We have been good this past year, and Santa did find us in Takapuna, even though we had a beach and not a chimney, but we hang our heads knowing we dropped the ball the past few months by not posting anything on our Tanners in Takapuna blog.  The problem now is you’re getting a lot at once because we do want to count our blessings and record some worthwhile events.

As we shift to December…first we have to thank all for your Christmas wishes and especially those who went the extra mile (7,000 miles) to mail us an actual card or letter!  We were stunned to receive dozens of surprises – most through the Church “Pouch” delivery- during the month. They all went up on the kitchen wall for us to stare at and enjoy. We are lucky to be able to receive mail (letters only) for only the cost of a regular U.S. 1st Class postage stamp at the Area Office in New Zealand via the Church’s pouch forwarding service. If you want to send us a letter just address it to Gordon W. Tanner – POUCH, PACIFIC AREA – Office of General Counsel, 50 East North Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150. Do you know, New Zealand charges about $3 to mail a letter one mile away?!  Anyway, thanks so much!

We knew Christmas was going to be different, but due to all the activities, singing, friendship and technology that allowed our family to include us in their events and lives it was not painful!  We so appreciate all the efforts to include us and make us feel loved!  We decorated for Christmas and played Christmas music from Thanksgiving on and that really made a difference.  They do sell fresh trees here on tiny corner lots or front yards and lots of lights and ornaments, but I’ll be darned if I could find one metal hook to hang things on our artificial tree with.  When I got tired of trying to string fraying gold thread through the tiny holes, I resorted to paper clips (that we brought from the US)!

Gordon and one of the other attorneys (Elder Lynn McMurray) were asked to provide the musical number at the Area-wide Christmas devotional that was broadcast throughout the area. They did a wonderful job singing “O Holy Night”.   It was just the right touch for the devotional by the Area Presidency.

Christmas week we had a dinner with friends five nights in a row with good people, good food and fun games! 

We enjoyed some beach walks and “bush” walks nearby with friends during the 4 days of holidays at Christmas time.  We even had a New Year’s Eve get together here with finger foods and a games of Pounce (a bit like Nertz), Sequence and Cover Your Assets all going at once.  We tooted our horns and banged our pans on the stroke of 10pm so we could all get home by 11:15 or so to see the fireworks from Shoalhaven at 12M to be the first in the world to bring in the new year and new decade.  This was helpful since we played Pickleball early the next morning at the “chapel” which is the name for the building we attend on Sundays.

We are honored to be able to serve in this beautiful part of the world at this beautiful and sacred part of the year. We love all we serve and work with. We are excited to be doing meaningful work that blesses the lives of others and help Light the World – one by one – to invite all to come unto our Savior Jesus Christ. May each of you have a blessed and glorious new year ahead. We love you all.

November marked our 6 months here and I’d say most everything is feeling very comfortable at this point.  Yes, even driving on the left-hand side of the road – though I’m probably turning or not turning when I should-  at least I’m not aware of my indiscretions – so I’m comfortable!

No church calling for Gordon yet – although he has 2 widows and a family to minister to – but I was called to serve as Ward Relief Society Compassionate Service leader, which can end up being a very busy calling with lots going on and several widows and elderly people who have a lot of needs.  I’m actually gearing up to practice my hair cutting skills on a senior Englishman who just doesn’t get out.  His wife has memory issues. We’ll see if he invites me back after my skills are revealed.  I just recorded the memories of attending Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in London in 1953 by a senior sister in our ward, and am going to make her a little booklet of personal history essays. Also just before I got home to NZ guess who dropped by to visit Gordon? Rick’s parents – George and Dixie Whitehead from St. George, Utah stopped in before their cruise began. They knew several people in the Area Office – no surprise. It was a treat!

We had a fun Thanksgiving get-together with all the senior missionaries who work at the Area office. It was complete with all the trimmings:  roast chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, vegetable plates, homemade rolls, gravy, even jello.  You can buy turkey here but everyone tell us ”You don’t want to.”  It’s stringy, dry, small and costs a month’s rent.  So we go with chicken.  

Afterwards, we had a pie contest with categories for creativity, beauty, crust, and tastiness.  I planted and decorated a “tree” in a mound of pre-Christmas “snow” on my fresh strawberry pie and — who knew – I took first place in the first two categories. In that fun, joined my “Patagonia famous” daughter Stefanie who a couple days before had won the company dessert contest on her first try! Well done Stefanie. A week later we supported all the senior missionaries who threw a Christmas party for their entire apartment complex – Shoalhaven on December 2. Over 80 adults and kids came and it was a great time had by all. We made and delivered over 85 humanitarian hygiene kits to the Auckland City Mission as part of the event. The residents say that can’t wait for the 4th Annual Christmas party!

October was an “on the road” month for both of us but many of them were different roads.  We left for SLC on September 28th to attend General Conference, Office of the General Counsel training meetings, and the J. Ruben Clark Law Society leadership meetings, and the annual International Law and Religion Symposium in the Provo area during the 2 weeks around General Conference.  Being at Conference, of course, was exhilarating and wonderful- we were able to attend three live sessions while staying at the downtown Marriott.  We helped host the delegation from New Zealand at Conference that included the head Muslim cleric of New Zealand. We really enjoyed getting acquainted.

It was a treat to see many friends gathered from all over the world, not to mention our family that lives there, as well as our family visiting for Conference – Heather and Shannon from Spokane, and my sister Donnette and her husband Joe Wheat, and their daughter Heidi and grandson Kade from California. We also squeezed in 24 hours with our dear friends and former roommates of the House of 12. Fellow OGC missionaries – John and Lisa Adams – were in town from NYC and we got to have lunch downtown with them too.

It was heaps of fun to see Stacia in The Addams Family at the Hale Theater and have dinner with the Tanners and the Hardys.  Sunday afternoon after Conference we had a huge extended family gathering for dinner at Charlene and Lindsay’s.

 I then flew to Spokane on October 6^th with Heather and Shannon to spend 9 days at Whiteheads. I had total fun hanging out there, writing some of my “52 Stories” which was prompted by Heather (and even completed by many of us), helping with meals and projects like the great and early snowfall that split a lot of trees and fractured branches.  We all pitched in for a few hours and worked non-stop to clear the yard of branches and debris from the yard and deck creating a huge pile fifteen feet long and nine feet high.  This surprise snow storm made it Spokane’s snowiest October in 44 years! 

With Autumn’s baptism on the horizon, I flew to Bellingham on Thursday and the gang drove over on Friday with all of us attending the event on Saturday morning.  That was a real break for me since I was already in the States and could just fly from one daughter to another!  That afternoon was the Bastian Birthday Bash including many of Phil’s family and lots more good food including Café Rio and three custom cakes for the kids!  My birthday cake was baked the following week and though not as fancy, maybe the hit of the month being pumpkin with a creamy, rich cream cheese frosting. 

Alia got her tonsils out at age 6, which was hard, but she was a champ!  The ENT had never seen any tonsils so large in a child and confirmed she would sleep much better once they were out and she could breathe freely.  I learned the game “One Night Werewolf” which quickly became everyone’s favorite, and had special dates with each child.  These included bowling (I knocked myself out by rolling 6 strikes out of 10- and I only bowl about once every ten years!), went to the trampoline zone, the Dollar Store and out for ice cream and did fine on the freeways, even driving on what was now the “wrong side” of the road for me!

The day before Halloween I flew to Scott and Stef’s and we enjoyed the Santa Barbara Zoo and trick or treating the next evening before they left for Maui the next morning.  I watched the kids for 5 days and enjoyed the beach, the park, the gorgeous weather and lots of fun games capped by ice cream every night! 

It was a tearful goodbye.  Again.  Their lives change so much between visits but thank goodness for Marco Polo, Face Time and Instagram-I feel like I’m never far behind.  It felt strangely like home to get back to Auckland, be reunited with Gordon and to sleep in “my own bed.”

We thought it would be fun to share some of the things that we have found are different for us here in New Zealand.  One that pops immediately to mind is how well Kiwis treat their dogs.  We are told that cats do live here, but I have only seen one of them.  Dogs, however, are given the royal treatment and are out and about everywhere. Bowls of water are even placed on sidewalks by shop owners outside their doors.  The dogs wear a lot of cute jackets and are treated to obedience and training classes with their new owners upon purchase.  Nothing that new yet.  But what caught my attention was the wall of Wag Dog Food in the refrigerated section of the grocery stores. By all appearances it looks like jumbo rolls of Jimmy Dean sausage. This high-quality dog food boasts extra-high meat content.  I mean, these animals had to have been valiant in their pre-earth life to deserve this kind of treatment here in what I call “the Garden of Eden.”

We have also noticed a certain rugged toughness about this people.  They are a fit, outdoor and particularly adventurous people who learn to take on the ocean waves most any time of year, with or without wet suits. They regularly go barefoot whenever they feel like it.  I was in the grocery store the other day and saw an adult woman enter barefoot and proceed with her shopping.  That was my third spotting of a barefoot shopper.

You rarely see an umbrella (at least up for very long in our infamous wind), and even in the chill of a rain storm, you can see Kiwis walking without a coat and in short pants and sandals-or “jandals” as they like to say.  While we’re outdoors, there are many colors of sweet potato or “kumara”, green, red, and yellow kiwi fruit-the yellow or golden interior being much sweeter and a bit more “dear” (expensive), and zucchini are “courgettes”.

We also have the “dawn chorus” here which is constituted of heaps of birds who begin chirping loud and early. I often ask myself what in the world they are so anxious to communicate when they get so intense… They say when Captain Cook was greeted by this “dawn chorus” the sound was deafening.  But with unwanted predators like possums, rats and stoats, wildlife has dwindled tremendously-especially birds, whose eggs are easy to get at.  When we go “tramping” we often have to spray and brush our shoes (supervised by a paid attendant) so as not to bring in any unwanted bacteria which can damage and kill tree roots- especially the endangered and revered Kauri tree, some of the world’s mightiest trees. They can grow tall and straight which can live for over 2,000 years.

Another thing that takes a while to get used to is remembering that every electrical outlet is independently activated every time you use it.  At 220v, the voltage is twice as powerful as what we use in the US, so if there were a problem, the consequences would be huge.  So, turn that little switch on every time you make toast or plug in your phone and to recharge and turn it off when you’re done.  You’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy! We are just lucky that both NZ and AUS use the same type I plug. Who knew there were 15 varieties of plugs in the world!

Kiwis love to abbreviate words and names, just like the Aussies.  Breakfast is “brekkie”, barbecue is “barbie”, sandwich is “sammie”, and McDonalds restaurants are “Macca’s”. Swim suits are “togs” and clothes pins are “pegs” – or with the NZ accent “pigs”.  Mark is ‘Mock”, Paul is “Pole”, Heather is “Heetha”, and Jean is “Jane”.  The trail side pit toilets are “long drops” and sweaters are “jumpers”. Who said Kiwi talk is not a foreign language?

Enough of words, what about phrases?  “One sammie short of a picnic” substitutes for “not the sharpest knife in the drawer.” A “muppet” is a complete idiot. “Chuck a sickie” is to take a sick day. Such an “egg” is such a clown, “wee” is very small or early while “knackered” means exhausted. To “cut your lunch” or to “mow a mate’s lawn” is to date his girl. “Heaps” is lots and “bits and bobs” are odds and ends.  To be “chocka” is to be stuffed with food. “Shifting” is moving residences. “Not even” is “No way.” “Taking a tiki tour to the wop wops” is to get lost out in the middle of nowhere. A “ratbag” is a brat. “Yeah/nah” is an indecisive No. “Want to hit up the Coro, bro?”  “Keen!” is “Do you want to go out to the Coromandel with me?”  “Yeah!”  “To reckon” is “to think, feel or guess; to “take a think” is to mull something over…You mix these unfamiliar expressions with accents from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, Samoa, Tonga, China and India all trying to speak the New Zealand version of the “King’s English”  and it sometimes gives one reason to pause…Definitely keeps us on our toes and keeps life interesting!

Several have asked what I do in my role as Area Legal Counsel for the Pacific Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Let me give you a little view into a typical day for me. WARNING – details follow. Read only what interests you!

Our routine each day usually means waking up without an alarm at 6 am. Why? It could be the result of doing my best to get 7-8 hours of sleep each night. I can – for the first time in my memory – just pop out of bed, wide awake and ready for the day. It is a refreshing change.

After daily preparations, a bit of stretching, and some planning and ponder time, Julie and I have breakfast while often listening to a talk, and read the scriptures. I zip a stylish blue soft-sided insulated lunch bag into my backpack full of the wonderful lunch Julie has made, and I am out the door right around 7 am for my daily walk to work. My brisk 8-10 minute walk takes me past a few shops and restaurants still shuttered for the night, across a parking lot next to the local movie theater, by the City rose garden and the local Burger King, past the bus stops and the Hospice Shop where Julie volunteers to the corner of Lake and Huron Street. I turn the corner and walk the remaining 1/2 block to the 4 story (ground floor plus 3) Area Office building of the Church.

I discovered that my day is broken into three parts. We are currently 18 hours ahead or 6 hours behind the headquarters staff in Salt Lake City (SLC) if you go west instead of east around the world – so it is the next day. When it is 8 am in Auckland on Tuesday morning, it is 2 pm on Monday afternoon in Utah. That means when I need to work with people in SLC, I need to do so before 11 am my time. The second part of each day is the work I do with the people in my time zone. That work usually needs to be completed by 3:30 – 4:00 pm due to many starting early (around 7 am) to avoid traffic and then heading home about 8 hours later. Sometime during that middle part of the day I try to break out my lunch at my desk. The third part my day is working with those in time zones in our Pacific Area that are behind me – like Australia. They are 2 hours behind me so I find myself bunching my calls with them in the late afternoon. By the time it is 6 pm in New Zealand it is only 4 pm in Australia. Thus I have to be really disciplined not to routinely spend 12 hour days at the office. (Julie reminds me that I can also work from home AFTER dinner.)

I do have some self-imposed limits since Julie and I play pickleball every Tuesday night from 6:30 – 8:30 pm at Browns Bay community recreation center about 25 minutes north of us, and since we just started a 12-week “Eat Healthy and Be Active” course together from 6:30 – 8:30 pm on Thursdays. Julie teaches an English class to non-native speakers on Wednesday nights, so that is my catch up day. I do my best to get home by 9 pm when she does (but always before 10 pm). We try to do something with others on the weekends and spend every Monday evening together, so that gives us some guaranteed together time. The dream when we arrived was to walk Takapuna Beach daily. We have had to adjust that dream due to winter weather, high tides, and matters that demand immediate attention. However, usually a week does not go by without at least one walk together hand in hand along the arching sandy and very beautiful Takapuna Beach.

Finally, what kind of work am I doing? It is varied and constant. I am very indebted to the four AALCs, their spouses, and the two legal coordinators who work with me for their support. Essentially we have a small law firm with all the attendant administrative work to “keep the trains running on time” – processing bills, managing and follow up on active matters and the outside counsel we use, training, staff meetings, etc. Our goal is to get quality legal work done in a timely way, in great measure through the labor of local counsel in each of the 17 countries we serve. Thought I have not counted, I am told we use about 60-70 different law firms. Given the size of Australia and New Zealand and the specialties needed in each, we use about 20 law firms in just those two countries.

On my first day I picked up the negotiation of a logistics and transportation services agreement for the shipment and distribution of goods through New Zealand ports to the the other countries in the Area. Since then I have dealt with legal issues involving employment, employee benefits, risk management, litigation, human rights violations, data privacy, corporate maintenance and agency questions, child protection, religious liberty legislation, humanitarian project funding and structuring, a large residential plat development, commercial contracting involving purchasing, operations and maintenance of facilities, and a wide variety of real estate transactions. One thing I have learned is that in many of the islands it is not possible to purchase fee title due to the majority being classified as “customary lands” owned by tribes and families. Thus we have a lot of long term leases. It is fun to learn about new legal systems with the help of very able local counsel. Having French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Vanuatu in our Area adds the spice of French Civil Law into the mix of the common law of the British Commonwealth.

The work is challenging, engaging and fulfilling. We feel blessed to be here and can see the positive results of the work we do in the lives of the people we serve.

We are playing pickleball for a couple of hours every Tuesday evening in Browns Bay about 25 minutes to the north up the coast road.  Since arriving we have about 12 -14 of the senior missionaries from the area office come each week.  It is great.  We have met several local folks who play weekly too.  It is a great regular social and exercise opportunity.

Gordon spoke in Church and I taught Relief Society on June 9. I expect my turn is to speak in Sacrament Meeting is coming.  I am teaching English Connect (English as a Second Language) classes at the Church on Wednesday nights to help non-English speakers practice conversation. That is a night Gordon works late. I also help as needed at the mission office periodically, and on Thursday morning join the senior missionary sisters in a scripture class at the Area Office.

We are saying goodbye at the end of July to Elder and Sister Haleck, our Area President. He heads home to American Samoa after 7 years in the area presidency here. They are beloved.   We celebrated the 4^th of July on the 6^th with a party with all the senior missionaries – having pulled pork sandwiches, beans, coleslaw and homemade apple pie and ice cream. We sang, played games and remembered our founding fathers.

A few days later we flew 5 hours to Tahiti. We left on Thursday early evening, crossed the International Date Line, and arrived on Wednesday at 11:00PM.  Gordon had meetings and work there on Thursday and Friday, so we stayed one extra night and attended the Temple Friday – Tahitian language session, toured the beautiful neighboring island of Moorea on Saturday, and met new friends at church on Sunday.  

Tahiti was a celebration of 40 years of marriage for us on June 29, 2019!  It worked out rather nicely that they confused our reservation and didn’t have a room ready for us at 11pm when we drove in from the airport.  This is even after confirming by phone the night before- but French and Tahitian are the native tongue and little English is spoken.  So we waited almost an hour while they pretended they had something for us, then sent us to the wrong room.  We opened the door on some sleeping people and were very embarrassed.  To make it up to us, they put us in an over-the-water bungalow for the following 3 nights which was a fun experience.  The sound of the water lapping against the shore was soothing and the views were amazing.  We enjoyed the hotel and the buffets and loved meeting wonderful people and seeing the country side as Gordon toured several of many of the 60 Church buildings on the main island of Tahiti.  There are 8 stakes on the island and the members of full of faith and love.

We really enjoyed the familiarity of driving on the right side of the road again for a couple of days and getting a feel for the lifestyle outside the resort hotels. The Church was first established in Tahiti 175 years ago in 1844.  

On Saturday morning we took the one-hour ferry to the island of Moorea – it has spikey lush forested peaks and blue lagoons enclosed by protective coral reefs.  We spent the day driving clockwise around the perimeter of the whole island and stopped at our sister hotel to swim and spend time on the beach. But it was too cool and windy to spend much time in the water, so we watched the dolphin encounter that they do there and visited the Turtle Rescue clinic which was interesting.  The jagged mountain peaks and lush greenness were more than beautiful.  

Upon returning, we found that due to a national holiday celebrating the end of nuclear bomb testing in their country on June 29 sometime in the 1940s, there was literally no parking anywhere in downtown Pape’ete.  We were starving and tired of the hotel buffet. Since we were near the food trucks at the dock, Gordon circled for a half hour while I waited for our take-aways.  One was good-the other not so much.  But they were fun to eat on our back deck over the water as we watched the moon shine on the calm turquoise lagoon.  

Hallelujah!  The month of June brought us our long-awaited boxes on the 18^th, almost 10 weeks from the time we sent them off until we received them. We understand they sat at docks for 5 weeks awaiting a ship with room heading to New Zealand!  Frustrating!  Also, somehow a few boxes we had intended for Takapuna somehow got sent to Bellevue storage instead, so we are without some precious books, most of our spices and kitchen gadgets, and a couple of knives and pans we would give a lot to have.  Oh, well!  We are still greatly blessed and continuing to love this beautiful place.  The daily views off our balcony continue to lift us.

Winter has also noisily arrived, and the winds and rains are impressive!  Being from the Northwest, we don’t mind so much and know it just makes the place so green and beautiful, so we are making lots of soup and waiting it out by shopping and socializing.  Speaking of soups, Gordon hasn’t been eating as much lately and has handily dropped 22 pounds since we got here.  I am so proud of him!  The funny part is he wasn’t even trying-it just happened since he was taking in a lot fewer calories than he’s been expending, and with walking to work and home daily, and going up and down 66 stairs each way a few times each day, it has really produced results.  The bad part is I’m still about the same.  I snack more and don’t get all the exercise so no pay off.  Yesterday he got a new belt so his pants now stay up again!

Since receiving our goods from home, we’ve given a few dinners and are settling in well. We have been visiting the Op Shops looking for treasures, household goods we didn’t bring with us, and going on adventures. We sang in the Stake Choir for Conference two weeks ago which was fun.  “Where Love Is” and Come Follow Me were familiar tunes and the choir had about 40 members-sounded good!  Plus we had great seats for conference! 

One of the things I love about our flat is being so close to the water.  Winter has arrived in all its fury  (temperature in the 50s and intermittent rain), but that doesn’t deter those who love the beach from hauling their kayaks, paddle boards, wind sailing gear and sometimes even wetsuits out a quarter mile in front of my windows.  People here are tough.  Few locals will carry an umbrella or don a raincoat.  I’ve spotted several men and children (not women so much) going barefoot on the street for their mail or navigating a store.  They will swim in the ocean all year long, being committed to staying in close touch with the earth and taking time to be fit.  They also teach and promote from very young the responsibility they have to protect the precious gift of the earth they’ve been given by not littering, by not endangering native species, by recycling and respecting all life.  They’ve given away millions of reusable recyclable plastic shopping bags since last year when the country shifted away from single use bags. Now 6 months later, almost everyone brings reusable bags to all stores whenever they shop.

Store hours are generally 9:30am to 4:30pm, after which time people like to exercise, relax, play with their families and have dinner together.   They do a great job providing lots of playgrounds for children to enjoy, often in very beautiful places.  Everything of course, is all “at your own risk” and we have heard they are not a litigious people if a person gets injured at a park. You would never find many of the balance, climbing and spinning activities so common in the parks here in parks in the United States.  It just wouldn’t happen.  Check out the “Barrel Roll” below:

Things I see and hear “heaps” of:  tattoos (mostly arms and legs but some female islanders even have their faces and chins decorated), brightly colored hair, ripped jeans, high fashion, man purses, neck scarves, trash cans, recycle bins and the word “cool”- it’s even on printed electronic instructions touting the merits of their toaster or blender.

All the senior missionaries serving in the Area office and the mission are wonderful.  We have senior missionaries working in welfare, self reliance, family history, public affairs, physical facilities, missionary support, mental health, medical, educators,  and-of course-attorneys.  Gordon has 3 couples that work with him in Auckland and one in Sydney, plus two legal coordinators.  They make a great team and are all very busy.

The work Gordon is doing is extremely varied and there is something new and different every day.   So far, he has worked on matters involving shipping to the islands, logistics, property transactions, litigation, employment and employee benefits, human rights claims, privacy issues, missionary challenges, supporting the Area Presidency, redevelopment of the area around the Hamilton New Zealand temple, and a variety of other things. He is excited about a new Declaration on Human Dignity for Everyone Everywhere and its potential for good. Check it out at https://www.dignityforeveryone.org.

Our highlights for the month included a visit by President and Sister Nelson and Elder and Sister Gong.  They completed a ministering visit to 7 countries in 9 days here in May and gave different messages during each visit.  In New Zealand, about 10,000 attended and we were told where the new Auckland Temple site would be (near the MTC) and treated to a re-telling of what it is like to date and marry an Apostle.  President Nelson requested the primary children sing “I Am a Child of God” to him and reviewed the most important things we should be teaching our children.  It was a sweet time for everyone.