Hobbiton

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Hobbit hole

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Middle earth

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Sulphur flat and pool

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Geyser

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Geothermal area

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Maori warrior

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gorge bike ride

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Maori warrior

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It's not your Dad...it's a Maori warrior known for scary away enemies just by doing their war dance and their looks!  Dad can do a pretty good interpretation...just needs the tattoos.
 

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Kiwi

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Here's a close up of the kiwi...
 

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Breakfast time

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Hope Dad doesn't get use to eating a breakfast like this!!  Beryl (who is 84) likes to serve using her china.  Felt so guilty when she insisted on cleaning up!
 

More penguins

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4: Hobbiton

Stepped into Middle Earth today and wished all our grandkids were with us cause it was so cool!  Hobbiton is the movie set where the lush pasture of the shire were filmed for the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.  The narrow, wandering paths took us by 46 Hobbit Holes each with clever and intricate details like clothes lines drying tiny clothes, tiny market selling pickles & cheese, another selling breads, picnic table set for lunch, baskets of garden vegetables, ax & wood pile, tiny, curved leaded glass windows with curtains & candles and each with colorful flower boxes & gardens and the brightly painted round doors.  The stone curved bridge led us past the turning water mill and to the Green Dragon Inn.  How fun to imagine our grandkids playing here!!  This set is in the middle of a huge working 1250 acre farm so cows and sheep were pasturing  in the paddocks separated by thick hedged rows...9000 sheep & 400 cows in all!  As you look in the distance, you see tall mountains just beyond the lush green mounds and not the tiniest sign of anything in the last 300 years.  Peter Jackson (director/producer) truly found the Middle Earth and in the process introduced the world to spectacular New Zealand!  Can't wait to watch the Hobbit again!


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3- Rotorua

My 65th birthday...so thankful to be healthy and able to be traveling with Rog in the gorgeous and warm country!  After a lovely breakfast, a quick bike ride and a warm hug from Frances's, we were back on a bus headed to Rotorua.  Again we passed hundreds of grazing dairy cows but also lots of sheep, a few llamas, horses & goats and even two herds of deer...not sure if they were wild or being pastured.  Our Air B & B hostess here is Beryl.  What a hoot!  She is 84 yrs old and started hosting last year cause she "just didn't just want to sit around for the next 16 years"...figures she'll live as long as her mum did.  Her home is very Victorian, full of antiques all covered with lacy doilies.  Gorgeous flowers are blooming everywhere.  She says she needs to feel grass under her feet to live.  She races up and down her stairs...as she says "like a scorched rabbit"...to check her Air B & B site.  She chucked that just last year she'd been in a restaurant with her granddaughter and when they left she'd said, "Wonder why we did't get our cookies?"  "Cookies?" Asked your granddaughter. "Yes, the sign said free wifi!"  She's learned lots since then!  After our nice visit wit Beryl, we went into town for a delicious dinner.  Then we went to Rainbow springs just at dusk and strolled through the paths of identified fauna...many ancient species and only found in NZ.  Dimly lit were glass aquariums filled with geckos, salamanders and the ancient tuatara...a species over 200 million years old.  No wonder they filmed Jurrastic Park here!  After it got dark, we crept into the kiwi area and listened for the rustle of leaves.  And sure enough, out from under the bush raced a kiwi...stuck his long thin beak up and then hustled back.  We were treated to 4 more sightings of this nocturnal, ever so shy, but famous bird that NZers use as their nickname. 

    Next morning...my birthday in USA...I was flooded with birthday wishes via email and Facebook.  What a blessing to have such a loving family and many friends!  I so appreciated all the wishes!!  We'd slept in til 8:30.  Beryl had a proper breakfast waiting for us and she was off to pick blueberries.  We'd lined up a trip to TePuia...a former Maori village gushing with geysers, mud pools and thermal pools...in other words, smelly and hot but fascinating.  We spent a couple hours hiking around and searching for shady spots with views.  Then we went to a Maori cultural show and learned more are out the past.  Our guide told us the Maori traditionally slept standing up and even today, their elders sleep better sitting up--maybe Joyce (Rog's mom) is part Maori since she has been sleeping sitting up in her chair for 40 yrs!  Their language was only oral until the Europeans came and using just 9 consonants and 5 vowels made it a written language.  Before they arrived, the Maori family tribes often fought amongst themselves but now they are united in their demands for rights and gov't compensation.  One Maori said one of the biggest problems the Europeans brought was a disease called obesity & diabetes...their diet!  Then she broke out in a laugh and her large belly jiggled!!  Time to end this post.... KIA ORA. (Maori for Live Long)

2: Auckland to Paeroa

Woke early and jumped on a bus that circled Auckland giving us a more complete picture of this city which is home to half the New Zealanders.  High rise living right down town is everywhere and we were told, people love it!  Rent even in the suburb can run $350 & up...a week!!  After two days, we were ready to head out and see the countryside.  For about 3 hours we traveled in a nice bus (no chicken buses here) on a smooth expressway southeast and for about 45 minutes we passed modest and small homes on tiny lots.  Then the houses became sparse and the cows took over the land.  Pasture fields and piles of round bales covered the wide valley between two mountain ranges.  Eventually, the cows and our bus was roaming the hills.  We arrived at our stop, Paeroa where our hostess, Frances was waiting for us.  In a few minutes, she was showing us around her home...our home for the next two days...our first Air B&B experience!  It's a darling cottage style & we were surprised to learn it was 100 years old though totally and tastefully remodeled.  A short time later, she volunteered to take us to the beach...off we went.  Surfers and children were enjoying the huge waves.  Frances was a well of information telling us NZers love the water and go to the beach all year...if only to walk the miles of beaches and feel the ocean air.  She was proud of the people running the country calling them very smart with a desire to improve NZ.  We stopped by a quaint restaurant hidden away in the mountains and enjoyed some unique appetizers and tasty, spicy pizza.  It's great having a personal tour guide!  Next morning we were treated to a lovely breakfast and then headed to the bike shop where Rog had reserved two motorized bikes. By 9 a.m., we were on the Hauraki Rail trail only recently opened and touted as "undoubtedly one the the most picturesque rides in NZ."  In late 1800's, this area was a booming gold mine town where in today's value they produced $5 billion of gold and $575 million of silver.  We rode through the remains of the factories and rails...skeletons of gigantic steels pieces and cement foundations.  We biked through a 1 km mountain tunnel...dark, cool & wet.  At the center of the spectacular Karangahake Gorge, we locked up our bikes and hiked back on a trail that hugged the steep cliffs where some of the mining rails remained.  It took us into a dark...the dark where you can't see your hand in front of your face dark...tunnel where green fluorescent glow worms dotted the ceiling.  I think it was 10 miles long...ok maybe not that long.  Back on our bikes, we headed to Waihi following the river winding through the hills that so reminded me of the Austrian hills...think of Sound of Music...couldn't help belting out a few lines of "The hills are alive..."  Do those cows know how lucky they are to hang out there all day??  At times the trail led us through narrow openings between two granite slabs covered with vegetation and other times we squeezed between tall fern trees which made us feel like we were back in Jurassic time.  We were ready to eat lunch when we got to Waihi and then we headed back viewing all from a different angle.  In all we traveled about 50 km...and were very glad we had that button that kicked in the motor whenever we wanted!  Think we'll rest well tonight!!

Pictures of day 1

1

Eighteen in the air, 6 hour layover in LA & 2 in Tahiti (why did we not have a 2 day layover there???)...and now we are in Auckland.  Dead tired.  Found our hotel and a meal, then crashed.  I tried to wake Rog around 6 to take a walk...he  opened his eyes wide and with sincere fright said, "I'm lost!!"...then fell right back to sleep.  No walk.  We both slept soundly til 7 a.m. And just like that we were on Auckland time (+18 hrs).  Caught a bus to the Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium ...hundreds of darling penguins, Scott's Antartica's original camp display, glass tunnel where sharks, sting rays, turtles & a multitude of richly colored fish swam all around you.  All those fish made us hungry...so we went to the fish market for fish & chips and had a nice chat with the young cashier.  He told us the minimum wage was $14 NZD (about $9 USA) and 15% is skimmed off top for taxes.  No income tax forms at the end of the year.  Caught a ferry to an island just a bit from Auckland so got a great view of the harbor and Auckland...but nothing like view we got when we took the glass elevator to the top of the Sky Tower,  Looking down at the city from 328 meters made our knees wobble!  And people actually hook on to a cable and jump off...really, we saw them!  Most amazing was all the sailboats skimming the harbor and to see a few of the 46 volcanoes that created this area...not sure I'd invest in real estate here.  Temperature is in the 70's and there is a light breeze that'll make sleeping with our windows open pleasant....
So at the end of our first day, we both felt this trip started out so different than our last 7 trips...felt more like home.  It is the first time since our Europe trip back in '73, that we've traveled in a developed country...drank the water right from the tap & didn't need our own supply of TP...and a 8 oz Diet Coke cost $2.50 US!  
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Arrived in New Zealand

We arrived!!  About 18 hours in the air and 6 hour layover in LA and 2 hours in Tahiti.  We are tired but excited to start exploring New Zealand!!

2016: NZ, Australia & Papua New Guinea

Hi and Goodbye!

We will be boarding the plane this Sunday for our trip to New Zealand, Australia & Papua New Guinea...so I'm checking my list to see who wants off before we leave.  Speak up now and you can avoid lots of long emails from me later!! If you don't respond, you'll stay on my list.  I write lots so when I get home, my trip journal is done and memories saved.

Hope to catch up with most of you when we return....but please keep in touch via email while we are gone!

Roger and Jane

Final thoughts

Final Thoughts
Never have I been in a place that needed more help than Tacloban.  We've seen many poor...but never so many poor burdened with so much loss.  Their resilience and faith is remarkable.  In China we saw great need...but we could do so little to help...water was not to be found and only the gov't could allow them to move from their unproductive & isolated location.  Here with AH, we could make a dent.... and have a great time with amazing kids from all over the world.  Our week helping the special need kids at Mother Teresa's orphanage and the two weeks with Children's Garden was very rewarding and brought lots of smiles to us and the kids.  Walking among the ancient yet still worked rice terraces was breathtaking.  Bohol's beach was relaxing.  And as usual, Rog got us where ever we wanted to go and shared all the joys & challenges with me!  How can I be so blessed???