Happy New Year 2011 - New Zealand

Happy New Year to Everybody!
We are back in New Zealand again after spending a lovely December visiting family and friends in Calgary and enjoying a "white Christmas" with our daughters. When you are a Canadian child from the prairies, there is no other way to have Christmas, but "white". By Jan 5/2011, the novelty of "snow and cold" wore off and we are now quite happy to be back to this country's summer climate, sunny and a nice 27 degrees C.

For the most part, things weren't overly exciting for the first week or so back as we are living in a marina at the heart of Auckland, which is basically like life in any city around the world. It is very nice, don't get me wrong, it's just.... well.... normal. Our boat came out of the water at Oram's Marine Services on Jan 10 for some maintenance work. We had the bottom cleaned and painted with anti-fouling, the props got the same treatment, we did some teak work, upholstery renewal and other boaty things that nobody but us cares about, but that make the Mystery Ship our happy home away from home. During the time the boat was on the "hard", we had the thrill of living like a "Kiwi" in a cute little apartment in down town Auckland. It was a sweet change, but our boat has more space! So we ate out a lot, which I will never complain about, even if it is bad food, which it wasn't, but you know what I mean - I didn't have to cook or clean up!

With all of that hard work (we did do some ourselves), once the boat was back in a slip at the Viaduct Marina, we decided that we needed a "Holiday", so we pointed our cheeky little car (can't be choosy for $29.00 a day) south and drove 3 hrs to Rotorua for a few days. Rotorua has long been a tourist area because of it's intense thermal activity. The early Maori people fought battles over the possession of the land as because of the underground heat, they could have warm floors in their homes, boiling water in nearby ponds to cook their food and bathing never had to be in cold water. All very handy during a cold New Zealand winter. We learned all of this by doing a 4 km hike through Waimangu Volcanic Valley which was originally the site of the "world famous" White and Pink Mineral Spring Terraces. From historic picture records these were stunningly beautiful, but all of that changed on June 10, 1886 when Mt. Tarawera erupted and left instead a series of hot water lakes, geysers and steaming hills. So we got to oooh and aaah at a modern day Jurassic Park as we marched along. After so much exercise, we were understandably thirsty and hungry. The "Pig and Whistle" in Rotorua solved the thirsty part and we were recommended to the "Indian Star" for food. The "Indian Star" is just that, a STAR, this restaurant serves the best, bar none, Indian food we have ever tasted! Our next day of checking out the sites had us screaming down a river (can't pronounce the name so can't remember it) on a high powered river boat, enjoying the sights along the way to a very hidden hot spring waterfall. This place is called the Squeeze as you literally squeeze your way along a waist high water way, between rock faces that have been worn through over centuries of erosion from this hot water fall. The distance is about 1/2 km away from the main river. Then, poof! there you are, this little private hot water jet tub and natural fall, carved out of the volcanic rock, perfect for about 8 people, which we had in our group. The water temp is about 30 degrees C, so very comfortable and relaxing. Cool stuff. The return trip on the river boat involved lots of "hot dogging" something that is a huge hit out here and that we can relate too as well, only it is usually Glen doing the hot dogging! Our afternoon was spent going through the original "Bath House" in main Rotorua, where all the rich and famous of the early 1900's used to come for "healing waters" and "mineral baths". Pretty fancy stuff! Another good day all around.

Today we are back in Auckland on the boat and there is a cyclone passing over the area tonight, so not so idyllic weather. There will be rain and high winds, hopefully we will be sheltered from the brunt of things by being in the marina. It is still warm though, so not missing winter yet!