My dear Friends,
Last sunday, 15.01.11, I returned from a ten days trip to some of my friends in the North Island of New zealand. Here is my story. The painting of the sunset is mentioned in the beginning. The painting of Mt Ruapehu
is mentioned at the end. I trust you enjoy my story and paintings.
Journey to Friends January 2011
Once a year I have an inner need to go to my friends in the north Island of New Zealand. To begin with I go in the direction of New Plymouth, because there lives a birthday guy. First stop though is Wanganui.
A lady with physical limitations, but an outreach to people with intellectual limitations, lives just north of Wanganui, Kai-iwi.
We shared a whole afternoon of life- experiences until the
sun set. After a night of rest we walked a black-sand beach protected by towering rocks near the Mowhanau River.
Next stop was Waverly where a sister of the Mission looks after the parish there and also in Patea. When young she dreamed of going to Papua New Guiney. She entered the convent at 18 and taught in numerous schools until she went to her dream mission. While in that far away area she was privileged to go to Jerusalem in Israel. In the old city we met and walked the Stations of the Cross and entered the tomb of Jesus. Now in Waverly we shared our emotions and a cup of coffee.
Finally I arrived in New Plymouth where the birthday guy and his wife were preparing for the party. I met this couple more than 30 years ago after the funeral of their oldest son aged 13. I also officiated at the wedding of their other children and baptised I don’t know how many. On Sunday 9th January we had the birthday party with family and friends.
While in New Plymouth I went to visit a former student of Viard College, Porirua, where I thought for 20 years. She is married to a farmer and has four children, all very clever. We went to a section near the beach at Okato where they intend to build a house. They asked me to bless the land. With gratitude I did.
After a long and scenic trip I arrived in Rotorua, a city of all tourist attractions: geysers, boiling mud, traditional Maori culture, fishing and sailing, gondola and helicopters, Japanese and Tai food, polynasion pools and crater- mountain climbing and lots more.
But I was interested in old friends, a couple which helped me thirty years ago with a youth programme called Antioch. In that area is also a contemplative monastery for nuns, called Tyburn. Like the one in London there are two of these monasteries in New Zealand, one near Rotorua. Chapel and guest house plus convent form a real sacred place.
A steel cross on the top of the Stations of the Cross hill gave us moments of wonder and joy. During a time of extreme heat (30C) I painted a scenic view near Tyburn and also the outlook on the Japanese garden. They are my gift to my friends and the nuns.
On 13th January I traveled to my last 2 stops, Mt Maunganui and Tauranga. The first one has a beautiful beach, full of young people and families, and also the place of one of my friends. The second, Tauranga is a boom town, and the place of another friend.
In the first one I heard a sad story of what happened to one the newly born twins; she had leukemia. What will happen to this little one? Her grand parents, my friends, asked me to keep praying. That is what I did in the second place, where there is one of the most beautiful churches in New Zealand, St Mary’s. The celebrant of the Mass happened to be a priest I used to know during the charismatic periods in my life. We prayed for all my friends, healthy and sick, rich and poor.
In the evening the friends in Tauranga took me to a 60th birthday of one of their six sisters in New Zealand: A grandiose party of forty young and old.
The next morning I drove back home, past the highest mountain in the North Island, Ruapehu, covered in snow and sunlight , just in time for the evening Mass in Sc Heart, Porirua. Thank God.
Have a good and blessed 2011
Fr John Heijnen 19.01.11
