Happy Christmas to all and to all a good morning..

December 25 - Auckland

It's the evening of the 25th here.  We've had stockings, presents, a ham dinner and of course, the obligatory beaching!  It has been a different Christmas for us, but we've come up with our own Canadian-Kiwi hibred.  

We arrived in Auckland on the 22nd, after a rather pretty, though perplexing drive from Coromandel.  The road is a pretty one out of Coromandel town, hugging the coast at close to sea level.  It winds and twists along the shore, wrapping around like a thin ribbon colouring the trim of the coast.  The speed limits, however, are perplexing.  I'm not sure what car could possibly take those twisty, narrow roads at 100 kms/hour, but it sure ain't anything I've ever driven.  Perhaps it's linked to the Kiwi common sense, noting that if you can't safely go that speed, you won't.  That said, when we reached the main North Island highway (Highway 1), we were a tad surprised to see that "for safety reasons", they decided to recently introduce a limit of 90 on straight, wide roads!  I've become convinced the 100 kms/hr speed limit is a massive joke on the tourists.  Kiwis everywhere are watching, and laughing their arses off, beer in hand of course, over the fact that tourists are trying to hit 100.  "Hey mate, sweet as.  Here's come another trying the corner!"

Coming into Auckland, the first thing we hit was a mall for Christmas shopping and a visit with Santa.  Not surprisingly, a couple days before Christmas, the mall was a zoo.  However, I didn't find the shops all that busy and it wasn't hard to get service, so it's all relative.  We'd been told that Auckland actually empties out for the Chirstmas holidays, and most of the locals we've talked to or overheard were heading out of town.  The Christmas holidays kick off the summer season here (sort of like the July long weekend back home), so everyone heads out of town for camping, cottaging or general summer merriment.

The kids decided they wanted to get Christmas haricuts, which I thought was a good idea too.  So, I sent them off with Kohji.  That is the last time I send them off with Kohji for a haircut.  He decided against the place that would have charged $40 each (admittedly that is a bit much for a kid's haircut), but opted for the place across the way that charged $10.  Let's just say, a $10 haircut is a $10 haircut.  I leave you to be the judge, but suffice to say, the crooked pageboy will not be a continuing trend in our house.  Between the hair, the goose-egg on Ren's forehead (slipped on a cement structure) and the multiple bug bites around Kiyomi's face (last night in Coromandel a couple mossies made a meal out of her face), the kids look more like they're ready for Halloween than Christmas.

Other than Christmas prep (including shopping for Christmas dinner groceries in shorts), we've been exploring Auckland a little.  We checked out the Kelly Tarlton's Aquatic Adventure, which is basically an aquarium with a colony of king penguins that you get to visit from the comfort of a simulation snow cat.  The highlight was the snow cat for the kids - we even lined up a second time.   After the aquarium, we checked out the Mission Beach area, which is just along the bay.  I will say Aucklanders are pretty spoiled for beaches.  This was a lovely white sand beach, with green space, across the road from a couple blocks of cafes and restaurants.  And we did a little shopping along Parnell - which has some galleries and small shops.

Auckland is also home to what I consider to be the world's cutest neighbourhood.  A short ferry ride across the sound is Devonport.  Stepping off the ferry is like stepping into a little seaside cottage town.  It's almost shocking to look across the harbour and see a thriving international metropolis.  There are a few blocks of shops and restaurants, including a tiny little movie theater, but it's the houses that really give the neighbourhood its feel.  Curlicue carvings, lattice work, flower gardens, small lots with shell coloured houses and welcoming lawns nestled against North Hill.  The Hill itself is parkland (although it includes the abandoned Second World War naval garrison as a historic site) and provides for beautiful 360 views of the bays that make up Auckland and the islands beyond.  The garrison even still has the gunnery tunnels which can be explored.

In our travels, we have managed to pick up the smallest little Christmas tree in the world that can still be called a tree (it stands about a foot and a half tall), which we have decorated with shiny purple garland and, what else, shells.  We hung stockings (a surfing Santa for Ren and a kiwi with flip-flops for Kiyomi), left cookies for Santa and read "The Night Before Christmas" (found it online).  

Christmas day broke bright, sunny and rather warm (the warmest day so far I'd say).  The kids jumped up with excitement at a fairly reasonable hour, and we opened presents, called the folks, made bacon and eggs for brunch, grabbed the giant candy canes from the stockings and ... packed off to the beach, along with the remainder of Auckland. Unlike back home, it would seem that people go places on Christmas day.  We actually hit traffic on the expressway and there was a traffic jam trying to get into the parking area for Long Bay beach.   The beach itself was busy, but not what I'd call packed by North American standards.

We found a spot on the beach surrounded by make-shift cricket and rugby pitches and, of couse, Kohji and the kids promptly set about digging a big hole in the sand.  I watched the non-pounding version of rugby (it involes resting the ball on the ground under your legs when you're tagged for a teamate to pick-up), saw families with bbqs exchanging presents, drooled at the vats of masala and rice being served by others and generally soaked in the Kiwi Christmas experience.  We even saw one familu hauling a Christmas tree our of their truck!  

And now, we've nibbled on candy and nuts all day, showered off the sunscreen and sand, cooked Christmas dinner (we're staying in an apartment hotel, so were able to bake a ham, mash some potatoes, and have an apple crumble for dessert), popped Christmas crackers (painted with a kiwis and a tui birds of course) and tumbled away from the dinner table feeling bloatedly satisfied.  So, it was our own version of a Kiwi Christmas - mainly Canadian with the beach thrown in for good measure.  

It's been fun, but I do miss the chaos of a true Miller Christmas.  It's not quite the same if I can't hear John Prine bellowing "Christmas in Prison" at 100 decibels above safe human hearing levels with mom cooking enough food to feed a small country and the kids in total sugar overload.  Here, all we have is the sugar overload part!

As we head to bed, you'all are about to start your day of merriment, so a very happy Christmas to you.  We're thinking of you and miss you much.

Of note:  Ren has picked up a couple of expressions on this trip which kill me everytime he utters them.  The first is "atually", and the second is sirous - as in "Mommy, kiwi poo atually (aka actually) chocolate, ya sirous (serious)".  He's been using these constantly and it cracks me up everytime.

New haircuts... sigh...

Making snow angels in Auckland

The snowcat ride...

... and the penguins

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree

Twas the night before Christmas

Gift opening

Auckland skyline (from North Head)

The scene of Ren's goose-egg

Christmas beach ready

Candy canes on the beach

Christmas dinner (it's a family picture, you can see my and Kohji's feet)

Kiwi quirky

December 21 - Quirky Coromandel

The next day, we truly experienced some Kiwi quirkiness.  It would seem that engineers run amock in Coromandel.  Our first stop, Driving Creek Potteries and Railway.  The simple story behind this is that a few years back, a rather eccentric Kiwi decided to become the first full time potter in NZ, so he bought a plot of land on the side a mountain in the Coromandel which happened to have really good clay in it and he set up a workshop, kilns, etc, and opened it up to other potters.  A railway enthusiast, he set about setting up a narrow gauge railway in order to bring the clay off the mountain.  Clearing dense native brush, scroughing for steal, laying tracks and even building a couple of tunnels and turn around points - he did it all himself.  The project, however, seemed to keep growing and now, in 2011, it's a popular tourist attraction with a 25 minute train ride through native NZ forest that brings you up to a view station at the Eyefull Tower (I couldn't make that one up if I had wanted to).  Along the way are little alcoves of pottery displays from potters who have worked over the years in the workshop - lizards on tress, collages on tunnel walls, statues peeking at you from the brush, peaceful scenes of characters resident along the tracks.  It now exists as a non-profit organization whose purpose is to offer workspace for local and visiting potters and protect the native bush (they have even eradicated non-native species of rodents and plants).  The bush is filled with Kauri, Silver Ferm and is a wonderful example of North Island nature.  The potter who created it all lives in a small room about the workshop and, at 76, climbs up the path/stairs up the mountain and walks down the tracks to make sure all is in order.  

The kids, of course, loved it.  Ren in particular was in love.  So much so, that when the train reached the top and everyone got out to climb the Tower, he insisted on staying beside the train and kept yelling up to everyone in the Tower - "Come on guys, let's go!"

But, the Kiwi quirkiness wasn't over yet.  Our next stop was the Waterworks.  This place could only be described as engineers run amok.  It's an 'amusement' park I suppose, but not the traditional kind.  The main theme is water powered amusements - mainly from a source that sits on the little mountain above the property.  The amusements include some of the traditional things, like water cannons, but throw in a water spurting rocking horse, water connext (I don't know how else to describe it), a flying bicycle, a couple zip lines.  Unlike anything you'd of this ilk that you'd experience in North America, there weren't any barriers or attendants, it was all self-serve.  You wanted to go on the zip line, you pulled the rope up the path and you went.   Definitely more of a laid back attitude overall here, and it comes through in places like this where the focus is more on having fun than litigation!

We ended the day by checking out Long Point Beach in Coromandel.  Awesome tide pools.  We managed to find sea anemones, star fish, all manner of barnacle, oysters, crabs and a plethora of shells.  The kids jumped from rock to rock, looking to see what was in the next one, and the next one, and the next one, while the sun set off in the distance.  

It's worth noting that we are now carting around about 10 pds of shells and rocks, and this would be the pared down collection.  However, they have come in a little handy (more on that later).

Steaming up the mountain... 

... and he couldn't be happier

 Not leaving the vicinity of the train for love or money

Example of the pottery 

A hand built tunnel

 Surprise at Waterworks

Harry Potter eat your heart out

 Hmm, kids hamster wheels...

 Don't worry, it was save at my end

Tide pool dance

Cathedral Cove

December 20 - Coromandel Town

Sun, glorious sun!  And none to soon.  Coromandel Peninsula is basically a beach summer beaching area.  Small towns, kitchy tourism, fish and chips, long, lazy  summer days.  We're told that half of Auckland comes up here for holiday, but thus we've managed to be just ahead of the holiday rush.

We started this morning by hiking the 30 minute walk into Cathedral Cove.  Getting there reasonably early in order to enjoy it at low tide.  The kids did surprisingly well given that there was some up and down.  Ren clutching a new big beach shovel, Kiyomi excited to be somewhere new.  The Cove is a little sheltered beach area that has become iconic in New Zealand (in part as it has been used for splashy ad campaigns for NZ travel).  It's got a relatively gentle descending sand bar (although the surf is strong enough) and at low tide you're actually able to saunter out to the massive rock formations just off the beach (by high tide, they are still reacheable, but you have to swim).  White sand, sun, surf - the kids were in heaven and wasted no time digging a great big hole (ok, well they got me to dig it, but it's really the principle of the thing).  

The beach is bisected by a stone archway that leads into another bay, equally beautiful, but with an even more dramatic rock formation.  The rock that makes up the formations has been eaten away by salt, and so appears almost porous (albeit with big honkin' pores).  The bases of the formation in particular are being slowly eroded so the formations sit perched on ever narrowing perches.  We spent a couple hours exploring, digging, generally beaching, and in that time, the beach filled up, including a flotilla of kayakers.  When we arrived (around 9:30), there were about 5 or 6 others on the beach.  We left behind maybe 50-60 people and passed another 30 or so heading in as we made our way to the car.  

In the afternoon, we headed to Coromandel Town. which more or less sits at the head of the Peninsula.  You may have noted that since being on the North Island, I haven't said much about the scenery.   While it is pretty, it is not as wildly dramatic as what we experienced on the South Island.  That said, the drive over the pass into Coromandel is worth noting.  Dense, green forests with a mixture of connifers and palms.  The palms provide a rather intricate layering and texturing to the forests.  They spread wide and fall gracefully, a contrast to the typical conifer which reaches for height.  After driving alongside this dense bush for a while, the blue of the coastal water jumps up as you come over the pass into Coromandel.  It's hard to believe that an ocean sits so close to that intense green.

In Coromandel, the kids played in a local park (Kiyomi making friends almost instantly with a little girl who's mom worked at the mini-putt across the street).  The vacation park is a little outside town, but as a rather interesting beach.  Literally more shell than sand, the tidal flat reaches out to well over 500 meters at low tide.  After dinner, the kids headed out there with pail and shovel, looking for sea creatures.  Snails and clam shells were the most prevalent, and they watched as snails clustered and writhed over a clam shell, seagulls swooped for easy pickins', and the ocean retreated for the night.  All in all, not a bad what to spend the evening.

Of note: the "cabin" we are staying in tonight is hilarious.  It is basically a campervan, but without the van part.  It's a small shack, probably the same size as our campervan if the cab could have been used as living space.  It even has the same design with the seating area converting to beds.  Adding to its weirdness is that it is the only cabin in the place and it sits right smack dab in the middle of the campervan field - plugged into a camper van outlet.

 Kohji in a happy place

Iconic shots at Cathedral Cove

Cool shadows

Playing in the tidal flat at aptly named Shelly Beach

 Kohji took about 100 shots to get these last 2

Good night from Shelly Beach

It finally stopped!

Well, we've been out of internet range for a few days, so I'll be posting a few in a row to catch up...

December 19, Hihei

It stopped raining.  Obviously, Santa was listening to me.  It would seem the whole country has been locked in a nasty bit of weather.  Northern parts of the South Island are experiencing flooding, and the talk of the weather has been a pretty consistent topic.  However, the next few days there seems to be reprieve and it was really nice to have a non-soggy day.

I actually woke up early so went for a run along Wahei Beach.  It really is a beautiful beach - nice flat sandbar, a treasure trove for shells, bisected by fresh water rivers flowing playfully to the ocean.  I also think it isn't all that busy, even in the midst of summer given that it's 9 kms long.  After my run, I ran into Ryan who was on his way to school (tooling around on his bike with a massive backpack on.  He was still complete chatty (I barely got two words in) and rather dissapointed that we wouldn't be back for Christmas, but he assured me if we came back there would be free video games in the kitchen area!

We decided to take advantage of the reprieve by trying a littke hike that started right at the far end of the beach.  At that end, there was a great little fresh water stream and somehow had hung an awesome rope swing from a tree.  It would have been idealic in better weather.  The hike was supposed to be a 30 minute walk to a smaller beach, and for the first 300 meters of so, I thought, wow, this isn't muddy at all (which I would have expected given the weather).  Serves me right for opening my big mouth, as about 100 meters after that, the mud started, and it got worse.  We squelched our way through as best we could until we got to a section that would have require complete mud immersion to get through.  I called it - no way I was going to be battling with two mud encrusted kids when there wasn't easy access to a shower. 

So, after the aborted walk, we cleaned off from the ankles down at the beach and headed for the next destination - Hihei.  The town itself is fairly small, but it sits near a couple of natural wonders and, of course, has a beach.  From the Hihei Beach, you can see the massive rock foremations of Cathedral Cove (more on that after we visit tomorrow), as well as a couple other captivating rock formations off the beach itself.

The kids played at the beach here for two hours, happily big holes in the sand and daring the waves to crash in.  When I was out there with them, I was wearing long pants and a fleece.  They sat in ocean water in their swimsuits.  Go figure...

This evening's adventure was Hot Water Beach.  It is an experience.  The beach itself is nice enough, but it's drawing card is natural hot springs on the beach.  We had read a couple things before arriving - bring a spade (for digging your hot pool in the sand) and don't expect to be alone.  The hot water is only accessible a couple hours either side of low-tide, and so, there is inevitably a crowd.  When we arrived, we weren't sure what to do until we saw the seething mass a little way down the beach.  On closer inspection, people were digging a cluster of holes in the sand.  There is stretch of about 100 meters where the naturally occurring phenonmenon takes place, and so you need to join the clusters to be able to get to the hot water.  And it is hot!  Parts of it are, in fact, too hot to even stand on (64 celsius according to the write-up). 

At first, I wasn't really sure what to think of the human gopher maze that seemed to be unfolding and was not too sure this was something I was interested in being a part of.  However, we finally wormed our way into a little section (ultimately sharing the hot part we had found with a family beside).  There are basically small areas where the sand is hot and it warms the sea water, so you can dig your our little hot tub.  Not sure what causes the pools, but it has something to do with carbon dioxide leaking out from under ground, heating the sand, which in turn heats the water.  The whole thing had a bit of a carnivalesque atmosphere with people seeking out their little plots, digging sand walls against the occassionally encroaching surf and generally working together to create a warren of hot tubs.  Reminded me a little of the main stage at the Winnipeg Folk Festival with a patchwork of humanity all staking ground, relaxing and generally there for a good time.  As I said, it was an experience.  It is also one of the top 101 things that every Kiwi should do (according to some list that keeps popping up in the tourism literature).

Of note - showering later that night, the skin on my knees was a little sensitive and I noticed large red blotches.  Seemed I had burned by knees on the sand while digging our little hot tub!

Silver Fern frond (Maori symbol for fertility and family)

The edge of Hihei Beach

Didn't let that shovel go for two days

Hihei Beach (I was standing on the same beach in pants and a fleece)

The spectacle at Hot Water Beach

Our "hot tub"

Ok, well, it was more fun than they make it look in this picture

Still raining...

December 18 - Waihi, Coromandel Peninsula

We're holed up in the little town of Waihi Beach, which actually has a lovely 9 km stretch of beach. Kohji has actually taken the kids up to beach despite the constant, drumming rain (this is the type of rain that has not let up at all for the past 24 hours, not even brief respites). The ground is soggy and saturated, ground squelching under foot, small ponds forming in fields. Generally, the kind of unremintent rain that starts to get to you, espcially when you're existing in a 10 X 12 room.

In fact, this is the type of weather we expected to encounter on the South Island, especially along the West Coast and down in Milford Sound. The North Island was purported to be all sunny skies and sandy beaches. Guess our weather luck ran out.

The last few days have been predominanly rainy. So we started out yesterday by checking out the Rototura Museum. We were a little skeptical as to whether it would keep the kids entertained - focus is on Maori culture and the sanitarium history of the hot springs. Turned out to be actually quite interesting, even for the kids. We learned about some Maori legends, including the one about the bird woman who fell in love with a Maori hunter and died chasing him through the hot springs, and a lot about the history of the area. It was used by the Maori in the fall and spring as a sacred area, with the hot pools deemed to have healing powers (as well as some of them being able to cook food). When Europeans arrived, they seized upon the health properties of the "baths" and from early on in European settlement, the area was seen as a tourist destination with hotels, sanitariums, taverns, popping up to care, feed and house the curious travellers. Interstingly, even in the late 1800s and early 1900s, showcased Maori culture was packaged as part of the tourist experience. The building which currently houses the Museum was originally built as a luxury bath house. Now it showcases Maori history and culture. The highlight was a short interactive movie which elaborates on Maori culture and how it intermingled with the early "bathhouse" market (there is a small surprise which I won't give away, but it's worth seeing the movie).

Emerging from the Musuem, it was still raining (and in fact while inside there had been some pretty powerful downpours). The forecast, in fact, for most of the Island was rainy for at least a couple of days. So, after a quick lunch, we hopped in the car and headed for points further north in the hopes of waiting out the weather closer up along the Coromandel Peninsula, which is where we sit now listening to the steady pitter-patter on the roof. About 45 minutes into the drive, we actually encountered sun and blue skies, but right about the time we parked the car here in Waihi, the clouds descended and the first rain drops started falling just as we were walking down to check out the beach. Sigh... it hasn't stopped since.

We decided to stay a couple days on Waihi as it's sort of the southern entry point to the Coromandel, to wait out the weather (it is supposed to turn fine this afternoon, but it's currently 5:30, so I'm thinking not). It's a small little mining down, with a great big, full scale mining operation. Like many towns, Waihi was initally settled as a gold prospecting down, but lay fairly stagnant once the prospect dried up. In the mid-80s though, a mining company re-opened the operation and there is a massive mine pit, pretty much in the middle of town. As the rain won't let up, we checked out the visitor center and went to take a look at the pit (not operating today as it's a Sunday).

Some of the fun rainy day activities over the last couple days - shaving daddy's beard (mom had decided it had to go), making rice Deathstars and talking like Yoda, standing in the rain staring at a massive gold mine pit, eating way too many kumara (kind of a cross between a potato and sweet potato) fries hoping the rain will let up, jumping on a soaking wet trampoline to see whether it can indeed soak through your underwear and just generally trying not to drive each other crazy.

In desperation, more than anything else, Kohji suited the kids up and headed to the beach. I stubbornly declined. For added fun, they were joined by the rather rambuctious 6 year old boy who lives here at the vacation park. His family runs the place and he has taken a shine to Ren and Kiyomi. He's probably the most outgowing 6 year old I've ever met, and full of energy too boot. Of course, we had a slight pause when (as he, Kiyomi and Ren were huddled on the bed looking at Ren's toys) he announced he had nits! All the way to NZ and we couldn't get away from the lice plague that haunts Ottawa.

The gang came back sopping wet with just a faint ere of drenched cats about them - a little wet and snarly. Ah well, at least some energy was burned. It did stop raining though, right around the time they got all dried. There's Murphy at work for ya...

It had to go...

... and the kids volunteered 

Smidgen of sunshine 

The rice Deathstar

Rain, rain go away....

December 16 - Rotorua

The last few days have been rain, some non-rain periods, even the occassional sunny breaks, but rain has been more or less the contant. Wake up to rain, drove in rain, had lunch in rain, napped in rain... You're probably getting the idea by now. A general rainy few days, so we decided to head for Rotorua for a couple of days, about a two hour drive from Waitomo Caves. Rotorua is known for its hot pools, geothermal parks and general prehistoric looking landscapes, as well as being an important area for Maori culture. The geological explanation is that there are two colliding plates beneath the land; Maori mythology says that a fire monster was trapped beneath the mountain.

Coming into town, it lived up to its moniker of Roto-Vagas. We drove along a strip of motels, hotels and variety of accomodations complete with some neon signs and advertising splayed about. After the more relative rural environment we'd experienced in NZ so far, it sure was a contrast.

We figured what better place to spend a couple rainy day that splashing around in hot springs, with the added advantage of some indoor available activities (a Maori cultural center, museum, heck, we may even try a little Christmas shopping). The Polyponesian Spa had a family pool that was perfect - a large swimming pool kept at 30 degrees for splashing and playing with a couple of overlooking smaller hot pools (36 and 40 degrees respectively). Whether the weather or the time of day, it wasn't crowded at all, so we indulged in a couple hours of soaking and splashing. I should say going from the 40 degree pool to the 30 degree one was the first time in my life I would ever say that 30 felt chilly!

The next day actually dawned sunny (for the first little while), so we took advantage and headed for one of the geothermal parks in the area. Wai-o-tapu bills itself as a "geothermal wonderland" and is one of the many cmmercial parks in the area. There are, of course, undeveloped hot springs as well, but we decided to go with some that had paths and walkways to prevent little explorers from forging a new route.

We explored bubbling cauldrons, burbling mud, bearren wastelands and volcanic craters. The whole area around Rotorua is awash in hot pools and spas because it sits on an area of geo-thermal activity. Yup, underground magma creates some pretty intereting topography. It looked what I imagine the surface of the moon to be, but with heat! The gases escaping of the seething rivers of heat underground create this fantastical colours - bright neon orange, lime green - around the pools themselves, but also colour the leichen growing in the brush, making for otherworldy hues in the forested areas. And of course, all of it had that wonderous smell of sulfur! In fact, most of Rotorua smells a little like spoiled eggs. We had been warned before coming that the town smelled pretty bad, but we found we got used to it pretty quickly. Kiyomi did, however, walk around the thermal park trying not to breath out of her nose and periodically announcing "it's stinky!" As for Ren, he didn't notice the smell. He did however run aruond launching himself at most reacheable water sources and letting everyone know within a 200 meters or so vicinity if it was hot or cold. The only downside is that our timing was off for visiting the park. There is a geyser in the park that is set off every day at 10:15 (apparently they can do it with a bar of soap), and we arrived at exactly the same time. We weren't interested in the geyser, but by the time we were entering the park, all the geyser gazers were also shuffling onto the parthways, so it was a tad crowded.

Leaving Wai-o-topo, there is a short turn off to a viewpoint for the Mud Pools. It might surpise you to learn, watching burbling mud is kind of mesmorizing. The sun was still out, it was warm and really rather entertaining to watch mud burp, blop and skip across a pond pond. Well, ok, Kohji and I were mesmerized, the kids only found it fun that we got to use bathroom words to talk about mud.

Our next stop was Te Paui, a commercial Maori cultural center built beside a thermal park and geyser. We were a little skeptical at first, but the park proved to be almost more interesting than Wai-o-tapu (at least to me). More exposed, barren and generally otherworldly. There was also a nice display of Maori legends from the area, a reconstucted Maori village and a traditionally carved Maori meeting house. This one also had the added advantage that our timing was much better. There was a Maori cultural presentation that we opted out of, but most people were watching while we wandered the park, so he almost had it to ourselves. We also managed to catch the resident geyser in full flow (apparently it goes once or twice an hour). All of this just before the weather set in again.

The kids ended the day by splashing around in the little thermal spa (aka hot tub) at the holiday park we were staying in and then tearing around the playground with a new friend they had made (Max from England). Thoroughly exhausted, they actually fell asleep before 10 (it's been a bit of a struggle trying to get them to sleep before then).

The kids are starting to miss their friends a fair bit. Ren keeps tellling us over and over again that he and Gavin (his best buddy at school) fight, but it's ok. Kiyomi has been making drawings of all her friends, and occassionally sees things that she says they will like. I'm sure they are starting to get a little tired of our company and are craving a little time their friends. They are overjoyed everytimg they meet a new playmate and Ren will come running back to our cottage yelling "Mommy, mommy new friend" just in case anyone in the park missed his earlier shrieks of joy.

The thermal pools at Wai-O-Tapu

Very cool colours, very bad smell

Monkeys in the Mist (this one was too easy)

Add a pair of Mickey Mouse ears and... 

Burping (or perhaps farting) mud

Maori Mask at Te-Paui

Other worldly landscape