Touring The Country [Part 3]

Touring New Zealand was a very exciting time, though it did involve huge amounts of driving! I have split my diary of our six day tour into 3 segments, this being number 3. I hope you enjoy reading my posts, thank-you!

Day 6
Today was quite a mixed ‘touring the area’ sort of a day, which we began by a walk on the beach, collecting pretty shells, like spiral-shells, a fragment of paua, and some beautiful and weirdly coloured mussels. Then we went to one of the many Hawkes Bay vineyards, so my mum and dad could fill their up their travel wine bottle allowance with cheaper NZ wine (not fully); but also to have lunch. We then made our way up to Te Mata Peak (thought it was tomato-a!), which was a reasonably steep drive up and around the mountain, which we spent watching exhausted hikers scramble up, as well as watching the views – then looking down ever so slightly to see the almost unprotected 10-15m cliffs and 60 degree slopes going down hundreds of metres! From the top we peered over cliffs and steep banks, and watched a low flying Cessna aeroplane – except it wasn’t low flying, it was over the valley and we were just so high up! After attempting to find two geocaches, and only getting the second, we began our decent to the Strawberry Patch, a berry farm not too dissimilar to Cragies in Edinburgh – but the Strawberry Patch did something Cragies doesn’t – fresh ice cream made from your choice of berries which are blended into the ice cream right in front of you. Today had been an exciting day, but I am glad to be in bed now!

The beach...

The beach…

SELFIE! ( Yes that is a 15m cliff right behind me!)

SELFIE! (Yes… that is a 15m cliff right behind me!)

Some steel drop-off, isn't it!?!

Some steep drop-off, isn’t it!?!

Day 7 -Part 1
We had to be fast this morning, 9am departure rather than the 10am we normally would have, we had a long drive in front of us, but then we had no clue quite how long! Here is the story of our weary way to Rotorua (beware: slightly over dramatised! P.S To be fair – it wasn’t quite as bad as I’ve described!):

  • We say goodbye, it’s sad we were leaving again – it doesn’t get any easier, does it?
  • Breaking News! Crash on State Highway 5, the only route from where we are to Rotorua avoiding hours of detour
  • Took the many hours long detour…
  • Realise we have 90km to do on gravel roadways 🙁
  • After some really pretty landscapes, we remember that ‘every cloud has a silver lining’
  • Gravel road. 30km before the map says it starts. 😐
  • Tarmac road: )
  • Gravel road 🙁
  • Tarmac road 🙂
  • Gravel road 🙁
  • Gravel road starts on the map.
  • Twisty, turny! Twisty, turny! Up and down(y?)! Up and down(y?)!
  • Reach random massive lake 570m above sea level – for some reason it isn’t surprising that my dad has done the 5-day circumnavigation of it – twice…
  • Visitor centre by said lake – frozen pies that need to be microwaved in store for 12mins for all 4
  • Microwave for 5mins – I finally got to taste what frozen, cooked egg tastes like (because that’s what I always wanted?!?)
  • Patches of tarmac road 🙂
  • Three vehicles ahead: dust, Dust!, DUST!!!!!!!!
  • End of gravel!!! PARTY TIME!!! 🙂
  • 5mins later: Hisssssss Poof! Out comes the replacement tyre – we’re so late it doesn’t actually affect us much at all!
  • End of mountains!!! Straight, flat roads and…. – we’re limited to 80kmph, (grrr) Still, it’s flat though!
  • ROTORUA!!!!!!! At long, LONG last!!!

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Day 7 -Part 2
After a very dramatic and eventful journey to Rotorua, we decided to go in to relax in the Polynesian Spa, but sadly there wasn’t a private Spa available (at least not for half an hour) so we had a great time swimming in the public pools. After some pizza for dinner (and spotting a Pukeko!) we made our final journey back to Auckland, stopping only at McDonalds for supper. Megan slept most of the trip – at first, I was sure I hadn’t slept, but after realising we were more than 20 miles from where I closed my eyes I realised I actually had slept in the car- first time in many years! After our arrival at the Motel I finally fell straight asleep, after a long, long day!

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A Pile of Steaming Rocks at Rotorua!

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Boiling Mud!

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Pukeko!!!! Finally!

Touring The Country [Part 2]

Touring New Zealand was a very exciting time, though it did involve huge amounts of driving! I have split my diary of our six day tour into 3 segments, this being number 2. I hope you enjoy reading my posts, thank-you!

Day 4
It was Sunday morning and we all (at least in the tent) woke quite late, to the sound of being called to breakfast, which in my opinion is probably the best thing to wake up to! Church this morning was nice, I rarely get to stay in for the sermon, so it’s always interesting for me when there’s not Sunday School to go to. The sermon was about New Year’s resolutions and the book of James, we even sung a song we know from our church (I was surprised as I thought it wasn’t even known as far as Linlithgow!), but the actions were different(not surprising!). We had lunch with one of my dad’s cousins, and their children who we had fun playing darts and shooting each other with Nerf guns, we didn’t go anywhere else today except Great Aunt Elsbeth’s place for dinner, where we updated an old family photograph of hers in which I was a baby and Megan wasn’t present.

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Wanganui Church

Day 5
Today was our second goodbye, and a third drive we’re going on to see friends, at least this one’s shorter though we still had the same time to get there which meant more stops. No giant carrots this time, but plenty of geocaches – of the hundreds there were to choose from, we searched for (and found) three – of which I can claim 2, unusual for me I thought (to be fair they were the easiest). We had morning tea and lunch on the road, which meant we did a little walking around the towns/villages, learning about the Scandinavian influence in the area. But the most interesting town was by far Bulls, which was very enjoya-bull! as Bulls is well known for it’s laugha-bull signs! Seriously, everywhere you looked were these horri-bull-y bad puns. I loved seeing all the hilariously bad jokes on all the signs in the town, pretty much everywhere, it seems everyone was taking part in the pun spirit, even the extinguish-a-bull fire station, it was probably the highlight of my day, other than arriving at our friends place.

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Geocaching!!!

Touring The Country [Part 1]

Touring New Zealand was a very exciting time, though it did involve huge amounts of driving! I have split my diary of our six day tour into 3 segments, this being number 1. I hope you enjoy reading my posts, thank-you!

Day 1
Vvrrrrooom!!! Our two hour drive down to Waitomo had started, we were already practically out of Auckland because our lovely motel was right on the edge already. There wasn’t much to see on the road for quite a long way, just rolling hills on the massive Waikato plain, stretching out as far as the eye can see, and only farms, trees and houses dotted around. The Waikato plain covers hundreds of square miles, so we wouldn’t get out of the plains until we reached our final destination for today, which was not Waitomo, we only went out of our way to Waitomo to see glow-worms in a cave system there, and then we were going to head back north to Pirongia – where we are staying with friends. After finally arriving in Waitomo we went to see the glow-worms – they were amazing! In the cave we were taught all about stalagmites and stalactites, about limestone in the caves, about the Maori history of the cave and finally, glow-worms. The glow-worms were amazing – the cave was filled with tens of thousands of them – we were on a small boat in the undergrounds water, it was beautiful having no other lights and only the sound of dripping water in the background, it was so peaceful. After a long day we whizzed back north to Pirongia – where we then had fun with the friends we were staying with.IMG_4822.resized

Day 2
Yesterday had been a long day, so we got up relatively late (for us!), but we were all excited because today was going to be a fun day as we were planning to go swimming in the river. After playing until lunch, we headed off – seeing some of the neighbourhood’s stranger sights along the road including:

  • A microwave on a pole for a postbox
  • A fence covered in literally Hundreds of Toothbrushes!?! (Click to view on Google Maps)
  • A car parked on the side of a 60 or so degree slope,
  • A Tardis postbox!

Before our swim we decided to go to see the Kaniwhaniwha Caves, which took a fair bit of walking to get to, but were definitely worth it – though not the sort of caves you’d expect. It was really just a narrow crack in the rock – 30m from one end to the other, between 40cm at the narrowest point to about a metre wide; but what was particularly interesting was that at one point it was 7.5m high, big enough for some curtain-like stalactites and a cave wetta. Now it was swimming time, sadly it was a mountain run-off river (aka freezing!) – but we had some fun boogie-boarding, both for and against the current, Megan also tried the rope swing, and overall it was a great time!

LANDSLIDE!!!!

Down into the cave….

Day 3
Today was sort of bitter-sweet, holding a goodbye to friends we don’t see much at all, long drives and then saying hello to other friends who we are going to be staying with for the next few days. After finally escaping the steep gravel driveway, we began our drive – which wasn’t particularly interesting, except: the giant 2500m Mountain Ruapehu which my mum still doesn’t believe exists! (it’s been in the clouds every time she’s passed it); a bridge over a massive gorge in which our great, great grandfather had some involvement in; and, a 18km detour to see… a giant carrot! After the 3-4 hour drive we finally arrived to see our friends, we had a great afternoon/evening with them before we (the children)  went out to the tent where we were sleeping.

The Carrot Itself!!!

The Carrot Itself!!!

Ruapehu - Or is it?!?

Ruapehu – Or is it?!?

The massive Railway Bridge, under some repairs.

The massive Railway Bridge, under some repairs.

The Final Part of our Trip

This is what we did when we were visiting some friends in New Zealand.

Then once we left Auckland we went to the glow worm caves which was absolutely beautiful and very fascinating. After that we went to see Mel and her kids Amy, Daniel, Noah and Cassia. Amy was 14, Daniel was 12, Noah was 8 and Cassia is 5. I spent lots of my time with Amy staying away from the boys. First Amy and I built a fort which was really cosy meanwhile the boys where setting up pranks. Then Amy and went out on a walk for 10 minutes then we had dinner. The next day we went to a river and went on a long walk to the caves. Then on the way back Amy, Noah, Daniel and I ran of ahead pretending there was a Zombie apocalypse. Then we went swimming in the river which was really cold first I went body boarding with Amy then we went on the rope swing. Aidan didn’t want to do it so I got ready to do it but I slipped just above the water and it was actually really fun. So I did it again I slipped but I let go too late and bashed my knee which feels much better now. Then we went back and Amy and I made rainbow cupcakes while the boys were out building a den. Then when they came back we put yucky stuff into their water to get them back for the other pranks. Then we said goodbye and went to see some other friends.

Then we met some friends of ours called Benjamin and Toby. They were really fun to play with. It was really funny to watch and help them out when fighting each other. Then we spent quite a while playing a game called Geometry Dash making levels for each other. One of my favourite parts was sleeping in a tent outside with Benjamin and Toby for two nights. The next day we went to church after that we had lunch then played some darts which I really enjoyed. Aidan was with Toby and I was with Benjamin. Aidan and Toby weren’t that good whereas Benjamin and I were very good. Later that day I showed them my back bend and asked them to try and do a bridge. I have to admit that they weren’t that good though I know that they did their best. Then we had dinner with Auntie Elspeth and some of her friends which was delicious. Then the next day she came to say goodbye to us which I thought was very kind.

After that we went to see Hannah and Alethea. Hannah is 9 and she had an adorable pet rabbit plus a swimming pool! Then we spent the rest of the day chatting. The next day we went up a mountain and went exploring. Then we went to get a fresh fruit ice cream. Then when we got back we went swimming in their pool. Which was so much fun. Then we went back to Auckland and the next day we went to the Zoo which was so cool we even saw Kiwis. Then the next day we said our goodbyes and hopped onto the plane.

 

Megan’s Memories

Last time we went to New Zealand was when I was three and I had some memories from then. Here they all are.

My first memory was the rainbow car wash. We did it while Aidan was at school which was really cool. The main reason why I was so happy was because in Scotland we only sometimes have a two-colour car wash and that’s only for special occasions.

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My second memory was my ballet class. It’s directly across from the awesome rainbow car wash. I loved it so so much it was probably my favourite thing I did in New Zealand when I was three. Then when it was time for us to leave New Zealand my teacher was devastated. She kept saying to mummy that she had to send me to a good dancing school back in Scotland. Which she did and look were I am now, about to do my ballet exam and go into grade 3.

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Another memory I have is when I went to kindergarten. I made my only friend there her name was Lily and she was so kind to me. Also Aidan was friends with her older brother sadly though we can’t remember his name. 🙁

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My final memory was in Nan and Grandad’s back garden. When Aidan and I were picking their delicious lemons from the tree. I also remember the trampoline they have very well. I Love Nan and Grandad’s back garden so much because it’s just so adventurous.

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New Zealand – A Trip Down Memory Lane [Part 3]

Coming to New Zealand has been such a fun experience, and it’s been great to see so many things that I remember from when we were last here. I have enjoyed seeing all the similarities and differences from what I remember – so I decided to write them down into a blog post – enjoy Part 3 of the series – a special, Meadowbank Memories edition!IMG_4705.resized

The ‘Duck Bridge’
I have good memories of crossing this bridge on our 10 minute daily walk to school. The wooden bridge was fairly narrow, it could probably fit 2-3 people side-by-side, and was about 30m long; but what made it very interesting was that 1. It was over a tidal marsh – water at high-tide, marsh at low; and 2. When we were crossing over it as a marsh, a group Puekekos (a beautiful, large, blue-feathered and red-legged marsh bird) would also be searching for food. On days when we had a little spare time we would often stand quietly looking down to watch them feeding, and for old-times-sake we did it again on our visit – they may never have been in a ponga tree (Kiwi 12 days of Christmas – Warning: Auto-play Music) but it was always lovely to see them – when the gate of the basin allowed the tide to go down, which is done less often now. We had to go elsewhere to see our Puekekos, which, of course, were still not in a Ponga tree – they are wading birds that aren’t excellent fliers after all!

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Chicken Drumsticks
I remember many, many Saturday nights spent eating chicken drumsticks from a local shop in Meadowbank – nowadays I’m not really into takeaways, however, chicken drumsticks is probably something I could never get tired of! I remembered the corner just opposite the church we went to, it was quite distinctive and it helped us track it down, it was a lovely experience re-living our old family tradition one more time.IMG_4666.resizedIMG_4667.resized

Meadowbank Train Station
I remember the fun Megan and I had, running down the central platform, or the grassy bank at the side – waving frantically to the nice train drivers who almost always smiled and waved back, to us as they pulled out from the station. The station had two lines which split around the central platform, there was no point having two platforms as there would need to be two bridges, plus the station was only accessible from the one side. I remember going on the train into Auckland city, and the fun and excitement the train held for me and Megan in those days – usually the train meant an evening out, a trip up the Sky Tower, or a tour of the city, but it was always fun seeing how Auckland’s City transport worked.

[This is my last memories post – but hang on! Expect a Part 4 from someone else, who is it – nobody knows…]

New Zealand – A Trip Down Memory Lane [Part 2]

Coming to New Zealand has been such a fun experience, and it’s been great to see so many things that I remember from when we were last here. I have enjoyed seeing all the similarities and differences from what I remember – so I decided to write them down into a blog post – enjoy Part 2 of the series!

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Sky Tower
My memory of going up this building, the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere, was fairly vivid – and it’s been a big ‘Want to do’ thing for me. I remember standing near the base of the building, giving the sense of the immense size of it, looking at a massive pillar of concrete in the foundation and realising it was one of 16, and then going up the lift, which took quite a while to ascend the first proper floor after the elevator shaft – I hadn’t remembered the glass floor in the lift, though! One of my favourite memories of the sky tower was probably standing on the glass flooring and looking down more than 150m to the city below, but I also enjoyed watching the sky jumpers flying off the tower on a rope and a harness – there was a countdown timer by one of the windows so we could be ready to watch.

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Waiwera
Waiwera, a place where there is a swimming pool for almost anything you can imagine – warm pools, hot pools, very hot pools, baby pools, slide pools, even a Movie pool – you probably wouldn’t be surprised if you found a back-filp  diving into free Wifi pool!!! -so wish that was a thing! I have fond memories of spending an afternoon relaxing and swimming, changing pools whenever it suited – it was a brilliant experience and I’d been looking forward to doing it again. One of the things I remembered best was the slide tower, which you had to climb up to do the big flumes, of course, I only remember the little slide as I was too small – but, this time I got to go on one of the massive, twisting slides. It was very exciting speeding down, slowly at first, then faster, then faster, then eerily fast, then, when you were wondering if it would ever stop – SPLASH!! -you were slowed down to a halt in what felt like less than 2 seconds. I had a lot of fun swimming there, though some of the pools were just too hot – the more than 48°C Lava Pool was definitely too hot by some way, at least for us – but on the whole it was an amazing experience!

Sugar Cane
Another memory, as well as something I’ve really been looking forward to is eating raw sugar cane, very tasty and unusual, it’s just a shame you can’t get them in Britain. When we had them on our 6 month visit, we had some large bought cane – this time when we had it we ate some relatively narrow sugar cane grown in Nan an Granddad’s garden. Sugar cane is certainly very sweet – but often the best things are hard to get at: it took quite some time to work out how to dissect it to eat it!

New Zealand: A Trip Down Memory Lane [Part 1]

Coming to New Zealand has been such a fun experience, and it’s been great to see so many things that I remember from when we were last here. I have enjoyed seeing all the similarities and differences from what I remember – so I decided to write them down into a blog post – enjoy Part 1 of the series!

Coloured Traffic Light Arrows

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One of the first interesting things I remembered I saw as we drove over to our wonderful cottage from the airport were the coloured traffic light arrows, unlike the boring green ones we have back home. The traffic lights at a relatively busy junction had red and orange arrows, as well as the usual green ones, which I thought was really exciting to see – though it must be quite mundane for people who see them daily. I remembered the lights from the reasonable amount of driving we did in Auckland when we stayed for the 6 months in 2009; however, despite the orange and red arrows being really cool – but couldn’t they stay green just a bit longer!?!

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‘Tunnel’ Between the Armchairs
This memory was a more family related one, being at Nan and Granddad’s house, reminding me of all the fun Megan and I had when we went to their house on a Thursday after I finished school. Between the two armchairs in the lounge in their house was a gap underneath the chair’s arms – about big enough for a P1 5-year-old, but maybe not a S1 12-year-old (see selfie above)!! When Megan or I weren’t hiding there in a game of hide and seek, Nan and Granddad’s cat Bobby used to sleep or rest in there.

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Dunkin’ Donuts
I remember Dunkin’ Donuts as being a small shop, just part of a small square building off one of the main roads, I remember that they sold delicious donuts (which you can probably already tell from the name), and also that we visited many times. From what we saw, it hasn’t changed much – but I don’t remember the violent downpours of rain trying to stop us from getting into the shop! We often used to stop there, usually on a Saturday to get some donuts to eat for morning tea.

Our New Zealand Holiday so far

When we arrived on Saturday we went to our awesome house and unpacked. Then we went to Nan and Grandad’s house and we spent a lovely afternoon with them. Then on Sunday we were going to go to church, but we were too tired so we stayed at home. Then we went to Nan and Grandad’s to see Auntie Heather and Uncle Martin. We had a lot of fun playing Qwirkle, but sadly I lost. Aidan won the game and Auntie Heather came second.

On Monday we went to Mission Bay with Auntie Heather and Uncle Martin. We went swimming in the sea and Aidan and I went foraging for shells and I kept finding oyster shells. Then we also had ice cream, despite the fact it was melting extremely quickly – it still was delicious. It was really fun and I really enjoyed it.

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Selfie at Fairy Falls, Waitakere Ranges

Then on Tuesday we went to the Waitakere Ranges (the NZ rainforest near Auckland). We had a lovely walk through and we saw a beautiful waterfall as well as a massive kauri tree. Then later on we went to a place in Meadowbank and we got some chicken drumsticks (they were the best chicken drumsticks I had ever had).

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Us in the Waitakere Ranges (Fairy Falls track)

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The Summer Gravel Snowman (wearing my new hat!)

Then on Wednesday Nan and Grandad had an appointment to go to and Daddy was going with them. So while they were gone Auntie Heather, Aidan and I did some marbling and we made 16 really pretty sheets of marbling paper (it’s so easy to make hundreds!). Then for afternoon tea we went to Dunkin Donuts where Aidan got a cinnamon donut and I got a chocolate donut.

The next day was Christmas Eve and we went to Sylvia Park shopping centre for some last-minute shopping. I got a pair of gorgeous kiwi paua shell earings and necklace. Then Aidan got a mini Maori carving that had paua shell eyes. Then for lunch Mummy and Aidan had delicious sushi. I had got my lunch from Oporto (take away fried meat shop) and got  delicious chicken drumsticks and chips (Again I know!).

Friday was CHRISTMAS AT LAST!!! First we opened our stocking presents and I got my first ever pair of dangly earings. Then we went over to Nan and Grandad’s house for Christmas lunch it was delicious. Then later that day two of Daddy’s friends came over and we had a lovely walk along the beach. We also had a walk through the water and discovered it was really warm so we all walked through the water.

Then on Boxing Day we went to Meadowbank and visited my kindergarten and Aidan’s old school. Then in the afternoon we went to Panmure Basin and walked all the way around it. Then in the evening we went to Tahuna Torea (a beach) and Aidan and I went swimming in the sea (it was lots of fun). Then we went to see the lights and we also drove up to One Tree Hill. 

Then on Sunday we went to church and we had a lot of fun. [I’ll tell you more about our afternoon in another post].

Today, Monday, we went to Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Centre. It was a lot of fun we saw lots and lots of penguins. Then we saw some elephant sharks wich looked very cool. Then we saw lots of fish and we also saw some sharks too which was absolutely awesome. Then after that we saw some awesome sea horses and we saw some species I had never seen before. Then we had a look at some star fish, I even got to hold one!

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Mr Shark

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This was AWESOME! (megalodon shark)

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Just chillin’