Adventures with mum and auntie!

Hi all!

Well mum and aunt arrived well and truly cream crackered last week after 30 odd hours of travelling.

However, after a bit of a rest, one of the first places I took them to visit was the Sky Tower in Auckland CBD.

Here they are admiring the views!

Unfortunately, they declined the Sky Tower jump even though I offered to do it with them. However, they enjoyed watching others partake of the feat.


Here are some piccies of the views they enjoyed.

You can see the Harbour Bridge in the distance here:


It was a very sunny day and consequently really clear - here is the view of where we live in the very far distance (we live to the East - the far right distance of the piccie)

The line down the middle of the photo is the cable that holds onto the jumpers!

Mum

Aunt

They deliberately asked me to keep their faces in the shadow to remain incognito.........

Not really - I'm just rubbish at photo taking - forgot to fiddle with camera etc in order to avoid this light confrontation anomaly!

Gosh the weather has been absolutely BOILING! Poor mum and aunt have come at a very hot time - even hotter than last summer was. WHEW!

In order to make them feel even better in the heat - I recently took them to one of the hottest places in New Zealand - the thermal resort of Rotorua!

At least it wasn't too smelly during our visit (lots of sulphur fumes abound here and the rotten egg pong can be very pooey at times). Actually the only time I really noticed it was when I woke up in the middle of the night wondering where the heck I was and what the bloody hell was that awful smell?

Anyhow, we spent the first afternoon cooling off in the motel swimming pool due to the car having no air conditioning and it being a steady very hot temperature all the way down. We looked very fetching when we finally arrived at the motel in our sweaty clothes and dashingly wind swept hair!

The swimming pool was deliciously cool (aunt took a long time to get in and accompanied each step with a oooooohh or a dainty shiver - lol). I took a while to get in and mum just went straight under!

The first full day there was VERY HOT! We began it by spending the morning in the Whakarewarewa Thermal Village (pronounced fucker-rewa-rewa - yes really!) It is a Maori village and people actually do live there. We were shown around by a very lovely lady and here is some of what we saw:
This is their meeting house - Whare nui (farreh nooee). The carvings were absolutely beautiful.

Found this little chap around the corner.

The Maori people make good use of the thermal energy within their little village. It provides underfloor heating - there was no way any of us could have walked bare footed around, we would have had severely burned soles! It also provides cooking energy - food is dipped into the water to cook. The water is also used for bathing - they have communal baths.

Our guide showed us the geysers there - they shot up on time for us - 11 am I think it was:




Apparently, in the beautiful blue pool below - the villagers swim each evening after the tourists have gone home - looks gorgeous eh?Here's our guide telling us all about the dangers of the pool she's standing next to - hence the fence all around. It's a ridiculously hot temperature and would just boil you alive if you fell in. She uses it to cook sweetcorn.
The piece de resistance of our visit came with the Maori show - it was great. We were very entertained with the Maori stick, the pois and, of course, the hakka. However, mum just enjoyed watching - especially the lovely piece of male eye candy on the left hand side of the stage! In fact, at the end, she practically ran to have her photo taken with him - she even left her walking stick behind! Aunt and I saw a cloud of dust only when the announcement was made that the audience were invited to have their photos taken with the performers.......



He is rather tasty though don't you think!

Aunt and I chose the shorter queue and here we are:

Well, after such an exciting morning, what better than to relax in the Polynesian Spa?! And indeed we did. Here's a link cos we took no photos whatsoever!

http://www.polynesianspa.co.nz/

The next day, we were up bright and early in order to check out by 10am and to board our amphibious vehicle for the Duck Tours!

The first thing we were given after our safety talk was a duck hooter with which we were told to blow at people as we passed by. Throughout the tour we gaily hooted at people walking by, people drinking coffee and eating cake, people driving with their windows open etc - great fun!

We were taken for a quick tour around Lake Rotorua and then plunged into Blue Lake and another lake with a forgetful Maori name - sorry!

As we were about to drive into the first lake, music was played very loudly for us - it was - yes you guessed it - Mission Impossible!

The guide was very funny - he told us that going downhill we had to sit up in order to create some drag or to lean forward in order to go faster - he was so serious at first that some people actually started to do it as we ascended the hillside!

Here he is - bless him!

Here is the Duck Boat behind us on the lake - they are actually from WWII and were used in the Normandy Landings apparently.

Here it is on land - 'racing' up the hill!

Well - on that note - I'm off - Doc Martin is on telly in a bit and I really like it!

We had a great break at Rotorua and I think the photos show some of this!

Tara!

x Sue

Hot and sticky!

Hi all - tis as the title says really - hot and sticky (ie humid). Very humid at the mo actually cos it rained yesterday - just in time for mum and aunty's arrival! Today is a bit better - cloudy, but no rain and the sun keeps trying to peep through! Got loads of washing out, so hopefully t'will be okay.

Now that I've bored you to death, I'll waffle a bit.

All my plastic pegs keep breaking - those out on the washing line - this is due to the strong NZ sun beating down on them. I've now got used to pressing a peg to hang out me clothes, only to have it disintigrate with a loud snap and minor explosion in between my fingers!

I have a triffid in my garden - discovered it the other day - it's a huge dandelion plant! I didn't think it was possible for them to grow that tall, but it's taller than me and I'm five foot sixish!

Here you go:I am very proud!

Should have stood next to it - would have been a better way for you to see how tall it is!

Mary - don't be too upset - I know it's a weed, but this is down by my compost area - so didn't know it was growing and now I don't want to cut it down due to seeing how tall it will end up. I am conducting a scientific experiment!

Also - what do you think of this photo?



Isn't it cool? Guess what 'wrote' it?

Fireworks!

Kev and a friend were setting them off in our garden on New Year's Eve and this is the message we got!

Oooh Kev has just come into the room to see what I'm up to - so we have taken a piccie of our pride and joy with him stood next to it - remember - he is about 6ft 1.

Aaaah!

I wonder how tall it will get to?!

Now then - I persuaded son to go to Piha boogie boarding with me this Sunday and we had a GREAT time.

The Piha Rescue camera guys were there filming for next year (Piha Rescue is a TV programme over here - all about the life guards rescuing and helping those that get into danger).

You can see the camera on the guy's shoulder and that's his little car buggy thingy there too. That's Lion Rock there on the left - looks like a huge lion staring dreamily out to sea!

This is his abandoned tripod after he ran across the beach to film some rescued people!

Whilst I was putting on my sun cream and protective clothing, I saw the boat go out twice to rescue people - the first was someone swimming miles away from the flags (you're meant to stay between them where it's safer) - he/she was stuck in a rip and the second was a surfer - also in the rip and wearing only a bikini! She was lucky she still had it on in those waves!

We were in the water about two hours and had a whale of a time - I caught one fantastic wave that took me at top speed from just near the surfers right onto the shore (into about 10cm of water!) I scratched my knee! I was going so fast, I couldn't stop! Just kept steering to avoid people and eventually found myself looking into the eyes of a 3 year old holding his grandma's hand! Lol. After a quick smile, I elegantly got up, turned round and battled against the waves once more in order to catch another ride! It was FAB!

Needless to say, the next day I was really aching around the shoulders area and I now have a lovely cold sore on my lower lip due to catching the sun there! Lovely look!

This is a beach I went to near Devonport with a friend. We chatted the afternoon away very happily whilst the kids played in the water. That's Rangitoto in the distance - it's an island which also happens to be a dormant volcano!

This is Eastern Beach where we spent New Year's Day afternoon. Lovely, sparkly day it was too. We picnicked and ate ice-creams!

And here's lovely Omana Beach with Waiheke Island in the distance. We had another lovely picnicky day there too!

Well - as you can see - the weather is very much in summer mode and we are making the most of it. Tis very cheap entertainment too - just a picnic, a car and off you go!

This is what Kev thinks of it all:

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

X SUE