Napier

On our last stop we went to Napier. Napier was raised to the ground by a huge earthquake in 1931 followed immediatley by a fire that destroyed the rest of the town. The place was rebuilt in the 1930's and thus all the Art deco buildings. Its the largest collection of Art Deco in the world and is truly amazing. Also, Napier has a mediterranean climate due to its location - the day we were there it was 30 degrees.

A nice spot.

What you are looking at however is a volcano. In 1913 it erupted and devasted the whole area. The pictures in the museum look incredible. The lake we are looking at was actually formed by the explosion.

We stayed at a really nice motor lodge in Taupo. It seems to be a thing here having a jacuzzi in the bedroom - this was however the mother jacuzzi!!

Taupo

And here is Taupo. This really is the most beautiful place we are ever seen. The pictures don't do it justice. We climbed a mountain this day (not the snow capped ones!!) and it was baking hot!!

We then went to a place called Taupo which has to be the most beautiful place in the whole world. Here's a few piccies of the busy roads on the way! Also, we stopped off at a farm/cafe for lunch and here's some piccies of the locals!!

Whilst in Rotorua we went to a Maori meeting house. They did all the stuff - the welcome, the meeting, touching noses and the Haka - it was a reallt awesome day.

Napier

We decided that we needed to do a whistle stop tour of NZ as neil got a job and needed to start on 16/10.

We set off for Rotorua which is where the most thermal activity is. The whole place smelt like rotton eggs!! The geysers were amazing and we couldn't believe everywhere we went there was boiling mud, steam coming out ofd the ground and occassionally the odd spurt of gas!! The hotel we stayed at had its very own hot spring coming out of the ground and we asked for a private bathing room (we forgot our cossies!!) and the hotel gave it to us for free. Here are some photos.

Yesterday we went to Wierer Waterfalls (not sure if that's the right spelling) and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was really sunny and hot but the walk up to the top was really strenuous - made ever harder by the warm weather. The stream to the waterfalls was so tranquil but the closer we got - we could see the wind blowing the water back up - when we got to the top - it was like being caught in a rain shower. Here are some piccies of us on the way up and the blow back from the falls. Also - there's a piccy of the car - as you can see - we were shattered after the walk back down!

.............and we've got a Lemon Tree in our garden - anyone for G&T?

...................and here's our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (we're only renting for 6 months until we find somewhere to buy but its totally gorgeous. Its in the North Shore City but set in the bush so its very tranquil but only a 15 minute drive to town (95 mins in peak hour though!!!!)
Ps - whatcha tink of new barby then???????????

Very suprisingly though - all NZ houses are made from used egg cartons, paper mache, pritt sticks and double sided sticky tape - and its effin freezin in the mornin!!!! Good thing is though - when the sun gets up - we're roasted by about 11.00 so we're not complainin yet - we'll get back to you in winter!!!!