The Third TOGA gets to blog.

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Karen here, it's my turn. I am officially a TOGA now that I have downed my first LIIT at the Irish bar in Rotorua. Except they called the cocktail "Four men and his Dog" instead of LIIT, but being an Irish bar I guess we couldn't expect much else. Also it tasted crap but I downed it anyway, that's how much I wanted to be a TOGA!

Anyway, firstly I'd just like to say it wasn't my fault that we weren't at Auckland airport in time to greet the girls off the plane. It was the pilots fault for arriving 1/2 hour earlier than schedule. Neither was it my fault that it rained for the first time in weeks when we stepped out into the carpark. It's been pretty good weather since then mind you. The whole family got out of bed at 5.30 am to greet my cuzzies, and we drove them up to the top of the nearest volcano to see the sun rise. Once called 'One Tree Hill' because of the lone pohutukawa tree at the summit, it is now just called "The Hill" since a Maori activist took to the tree with a chainsaw a few years ago. From the "hill" we did a little Tiki-tour (that's what we call it when you go off course in random directions in order to see interesting sights) around the rich suburbs of Auckland toward the city to the harbour, then dropped the girls off with the kids at the waterfront to take a short ferry ride to the North Shore. On the way in the car to meet them at the other side I noted it had taken us less than an hour for us to get them to babysit (thanks for the suggestion Paul).

So Luke and I went off to the movies.....
Just kidding, we picked them up off the ferry, had a quick coffee and took them to meet the mother-in-law Mary and her partner Peter where Lynda had her second cuppa and then we drove home to our place which is located in the lovely northern town of Warkworth, named after Warkworth castle which is actually in Leicester. Mum and Dad, their Aunty Jan and Uncle Norm, came around for lunch and we shared a few beers on the deck and caught up on news. Joyce and Mo, you should know that we ate a huge pile of TuaTua cooked on the barbie - they are a bit like cockles and Lynda loved them, Norm had trouble getting past her to the bowl. I'm impressed that they managed to stay awake since neither had slept all night, and both were keen to visit the local pub to sample a few NZ lagers.

Next morning, we dragged Lynda out of bed (Tina woke her, I was too scared to do that) and drove to Rotorua which is in the central North Island. Usually a 3 hour trip, we did a little bit out of the way Tiki-tour and had lunch at Paeroa in a hideous Tea room. Rotorua is renowned for it's thermal activity and as a consequence smells like rotten eggs. At first I thought it was Lynda's bottom after all those TuaTua but it was just as bad out of the car as in it. We had a nice motel room with a private spa (glorified bath tub), and went for an afternoon walk by the lake to see some bubbling mud pools before dinner at the Fat Dog cafe, and finished with a Guinness at the Irish Pub. Then next morning the weather was beautiful for a visit to Waiotapu thermal area and the nearby Lady Knox Geyser. We sat amongst the other tourists and watched the geyser go off at precisely 10.15 am. How does it know to go off at this time? Well, a man comes along with some soap powder and chucks it in the geysers hole (sounds painful), this breaks the surface tension and bubbles emerge slowly building into a jet of hot water around 15ft high. I've seen this many times before but still find it impressive.

The Waiotapu park is a wonderland of thermal activity, bubbling mud pools, steam rising out of the ground, silica terraces, and pools coloured bright green and blue by minerals. We spent a couple of hours walking around, it was sunny and warm and after we were all ready for lunch. I took them to my fave Rotorua cafe called Lime for breakfast (at 2pm!). Tina said her Bacon and Eggs were the best ever - that's quite something for you to live up to Paul. The trick is to put a layer of sweet chilli sauce under the toast and serve it up with a cold glass of NZ Sauvignon Blanc (and not that White Cloud rubbish).

I had thought it a must-do activity to see a Maori Cultural show and have a hangi feast, the woman at our motel recommended a company called Tamaki Brothers. I'd heard this had an excellent reputation, and we weren't disappointed. Before catching the bus to the show all three of us got into our private spa pool with a bottle of Sav Blanc for a little pool party. Our bus's name was Weka, and our drivers name was Wati. Wati droves us in Weka to the Maori village outside of town, and on the way we chose our Rangatira for the night. A rangatira is the Maori word for chief. We needed a chief to represent us on the Marae (meeting place) during the formal part of the evening. Tina and Lynda learned how to say Kia Ora (greeting) which they practiced all night so by the time we went home they were fluent with the taxi driver. The Tamaki brothers performed an authentic welcome to the Marae wearing traditional clothing and tatoos. This included a challenge (wero), and a welcome chant (karanga). It was a bit daunting to see these Maori men with their weapon (taiaha) gesticulating with tounges poking out and eyeballs bulging. Lynda said one guy in particular was fit, I thought she meant he'd been to the gym! After the welcome we had a chance to see the Maori village, by now it was dark and the only light was coming from open fires which made it all a bit atmospheric. Then it was time for the cultural show, this was superb. Wonderful singing and haka and poi dances, a brilliant performance and most of the guys here also looked really fit! Afterwards we entered the Wharekai (dining room) for the Kai (food) cooked in Hangi style (slowly steamed under the ground) but prior to that we said the Karakia (a prayer). The food was pretty good and loads of it - lamb, chicken, fish, potatoes, carrots, kumera (sweet potato) veges and salad, followed by pavlova and fruit salad. Pretty plain but really delicious and we all ate till we were fit to burst. At the end of the evening there were more songs and a bus drivers haka (war dance), then we all held hands and sang 'Now is the Hour'. Well you can imagine the effect that had on Tina - poor love she really misses you all. On the way home on the Waka everyone all sang songs from our native countries, we did "pack up your troubles". Our hosts were funny and genuine and all in all it was a 'feel-good' night, one to warm the cockles.

Next up, the LIIT or the 'one man and his dog' (aptly named since there were only four spirits, and probably a real dog) Not the best ever LIIT I'm told and didn't get much of a rating from Lynda or Tina. But the pub was closing and we didn't get time to have a second shot at it. Our last must-do activity in Rotorua was the Polynesia Spa Pools, famous for it's thermal mineral pools so the following morning we lounged in the warm waters and rested up before a long drive to Waitomo on the other side of the country.

Waitomo in Maori means water and cave, aptly named because of the 300+ cave systems in the area, some with rivers running through them. Here we took a tour to the most famous of the caves because of it's glow worms. The limestone cave was beautiful and our guide really informative on the life cycle of the glowworm - actually it's a pretty amazing creature having no eyes or ears and catches it's food on the end of a little fishing line that it weaves from it's bottom. When an insect gets caught on the line it senses which line to pull in and sucks it up like spaghetti. It also emits a gorgeous blue light and the last part of our tour included a short boat ride in the underground river to see the mass of lights on the ceiling above us. Lynda and I were gobsmacked by this sight. I thought if I die and go to heaven I want it to be like this. Couldn't take photos of it so you just have to come here and see for yourselves. Stunning!

Then we drove back to Auckland, Lynda tackled the driving in peak hour south city traffic which is no mean feat as NZ drivers are pretty inconsiderate really, not like all you lovely poms. They checked into their immaculately clean B&B, and then I left them at a restaurant call the Bar and Baa. That's the last I will see of them until next Saturday night but I know that right now as I write this they are on a whale watching trip off the coast of Kaikoura and I am very jealous that I couldn't go with them. Enjoy your South Island trip girls and think of me starting my new job next week. I look forward to hearing about this next leg of your journey. Mucho aroha (love), TOGA number three xx

Karen, you've well and truly completed your initiation now - Kia Ora TOGA xxx

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Photos

Welcoming Committee
What a lovely welcome and a lovely view and sunrise.

Chilling on the Deck
One for you Mum, wish you could have been there xx

The Geyser just went off
Amazing what happens when soap goes in the hole.

Lynda gets all steamy
A therapeutic blast of mineral steam from the Champagne pool at Waiotapu.

Pool Party
Good company, good wine what more can you ask for!!

Doesn't he look fit?
He's been showing off that facial tatoo at the gym.

Travelling is not all hard work.
The security guard had his eye on these suspicious characters.

When you can't take your camera
...just imagine you are there with the glowworms.

Comments

[Dazzle]

Top blogging Kaz.
Nice one Karen, very informative yet witty blog. I'm just wondering if Mum and Auntie have ended up like Jonah, only I've not heard from them since their whale watching trip. Well if you've got an internet connection from inside Willy we're all fine, Donna's still getting bigger by the day but enjoying every minute of it. Although she still can't decide what bloody pram to buy (my betting is she'll go for the most expensive ;o) Not much else happening, we all had a big boozy weekend for Matty's birthday (which is today by the way). I've only just recovered and Ben is still dying, you know what big girl's blouse he is when it comes to hangovers. Why do you keep putting the brand name of a concentrated orange squash at the end of your blogs? don't you know it's only for me and my dog.... Big love to one and all in NZ xx P.S. how's the new job going Karen?