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church then kez and i spent nearly 5 hours at a swimming competition.  i also bought some running shoes.  although i’ll only be walking

jane did loads of school work and esther did a 1,000 point dot to dot

wild winds over night so kezia slept in our cupboard. jane and kezia were up early to take kez to swimming and they didn’t blow away despite the continued strong winds

i picked up esther from her sleep over then the girls and i went over to browns bay to pick up jane’s contact lenses and get some passport photos done.

this afternoon the girls went to the theatre to see Wicked whilst i filled in passport forms and did paperwork. then this evening i went for a long walk to see if it’s sensible for me to attempt the half marathon.  If you aren’t quick enough they close the road and you can’t get over the harbour bridge.  i think i should be ok.  although i might need some proper shoes

huka prawn park to catch us some prawn

we had a tour backstage of the park to see how they grow them in the geothermally warmed water

they are weird things

after the tour we did some fishing.

only jane managed to catch one despite us sitting there for hours with our little sticks

then jane cooked and ate hers

having had her appetite whetted we headed in to the restaurant for her to eat more

i had chips

after the prawns we went back to the falls and stood in the correct place to watch the dam open and the water come whooshing down

before the water came (above)

 

we did go back to the prawns but were a bit late for fishing.  on the way home we stopped at a glass blowing place and a bee place

here’s jane’s prawn

some wild weather going on today

jane had another teacher training day so i worked from home again

kezia did her homework then went swimming with a friend, then went for her swimming lesson

esther did her homework and then this evening has gone to a sleep over party

we had fish and chips for tea and watched a documentary on NZ national parks

and it’s very windy out.

i got up early and went for a walk as everyone else was asleep.  my walk turned in to a big  hike out to huka falls

here’s some of the holiday house

the lake was steaming from hot springs at various locations

i walked in to taupo town to take pictures of some of the graffiti

and some of our friendly mannequins

there was a fly through mcdonalds

i phoned home to see how everyone was and esther was still asleep and kezia/jane were reading on the deck so i carried on walking to huka falls along the might waikato river

 

i went through the spa park on the way which has a hot water waterfall where people have a dip.  i didn’t

jane picked me up when i got to the huka falls as by then it was midday!

in the afternoon kezia and i went to find the rapids which appear only for a short time each day, but we got the wrong location so it was only mildly impressive

then we visited the craters of the moon which is a local park which sprung lots of hot steaming things when they built the local geothermal power startion

esther enjoyed her day at home doing more recovering from the flu

so we went to some hot pools in the evening

and there was another nice sunset

the weather looked calm on wednesday so we went out on a sail boat to see the maori carvings

it was cold on the boat, but a combination of warm clothes, blankets and luxury bean bags made things ok

there wasn’t enough wind to actually sail, so we pootled along on an electric motor instead

the skipper said he put the electric motor in so he could sail along silently and people wouldn’t be put off by the sound of a diesel engine

he told us that then proceeded to spend much of the three hour trip on the phone taking bookings for later trips and arranging deals with tour operators!

the maori carvings were good, but were put up in the 1980s so weren’t that old

there were only 10 of us on the boat including the owner so it was all very nice and relaxed

kezia volunteered to drive the boat on the way back.

and ended up driving for about an hour!

we then grabbed some lunch

before driving over to the huka falls which are impressive in a horizontal falls kind of way

then it was back home for some jigsawing

jane had a teacher training day so i worked from home

the girls did homework all day

esther signed up to facebook

and this evening jane went shopping with the girls and kezia went swimming

no photos.  sorry

sorry, lots of pictures for this one …

tuesday looked the best day weatherwise so we headed out of town towards the three giant volcanoes on the horizon

our plan was to go up to the ski area for a look around

then head back down to the chateau for afternoon tea

but timing meant we arrived at the chateau around lunchtime so sat in the warmth eating chips and looking out the amazing picture view windows

the volcano range is still active.

this is mount ngaruruhoe. it’s one of the three active volcanoes. it erupted 25 times in the 20th century, most recently in 1977 so it’s over due another blow

after lunch we got our sightseers tickets for the lift and headed up two chair lifts to a cafe somewhere up mount ruapehu (last erupted 2007, warnings last year that it might blow again as the crater lake showed pressure was building underneath)

this was probably the last week of the ski season so the mountain was starting to get a bit bare.

but esther bumped in to a couple of school friends and the mum took our picture

then we sat and admired the view and enjoyed the sun

kezia built a snow duck

then it was time to head back down

on the way back to taupo we drove a slightly different way so saw mount tongariro (last erupted november last year following a bigger eruption a couple of months earlier!)

there are still plumes of smoke coming out of it, which we could see from our holiday house when the cloud cleared.

these photos are across a lake nearby

and the photo below is from the deck of the holiday house

and there was another nice sunset

thankfully we didn’t have to follow the volcano evacuation instructions

it was a great day out, but poor esther was exhausted by the end of it!

i moved desk today with all the lawyers back over to where we started 3 years ago when we first moved to the new building!  we had to move all our own boxes and cupboards which made for a fun day between meetings.

esther had a friend over today and the two of them practiced some tunes on trumpet and trombone with a view to doing some busking at some point.

jane went to the hair dressers and i went to camera club.  kezia cooked dinner.  nothing went on fire.

hi guys.

its esther.

today we walked pearl at the beach with Kezia’s swimming coach and her dog who looks just like pearl. it was good fun.

then kezia and jane went to a friends house and i went to the mall with some friends.

now kezia is at swimming.

by esther