Australia, Monday Sep 16, 2013
Dear Family and Friends:
What a busy and very exciting week we just finished. We missed talking and seeing all of you this
morning but maybe we can hook up sometime this week. We did talk to Deven yesterday for a few
minutes before Church started in Tasmania.
That was the first time we had Wi-Fi since Wednesday.
Last Monday was FHE and the Jeff’s (the couple that are here
on Sabbatical from BYU) had the dinner and it was very good, a curry dish from
Africa over rice. The Jorgensen’s had
the lesson and he talked about the different religions in the Middle East and
why there are so many problems there. They served Ghana Chocolate cake and ice
cream. Great visiting with the other
couples.
Tues night at the Temple it was really small but
wonderful. We are getting to know most
of the workers on that night and it is so fun to get a hug from each of them as
we come and go. When we got home I got
one load of laundry done, and another one on Wednesday night and then we
packed. Wednesday we got the shuttle
ready to go and down to the mail room with over 14,000 images. Not bad for 3 ½
days.
Thursday morning the Williams took us to the airport to go
to Tasmania, and we were so excited. It
is about a 1 ½ flight and they served us morning tea, a very large cookie and
juice or soft drink. Our flight was at
9:30. Tasmania is about as far south of the Equator as Utah is north of the
Equator. Elder McDonald met us at
baggage claim and Sister McDonald was waiting in the car. We drove into Hobart, the airport is about 30
min away, and went to the Archives where they are taking pictures of the
records there. It was very interesting
to see their set up. They have the big
camera as they have taken pictures of huge books. Right now they are finishing up doing
admission records from the Mental Hospital in the 1800’s. Next week they start books of cemetery
records. They had brought lunch of
sandwiches, chips and fruit. It was very
good and then we watched them work. We
are really liking our project in our bright sunny office. They wear Levis to work each day which would
be nice some days, but we love what we do and where our office is. Tasmania is very green and beautiful, and the
trees and flowers are just starting to bloom.
We went back to their flat which is about a 20 min drive. Hobart is part of the tidal basin so you see
water all along the road to their home.
We saw lots of sail boats, and other water craft on the river. We went over a beautiful bridge. The Cadbury Chocolate factory is there but it
is closed on Sat. We visited after
dinner and they are originally from Heber City but raised their family in
Lyman, WY where he worked for the mines.
He worked with my cousin Bill Aaron.
They are being released Oct 20th and going to a home they
have in South Jordan. On Friday we took
them to work and then took their car to Port Arthur Historic Site which was
about 1 ½ hours away. We went through
some beautiful country, lots of sheep and cows, and through the burn area where
the news said Tasmania was on fire last January. There is so many trees and undergrowth that
they can’t stop it once it gets going.
They call them bush fires. We saw
several homes being rebuilt and many places for sale. Port Arthur is a place of national and
international significance – part of the epic story of the settlement of
Australia. It was much more than a
prison, it was a complete community – home to military personnel and free settlers. The convicts worked at farming, and
industries, producing a large range of resources and materials. The Port Arthur penal station was established
in 1830 as a timber getting camp, using convict labor to produce sawn logs for
government projects. From 1833 Port
Arthur was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the
Australian colonies. By 1840 more than
2,000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff lived at Port Arthur, which by this
time was a major industrial settlement producing worked stones and bricks,
furniture and clothing, boats and ships.
The end of convict transportation ended in 1853, and it became an
institution for aging and physically and mentally ill convicts. The penal settlement finally closed in
1877. Lots of the old buildings still
stand, some have been burned in bush fires and some were taken down and
sold. We really enjoyed the 40 min
walking tour and 20 min harbor tour. We
also went to the basement where they had displays of the various buildings and
cells, and histories of some of the prisoners.
It was a great day. We had a bowl
of sweet potato soup which was delicious before heading back to Hobart to pick
up the McDonalds. On Saturday we went up
to Wellington Point, an overlook point where you can see all over the
valley. It was beautiful and very cold,
snow on the ground. It is 1270 meters
high or 4,167 ft. There is a radar
station that looks like a rocket so it is called Rocket Mountain. We stopped several times on the way up at
lookout places so Dad could get pictures, we will try to get them posted
soon. After getting off the mountain we
went to a street market where there was all kind of things being sold, food,
crafts, clothing, fruits and vegetables.
It was about 10 times bigger than the one Jeremy goes to in Salt Lake,
the downtown market. It was a lot of
fun. Then we went down the street to the
harbor and got fish and chips. We stopped at the Botanical Gardens but only
stayed about a half hour as they were closing.
We went out for Chinese Food that night and it was very good. Sunday morning we took a ride up the river
before Church. They go at 1:00. They have a pretty big ward and it was fun
meeting new people. For dinner we had
corn beef and colcannon (mashed potatoes with cooked cabbage, cream and
butter), didn’t know if we would like it but it was really tasty. This morning we went for a ride on the other
side of the river and went to the beach for some pictures, then to the
airport. The Williams picked us up and
we went to the office for a couple of hours.
It was a really memorable trip.
There are so many things we didn’t have time to see, it would be fun to
go back sometime.
After the office I started laundry and then we went grocery
shopping seeing as though we had nothing in the fridge. It is so discouraging to go because the
prices are so HIGH!
Happy Birthday to Dixon this week. Amanda looked beautiful in the pictures for
homecoming and the boy looked really nice.
It would be nice to know something about him Amanda, and how the dance
was. Lydia caught 2 good looking, big
catfish. Sure do love FB. Loren flew into SL Friday afternoon and we
hear they went glow ball golfing Friday night, good thing Dad’s clubs are in
Layton, and then he went to Penrose.
Hope you all got to see him. He
is in Boise this week for meetings.
Guess we will close for now, keep the emails coming.
Love you and Pray for you all:
Mum and Pop
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