The Atrium Tauranga

Yesterday I was going to be productive, shop, tidy up, make plans but then as I was returning from rebel sport where I contemplated buying some silver and yellow trainers, Bridgette text me<br><br>'You want to go to the hot pools?' The silly thing about this is that I do, we both do but everyday for the last week we've considered it but never seem to both want to go at the same time. This occasion was no exception, I was tied, I have a ...

... We carried on to Tauranga, home of Chris's oldest maternal living relative; (Great) Uncle Paedar. We took him out to a local Chinese, were Paedar was apparently well known, for some food and chat. He was a man with a very interesting story, passing through the merchant navy and all its attached experiences to finally settle in New Zealand with a family. The family actually happened to be visiting too, so we only stayed for that evening, a short ...

Still Kiwi thinning, still in Tauranga. Since I wrote the last very positive and encouraging entry things have gone a bit down hill, not a lot but a bit. I was suppose to cycle to work today with Veronika but we got up late so very fast I: * Got dressed * Brushed my Teeth * Made some lunch * Put Ruben flapjacks that had been cooling in a bag with a note (made the previous night as a leaving gift). * Had breakfast * Washed up * Said a fast good bye to ...

... names of the cities and the street names that are sometimes very very difficult to pronounce correctly!) I've just got one night here at Mount Maunganui, and I'm totally on my own (here on the North Island there are so few people on the bus - and they're now also changing every day - there's no chance to make new friends...), so I just walked along the beach towards the city centre (it's a very very small town), and had some ...

... that skelton was pretty old. We had tea in the sunshine outside and then ventured into the second cave. This one has a river flowing through it, and we went over a bridge and boarded a boat. We took this boat down the cave for what was probably 100m, and there was no light from outside, yet all the glowworms on the ceiling (maggots) lit up the cave so much that we could see the people around us. What a spectacle of nature being surrounded by tens of thousands of ...

... slept the entire time to Tauranga...all of this traveling is making me quite tired! I arrived in Tauranga around 1:20pm. I went to the nearest coffee shop with free internet to check to see if Andy had contacted me. Sure enough he did and he said the he would be getting in around 9:30 that evening. The coffee shop that I stopped in was called Chaos HQ and it had the best, cheapest burgers that I've had thus far in this country and when you ...

... afterwards we wandered into town and rewarded ourselves with the most civilised - not to mention most enormous - kebabs at a local turkish restaurant, we timed our lunch perfectly as the heavens opened once again while we smugly munched. The rest of the day was clear and dry so we enjoyed chilling outside the van from out sea front location. This is definitely a place we would come back to with more sunshine a requirement and surfing a must !

... car. It was close, but I got it. I checked every wreckers, and they all laughed at me, then I found the "pick-a-part". These things are basically a big yard with broken up cars sitting on rims. People go up, pull out the part they want, using their own tools, and pay for the part. It's faster and cheaper than your standard wreckers, but the cars are usually beat up pretty bad (if you know ...

... thermal water just beneath the surface. This stop was a bonus that is not available to the large cruise ship shore excursions, since busses are not allowed and the entry road was very narrow. At Te Puia we saw more amazing geysers, visited a Maori interactive museum, a wood carving school and a weaving school. The highlight of this visit was the fascinating Maori Cultural Show which demonstrated ...

... thuiskomst een parkeerplaats op straat vrij was twijfelde ik niet welke ik zou nemen. Er is nog iets opmerkelijks aan het parkeren in NZ. Het is niet toegestaan de auto tegen de rijrichting in te parkeren. Je parkeert dus alleen aan de linkerkant van de weg. Hier kwam ik bij toeval achter toen ik Tony's werkauto moest parkeren voor hun huis (Tony en Kevin moesten duwen omdat de accu leeg was dus ik moest "rijden"). Verder heeft al het verkeer van rechts hier ...