We got an amazing view over the lake from the top of the cable car and had fun racing down the hill on the luge.
On the way up
View from the top
Pies for the hungry boys
A trip to Rotorua wouldn't be complete without stopping off at the steaming pools in the local park.
Steaming mud pools
On Saturday, the boys and girls split up, the fellas heading down for some skiing at Mt Ruapehu, and the girls equally energetic in their wallowing in mud pools!
Happy as pigs in mud
To recover from all that exercising, the girls demanded that we take a trip to the Polynesian Spa on the edge of Lake Rotorua. The massages and soaking in hot water soothed the boys aching limbs.
Lakeside bathing
Lakeside bathing
We spent our last day together in Auckland, taking in views of the city from Mt Eden and a drive around the coast.
Mt Eden views
Revolutionary dining
We celebrated our last night together, Paul and Heather's wedding anniversary and Hannah's birthday in style, at the revolving Orbit restaurant (at the top of the Skytower).
Revolutionary dining
We bid a sad farewell to our friends, but really appreciated the big effort made to travel across the world to see us.
2 comments:
Firstly let me say a massive thank you to G&H for having us to stay and putting up with our mess in their spare room. We really miss you guys so it was wonderful to catch up.
I'll give a short summary of my version of our stay being as I enjoyed it so much. It started in Epsom, Auckland at G&H's house under the shadow of One Tree Hill. There is no longer a tree on it after an angry man with a chainsaw took it down. A sight to see I am sure. Our first night started with pizza and beer. I know you are thinking we should have saved the good stuff for the last night but as you can see G&H wanted to go to a god awful place very very very high off the ground. Terrible food so I was glad I got the pizza in early.
Next day we went up said One Tree Hill. From here you can see the Harbour Bridge which G&H will be running up and down when they do the Auckland half marathon. Should be no problem as they both seem as fit as Paula Radcliffe. Lets hope they remember to use the bathroom before the race and not during. Eh Paula?
We then drove down to Rotorua. This is possibly the smelliest place on earth. Here I learned what it was like to be a father when I woke up to the smell of baby poo in our room. After figuring out it wasn't me I then remembered where I was. It is pretty awesome though. The bubbling mud can be very amusing. I'd liked to have performed experiments with it on jelly babies but I was stopped from doing so. Humph.
Gareth and I then had an ace days skiiing where I had a few accidents. Not in my pants but it was a close run thing at times. I STILL have some bruises left over from that including a particularly purple one on my right knee. Anyway it was good to get back to skiing after a 13 year break. Must remember that I am not Alberto Tomba.
Next day as you can see, we rested our aching limbs in the Polynesian spa. Well thats what they thought anyway. Those pools need to come with a health warning. They are HOT. Skin is still regrowing on some parts of my back. Another tip for the spa is to always take some underpants with you when having some kind of massage or treatment. Its very embarrassing when you lie face up on the bench and the girl comes out from behind the towel and tells you that you are the wrong way up. Nobody ever told me that before.
We also got to share some of Hannah's brithday with her. She got spoiled rotten I tell ya. I wouldn't do it next year people. She wasn't grateful in the slightest. Threw her ipod shuffle to the ground in a tantrum of epic proportions. Just kidding Hanny! :-)
I will end this post now as I may or may not still be a little jet lagged and of course G&H may or may not want to remove this post from their blog. Cheers guys and thanks again.
Paul and Heather. But mostly Paul in this case.
Great blog, as usual, and great comment Paul! well we're looking forward to our little trip to NZ- can't wait for our mud bath!
Geraldine & Aloys
Post a Comment