Greetings from the trees

Well, my apologies for taking so long to write, but the days have just flown by.

On Monday morning we left Christchurch and travelled to Picton, where the interisland ferry leaves from. The drive was lovely and because we knew we had time we stopped at a little coastal town called Kaikoura to investigate a seal colony. Lucky us! While I was getting my camera ready one actually hopped onto the carpark wall and walked straight past me, pausing for photos along the way. Very nice!

Picton was beautiful, and on Tuesday we took the ferry across to Wellington. We dropped the hire car off in Picton, a lovely XR6 Falcon, and picked up in Wellington a rattly, noisey blue Falcon Futura. Ugh.

Well, Tuesday we drove north to Palmerston North. Very nice little town, where we treated ourselves to a smorgasboard style dinner at a reasonably priced diner. Very good food, nice room and Jr Her was happy cause there was a pool. She got her first swim.

Wednesday we moved north to Rotorua. Smelly little spot that. Outside Rotorua is a place called Thermal Wonderland, a 4km or so walk around fantastic sulphur pools. Hot, bubbling mud and smelly sulphur is all the go. But we survived!

The motel was old, but looked cute. They had a wash room which the thermal hot water pipes ran through, and the room doubled as a dryer. It took about an hour for our washing to dry. Our room had a spa pool out the back so we all had a spa.

On Thursday we travelled here to Puka Park Resort at Pauanui. A little coastal town. with a string of shops, servo and mini golf! Jr Her and Him played a round while I kept score. There is also a sports club we will investigate on Sunday night for dinner. The resort is great, up here in the hills. You park the car and someone drives you to your room in a golf buggy. The walk up the hill is a killer each time you have to go to reception, but hopefully it will be a little exercise for us all.

Our first night here we had a wine tasting, which was a very good chance to meet other club members, and sample some local produce.

Not much more planned for the week. Him tried to play golf this morning but it rained out. He paid $75 for 4 holes of golf. Now we are broke again (eating lots of sandwiches lately but what can you do?). Never mind. We are off now to the shop for more bread. Sigh.

Well, will write again when I get the chance.

xxxx