Tea cosies, volcanoes, dolphins, boogie boarding, barbecues and sunburn!

Well - there you go - that was our hols!

Tea cosies I hear you wonder?! Well, whilst the man of the house was showering, the rest of us were studiously packing and getting ready - NOT! (In our defence - most of it had been done the night before). So my darling offspring decided to play with our new tea cosies (we do use them properly too - it's just that we were thinking what they'd be like as........



HATS!

I particularly like the thoughtful look on their faces - reminiscent of Communist Russia!

Here's another one:



By now all seriousness is lost and collapse has begun - again perhaps reminiscent of ..............!

So - after all this, we finally got ready and left the house - Kev had no idea of these goings on until later on when examining the day's photos - he liked them though!

We arrived at Tauranga (the district of Judea) sometime in the afternoon - made our way to the Mount and clambered up a little hill to look at the beautiful views:



Kev and Adam surveying the Mount.



Corrie surveying the opposite side!

An arty shot by me!

That evening, we strolled around the town centre of Tauranga and decided upon an American style restaurant for dinner - the portions were HUGE - but delicious! The men had fush and us girlies shared fajitas.

December 22nd

This was such a COOL day! We got up early and drove down to Whakatane (around 1 1/2 hours away) ready to board a very snazzy boat to White Island (which left at 9.15am precisely!).

Here's Kev watching Whakatane disappear as we set off for the Island - note that I am inside the boat under cover as it was sunny, but a little chilly that morning!

The journey to the Island takes about 80 mins and guess what! We stopped twice to cruise along with pods of dolphins - woohooo! Tried to get photos of them, but the bloomin things kept moving - as they do.... They were Common Dolphins - but not to me they weren't - they were FAB! Here's a couple of blurry piccies:

Well - after all that excitement, it was time to proceed to the Island which was looming ever larger in the distance:

The boat couldn't take us to the island itself - so we had to get onto a little James Bond type speed boat thing which whisked us to some rusty ladders. Upon reaching these ladders, we had to climb them (obviously) totter across a rickety platform and then clamber over boulders in order to reach the 'safety' of the shore - well as safe as a live volcano that could erupt/explode at any time can be.....

Here're the boats:

Can you see the steam from the crater? The helicopter in the foreground shows that the Island is a little bigger than you first realise!

There were helicopters constantly coming and going - very surreal. There were blue ones, black ones and red ones - very girly comment.

Just before we got to the island, we were given hard hats (Bob the Builder style) and gas masks (WWI) style - these were for the sulphuric fumes - and I'm telling you now - I used mine - especially near the crater (full of sulphuric acid) - the fumes got right down into the back of your throat!

Here I am practising!

Upon reaching the Island we had our wits frightened out of us:

• If there is an explosion - hide behind the nearest cover
• If there is an eruption - get to high ground
• Put on your gas mask - of course
• Find your guide - who will take you to safety (if they're still alive that is)
• Pee your pants and cry - last girly resort

We were also told not to stand on any of the little hills with white tops (rather like volcanic pimples), because if we did, we would fall into the boiling mud below! Believe you me, I did as I was told!

The whole landscape was covered in rocks of varying sizes - this was due to the last eruption/explosion in 2002 - apparently it was smooth before that AND they travelled at BALLISTIC SPEED - jeez - we'd have no chance really would we?!

Anyway, after all this, we had our tour of the Island, saw its crater and heard of its history - what an exciting day! I really enjoyed it.

The pale blue/green water near the shore is the sulphuric acid in the water mixing with the sea water.

Well - it was a long, exciting and tiring day that we shan't forget in a hurry!

The next 4 days were spent on and in the sea boogie boarding and getting burnt!

Christmas day was one of those and we ended it with a barbie of delicious steak back at the motel with the owners lovely dog slurping nearby - we gave her some of our leftovers - she loved them (the dog I mean!).

Boxing Day was the day on which we travelled back to Auckland via Hot Water Beach (more boarding) and Cathedral Cove (absolutely beautiful and I want to go back there to stay and explore further).

I think this was called Emerald Cove - it's another marine place full of fush and fab for snorkelling - I clambered around on the rocks and saw a huge reddish/purple crab with lime green markings - cooool!

These photos are of the beautiful coastline around the Cathedral Cove area - it really is gorgeous and it was very hot that day too!

Today is New Years Day and I would like to wish you all a very happy and wonderful two thousand and heaven!

Have a good one and to all of you in the UK I'll see you in July!

Have now been here for 1 year and 2 months ish and cannot believe how fast it has gone - amazing - came here with my passport and no job - now have a permanent job and residency! Wow!

Take care and all the best.

x Sue

PS Thanks to everyone who sent us cards and pressies this year - it was LOVELY to hear from you from so far away!

Hallooooo!

Well - the weather is feeling very summery now - so much so that daughter and I decided to go for a day out this Saturday to Goat Island:

http://www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/res/gi/

Have a look!

Click on the links and you'll see some cool photos and information about the site.

We loaded the car with all essentials required for this important excursion into the depths with:

togs (cossies)
flippers
snorkels
sun cream
board shorts
food
water
and lady stuff

The views on the drive there alone are awesome (kiwi word) enough, never mind Goat Island itself! It took about 1 1/2 hours to get there and it is all totally free! Of course, if you want a trip on the glass bottomed boat, then you pay for that!

It was busy once we arrived (however in UK terms it was quiet!) and we immediately began to strip off and apply lots of suncream!

Masks and snorkels were adjusted, flippers put on and we then tried to get into the water without falling over (stupid me had left the plastic foot shaper things in and kept wondering why my fins were so tight and hurt when I tried to kick - I could hardly get them off when we got out of the sea - derrrrr).

Lots of giggles later, we were in - the water was rather chilly, but it had warm patches in the shallower areas, so we survived. Once our faces were immersed, we immediately saw LOADS of fush! They were everywhere - the snapper were HUGE! One of them kept coming towards us and we kept backing off - it looked EVIL.....

There were blue fush, black and white fush, yellow fush, bottom feeders and floaters (now, now) and it was COOOOOOOL!

Daughter decided to experiment with noise whilst we were exploring, but didn't warn me first - one minute we were swumming happily amongst the fush and pointing excitedly, the nixt all I heard was a strange groaning sound coming from her - she had decided to see whether fush would react to the mooing sound of a cow!

Well - all I can say is that I nearly drowned! I had to dash up, pull my snorkel from mouth and heave off my mask due to danger of swallowing copious amounts of water in my hilarity!

Later on, I warned her seriously to warn me of further experimentations.....

It was sooooo funny!

Anyhoo, we had a fabbie day.

Sunday was spent going for dim sum somewhere in the depths of the trendy viaduct area. We stuffed our faces and then rolled home!

Visited our neighbours from the UK in their lovely new house and nearly fell asleep over the yummy glass of wine given to me - not a good combination - full belly, warm room, comfy chairs, afternoon and wine.......

Altogether a luverly weekend and roll on Thursday when we head for Judea (Tauranga, Bay of Plenty). We have booked to visit a live volcano (White Island) on the 22nd Dec - should be coooool! Here's the fabbie link:

http://www.whiteisland.co.nz/new/PeeJay%20Vessels1.htm

Have a peek at the Photo Gallery - doesn't it look cool?!

Really looking forward to this.

Well - taraa fer noo and I'll post photos as and when of the holiday.

See ya.

x Sue

Guess what I've done!

Well - I'll tell you in a mo!

Last weekend we went to lovely friends' barbie and met more lovely people and ate and drank lots and got a bit drunk!

Thank you very much for your hospitality!

After that we went to Raglan - a surfing town - I had GORGEOUS eggs benedict for lunch and here are a few photos of said place (Raglan):

Space ship house on the beach!

Having a wander along the windy shore!

Bride Veil Falls from the top (55 metres up).

Bride Veil Falls from the bottom (55 metres down!)

Another angle! It was more beautiful than it looks really - lots of water falling down in a heavy torrent, crashing into the pool below and splashing onlookers around it (ie me and Kev)! Fantastic!

A beautiful baby fern near the falls - just turn yer heads! Forgot to change it before loading it on!

Oh yes and this week I got a lovely surprise from a blog reader and it was a fabbie new tea cosy - here you go - it has pride of place in my kitchen and is in constant use! Thank you very much kind reader!

And finally folks - the suspense will now end with my grande finale of what I did this weekend just gone!

Have you guessed it yet?

I wore a blue boiler suit with a yellow flash across it! (I looked gorgeous - VERY NOT!)

Ta daaaaa.........

And:

Yep - very proud to say that I jumped off New Zealand's highest jump - 192 metres high - whooohoooooo!

The most daunting part was stepping off the platform after a count of 3! I then dropped about 10 metres (see photo) and dangled to have photos taken and for tourists to gawp at me from the viewing window (as I have previously done over a cup of tea).

It was fantastic - I think the actual drop lasted about 25 seconds - I really enjoyed it - BRILLIANT!

I did it with a fellow internet friend after a few drinks the night before - she went first and didn't die, so I followed! (just kidding!)

If you have seen the Billy Connolly video of him going around NZ - it's the same jump!

I am now the proud owner of a t-shirt and certificate!

I wore the t-shirt to work the next day - yayyyyy!

Well - on that note, I'd best get the washing in and put out the fresh stuff - back to earth with a bump - literally!

x Sue