"Awe" tumn

 "Awe" tumn in New Zealand

"Awe" gives you great feelings of admiration, amazement and wonder.  We have never before experienced autumn in April and have been feeling a bit of that kind of awe seeing those colorful fall trees next to green palms .... 

...and cabbage trees.

Many trees that look like deciduous trees are really evergreens in NZ, like beech, pohutakawa, gum, and bottle brush. They don't do the big autumn leaf drop.  And many turn just a little yellow and then drop their leaves.  It may not be New England, but its still awesome in its own way.

The ivy is the BIG COLOR item,  awesome everywhere!

We took an AWE-tumn drive through a beautiful fruit-veggie belt west of Auckland, through Kumeu.  It was loaded with fruit stands, farms, vineyards and wineries. 

These are NZ pumpkins, hard like butternut squash, small and beloved, and often cooked and sliced on sandwiches.  Have never seen a big one carved into a jack-o-lantern here.

We LOVE the apples in NZ!  Autumn is a big harvest time, but there are varieties of apples throughout the entire year...YAHOO!

The smells and sights of the harvest on our drive were all around.  This is a vineyard surrounded by citrus trees. 

NZ is a destination for many backpackers who come during harvest season to earn a bit of money as they tramp through the country.  The farmers depend on hired backpackers to gather in much of the harvest.
(web photo) 

One of the "fruit-vegetable" stands full of the harvest goods.

A sweet addition along the way were fresh "Flower" stands...you don't see many of those along "fruit way' in Perry/Brigham City Utah.

Nor do you see many mandarin and citrus trees there either.  These will be ripe in a month or so.  YUM!

One of the well manicured vineyards at the Kumeu Winery 

web photo

One of the harvesters picking the famed kiwifruit.  The orchards are manicured and well kept.  Speaking of "Kiwi"....

Speaking of Kiwi, here are some of our favorite "Kiwi's" enjoying NZ baked potatoes after a night of Institute classes.  

Thought we would throw in another Kiwi (and English) favorite, the beloved "Hotcross Buns"  Everywhere this time of year...Big at Easter. 

Another Awe-tumn tree near the motorway.  There's not a heap of red ones but enough to remind you it's fall.  We like that.  

Always awed that these guys don't fall off more.  Notice the happy dog in the foreground...

More big "awe-sized" boats and races

Third from the left is the really awesome and amazing Fusi, the Institute teacher and a YSA in Manakau Stake and YSA 1st Ward.  The rest of them are pretty amazing as well! Wish you could know all of them like we do...and we wish they could know all of you like we do.  Maybe we'll introduce you at a heavenly reunion someday sometime, you'll love them!

Another awesome and amazing part of our drive in Auckland is the Waterview Tunnel.  It's 2 tunnels 2.4 km long.  Many of you drive through long tunnels...doesn't it leave you in awe of the feat to bore massive things like this through the earth (we've always been fascinated at how in the world Hezekiah's tunnel ever happened...a big THOTL event).

So we did a little research on the Waterview Tunnel.  Completed only two years ago, they used a boring machine (not the kind that put you to sleep in a far-too-long-lecture or this blog) they named "Alice".   The above is a photo of Alice boring through  the last piece of the tunnel. 

Alice (photo below) the machine, would bore the hole, move the earth and then put up the concrete liners up in the tunnel.  We thought Alice qualifies as pretty "awe"some..

(above two web photos)

Had to pick up the Henderson Stake Patriarch Johan Snijder and his wife Irma from the airport coming home from the Cook Islands and we caught some "middle earth" displays while we waited.  The short guy is my favorite of the two.

Cook Islands...

The Snijders had been on the Cook Islands for s week doing an awesome thing, giving many members there Patriarchal Blessings (a special blessing from an ordained patriarch giving the recipient a blessing directly from the Lord and including insights into your personal calling, lineage, and mission on earth).  They don't yet have a stake so they haven't an ordained Patriarch (Bro. Snijder got special clearnace to go and do the same for the folks in Nuie).  He normally gives up to 3 blessings a month, the week he was on the Cook Islands of Rarotonga and Aitutaki and he gave 39 blessings!  That's beyond amazing and awesome!

The Downs and the Snijders.  Johan is from Rotterdam Holland,  Irma is from New Zealand and Australia.  

A picture Irma took at the mission home in Rarotonga.

And the photo she took of a very tired Johan on the Islands after he sat down to catch his breath.  She said they saw THOTL in opening the way for them to get to both islands and giving them the energy to keep going.   They were delightful people!

If you want to see and feel THOTL more often, you have to be willing to spend time where He is, doing His work. Then you must trust Him.
We have heard so many THOTL stories this week.  Stories of people who lost loved ones (babies, husbands) yet, to the amazement of those around them, they found great peace and healing from THOTL; stories of young people whose lives were headed in very dark directions when they acknowledged THOTL, chose to follow Him, and the darkness was replaced with light and healing. People with busy, complicated and hopeless feeling lives who recognized THOTL, trusted Him, and have found great hope. 

 Hang in there and reach out for THOTL. See if it doesn't make all the difference.

Muriwai Beach

The black sand of the Tazman on the west coast and a new beach we visited, Muriwai Beach

It was an awesome beach, wish we could send a video of the loud crashing waves and rough water.  No...we wish you could all come over for a visit and go to the beach WITH US!!

There were heaps of kite surfers ricocheting back and forth at crazy speeds.  It really was awesome. 

We are not yet getting very awesome at taking selfies, maybe its the subject matter???

Kites in every direction.

Never cease to be awed by the amazing ocean. 

The rock on the right is actually pretty massive, but looks small in a big ocean.  Maybe its the way we feel sometimes on this big full earth.  But God knows each of us personally and loves us personally too.  To Him who made the oceans and the universe, you are BIG and loved even bigger.

Whether its a new kind of "Awe"-tumn in NZ or Springtime in the Rockies, we think its good to be in "Awe"

Albert Einstein said, "One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.  It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.  Never lose a holy curiosity. 

Whether you "stand" all amazed as you view this grand earth, or "sit" all amazed as you study and ponder its truths, or even "lay" in its grass amazed on a starry night, we hope you never cease to feel "Awe".  Hats off to its Living Grand Creator, Amazing and Awesome beyond words!

Greg Olson


We love you,
Vance and Louenda
Elder and Sister Downs