Family at Easter!

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Good Friday brought the arrival of my parents and my sister, Brenda, to New Zealand. They arrived very early and took the Kiwi Shuttle from Auckland to Tauranga, arriving tired but happy at our house. As usual, we gave them the quick tour and headed over to the Mount for some beach and hiking. Not wanting to completely tire them out, we elected to take the trail around the base of the mount instead of climbing to the top. This trail gives you a great view of the water that surrounds 80% of the mountain and provides a good brisk hike. Afterwards, noting how tired they were looking, we opted to come home and order "take away" from our neighborhood fish and chips shop. Mother was the only one awake by the time the food arrived. Daddy went straight to bed and Brenda fell asleep sitting straight up in our patio chair. She would mumble a few words when spoken to directly but pretty much spent about six hours asleep sitting up.

The next day we drove north to the Karangahake Gorge. This gorge was created by the Ohinemuri River and was the site of the original gold rush in New Zealand in 1875. There are trails that take you on the old railway tracks and through the mining tunnels where you can look out "windows" into the gorge. The tunnels are very dark and it is suggested that you carry a "torch" when you walk through. Not having any torches with us, we had to rely on Ben's cellphone light and our trust in eachother as we shuffled our way to the end. About half way through the pitch black tunnel, I heard Daddy ask, "Now, what was the purpose of doing this?". Well, the fun was just beginning because I was determined to take them out to the beautiful swimming hole that Mark and I had visited on our last hike. I was sure it was just a few minutes down the trail. Unfortunately, an hour later we had still not come to it. I think we walked about 6 or so miles that day. Exhausting as the hike was, it did not stop Daddy from trying to launch himself over a rail to retrieve Brenda's sunglasses that she dropped. It was about a 500 foot drop to the bottom but he was determined to get them. Needless to say, it was an early night again for our visitors. That was a good thing though, since I had to wake them up at 4:30 am for Easter Sunrise Service.

The service was given by the Presbyterian church in the Mount. The preacher gave a very nice sermon and then invited another pastor from the area to come join him at the front. This guy had on a swimsuit and jandals (flipflops). He said a beautiful prayer and then helped serve communion. As we walked from the alter out to the beach, the sun just started to rise over the horizon. It was amazing. A perfect Easter morning.

Back home, we enjoyed an American Aunt Jamima Pancake breakfast (courtesy of Aunt Brenda) with our friends, Allison and Phil, Rosanna and Rebecca. Then we drove out to the Gideon's Trails to meet Rona and Graham, my friends from Bible Study, and their friend, Jenny, who was visiting from South Africa. The trail runs along a river and has a beautiful waterfall and swimming hole near the picnic area. All along the trail, different countries are represented and information is given about the state of affairs and the Christian climate of the area. A prayer journal is available to write in and a bench is provided for meditation. Rona is somewhat of a bird expert and she pointed out an owl sitting in a tree. We would never have seen this guy without her. Grace gets credit for he great picture. Mark and I took advantage of the swimming hole but could not convince anyone else to face the icy waters.

We left Tauranga Monday morning to visit the Rotorua Museum and Agridome. I think we were all a little tired for a museum so the sheep show at the Agridome held more appeal. They display about 20 different breeds of live sheep and demonstrate how they are shorn. Sheep wool is very stinky before it is cleaned as we found out when handfuls were thrown into the audience. The MC told us to rub in in our hands to feel the lanolin that naturally keeps the sheep skin soft. Then he told us to smell our hands. Stupid Americans! Brenda smuggled some home to her kindergarten class. From there we drove down to Taupo to visit one of the many geothermal parks in the area. Having been pretty saturated with geothermal parks and information, the Robbins family was more interested in the ice cream break at the end of the tour. The park was beautiful however and provided another opportunity to walk our visitor's legs off. A stop at the Honey Hive outside of town netted us some great ice cream and other products made with NZ made honey. From there we drove a short distance to Huka Falls which turned out to be one of Mother's favorite spots. The house we rented in Taupo was fantastic with a beautiful garden in the back full of apple trees and all kinds of tropical flowers. Ben and Brenda spent a good amount of time taking pictures of all the flora and fauna for her class.

On Wednesday, we returned to Tauranga in order for Mark to race in the season's last regatta. On Thursday, we drug Brenda out of bed in the wee hours again to climb the Mount in time for sunrise. It was a bit overcast but beautiful just the same. There is just no other view like it!

When we have visitors now, we try to show them the highlights of our hometown but also some of the country that we have not traveled. This time, we headed up to Russell, a small seaside village on a penninsula in the Eastern Bay of Islands about 3 1/2 hours north of Auckland. It was meant to be the part of the trip where we could all relax. However, I forgot that I booked us all into a tour up to Cape Reinga the next day. It was an all day tour that left bright and early from a nearby town. That meant another alarm clock morning and a mad dash to the ferry to get there in time. Of course, I went to the wrong ferry terminal and the bus had to wait on us. We made up for it by being our cheerful southern selves. ....(Mark - We were late in our rendezvous with this tour; therefore, the choice seats were taken. I sat at the back of the bus which had five seats. I, of course, was in the middle. At first I was dismayed, but the folks surrounding me were fun. Three Kiwi couples were spending three to four weeks traveling in their convertible MG’s from Invercargill - a long, long way down south. I temporarily became an honorary member of the South Island MG club because I known what the letters stand for.)


The trip up to the Cape is very long but worth it. We went with a tour called Dune Riders 4x4 which was actually a large four wheeled drive bus. Because half of the trip is actually driven on the beach, it is recommended that you do not take your own car to the Cape. There are pools of shifting sand, "quick sand", and cars that get stuck can be covered with sand or taken out to sea with the tide within a day. Our destination for the trip was 90 mile Beach but the first stop was a Kauri tree grove in the Puketi Forest. We have teased Mark about dragging us around to see Kauri all the time. Some of us are as done with Kauri as we are with thermal parks...

90 Mile Beach leads up to the Columbia Bank where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. It was fun to drive right on the beach during the outgoing tide but our guide was quick to inform us that we had a narrow window on the day to make it back before the tide came in again. That being said, he was keen to stop and get our help in gathering a bucket of Tuatuas for his dinner that night. These are small shellfish that are harvested at low tide. You find them in the sand with your feet and only gather the ones that are tightly closed. The limit is 150 per person. We made one more stop to help a stranded driver who was sitting up to her rims in sand. Once we were a safe distance up the beach, we took a turn up a quicksand stream to the back of the sand dunes to do a little sand surfing. The process of riding a dune goes something like this: Drag your boogie board and your self up the dune. Try to step in the footprints ahead of you to make it easier. Once there, inhale huge gulps of air and thank your lucky stars you made it. Now you are ready to ride down the bank. Be sure and listen to the instructions given for staying on your board or you may die. Jump on your board and race down. Spit out a mouth full of sand and repeat. (Mark - I managed to keep up with Ben and trudged up the hill and surfed down three times. There was a small creek at the bottom of the hill. If you your technique was good, the guide said you could skim across on our boogie boards. Cool, I thought. I took my shirt off on the third run, so it would not get wet. Two previous runs and the hot sun on a sand dune results in beads of sweat all over exposed skin. I landed in a tuft of grass at the bottom of the hill and did not get across the creek. The rest of the day I got to enjoy the chafing of my skin with the sand stuck all over my torso. It did not seem to bother me as much as having to continually spit sand out. I am sure it is good for digestion.)

The Cape itself is beautiful and the walk down to the lighthouse gives you a panoramic view of the sea. There is a Maori legend that as the soul leaves the body and travels to the afterworld, it travels up to the Cape and climbs upon a tree, resting there for a time of meditation before leaping off into the sea. We took a picture of the tree but felt no presence of the spirits. From the lighthouse, we were taken to a secluded little beach for a picnic and the option of swimming. It was cold water and the wind was up. We elected not to go in but were not surprised to see a few of the tour group strip down on the beach and tear into the water. I guess we are just used to that now.... (Mark - Er ah - I did swim. Remember the sand. I had to get rid of the sand. All I accomplished was that it moved to my shorts. In regard to some of the people stripping down in public, I know the rest of the world is more comfortable with their body image, but when a viewing is unexpected… I had to turn my head, but not out of respect.)

On the way back down the coast, we were taken to Awanui Ancient Kauri Kingdom. This is a roadside souvenier shop that carries everything from $5 Kauri keychains to $10,000 sofas carved out of the trunks of perserved wood. It was pretty interesting to hear how they have found all this wood, carbon dated to 45,000 years old, buried under the swamps in the surrounding countryside. A 50 ton staircase, carved from a giant log, stands in the middle of the showroom. The growth rings say it lived 1087 years before it fell more than 45,000 years ago. They predict it was buried in the swamp more than 25,000 years before the outset of the last Ice Age. Impressive. Ben bought 3 blocks of raw wood that he is sure to carve into something magnificient. Our last stop of the day was the Mangonui Fish and Chips Shop. This is a popular spot for vacationers and people are known to drive long distances to get it. It was some of the best we have had and a nice end to a big day. Perhaps you would guess that everyone went to bed as soon as we got home. Again.

Our next adventure was to take us out on a boat to tour the Bay of Islands. I decided that we might have to make it a half day trip rather than the 8 hour day that was booked if I wanted to keep my parents on their feet. When I inquired about this, I was told that it was going to be very rough on the water and I might choose to cancel altogether. I took that option and didn't receive flack from the group. We spent our last day enjoying the beach and doing a little fishing at the pier, vowing to come back to this area in the future.

My family finally got some rest when they got on the plane to go home.

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Photos

Easter!
We were the second place in the world to see the sunrise on Easter!

The Koru
An appropriate sign for Easter - new beginnings