Hey our friends of 25 years from Layton came to visit us in New Zealand! We have been so excited. Bob had the vacation time so we planned a really great trip for them and us. We picked them up on Mon. the 7th of April at 6 am at the Auckland airport. We went straight to one tree hill for the sunrise over Auckland. We then drove down to show them the NZ Temple in Hamilton, then on to Rotorua. There we went to the "Living Village" where we ate a hangi (traditional Maori pit cooking over the natural thermal pits). We had a tour of their village and we watched their cultural performance were they did all their Maori traditional songs, dance and of course the huka. Then we were off to find our accommodations. It is very common for people to rent out vacation homes called a bach in NZ. Bob found a really nice one near Lake Rotoiti. We drove up to find a note and the most wonderful setting. Right on the beautiful lake. Lovely gardens, private spa, kayaks and dinghy. After Leigh and Ruth paddled back from their sunset on the lake Leigh said, "Could we just spend the whole vacation here?" Instead of going back for dinner we pulled out the rice crackers, flavored sweet Thai chili tuna and avocados. The Huggins got a good nights sleep after their long flight and day. And Bob and I are so so happy to have them here.
The next morning after Ruth and I had a walk in our New Zealand country side we had a little breakfast and took off for the Agrodome for the Sheep and Wool shows and exhibits. (Hey we are in New Zealand you know.) We learned that Ruth had great cow milking abilities even in front of over a hundred people. On the southwest end of Rotorua we found the Redwood Forest. We took the hour walk through them. This is what we all enjoyed most in the area. We ate a huge sandwich at the Fat Dog in town then drove north to the Peninsula. Bob only caused my blood pressure to elevate seriously once. He passed a car when another one was coming. Of course Leigh was way impressed and gave Bob a high five. (Shouldn't encourage him should we?) We stopped in a little town that had a lovely quilting and fabric store. After dragging Ruth out we continued up to hot water beach. We arrived at the beach just before dusk. It was high tide. We walked down a ways and planned our strategy for the early morning hours. Found our bach in Cook's beach. Most importantly after finding the torch (flashlight) we found the key under the house. Had a good dinner and went to bed. Our first alarm went off at 1 am. That was not planned. We did get up at 2 am and made our way back to hot water beach with our bucket and spade (shovel). Our purpose was to dig our own personal hot tub by finding the thermal water coming up through the beach at low tide. We got our toes and heals busy. We found 6 to 12 great sources of very hot water. It would scald your toes if you left them there. The problem we had was every 4th wave was a huge surge and would cover your spot. Come to find out there was a storm out at sea that was creating the surges. After a fun hour in the moonlight searching with our feet we did give up and went back to the bach and to bed again. It was a good memory though. In the morning we took off to get back to our flat in Takapuna. Stopped at the Pokenos for lunch and their famous ice cream. It was a beautiful drive around the peninsula.
Thurs April 10th we got out the door by 4:15 am and arrived north in Tutukaka by 8 am. Huggins had a dive day at the famous Poor Knights Marine Reserve. Bob and I had a "brilliant" day ourselves. We found a sweet beach to eat breakfast on. Then took off on a loop trail at Matapouri. We successful made a 45 min loop/return walking track into a 4 hour walk. We loved Whale Bay, Pebbly Bay and the other unnamed sites. Went down to most of the beaches and found a hole in the rock to Mermaid Pool. It was a really great day. We picked up Huggins and went to our Backpackers/KOA like accommodations. It was really pretty nice and very quiet for our full nights sleep. We all woke up in the morning and took walks and on the road to Kawiti Glow worm caves. We just walked around without going in. Then to Kawakawa to the famous Hundertwasser's Toilets. He is a famous architect that is such a great artist. We really enjoyed that little town. Ice Cream in hand we headed off to hwy 12. We stopped at the Hokianga Bay area. Took a scenic walk to view the Tasman Sea coast. Then down to the Kauri (Waipoua)Forest. These are really old and really big trees. Tane Mahuta (God of the Forest) has a girth of 13.3 meters (39 feet), 51 meters tall (150 ft). Tematua Ngahere (Father of the Forest) is about 2000 years old. It is now illegal to cut them down so they find them in swamps and make beautiful things out of them. Many of them are 50,000 years old from the swamps. We have a bunch of pictures on the link to the right. This was a good day but oh, such a long day of driving. It was about 10 hours for Bob. There are beautiful green hills and countryside everywhere. Leigh is wondering if people live in New Zealand. (We won't take him to Auckland for a while yet) We got home and were happy to find our pillows. The next day was Saturday. We got up to low tide so we went on a walk from Takapuna beach south. There are wonderful tall rock walls. It is all Lava from Rangitoto which is the volcano to the east of the beach. At low tide it makes a wonderful walk. We found ourselves eating lunch at Genghis Khan, a Mongolian BBQ. Then we set off to see the Victorian village of Devenport. There are two volcanic cones that Bob and I really enjoy. The tallest is Mt. Victoria. Bob's favorite is North Head. They have both been military defense sites for both the first and second World War. We brought our torches (flashlights) and wandered around in the tunnels. They leave them open for people to do just that. We came home and watched a session of conference on our computer together. We will miss church in the mortuary in Queenstown tomorrow because of flight times.
April 13th we went to the airport for our flight to Queenstown on the South Island. The visibility was wonderful once we got on the south island. The right of the plane was so green and the left of the plane was so brown. Very massive and steep mountains everywhere. This is fall and we saw many many glaciers on tops of mountains. Bob and Leigh thought the airport was so cool as the planes had to circle and come in between mountains to land. Leigh being a pilot was particularly intrigued. We found our rental car and YHA accommodations and then took off for Arrowtown. We ate our lunch by the side of one of the world's best gold panning rivers. We heard bagpipes so took off to find them. They were in the town square doing a concert. We enjoyed that a lot. Much of the south island has Scottish influence because of the early settlers. Dunedin even has a castle there. Being fall the town was full of color. Beautiful fall leaves everywhere. Took off to see the lake and town of Wanaka to the north. Very windy roads. Lots of deer and lots of sheep. It was quite a long drive. The locals go to Wanaka for holiday. Back to the YHA. It is a Thai New Years holiday so many many Thais were there. It was fun to see their traditional food they cook in the kitchen. The next morning we walked over to our jet boat excursion. It was so fun. Bob and Leigh were really getting wet. Ruth and I laughed and laughed. Jet Boats can run in 10 cm of water, are high speed, are very maneuverable and can do 360 spins on a dime. We then went back to Arrowtown to do some shopped that we didn't want to do on Sunday. We drove east and found the original bungy jump over the gorge of the Kawarau River. We watched 3 people drop off the old bridge. That was fun just watching them. Then to the cheese factory down the road for a lunch of cheese and crackers. We then drove back toward Queenstown and went to Glenarchy. This is where the scenery really started to change. Taller, greener, steeper mountains. More glaciers on the tops of them. We went all the way to the Routeburn Track. There was a 1 hour nature loop walk at the end of it. Two or Three swinging bridges. It was very mossy and tropical feeling. Actually it is more like the very top of the north island except the vegetation is probably different. We were getting done at dusk and drove home in the dark. Dropped the rental car off and walked back. It was kind of an uncomfortable night with noisy neighbors but all in all it was good.
After waking up on Tuesday morning we met our bullet bus in front of our YHA to take us to the Milford Sound. The bus was so cool. It was mostly all windows and the guys could even stand up in it. Windows even on the ceiling. It was slanted up so the back seats could see very well also. Our bus driver/tour guide, Gavin kept us both entertained and informed on the 5 hour journey to Milford. We made stops for walks, lunch, pictures, loo breaks and a very cool steam engine train ride. The Kingston flyer. We loved that. We reached the sound at 4 pm and boarded our ship, the Wanderer. There were 50 people on board. We got on board and the captain gave us a small presentation on safety etc. We headed out into the sound which is really a fjord because it was carved by an ancient glacier and not by running water. Its hard to describe. Very steep mountains (4000 ft) that dive right down into the water. The boat set anchor in Harrison cove and Miriam and 25 other guests hopped in their kayaks and went for a little cruise of the sound. The rest of the guests went in a small power boat for a little nature ride along the steep banks of the sound. We saw gorgeous waterfalls, ate great food, met wonderful people, shared a small birth (9 feet wide by 6.5 ft long) with 4 people, showers with people of the opposite sex (what goes on in New Zealand-stays in New Zealand), and had just a great time. We settled down for a good night and in the morning woke to a great breakfast, raised anchor and sailed out to the Tasman sea. Following that adventure we headed for the wharf. On our way in we were joined by a pod of dolphins that wanted to ride our bow wake. That was an incredible site. At times you could see four or five dolphins jumping and surfing the wake of our boat. They were having a great time. Off the boat, back on the bus, dropped off at the airport and home again, home again, jiggity jig. Special thanks to the Huggins on joining us on what we considered a vacation of a lifetime. Enjoy the pictures (they will be up in a few days yet)
The next morning after Ruth and I had a walk in our New Zealand country side we had a little breakfast and took off for the Agrodome for the Sheep and Wool shows and exhibits. (Hey we are in New Zealand you know.) We learned that Ruth had great cow milking abilities even in front of over a hundred people. On the southwest end of Rotorua we found the Redwood Forest. We took the hour walk through them. This is what we all enjoyed most in the area. We ate a huge sandwich at the Fat Dog in town then drove north to the Peninsula. Bob only caused my blood pressure to elevate seriously once. He passed a car when another one was coming. Of course Leigh was way impressed and gave Bob a high five. (Shouldn't encourage him should we?) We stopped in a little town that had a lovely quilting and fabric store. After dragging Ruth out we continued up to hot water beach. We arrived at the beach just before dusk. It was high tide. We walked down a ways and planned our strategy for the early morning hours. Found our bach in Cook's beach. Most importantly after finding the torch (flashlight) we found the key under the house. Had a good dinner and went to bed. Our first alarm went off at 1 am. That was not planned. We did get up at 2 am and made our way back to hot water beach with our bucket and spade (shovel). Our purpose was to dig our own personal hot tub by finding the thermal water coming up through the beach at low tide. We got our toes and heals busy. We found 6 to 12 great sources of very hot water. It would scald your toes if you left them there. The problem we had was every 4th wave was a huge surge and would cover your spot. Come to find out there was a storm out at sea that was creating the surges. After a fun hour in the moonlight searching with our feet we did give up and went back to the bach and to bed again. It was a good memory though. In the morning we took off to get back to our flat in Takapuna. Stopped at the Pokenos for lunch and their famous ice cream. It was a beautiful drive around the peninsula.
Thurs April 10th we got out the door by 4:15 am and arrived north in Tutukaka by 8 am. Huggins had a dive day at the famous Poor Knights Marine Reserve. Bob and I had a "brilliant" day ourselves. We found a sweet beach to eat breakfast on. Then took off on a loop trail at Matapouri. We successful made a 45 min loop/return walking track into a 4 hour walk. We loved Whale Bay, Pebbly Bay and the other unnamed sites. Went down to most of the beaches and found a hole in the rock to Mermaid Pool. It was a really great day. We picked up Huggins and went to our Backpackers/KOA like accommodations. It was really pretty nice and very quiet for our full nights sleep. We all woke up in the morning and took walks and on the road to Kawiti Glow worm caves. We just walked around without going in. Then to Kawakawa to the famous Hundertwasser's Toilets. He is a famous architect that is such a great artist. We really enjoyed that little town. Ice Cream in hand we headed off to hwy 12. We stopped at the Hokianga Bay area. Took a scenic walk to view the Tasman Sea coast. Then down to the Kauri (Waipoua)Forest. These are really old and really big trees. Tane Mahuta (God of the Forest) has a girth of 13.3 meters (39 feet), 51 meters tall (150 ft). Tematua Ngahere (Father of the Forest) is about 2000 years old. It is now illegal to cut them down so they find them in swamps and make beautiful things out of them. Many of them are 50,000 years old from the swamps. We have a bunch of pictures on the link to the right. This was a good day but oh, such a long day of driving. It was about 10 hours for Bob. There are beautiful green hills and countryside everywhere. Leigh is wondering if people live in New Zealand. (We won't take him to Auckland for a while yet) We got home and were happy to find our pillows. The next day was Saturday. We got up to low tide so we went on a walk from Takapuna beach south. There are wonderful tall rock walls. It is all Lava from Rangitoto which is the volcano to the east of the beach. At low tide it makes a wonderful walk. We found ourselves eating lunch at Genghis Khan, a Mongolian BBQ. Then we set off to see the Victorian village of Devenport. There are two volcanic cones that Bob and I really enjoy. The tallest is Mt. Victoria. Bob's favorite is North Head. They have both been military defense sites for both the first and second World War. We brought our torches (flashlights) and wandered around in the tunnels. They leave them open for people to do just that. We came home and watched a session of conference on our computer together. We will miss church in the mortuary in Queenstown tomorrow because of flight times.
April 13th we went to the airport for our flight to Queenstown on the South Island. The visibility was wonderful once we got on the south island. The right of the plane was so green and the left of the plane was so brown. Very massive and steep mountains everywhere. This is fall and we saw many many glaciers on tops of mountains. Bob and Leigh thought the airport was so cool as the planes had to circle and come in between mountains to land. Leigh being a pilot was particularly intrigued. We found our rental car and YHA accommodations and then took off for Arrowtown. We ate our lunch by the side of one of the world's best gold panning rivers. We heard bagpipes so took off to find them. They were in the town square doing a concert. We enjoyed that a lot. Much of the south island has Scottish influence because of the early settlers. Dunedin even has a castle there. Being fall the town was full of color. Beautiful fall leaves everywhere. Took off to see the lake and town of Wanaka to the north. Very windy roads. Lots of deer and lots of sheep. It was quite a long drive. The locals go to Wanaka for holiday. Back to the YHA. It is a Thai New Years holiday so many many Thais were there. It was fun to see their traditional food they cook in the kitchen. The next morning we walked over to our jet boat excursion. It was so fun. Bob and Leigh were really getting wet. Ruth and I laughed and laughed. Jet Boats can run in 10 cm of water, are high speed, are very maneuverable and can do 360 spins on a dime. We then went back to Arrowtown to do some shopped that we didn't want to do on Sunday. We drove east and found the original bungy jump over the gorge of the Kawarau River. We watched 3 people drop off the old bridge. That was fun just watching them. Then to the cheese factory down the road for a lunch of cheese and crackers. We then drove back toward Queenstown and went to Glenarchy. This is where the scenery really started to change. Taller, greener, steeper mountains. More glaciers on the tops of them. We went all the way to the Routeburn Track. There was a 1 hour nature loop walk at the end of it. Two or Three swinging bridges. It was very mossy and tropical feeling. Actually it is more like the very top of the north island except the vegetation is probably different. We were getting done at dusk and drove home in the dark. Dropped the rental car off and walked back. It was kind of an uncomfortable night with noisy neighbors but all in all it was good.
After waking up on Tuesday morning we met our bullet bus in front of our YHA to take us to the Milford Sound. The bus was so cool. It was mostly all windows and the guys could even stand up in it. Windows even on the ceiling. It was slanted up so the back seats could see very well also. Our bus driver/tour guide, Gavin kept us both entertained and informed on the 5 hour journey to Milford. We made stops for walks, lunch, pictures, loo breaks and a very cool steam engine train ride. The Kingston flyer. We loved that. We reached the sound at 4 pm and boarded our ship, the Wanderer. There were 50 people on board. We got on board and the captain gave us a small presentation on safety etc. We headed out into the sound which is really a fjord because it was carved by an ancient glacier and not by running water. Its hard to describe. Very steep mountains (4000 ft) that dive right down into the water. The boat set anchor in Harrison cove and Miriam and 25 other guests hopped in their kayaks and went for a little cruise of the sound. The rest of the guests went in a small power boat for a little nature ride along the steep banks of the sound. We saw gorgeous waterfalls, ate great food, met wonderful people, shared a small birth (9 feet wide by 6.5 ft long) with 4 people, showers with people of the opposite sex (what goes on in New Zealand-stays in New Zealand), and had just a great time. We settled down for a good night and in the morning woke to a great breakfast, raised anchor and sailed out to the Tasman sea. Following that adventure we headed for the wharf. On our way in we were joined by a pod of dolphins that wanted to ride our bow wake. That was an incredible site. At times you could see four or five dolphins jumping and surfing the wake of our boat. They were having a great time. Off the boat, back on the bus, dropped off at the airport and home again, home again, jiggity jig. Special thanks to the Huggins on joining us on what we considered a vacation of a lifetime. Enjoy the pictures (they will be up in a few days yet)
