Final day here in NZ

Once again we just took the day as it came and relaxed around.......Popped down to the local shopping centre of Henderson.
As luck would have it Henderson Shopping Centre was providing a story telling time (to promote a new cuddly teddy bear)
Mana wasn't too intrested in the bear but she loved the story......thats her in the pink.

That night we went to our FAVOURITE Thai place "Golden Silk" in Kumeu for dinner.

We were once again treated to a smorgastboard of culinary delights.

We must have taken half a dozen photo's and Mana just wouldn't keep still and smile.....so I had to resort to holding her still......silly monster loved the whole thing and produced some of the best smiles.

Good food,family and lots of smiles and laughter all makes for a very enjoyable night.

2nd to last day

So as this was Mum and Dad's last FULL day here in New Zealand so we decided to just stick around the local area and headed out West to Muriwai beach to check out the Gannet Colony......she was pretty wild out there today,with 6-8 ft SW swell smashing the beach........althought once we were out of that bitterly cold howling Southerly and in the sun it was actually quit pleasant out there.

Keiko thought we would give the local Korean owned Yaki Niku a try and Im happy to say it didnt dissapoint........how can you go wrong with Fire,Meat and Beer????


Gotta apoligise for my genral "slackness" in getting this up,but I have been SO flat out at work I haven't had any free time to sit down in front of the computer.

Taupo day

Today is our last day in the "Stinky City" and as we wandered down for breakfast past all the Cafe's with the breakfast aroma of coffee and pastry's mixing in with the sulphur,it kinda puts you in the mood for some......eggs.

Called into one of our favourite Cafe's in Rotorua.
"Relish Cafe" 1149 Tutanekai St 07-343 9195
Mum had Fruit toast, Dad and I had the Bacon and Eggs on toast, and that left.... Pancakes (Yes Keiko decided that a treat was in order......little it was not.......as the staff brought it out I could have sworn that I heared the sound of reversing horn from the fork hoist....BIG pancakes!!!

After all of that we headed South to Lake Taupo (Taupo nui a tia)

OK Te reo time,to pronounce Taupo correctly start with holding/pointing to your big toe..."Toe" say it,"Toe".... Next what is the foot part of a cat called?...."Paw"....OK put the two together Toe-Paw,Toe Paw....ToePaw.....Ka pai!!.

We stopped off at Waiotapu and Kerosene Creek to have a look and the brochure says...."over thousands of years, volcanic action has created a landscape of simmering craters, boiling hot water, fumaroles and steam vents....pretty impressive stuff that's the scientific explanation ...... Translation.....MUD going "plop,plop,plop".

Reaching The Huka Falls where 220,000 something litres of water goes thundering over the cliff face per second !

After this point (depends who you talk too) the river then becomes the Waikato River.

Stopped for a look see at Wairakei Geothermal power station and field.

Then called into the famous Taupo Bungy..... Actually I did a jump when K and I just started seeing each other.........so I guess you could say it all started from here.

I tried my best to talk Mum or Dad into taking the plunge but no luck.....come on what says "I love you" more than hurling yourself off "The Plank" 43 metres above the Waikato River??

I really like Taupo its right on the edge of the lake and on a clear day you get views right across to the snow-capped volcanoes of Tongariro National Park (or for those LOTR's nutters....Mt Doom)
She's a pretty big lake at 616 square kilometres it's about the same size as Singapore!

Shopped around in the main st area and just had a bit of a relax Mana found a "Buzzy Bee" ride and "insisted" that she should to ride it......and besides it was painted with bright colours.After all that we dove back to Rotorua and jumped on the bus back to Auckland.

Birthday Mitai

.........after we came back from the lake and dumping our gear off we went to a place called Mitai. www.mitai.co.nz loacated at the famous Fairy/Rainbow Springs.......the doorway to the spirit world,well thats what there web site says.
Mitai is a Maori Family and they are all descendents of the local tribe of Te Arawa here in Rotorua.

Probably "THE" best Hangi and concert EVER I have been to in Rotorua (Can never be better than a whanau one down home)
The staff are awesome and we were once again treated like Rock Stars........and so were the other 115 people there that night.

ABS-SO-LUTLEY stunning as we were lead down to the srpings and Im not talking grand mountains and valleys,just the simple natural things,like looking thru the ferns and seeing water gently flowing over rocks.......well we waited..........and waited,then came the questioining glances of "What are we waiting for?"...........then abit of a whisper,a shout followed by the rythmic chant as aWAKA paddled up the stream (Very,very cool) as we followed everyone up to the concert site the last song of the Tui and the whole atmosphere of the surounding bush....... was in a word very cool. The performance was soooo diffrent from the "HOTEL" type concerts set in a kinda marquee with the performers out in the actual bush.

Heaps of youthful enthusiasm,quite young preformers and when we saw them later you could see the "kid" in them,but during the concert........very cool.
Sorry no photo's of the concert as it was too dark.guess you'll just have to go and see for yourself.

Mana sat on my knee the whole time quietly and watched with eyes wide and abit of nervous excitment.

She was constantly ducking and diving trying to see what was going on (was very happy to see her intrested in her culture,although she doesn't realise it yet) then she asked "Where do the Maori people live???"Meaning do the Maori people live in the bush......Ummm a long time ago...no thats right but not what she wants to know....ummm here.....well not here here but in this area...ummm everywhere....and now over to you Mum.

When it came to eating she proved that there was some Maori blood pumping thru her and she "munched " away quite happily.

So the general feeling was that it was well worth it Mum and Dad found it really intresting and Keiko said to me this was the first time she has had a hangi and concert in Rotorua that she really enjoyed and as I scoffed down the second (or was it third) helping of Kumera,Chicken.Pototoe's,Pumpkin,Stuffing and HEAPS of gravy I had to agree.....

Birthday continued......

We were going to walk down to the jetty but Rich insisted that he give us a lift down on the golf cart so we could board our 7mtr pontoon boat for the 20 minute cruise across the Lake to a very secret spot (lets just call it "Spot X")
Now some of you out there may have had second thoughts of getting on a boat with me at the helm ,knowing what Im like as a driver let alone captaining a boat but I think I did rather well.....At the start of the day I was abit worried about the weather,althought Im OK with a bit of a wave I wasn't too sure how the rest of the "whanau" would cope.........but Im happy to report that the trip over was pretty much perfect.
Mum and Dad were abit on the "What the?" as each took there turn at driving/sailing and they would ask which direction and I would responed by waving my hand in some non existance direction and say "keep going over that way"
We arrived and I gently nudged into shore of said Spot "X" (Note how I did not "POWER" in like some people would haha) We then wandered a short distance between the Cabbage and Manuka trees (and abit of mud) to our own very private hotpool.
After we sat soaking in a crystal clear pebble bottomed hot pool with the sound of native birds and the constant "Kimochiiiii" and "Sugoi" I started to wonder........ "What are the poor people are doing???"

I had asked Solitare Lodge for a Birthday cake and Faye had wrapped it up with TLC had put it on board for us to have after the hotpool........ a chocolate cake so rich,so yummy and oh so not good for you.
This cake was so "chocolat-ly" that it caused the boat to list to one side.....

Ok to recap Lunch,cruise,hotpool and chocolate cake.......... once again "Hmm I wonder what the poor people are doing?"

While muching out on chocolate cake we gave Mum her presents and Mana gave her a card that she had drawn on complete with her name........and then ate some more cake.

On our way back I over heard Mum saying basically she never imagined that she would ever do something so special like this and was very,VERY happy.....







A HUGE thank you to Paul & Nicky from Clearwater charters for the pontoon http://www.clearwater.co.nz/ and a big congratulations too on your expectant new arrival.
Thanks to you guys this has been a Birthday Mum will never ever forget.....actually that goes for all of us.

Happy Birthday Obaachan........

Today was allllllllll about Mum!!!

We rose to a very chilly and cloudy day in good ole Roto-vegas,but as we braved the elements for the morning walk thru "The Government Gardens" to the cafe and sat down to munch on breakfast of tea,coffee,hot chocolate,bacon & egg baps and muffins.....and to my relief the weather really started to improve.


With Mana's car seat over my right shoulder and holding on to hand in the other we both walked the 10 minutes to pick up our rental car As we were walking Mana asked me what colour the car was going to be?? Turns out after we hired a rental while on holiday in Aussie "ALL" rentals (only for her) now have to be "RED" one's.....(lucky it was)

We drove the short 30 mins (in our RED car) past the postcard perfect Blue and Green Lakes to arrive at "Solitare lodge" on the edge of the stunning Lake Tarawera and with the sleeping giant of Mt Tarawera as the background it really does and will always take my breath away......a truly magnificent location.
We were greeted by Rich and shown thru to our seats outside on the deck area where Faye took over and made us feel like...........ROCK STARS......nothing seemed to be too much of a ask and there came a point were I felt alittle uncomfortable and guilty at being fussed over so much.
When I met up with Ervin our chef he had a knife in one hand and a fist full of freshly cut herbs in the other from the "Solitare Herb Garden" all ready for our lunch............and talk about the lunch..........Boy where do I start?
OK .............The soup was a Green shell Mussel chowder with a touch of curry with fresh herbs...Umm YUM!

I had the Blackened Cervena cutlets on Northland Kumara Hash and Beetroot leaves drizzled with Flamed Madeira with fresh herbs...Umm YUM!

Mana had the Garden leaves tossed in Aged Balsamic syrup,served with slices of Smoked Chicken supreme garnished with grilled Parmeasan.....pretty fancy for a 3 year old and topped with fresh herbs.Mum,Dad and Keiko all went for the Pan sheared Black Tiger Prawns and Nelson Scallops with fried Capers and caramelised lemon on a bed of Citrus Jasmine rice and shitake.....can you blame them??Must of been the fresh herbs.............Um YUM also and for desert a Homemade Strawberry Sorbet with Champagne berry coulis and completed with a fresh herb garnish.....bro......Kau mau te wehi!!!!
All washed down with a selection of juices and a 2004 Marlbrough Chardonnay

BIG thanks go to Rich,Faye,Ervin and Callum for there hospitality www.solitarelodge.com

Rotorua here we come.....again

Met up at my work and jumped on Scenic's double decker bus www.scenictours.co.nz for our drive down to Rotoua via Waitomo and included Agrodome,Rainbow Springs and Te Puia (formly Te Whakarewarewa) finally arriving at at our accommodation for the next 2 nights the "Millennium Hotel" Rotorua.

http://www.millenniumhotels.com/
As we finished checking in and were making our way to our rooms Mana got a look at the pool and she knew (we knew too) what was she had on her mind and after "dumping" our gear off she dragged me off to spend the next 30 minutes splashing about in the thermally heated pool.(Not that I was complaining)
We cleaned up and took a stroll down to "Yamoto" Japanese restaurant 1123 Pukuatua St Rotorua.....domo arigatoo oishikata desu Zenji san.Can totally recommend the Sashimi and while your there dont forget to check out his wall of famous people (he's getting quite a nice collection going) anyway after a VERY substantial meal........we waddled back to our Hotel stopping along the way at "Koha" for a wee bit of shopping http://www.souvenirs.co.nz/ ,once again big thank you Anna for looking after us the "Koha Beauty" cream is working on us as we speak......

Obaachan and Ojiichan

Well the build up to there arrival was....lets just say "INTENSE" Mana was "Tomorrow we are going to get Obaachan and Ojiichan from the Airport"......tomorrow morning arrives and its "Can we go now?".........5 minutes later "Can we go now?........Lets go,I think we should go now"...... all day long and with K's parents due in later that afternoon it made for a VERY,very long day.
Finally we picked them up and within 10 minutes of arriving at the Waiariki Whare this was the scene......K's happy,her parents are happy and
the one who rules the house is VERY HAPPY .

And after a 10 hour flight plus transfers in transit and a time zone change I think they both did extremly well to last this long.......