mrsjono

Swung by the Bay of Plenty to introduce my family to Mt Maunganui and Te Puke. It was difficult to find a park in the morning and I had to get out of the driver seat to let Jeffrey parallel park for me while a line of vehicles waited, how embarrassing! When we visited Mt Maunganui two years ago, I felt the views at the top of The Mount was worth the effort and was confident my folks would be able to manage the short climb up, given the amount of morning exercise they have been consistently doing over the years. I was happy everyone enjoyed the splendid views at the top.










After a good work out we had lunch at the busy Eighty Eight Cafe and moved on to Te Puke. Rui and I have never been there before and only know of it as a place with many job opportunities in the kiwifruit industry. No fruits in winter so we just had a look around the shop and took photos with the big kiwi.





Only my father and I were interested to go up the big kiwi lol


Jump on the Kiwi Kart orchard tour!

The plan this morning was to take the folks to the Cambridge farmers market while the LOTR fans head off to Matamata for their Hobbiton tour in the other car.


Stayed two nights at this English Tudor house at Armagh St. Payment was made directly to the owner to avoid Bookabach's 2% credit card surcharge. The house was huge and my sis said it had a creepy feel. There is a pool, a piano in the living area, a study room and stuffed toys in the kids room.




They were most interested in the fruit and bakery stalls and bought some pears, apples and cookies back.


Near Town Hall


After shopping in the pink church, we wandered over to a park across the road.


They loitered around this tree with red leaves for some time


Maple leaf for you Mom


Te Koutu Lake



After a relaxing morning we met up with the rest in town for lunch at Dumpling House and checked out the Hamilton Gardens in the afternoon.



Into the bamboo forest



Victorian Flower Garden greenhouse

Roads remained closed the next morning. I was worried we would be stranded in Ohakune without a place to stay for the night. Cleaned up the bach and met the property manager when checking out. I asked her if the bach was available tonight in case we couldn’t get out, her reply made me sound like my worries were unwarranted; she said if you can’t get out they can’t come in too. Ya huh. There was already a long line of vehicles waiting for the roads to open. It was a relief when we could finally move at around 10.30-11am. The plan was to have lunch at Cambridge but due to a late start we were only at Taumarunui by lunch time so we stopped there and had Thai food. Happened to pass by an alpaca farm and drove up to check it out.




The gates were open and there wasn’t any entrance fee. My aunt was very excited as she was hoping to see one and there were lots of them. They seemed curious and came near the fence but moved away when we reached out for a pat. It was time to move on as the plan was to visit Waitomo Caves and there is another hour’s drive to Hamilton where we will be staying tonight.




There were lots of people at Waitomo. Rui & I didn’t want to go in when we saw the price and we weren’t fond of commercial tours anyway. My sis paid for us and got the basic tour tickets. We followed a guide through the caves and were asked if anyone wants to sing, no one did. We hopped on a boat into complete darkness and silence and it looked like the “sky” above was lit up by a massive patch of white blue spots. After around 15 mins or so we came out to light and all of us felt it was overrated and not worth the $50 pp lol.




There was still some time before it got dark so we tried a 25 min return walk to a lookout point along the Waitomo walkway. It was an easy and short walk up the hill to views of open farm land.

The next morning we woke up to snow. When we pulled open the curtains and peered out the windows, snow was falling quietly from the sky. It was magical. Everyone was excited as it was our first snowfall. I had planned to check out the skifield today but we weren't sure if it was safe to drive up the mountain in this weather condition.




After breakfast, we wrapped up and went outside to play with the snow. We started throwing snowballs at each other and building a snowman. We found some stones for its eyes, used a carrot for its nose, a leave for its mouth but we didn't have any branches for its hands. It looked rather plain so I gave it a finishing look with my beanie and scarf. Not bad for our first attempt eh?






After some photos in the snow and in front of our favourite bach, we went back inside to cook some laksa for lunch. We weren't confident driving in the snow and since it had stopped snowing we decided to walk to town. Passed the big carrot again and it had a little icing on top! i-site said all the roads were closed today so we spent the rest of the afternoon grocery shopping at New World, thinking about what we should cook for dinner tonight.





Resting by the fire place before cooking up a storm in the evening


This bach had a heat pump and fireplace so it was very warm, cosy and comfortable