Good Morning to you all. Well, after several weeks (8 to be exact!) of living out of a bag and all sharing the same room! (all good fun I can tell you) we have finally settled in NZ. We have chosen a place called Papamoa which is a small village?! by the beach. The beach is 32km long, stretching from Mount Manganui to the north and on beyond our home. Papamoa is in the Tauranga District (in the Bay of Plenty), Tauranga being the city, harbour and port. It is all soooo relaxed here and we are well and truly chilled.
We moved in to our new home on Friday night and are all loving the space (rooms of our own!) and the fact that we can stay in one place for more than 2 days! However, I am not going to linger on the new house and the fact that the boys started school yesterday!!!! as that will all be in my next blog. And I promise it will be soon as we hope to be conected to phone and internet by the end of next week. I am at present using the facilities at our lovely local library!
So, now I will give you a brief tour of our trip around NZ over the last couple of weeks. The photo above is of our first stop, Taupo and the magnificent Lake Taupo with the mountains of Tongarriro
in the background. It was another! hot day when we arrived in Taupo so we all went for a swim in the lake. I have just heard from my friend Helen that she has booked to visit us in February to join me in the across Lake Taupo swim so here it is Helen........looks great doesn't it?! The Lake is 25 miles long and 17 miles wide but fortunately we will only be swimming across a narrow stretch that is 4.2km wide (PHEW!) Better get some training done now!
From Taupo we moved on to National Park and stayed in the chalet that we stayed in last year when we skied with fellow kiwis! Nige and Georgia. As you can see we went up the mountain and the boys tried to ski but there was something missing!!!
Well, Max was actually snow boarding - but of course you will have realised that! We walked up the mountain to the top of the first chair lift for fantastic views but didn't make it up to the crater lake (that's for next time!)
Onwards and south from National Park we finally arrived in Wellington at the home of fellow Blackburnians Ian, Trish and Luke. Of course the footie shirts where straight out of the bag (and worn all weekend!) to match Ian's car registration. What true Rovers fans!!! We had a fantastic time in Wellington, eating and drinking a little too much but with such fine food and wine how could we not???!!!!
We went to the beach and spent Sunday enjoying the City of Wellington and the fabulous waterfront. Another very chilled place -even Neil is relaxed now!
Time to move on again on Monday. A brief overnight stop in Palmerston North and then on to Napier for a couple of days. Had a trip out to a gannet colony on a trailer pulled by a tractor along the beach. Great fun day out and very educational too. Mum, you will be glad to know that it hasn't changed at all (not even a new tractor!) since we did the same trip all those years ago!
Our final stop was Rotorua where we can be seen at the top of the Gondala ride enjoying my
favorite ice cream......cookies and cream and hokey pokey! I have to say that now I have a challenge to train for I am having to cut back on my daily double scoop and limit myself to just two ice creams a week!!! Very, very hard I can assure you!! I think Tip Top sales have doubled since me and the boys arrived in New Zealand - wish I was a shareholder!!!
We had several rides on the 'luge' whilst at the top of the hill and have even bought yearly passes for the Gondala so that we can ride for free. Be warned....any visitors will be expected to join us and ride the luge - get your booking in now!
We finally returned to Papamoa and moved into our great house and so the story will continue......
6 comments:
Haere Mai, Haere Mai, Haere Mai o Aotearoa! Pleased that you are finally settled and have a place you can call home. I'm looking forward to tootling over the Kaimais to visit - probs in the summer holidays. Look forward to hearing aobut the little house on the prairie and school soon. Papamoa a village????? it's not exactly Pleasy is it?
Glad to see you're contributing to the NZ economy with your ice-cream habits-the views look better than Witton Park!
You're by a fine beach there-Nige thought it a wonderful place to catch up on a few zzzz's when the Balls took us there.
Glad its not Dunedin, might be tempted to visit you if you stay there!
Forgot to say we had the Ladies Christmas Dinner at the Butlers last night. Our depleted table of only 3 won the quiz, surprise surprise the prize was a round of drinks-Baileys Mmmmm-just topped off those 2 bottles of wine and the champagne cocktails nicely. Cheers
Hi there !! So glad that everything is working out for you and that you are having a great time along the way !!!
Wish that the view outside our window was just a little similiar to yours !!!....ours being dark,cold, extremely wet with a touch of sleet thrown in !!
great for running in !! By the way the ducks have been asking after you !!!!
Look after yourselves xx
Glad to get the update, was wondering how it was all going. Glad its going well. See what you mean about Neil - didn't know he had that full smile! You missed a good do for Jane's 40th - plenty of St Pauls mums there, all missing you. Caroline sang Jane a duet dressed as Alan Rickman from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (one of her ideal men apparently).... Had to be seen (and heard) to be believed. Things are revving up into the usual pre Christmas whirl here. Boys finish next week and then its a fortnight off for me too. Yippee! Hope you enjoy Christmas/summer!
Hiya Clare, nice to see you all having a wonderful and exciting time in New Zealand. You seem to be having a "whale" of a time. For the past few days we're having some great weather, Fingers cross lets hope it lasts. Keep up the blog. Speak to you soon.
Post a Comment