Our New Home in Taupo..

This was a picture we took of our last view of the ocean as we left Gisborne...

I am really going to miss seeing the ocean every day, but Lake Taupo is beautiful, too!

It took about 4 1/2 hours to get to Taupo...we unloaded our stuff...

made a list of things we needed to buy, and headed to town!

Change is hard, but we will get used to it...it will just take some time.

It took over a week to get our internet set up.

There's lots to do when re-locating! 

I'm glad we don't have to do this again!! 

This is the little view of the lake from the deck of our new apartment.

We are right in the middle of town...very centrally located.

Perfect!

Ok...so this is our new home until we go HOME in June!

Here's a little tour of our place!

This is the kitchen....

I'm so glad to have a full sized refrigerator! I had a mini fridge in Gisborne!

This is our famiy room....

This is our bedroom...

Nice red dresser with blue stars for handles! lol

But the bed is actually comfy, so we are lovin it!

Our bed in Gizzy was two twin beds shoved together!

This is the master bathroom...aka Lonne's bathroom because it has no counter top for my 

curling iron and blow dryer when I'm getting ready.

This is my bathroom

This is bedroom #2

  This is bedroom #3/office where I am sitting right now posting this blog!

This is the first store we went to on P-day when we arrived in Taupo...

The Hunting and Fishing Store!  

Then we took a little drive south to see the town of Turangi to buy some waders

for this happy fisherman! He thinks he has died and gone to heaven in this place!

Lake taupo

 An island in the middle of the lake

I think the only bad thing about living here is that it feels like we should be on

a vacation, not on a mission! There are so many fun things going on

all around us!  Para-sailing, sky-diving, sailing, jet skiing, kayaking, etc...

It's a really fun and beautiful town, which is why it is one of the #1 places to

go to in New Zealand! Our P-days will be busy from now on!

On our way back from Turangi, Lonne saw a place that someone had told him about

where a river comes into the lake...they call it "The Rip"

So we had to pull over and take a look.

When we first got there, a young kid reeled in a NICE Brown Trout.

It was huge compared to any trout I had ever seen!

So Lonne ran to the car, got his rod, and he hurried and threw his waders on...

 next thing I know, he's out in the middle of the Rip, fly fishing!

I'm afraid this is how it's going to be from now on....

my P-days are going to be monopolized with fishing!!

 The beaches of Taupo are covered in Pumice stone from a volcano long long ago.

The sand is black and very hot! I sat on this funny little bench

"The Seat of Knowledge" while Lonne fished.

I filed my feet with the pumice stone! 

 This is Huka Falls

You can't really tell how beautiful the water is...

it is bright turquoise! This is the river that flows out of the lake..

The Waikato River.  There are Jet Boats that go up the rapids...

We are going to go on one of those jet boats before we leave! It looks FUN!

 Waikato River

After our first day doing missionary work in our new area,

we decided to go for a little drive. It was about 9:00 at night and it was 

a beautiful evening! And guess what happened next....

Yep, we pulled over at the RIP and Lonne threw on his gear and headed 

into the river! Ahhhhhhh! But he didn't catch anything.

He met an old guy named Dave who goes fishing every day. He is going

to help Lonne with his fly fishing! He is so happy to have a fishing buddy, 

and Lonne is so happy to have him as a mentor!  Hopefully a little missionary

work will go on on their fishing outings! Dave invited Lonne to go fishing with him

the next morning at 5:30 a.m.  He was home by 7:30 or so.  He thinks this will

work out great with our schedule.  He'll be home just in time for breakfast

and study time! Seriously.... is this fair??? lol

 Some Pumice stone and the black iron beach...

  

A paraglider right by our apartment...

 It's so fun to take walks in the evenings and see all the fun things going on in the lake!

Elder Gubler is a good "Fisher of Men" 

and he's a "Happy Fisherman!"

Don't worry, we are getting our missionary work done!!

Our first dinner invitation was with the Ellington family.

They live out on a farm just north west of Taupo.

We are already meeting lots of people...

and we have some interesting stories :)