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Published: September 28th 2006
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Hi All,
Well what a lovely place this is, the home of many wineries which is fantastic. The trip didnt start well with Amandas I pod getting stolen, but the insurance should cover and the place is too beautiful to be sad for long. Its the hottest part of nz we have been to so far, sunny most days apart from yesterday. As you can see from the pics we had our day at the races, that was a very hot day and exciting too. It wasnt like our race courses back home, very laid back and no betting slips on the floor, Steve had a winner on a coincidental horses name called Pinot Grigio, he decided to bet as we were in nz largest wine maker domain. And no he didnt buy us all a drink after!! Tighty Wrighty! Altough he did pay half of Amandas parachute! The next day we made a trip to Te Mata Peak, absolutely stunning views, although Amanda closed her eyes on the way up, no barriers next to very very high drops, she was convinced she could just plop off the edge. Anyway as you can see, we went with Steve and Kaz
and then off to the pub after..of course! They have been great, nice home cooked dinners each night, many bbqs and cooked brekkies in morning, and yes lots of wine. The house is huge, and two gorgeous doggies to go with it. Steve hates dogs and has spent a week with two 13 month year old German Shepards. They are good dogs apart from in the morning when they think we are their breakfast, one bit Amanda on the bottom! See pics, Ozzie and Hutch. Next two days Steve was ill with a cold.....MAN FLU! He thought the world was ending, and Amanda felt like ending it for him! We chilled watched some dvds and waited for him to recover. Whilst Steve was recovering Amanda went to feed baby lambs and dragged Steve along too, but he thought it was worth it. Amanda named them Lamb and Chop, they were adorable! They are coming back in the backpacks. She even got in the cage with them to have a good old stroke and cuddle. See pics, great day!
Then yesterday we went wine tasting to a vineyard! We also purchased a lovely bottle for dinner, at only $13.90 bargain! We
are going to make another trip for some more. We were taught how to taste the wine and savour it to taste the true flavours...was very funny.
Steve and Kas have been so kind and got us insured on their Rav 4! Automatic, so it feels like we drive a toy car. We made our way to Napier, where we just so happened to come across a Mini Crazy Golf, no hole in ones this time but Amanda still managed to win!! Yay!!!!!!!! To Steves annoyance! Even funnier hey! See pics for Ocean Beach, best beach we have seen,it was huge and we were the only ones on it, fabby! Also see famous Daily Telegraph building.
Today was the best by far, early start of 6.30, we had to be at Marine Land for 7.30 to SWIM WITH DOLPHINS!! Sky Diving was Steves THING HE HAD TO DO, and swimming with dolphins was Amandas. We got into our wet suits which were freezing, we were the first to swim at that time of the morning since April. They only had the one Dolphin called Kelly, she was so sweet! She was a common Dolphin and was 36 years old, she
had a white tummy and was very playful. We had half an hour with her and then fed her. Amanda kept arrgghhing and got way over excited, all she wanted to do was to touch her but Kelly wanted to play ball and ring her bell, we threw the ball and she would dart and get it and give the ball back to us to start again. After we fed her and had a good old stroke. She felt everything like we thought she would, we thought she would feel like wet rubber and it was exactly that but smoother and softer. Amanda tried to smuggle Kelly out but got stopped at the gate! There were Sealions(see picture), penguins, ganets and then the was a bird called Bobby. We have never heard a bird that speaks as much as he does, see picture with Steve, when you laugh he even imitates that. He kept saying "My names Bobby,give me a scratch "and he would bend over to let you scratch him.By the time we had walked around it was time for the shower, we were frozen. The great thing about this trip to Marine Land is that we had the
park to ourselves, we got there at 7.30 for the swim and it didnt open till 10.00am so backstage passes for us! We are here till Sunday morning, then off to Wellington the capital, flying to the South Island to Queenstown for a few days, the to the Glaciers for three days...very excited for that one, then back to Queenstown then we are flying back to Auckland on the 11th and flying to OZ on the 12th. We will find an internet Cafe in South Island for more updates next week.
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anonymous
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porter and steve, its important that u pay a visit to fergburger in queenstown. mainly because of the name, but i do defy u 2 have a better drunken munch x