TAUPO!

I know ... it has been over 4 months!  I left all of you faithful followers hanging with us mid-New Zealand tour.  Here goes my attempt to more faithfully blog.  (I need to more faithfully take pictures too -- the kids are growing like weeds.)

Our next stop on the trip to New Zealand was TAUPO.  You can see it right there in the center of the island - right on Lake Taupo (New Zealand's largest lake).

 Here is a glimpse of "car time"...

Front seat -- think my dad is wishing HE was driving!

Isaac -- USUALLY all smiles!

Sleepy Perrie.  This is about the time she caught some NZ virus so she spent some quality nap time while we were driving.

Crazy roads.

Lemon & Paeroa.  Their slogan is "World famous in New Zealand".  It is their popular soda ... lemon juice & sparkling water...

On our way there, we took a break at ROTORUA.  This is the main site of geothermal pools, which has given it the nickname "sulphur city".  We decided to skip the sulphur pools on this trip - since Rotorua has the second highest number of geothermal pools ---  second to Yellowstone Park.

Instead we headed to an animal park that included a Kiwi encounter (this is a kiwi conservation centre).  The Kiwi bird is an interesting little creature.  I wish that we would have seen one in the wild, but had to settle to seeing them here.  An American (of all things) who was VERY serious about kiwi birds gave us the tour of their birthing center.  I spent all of my energy trying to keep Isaac from screaming, running, or disturbing the baby kiwis, so my pictures here are pretty limited.  It is impressive how carefully they take care of those kiwi eggs though.  They find a nest, take the eggs, incubate them until they hatch taking tons of precise measurements every day, then grow the baby kiwi until they are big enough to survive on their own.

I wish Isaac had been as enthusiastic as this little girl...

The area we are heading to is famous for trout fishing --- look at the size of those rainbow trout!

Gma & Gpa at the Kiwi Encounter - from Perrie's point of view.

Zipline!

Logride - that is Gma, Gpa, & Brandon in the boat.  Perrie wouldn't go near it...

 We had lunch with the kids while my parents took a gondola to look over Rotorua.  Some really pretty pictures...

Finally, we make it to our new house on Lake Taupo.  We are going to stay here for 3 nights before heading on...

Coromandel Peninsula

For our second day at Waihi Beach, we decided to take a drive up the Coromandel Peninsula.  This is when we really learned the challenges of driving in New Zealand.  By "we", I mean "Brandon".  Unfortunately, he was trying to drive on the wrong side of the car, wrong side of the road, on tiny windy roads while the rest of us gawked around at the scenery.  Next time I will have to drive so he can look around a little.  Thank you, Brandon, for driving us safely from place to place!

The Coromandel Peninsula has Hot Water Beach.  This is a beach that has underground hot springs that filter up through the sand so that you can dig yourself a hot pool on the beach. Sounds cool - right? We arrived to find that we weren't the only ones that found this idea appealing ...

This is Hot water beach!

Grandma Elaine was the only one bold enough to brave the crowds.  She convinced some nice strangers to share their hot pool with her.

More photos from Hot Water Beach

When I try to squat down to take Isaac's picture, he copies.  Kind of defeats the purpose!

So that's where those furrowed eyebrows came from!

After Hot Water Beach, we kept driving north to a place called Cathedral Cove.  This is a beach/cave only accessible by boat or hiking.  This crew was not quite up to carrying 2 kids on the full-on hike to cathedral cove, so we did the short hike.  Next trip, I'm taking the full hike!

One of my favorite pictures from the trip!

Time to pack into the car and head back to our house.

On our way home - I asked Perrie what was her favorite part of the trip ... "sleeping in a bunk bed and swimming in a hot tub".  Technically, she didn't actually sleep in the bunk bed, just played on the top bunk with dad once in a while...

Pre-Bed Relaxation

Next stop ... Taupo!

Waihi Beach

We packed up "Jucy" and left Auckland behind heading east towards Waihi Beach (in the Bay of Plenty).  I have lots of blurry photos of beautiful scenery from the window of our speeding van.  Here are some highlights...

We arrived to a little house a few blocks from Waihi Beach.  Our timing couldn't have been better - arriving the day after their holiday break when school was starting back.  It left us with a long, beautiful beach, almost all to ourselves.

Beach Fun

Gpa Terry getting his feet wet

Isaac getting his feet wet!

We managed to find a playground to burn off some steam before dinner. 

Tunnel climbing

Is Grandma Elaine going to fit?

And a bunch of evening photos of "our" empty beach.  So, so beautiful - the pictures don't even do it justice.

I should have known something was up when Perrie wanted to lay under her beach towel instead of play in the ocean.  Sure enough, she woke up the next morning with a fever and bright red rash on her cheeks & body.  Poor Perrie - luckily we packed some Tylenol & she was a pretty good trooper.  She was remarkably quiet for several days though - if you've been around her lately, you know that's unusual.

In fact, last night she said:  "Mom, do you know why I don't really like to talk very much?"
    "Really?  You don't like to talk very much?"
    "Um, actually I do like to talk a lot."
Another quote of the trip:
     Dad:  "Perrie, more ears, less mouth"
     Perrie:  "My ears ran out of batteries."

Perrie & her rosy cheeks