17 October 2016 Margarita's visa for NZ expires the 20th. Still no new s from Australia. We have to make decisiones, we can not be caught in a situation whereby we do not have the visa and can not travel on time back to the US. Decision: make arrangements to travel back to the US on the 20th, indifferent if the visa comes through in the next couple of days. This decision makes us call our godson in Canberra, to tell him we will not be visiting him and his wife and make arrangements to send him the gifts that we and his mother had bought, and send them by mail. Further our day was a traveling day. Moving from Hamilton back to Auckland. Really a short drive of approximately 2 hours. Nothing spectacular to report, ... read more

16 October 2016 Again a day without green light from the Aussies. We have decided to make our way back to Auckland and did something that I would have thought to be impossible in my lifetime. We visited Hobbiton, yes the place where the outdoor parts of "The Hobbit", "Lord of the rings",etc. were filmed. I have never seen a Hobbit movie, nor have I read the Tolkien books, but what we saw today definitely encouraged us to see at least one movie, Margarita did read "The Hobbit", many years ago,to help Alex in school,with a bookreport. The level of detail is incredible and the overall scenary really something special. I thought that people who generally visited these sites must be "aficionados" and probably nerds. Nevertheless seeing the visitors from all over the world, I am ... read more

14 October 2016 Last night we should have traveled back to Auckland to take a flight out today to Sydney. Due to visa problems, unfortunately this was not the case. Venezuelans are required to have a visa for Australia. We applied for one over 4 weeks ago and subsequent contacts with the Australian visa authority for North America had given us the (wrong) impression that they would do what it takes to make certain that the visa would be issued before the 14th of October. Sadly enough, this did not happen! Subsequent calls to the center equally did not yield the results that we hoped for. A bummer! All our program in Australia had to be canceled in order to avoid penalties and extra costs. The biggest problem nevertheless is our return to the US: the ... read more

12 October 2016 As we said in our note about yesterday, Rotorua is a volcanic area. In effect the cita sits within a giant crater, the crater of Mount Terawera, last in action in 1880 when it devastated the area. Activity today existed in a 4 km geothermal valley walk in Waimangu, where we saw all related activities: geysers, mud pools, fumeroles and you name it. Fascinating!! The weather nevertheless was less fascinating; it basically did not stop dripping, not a heavy rain, but a steady drissel. Temperatures around 16 C. Fortunately we could borrow a large umbrella, so damage was limited. The 2 hours walk, finishes with a cruise on a small boat that takes you around a lake that was formed during the last eruption. A lot of geothermal water ends up in the ... read more

October 10, 2016 Life is nice even if you do not have wifi for a while. The lack of wifi is the reason why the last couple of entrees are a couple of days delayed. The day was divided in 2 basic activities: in the morning we visited "the world town" of Dagaville, about 45 km from our lodge. Why going there? We needed gasoline and Margarita was out of dramamine and thinking of the winding road we arrived on last night having something against carsickness is a must. Small town, but nice. Again we noticed that New Zealanders are very nice people, freindly, interested and always willing to help. After our roundtrip to Dagaville, we prepared for our main event of the day: an evening walk in the Waipoua Kauri Forest. No big deal you ... read more