Last two weeks in NZ
Trip Start
Apr 29, 2002
1
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Trip End
Apr 28, 2003
Whangarei/Auckland, New Zealand
Monday, March 31, 2003
After a pleasant, early morning flight back to Auckland Tim collected us from the airport. We went back to his house to collect Paula and Katrina and then set off on our way back to Whangarei and Eileen's house again.
We arrived just after lunch and spent the afternoon catching up. In the evening Eileen took Alison and I to the ballet. The New Zealand National Ballet were touring to celebrate their 75th anniversary hence the title 'Tutu's on tour'. We had very good seats at an excellent performance. It was a mixture of traditional and modern ballet with lots of short stories rather than one long ballet.
We spent the rest of our week at Eileen's relaxing, reading and solving crossword puzzles, trying desperately to get our brains working again as 'going home and getting a job' was looming ever nearer!!!
On 22nd March we had to pack up again and after a very tearful goodbye left Whangarei and Eileen for the last time, well on this trip anyway, to return to Auckland to spend our last week in New Zealand with Tim, Paula and Katrina.
Thank You Eileen for having us and also our trip to the ballet, we both really enjoyed ourselves, I know you did although I hope we didn't wear you out too much!!! Have a nice time at Paul's in Sydney and hopefully see you in England shortly!!!!!
Saturday 22nd March to Wednesday 26th March
We arrived back in Auckland to be collected yet again by Tim and Katrina, I would have thought they had had enough of us but apparently not!!! We went to the local Italian restaurant in the evening for a meal, Tim drove and us girls drank the wine for a change!!!!
Sunday, Tim took us all for a tour of Auckland, we drove all along the western shore, the views of the city were fantastic even if the weather wasn't! We then headed to Titirangi (I have spelt that correctly!!) for lunch and then onto Piha Beach for a walk. The beach here is black sand (volcanic) and the surf is good, one of the best surfing beaches in Auckland, hence the surf competition going on as we walked along the beach.
Ali spent most of the next two days typing the previous travelogue, in between making the most of the sun when it shone, reading, cooking dinners and making cakes. I did the same apart from the typing. We both spent Wednesday washing clothes etc. getting ready for our girlie long weekend away.
Thursday 27th March to Monday 31st March
Paula, Katrina, Alison and I set off in the morning bound for Mount Maunganui in Tim's car, while Tim went to work in Paula's sporty red number!!!
We arrived just after lunch in the pouring rain at a beautiful apartment on the 5th floor with an ocean view. The wind was howling and the great view was spoilt by the rain, but we were in a luxury apartment so who cared? The weather cleared up long enough for us to walk around the base of Mount Maunganui, it was nice to get some fresh air and exercise. We then went to the hot salt-water pools, which are supposed to be very theraputic, certainly relaxing! After a quick shower and glass of wine we went to a very nice 'trendy' restaurant for a meal and a few more wines!! Back to our 'luxury' apartment to listen to the wind and rain all night!!!
We left reasonably early on Friday morning to head for Rotarua, an area of geothermal activity or to us laymen, an area of boiling mud, water and steam that absolutely stinks of sulphur the whole time!!!! The weather hadn't improved and it rained all the way there and for most of the rest of the day!! Our best option was to spend the afternoon being pampered in the Polynesian Spa pools. The water here comes out of the ground heated, some of the pools are so hot that after a few minutes we had to get out!! We spent a good few hours here, I think we were all gradually getting used to the smell. Tim had again booked us into a very nice motel, so after eating out, we returned to our unit to sit in our private spa pool with mud face packs, drinking bubbly - heaven unless you are only 9 and have to go to bed, sorry Katrina!!!!!!! Yes we did take photo's but only 'the chosen few' will see them!!!!!!
Saturday, with the sun shining at last, we went to Wai-o-Tapu (sacred waters) Thermal Wonderland. We watched the Lady Knox Geyser erupt, apparently today it was exceptionally good due to the amount of rainfall they had had in the last few days - lucky us!!! We then walked all around the reserve, with steam coming out of holes in the ground, boiling mud and very colourful sulphur deposits, it really needs to be seen and smelt to be believed, mother nature can be really strange at times!!!
As the weather was so good Alison decided to do her long awaited tandem sky dive while Paula, Katrina and I made the most of the sunshine and spent the afternoon by the pool, even though it looked like a 'frog pond' - the water was very nice, if not a bit hot and it wasn't even heated!!
Alison rang us to say we could watch her sky dive if we wanted to, so we dragged ourselves away from the pool and headed for the local airstrip to find Alison dressed in a rather sexy all in one pink tie-dyed suit!!! We watched the 'jumpers' before Ali but had to leave, as we were all being picked up at six to go to a Maori concert and Hangi. We left Ali on her own - hopefully we would see her later!!!
At about 5.50pm our door burst open and Ali came rushing in with rosy cheeks and full of her experience. She had had a great time, worth every penny (and it wasn't cheap!) the only bit she didn't seem to like was hanging out of the plane before they jumped as she said it seemed as if she was just dangling, but I'm sure when you are strapped to a hunky man, even that isn't too bad!!! She certainly got a big high during the free fall 'it just makes you scream'. Ali paid to have a video made of her jump, so those that don't believe she did it can see the proof. And yes Ben, she was conscious all the way through!!!!!!!
We made our Maori concert and Hangi on time. We had a very good evening watching the locals perform. We got to see a 'live' performance of the Haka and I can see why opposing teams find it intimidating. Ali and Katrina managed to get dragged onto the stage to have a go at Poi Maori style and we all had our photo taken with the local Maori chief.
Sunday we had to pack up and make the long journey back to Auckland - we are really on our homeward leg now.
Today we have packed up our rucksacks, almost for the last time, tomorrow morning we have an early flight to Fiji. If you hear nothing from us for the next 19 days please don't worry, some of the islands in Fiji only have electricity for a few hours everyday, so I am sure they won't have e-mail although you never know!!!!
Thank you to Tim, Paula and Katrina for letting us use your house/bedroom as our own, we have really enjoyed staying with you, I hope it hasn't been too bad!!!
See you all on 29th April!!!!!
Lots of love,
Lou and Ali
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Happy Birthday to Judy on the 9th, Macey on the 13th and Jo on the 17th.
