We're home!

On Wednesady evening the swell was really high on Ocean Beach so off we went to look at the blowhole on Moturiki Island - it's actually not an island but with the force of the waves it certainly was! We had to time our run across to miss the waves - unfortunately we mis-timed it and all got wet feet. The water was splashing really high - right where the boys had been walking a few days earlier. The sea had even come up to their log tunnel and flattened it. It was so wonderful to see again the power of the sea.


We decided to pack up on Thursday morning and head home ...and we woke to beautiful sunshine! Just our luck. We decided to leave anyway and spend time at Waikite pools. On the way out of Tauranga we thought that we'd pop in and see Whakatane - just a short detour! On the road there is a fruit and vegetable shop that also sells South African goods. We don't often indulge ourselves but on this trip we did - Cream Soda, Jelly Tots and NikNaks for the boys, Tex and Fritos for Adrian and Tab and Inside Story for me. Stopped briefly in Whakatane to look at White Island (I'm still really sorry I wasn't able to go there - another time) and then headed for Rotorua. We got to Waikite at around 4pm and were so pleased to get into the warm water. By 5.30pm we were starving as we hadn't had lunch - out we got, got dressed and ate in the cafe there. We decided that we had to get back into the water before we went - but it was sooo cold putting our cold, wet swimming things back on! We finally left around 7.30pm and headed for Taupo and the Acupulco Motel where we spent the night. This morning we went tickey-touring around Taupo - to Craters of the Moon and Huka Falls. This photo below is at Craters of the Moon and that is all geothermal steam escaping from fumaroles in the ground
Above is Huka Falls - Ross took the photo of me. We haven't been since 2002 so it was fun to see it all again. Coming through Taupo the mountains looked wonderful in the bright sunshine and "floating" behind the Lake. Maybe we could stay at the Chateau for the night because soccer was cancelled? "Yay!!" shouted the boys but there was no space for us - oh we were very disappointed. We stopped at Julie for a coffee and then headed down the Desert Road and found lots of snow and of course we were close to my Mountain too! We turned off at the Tukino skifield road and headed quite a way in to find lots of fresh snow. After a long play, we headed off to possibly find somewhere to stay at Ohakune but none of it was the Chateau. After trying to find something to eat and being very unsuccessful, we decided to head home and stop at Taihape at the Gumboot Manor for a very late meal (we do make a habit of that!). We also stopped at Tangiwai and there was still lots of evidence that a lahar went through there in March.


We got home safely at 8pm and we are all pleased to be home again

One bad thing happend to us - on the way back from Hamilton on Tuesday, as we went under a pedestrian bridge at Tauranga a stone hit the windscreen and made a nasty hole and crack. We had to go to Novus to have it repaired and they thought that we should actually replace the windscreen! However, they repaired it and it looks fine now; we'll have to wait and see