Rotarua

The woman who checked us into the holiday park here in Rotarua went through the list of amenities, “tent site here, toilets and showers here, laundry here, swimming pool here, playground, boiling mud pit, hangi, steam cooker, access to the hot water beach….” I was still stuck on the boiling mud pit part, which happens to be located right next to the playground. Only in Rotarua is thermal activity like this so casual and every day.  When I took a walk through the city this morning I couldn’t believe the amount of boiling creeks, steaming rocks and amazing boiling mud pits. 

Rotarua has aquired the nick name “Rotavegas” for the sheer number of ways one can spend money in this town.  We didn’t hit the jackpot, per say, but we did play a few choices games.  Dan has been asking to do the luge since we did a mini campervan adventure to Queenstown earlier this year.  The boys thoroughly enjoyed their thrill seeking adventure, while Bertie and I enjoyed the view from the top of the gondola.  We also visited the Rotarua Museum and a thermal area located next to the events centre parking lot.  This afternoon we went to see the Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park.  The boys played at the playground here at the holiday park, but thankfully stayed out of the boiling mud pit.

Papamoa Beach Jumping Pillow

Jumping pillows are too much fun!  Bigger and better then a trampoline.  As you can see in these photos we all took part in the jumping fun.  Behind Dan you can see Norie and our tent, so we didn't have to go far to enjoy the two jumping pillows at the Papamoa Beach Holiday park.

Hot Water Beach

Hot Water Beach sounded like a perfect place for us to visit.  Two hours before and after low tide you can dig a hole in the sand and create an individual hot tub on the beach with the natural hot springs in the beach.  Unfortunately we didn’t time our visit to the beach with the low tide.  But that being said we still enjoyed a lovely visit, some good sand castle building and an exploration of the cave at the end of the beach.  The surf was up and a number of surfers were out enjoying the big waves.  I could sit in my lawn chair under our red and white stripped umbrella for hours and just be.  But the kids were soaking wet and we had more places to explore, so we packed up the van and headed north… next time we’ll get the tide right.

Pauanui

This is where we spent 4 nights in a holiday house on the Coromandel.  Pauanui is a lovely little beach side town with a stunning beach, which lucky for us, was just out our back door.  We happened to be right next to the airstrip, which was surprisingly busy, guess folks must fly down to their beach houses from Auckland?  Can you see in the photo on the bottom left that Josh has his sand shovel tucked into his shirt?  Armed and dangerous sand castle building machine....

Thanksgiving

This is my 6^th Thanksgiving in New Zealand and I still think it’s a bit odd to celebrate an American holiday in New Zealand.  Thankfully this year we had Dan’s mom, Bertie, with us to help celebrate.  We rented a holiday house in the town of Paunanui on the Coromandel Peninsula and it was a very relaxed celebration.  Dan was able to find a frozen turkey breast roast in Auckland.  We tried to stick to the traditional menu, but I’ll admit we didn’t go the whole nine yards.  We had roasted potatoes, kumara and pumpkin, garlic bread, salad, turkey with cranberry stuffing and gravy.  We toasted the meal with our last bottle of Rippon Pinot Noir from Wanaka.  We decided to just have Hokey Pokey ice cream for dessert, which I know is a bit of a crime since Thanksgiving is really about the pies.  What I love about having a destination getaway holiday, when no one else is celebrating with you, is that you can have a relaxed stroll down the beach or go visit the local library and read your children some books, because the Kiwis think it’s just a normal Thursday.   My next favorite bit is that fact that I made my divine left over Thanksgiving sandwich and then ate it the next day under an umbrella while sitting at the beach.

Auckland Museum

We picked up Dan's mom at the Auckland Airport yesterday and after a small issue with the campervan (a small diesel leak that needs to be repaired) were off tooling around Auckland city in our rented minivan.  We went to the Auckland Museum because I had taken the boys last year and Ben declared that it was his favorite museum in the whole galaxy.  The boys loved the volcano exhibit and the weird and wacky area.

Matheson Bay

Here are a few photos from our lovely stay at our friend Scott's family bach in Matheson Bay.  We pitched our tent on the deck, because one of the bedrooms was inside and the other one was outside, so we "camped" at the bach.  I love that the bach had the classic Kiwi feel to it, toilet out in the backyard, small cozy rooms cluttered with dusty books and dated magazines, cans and supplies on the shelves (some of them of them rather old, i.e. the Marmite jar the expired in 2001).  But the bach was a 5 minute walk to the beach with a fabulous ocean view in a quiet little area.  For traveling fools like ourselves, we really enjoyed having a base spot for a few days while we explored the Warkworth area.  The photos of Dan and the beer are from his tasting kit from the Sawmill Brewery in Leigh.  I liked that when I told the owner that since I keep dragging the family to wineries that I should let Dan take in a brewery and she replied, "yeah I think about 10 wineries to 1 brewery should be about the ratio."  While in Matheson Bay we went to the beach, the Farmer's Market, the Warkworth Museum, the public library, a few small walks...  I read an entire book...  Perfect!

Brick Bay Wines and Sculpture Tour

I keep dragging the family to different wineries through out New Zealand, but today we stumbled upon a real gem.  Brick Bay Wines and Sculpture Trail calls itself “art & wine entwined” and in addition to the super modern glass house tasting room suspended over a small pond there’s a 2 kilometer sculpture trail.  The trail leads past ponds, through forests and up and down several sets of stairs.  Some sculptures are hidden in the natural environment, while others stand proudly on the side of the hill. Ben is fairly keen on sculptures and really enjoyed the treasure hunt experience through the amazing gardens, constantly checking his map to see where we were on the path.  Dan and Josh stayed behind and Dan took a glass of their red wine to the sand box next to the playground. When we finished the sculpture tour I did a wine tasting and had a lovely chat with the woman working, as we happened to be the only people there at the time.  It was another fabulous winery experience, if you are every outside of Warkworth I would definitely say go check it out.  They say that the sculptures change fairly often (as they are all for sale), so it would be something you could go back and revisit more then once.

Building sand castle on 90-mile beach

We spent 2 nights at a holiday park in Ahipara at the southern part of 90-mile beach.  The first day we were there was hot, but the second day was overcast and kinda cold.  We still managed to get some beach fun in and if you look closely you'll see that Josh was sitting in the puddle of water.  We've acquired a few more sand toys and are perfecting our sand castle building skills.

Cape Reinga

We’ve made it to the end of the road and looked over the edge.  Dan had said before the trip that his goal was to go from the very bottom to the very top.  I didn’t expect Point Reinga to be so beautiful.  I’m still in awe of the amazing views we keep discovering around all these twists and turns.  We’ve driven a lot of miles, but we keep finding million dollar views.  The sea was an amazing green and blue color and you could see the waves where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean met, even on a calm day like today.  The photos don’t do justice to the special spot, so book your airplane tickets now and go have a look for yourself!  It’s a bit of a drive, but definitely worth it.

Bay of Islands

It's another e-postcard, this time from our lovely stay in Bay of Islands.  We realized, after a few too many meltdowns and a few wrong turns (literally, we drove through Auckland and yes I will accept some blame for why we got on the freeway the wrong direction) that we needed a break from our traveling.  So we rented a little 2 bedroom house at a holiday park in the Bay of Islands and it was lovely.  We needed those lovely things we all take for granted- like doors, couches, dining room tables...  It was nice to have a little extra room.  Fun to be a real tourist and do things like expensive boat rides.  In addition to the boat trip we made some sand castles on the beach, took a tour of the Waitangi Treaty grounds and played at the holiday park.  Great time had by all...  I will confess that the boys said their favorite thing one of the days was "watching tv."

Waipu Cove

Waihi Beach Jumping Pillow

Many of these photos are a bit out of focus, but I thought I’d include them in this collage so you can see the family fun we had on the jumping pillow.  These photos are from the Waihi Beach Holiday Park, one of the plushest holiday parks we’ve stayed in to date.  If you’re in the Bay of Plenty and need a nice holiday park to stay in this one fits the bill.  Not only does it have the normal jumping pillow, playground, 25 meter swimming pool, hot tub, family room complete with toys and an indoor play structure, a gym, beach access…  get this my favorite thing—the magazine stand in the laundry room full of trash mags! 

Ohope Beach

Greetings from Ohope Beach!  The Bay of Plenty is stunning, beautiful beach (I think the book says it’s 13 kilometers long).  We’re camped at the Ohope Beach Top 10 holiday park, which is lovely.  The boys are in heaven because in addition to the normal fun (game room, trampolines, playground) it also has a beach volleyball court (aka sandbox) and a pool with 2 hydroslides. That’s just what’s at the holiday park, it’s also on the beach.  I love that New Zealand beaches rarely have any people on them, so it feels like you’ve got the whole place to yourself.  I posted on my Facebook status that our travel agenda was “pool and beach” which was perfect.  We never even got in the car.  For a road trip that’s covering a fair bit of ground days where you don’t drive at all a real treat.  I will confess that the swimming pool was freezing, but the boys braved it for a brief play.  Dan jumped in the ocean, which he declared to be at least 5 degrees warmer then the pool.  I got to take a walk along the beach in the afternoon, always a treat to get some solo exercise time in.  We finished the day off with Dan’s stellar pizza.   

Wainui Beach & Waiotahi Beach

Here's a cute snapshot from our brief trip to Wainui Beach in Gisbourne.  My friend Cathie said we had to go, so we took the detour, checked it out, but it was cold and very windy, so we packed it in quickly.  Lucky for us the drive over to the Bay of Plenty gave us more opportunity to hang out on the beach with some sunshine!  The boys used a milk container to help create this awesome sandcastle.  Love creative thinking with limited supplies.

Mahia and Gisbourne

I think it's important to share that not all days go according to plan.  On Wednesday night we stayed in a holiday park in Mahia Beach, which is between Napier and Gisbourne.  It was a total dive, and an expensive hole.  The family gave the holiday park a thumbs down and Ben's comment was "it needs a lot of repair."  So Thursday morning we were up bright and early and out of there.  We arrived in Gisbourne and found the swimming pool, something we seem to be making a regular routine of.  Unfortunately for us the pool was only an outdoor pool and one of New Zealand's sunniest spots was cold, grey and windy.  The boys lasted about 10 minutes in the tiny kid section before they were chattering their teeth and miserable.  Later we decided to treat the boys to a sausage roll for lunch and I asked the lady at the i site for the best spot, and when we arrived at the Kitchen they were all sold out.  It was not looking like this was our day at all!  We decided to head to the Gisbourne Public Library and had a delightful visit there.  Dan and I got to do some online research for our Thanksgiving part of our trip and the boys happily read books and played with toys.  The few other bumps in our day included a huge rain storm on our freshly hung laundry outside and extremely loud children in a communal kitchen.  But then again, we knew this trip wasn't going to be easy right?  

Ben at the beach in Gisbourne

Josh taking a nap in Dan's lap at the Gisbourne Library

Napier

We've had a lovely visit in Napier.  We got to stay at the Morgan/Lew Top 10 Holiday park (aka Darryl, Yolanda and Gemma's house).  Yolanda still thinks we're crazy to sleep in a tent and live for 2 1/2 months with so few clothes, but other then that...  I think Ben & Josh needed a few days of a central location and a buddy.  

We took Gemma with us to the National Aquarium, which is great, very worthy of a visit if you're in Napier.  Ben's a speed freak when it comes to museums and attractions, forever thinking something cooler is around the corner.  The moving walkway through the aquarium with the sharks and sting rays is a real treat.  I told Dan about the similar exhibit at Sea World in San Diego that was wall to wall people, whereas we rode the moving walk way at least a half dozen times and we were the only ones there.

We had a lovely play at the playground on the Marine Parade and some fun wave watching, house building with drift woods.  

We decided to splurge, thanks to my grandmother's luxury fund, and went out to lunch at The Mission Estate.  It was delightful, but then I think sitting out on a lawn eating gourmet food while drinking wine sounds like a nice way to pass the afternoon.  The first photo shows Ben & Gemma doing some math work at the table, so we promise we're doing a small amount of school work on this trip.  Josh eating ice cream, no explanation needed there.  The bottom photo is the three of them playing with paper airplanes.

Fabulous time...  sad to leave.  But, more ground to cover, more places to see.  Now if only I could find a few more holiday parks with free internet, free laundry, buddy for the boys, home cooked meal, great company...

Ben on Photo Booth

Ben makes me laugh, he's a pro with the Photo Booth program and has master many of the special features.

North Island Travels

Here's a map of where we've travelled so far in our north island adventures.  So, since we landed in on the north island we’ve gone from Wellington, north up toMasterton, with a side trip to Castle Point on the east coast (see post card I made on blog) and then up and over to Palmerston North and then over to the West Coast.  We spent 2 nights in Wanganui and then drove up to New Plymouth and around Mt Taranki.  We then drove over the oh-so-windy World’s Forgotten Highway (see other postcard on blog) to the small town Taumaruni.  From there we went to Taupo and then back down to Napier.  

Greetings from Taupo