P-Day Pictures

We are getting short on P-days, so we decided we better start seeing  a little more of this beautiful country while we have the chance!  Elder and Sister Hardy have been site seeing a lot more than we have, so they have been acting as our tour guides!  They took us to the Bay of Plenty this week. We walked around Mount Maunganui and collected sea shells on the beach.  Last October, there was a cargo ship that crashed into the reef near this harbor.  It punctured a big hole in the boat, and caused a big oil  spill.  I didn't see any traces of the oil, so they have done a really good job of cleaning it up.  The ship "Rena" still sits out in the harbor, half submerged, with millions of dollars worth of cargo still on it.  I guess it's too dangerous to retrieve the rest of the containers off the ship.  We had a great day with the Hardys.  The weather was beautiful...not too cold, not too hot, and no wind! Amazing!  I hope we will be able to see more of the island in the next few weeks....we only have 6 P-days left! Crazy!

This is a picture of the ship, "Rena" I stole off the internet....

It was too far away for us to get a picture of it.

This was taken before they took some of the cargo off, and before it broke in half.

The ship is lodged right on top of a reef.

It looks more like this, now.

Sister Hardy and me...Looking for sea shells...we found some good ones!

Mount Maunganui in the back ground

Check out the color of this water!

There is a little island that we walked out on to.  Lonne was the king of the rock!

We gathered shells on the beach for awhile.  Lonne found a shell with hairy stuff attached.
He loved it! I was carrying my shells in my shirt...he thought he was pretty funny when he put
"Hairy" down my top!!

Don't ask me what we're going to do with all these shells...but they were just too good to pass up! lol

Aren't they pretty?? I hope I can get them home without breaking them.

Mount Maunganui Beach was beautiful!

On our way home, there was a little sign for "McClaren Falls"

We drove up there since it was just about 400 yards away.

It was absolutely beautiful!! Soooo glad we stopped!

This was the pond above the falls....

GORGEOUS!!!

This is how they keep the grass mowed!

When we got back to where we had parked our car....we saw the sign, and the locked chain!!

Uh-Oh! It was 5:30!!!

Lonne did some of his magic, and pulled our car out through the

grass of the church next to the parking lot!

I was a little nervous for a few minutes! I thought we were gonna be spending the night in our car!

We were parked at the sheep dog store!  I love these buildings!

I have taken pictures of them before, but I just had to snap a few more:)

Lonne pulled the car out right behind this shepherd! :)

The next day we worked at the Visitor's Center.

We had some surprise visitors...

Elder Watson and his wife from the area presidency

& Elder Zwick and his wife of the Seventy.

It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day so we had to have a picture:)