Jan 28th
Left the beautiful farm after getting up early and having a good look round (leaving the boys in bed of course) it really was a lovely place loads of land, lakes, mountain one side and 5 mins from a really long sandy beach. Lovely place to live. We went along the coast road to the hot spring beach, which 2 hours either side of low tide you can dig a hole in the sand and it fills with hot water from below ground. We got there about 3 hours too early so we went for a walk to a place called flat rock, well that’s all it was, a flat rock! Then we walked for about 3 miles along the long sandy beach, of which they have many here. When we got back to hot springs beach there were loads of people there, already digging their holes. Well we felt the hot springs with our feet as we walked along the beach, so we made a hole big enough to stand in then all stood in it until our feet burned, cooled them down in the sea and then made our way back to the car we just could not cope with the crowds!!
Went to whangamata and cause it was quite late, the only accommodation available was our trusty tent again. Put up tent, went for walk, had Chinese takeaway sitting in car cause all the insects on the grass wanted to share!!

Jan 29th
Waited about on beach bodyboarding and swimming as the waves were great, but robins surf lesson was cancelled so we left about 3pm to start our trek to Rotarua
Made a stop in Te Puke to see the kiwi farms, the fruit not the birds, as this is the best place for growing kiwis and it was interesting to see the farm and kiwis on vines like grapes.
Got to Rotarua late but found motel, the same motel that jim had stayed in with david during the lions tour!!!Freeky!! then chilled cause it had wireless so caught up with blog while jim and robin went out for mcdonalds!!!

Jan 30th
Went to wai-o-tapu a thermal wonderland, saw the lady knox geyser explode and then walked all around the park viewing the thermal hot and cold pools, the lakes the mud pools and all the geysers. Enjoyed the walks through the bush and seeing the birds. Then after lunch we went to see the Californian coastal redwoods forest that they planted here in the late 19th century had a lovely wander through the forest and it was wonderful. The boys went on a simulator which was just outside the forest and it went into volcano craters and over the thermal hotpools of this area. Went to the waterfront of rotorua and they were setting up for a concert tomorrow so went back to the hotel we stayed in last night and have booked tonight and tomorrow



Jan 31st
Went to rotorua museum which was great, learned all sorts of stuff had a particularly good section on the Maoris so ended up staying there for lunch and exploring it again after lunch. We did also walk through government gardens and saw the croquet and bowls in progress, two different greens and also walk around the lake for a bit till robin complained the smell was just too bad (sulpher) and that he had seen enough water boiling in the lake, but the colours were fantastic will post some photos later. Then went to their annual biggest ever open air concert. It started at 4pm so we did not get back to the hotel to change of anything and we plotted up cause jim wanted to get mangled, poor thing has not been mangled since xmas. Well I must say it was the most bizarre concert I have ever veeen to. It started out with the Maoris and the welcome hukka then went on to opera, country a bit of pop back to maori then onto hip hop dancers and the back to a bit more opera and back to maori to close, oh and I nearly forgot there was a Scottish (all dressed in kilts) band, like a big marching one really odd but we did enjoy it and it was free. The fireworks were ok though we missed them as we went back to the car to get away before the crowds, not that we knew it was the last but one song when we left we had just experienced enough..

Feb 1st
Left rotorua on the 5 and had a lovely very senic drive through the countryside to Toupo cause robin had seen in one of the papers that there was a medieval festival there so we decided it was robins day and went straight to the festival. There were loads of people there they take their swordfights seriously and had competitions etc which robin found fascinating. (will have to get him some fencing lessons when we get back as the fascination with swords is not going away) The horses were lovely but not the sort to be used in jousting really and they were not dresses in all the gear, just the riders. They did bash the granny out of each other though with foam swords!!(so they didn’t hurt the horses) Robin looked in all the tents and was very impressed with the Vikings and romans as well as the knights. He had a go on shooting the knight with arrows and also had goes on the catapults, he wandered around all the sellers tents (the tents were all very medieval and colourful) and wanted to buy a sword (well theres a surprise) We persuaded him they would not let proper swords through customs so he made do with a wooden one. I daresay jim is going to end up with a few bruises over the next few days!! We then found a backpackers place (at least we do not have to sleep in tent) Made dinner in communal kitchen (experience) watched sunset over lake (fantastic)

Feb 2nd
Went to visit Shawn the Prawn today. The only Prawn Farm in nz. We had a great day with a trip around the prawn farm where we learned loads and robin remembered the fact adult male prawns have 2 thingys, whatever thingys is. I am sure he remember loads of other things too but that was what impressed him most, obviously!~!! We then went Prawn fishing… we had a great time with our bamboo canes and hooks and the prawns taking the bait then pulling it along then trying to eat it which is when you should pull it in. Jim had a great birthday with the girls phoning this morning and dad phoning tonight, his had a great time he phoned Yvonne and they all sang happy birthday too. He loves birthdays, especially his. The only bit that went wrong was that I caught more prawns than him, but we had a lovely bbq this evening and he really enjoyed the prawns that we had caught and put on ice. We also went to Huka Falls today and the water was really beautiful colours and really fast, would not want to come over that waterfall in a barrel. Really clean water though and cannot wait to fish the river on weds with jim and robin. We also went and put our feel into lake taupo, went to the beach part and there was loads of people swimming but I did not fancy it and was dying to get back to eat so we did not stay long at the lake. Sunset was fab again think we are getting to be lazy ites, cannot imagine working again!! It really is paradise here, chilled out days fishing, swimming and surfing and its snowing in england, in fact, I recon paulina was snowed in today!!! No work could be catching!!!

Feb 3rd
Went for a lovely walk along the huka falls footpath from spa park I really enjoyed but robin did not want to walk any further to the dam as we had already walked 2 hours. The dam would have been interesting cause it is near the power plant that works on thermal electric, ie they heat their stuff under ground in the hot springs. As we walked back to the car we had a swim in the river where the hot spring water comes up and it was boiling in one spot, warm in another and freezing in another. Lovely and relaxing though. In the afternoon we went on a sailboard once owned by errol Flynn the actor (felt quite old when robin did not know who errol Flynn was) we sailed out to view the maori rock carvings, it was lovely being on the largest lake in nz. The carvings were a bit of a disappointment though.

Feb 4th
Were just asleep last night when david phoned and woke us all up. It was great to hear from him and ty but could not get back to sleep, was tossing and turning all night ,read half a book and ate jims chocolate!! Got up at 6am soooo excited to be going fly fishing with a gilly. I was really excited and we were ready and waiting for Andrew at 7am. It was a beautiful morning and we got into the gillys car to drive to the first river. We put on our waders and walked along to the good part of the river to start fishing. We had a lesson and started fishing but no one was lucky. Robin got a blister on his hand from trying so hard and eventually we all felt like moving on as nothing was biting. We moved along to another part of the river had lunch and started fishing again. It was a lovely day but ended with no one catching anything so we were all very quiet on the drive back. I had never thought we would not catch, it was such a disappointment. We got into our car and thought we would drive towards waitamo to be a bit nearer to visiting the caves tomorrow. We drove through some beautiful countryside but we were so tired we just wanted a motel. All the places we passed through were one horse towns and had no motels so we kept driving. We eventually found a motel very near the caves and we did not have the energy to camp so we had to pay the price, never mind will camp tomorrow instead. Are going to watch some tv now as have not seen any in days.