Blueberries

When we are in Sweden we always like to pick blueberries in the forest near our cottage but in New Zealand they had proper blueberry farms where you could go in and taste wine and jam and chutney and other goodies, all made from blueberries. It was delicious and also they are very good for you, apparently.

I have been a bit lazy writing here lately. Hubby is away in Europe for 10 days and I have been very busy with the pool. Something went wrong when we were away and the pool people have been here several times. It is still not quite right so I have to manually clean the bottom since the vacuum cleaner doesn't do the job.  It involves a lot of diving! Those stupid berries from next door!

Just read in a Swedish daily about a 98 year old lady who is a blogger and blogs every day!!!! She actually moved to her son in Thailand at the same time as my mother moved with us to Sydney. Both of them are back in Sweden now after their great adventures, for different reasons. If you understand Swedish here is a link.

Back to another little detail about New Zealanders. Like their Aussie friends, they seem to like "Big Things". Here are some of them:

Me and The White Kiwi

Me and Kiwi, the fruit

Hubby liked this one because Gumboot was his
nickname for a long time

This blog entry wouldn't be complete without a photo of me eating. Here is a photo from a food market where they made these delicious mussel fritters. I hope this recipe is as good as the ones we had. I haven't tried them yet but I think I will do it when we are having the kids here in March.

"The kids" you say, "Are they coming all the way to Australia ... from South America and Africa?" Yesss, for the first time since 2009 we will have all three plus boyfriend under one roof. I can't wait!!! It will not be for very long but at least it is finally happening, more about that later.

It's time to do chores, so bye for now. I'll leave you with a few more pretty pictures from NZ.

Museum of Rotorua, previous bathhouse

Home sweet home

We are back ... after a wonderful two weeks in New Zealand. I have already written a little bit about it, and here is a little more, and there will undoubtably be more after this.

It is a great place with nice people, beautiful scenery, and great temperatures. People speak a form of English that is quite endearing but sometimes difficult to understand, at least for me. If you have ever watched Flight of the Concord you might know how it sounds.

We spent the last two days in Rotorua which is a geothermal area. The place smells like boiled eggs because of the H₂S, but you get used to it. Almost every hotel has thermal pools either in the garden or in your hotel room. It is very relaxing to sit in your pool before going to bed. Temperatures vary from 37°C to 42°C+ which we had in the last place we were. That is a tad hot and you step out of it like a boiled lobster. They recommend bathing with someone since you might feel faint.

On our way to Rotorua from Napier we stopped at this great geothermal spa and had a little soak.

When we visited a Maori village the tour guide told us that the Maori could stand much higher temperatures than the visitors, and I believe her. We were standing on a cliff with hot water underneath the surface and the guide was telling us a story about burials. I had instigated it by asking a question and I could hardly keep standing still because my feet were burning from underneath. I had to jump from foot to another, but discreetly, since she was talking about her ancestors, and they are very important. I felt a bit conspicuous! She, however, was quite unperturbed.

There was actually a burial taking place that day so we could not visit the Ceremonial Hall. The ceremonies last three days nowadays but used to last up to several weeks. Our visit to Tewhakarewarewatangaotopetaauaawahiao finished with a little show with singers and a Haka etc, very interesting. I know that you might be thinking that I have put my hands down on the keyboard and just left them there and by doing that I got those letters. But no, it is actually the name of this particular Maori village and it has a meaning

 

Our first overnight stop however, after leaving Wellington was a place called Napier. This town was destroyed during an earthquake and when it was rebuilt it was all in Art Deco style, since it was in 1931. The buildings are very stylish and beautiful, if you are a fan of Art Deco. The day we were there, there was a cruise ship as well and they had a lot of arrangement for the cruise participents. Like people dressed up in clothes from the 30's and taking people for drives in vintage cars.

It looks a little like Florida I think

I bet you are wondering what I was referring to in my last entry, when I said that trouble frequently comes in threes. Well, several months before coming to NZ we had booked a train trip from Auckland to Wellington on a scenic train. Needless to say hubby was very much looking forward to this being that he is a huge train enthusiast, in fact for him it was the highlight of the trip to New Zealand.

This is while we were still happy and excited about going by train to Wellington

We got up very early to catch this train and after check in, etc. we sat down in our comfortable seats and then we set off. It was well organized with ear phones so we could take in the history as we travelled along. There was also a lovely cafe wagon and we were looking forward to having lunch there, perhaps a glass of wine while we watched the beautiful landscape. The whole point of taking one of these scenic railways is that you get to see areas that are not visible from the road.

The big let-down happened just an hour after departure. There was a message over the loud speaker that there had been a derailment further along the line and we could not continue. We had to continue the trip by bus!!!! So in a town called Hamilton we all disembarked and crammed into the three buses waiting for us and set off on our 10 hour bus trip.

We arrived in Wellington after dark and traipsed away to our Quest apartment which was in fact really conveniently located. There were loads of people dressed up in fancy dress and we managed to glean that there was a special rugby tournament on and also a fancy dress competition. First prize was $10,000 so people were taking it very seriously. After the rugby games there was a street party but these two party poopers needed to have an early night after our nightmarish bus trip, so we skipped that.

This is getting very long now so I have to stop and save some for next time, because believe me there is more.

  

What is not so nice when you have been away is to get back to a clogged up pool filter and a very messy back yard. It must have been very windy when we were away and those darn little berries from the neighbor have all fallen into the pool. So Kia Ora, and more soon! 

Trouble always comes in threes ...

... at least that is our experience on this trip!

It started out with hubby misreading our ticket from Sydney to Auckland; he had looked at the arrival time in Auckland and thought it was our departure time, so we missed our flight. So after buying new tickets, five times as expensive, since we had used frequent-flyer points for the first, we arrived very late in Auckland.

We had a few lovely days there though with lots of walking, and a visit to an island called Rangitoto, which appeared through a volcanic eruption only 600 years ago! I thought that sounded awfully recent and I was not very comfortable.

View of Auckland on the way up to the top of the volcano 

Then we went to another island called Waiheke where hubby had a conference for four days. I spent my time hopping on and off buses and visiting the island which was very beautiful. There were several wineries on the island as well and many art galleries.

This is a lovely little beach very close to the resort where
the conference was held. It is called Palm Beach.

When we returned to Auckland on Friday there was a fire in the port engine of the ferry so we had to travel in slow motion which was sort of okay for us but it was nerve wrecking for the passengers who had a plane to catch. Anyway, I am counting that as the second little mishap, even though it didn't really affect us.

Just a little detail about Auckland, and for that matter maybe it is true of other places here as well. They have amazing intersections.  When the light goes green people start walking like crazy people, straight across and diagonally across etc.

Unfortunately there were not so many people crossing in this
picture, but when there are many crossing it is crazy.

Now I bet you are wondering what the third mishap was, but you have to be patient since we are in a motel with limited internet time so I have to save it for next time.

So I am saying goodnight for now and will write more soon. There is so much more to tell!

For my golfer friends, here is a word of warning!