Saturday, June 2, 2001.
We woke up to another cold morning in New Zealand, this time in Tauranga. The cold woke us early, which wasn't a bad thing - Judy had to leave for work in the morning, and we would be gone before she got back. Richard had a chance for a nice quiet visit before everyone hurried off.
In warmed up quickly as the sun rose over the hill and sunlight reached the house. The weather was clear, which is why it got so cold. Wherever the sun hadn't touched, there was frost on the ground.
We actually left the house last, being given a key to return to Jeanette when we got cleaned up, packed up and loaded up.
 |
 |
|
| The sun shining into Judy's living room. There's only about six television channels in New Zealand, the TV is rarely on. | The now vacant chairs from the previous night's festivities. The black thing on the left is a propane-powered heater to get rid of the chill in the morning. | |
 |
 |
|
| Peeking out the living room window at a sunny morning. | Braving the patio - it was actually warmed outside than in. | |
 |
 |
|
| Judy's dog looks serious, but is actually seriously harmless. | Ray's 4-wheeler: not used this morning, he went into town with a friend instead. | |
 |
 |
|
| Bob the Goat let's Richard take his picture, but don't get too close. | Doesn't look like Bob liked Richard much. Must have been that metal box in his hand... yeah, that it. | |
 |
 |
|
| Bob's job - keep the front of the yard clear of brush. A year earlier this face was covered in thick brambles. | On our way out, Stacy demonstrates how Bob likes girls better than boys. |
After locking up the house and saying good bye to Bob, we headed back up the hill to Jeanette and Graeme's place. The usual suspects were there to greet us.
 |
 |
|
| The nameless puppy, now chained up, barks, whines and wiggles a greeting. | Zoe the cow dog in her usual demur style says hello as well. | |
 |
 |
|
| A look at the side of Jeanette's house. | The front veranda with the view. | |
 |
 |
|
| Opposite view of the front. | A morning look at Mount Manganui from the house. | |
 |
 |
|
| And beside the Mount is Tauranga. We'd head south though from here, so this was our last look. | Looking right down the hill, you can see Judy and Ray's place at he bottom. | |
 |
 |
|
| Pippi the Goat relaxes on the grass in the sun. | Jeanette gets Pippi standing with a few pieces of brown bread. | |
 |
 |
|
| Graeme decides to restake Pippi so the goat can mow the other half of the front lawn. | Stacy and Janelle have a visit. Janelle has some family tree records she made in school in her hand. |
We spent the morning with the Nee family, looking at family history records and lots of photo albums. We took pictures of some of the photographs, they're part of the Family Album page. Then we had to get back on the road again - the goal to visit Granny Stanton down in Levin. Along the way, we thought we'd stop in Rotarua, where the thermal area and Maori Arts & Crafts center is.
Both of us had been to thermal areas before, and were prepared for the "rotten-egg" smell of the sulfur dioxides that are a by-product of thermal hot springs, geysers, etc. But Rotarua was really stinky - maybe winter makes it worse. We stopped at the visitor's centre to get our bearings and a bathroom before going out onto the streets of Rotarua in search of lunch.
It got worse during our lunch search - apparently the Rotaruans use the sulfury water for heating and cooking, even in restaurants. Obviously they don't smell it anymore, but the first restaurant we went into made us both nauseous - who could eat? We went further down the road and found a relatively non-stinky restaurant, at least sitting in the front. The ordering process took awhile, and the kitchens smelled bad. Fortunately the smell did not rub off on the food, lunch was pretty good.
After lunch we drove to the south side of Rotarua and visited the Thermal Area and Maori Arts & Crafts Centre. We spent several hours there, until it was getting a bit late. We still had more driving to do - we wanted to get to a little town near Taupo lake called Kinloch. We had made reservations at a bed & breakfast there recommended to us by John and Gail up at Totara Lodge.
 |
 |
|
| Driving down the highway toward Taupo, we spot what looks like a nuclear reactor cooling tower... in New Zealand? Nope, it is a cooling tower, but for a geothermal plant. | Lots of deep pine forest along the highway, some of it down right dark (although in this picture, it doesn't look all that scary). | |
 |
 |
|
| Rolling meadows and planted pine with a volcano in the background - a typical New Zealand landscape. | Found it! Kinloch Lodge on the northern shores of Lake Taupo. | |
 |
 |
|
| The very dangerous venus fly trap bed, so called because once you lie down, its too comfy to get up, and you're forced to take a nap... Stacy was a willing victim and took a snooze before dinner. | We had the whole upstairs of Kinloch Lodge to ourselves - it is winter time after all. The pole on the left is actually a chimney for the wood fireplace downstairs, it has a air radiator mounted to it to better share the heat with the upstairs. |
After a bit of a rest and clean up from our long drive, we took advantage of the washing machine and dryer in the lodge to get some laundry done. There was only one restaurant in Kinloch, called the Tipsy Trout, so we headed down for an excellent seafood dinner and some fine wine. We ended the day finishing the laundry and watching the Bee Gee special on television before heading off to bed.
 |
 |
|
| The Tipsy Trout, the only restaurant in the town of Kinloch, serving excellent seafood. The place was half full that night, surprising for winter time. Must have been all locals. | Stacy relaxes watching the Bee Gees on television with the balance of the laundry folded beside her. |
Kinloch was probably the coldest place we stayed at in New Zealand - the temperature dipped down to -4 degrees over night. But the bed had electric blankets (and was wonderfully comfortable), the room had a space heated and Graham kept the wood fireplace running all night, so we were wonderfully warm. Tomorrow we would get to Levin and visit Granny Stanton.