(Another long blog write-up…)
Early Friday morning, August 15, Duane and I flew to Adelaide to meet Pres. and Sister Standley and to be with our great friends, Gail and Will Sundberg. We were out the door by 5:40 a.m. so we could pick up Elder Brady and Elder West and take them to the airport with us. We let them use our car while we were gone for the week. We had to be at the Brisbane Airport by 7:00 a.m. Once we were through security, we tried Facetiming Olive, our granddaughter, because it was her 7th birthday…at least for us it was her birthday, since we are a day ahead. We caught her the next day, on her actual birthday and wished her a happy day!
Our flight was two and a half hours long and we arrived around 12 noon. We got our luggage, loaded everything into the white Toyota SUV rental car and off we went to the Adelaide Mission office. We walked in and got to hug our good friends the Sundbergs and also got to meet several of the other Adelaide Mission office staff. The mission secretary and her husband are the Petersons, and we met the Harpers…we really liked all of them. Elder Harper played BYU football as a linebacker back in the day.
Our plan for that first day was to make our way to Kangaroo Island. We walked the few feet to the Sundberg’s flat, which is next door to the mission office and mission home. We changed clothes, grabbed our winter coats since it was chilly and then grabbed some lunch at Zambreros.
We drove 90 minutes south to Cape Jervis and caught the 6:00 p.m. Sealink car ferry. We loved driving through the Adelaide countryside. It is so beautiful with green rolling hills and so many pretty trees!
On our drive something fun happened. We pulled over at the Hobart Lookout so we could look at the beautiful blue ocean and shoreline. When we pulled into the parking lot, we were the only car…until about a minute later and then a small car pulled in and two very tall young guys got out. We waved to them and then walked over to look at the ocean.
As we were walking back, Elder Nelson noticed the tallest guy was wearing an “NBA Academy” hoodie. Duane asked him if he played basketball and he said yes. His name was Shay and he was 7 foot 3 inches! (Over two feet taller than Sister Nelson!) His friend was named Efe (he was 6 foot 8 inches and you pronounce his name by saying the letter “F” and then adding the ay sound.) They were the nicest guys and the four of us talked with them for about 20 minutes. We found out that Efe plays professional basketball in Australia and he was going to be playing in Adelaide the next night. We told him we wished we could go see him play…but we would be on Kangaroo Island.
They asked where we were from and we told them that we were missionaries and Duane and I home is Utah for us and the Sundbergs, they are from California. They asked if we lived near Provo and we said yes! They then told us that their best friend, who they went to high school with, played for BYU! What!? Their friend’s name was Aly Khalifa! We knew who Aly is…he is an excellent basketball player and played center position for BYU! Aly is 6 foot 11 inches! Amazing that we were halfway around the world with two great young men that had been to Provo and Orem and knew all about “Swig” and had eaten at “Cafe Rio.”
It was so much fun talking with these two wonderful guys! We found out that they were going to be back on Kangaroo Island after Saturday’s game, so I invited them to come to church with us. We added them as friends on Facebook and then I asked if I could get a picture with them. I was so short in between the two of them and I started laughing really hard. Sooo funny!
We told them how wonderful it was to meet them and wished them good luck. We told Efe that we hoped he did really well on his game the next night! We LOVED meeting them and we really hope we get to see them both again some day!
Soon we saw the ocean as we got closer to Cape Jervis. It was beautiful!
The car ferry ride over to Kangaroo Island was rough and tempestuous…no joke! We weren’t even sure if they were going to go ahead and run our 6:00 p.m. SeaLink ferry. The “Investigator Channel” water was very rough that night and waves were high and all over the place. Needless to say, the ferry ride over was really rough. The front of the ferry was slamming up and down causing huge waves and sprays off the side and loud pounding noises! Our stomachs were queasy for sure, but poor Elder Sundberg, he really struggled and looked green. We all thought for sure he was going to throw up! I turned to Elder Nelson and said, “In all the times we have ridden the ferries up in Seattle, I have never seen the front of any ferry come up out of the water like this car ferry is doing!” Yikes! It was very difficult to walk around, so we just sat near the front, which was blocked off to any passengers because of the rough weather. What a relief when we finally made it to Kangaroo Island an hour later!
The four of us then drove an hour around Kangaroo Island until we got to Kingscote. As soon as we arrived at Kingscote, we had an invitation for dinner with a Senior couple…Elder and Sister Mower. We found their house and they were wonderful and so friendly! Loved them! The four young sisters were at the Mower’s home and we got to meet them. They were darling young missionaries! One of the young sisters, Sister Manu, was from Brisbane! We told her that Brisbane is our home base. She asked where we lived and we told her Forest Lake. She got really excited and told us that she grew up in Forest Lake! Her family moved to Springfield (just a few miles away) about four years ago. What a small world! We had a really nice time visiting with the Mowers and we really appreciate the delicious dinner they made for us!
Around 9:30 pm we thanked the Mowers and then drove to “Villas on the Bay” located basically right on the ocean near the town of Kingscote…beach holiday resort villas/condos. The Sundberg’s had arranged for us to each have our own villa for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
The “Villas on the Bay” were very clean, modern, excellent and the manager and his wife were so friendly! When we checked in on Friday night, the manager gave us a homemade loaf of sourdough bread that his wife had made for us! Wow! How sweet is that?!
Both of our villas had three bedrooms, a large living room with TV, leather reclining furniture, a fully stocked kitchen and large bathroom with shower. What a great play to stay for a few days!
Kangaroo Island! What an amazing treat to be on Kangaroo Island and experience such a wonderful place and enjoy the wonderful people who live there!
Saturday, August 16, we had a great experience! Well, actually four great experiences that day, which I want to tell you about…baptism in the ocean, holding and feeding Bindi, the bee farm and walking to Admiral’s Arch. I kept thinking of my daughter Amy today…for us today was her birthday…for Amy, it was still the 15th.
Saturday morning, we were invited to be part of the baptism for Gary, who chose to be baptised in the ocean! We got ready that morning, drove over to the local, delicious Cactus Café, ate breakfast then drove out to Brother Shawn and Sister Anthea Hinves’ 100 acre bee farm…they live on such a gorgeous piece of heaven! We met at the Hinves’ home so that we could have a Baptism program before driving the mile or so to Pennington Bay, the baptism cove / spot.
While I was at their home, I had a really fun, special treat! I got to meet “Bindi” an orphaned baby wallaby that the Hinves’ are feeding and taking care of. Bindi is about 6 or 7 inches tall and she was in a homemade soft pouch / bag. Sister Hinve asked if I wanted to feed Bindi and I said, Oh! Absolutely!” Bindi downed her bottle and then snuggled up against me. So fun! So sweet! And so unbelievable! We also got to meet “Moses” the Billy goat.
After Gary’s program, we drove about two miles from the Hinves’ home to a stunning stretch of beach / cove called Pennington Bay Beach. It was a sunny day and the scene that greeted us as we drove on the dirt road down to the cove was just blue-green turquoise-y gorgeous! It was around 11:30 am when we arrived at Pennington Bay Beach. We loved being with Gary and being able to be part of his baptism, a sacred, touching experience.
After the baptism, we took pictures and then drove back to the Hinves’ bee farm for a lunch. Elder Nelson and I really had a great time and really enjoyed meeting all these new wonderful people!
We changed our clothes and then the four of us drove to the west side of Kangaroo Island to Flinders Chase National Park. It was chilly since it is still their winter. It was really fun driving along and visiting with our friends, the Sundberg’s. They are both so sweet and wonderful…we love them!
We were really excited to get to Flinders Chase National Park and to walk the wooden boardwalk along the ocean view which lead us to the famous, jaw dropping “Admirals Arch.” This is what the Internet says about Admirals Arch…”Admirals Arch is a natural rock arch created by amazing forces of nature. It’s situated within Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island. You can access the boardwalk around the cliff face which leads to a viewing platform overlooking the arch. The arch is sculpted by weathering and erosion from the sea over thousands of years.”
To reach the arch there is a wooden built boardwalk, it’s steep with steps at the end that take you to see the arch itself. If you can’t make it down to the arch, the scenery along the way is still well worth a journey along the boardwalk.
Fur-seals often play among the rocks. These dark brown seals feed at sea but return to land to rest and breed. In summer, each of the large males establishes a territory with a number of females. You can often see Fur-seal pups playing near the rock pools beneath the arch.
After walking to Admirals Arch, we drove the short distance to hike up to the “Remarkable Rocks,” which are stunning, giant rock formations that you can climb up on and walk around.
This is what the Internet says about Remarkable Rocks: No Kangaroo Island holiday would be complete without a trek to one of the island’s signature landmarks, Remarkable Rocks. It took 500 million years for rain, wind, and pounding waves to create these aptly named granite boulders which are now part of the Flinders Chase National Park.“
That night we drove back to Kingscote and went to an Italian place for pizza. It was dark when we were driving back because the single lane road has no street lights lighting your way. We kept passing Kangaroos alongside the road and multiple times had to stop in the road because either kangaroos were standing in the road only a few feet in front of us, frozen for a split second, like a deer in the headlights or kangaroos were actually jumping across the road in front of us as we drove along! Wow! This was quite amazing to us since none of us had ever had to dodge kangaroos in the road before! I tried to get pictures of them in the road, but they jumped too fast.
Sunday, August 17, we attended the small Branch of the church on Kangaroo Island. It was so fun to be with so many of the same people we had been with the day before for Gary’s baptism. The church building, which sits very close to the beach, is actually an older one-story house that they have remodeled into a chapel. What was once the living room is now a small chapel with blue chairs to sit on. They still have the original large windows of the home, which allow a beautiful view of the ocean while at church.
We were able to Facetime Amy early this morning and wish her a happy birthday…since today for her it was her birthday. Kevin decided to throw her a big birthday party at his parents house in Midway, Utah. When our Facetime went through, we were delighted to find out that most of our children and grandkiddos were all together celebrating Amy’s birthday. It made me cry to see everyone and I got such a giant lump in my throat that I could hardly talk. Little Bodie is getting so big and is absolutely adorable. It was awesome to see precious family and I kept having tears go down my face! Our grandkiddos are all so adorable and all seemed very excited to say hi to us. We LOVE them all so very much and miss them! I also got to talk with Jeannine briefly and wish her a late happy birthday.
We arrived at the Kangaroo Island church building about 25 minutes early, took some pictures and had fun visiting with others for a few minutes, as they arrived. The four darling young sister missionaries were there and so were the Mowers.
Next comes an experience that Tami will NEVER forget!
As I was sitting, waiting for the Sacrament meeting to start, in walked the Hinves, whom we loved being with the day before at their 100 acre bee farm. And guess what?! Anthea Hinves had “Bindi” with them in their homemade pouch! Sister Hinves spotted me and sat down in front of me and asked, “Sister Nelson, would you like to hold Bindi during Sacrament meeting and also feed her?” With no hesitation, I said, “Oh! Yes! I would love to!” I sat there with Bindi in her pouch on my lap…a kangaroo on my lap…can you believe that?!! I kept opening Bindi’s pouch, and she would be staring at me! I thought to myself, “I will (probably) NEVER have this experience again…holding an orphaned wallaby on my lap during sacrament meeting! I treasure this experience and memory!
Halfway through Sacrament meeting Sister Hinves passed Bindi’s bottle back to me and I fed Bindi again…my second time feeding this darling little wallaby! Bindi downed her bottle very quickly. Holding Bindi during church really was an amazing, sweet experience for me. Thank you so very much Sister Hinves for giving me that experience! Elder Nelson also enjoyed having Bindi near us.
At the end of Sacrament meeting, I gave Bindi back to Sister Hinves, so she could feed her again during Sunday School. This was my last time to hold or be with Bindi…but what an incredible experience for me to have held and fed her over those two days!
After church, we met with a man at the Kangaroo Island cemetery, whose last name is also Sundberg and he lives on Kangaroo Island…Elder Sundberg was quite interested to see if there was any relationship with this gentleman.
Then we drove back to the Villas, changed our clothes and then drove back out to Flinders Chase National Park with the Sundberg’s. At church, the Hinves were telling us about the devastating fire that happened on Kangaroo Island about five years ago. They said it was the worst fire that has ever happened on the island. They told us that we would see trees all burned…and we did! As we walked to the platypus swimming pond, we read about the horrific fire on the informational boards along the walking trail. This is what the Internet says about the fire:
The Kangaroo Island fires of 2019-2020 were part of Australia’s devastating “Black Summer,” resulting in significant destruction, loss of life, and ongoing recovery efforts.
Overview of the Fires
The fires on Kangaroo Island began on December 20, 2019, ignited by dry lightning strikes. Over the following weeks, the fires spread rapidly, fueled by strong winds and high temperatures, ultimately burning approximately 211,474 hectares (about 42% of the island). The fires were unprecedented in scale and intensity, marking the largest bushfire event in the island’s recorded history.
Impact on the Community and Environment
The fires had a catastrophic impact on both the local community and the environment:
- Loss of Life and Property: Tragically, two people lost their lives, and 87 homes were destroyed. The fires also devastated local businesses, particularly in the tourism sector, which is vital for the island’s economy. 2
- Wildlife and Habitat: The fires killed tens of thousands of livestock and severely affected wildlife habitats. Approximately 96% of Flinders Chase National Park was burned, leading to significant ecological changes. The aftermath left the landscape looking desolate, with lush greenery replaced by ash and charred remains. 2
Recovery Efforts
Following the declaration of the fire zone as safe on February 6, 2020, recovery efforts began in earnest.
Our hope was to see Platypus swimming in their natural habitat at the platypus pond. We saw burned trees all along the trail that we were walking on. Hundreds of tree trunks were totally burned black as a sign of how devastating this fire was five years ago!
We hiked for 3.5 miles, talking, laughing and making noise as we walked along the wooden board walk. Minutes before we arrived at the platypus swimming pond, we read on one of the path boards that platypus can actually hear you coming from very far away…many hundreds of yards away, and so they hide until you are gone. We didn’t know or else we would have tried to be quieter.
Once we got to the platypus swimming pond, we waited patiently for about a half hour in complete silence hoping to see Platypus swimming, but we never saw one, darn! Near the platypus swimming pond, they have a little platypus statue which was cute.
At this point, the sun was about 30 minutes from setting, so we couldn’t wait any longer in silence hoping to see them. We finally decided it was best to hike back out to our car so we wouldn’t be on the wooden board walk (which is not lit up) completely in the dark. As it was, by the time we got back to our car, it was dark and raining.
And then a slight panic for me happened. We had already pulled out of the parking lot and had driven down the dark road for about a quarter mile when I realized I couldn’t find my phone and I knew I had it with me way back at the platypus swimming pond. I was sick to my stomach as I thought we would have to hike all the way back to the pond in the complete dark…which would have been a long spooky, eerie walk hunting all along the way for my phone in the dark…and then hike back to the car again! Duane stopped the car. I looked all through my quilted bag pockets on the inside, checked all my coat pockets and around the car. Nothing. We then drove back to the dark parking lot…driving slowly so as to not drive over it if it was on the ground. I felt like I was about to cry! It would be devastating to lose my phone with everything that is on it! We all got out and looked all around where we had been parked. Nothing. It looked like we would be hiking all the way back in the dark! Then Duane checked my bag one more time. Nothing in the inside pockets. But then he thought to check the one outside pocket…and there it was! Relief flooded through me! How did it get there? I said a quick thank you! I guess I somehow had slipped my phone into the quilted pocket on the outside…since it was so dark in and around the car…no lights lighting up the parking lot…an outside pocket I never use…thinking I had put my phone on the inside pocket where I always put it. I was just elated that we had found it and that we didn’t have to walk the pitch-black dark path for what would have surely been several hours of looking!
We left the parking lot feeling such relief and drove back to Kingscote on the same very dark, isolated road, and again had to stop or slow down for kangaroos on the road and thankfully did not hit one. The only thing we could find open when we got back to Kingscote was a local gas station, so we grabbed some food from there, since everything closes early on the island every night not just Sundays.
Monday, August 18, 2025 we got early to a beautiful sunrise. Sister Sundberg walked over to the beach and took a beautiful picture of the sun rising and shared it with me. We packed our bags and checked out of the Villa. I saw the manager and hurried over to him to tell him to please tell his wife that we LOVED her homemade sour dough bread and had toast every morning. He was a very friendly, jovial guy and it was so fun to visit briefly.
We met the young sister missionaries and Elder and Sister Mower at the Cactus Café and treated the young sisters to breakfast. They are all so nice and fun to be with!
After breakfast, we found a park bench facing the harbor and near the Kangaroo Island Hospital. Elder Nelson and Sister Sundberg had an appointment at 10:45 to meet with the hospital director and take a tour of the hospital to see their facilities and get to meet and know some of the staff. But before they went to tour the hospital, Elder Nelson and I had a Zoom meeting with another mission and also a Zoom training for one of the Emotional Literacy Lessons. We sat on the bench together and what a very fun way to do our work…enjoying the beautiful view!
When we were all finished with our Zoom’s and touring the hospital, we drove back on the same single road across the island and went to Seal Bay.
Seal Bay…Oh! My! Goodness! What a gorgeous, stunning, take your breath away, stretch of ocean! We were so happy that it was a sunny, beautiful day. The water was crystal clear turquoise, the sand was white and the seals were adorable! The beach girl inside Tami wanted to stay ALL DAY at Seal Bay! It was mesmerizing and so peaceful! We had a great, relaxing time at Seal Bay! There were lots of seals laying on the beach sunning themselves or sliding along on the sand or their heads bobbing up and down slipping into the waves. Further down the beach were more seals with their pups.
No exaggeration, Seal Bay is sooo, sooo breathtaking, so enchanting and truly, a beautiful place to come and relax. It is easy to be overcome by the color of the water and sound of the waves!
We LOVED being at Seal Bay and we hope that someday we will be able to come back and enjoy it again. It was really hard to leave!
About an hour and half later, we dragged ourselves away from Seal Bay…so very sad we had to leave that gorgeous beach!
After driving back on our winding road back to Kingscote, we had about three hours before we had to catch the car ferry back across the channel to Cape Jervis.
Since we had time, we decided to drive back out to the Hinves’ bee farm and purchase several jars of honey.
Side Note:
I just realized that I have not told you all about the incredible bee farm that Shawn and Anthea own and operate. We knew or had been told that the Hinves have a HUGE thriving, successful business…Kangaroo Island Living Honey…but we didn’t realize how big it is until Shawn started telling us about their business and how rare the Ligurian Bees are on Kangaroo Island because they are the purest form of Ligurian Bee. He told us all about how they extract, bottle, and ship their honey. They actually ship their honey out to all of Australia! Shawn mentioned they are hoping to purchase another 1000 acres so he can expand his bee / honey production! He also mentioned there are a total of seven bee farms on Kangaroo Island.
We greeted Shawn when we arrived back on his farm. He is a very friendly, smiley fun-loving guy. (I did not see Bindi this time on his farm.) He took us first to their gift shop, where he let us have sample tastes of all four varieties of honey that they produce. All the honey’s were delicious…but we did have our favorite’s. Their four honey flavors are:
- Cup Gum – one of our favorite’s
- Coastal Flora
- Spring Flora
- Sugar Gum – Our favorite
Our taste buds were doing the happy dance as we tasted each variety! Seriously, so delicious! We loved the different flavors. Here is what it says online about the Living Honey business…it says it better than I can:
What started as a passionate hobby in 1998 has developed into a small family run farm business for Shawn and Anthea Hinves and their five children on the picturesque farmlands of Kangaroo Island. With almost 500 productive hives the family is kept busy tending to their precious Ligurian bees through all seasons. A good season can see up to 20 tons of honey extracted.
With Organic Certification through the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia [NASSA], Shawn adheres to strict guidelines to maintain records of hive locations, extraction, storage and sales so all honey produced can be traced through each step of production.
The result is delicious raw organic honey and honey products from seriously happy bees! Once you see how beautiful Kangaroo Island is, you’ll understand what all the buzz is about.
You’re welcome to visit their farm to see the workings of the beehive, extraction plant and packing room where you can taste their honey. You’ll even be able to meet the locals Kaz and Angel the dogs, Mace the magpie, mother and son Faith and Angus the cows and pat the goats Johnny, Mia and Abi.
For those keen for a full-on beekeeping experience there are group and private sessions available during spring and summer depending on the weather.
WHY ARE LIGURIAN BEES SO SPECIAL?
Kangaroo Island is the world’s oldest bee sanctuary and is home to the only pure strain of Ligurian Bee in the world which originated from Liguria, a beautiful region of Italy.
In 1881, European beekeepers who migrated to South Australia decided to introduce the Ligurian bees to Kangaroo Island. Just four years later in 1885, Kangaroo Island was declared a bee sanctuary, promising the purity of the Ligurian bee strain on the island. The island is essentially ‘quarantined’. This was crucial in ensuring that the bees remain free from exposure to common diseases and bacteria, as well as hybridisation.
This also means that these Ligurian honeybees can’t just be relocated off the island to other honey farms, when the conditions are not adequate for producing honey on Kangaroo Island.
The purity of the Ligurian bees is of uttermost importance. They play an important role in measuring diversity and could even help scientists protect the rest of the world’s honeybee population.
Ligurian bees are known for their laid-back nature compared to other strains of bees. We know this is from living the good life on Kangaroo Island.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Just sitting here typing about the Hinves delicious honey, made me start to crave their honey like none other! I immediately stopped typing and hurried over to throw a crumpet in the toaster. That crumpet is now lathered with melted butter, honey and strawberry slices…W.O.W. Happy dancing again!
O.K, let’s get back to typing up our adventure to Adelaide!
After tasting the four honey flavor’s and then purchasing the flavor’s we wanted, Shawn then took out to the extraction / bottling building. They were busy filling jars of honey and sticking labels and packing dates on the jars.
Shawn asked if I wanted to sit and fill a couple of jars…YES, of course…how exciting! I washed my hands and then sat down in front a large metal container machine that had a bucket in front of it with a valve on the bucket. The large metal container was filled with honey.
The first two jars that I filled were perfect. But on my third jar, I didn’t shut the valve off soon enough and the honey overflowed over the top of the jar, letting about two Tablespoons start to run down the jar. Shawn said not to worry…that happens to them also. Because my fingers were clean, he said go ahead and swipe away the honey, which I did, and then I handed the jar back and took a step toward the sink to wash the honey off, but Shawn said to just lick it off my thumb…which I did. Oh! My! Sooo good!
If we had had time, Shawn said he would have loved to give us a beekeeping experience. He said they often schedule beekeeping experiences for those who would enjoy one. But we just didn’t have enough time…which was too bad. It sounded like it would have been a lot of fun!
We said our goodbyes to Shawn and told him thank you for everything and that we truly hope we get to see he and his family again someday! We LOVED the bee farm and our experiences there and we would love to be able to go back there again someday!
We drove into Penneshaw, where the ferry comes in, and we had lunch at a charming, darling little garden café and gift shop called “Millie Mae’s Pantry.” After ordering our lunch, we walked around the gift shop and lo and behold, they were selling multiple jars and flavors of Hinves’ “Living Honey”…and for quite a bit more money than what Shawn had us pay.
We drove our car onto the ferry and this time, the crossing was very calm and pleasant.
When we got off the ferry, we made a quick decision to drive to Victor Harbor to check on a young Elder who was not feeling well and had gone to the hospital the day before. Victor Harbor is a coastal town in south Australia and is a popular summer resort destination. The sun was setting when we arrived at Victor Harbor and we could tell it was a beautiful coastal town. We found the missionaries flat and checked on the Elder. He was doing better. We visited with both the Senior missionaries and young missionaries for a few minutes and then drove on back to Adelaide, dropped the Sundbergs off at their flat and then checked into our hotel…The Terrace Hotel Adelaide at around 8:00 pm.
Duane and I were hungry, so we decided to walk two or three blocks to a Thai restaurant, but that restaurant was no longer in business. Darn, too bad. So we kept walking and walking for many blocks. We have found that a LOT of places close early and we couldn’t find anything open. We finally walked into a gas station that had a Subway Sandwich inside it and purchased two sandwiches. Then walked back to the hotel, which was O.K. since we probably needed the exercise, haha, we were just tired by this point.
Tuesday, August 19, we had an appointment to meet with President and Sister Standley at 10:00 a.m. Sister Keil and Sister Widman flew in to Adelaide the day before and joined us in our meeting. Elder and Sister Keil had just gotten back to Australia two days earlier. They were asked to escort a missionary from the Perth Mission back to his home. It is a hard trip to make clear to the states and then turn right back around and fly clear back to Australia! Poor Sister Keil must have been exhausted. I bet she didn’t relish the thought of going on another flight two days later after getting back to Brisbane! But she did because that is the kind of dedicated person that she is. Peter Howell, our fun friend from Melbourne, flew in for our meeting also. It was great to see him again!
I loved, LOVED meeting President and Sister Standley! They are really wonderful people…friendly, warm and made us feel very much at home. We felt very happy to finally get to meet them in person! We have Zoomed with them many times over the last few months. We also got to meet several of the Senior missionaries serving in the office. Great people! Our meeting was about an hour long. Sister Keil and Peter talked with the Standley’s and other Senior missionaries about different topics and Sister Keil presented the Emotional Literacy Program that has eight lessons in it.
I really loved talking with Sister Standley! She is very nice, friendly and engaging! Visiting with her felt like talking to a good friend!
After our meeting with the Standley’s, we were hungry so we went to lunch and met up with Sister Keil and Sister Widman. We ate lunch at Café Primo. They have delicious salads. It was fun to sit and visit with everyone. Instead of going back to our hotel after lunch, we decided to hang out at the Sundberg’s flat. We had two Zoom meetings plus several emails, texts and phone calls to do. We actually hung out at their flat for the rest of the day.
Tuesday night the Sundbergs had invited six young missionaries over to their house at 6:00 pm for dinner…two Elders and four Sisters. Sister Sundberg served Hawaiian Haystacks and I helped her with all the chopping plus I washed the dishes. It was another fun night meeting new people!
That same night, Duane and I also had the pleasure of meeting Elder Craig Raeside, an Area Seventy, that we meet monthly by Zoom for the Area Health Council. Elder Raeside heard that we were going to be in Adeliade, where Elder Raeside lives, and he called Duane and asked if we had time to meet him on Tuesday night. Duane told Elder Raeside we would love to meet him! Elder Raeside told Duane that he lived very close to the Sundberg’s flat and that he could meet us there. Elder Raeside had a meeting until 7:00 pm and then came over. It was wonderful to meet him! What a very, very nice, humble guy! As we visited with Elder Raeside, he mentioned that as a young missionary he had served his mission in Italy. We told him we had a son serve there and that we had been able to travel to Italy twice…the second time we had the blessing of attending the Rome Temple. Elder Raeside visited and stayed with all of us for about an hour and even participated in our little spiritual thought and discussion. When Elder Raeside needed to leave, we sincerely thanked him for taking the time to come meet us! That was really sweet of him to do that! We are so glad we got to meet him!
Wednesday, August 20, we picked the Sundberg’s up around 9:00 am so that we could go to breakfast at “Frankly Bagels” a bagel place that the young sisters told us about the night before while eating Hawaiian Haystacks with them. They told us it had great bagels. YES, their bagels were delicious. They serve gourmet, specialty bagels…so happy we ate there!
After breakfast, Duane and I really wanted to see the “Pineapple Building” on North Terrace, in downtown, Adelaide. The pineapple building is actually called the “South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute,” and is one of the buildings that our dear mission president, President Leo Gomez, designed with his architectural team. WOW! What a jaw dropping, cutting edge, innovative, unique, iconic stunning building! The windows on the outside of the SAHMRI Building is extraordinary! LOVED that building and we really wished we could have gone inside! I REALLY hope we get to Adelaide again and if so, going inside the “Pineapple” building will be a must! Once I saw his building, I couldn’t wait to take a picture of us by it and text it to President Gomez and tell him, WOW, his building is truly incredible! Really, I am blown away impressed!
I want to say a little bit more about how impressive the SAHMRI Building is…in case you are curious. On the Internet it has this write up about the SAHMRI Building:
SAHMRI stands for South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and its building on North Terrace is not designed to blend into the Adelaide skyline – it’s a floating object. The 25,000 square metre building is lifted, creating a partially open ground plane in an integrated landscape. The facility is located adjacent to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, sharing its forecourt entry.
The institute will conduct collaborative interdisciplinary research with South Australia’s three universities and the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, and is the first stage of a new health and bio-medical precinct. A second SAHMRI research building (already proposed) and two multi-storey medical research and training facilities owned by the University of South Australia and Adelaide University will create “the largest health and biomedical research precinct in the southern hemisphere.” It promises to be one of the most amazing research and innovation communities in Australia.
The building shows strength of character and makes the most out of its exposed North Terrace location. It has an envelope of diamond-shaped façade elements wrapped around its exterior. The triangulated dia-grid facade covers the entire surface and responds to sunlight, heat load, glare and wind, while maintaining views and daylight. The first impression is that the building’s structure and number of storys are hard to discern and the overall grid pattern looks like a perverse decorative exaggeration of an abstract geometry used by 1920s utopian Russian architects (the famous Melnikov house comes to mind). Who knew that disco bling could be an ideal motif for a twenty-first-century research facility?
After Duane and I got our pictures outside of the SAHMRI Building, the four of us drove over to the Adelaide Botanical Park so the Sundberg’s could show us the incredible giant bat phenomenon. There are thousands of giant bats that live in several of the trees in the botanical park.
We pulled into the park, drove around until we could see hundreds up in one tree close to the road. Some were hanging upside down and some were flying around. It was quite the sight! The bats were black and were as large as seagulls! We stood and watched them for several minutes. Duane and I have never seen anything like these giant bats. There were thousands of them! Amazing!
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Gorge Wildlife Park, which is up through the mountains outside of Adelaide. It was the perfect way to wrap up our visit to Adelaide! We had day tickets, and we also had a reservation at 2:30 pm to go to the Koala area and cuddle with koalas. The Gorge Wildlife Park was very nice and we had a fun, relaxing time walking around for four and a half hours.
Holding the koalas was pretty much the cherry on top of this day! We decided to get to the koala holding area early…about 50 minutes early…and it was a good thing we did. It got very crowded with people. Hugging a koala has been on my bucket list ever since we received our mission call to Australia. And from what I have heard, the number of places where you can hold a koala are limited, and I feel so, so fortunate to have had the opportunity to snuggle a koala here.
Right at 2:30 pm, they brought out two koalas…a girl named “Juliette” and a boy named “Bert.”
It was really a LOT of fun holding Juliette…her fur was just about butter soft. As we held her, the park rangers kept giving Juliette handfuls of gum tree leaves. She inhaled the leaves…sucking them into her mouth and reaching for more. Sooo, sooo cute! I asked a few questions, and one was how big baby koalas are when they are born and the park ranger told me that baby koalas are about the size of a jellybean when they are born. I was shocked! I had no idea they were so tiny when they are newborns! Wow!
We got to see many native animals in beautiful surroundings…sharing their landscape with the many visitors. But hands down, the best part was cuddling with a koala! Like I have already mentioned, Duane and I got to hold Juliette, and we got to hold her for several minutes each. Loved, LOVED my Juliette cuddle! We came back about half an hour later and the line of people was gone but they still had the koalas out for a few more minutes. This time we got meet Bert.
Through the day we got to pet and feed many kangaroos, including albino kangaroos! We had never seen white kangaroos before! The park also had camels that we fed.
We walked past dingo’s that were sleeping all around an old, rusted out VW Volkswagen prop in their fenced area. Later when we were over by the kangaroos, it was feeding time and all of a sudden you could hear the dingo’s making a screeching / screaming sound that was heard all over the park. I guess they were howling for their food. If you didn’t know it was feeding time, their sound would have been rather unnerving!
Here is what the Internet says about the Gorge Wildlife park:
The Gorge Wildlife Park opened in 1965 and is still operated by the same family. Situated on 14 acres of land, under shaded trees, paths meander among one of the largest privately owned collection of Australian and exotic animals, birds and reptiles in the country. The park offers you an up close and personal experience with wildlife.
See all your favourite Australian animals such as Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, Dingos, Echidnas and more. Walk amongst and feed the Kangaroos and Wallabies and enjoy a cuddle with one of our Koalas. Have a cuddly encounter with one of our beautiful koalas daily at 11.30 am and 2.30 pm. At these times you can hold or pat our koalas, take your own photographs or just learn about these fascinating marsupials from our friendly keepers.
By 4:30 pm we were getting hungry, since we hadn’t eaten much since our breakfast bagels. As we left the wildlife park, we stopped in the gift shop and I purchased koala fridge magnet. What great memories we made today at the Gorge Wildlife Park! Cuddling a koala was really special! We really did have a wonderful time and I did think several times, “Oh, I wish my family and friends were here sharing this very fun adventure with me!” Truly, a wonderful time!
We decided to eat at an Italian place called, “Café Va Bene.” We made a good choice because it was excellent homemade Italian food! I got their homemade lasagne and oh my! I wanted to lick the plate clean!
It was almost 5:00 pm when we got back to the Sundberg’s flat. They live right next to the mission office and on the other side of the mission office is the mission home. I told Duane, Gail and Will (Sundbergs) that I wanted to quickly go over to the mission home and say goodbye to the Standley’s, since the next morning we were flying back home to Brisbane.
The Standley’s had a house full of people and were just getting ready to eat. They were again so friendly and happy to see us…lots of hugs. They invited us to stay and eat with all of them; we thanked them but told them we had just finished an Italian dinner. We got picture with them, told them how much we loved being with them and spending a little time together. We also told them we hope to come and see them again sometime soon! I really love Sister Standley…she is very sweet with a great smile and loves to laugh. I told Sister Standley I couldn’t wait to see her again in November when we all go to the Mission Leadership Training Seminar in Sydney.
On Thursday, August 21, we had to be up and ready early and we checked out of our hotel by 6:15 a.m. We turned our rental car back in and were making our way to the baggage check in counter by 7:15 am. We arranged for Elder Brady and Elder West to be at the airport by around 11:45 so they could pick us up in our car. They told us they really appreciated that we let them use our car for the week.
WE LOVED Adelaide and the amazing experiences we had there! I have written about the highlights of our trip, but Elder Nelson and I also worked a lot while we were there with Zoom meetings, missionary recommendation reviews, visiting a hospital and talking with the administrator, answering emails, phone calls and texts from most of the seven missions we serve. Thinking back on our week, it was wonderful! Holding and feeding Bindi during sacrament meeting was a once in a lifetime experience! Seal Bay and of course, Juliette and Bert were the sweetest experiences ever!
We can’t thank our Heavenly Father enough for the amazing experiences He is giving to us during our missionary service.
We truly feel so humbled and grateful we are serving in Australia, helping medically for seven missions and being able to share our cemented love for our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atoning sacrifice…and to experience joy along the way!
Australia Brisbane Mission - May 2025-November 2026 