Our Days Are Almost Over.....

Sniff sniff.

Let me see, what have we been up to over the last few days?  We had a weekend filled with family get togethers.  Cousins who hadn't seen one another in many years on Saturday followed by a visit to "cousin Chris" and his place for a 'viewing' of his automobile museum.  That's all I can call it.  A close second to Jay Leno's collection, I'm sure.  He is a very successful dairy farmer.....very unassuming and very likeable.  Sunday we went to Sister Sue's place for lunch/dinner.  I went down to the chicken coop with Sue and was given an up-close-and-personal showing of feeding the "chooks".
Sunday afternoon we hung around in the a.m. and enjoyed visiting with T's mum, who is awesome.  Then in the afternoon T. and I went back out to cousin Chris' place where I had another up-close-and-personal showing of his cows being milked.  The photo is of me drinking warm milk straight from the cow.....absolutely delicious.  I know everyone doesn't love milk (cold, let alone warm) but I do.  Ymmmmm, delicious (photo attached).
Monday morning we headed off to Mount Maunganui ('nother one of those names).  About one and a half hours from Te Awamutu where we looked up the mother of a pal of T's who has died.  Took her out for dinner and had a great day.
Tomorrow is our last full day and we're thinking of driving down to Raglan (black sand beaches) which is an hour+ away from where we are in Te Awamutu. "Tomorrow" is now today, which is almost over and we did drive down to Raglan.  Was suggested we take one of the back roads.....holey moley, was it ever a back road!  But the speed limit is still between 80 and 100k --  some parts of which are gravel roads ('they' call them "metal roads").  Another photo attached of a parasailer we watched jump off the edge of a cliff this aft.
Have had a wonderful time and it's hard to believe it's almost over.  Had to work out logistics of how and who would be taking us to the airport tomorrow which we did tonight when three of T's sibs were here for dinner.  Thanks to Sister Sue for making that happen and getting us to the airport.
Long flight ahead of us tomorrow night -- non stop from Auckland to L.A., and then a short stop in San Fran and finally back into YVR at 10:20.  Thanks to Gavin and Shannon for picking us up at the other end.

Hope anybody who has been following our little holiday has enjoyed our travels and tales.

Over 'n out for now.


S&T

Back to Home Base

Just back to Jo's place (T's mum) after tootling around all week and have had a wonderful time.  Visited and stayed at a b&b at Hot Water Beach on Thursday.  Absolutely magnificent beach (photo attached I hope) and if you feel so inclined, you can head down to the beach around 4:30 in the a.m. and dig some holes and plunk yourself in the midst of a hot water pool.....needless to say we didn't do that.  Drove to Coromandel, for a second time, on Friday afternoon and we went bought tickets to go on a narrow-guage railway line through an incredibly beautiful forested area.  Small little train (sort of like the one that goes through Stanley Park at Christmas time).  The fellow who owns (and who built it) never intended for it to be a public attraction.  He was/is a potter (previous to that, was a school teacher) and he used it to transport his clay uphill.  Then the bank told him he must go public and earn some money so he could pay them back. That's a photo of  T & me on it (again, I hope).

Later that afternoon we headed down to a place called Whangamata (another one of those funny sounding places)  where we met up with T's sisters, brothers and mother.  Had so many good laughs.  I grow fonder of all his family each successive time I meet them.  So fun!  We stayed at the cottage (????/not quite) of one of T's cousins.  Five minute walk to the beach (ocean).  Just love the surf and we jumped the waves and body surfed three days in a row.  You wouldn't think it, but jumping and diving into the water uses quite a few muscles (not sure if they're called muscles) that you didn't even know you had.....a wee bit tender.

Still getting used to the many round-abouts and having to 'give way'.  Also getting used to the many one-way bridges, the thousands of black house flies -- and no one has a screen on their doors or windows (think I should go into the import business and sell sliding screens) and unusual traffic signs "Look twice for bikes". Unfortunately for me, am becoming a huge fan of Hokey Pokey ice cream (yummm).

Think we'll be heading up to T's sister's place tomorrow, north of Auckland, where we'll visit with them for a day or two and on Saturday there's another huge gathering of the clan (not just immediate family), which will include many cousins. 

Seems to be at least some rain every day but it always clears up, as it has done now, and it's beautifully sunny and hot again.

Will check in again in a few.  Cheers to all.

S&T

In Whitianga

Today it's Wednesday here (1:05pm).  We're 21 hours ahead of Vancouver.  Another warm -- but muggy day.  We arrived in Rotorura on Monday evening where we spent the night and toured around there yesterday.  The boiling mud pools are quite amazing.  Extremely smelly.  Sometimes when the winds are blowing in just the "right direction" the smell's not quite as bad.  Just like rotten eggs. 

We drove up to Whitianga yesterday afternoon stopping at neat little shops along the way.  One of T's pals offered us his cottage for last night and tonight.  It's definitely a cottage with a view.  Beautiful beaches below us.  Not sure where we'll be hanging our hats tomorrow night as the cottage has been rented out.  Friday we'll be heading south down to Whangamata where we'll be meeting up with all of T's family (his mum, his two sisters and his three brothers) for the weekend.  Will be "testing" some more NZ wines I'm sure.

Cost of everything is very dear, including local wines, which quite surprised me.

Hope our "followers" are enjoying our adventures as we go along.


Cheers,
S&T

Busy Day -- 4 x 4ing -- And More

We started our day quite early, leaving the house at 8:50.  A friend of Mark's (Tony's brother) arrived in his Land Rover and he and Mark lead the way, with us following in the Range Rover.  We drove for about 45 minutes through incredible farmland.  Mark's pal, Jeff, had been in touch with the owners of various farms as they were scouting for locations for an upcoming 4x4 event (fund raiser) the second week in March.  I wondered why we took two cars, and an hour or so into our trek, Tony filled me in as to why....the Range Rover that we were in wasn't able to make it up quite a steep incline.  Jeff hooked up the cinch from his car to ours and had to pull us up.  The scenery was breathtaking.  Attaching a photo of Jeff's car fiording the river, having to wend his way through the Friesen cattle all along.

At 1pm we met up with Sister Sue and T's mum and we had a lovely lunch at the "Irrestiblue Cafe".  A huge organic blueberry farm/cafe.  I started off with a vodka/blueberries/juice cocktail and finished off with a very nice Pinot Noir.

After lunch Sue and I headed off to Hamilton where we drove through a sweet little town called Chartwell and she gave me a tour and we ended up in the Chartwell Mall -- picked up a new Pandora charm for my bracelet and also a summer bag ... on sale of course as their summer stock is on sale now since their season is ending.  Looking forward to this week and doing much more exploring of unchartered territory.  G'night all.

Tomorrow I think we'll probably be heading up to Rotorua, spend the night there, and then continue north for another few days.

Off to Otorohanga Today

All these funny-sounding places.  Otorohanga is phoenetically pronounced as:  Otrahonga    These Kiwis are certainly an ilk unto their own.  Most of the place names are of Mauri descent.

So, that's where we ventured today.  It was recommended (by a pal of  Tony's) that we stop and have lunch at "The Big Apple" (not difficult to pronounce that).  Once is enough.  Then we did the touristy thing and browsed around Otorohanga.  Very hot....30.5+ temperatures.  Drove back to Te Awamutu via the scenic route (learning all about Jersey and Friesen cows and the differences).  I find it quite amazing that a two-lane road, quite windy has a maximum speed limit of 100k while the Lougheed Highway, which is a four lane highway near us at home, has a maximum speed limit of 80k.  On occasion I find myself becoming "quite anxious" because we're on the wrong side of the road!!  And then of course I realize it's just me who thinks we're on the wrong side.

Meeting up with Sister Sue and Brother Mark for drinks when they're finished work  It's now Friday, the 18th, 3:15p.m. We'll be planning our itinerary for the coming days while enjoying a glass of NZ white.  The prices of the local wines are very comparable to what we pay at home.  But there are many different labels here.  Will make an effort to taste test what I can.     :)

Hope everyone's well.

Arrived Safely in Kiwi Country

After a long day's (and night's) journey -- 16 hours -- we arrived in Auckland on Tuesday Feb. 15 at 11:30a.m.  Tony's sister, Helen, and her husband, Richard, were good enough to pick us up at the airport and drove us down to TeAwamuti to Jo's place (T's mum).  The rest of his family, three brothers and another sister, arrived a little later and we had a family b-b-q out on Jo's new back deck which all her family built for her recently.  Woke up to quite a grey, cool day but apparently meant to warm up later.  Hit almost 30 degrees yesterday with very high humidity.

T's now popped out with one of his cousins to "choose" a car for us to use over the next month.  Not quite sure what our plans are for the next few days but whatever it is, am looking forward to it.  Will do my best to keep up with this blog -- new for me, having never done it before.

Cheers,
S&T