The Silver Fern

As is evidenced in previous posts, we are quite fascinated by all the different flora and fauna that are unique to New Zealand. One really interesting plant is the Silver Fern which is entirely endemic to this country. It looks like any other fern on the top

But underneath it is very unique:

This plant is used extensively in New Zealand advertising:
The All Blacks rugby team:

Clothing:

And the front of the grocery store:

There was even a vote last year to try to include the fern on the national flag but it did not get a majority in favor. Some say trackers used the fern upside down on a dark night to light up a path. The more we notice this design, the more we see it everywhere.
Kia Ora, Elder and Sister O'Neal

Table tennis and privet bushes

Whenever we go to serve in the community garden, there's a guy there who is always telling us about how the last two sets of missionaries (specifically the Elder) would join him with a group of other seniors for Table Tennis on Tuesday mornings. Last week, Elder O'Neal finally decided to have a go at it so I walked with him down to the Town Hall. Here's a picture as he's picked out a "bat" and is walking to help set up tables.

Both men and women play but I decided I'd rather go back home and sew some more Boomerang bags. He was gone for about 2 hours and had a great time! And, the man who kept inviting him wasn't even there. On his way home, he stopped at a sporting goods store and got himself a super-dooper bat so he should be a force to be reckoned with next week. He and his partner already ended up in first place last week.
In branch news, our little group finally assigned home and visiting teaching last month and turned in reports for it. That was a first. Elder O'Neal and I visited two families as home teachers, I visited two sisters with Emma as a visiting teacher and I visited two sisters with Kieren as a visiting teacher. All of the twosomes are split like that so that we get as many members in Whitianga as possible. I got to meet one sister, Tere, that we'd tried to visit at least 5 times and never caught at home, but Emma committed her to a visit and she accepted.
Today, Friday, is our standing appointment at Sue's garden/farm. The only times we stay home is if its raining but today was warm and sunny so off we went. She has a long driveway into her place that's lined by those tall trees I wrote about awhile ago. Today we began the lengthy task of removing obnoxious European Privets that grow all over under the pines. Elder O'Neal took a picture of me taking out the small bushes after he'd been through sawing off the large ones.

Remember, this is a winter day so I have a long sleeved undershirt, but we still got hot enough that the cool breezes that came through felt pretty good. We spent 3 hours there and came home exhausted and had to rest. Tough duty, right?
Also, a few weeks ago we passed our 6 months mark. We've met so many wonderful people, I'm already worrying about leaving them. Life is great!