Kingsview Resort & Towers Tauranga

Tauranga 17-08<br>We headed more North, North of Rotorua and the ugly smells <br> of the Green Giant ;-)<br>Tauranga. The city has a beauty and ugly side, it's a port <br> so there's loads of industries in some places but some <br> streets are magical.<br>Finaly after sooo much rain in past days, we got a beautiful <br> sun and we enjoyed a sunny slow relaxing coffee ...

... a grading system for whitewater rafting where Grade 1 is a calm flowing river and it goes up to Grade 5 which is basically crazy rapids and waterfalls. The river we were rafting had a good mix with few grade 3 sections and a 7 meter high grade 5 waterfall! We got the hang of things pretty quickly with a 3 meter then 1 meter high waterfalls in quick succession. Unfortunately I was up the front of the raft so I got soaked after the very first rapid. Everyone was going ...

Tauranga was great we went jet boating on the Kaituna River were we got to see rapids and water falls and some of the most beautiful land scape I have ever seen.  If we get a chance to come back here I really want to go rafting they have the largest commercially rafted water fall.  We also went on a Kiwi farm tour where we learned about all ...

... run... not the smartest idea, but still a great experience... the expert trails were super narrow, winding through trees and it took all our efforts not to fall on broken branches and spear our torsos... we took it real slow. even walked our bikes down some really narly jumps... after that whole debaucle, we spend the rest of our time on the intermediate trails and had an awesome time! CONTROLLED speed is a wonderful thing...

... show.   There was some issues docking here, with the tide apparently not high enough, but eventually the gangway was set in place. We had booked ship's excursions today - I was on a bus trip to Rotorua while Alan and Kate went white water rafting. My driver/guide (Lisa) was a Tauranga native, and was great. I learned a lot about kiwi fruit and radiata pine, which sounds boring but was actually very interesting. We stopped at the Blue Baths in Rotorua first and ...

... of **** for about three days afterwards! We has fun again on the way here as the Kiwi Experience bus dropped us off at an old abandoned Iron Ore factory complete with railroad tunnels and suspension bridges! Heather was very brave and went across all the bridges and she is getting better at travelling in all manner of transport. We had fun in the caves and were thankful that I ...

... time as talking to me at half-seven in the morning! Changing the subject totally, they've still not managed to get me a key for my office here in Waikato. After repeated requests, a key was put in the internal post, unfortunately the envelope arrived with a hole in it - the key had dropped out somewhere, somehow - never to be seen again. As for waste bins, they're emptied once a week and you have to put them outside your office door. Which I guess is ...

... very beautiful sight though. So, we found a Motel quite promptly, very centrally located. We were greeted almost immediately by Asterix who was exceptionally spasmodic at receiving cuddles, tickles and rolled over, legs in the air, panting for more hand action on his tummy!! Dirty beast! The owners were also very nice!! Actually, they were lovely! (David: And for those paying attention, Lois wins the grand prize for uttering the word 'lovely' one million times! (Lois: you write ...

... just a few scrapes. The luge lift back up the hill took about 5-6 mins which was an eternity as the rain and wind hit your face. It was alot of fun and well worth it. This is something that I can't imagine would ever be allowed in the states for liability reasons. Many of the steep turns had no railing so one bad move could send you flying over the ledge. We also did whats called a Skyswing which was insane ...