New Zealand - leaving!

We both did the Sam workout, which was tough. He's much tougher on arms and shoulders than Jillian. We packed our bags properly, getting all the floating car things into them. Then we went to the nearby Ziera headquarters and outlet, the mecca of orthotic shoes.

I bought these 2 pairs, a sensible yet cool black pair, and a fun red pair marked down a lot—50% off second pair. So two pairs for NZ$115, definitely worth a visit.

Elsie checked out local shopping and in the city there is a warehouse converted into a few crafty shops. It's not quite as alive as it needs to be but we found Kapiti ice cream to eat, and Elsie chanced upon some vintage plates she is always looking for—as decoration in this dress shop. Fluke!

We walked down to the fish markets and the Darling Harbour type area, into the city and then back to the car and back to the airport.

We got exit row seats! :O We felt guilty because of George, but it was an Airbus so there were so many exit row seats. We lived it up. It was cold so we snuggled under blankets.

Mum and dad picked us up from the airport and dropped Elsie home and it was great to talk to them all the way back to Maitland. A perfect journey home after a great holiday. The End.

New Zealand Friday!

We booked a Waitomo cave adventure with Cave World. We got $40 off with a code—maybe we should have looked for promotional specials for all the things we did! Oh well.  Anyway we are on the right there in our group photo. It was a diverse group of people from different countries and 4 retired people from the US who were very game.

We had a short trek over the caves first.

Then down steps into the beginning of a long cave that gradually got watery and then deep water and has 2 waterfalls in it. We started with a lesson in glow worms. These are there invisible webs lit by flash.

This is a formation that is apparently shaped like a foot and a whistle.

In the water we were linked into a floating train, going backwards, and when the camera wasn't flashing at us we were floating in complete darkness lit only by the glow worms on the cave roof.

This is an action shot of someone jumping backwards off a waterfall and landing on their ring. Pretty scary but you don't want to hold people up so you just do it.

The next scary bit is this slide, which is forwards, but much worse.

Then you just swim/float your way out, climb up a lot of stairs, ride back to the change rooms and have a shower.

We had lunch at a cafe which was one of our fancy meals. Crispy veal and prawn sliders and also a salad.

Then we headed on up to Hamilton and met up with the Lilleys who moved over from Maroubra last year. This is Isaac their big fat 3 month old.

They took us to a local berry farm where you get fresh mixed berry ice cream, and it was very good. Would not feed to dog. Would have a second one but they closed.

Then we went for dinner at a Turkish restaurant. It was an encouraging catchup.

We left at 7 and drove to Aukland to our last bnb, which was empty, we had the house to ourselves. It was good to have space to exercise and not disturb anyone, but there was no fresh milk and that sort of thing, and E couldn't resist culling expired sauces and organising the fridge. We did get a good review about our cleanliness. A good place to go with a family if you have time to do your own shopping and cooking, but a bit lifeless for us for one night.

Slept well though.

New Zealand Thursday!

We started with another round of Sam exercises, and packed up and drove a little way out of town to a Lavender farm, about 10am.

Bumblebees everywhere in NZ. I'm not really a fan. I walked down a path behind the farm and saw the lovely local river. Clear running water like you dont see in Australia.

Photographed some lichen. It's lichen heaven.

Then we went back into town to the tour headquarters and joined a group of Meridian engineers doing a team retreat activity. We rode in golf carts along railway tracks and through tunnels. 5 tunnels and back again. One tunnel is 1.5km long, and dug by shovel, and the track and tunnel are frequently blocked by land slides and trees, so it was all a bit of a pain to build and maintain, but stunning to ride on.

We had late lunch at a cheap local cafe, and I bravely ordered a paua fritter. A sea snail.

We visited an Alpaca farm on our way north again, this is the mums and babies which you can feed. They produce wool and knit jumpers and things on a knitting machine in the shop. Now have about 700 alpacas. They are nice animals.

And this is a few of the pets at our next airbnb. The hosts were out for dinner after we arrived, so even though it was just a bedroom in their home, we had it all to ourselves. We had a lovely dinner of salad and smoked salmon from the supermarket, and an early night.

New Zealand Wednesday.

My energy ran out somewhat on Wednesday. We were recommended to go to Lake Taupo, there are lots of things to do there. 

Some scenic driving.

It was a longer drive that we thought, and we ended up not having any energy to do anything. We saw a bendon outlet and decided to just browse the shops instead! It was the most shops we saw the whole time.

We ate our packed lunches by the lake.

I bought some merino/possum things in a shop, and we spent ages in a shop with very trendy but expensive clothes, almost buying some interesting pants, but instead I bought a plain orange shirt for $6 in an opshop. A farm shirt.

We visited a thermal spa on the way back, it was $10 for 20 min in this very hot private pool. I don't see the appeal, but it was relaxing afterwards, but it was very hot. I don't sweat much apparently.

We also swam in the public pool which is just warm. And then walked around looking at the thermal activity. This water was steaming and gently bubbling.

Apples in our backyard.

New Zealand Tuesday!

Woke up early (6am!!) and joined Elsie in Sam exercises. We had to get it all in early so that we got to Hot Water Beach in time for low tide. We got there, it was busy (crowds not shown) and hired a little spade and dug a spa in a spot with a few hot jets. It was futile, as the waves washed it away, but it was fun. Apparently there is a similar thing somewhere else near Waitomo, less known about, further walking. Wouldn't neccessarily recommend this activity, it's never going to be as glamorous as the photos.

Then we drove south to Matamata which is where Hobbiton is. Here is the bit where Gandalf drives into the shire!

Here is me with a human sized hobbit house.

Here is me with a hobbit sized hobbit hole. It's the beekeeper house.

Here is us in a hole!

Here is Bag End!

Notice the little doors in the hills.

This is Samwise's house!

This is the Mill, from the Green Dragon.

This is our refreshment in the Green Dragon. We met an older Dutch couple.

Really there were limitless photo opportunities.

We drove on to Taumarunui. Our airbnb was very comfortable and Maureen and Les were friendly and answered a lot of questions, like what is with the fences? I thought they were cute hobbit fences, but then they were everywhere. They run up and down the hills. I think they are sheep proof. The little posts in between the main posts are called battens. There are 5 wires too. Batten fences became an addiction.

They took us to a deep cutting for a road down to a river, and it was night, and we walked through it in the dark and the walls were covered in glow worms! Little green dots of light. Very special.

A big section of wall had slipped down, and that happened everywhere. I saw heaps of erosion, and land slipping onto roads was described as fairly common.