On the Road Again

Jan. 4 - Hi again - the rain had stopped and it's quite nice out now. We decided to do a little sight-seeing instead of golf. We went to Whangarei Falls and had a little picnic with the ducks and gulls. We didn't expect the falls to be too great, but they were quite nice, with a lovely path down to the bottom and some hiking trails (we skipped the trails but did go down to view the falls from the bottom). Then we went down to the town basin, where many sailboats were moored. We really liked walking around and viewing the different boats, some of them quite spectacular. There are also nice cafes, shops, walking paths and an interesting clock display. Later we went to a restaurant called Bogart's where we had an excellent dinner.

On the road again to Gulf Harbour, a lovely Robert Trent Jones course (and community) just north of Auckland. It was very well groomed and the entire back nine had glorious views of the city, various bays and the ocean, along with many passing ships and sailboats. We spent the night in Auckland and went to the movies to see 'Rumour has it' - it was ok.

Since we were in Auckland, we decided to return to Ace Rent-a-Car to see about getting a better car and also to get the radio fixed. No better cars available, but they fixed the radio - loose connection. It worked great for about half an hour and then after we went over a large bump on the motorway, it died again. Oh well, another quiet drive and we have to talk to each other. Yikes! We made it back to Taupo and Ken and Linda's place and the boys rushed out to get in a quick nine - We think Ken was just waiting for us to get back so he could go play golf.

Jan. 7 - Happy Birthday Olga - Breakfast at Wairaki, picked out new golf shoes(Calloway, white and ORANGE), 18 holes at Centennial, and a great dinner at an amazing Thai restaurant that was way better than any we went to in Thailand. Linda's sister Theresa and her nephew Cameron joined us as well. Cameron is a 35 year old Kiwi who has been teaching English and Japan and South Korea for about five years and prior to that, he worked on some cruise ships. He was pretty interesting and had some good stories to tell. All in all, a great day. The next day, Linda read Olga's horoscope in the paper and it said that yellow was her lucky colour that day, so she wore her yellow golf shirt and shot 78 - the first time under 80 so far!(it was on the easier of the two courses at Taupo)

Last night at the Wolfe's - tomorrow we get our cottage.