer to 6:30 after clearing customs. 

The Warwoods picked us up from the airport and took us to the mission office. The van Elder Warwood had wouldn't fit in the parking garage at the apartment complex where our car was parked. Plus, a couple of people left some things for me to pick up at the office. And Elder Garner's van was at the office. So, we went to the office. Steve jumped into the Warwood's car so Sister Warwood could take him over to the apartment complex so he could pick up our car. Then they both came back to the office. In the meantime, Elder Garner tried to find the key to his van that was left somewhere in the office. Sister Garner and I looked for the things that were left for me. We didn't expect anyone to be at the office, but there were several people there. I got to see Elder Maraetefau and give him a great big hug. I haven't seen him since he transferred out of our district and ward. His birthday was Saturday. About the time we got our stuff and said our goodbyes to everyone there, Steve was back at the office. We loaded our car, gave our hugs and said our goodbyes to the Garners and Warwoods and hit the road. 

We got home a little closer to 10:30 than we wanted. By the time we unpacked, wrote in my blog, took care of whatever else popped up and finally showered, it was nearly 1 before we got to bed. 

We were up early Sunday morning for Ward Council. Church was good, but I have to admit it was hard to keep my eyes open. We had a great Relief Society lesson too.

After Church, I took care of a few things for the Bishop. Then it was time to go home. At home, I took care of a few other things before I worked on my weekly recap. Finally, it was time to do nothing!!!

We have a very busy week ahead of us!

Have a wonderful week!

All Our Love,

Elder and Sister Wilcox