Our last few days in New Zealand have been pretty chilled. Yesterday Emily and Lydia came with us to Katikati (what a fab name for a town!) bird park and Karangahake Gorge. The bird park was in a really lovely setting and we were given some bird food to take round with us. The first birds we saw were ducks so we fed them enthusiastically! This was a mistake as they followed us round the round the rest of the park. We found a really quiet spot with a bird table and decided it would be a good idea to put some of the bird food on the table to attract some of the birds - we did so and sat quietly but it wasn't long before the ducks waddled along and spoiled the peace. We ... read more

Sunday was a bit of a chilled day! We were going to go to church in the morning but we slept through! Doh!! When we did surface we had a chat with our wonderful hosts and decided to make the best of the good weather and have a picnic!! Thats one of Robs favourite things to do!!! Not!!! We had planned on going to see a stranded Orca Whale that they have named Nobby, but we discoverd that they manged to get him back swimming again in high tide! So that was good news! Anyway we went for this picnic and there was an added bonus... we could take the kayaks!!!!! Although Rob and Lynne were a little scared! Rob can't swim!!! When we got to the sea we had our picnic under blankets as the ... read more

Yesterday was a really amazing day! We got up at 6.30am so that we could drive to Whakatane (prounounced pha-ka-ta-ne) for our White Island Volcano adventure! We had to be at the airport for 9.30am but made it to Whakatane in time to have a coffee at a lovely garden centre that was playing a really bad version of Flower of Scotland!! When we arrived at the airport we had a saftey demo and had to give the lady an emergency contact number in case of emergency... Scary! Our helicopter and pilot arrived at the airport at 10am and as you'll see from the photos it was tiny!! Enough room for the pilot and 4 passengers and we weren't able to sit next to each other - Karen got to sit up front with the pilot! ... read more

The weather here really is fantastic!! Yesterday was a busy day! We went to Tauranga City Church for the morning and evening services. This is a hillsong church and almost identical to the other hillsong churches we have experienced. There are loads of young people though which is a big contrast to most churches back home. It also served amazing chocolate cake after both services which is better than back home!! Emily was singing with the youth band for the evening service and it was lovely to see her new found confidence. In the afternoon we went and looked at some houses.... with the Bennett's.... Don't worry Mum!! There really are some amazing houses here - they are all completely different and many have views of the sea. They don't have central heating though and they ... read more

Here's a selection of our photos so far :o)... read more