A very early morning rise and shine today so we could pack the car and set off to the airport to take the hire car to the depot at 7am.  It was actually nice to wake up and see the pretty lights of the Sky tower and was also very exciting for Jennifer.

The plan worked and we returned the hire car and caught the courtesy shuttle bus to the airport.  Full points to Omega Car rental for having two car seats in the bus ready to go.

We checked in and decided to have ham croissants for breakfast before going through customs.  The Auckland airport was very considerate of families and we were fast tracked to the front of the queue which was very helpful.

We caught a 747-400, a double decker jumbo and it was great!  The ride was very smooth and both Jennifer and James were perfect.  We were spoilt again with another breakfast - hotcakes, bacon, apple and manuka syrup, fruit salad and white choc chip muffins.

It took 2 hours to get our luggage and get through immigration and customs and it felt like forever when we were treated like royalty in Auckland.

Jennifer and Mummy enjoyed a baby chino and chai latte while Daddy collected the car and James slept in the pram.

We all agreed that we had a fantastic holiday filled with lots of fun activities and were all saddened that it was over but know we have some great memories to cherish.

One of the best laughs of the holiday goes to Jennifer, who while driving around in our hire car, asked when we were getting a hire car back in Australia.  When we asked why we would want a hire car in Australia when we have our own cars, we discovered that she didn’t mean hire car, she meant higher car, you know - like the Toyota Kluger.

Jennifer said she really enjoyed the whole holiday.  She said she thought it was very special to see the kiwi birds and had lots and lots of fun.

The holiday was a fantastic experience for James, his use of words quadrupled.  There’s nothing quite like having intensive one on one time with the whole family and talking about so many different experiences.  We asked James what he liked best about the holiday and he said, “bus ride”, he was rather impressed each time we hopped on one.  When we asked why he said, “up high”.

As for Mummy and Daddy, we thoroughly enjoyed the company of our two priceless children.  We had so much fun every day sharing in the joy on their faces as we spent time as a family and enjoyed the experiences and sights of New Zealand but also the simple things in life.

Today we drove to Muriwai to see the Gannet colony. There was a path to walk on to go and see their home. When we got to the first lookout, Jennifer fell in love with the baby gannets because they were gorgeous, looked soft, fluffy and cute, so she sat at the rail and sang them a lullaby.

The number of gannets was amazing, they were on every ledge along the cliffs.  We were amazed at how fast they can fly, but it gave Jason a good challenge to photograph.  Apparently astronauts are in awe of the gannets wing design and only wish they could exactly replicate.

We walked to Muriwai beach, it had black sand. Mummy read that a volcano erupted in the ocean a long time ago and that made the sand black.

 

Now just what is one to do when the water looks so inviting and you have no swimmers – well, we decided go in anyway so we walked down to Muriwai beach across some rocks.  We took our sandals off as we had to walk thorugh some water to get onto the sand.  James decided he could find a better place to wait while we were taking off our shoes, so he moved over to the sand where the water was just deep enough to wet his toes, next minute a wave rolled in and soaked him, so off came the soaking shorts.  We also took off Jennifer’s skirt and we went for a paddle along the edge of the water until we got to where the life savers were watching the beach. Mummy, James and Jennifer went into the water and had fun when the waves rolled over us and splashed us. We all got soaking wet, it was hilarious as we were in ankle deep water and then the waves rolled in with such gusto.

We walked up to the grassy picnic area and had a late picnic lunch in the park before we drove home.

Our finale dinner in New Zealand was a yum char dinner at restaurant called China Yum Char in Auckland.  James, Mummy and Daddy were very adventurous and ordered lots of yummy food like pork buns, seafood dumplings and pork rice rolls to name a few while Jennifer enjoyed the fried rice and sweet and sour pork.  We had a lovely dinner and all agreed that we had a fabulous family holiday.

After saying goodbye to Ian we set off on our journey to Auckland with our navigational trust in the hands of Tom Tom.  Our journey was to be approximately 3 hours and we enjoyed a mystery cooks tour from Cambridge to Huntly.  We think that at least 3 other cars were doing the same as we continued like a procession on this obscure path, lucky our Tom Tom navigator knew where it was going.

 

We stopped in Huntly for a drink, eat and play before continuing our journey.  As we drove into Auckland we decided to detour via Mt Eden.   The mountain is the highest natural point in the whole of Auckland and is on the list of the top things to do in Auckland.  It is the site of an old volcano and gave us a great 360 degree view of Auckland.  James and Mummy walked around the rim of the volcano as Jennifer had just fallen asleep in the car.

We were all honestly quite tired this morning from our late night out so we played lego and more magic Wonder colouring in at our holiday home.

After James’ rest we drove around Lake Rotorua.  Ian suggested we stop at Hamurana Springs and we were delighted with the gorgeous spot.  As soon as we approached the stream we were surrounded with geese and ducks swimming in another of NZ’s famous clear water. We decided to set off on the walking trails, firstly walking along the side of the stream.  James enjoyed the freedom again of running along and finding sticks, flowers and leaves to play with along the way. 

 

We walked down to the spring and back to the start via the redwood trees.

    

Once we arrived back at the start, Jason pulled out the kite and had tremendous fun flying it as the wind from Lake Rotorua was quite strong.  It looked so much fun, we all had a turn and had to hold on tight but it certainly was great fun!

Our exciting adventure tonight took us on a bus trip (with seatbelts which impressed Jennifer and James) to the Mitai Maori village. 

We were greeted by Johnny from the Mitai family who was rather jovial and we knew we were in for a great night.  He greeted every country and said hello in their native tongue and there were 20 countries in attendance tonight, not bad attendance for a Sunday night dinner out. 

 

We were shown the hangi meal lifted from the pit and our taste buds were watering with excitement as it certainly looked great.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wandered through their home, being careful to stay on the paths hoping we would not come across any unfriendly warriors, although Johnny said if we were to come across any that we should ask to have our photo taken with them.  Our journey took us to the most beautiful clear stream with bubbling mud in the middle.  We were amazed that the entire stream was not muddy, it was so clear we could see the trout swimming around the mud.  As we continued our journey we came across the waka an ancient war canoe travelling down the Wai O Whiro stream.  The warriors on board sang a chant and we admired their traditional dress.

Our next stop was to see the cultural performance which was held on an outdoor stage with a traditional Maori village as the backdrop.  We learnt about their instruments, weapons, games, beautiful poi dances, the haka and heard tales about the Maori tribes’ past told through songs and dance.  The Maori people have tattoos on their skin and we learnt about the significance of the owl that is tattooed onto the women’s chin and how it represents wisdom and how this is significant as the women are considered the wise keepers of their family and this is very important to them.  The Mitai Maori chief has four birds tattooed onto his face, the bat on his forehead, the parrot on his nose, the Kiwis on his cheeks and the Owl on his chin.  Mr James was quite wriggly throughout yet enjoyed sifting dirt through his fingers and was no doubt was waiting for that famous hangi meal.

We certainly were not disappointed, the menu included New Zealand Lamb & Chicken, Potatoes (Rewai), Sweet Potato (Kumara) and stuffing (a combination of Bread, Mixed Herbs, Corn, Carrots & Peas).  The side dishes include scalloped potatoes baked with a cheese topping and freshly baked Garlic Bread plus a range of salads including Corn salad, Cauliflower with Sesame Seeds, Rice, Ranchslaw and Freshly Tossed Garden Salad, brown gravy and thick mint sauce.  The desserts were also sensational and included tropical Fruit Salad, chocolate Log, and Trifle with Cream.

We were all very impressed with the meal.  James loved everything, he even got to try the fruit salad and some trifle (“cake peese”) and Jennifer was particularly keen on the bread, rice and chocolate log.  Mummy loved the lamb, sweet potato, the cauliflower which was grated and in little mayonnaise dressing with sesame seeds and the trifle.  Daddy loved the meat and the smoky flavoured potatoes. 

 

After our delicious dinner we collected a torch, Jennifer was proud to use her own Disney Princess torch and we set off to see the glow worms in the the Mitai family village.  It was very special to see the tiny glows from the worms especially above the stream.  Of course James and Jennifer loved playing with the torches.  Unfortunately Jennifer’s batteries went flat and James somehow managed to take the head of his torch off in the dark and the batteries fell out so we then played a hide a seek game searching for the batteries.  Another guest must have felt sorry for us and came to our aid with a torch and we got sorted in no time.  Along the way we came across a Maori house that would sleep two.  We learnt that the door was narrow so it was hard for any unwanted guests to get in and that the roof was made from the trunk of trees that absorbed a high quantity of water.  They chose this particular timber because it was difficult to burn the house down due to the retention of water.  We also saw the famous NZ silver fern, their national emblem, when we shone our torches on the underneath it really was silver and quite impressive.

We caught the bus back to our holiday home at Atsala, singing the Wheels on the Bus and sharing stories of our special night.  And our little people were asleep within about 3 minutes!!

Today we sat, soaked and splashed at the Waikite Thermal Springs.  The Maori name “Wai” means water and “kite” means clear and clear water is certainly what we enjoyed ourselves in all day today.  We were attracted to these pools because they empty each of the 6 pools at 8.45pm every night as well as replacing the water throughout the day.

The family pool was about 36 degrees and was gorgeous.  We played ball with the other children and their families and floated around, swam, splashed and enjoyed the views.

 

 

 

After lunch we walked the Eco trail and followed an amazing boiling river up to the Te Manaroa spring.  We had never seen anything like it before and is certainly not what we expected, it was just so foreign to us to see water in a river boiling like it was ready for pasta on the stovetop.  The calcium deposits were quite pretty and very interesting to see.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw how the water flows down from the river and across a series of pools and it cools from 98 degrees celcius to the temperature range for the varying thermal pools (35 – 40 degrees).

We enjoyed ice creams for afternoon tea before a final soak, splash and then drive back to Rotorua.

Happy New Year!  We decided to spend New Year’s Day at  Lake Rotorua.  We had a play in the fabulous Volcanic Playground, a bbq and walk along the lake front….  AND Jason enjoyed flying the kite!

 

After dinner, we drove down to the Government Gardens and did the sulphur walk. It was a bit smelly but rather interesting.  We saw boiling water in the geothermal area.  Along the way we found some great tapping sticks and sang the fun “Tap your sticks in the air” song that Jennifer learnt at Pre Prep with Mrs Trudgian. 

We decided to spend the last day of 2009 at Rainbow Springs Kiwi Nature Park.

Water! We saw beautiful a beautiful rainbow pool loaded with trout, when we saw the 4 month old trout we were amazed at the size of the other trout and wondered just how old they must be. The Trout are quite athletic and can leap up waterfalls. They are also quite clever at catching the food pellets, the ones that the ducks and ducklings miss. We saw 2 mother ducks with their ducklings, one family was 2 days old and the others 3 weeks old – they were very cute.

With map in hand, our map girl knew where we should visit next and we set off on our journey around the Nature park.

 

 

We enjoyed some more crunchy NZ rose apples for morning tea and fed the trout.  As we crossed a bridge, James announced, “more wart” and lay down to check the temperature for us!

 

 

Our NZ bird education commenced with the Kea, an alpine parrot that was very entertaining, it is sometimes considered the clown parrot. The entertaining Kea can also play soccer, we thought Jayden and Jack would be delighted to see them play a game.

We saw a kiwi in the Nocturnal house. The kiwis have lived in New Zealand for 70 million years.  We saw lots of native birds, the Tui, a Kereru, a wood pigeon and Kaka, a North Island parrot.

James was delighted to see the Arapawa Island sheep, “more sheep!”

We decided to have a picnic lunch on the Fairy lawn. It was great being surrounded by farm animals.  One of the most interesting was the Kune Kune pig  he was very sociable and seemed quite placid in nature. His nose was huge and James was fascinated by this. The Ponui Donkey are apparently a feral donkey breed in NZ, we thought they were cute.  There were also rabbits, wallabies, chickens and noisy roosters.

At 6.30pm we went down to the Lake front to see the New Year’s Eve celebrations.  We saw the fair, music stage and playground before we went back to the zoo for a very special kiwi encounter.  We explored the zoo, fed trout, ducks, swans, and saw heaps of birds and animals.  Jennifer and James had an absolute ball playing with a kea (parrot) who was hand raised.  Her name was Jenny and she hopped along the fence line.  Our two copied her and this game went on for about 15 minutes, we’re not sure who would have tired first or who was having the most fun, it was gorgeous to watch.

 

 

 

At 9pm we went to the special kiwi encounter, it was great to see them up close and in their natural environment.  We were amazed at how quickly they ran and their feathers were quite pointy.  We all had to be very quiet so we did not frighten the kiwi’s and we were very pleased that every our gorgeous children were so considerate of the birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rainbow trout were quite amazing, they all swam in a circle and it looked brilliant under the pretty lights.  We didn’t know that trout and fish will generally orientate themselves head first into a current, particularly when living in rivers or streams.

 

 

 

We arrived home at about 10pm and you can guess who went straight to sleep without a peep.  At midnight we watched great fireworks on Lake Rotorua from our back veranda and ended up being surrounded by them as displays went off in every direction.  Our little man seemed to want to join in the festivities and slid off his bed – whoops, but he was OK.

Kia Ora.  We were welcomed to TEWHAKAREWAREWATANGAOTEOPETAUAAWAHIO otherwise known as Whakarewarewa or Whaka for short -  much easier to say.  This was one of our must do activities at is is literally behind our accommodation and we have been watching the steam rising every day from our kitchen window. 

Our journey commenced with a tour of the Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao Maori family’s home.  We were so impressed that they have not succumbed to the modern conveniences of today and actually use the geothermal resources in their back yard for cooking, bathing and playing.  Our tour guide showed us how simply they cook their food.  We really liked the Maori microwave, a steam box where they cook their meat, puddings and root vegetables.  The food was wrapped in foil and placed into trays that are put inside the box.  The green vegetables, seafood and corn were wrapped in a muslin cloth and placed into a thermal pool.  The corn takes 10 minutes to cook, the green veges and seafood only required 5 swishes across the water and presto it’s done.

 

The maori’s have communal bathing in purpose built baths – several baths and a mini swimming pool in the open space – can’t say we’d be so keen on this one.  We actually found the water very smooth to touch but still too hot for us to bath in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We toured the village including their meeting house and performance venue where we were treated to a superb cultural performance.  James was fascinated by the singing and loved to imitate the hand actions – it was very cute to watch.  Jennifer loved the costumes, poi pois, singing, actions, participating in the songs, everything except the men, she was rather shy of them.

The Maoris' taught us the hungi which was a handshake and 2 nose to nose presses with a partner (they definitely stipulated not rubs like the Eskimos do).  This greeting symbolises a bond of friendship and our little man has quite taken to greeting each of us in the family in this traditional Maori method.

 

 

We tried Hangi pies – corned beef, chicken, potato, kumara, carrot wrapped in pastry.  Needless to say they were absolutely delicious, we would have been tempted to go back for more for our dinner if only they were open.

 

We came home for James’ rest then Jennifer and Kathy went back to see another cultural performance.  We were so glad that we did because they performed the Maori Hokey Pokey.  Jennifer was a Maori expert at this one, they used the Maori name for all the body parts although the chorus was in English.  Jennifer decided she would like a photo with one of the maori ladies, when we had our turn for a photo one of the men snuck across and hopped into the photo.  Afterwards Jennifer said, “Did one of the Maori men jump into my photo” and of course the answer was yes.  Jennifer said, “Well that’s OK he’s a handsome one he hasn’t got a beard!”

 

 

 

The girls walked home and collected the boys and we went back to have a closer look at the Pohuta Geyser.  It is just so amazing watching the steam suddenly shoot up into the air.  We then set off for the freedom walks and walked along the paths and boardwalks to the green and hot lakes.  The colours from the minerals are very pretty.

 

We watched the Maori children play a game called penny diving where they dive into the water to collect gold coins that we threw into the water.  Both Jennifer and James reaped as much enjoyment as the Maori children watching them dive for the coins and our super thrower James set them a challenge to retrieve his coins. 

We woke up to rain this morning so decided to stay indoors and play.  We built the train station and tower for the James duplo set, coloured in, read books and watched Ice Age 2.

While James had a rest, Jennifer and Mummy decided to brave the shops in the rain in search of another wet weather activity.  We found ourselves in the toy Lego section at Farmers.  Jennifer bought a 4wd with horse float with her holiday spending money and we bought James his holiday gift a Busy Garage duplo. 

When we got home James had just woken up and was most impressed with his present, “Truck”, “Tar”, “Tools” he announced as we opened it.  We spent 2½ hours building lego and working in the garage, changing tyres, checking batteries, filling up with petrol, putting air in the tyres and more changing tyres.  We had the best rainy day!

This morning we visited the Government Gardens. First we drove around the edge of Lake Rotorua and saw lots of birds – swans, ducks, geese and seagulls. We also saw the steaming water and found a path to walk along tonight. We walked through the park and saw the Whangapipiro – also known as the Rachel Pool, it was very hot and steaming.

The Museum was located in the gardens in a beautiful building, allegedly the most photographed building in Rotorua. The viewing platform was only opened in 2006 after a major refurbishment.  Mr James was delighted with the rotary mower for the lawns, it was beaut with a seat trailer to ride on at the back.

A gorgeous rose garden was next to the playground. It was a great playground and we all went down the slides and played hide and seek.  Jennifer mastered the flying fox type piece of apparatus and can now get across to the other side without any assistance.  It started to rain so we took cover in the playground which was rather like a cubbyhouse while Daddy went to fetch the car.

 

Alas, the walk around the Sulphur Bay will have to be rescheduled to another day due to the rain.

Today we visited the Agrodome. The first activity was the Sheep show.  As we sat down we were impressed to see lots of cute sheep lined up in a corral beside our seats, we just had to go over and say hello. They were very friendly and soft to touch.  A definite favourite was the Merino even with those big horns.

 

 

Our host, Karl told us that we would meet all the breeds of sheep, see how to shear a sheep, milk a cow and see the working dogs. Jennifer really liked the working dogs.  Karl set them off to run over the top of all the sheep while the sheep stood ever so still.  For the finale the dogs just sat on top of the sheep.  Of course, James was infatuated by the sheep  and after his fix of patting all the sheep on stage at the end of the show he found some stuffed lambs and sheep and became friends with them as well.

 

 

We set off to find the Tractors for our tour around the farm. We drove past the shearing sheds and our first stop was to see the South African Ostrich, which run very fast – 64kmper hour.

We stopped in the Orchard to look at the Kiwi Fruit vines. Our tour guide told us of the health benefits of Olive tree leaves so Mummy and Daddy had a munch on one, they were bitter. We went inside and were allowed to taste the Kiwi Fruit Juice with aloe vera, it is green just like the fruit. Mummy, Daddy and James loved it. Our young James thought it was great, what a treat and had about 4 little cups – “more juice peese” he would say. Jennifer didn’t want to taste the juice while Mummy and Daddy obliged the Kiwi Wine as well but both thought the juice was nicer.

 

 

 

 

We stopped to feed the sheep and Alpaca. We all loved to feed them and feel their soft coats. We then stopped to feed the Bambi and red deer and more sheep, but this time they were white sheep. Jennifer’s favourite animals of the day were the Bambi deer they were so cute and she took a video of them.

 

 

 

 

Our last stop was to see the Angus Beef and Scottish Highland cows. We recognised these ones as we had seen the Scottish cows before at Kingaroy. The Angus Beef cows were huge and one was called Big Mac.

In the gift shop Jennifer chose a working dog for her holiday present and named her Tiny. She is cute, soft and promised to look after her very well.

We ate our picnic lunch outside in the picnic area next to the Tractors. We had to scrub our shoes in the wash bay, they were very dirty.

We visited the nursery and saw all the baby lambs and ducks. As always James loved seeing the lambs.

James enjoyed the visit so much that he waved goodbye, blew kisses and our man of many actions said “Bye” for the first time.

Our trip home was also exciting as we saw the biggest diggers and bull dozers we have ever seen – James was very impressed and called out “Dig Dig” with great excitement.

 

We have the best little holiday home and have loved having a back yard to fly our kites, play ball and run when ever we wanted to.  Tonight we decided to eat dinner in our back yard.