TOURANGA, NZ

TOURANGA, NZ

Sunday morning, March something, 2013, we headed to church. We had scoured the Rotorua phone book and the Internet search engines for a local church, but we found none of our particular constitution. We did, however, locate a couple of Churches of Christ in Turanga, NZ, about 90 minutes drive to the coast.

The drive was adventurous, for sure. We left our condo with maps and rough directions that we had copied from the local third world Internet service, which I may talk about later.

The highway took us through a Gorge along a narrow, winding two-lane road. The NZ countryside is mostly hills and dales, created from a lot of volcanic upheaval a few eons ago. There still abounds a lot of geothermal activity around Rotoura. The belching sulphur. hot water and steam vents are plentiful. I told Ron that being in the "down under" part of the world, we might be closer to Hell than we think! So driving down the road not far from the airport, we see a sign pointing down a side road that says, "Hell's Gate". Really??

As we approached Touranga, the road split without signs identifying the roads. We quickly took our best guess and headed towards city center. Running out of time and still half way displaced, Nancy spied a "Church of Christ" sign on a modest building. Ron wheeled a "U-ie" and we pulled onto their grass covered parking lot.

The church was small. Debby counted 22 in attendance. The preacher was from Texas. He had moved his family here to work with the church, living off his savings and retirement income. After services, we were invited to remain for their "pot luck". Not wishing to pass up a good NZ meal, we stayed. The food and fellowship was great! We also learned that there is a church in Rotorua, just down the road from the airport (hopefully not down the road that leads to "Hell's Gate")!

We drove downtown and crossed the bridge over to Mount Maunganui to see the beach and all the hubbub. It was a busy place; lots of people about. The mountain was not that big and was a local hiking spot. It's an old volcano a few hundred feet high.

We headed back to Rotorua on a different road so we could see more of the same kind of countryside, only different. We came back to the condo and called the church in Rotorua. They were meeting tonight in one of the members' home on the other side of town. One of the church families is moving to Australia this week and they were having a farewell BBQ. We were invited to come, so we did! It was a great time of fellowship, meeting new people and sharing great NZ food! It was a great evening!

Today was our lucky day!!