February

This is sort of an update on most of February - we haven't been blogging much lately.
We continued seeing some local sights with out friends George and Lorraine. We took in Aratiatia Dam and then did a walk in geothermal area called Craters of the Moon. The landscape is quite unique, with huge craters with steam escaping and pools of boiling mud. It was very warm and sunny out and the heat from the craters made it even hotter, so we were ready for a cool drink and an ice cream at the end.

The next day, we drove about an hour north to Rotorua, where we visited a Maori village and a larger geothermal area. It has a long name which I don't have with me at present, but they called it Whaka for short. We had a excellent guide who showed us through the museum and later led us through the geothermal area. It was much larger than the Craters of the Moon and we were glad they had little trams for the tour. When we got to the area where the geyers were, the wind was blowing and the geyers were spewing and most of us got sprayed, but the guide said that was good luck. We also went into the Kiwi House where we saw two kiwi birds - they are nocturnal birds, so you don't see them very often.

We visited the Fat Dog Cafe for lunch (recommended by John Hutton) and just in time too, since there was a huge downpour that lasted for a couple of hours.

We spent a few quiet days in Taupo, playing a little golf and trying out a few local restaraunts before our next adventure. On Sunday, Feb. 12 we drove to the Coromandel Peninsula to a place called Hahei. I think we took the wrong road to Tauranga, another very windy road, where we saw people pulling over to puke. George and Olga almost had to join them - they both are prone to car sickness - but things eventually settled down. (not giong down that road again) Once at Hahei, we went to Hot Water Beach where you are supposed to dig a hole on the beach and it fills up with hot water, but there was no hot water that day. There were hundreds of people with these little shovels digging and digging but no luck. Bob and George then took the hike down to Cathedral Cove - it was about 45 minutes each way, but apparently the scenery was worth the effort.

We spent the night at a cottage in Hahei and the next day drove back to Tauranga and on to Mount Manganui, where we stopped for a few hours and walked along the lovely beachfront. We later took a much better highway back to Rotorua - Olga commented that they must have imported a Canadian engineer for this highway- and then back to Taupo in time to watch Mike Weir lose at Pebble Beach. (We now have Sky TV in our apartment so we get more channels)

Valentine's Day and we played 9 holes and then went to Huka Falls, before dinner at the Wolfe's.(rack of lamb,spuds, veggies, a wonderful spinach and strawberry salad with poppy seed dressing and homemade chocolates - way better than any restaraunt meal would have been - Linda Wolfe is a great cook)

George and Lorraine left for the South Island on Feb. 16 and we settled in to watching the Olympics and playing a little golf. The Olympic coverage here is not too great. It comes on at 7 am for three hours and then again at 9:30 pm, with a break for the evening news. You only get highlights of the events and they do a poor job of the standings and the medals. We were looking forward to watching the hockey, but all we got was a few minutes of goal highlights on some of the games, but I guess maybe that was a good thing since it looks like Canada didn't play that well and we didn't miss much. (the men's team anyway)

We have a few more days in Taupo and then we're off to Wellington and then the south island.

Happy Birthday Rob - (Dad is doing the Tongariro crossing right now) - more later.