With Love from New Zealand

Good bye Pokeno! After a relaxing morning at our lovely rural Airbnb (we LOVED the  chickens squawking and a peacock calling, and a big dog named Meg padding around outside, it reminded me of my home growing up!)  We met our host Vita and her husband and son as we were packing to leave. Had a lovely conversation with them about their country and their family life.  For our last day here in New Zealand, we are heading back into Auckland, but had a short side destination we had to visit first…… We found out that there was a Simpson Strong Tie satellite office here in Rosedale, which is a suburb of Auckland! We went by to say hello. Who knows, one day we might be here!?  It could happen … And maybe THIS could be where we live … Beautiful Daisy covered lots for sale overlooking the green mountains in the distance… What more could we ask for? David made plans for our last day which included a 4 1/2 hour Whale and Dolphin Safari excursion on the bay .  Going on a Saf...

Back in Rotorua Again! Our flight was a short two hours from South Island back to North Island. We picked up yet another new car at the Airport for David to drive. I can’t tell you what a great job he’s been doing! If you’re new to driving on the left side of the road, it is a challenge, especially at the roundabouts. You really need a good “co-driver” to assist you in driving safely about. We drove the beautiful north island countryside towards our nighttime destination of Pokeno.  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21647098?viralityEntryPoint=1&s=76   We went rented a beautiful Airbnb that was totally rural outside the city. They had sheep and chickens and rabbits and a dog that was absolutely amazing.  During our entire drive to Pokeno, it was overcast and sometimes just a little bit drizzly. But 20 minutes outside of our destination it started to rain and rain and rain and rain. We arrived at our lovely, rural Airbnb destination. It was a cute little private room on the...

  Triple the Fun! OK, today we are going on a combination adventures. We will ride the beautifully restored heritage tram cars  through the town of Christchurch, getting off and on as places interest us. I totally forgot to take a picture of the tram so here is one from Google. But they look exactly like that! It was a busy day on the tram and it was a little difficult to hear the conductor teaching us about the history of the city of Christchurch because it was a little rattle trap car. very cool, but noisy! We chose to get off on one of the tram stops to have a coffee and a lovely breakfast.  We then walked through just a bit of the botanical gardens to get to our punting site . So, a punting trip is old school navigating down the Avon River. Punting  started back in 1917 and the people who work on this line are very strict about being traditional with  dress and function. We had a lovely punt down on through the botanical gardens in Christchurch. We saw many...

Happy Thanksgiving! Because of the time zone we are in, we are celebrating Thanksgiving a day ahead of all of our loved ones on the mainland. So, today we plan to go to an adventure through Viator called the Waipara Wine Trail Tour. We were supposed to meet our tour group at noon, but we drove into the city early to explore some of the sites. After we parked, we walked around a bit and saw many beautiful buildings with cafés and stores, tattoo parlors  and many stores decorating the streets below. A very eclectic mix of old world and new school You may not know, but New Zealand suffered a tremendous earthquake in 2010. It destroyed many buildings and they are still in the process of financing the rebuilding of many of their revere old architecture. As we walked around town, there was a very eclectic mix of older buildings and the new ones coming in as apartments and businesses. We met our group at noon and had a wonderful mix of people. Two gals were from the states, two gals were ...

  Rotorua Airport We left the town of Taupo and drove over two hours through the beautiful green countryside. Rolling hills and many wildflowers decorated our scenery enroute  to the Rotorua airport. We are heading to Christchurch (via plane), which is located about halfway down the south Island of New Zealand. The Rotorua Airport was very small, but lovely. Here’s a picture of it, and our Air New Zealand plane . We had about 90 minutes before our flight so we went to the little café and had a chicken pot pie, which was delicious with its pastry crust… and there were NO peas in it! If you know me, you know I HATE peas with a passion!  Dessert was a chocolate brownie with what looked like raspberry sprinkles on the top was our dessert. Yum! And David had a sit by seat number 51… Paying homage to the famous former Arizona Diamondbacks left handed pitcher, Randy Johnson! Boarded our flight on time and about two hours later after an uneventful flight landed on the South...

So, New Zealand is famous for its volcanic and geothermal mud pools and geysers and power. Many people see the steam drifting upwards from parks, riverbanks and drains, and it carries the unmistakeable scent of sulfur in the air.  Here is a photo from the Internet showing Rotorua Hot Springs. During this trip, I have met many people who have enjoyed these mud baths and hot pools, but totally had to scrub for hours to get the smell of sulphur off their bodies lol. David and I were not enticed to try any of these attractions.  This photo was also copied from the Internet, showing a mud bath at Hell’s Gate, New Zealand. But long story short, whereas these hotspots need to vent, so do I… I was NOT planning to blog this adventure, but once I got here and remembered how busy every day was and all the amazing things that I would be seeing and doing, I knew I would not remember it all. So I started my blog. My venting comes in because I have a LITERALLY spent hours every single day tr...

Goodbye Tauranga Time has been flying on our trip. We said goodbye to our lovely barn loft, and now we are off to Taupo.  On the way to Taupo, we will be stopping at a wine tasting room at the top of a mountain. We have to take a gondola up to Volcanic Hills winery. The road was winding and the scenery was breathtaking. We saw rolling green hills dotted  with  sheep and cows and wildflowers by the hundreds.  Started to get hungry before we hit the winery so we stopped in the town of Ngongohata and had breakfast at a delightful place called Cafe Dynasti. It was decorated with beautiful artwork and positive messages. We took the advice of the lady at the counter and I ordered a ham and cheese pie.  It had layers of not only ham and cheese but also spinach, tomato, and crispy phylo dough. Yum! David’s was good, but not as good as mine!  Our stomachs were happy and we were ready to try some wine. The location was only about five minutes past our restaurant, and...