Hello again – I have a few minutes left on the internet card so will type as much as possible:
Golden Bay: went out to Abel tasman’s memorial; he was a captain for the the Dutch West Indies Company who actually ” discovered” New Zealand before Captain Cook. He anchored in the bay at Tata beach near Takaka, but never landed. While rowing between their two large ships in a dorry, a4 of his men were attacked by the local maori, suspicious that they had come with war in mind – they probably had! Anyhow, all four Europeans died, and Abel Tasman took his 2 ships and left, never to return to N.Z.! There is a rumour, probably quite accurate, that the then cannibalistic Maori ate the 4 shipmates – this completely freaked Quinn out! We had to very clearly explain that Maori no longer did this!!
Then it was off to Collingwood to a fabulous chocolate factory – Rosie Glow Coc.s a very famous South Island company – YUM!!
Big adventure of the day: feeding the tame eels! Yes, eeels. Not electric, but quite disgusting. We paid to get into a little “farm” and buy food, ( chunks of sausage meat I think), and then hand fed the eels; of course, they’d take your hand off quite happily, so we actually put a chunk of food on the end of a fork and dangling that from a string, fed it to the creatures. They rerally are gross – it was the one thing so far that really freaked me out and Ian has me “squealing” in terror on video!!
Back to Nelson that evening (Dec. 29th), and had to try and get all of our dirty laundry clean, and pack everything into our suitcases to leave on Jan. 1st. We also took time to go into Nelson and Richmond for one last shop – mostly groceries to restock Leigh and Scott’s fridge and pantry! That evening the adults drove to Mapua, about 15 minutes away, for an adult evening out – a beautiful restaurant right on the harbour, where we wnjoyed great seafood and lamb, yummy desserts, and the always good nelson and area wines. It was great to get an evening out with Scott and leigh and have a nice visit!
New Years Eve day was lovely : warm and sunny, perfect for hanging out more of the endless laundry! After a morning of packing, laundry and organising, we left the boys home with Sam and headed out to do some more adult stuff. ian and I went to thwe Hoglund’s glass factory, where beautiful works of handblown glass are made. ian picked up a couple of glass penguins – we never
did see any of the real ones!Scott and Leigh led us on a tour of some of the local vinetards – tough way to spend an afternoon, sitting in beautiful sunny gardens, munching local olives and cheeses and sipping lovely wines! I admit, I overindulged on the “tasting” of wines – we actually bought a couple of bottles and drank them, the 4 of us, at the vineyard restaurants. I had to have a nap when I got back, or I would never have seen in New Year’s!! I did wake up in time however, and we celebrated at home with fireworks and bubbly – although the adults barely made it to the midnight hour!
Jan. 1st: we were all packed and as ready as we could be to depart Maple Hill and Scott, Leigh and Sam. We were all very sad to go, and although I am sure they were glad to have their home back to themselves, I think the Kiwi contiogent were all sad to see us leave. We aaured them that it would not be another 9 years before we met! We are really hoping that they will make a summer trip to Canada soon!
The drive to the ferry at Picton was windy ( again), but again, aslo no actual sickness, just nausea – thank good ness for gravol. Picton is a beautiful port town – we were there in time to check our bags and head into town for a quick lunch. Then it was trukly good bye, to Scott and to the south, as we loaded onto the ferry! There were certainly some teary eyes in our group. Scott, leigh and Sam were fantastic hosts and we really enjoyed our stay with thwm. it was great for all of us to get to know each other better – our Kiwi family will always remain very special to us, and we hope to keep up the visits!
The ferry crossing was perfect – the Cook Stari can be extremely rough, but we had a calm, quiet crossing – windy on deck, but just fine inside. It is very like the Vancouver Island ferries, but larger. It is a three hour trip, getting us into Wellington around 4:30.
Scott had booked us into a serviced apartment in downtown Wellington, just half a block from the Ministry of Fisheries office where he often works. It was a great place – two bedrooms, good sized living room and kitchen, full bath, and 2 t.v’s with cable – important to the kids!! Our first night we discovered that over holidays, downtown Wellington really is closed! We ended up eating at McDonald’s ad on New Yr.’s day, even the cafes were closed! Never happen in Calgary, but Ian and I agreed that perhaps it should!
THe forst thing on our intinerary was the national museum, Te Papa. It is similar in size andscope the Canada’s Musum of Civilisation in Hull, and was a fascinating look at the history and cultures of New Zealand, with great sections on the Maori and on the GHeography/Geothermal aspects of the islands. Very interactive – we even got to experience a (small scale ) simulated earthquake – not something we wanted to experience for real, especially as we were staying on the 16th story of our building!
We did a tour of Wellington for the balance of the day, with a break at the hotel to cook dinner. We drove to the top of Mount Victoria for a wonderful view of the harour and the whole city. In the park at Mt. Victoria we hunted down a couple more LOTR sites: the road out of the Shire where Frodo hears the Ringwraiths coming, and the spot that the hobbits hide from them. That evening we rode the Wellington cable car up to the Botanical gardens where the boys did some much needed running and climbing at the playground!
Then it was back to bed for an early start to Rotarua, a 6 hour drive away. On the way we detoured to Upper Hutt and a the site of the filming of Rivendell – beautiful spot, really a good place for elves to live, and a very nice hike.
The drive to Rotarua is a pretty uneventful one until you get close to Lake Taupo, a huge lake formed in the crater of a volcanoe that erupted 10’s of 1000’s of years ago. Then the roads and paddocks start to give off stem, and we were able to stop and see huge ponds of bubbling mud – really neat! The smell got steadily more sulphury as we headed North-phew! We arrived in Rotarua fairly late, settled in our hotel, and found a very North American style restaurant – Sizzler’s, which is much like a Keg! Treated ourselves to a meal and then headed back to our motel room – amall, but very well equipped, again with a full kitchen.
We were very excited to speak to our friewnd the Kretzschmars, friends from Calgary, who are now living in New Delhi. They were spending their Christmas holidays on the North Island, so yeaterday, Jan. 4th, they drove down from Auckland for a visit!
While we waited for them to arrive, we explored a bit, including a visit to the Buried Village Museum. In 1886 a huge earthquake and eruption hit this area, literally burying several villages and killing over 120 people. The museum is a memorial and an ezxcavation site, with several buildings available to look at. Great museum, very interesting for adults and children.
I am about to run out of time, so will try at our place tonight to finish and get all caught up!