Day 10 - white water warriors

Ok well that was one hell of a day. Had a little rest in the morning and then left for the river that we would rafting in the the afternoon. The car trip went well except we almost got lost and spend a couple of minutes going "is this the right way", daddy "I don't know but let's keep driving" (or something along that line), but we did in fact get to the right place and did a one minute (more like 10 seconds) walk to a viewing platform where we watched some raft do the same thing we would be doing..... Going down a seven meter waterfall!!!!! (And two out of four rafts flipped ) We did another 25 minute walk to another spot on the river and watched some more rafts do some rafting. Kate got the shits on the way back because we didn't have time to go the the morning tea spot that had been planned. Once we got back home we had lunch and a rest before leaving again at 1:55 on the dot. 

Once we ha arrived at rafting place. We had to wait for about half an hour. (Which as you can imagine was rather boring and we lost all our adrenaline). Once the guides and bussing finally arrived we were all ushered into a little corner and they gave us a safety talk. The guy doing the talk was hilarious. He talk no one or two in the wet suits and then repeated no wee wee and poo poo in wet suit for the Asians (just as a side note most of the asians couldnt swim!!). When he got out the helmets he said "now every Australians call this a blood bucket". One of guides came back with a huge lump on his head and mum (as always subtle as a sledge hammer) yelled well we don't want that guy, she was very lucky he didn't respond but he almost definetly heard her. Natural once we were all geared up and had been bussed to the river naturally the guide we got was the one who bumped his head. So my family of five, James, Alison 23 other people had to be split over five rafts 9 in each raft. My raft had my family and James on it and Alison went on another raft. Our guide was called Jimbo and way absolutely fantastic. On the trip we went over three water falls two small and one large, seven meter  actually but because the water was so high it was only about 6. The first water falls were fine the the third (the big one) we were all petrified for. Before going over we paddled twise and then jumped into the bottom on the boat clinging on for dear life. We went fully under the water before poping the right way up!!!!! (We were all very scared about flipping). I think our guide was happier than all of us put together because in his last two trip, once he had flipped and the other he'd got hit in the face with a paddle. The rest of the trip was great and he took us back in a particular rapid about ten times. By the end of the trip we were all exhausted and went home cold and wet looking forward to our dinner. 

Dinner was BBQ on which we did sausages and Kebabs. Might add more later but am about to bourd my second plane home. Thanks for reading everyone  :D

Day 9 - walking and sore feet

Well what a day!!! Today was the day of walking. We did a 15km walk in four hours and now we are all very... very tired. The walk went through native nz bush and up and down quite a few large hills. Our maximum accent was 200m and this was at the very start of the walk. From the top of the hills we could see two different lakes the names of which are far two hard for me to even attempt to spell. 

To get to the start of the walk we took the water taxi over one of the lakes. The driver was very nice and the end of the taxi ride was at a hot water beach. Interestingly the resent winds had washed all the weeds from the lake onto the shore and they womere acting like an electric blanket retaining the head and bringing the water the over 75 decrees. Because of this the taxi driver placed a plank over the weeds so we didnt cook. The start of the walk simply didnt exist an we had to bush bash our way in the general direction the taxi driver had pointed to find the path. The resent winds had push trees over the path in many different spots so there was a lot of maneuvering around and sometimes under them. We saw many fantails, a zn robin and some type of bell bird which we don't know. Kate had a lot of trouble with he boots first getting blisters on her heals and then her toenails began to hurt because she hadnt cut them. 

Anyway we all made it and at the very en of the walk we had a look in one of the locals fish trap and found a huge meter long rainbow trout (probably a bit of exaggerating their but it is a fish we're talking about so thats aloud). 

Pop took us out to dinner and the meals were so big I almost exploded. Kate, mum, Paul and I had fush and chups. Marg, Andy, Jeremy and Alison had steak. James had a vegitarian pizza, kieran had cofta and wedges and Morgan had a burger. For dessert Kate and I "shared" a white chocolate raspberry cheese cake and Pop and one to himself. Kieran had pavlova, James had a fatty browny which Paul pinched, mum and Morgan shared one of these as well. Also Marg had ice cream with berries. It was a fantastic meal. Throughout the night I talked to James and kieran about school, teacher girls and all that stuff cousins talk about. Once we it home I wanted to go to bed straight away but the other only turned the light out at 10:45 which was way too late for me. 

Anyway thx for reading. 

Alastair 

Day 8 - a nice relaxing day

Well today we pretty much nothing. Woke up late and had a nice breakfast. The madden went to hobbiton today, Marty, marg pop and jermey went to town to see the markets and art gallery and my family stayed at home and relaxed, it was bliss. Mum and dad did go out for a bit to check out the walk for tomorrow but they werent out for long.

Really their isnt much to say about today. Everyone went for a paddle at sometime in the day, we tried the hot spar and did a bit more jigsaw. Kate and I took an ore each in the row boat which ended up in lots of circle work. 

The madden enjoyed hobbiton and the others enjoyed there little outing. All in all it was a nice relaxing day

Might add more to this later 

Alastair 

Day 7 - museums and paddling

Today we woke up early and headed off the the museum. The Rotarua museum is located in the building of the old geothermal baths. As soon as we got to the museum naturally the first thing we did was find the coffe shop and buy coffees and hot chocolates. Once we had finished our drinks we went and watched the "introduction movie" which was surprisingly interesting. It was about  Maori history and stories. Also it talked about the colonization by the English and how the Maori coped and adapted to it. The seats moved in the cinema so when the volcano erupted the seats bounced up and down scaring the hell out of us. 

After the movie we explored the old baths and made our way though the museum. When we were almost done we walked into another cinema which showed us a movie about the nz battalion in the first and second world war. It was very sad but also very interesting and well made. After the museum we headed home to a house WITH POWER!!!!!! And had a nice warm lunch. 

For the rest of the afternoon I read and helped out with the new jigsaw we has started. Mum and dad went for a walk and the girls went to "The other woman".

Having such a great holiday and don't want to go back to school!!

Alastair 

Day 6 - Movie, rock shops and blackouts

Ok so had a nice sleep in and the whole family (minus Marty and marg) went on an excursion to the cinema. Two cars  went to the cinema one called the vomit commit (because it smells like vomit and the other called Ian (I have no idea why). The people in Ian stopped at a supermarket and bought lollies. I got a whole bag of chocolate!! We park at another super market which was somewhere near the cinema. Saying it was pouring rain, would be an understatement and I had left my raincoat at home. (Yep I'm an idiot). After a long run in the rain we arrived at the theatre and just made it in before the movie started. We watched divergent which was very close to the book but over all not a great film. After we left i stupidly decided to go back in the vomit commit which was making a "quick" stop at the rock shop. Yep two hour later we finally escaped the rock shop and made it home past dozens of fallen trees to find out we had no power... Yay for us!! (Not). 

We spent the afternoon trying to do a jigsaw but relised we had two mixed into one box! Which was awful.  In the evening we ate a dinner of curry heated on the BBQ and played the game where each person says a word and you make a story. Naturally our story made no sense except that their was a bunny called Loki who ate vegetables and did unmentionable things to Martians. We had an early night after a bit of reading 

Sorry I'm soo far behind will have today's up soon sorry!!!

Alastair 

Day 5 - Geezers and villages

So early morning today leaving at 8:30 and headed of to the (for lack of some better words) "tourist park" called te pui. We dropped into the tourist office in town before going to the park because the tickets were cheaper. On yesterday's walk we had looked down on this park so we knew what to expect. Once inside we headed straight for the kiwi house. Kiwis are sooo cute!!!! They are about chicken size with amazingly long beaks. It was dark inside the house but we could still see the kiwis well enough after we got rid of the other tourists. It was so amazing to finally see the legendary kiwi. After this we walked around the park seeing multiple bubbling mud pools and a geezer which at this time only had a small constant squirt of water coming out of it which wasn't impressive at all. Naturally it smelt very sulfury... Everywhere but you get use to it. 

We had to get to the start for our cultural experiance by 10:00 so we didnt get to look at a huge amount of the park on our first run. The cultural experiance was a performance by 7 Maori people, three ladies and four men. The performance was good starting with a traditional welcoming dance and song where everyone had to sit down in their chairs. (I'm probably about to offend a few people sorry) The majority of the audience was off an Asian bus tour and there was one REALLY annoying Chinese man with a camera who didn't give a crap about anyone else. In the first song he moved around the hall blocking people's veiw with his camera. The performance was good but the music seemed... A bit modern. They askedfor volunteers in two spots in the performance, one for the ladies in which Kate got picked and had to try and learn how to swing a poi and dance with it. A poi is a string with two balls at either end. The second spot was for men  and they had to do the haka naturally everyone in my family pointed at me to get picked for this..., i hate my family!!!!! It was so awkward!!! Anyway after this we went back to the volcanic spring and did a "stroll" around the park. Nothing worth mentioning on the walk except I had a really nice talk with cousin James. Once we finally made it home I collapsed on to my bean bag. Kate, James and aunty Al went horse ridding and mum Morgan and dad went shopping.

We were on dinner tonight and cooked veggie fajitas which are burritos but with the mince replaced with a bean mix. It was very nice. We watched the othe half of the hobbit and went to bed at about 10;00

I'm sooo tried 

Alastair 

Day 4 - Walking in red woods

Woke up at 8:30 and then made preparations for today's walk. We walked     Around a huge plantation of many different trees. The walk took us about 2.5 hours and involved a few stairs some nice views over rotorua from the trig point we reached on top of a hill and soooooooo many trees. There was some gums, redwoods, 3 different types of pines, spruce, larch and many other i don't remeber the names of. 

When we got back to the start we did some merchandising but found nothing. After returning home for a two hour rest and some lunch we went the rotorua Main Street looking for souvineers. Kate Morgan and I found a shirt each and also Kate got some glass figurines and I got some sew on badges.  Morgan and I found the biggest and cheapest ice cream. It was a double scoop for three dollars and the scoops where the size of my fist!!!!

Dinner was cooked by Marty and Marg and was New Zealand snapper with potatoes and a green salad. It was very very yummy. This evening we watched half of the hobbit by projecting it onto one of the walls and setting everyone around on couches and bean bags. 

Cya 

Alastair