Best Western Bethlehem Mtr Tauranga

... wir nun wieder zu unserer wöchentlichen sushi-ration.<br>ansonsten backen wir viel brot (richtigs brot isch halt eifach unersätzlich) und vorgestern machten wir unser erste Fondue seit langer zeit...ich fand eines in einem geschäft, das aus der schweiz importiert wurde und auch wirklich dort hergestellt wurde (viele ch-produkte hier, wie schoggi, bouillon etc, sind zwar unter dem ch-label (lindt,nestle,maggi..), aber in australien produziert ...

... Tulkaa itse kokeilemaan tuntuuko samalta. Perillä Taurangassa oltiin puol neljä. 10 minsan päässä Taurangasta on city nimeltä Mount Maunganui, mis ois ehkä ollu vähän enemmän meininkiä. Mesta on yks NZ:n parhaista surffi-spoteista ku taas Tauranga on ihan perus stadi, mis ei oo oiken mitään. Perus kaupat, hamppari-ja kahvilamestat ja muutama hotelli ...

... milk, peanut jam, eggs, biscuit, spaghetti and the tomato sauce as well. All for like 25NZD and hopefully that could last me like a week. Someone new check into our dorm and turn out to be a Malaysian girl, her name is sun from KL, she have been traveling for a year already and done also anything that NZ have to offered. I was impressed with her courage and spirit. 10 Feb I woke up raining,

... haka. We have to elect a chief(of our tribe) to take part in the welcoming ceremony and I am chosen by dint of being the oldest in the group. My job is accepting a gift from the maori and leading the haka. The gift acceptance involves eyeballing the maori warrior(he's about 14) and picking leaf up off the floor. If I refuse to take the gift we ...

... The Belcasters usually sell their avocados to a local farmer once a year for about $4000 in profit (minus the picking expense because they pay a company to pick the avocados for them). Which is a pretty nice profit. We also helped Paul and Christa get ready for their flea market sale the next day by going to their storage shed, and gathering up all of their old clothes and things they don't need anymore that would be sold ...

Mon 21 Today we travelled up to Mount Mongonui and re-bumped into Steve who we shared a dorm with along with Alex and Amira. We went 4 a walk around the lovely town, loved by the rich and famous before making the most delicious chilli-con-carni, washed down with a bit of Jim Beam.

We are now on the final countdown (after starting at 120 sleeps - it seems so long ago now) - with less than 24 hours to go. I finished up my job last week and decided to have a nice relaxing few days before we left. Who was I kidding? It has been fairly busy the whole way through - and I know Debbie has been the same. Never mind - everything is done now, and I can sit down tonight feeling confident ...

... a walk around Rotorua that would let us see everythign we needed too. We set off the next day and the first hour or so was great, we saw a Mauri Meeting house, the water area, the Museum and the Bath house. After that it all went down hill. We walked for miles and miles for nothing! We were totally knackered so we treated ourselves to a Dominos pizza and a beer - magic!

... the summit - strong winds blowing clouds over the summit. From the summit, you can see the beaches &amp; town of Mt Maunganui and across to the town of Tauranga. Beautiful! The trek down was much easier as I came down through another trek which was covered with more vegetation. Bought myself an ice-cream &amp; just hang out by the beach. Many caravans were parked at a designated area at the foot of the Mount by the beach. Families were either picnicking, fishing ...

... a sense of nostalgia carried me along the rest of the way, past Whakatane (pronounced &#8216;fokker-tarney&#8217; &#8211; it sounds ruder than it looks), the big fibreglass kiwi fruit outside Kiwi Fruit Country at Te Puke (pronounced &#8216;tee-pookey&#8217; &#8211; it sounds less nauseous than it looks), and finally onto Tauranga, where my aunt, uncle and cousins lived while on my last NZ visit way back in 1987.<br>