Blog

jane went off early this morning to run to her friend Biffy’s house so they could go on a walk and then she could run back.  Then we drove to a little hippy town called Titirangi on the edge of the local rainforest for breakfast.  we went to a place called Takahe which is the name of a native NZ bird.  not sure whether that’s why they had an ‘early bird special’. 

We ordered our food which was very nice but took nearly an hour to arrive. no apologies or discount.  shame.

there was a little old anglican church in the town so we popped our head in.  i was intrigued by the lych gate thing which was almost bigger in size than the teeny church. standing underneath it turned out to be the bell tower.

 

anyway, after that we drove to the rain forest information centre thing which we went to when we visited for our scouting trip last year.  when we went then the whole place was surrounded by cloud and we didn’t see the view properly at all (in fact the first time we went in we didn’t even realise there was a view !).  Once we’re had our fill of leaflets and books we drove to a walk, but then i felt quite ill so we came home again.  very annoying for everyone.

so this afternoon i went to bed and jane took the girls swimming.

 

then this evening we went out for a meal at Biffy’s house (i still wasn’t feeling great, but well enough to go).  They’d invited another family who esther and kezia knew through school as the lady works in the school library. at about 9pm we decided to play a game of cranium which went quite well considering it was well past everyone’s bedtime

bed for me now as i’m on church sound tomorrow morning which means leaving here just after 6.30am.

toodle pip

after all the bubbling mud of our previous day we decided to do something more cultural and went to te puia – a local maori cultural place.

it was also another thermal place so we got to see more geysers and bubbling mud.  and it rained. a lot.  and was chilly

however we also saw a maori cultural presentation which was jolly good.  the girls went to sit at the front and ended up on stage learning to dance with spinning pom poms for a particular song.  there’s a few more pictures in the slide show below

we went on a little guided tour of the park with a guide who it turned out was talking a load of nonsense !  many of the things she said were contradicted by other tours we heard going round during the day, and very little of what any of them said fitted with what was on the information signs !

at one point we got to sit on this shelf which is a ‘hot seat’ due to the thermal activity underneath naturally warming the concrete steps.  i sat on it and must have chosen a very hot bit as i felt rather warm around the rump. i feared i’d been burnt, but i turned the other cheek and all was fine in the end.

the geysers at this park were more regular but sadly more steamy (on the rainy day we were there) so you couldn’t really make them out when they blew

the girls are getting more kiwi by the day so it was only natural they’d wander round in bare feet.  (compare this to the signs all over the place the day before saying jandals weren’t allowed)

the advantage for us of this foot arrangement was we got a running commentary on whether the footpath was hot or cold as we walked around the various thermal locations.  it was amazing how much of the pathway was really hot and we were missing out because we had our shoes on !

here’s a steaming forest  and we also saw a couple of live kiwis, one of which was running about really fast.  here’s a photo of a stuffed one:

as usual, here’s the tourist photos:

and the obligatory google map

View Larger Map

and as a special bonus, here’s a photo you can use as your desktop wallpaper on your pooter.  just click on it to get the big version, then right click on the picture and choose ‘set as desktop picture’ or something

Hi, today was an end of holidays getting ready for next term sort of day. Next term in 11 weeks long btw. So girls have smart new haircuts and Kezia has new trainers, which have laces. She seems to have mastered tying(sp?) them already. This afternoon we saw Nanny McPhee 2 with the gang. Part of it looked like it had been filmed in Hambledon to me.

Then finished the day with swimming lessons. Kezia has moved up a group and her new class will be at the same time as Esther’s. Brilliant.

i think day 4 was the most dramatic geo-wise as we went to the wai-o-tapu thermal wonderland – about 30 mins drive from where we were staying.

after finding ‘a park’ (ie parking space) and buying our tickets we had to get back in the car and drive 5 minutes back in the direction we’d come to watch the geyser go off.

lots of people were worried it wouldn’t go off at its daily 10.15am spot due to the hour change, but we needn’t have worried as it’s actually triggered by dropping soap down the blow hole !  (it’s actual frequency is between 24 and 36 hours so it’s not really cheating).

after that we went round the thermal wonderland place itself. if you can spare the time, sit through the slide show below.

there were plenty of signs saying stick to the pathway, although i can’t imagine anyone not doing that.  although at one point we did have to walk across an unpathwayed bit

it was totally amazing and you really feel the earth’s core is pretty thin.  and of course the visit to the buried town the day before showed just what could happen …

esther didn’t like the smell.  hydrogen sulphide is pretty disgusting.

after we’d done the tour and the gift shop and the cafe we went to a bubbly mud pool nearby which was free to watch and quite amazing.

and then we drove up a dirt track to kerosene creek which i’d been tipped off about by a friend from work. 

this is a hot water stream running through a creek and at one point in a little clearing there’s a waterfall making a natural swimming hole.  even i got changed in to my swimmers and went in.

one of the highlights of the day was standing in the steam from one of the biggest hot water pools.  there was a bit of a breeze so the steam was blowing in all directions and it felt like you were flying.

at one point the steam was so thick we couldn’t even see each other even though we were standing next to each other

 

here’s the slide show (i think you can click on the pictures themselves to open up the show bigger)

and here’s the obligatory google map

View Larger Map

These photos are actually from the real Wednesday. I arrived home last night to find Dave a quivering wreck having chased a cockroach round the bathroom for some considerable time.

 

 

Here it is trapped. Please don’t think we live in squalor, dear readers, we live next to the bush.

Today I bought the girls winter pyjamas and winter sheets.

Goodnight

 

after church we headed off to our first rotorua tourist destination – the buried village.  as the title suggests, it’s the site of a village that got buried by a massive volcano in 1886.

the museum was quite old school – ie lots of reading, but the girls enjoyed it.  it was a sobering introduction to the power of the strangeness brewing under ground round these parts.

after we’d been round the village we drove past the blue lake, then past the green lake to a non-colour specific named lake for a picnic.  there we ate doritos (now in new zealand) and ‘dorry dip’ before doing a geocache at a much better location for a picnic (we’ll know for next time)

then we drove back to the blue lake and hired a couple of 2 man kayaks and paddled about in the strange blueness.  I’ve still got the itchy mosquito bites from that little outing.

the girls then went swimming in the chilly lake whilst jane sat in our warm jackets and watched !

here’s some more pictures of the buried village and its environs and the lakes:

there’s so much we could tell you about each of these places, but we need to save something for when you come to visit …

View Larger Map

we went back in time on easter sunday which means we’re just 11 hours ahead of blighty rather than the previous 13 hours.  i think that might make skyping more tricky, but i’m sure we’ll work that out.

easter eggs are very expensive over here even for a small one.  the hollow chocolate affairs are referred to as ‘continental’ easter eggs.

anyway, after the easter bunny had been we trundled down to the local church for a nice easter service.  it was strange being in a church like Arborfield (where we used to go) with a hymns on the organ and a little music group with not an electric guitar in sight.  and there were some very elaborate easter bonnets being worn. 

View Larger Map

here’s kezia eating the easter bunny

i forgot to say that on the way through town the evening before we saw some steam rising from a local play park.  it turned out to be bubbly mud in the centre of rotorua.

someone had thrown a few cans of beer in to the heat, obviously in an attempt to make them explode.  a few had, but a few others like this one were obviously ready to blow, but hadn’t quite gone yet.  all exciting stuff !

View Larger Map

the girls had friends round. loads of them apparently at different times of the day.  esther is practicing a play she’s performing at her camp next week.  nothing exciting to report form me i’m afraid.

we spent much of day 2 at Te Puke, the kiwi capital of the New Zealand.

we learnt huge amounts of facts about kiwis and had a great time.

can you guess what’s going on here ?

 

here are the main set of photos

it also had a deserted abandoned play park which provided thoughts of scooby doo adventures

here’s the park and a few of the kiwi plants on google maps.  you can see the giant kiwi if you zoom in to towards the bottom left of this picture (near the car park)

View Larger Map

Hi folks, it’s Jane today. This afternoon the girls and I went  with Debbie and her girls Courtney and Laura to do a high ropes course. It is at the same place as the mountain biking.

 

We have bought a book of vouchers to use on stuff and were able to use a voucher today for a free child’s ticket. Very satisfying as it saved is $30.

There were 9 ropes courses to do. Number 9 was really high, so no-one did that. The 3 bigger girls did 1-8, but Kezia was only tall enough for 1-4. But the kind man on the desk said that Kezia could go round 1-4 again while the others were doing the harder courses. So Kezia did course number 4 about 10 times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos are by me today. Toodle pip