We’ve been in Auckland for less than 4 days, but are rapidly getting to know our new Quaker family here at the Mt. Eden Meeting — even being greeted by the children on Sunday morning with balloons, which now hang in the front hallway of the B&B.
We arrived late on Friday afternoon and had a shared meal with four of the members of the Premises Committee, which oversees the Meeting House, a two-story Annexe with space for committees and the children’s program, and the Friends Centre. The Friends Centre is a large, 100+ year old villa which has two rooms for up to 4 overnight guests, a public bathroom, a lounge, a large eat-in kitchen, a small office, and our own bedroom with a private bath, private sitting area, and a private balcony on the sunny north side. The house is very reminiscent of houses we saw in London, with tall ceilings – probably 12 or 13 feet high, no central air, and space heaters in most rooms. This house, however, was renovated in the last 10-15 years, so the kitchen is quite large and well appointed, and (unlike in London) there seem to be plenty of electrical outlets!
Our first few days overlapped with Robert, a previous Resident Friend who was “subbing” for the month of September. He was wonderful at showing us locks, laundry, and how the lights work, and many other important bits and pieces we will need to know!
Saturday morning, having oriented ourselves to the house, we walked a short way up Mt. Eden Road to the village of Mt. Eden (now a trendy neighborhood within Auckland) and climbed the mountain. Mt. Eden is the tallest (643 feet above sea level) of the half-dozen ancient volcano crater cones that dot the landscape of Auckland. It was very grounding to take the 10-minute hike up through the park to the top and see a 360-degree view of Auckland. We could see Manukau harbor on the west side, coming in from the Tasman Sea, and Auckland harbor on the east side, coming in from the Pacific. We also had a wonderful view of one of the scattered showers of the day heading our way, which caught us as we walked back down.
Saturday we met a few members of the Meeting at a memorial service for a much-loved elderly member of the meeting, and on Sunday we attended Meeting for Worship and the Monthly Meeting for Business. On Monday we met with Meeting members interested in assisting with a 6-month Spiritual Nurture Course in 2018, and on Tuesday we joined about a dozen Meeting folks for the weekly Walking Group – so we are quickly learning names and personalities within the Meeting. We are also learning (not to our surprise) that Quakers here face many of the same issues as Quakers in Meetings we have attended in the U.S.: Should we pay someone to organize a children’s program on Sunday morning? How do we balance a desire to meet with far-flung Quakers with our recognition of the ecological cost of travel? Where will nominations committee find the people needed to fill the needs of the Meeting?
We’ve had several exploratory walks around the surrounding neighborhood, finding the local grocery stores, thrift shops, and a low-cost department store where we bought a few essentials such as slip-on shoes for quick trips we make between the B&B and the Meeting House. We’ve also found the piano shop, which had moved from the location that we discovered on Google Maps before we arrived. (See Mike’s next entry).
I (Marsha) have described to several Meeting members my sense that I have arrived in the Quaker Community, and have arrived in an urban setting, but I am not sure yet that I have arrived in New Zealand. So much of what we have seen so far of Auckland (except the mountains) is very reminiscent of England, and so much of what we have experienced so far of the Meeting is very reminiscent of other Quaker communities. I expect that as we delve deeper, we’ll find more differences, and paradoxically, those differences may make us feel even more at home here.
Green Edges 