Ferry from Devonport

Once we arrived we had to hop a bus to go find the town, well, we really didn’t know what town we were supposed to get off at, but the guy said the main town.  We went through this very small village and we saw the bank we were supposed to get off and stand near while waiting, but we thought surely it was too small to be the main town, so we kept going.   We told the bus driver where the tour place was so he just dropped us off there.  Pretty cool that they do that actually. It was a little stop and go with the tour guide as we weren’t supposed to go there and we kind of threw them off schedule, but it worked out in the end.

I don’t know the names of the places we went, so I am just going to give you the gallery to look at.  We had a great time and want to go back and do the sea kayaking there in the summer.

This is the sea kayak place we are gonna go to in the summer.

Sea Kayak!

The road to the buried village

Blue or Green lake, I don't remember which.

At the buried village we went through a museum and then walked around the village.  It was amazing what went on there.  One of the survivors survived only because her shack was made of corrugated metal.   Her children and husband died in the mudslide, with one of her children dying in her arms.  It was a very sad story.

In the museum at buried village

a carving from the buried village

The felt hat was turned to ash.. They preserved it.

A sewing machine lodged into a tree due to a volcanic blast

Water pump for the village

Grinding wheel

Trench to the houses

all the houses were like this

More buried stuff

Houses excavated from the mudflow

I think this was a bakers place, buried village

Where a house used to be

stream by the village

little "trees" in the river

Old canon

Kids at the falls, buried village

Stairs down to the falls

stream before the falls

After the buried village, we went back to the AgroDome and decided to do the farm tour. This was a really good time as we got to feed animals and all that.

Wooly Bully

Hand feeding the ostriches

small deer

feeding time

Silly llama

Feed me lady!

Kids trying to get the deer to come to them

Kiwi fruit trees

Old truck at the farm

More llamas

Red Deer

This llama was chasing Marty

cow petting

Lamb huggin

IT'S SO FLUFFY!!

Kelsey got to pet two cows that day

feeding time

After the AgroDome we decided to go see where they filmed Hobbiton for the Lord of the Rings movies.  We actually went to do the tour on the first day, but it was raining really hard and spending an hour and a half walking through the hills and dirt would have been really hard.  So we went back the next day and it was beautiful.  Unfortunately, we can’t show the pictures until, probably after the Hobbit movies come out.  I wish I could show them because it was a really cool experience.

Cool rock formations

Hobbiton tour starting point

On the road to middle earth

On the tour bus to Hobbiton in Matamata

We had such a great time that weekend and I would highly recommend that you go and enjoy the same sights.  We were going to go camping up far north.. but this was just as wonderful.

We haven’t been really going out very much, but summer is getting ready to end and fall is about to start.  Hopefully we can have a few more small adventures before it gets too cold.

Back with more when there is more to show..

On the way out there is this cliff side cemetery I always wanted to take pictures of and I had my chance.

Cliff Side Cemetery

One of the towns we went through is Cambridge, like the uni in England. It’s a lovely little town and if it weren’t raining I would have liked to spent more time there.

Te Koutu Domain entrance

Church in Cambridge

I wanted to go visit Hobbiton in Matamata and so we looked for the road right after Cambridge to find it.  We went off of the main highway, which is Hwy 1 and used 1B.  Somehow we missed the exit and didn’t find it.  Much later on the trip we found another road that lead back to the tour, so we decided to give it a go.  Once we got to Hobbiton is was raining pretty hard so we decided to do that on the way back.  It was a good thing we did, as it was a two hour walk through dirt roads and steel hills.  More on Hobbiton later.

We decided that we would do something on the way and decided to stop at the AgroDome.  This is a tourist spot to come see a real working farm, but they also put on a pretty nice show.  The guy running the stage show was pretty funny and I assume was pretty good at shearing sheep.

Getting ready to shear a sheep

Sheep getting shorn

Showing how to milk a cow

I loved how they were just sitting there

Merino, the star of the show

After the guy talked about the types of sheep, showed how to shear them, let people milk a cow and brought out some baby lambs to feed, it was time for the most interesting portion of the show.  The herding dogs were very cool. There were two types of herding dogs.  The first type was very quiet and just looked at and ran after the sheep to make sure they don’t get away.  The guy actually demonstrated the dog using geese.  The dog kept herding the geese wherever this guy wanted them.  He used spoken and whistled commands.

Herding dog

The second type of dog is the loud barking kind.  Almost like bloodhound style barking.  They were cool as well.  They actually run on top of the sheep. No joke.

Running on the sheep

All three laying on the sheep

Lounging dog

After that everyone got to come up on stage and take pictures with the sheep.  Kelsey wanted to go up and Marty went up, but I think he is a bit like me and doesn’t like crowds, so he went back down and stood off to the side.

Madhouse

Romney sheep

Kelsey with the black sheep of the show...

After this, we got to go to the nursery and play with the baby animals.

Another black sheep... hmmm...

Lambs

Herding puppy

Marty really didn’t want to mess with the animals the first day we went, but he actually got in there with them the second time.  Will show pictures of that shortly.  You are actually not supposed to pick up the puppies, but one of the employees told Kelsey it was ok.

Outside there was a demo of the dogs actually herding the sheep in the field.  We missed part of this because the kids wanted to be in with the baby animals. Here is the bit I got.

Herding dog at work with Marty in foreground

There were other buildings in this area that showed how wool is processed and also a store with wool items.

Wool machine

Spinning wool

Da, in Soviet Russia, hat wear you.

Looks like it would be trouble walking...

What we didn’t realize is that there was an entire section of the attraction that we didn’t do on the first day.  This was the farm tour.  Since it was raining that first day we decided to come back the next day and do it then. More pictures about that later.

Once we got through at the AgroDome, we decided to go get our hotel room there in Rotorua.  We got distracted on the way there, with driving around. We found some cool stuff.  First was this…

Rotorua Museum

We decided to drive around a bit and see what else was there.

Cottage on the grounds of the museum

monument

Just past the Rotorua museum was a convention center and then a lake.  Around the lake was volcanic bubbling pools of mud.  There were signs all over the place about staying on the board walk and not walking in this area, but people were out there.  Marty wanted to go over where all the people were and I said no, you aren’t allowed, it’s dangerous.  He said why are those people doing it.  I said, “Cause they are stupid”  We heard that the very next day someone’s kid fell into one of those pools and died as a result.  Read the signs people, they are there for your safety.

Volcanic lake

More at the lake

At a park by the lake (where you are allowed to walk)

Communal toilet I guess

People used to bathe in some of the pools, before they built that fancy building that was turned into a museum.  Previously, this building was set up as a health facility, where people were given “the cure”, which included hot mud baths and setting in the sulfur water.  Here is one of the pools called the coffee pot I believe.

Coffee Pot

All the signs talk about how people died in these pools, some were overcome with the heat, some were made loopy by the gases and just drowned.  I think I will stick to the shower.

After we read some of the signs we decided to go to the museum and look around.  Unlike the Domain in Auckland, this museum cost lots of money to go into.  Tourist, it’s expensive to come here and do stuff.

I am going to close with lots of pictures of the museum.  My next post will be about the next day in Rotorua.  Too much stuff in one day and with our internet connection it takes forever to upload the images.

The drive out was one that we had taken many times before, going to Omaha Beach and Goat Island. The town of Matakana was the place where they had the cool public toilets that were big arches. Seen in the picture below.

Public Toilets

The rest of Matakana is pretty cool.  The week before we went there after Goat Island and had some food at this place.

Matakana House Cafe and Pub

Here are some other pictures of places in town.

Creamery Sign

Matakana Farmer's Market

Kiwiana

Once we got out of Matakana, we went toward where I thought the beach was going to be.  Turning to the left would take us to Omaha Beach, turning to the right, didn’t say anything about Anchor Bay, but something about Tawharanui Regional Park and Reserve.  We decided to just wing and it and see where it took us.  The next few pictures are from the trip to the reserve.

Vineyard Fields

Vineyard House

Windy Dirt Road

Through the hills to see this!

Once we got through the hills we came upon this house, which was right by the reserve.  What was interesting is that the reserve is a kiwi protection area and had predator fences in place to keep out the bad animals that might eat the eggs or kiwi birds themselves.  Unfortunately we didn’t see any kiwi, but they are nocturnal usually, so that makes sense.

Old Kiwi House

Reserve entrance

Kiwi sign

Maori Statue

Once we got past the reserve, we headed into a parking area, and much to my surprise, it was Anchor Bay!  I have a horrible sense of direction usually, but this time, by complete luck I am sure, we made it.  I decided to just have a slideshow of the rest of the pictures, the captions will tell you what you are looking at.

This was an excellent first summer trip and are looking forward to going to the far north and seeing what is in store for us!!

Once Renata got back we went to see the gang that sent the flowers. They had a wonderful chicken roast and we all “brought a plate”  which in Kiwi talk is like a pot-luck dinner.  It was a great time there. First picture is Renata sitting with Chris and Suzi and the next is me with Steffan.

I also spent some time with the kids playing Rock Band, which was loads of fun, here is some shots with me singing Master Exploder by Tenacious D.  Although it looks like I was dancing in the first picture, I assure you I was just putting my leg up on the arm of the chair.

I took some really cool shots out of our living room window of a beautiful sunset. Which is amazing almost every night. Kelsey has some good shots from our other camera which I will try to put up soon. Here are the ones I took.

Finally we had a fun family night out with Diabetes Youth Auckland at the Auckland Zoo.  There were around 500 families there and we pretty much had the zoo to ourselves.  There were several of the park walking areas that were closed off, but some of the animals came out into full view once all the regular crowd cleared out.  Here are some shots from the event and the zoo.

All in all it was a fun time.  The kids got to hang out with other children with Diabetes and we got to hang out with some parents who knew exactly what it was like to have to deal with diabetes on a daily basis. Coming in March is a camp for families with Diabetes and I think if that is anything like this event, we will have a wonderful time.

Weekend before last, we went on the road once again.  We are scouting out places that we can do day trips to and activities  that we can do, rather than going one place and not being able to do much due to economic issues.

Our latest trip was supposed to be just out to Omaha beach, however we got there so quickly we decided to keep going and eventually made our way out a place called Leigh and then eventually over to Goat Island.

We started out from our house and went through Orewa to bypass the toll road that starts really close to our house and continues on until the town of Puhoi.

From Puhoi, we kept going North and went toward  Warkworth and then turning East on Matakana Rd until we ended up Omaha and then Leigh. 

We found ourselves going through wine country and there were many, many rows of grapes and chateaus all around.

Once we looked around through Leigh, we decided to keep going North and ended up at the Goat Island Marine Reserve.  I am really glad we made the trip.

We have decided that this top of the list for places to go during the Summer break.  The reserve is a protected marine habitat that doesn’t allow fishing, but allows snorkelling and has glass bottom boat tours around the island.

We climbed over the volcanic rock that had grooves all in it and looked over to see tropical fish, right there! You could almost touch them.  We thought that was the coolest thing.  There were bunches of people hanging out at the beach and a few people who swam over to the island and were walking around.  Lots of kayakers as well.

On the way back we actually went through the town of Omaha Beach and was surprised at all the new construction that was going on there.  This area is about 2 hours away from Auckland so we aren’t really sure what the source of income is out there.  I think that would be a great place to retire to though.  Extremely beautiful ocean views and a brand new house to live in. 

First I will start with an updated family picture.  This is mainly for family, but if you were wondering what I look like, I am the big ugly one on the right.

We recently had to turn in the monstrosity (aka the Land Rover) and got a much more fuel-efficient and newer car. Instead of putting in enormous amounts of money into it every week, just for petrol, we decided that we could spend a little less than that amount and get a new(er) car and pay for the petrol.  Works out to less per month for everything included (payments for car, insurance and petrol).  The car is also far more reliable and therefore allows us to go on adventures!

Here is the new green goddess.

Without this car, the following trip would not have been possible. Here is a map of where we live and where we went.  The actual place we stopped and ate was at Shelly Beach, but we went much further, trying to find South Head.

It was a very pleasant drive through rolling green hills, with cows, sheep and red deer (Elk).  We even saw some wild turkeys, pigs and a million different types of birds.  The birds were tempting fate by sitting in the middle of the road and waiting until the last minute to fly away.

Here are some of the pictures from in the car as we were driving.

On the way out to Southhead we went through a town called Helensville. It had really cool old buildings.

We went quite a way out past Helensville until the paved road turned into a dirt road and then the dirt road turned into a muddy mess. We decided that going down a muddy road was not the best decision, so we were unable to actually get all the way out to South Head. 

As we were heading back out, there was a lovely overlook that I wanted to take a picture  of, but we also found that it was a reserve (park) and had cattle grazing there.  Kelsey is on a quest to pet a cow.  I am not sure what sort of magical thing is going to happen when she does this, but that is her quest.  She was holding up grass, as if the grass below their feet was less tasty than the grass she possessed.  They just stared at the kids.  Marty did get them to come a bit closer by mooing, but I think it was more the cows being offended by his accent than he actually conversing properly.  Everyone knows Kiwi cows and Texas cows sound completely different.  I have documented the exchange for your amusement.

So we backtracked and went out to Shelly Beach, where we had an awesome lunch! Here are the pictures from Shelly Beach…

Marty had the giant burger, which had bacon (ham for those of you back in the U.S.) eggs, hash browns as well as all the normal burger fixin’s. Kelsey had a very nice fish and chips with a salad. Renata thought she was ordering a sandwich, because of how the menu was laid out, but instead got a happy surprise of a pizza that sounded like it wasn’t going to taste all that awesome, but ended up being very, very good.  It was roasted chicken with camembert and whole cranberries, ham and onions.  Mine was called the carnivore and had all kinds of wonderful meat products on it.  The red swirl on the pizza is a BBQ sauce, which is exactly what you should eat on a carnivore pizza.  The cafe owner didn’t have any dark beers, which was the only down note to the meal.  Afterwards we walked on the beach which was, as the name implied, quite shelly.

There were also some really run down industrial buildings in Helensville as well. Some people may or may not know, that I have a fascination with ruined buildings and have wandered through a few with camera in tow.  There was a large industrial complex I wish I had the opportunity to walk through, but those places are extremely dangerous and not a good place to go with kids. That might be a trip I take on my own

All in all it was a really good day.  We got home, chilled out for a bit.  We played Mexican Train dominos and then watched all my crazy shows that I love. Ghost Hunters and Destination Truth.  It sucks a bit watching those shows via YouTube because they only allow 10 minute long videos so the kids have to jump up 5 or 6 times each show to click on the next one.  Oh well, it’s better than not watching them at all.  Below is a few more shots of the day out. 

We have had a very busy time recently with lots of interesting stuff happening!  Let’s get cracking on what we did since the last update.

Recently my class at Media Design School graduated and we had a great reception and graduation proceedings.  Afterward, the staff went for drinks at a local bar called The Thirsty Dog and had a nice time socializing and listening to the entertainment.  The bar was extremely dark and I did try to take pictures but it was an exercise in futility.  I got some interesting long exposures where it looked like we were getting sucked into a light vortex. (sigh)  I will eventually master the low light settings and will get some good results soon I hope. 

The next thing that happened is that Kelsey, who just turned 17 today, helped raise awareness and money for Leukemia.  She decided the best way to do this was through the Shave10 program.  Basically this is something that happens every year and her goal was around 500 dollars.  She came very close to that mark ($374.00) thanks to some of our amazing friends and family!  Thank you so much for the support.

We also recently went to Rotorua.

This trip was more for business, but it was certainly a pleasure.  We went to a Diabetes Youth New Zealand event, where we had our MedAware booth.  We had a great response, even though our booth looked like a kids lemonade stand at a trade show. 

At this event, Renata and the kids all spoke at various times in front of about 80/90 people.  Renata is used to public speaking, so wasn’t too concerned about her.  The kids basically acted like they had been doing public speaking all their lives.  They did an amazing job and we are incredibly proud.  Remember, Kelsey recently shaved her head but she was up there having a great time.  Marty has an awesome sense of humor and timing and he was complimented a great deal about how he handled himself. 

After the event, we took the kids to Zorb!  They loved it!  We didn’t have a lot of time or money to do it more than once, but Kelsey said that she would have spewed if she had to do it again.

Something I did this last week, was breakout week at work, where we spent a great deal of time team building and having fun. We had a group called RhythmInteractive come in that plays these drums and has us do the same.  The guy running the group had a great deal of expression and was loads of fun to watch, then after we had to make our own “bands” and play in front of the rest of the groups.  Hilarity ensued.  One of the last things we did which as my favorite, was to help some seniors learn how to text. 

The groups also had to create some short films involving a rubber chicken named Cyril and in the story he is from Peru and looking for a typical Auckland experience.  There were some hugely creative films, but of course that’s what we teach at MDS.  I hope I can put some of the videos up here.

We worked with Age Concern Auckland Inc.  at the Avondale community center. Maureen Craven (email her at: maureenc@ageconak.org.nz) ran the event and each of the MDS staff had two seniors to work with.  This was a great number of people to work with and one of my students, Mike, was fairly proficient, but needed a little bit of guidance and was on his way.  My other student was a wonderful lady named Ida. She had never even used a cell phone and was having difficulty even pushing the right buttons.  You could tell that Ida has been a hard-working independent lady her whole life and her calloused hands were having a difficult time feeling the subtle difference between the buttons.  I showed her the proper way to hold the phone and how to add contacts and text them.  We sat and talked for hours.

At the end, I was asking Maureen when the next event was being held and she said that they have a waiting list of seniors ready to learn and are just waiting on volunteers to help out.  I can honestly say, our group found this experience one of the best we have had in a long time.  If you are a Kiwi, I would like for you to experience how great this was.  Contact Maureen Craven at Age Concern and volunteer your time.  There are many more Ida’s out there that just need a bit of your time and patience in order to become more technology savvy. You will be glad you took the time to do it.

Kelsey had her Ball a couple of weeks back. She decided to go to the Ball at her old school and went with her best bud Hamish. There was a “pre-Ball” at one of her friend’s house. That was nice. All the parents got to meet each other and sat around drinking bubbles and eating treats. I think Marty ate his weight in cupcakes.

Last weekend we had our housewarming. We had quite a few people come visit throughout the evening. There was a lot of food, booze and laughter. Unfortunately (or maybe not) most of our pictures weren’t very good. For some reason they got blurrier as the evening went on. And the ones that came did come out are of the back of people’s head. That’s what happens when you have me taking the pictures. I swear I need to take a course. But we had a blast of a night.

The kids are on a two week break from school. We decided to go over to Shakespear Regional Park (yes, that’s ho you spell it!) and just do some looking around. It’s a beautiful big park right on the water. There are playing fields and picnic areas. There are peacocks and sheep all over. The kids tried their hand at getting close enough to pet a sheep. It didn’t work. At the top of the park there is this great big picture frame for you to take pictures. However, again, with my horrible picture taking abilities I couldn’t quite get it all in the frame. I did my best.

I hope everyone enjoys the pictures.

Kelsey: Other than driving me nuts, she is doing well in her new school. She has fit in quite nicely and even has a new beau. She is going to the ball at her old school next weekend. (the Ball is what we call the Prom in the US except it’s much more low key) She had a dress made by one of my newest friends. Kelsey picked out the pattern and the material and she is really happy with the results. I will make sure I take pictures so everyone can see. We are in a bit of pickle on what to do about next year. It looks like we won’t be able to get residency as quickly as we thought, so now we are trying to figure out what to do with her. She is hoping to do a work sponsored program, however I don’t know if anyone is going to sponsor someone who may or may not stay in the country. We can’t send her to pastry school right away because we would have to pay International rates which are 4 times the amount of the residents fee. She does always have the option of finishing her last year of high school too. However, she is really at the end of what she can take. (well…let’s just say she is at the end of what she is willing to take) Hopefully we will get this all worked out soon. Lastly, Kelsey was outfitted with a Continuous Glucose Meter (CGM). She is wearing it for 6 days so we can get a good read on her blood sugar levels. You can read all about it on the DiabeticDuo site.

Mike is still bustin booty at his work. He has a class wrapping up production in the next 5 weeks and his newst class is moving out of the fundamentals of 3D and into production type work. He is enjoying his beer kit. He is brewing his third batch which is a Nut Brown Ale. (he has done a Porter and a Wheat) He is hoping they will be ready to taste at our housewarming party on July 3rd. He has also been busy helping me update the MedAware site. We have more changes coming next week that should make the site much more appealing.

This week I started swimming again. I want to do the ocean swim series this summer. The first race is on November 21 and it’s the Auckland Harbour race. They haven’t announced how long the race is going to be yet but hopefully by then I will be in decent shape. This is just my first week and I swam 5 times. My shoulders aren’t very happy. It’s not like I am doing a lot..but it does feel good to be back in the water. MedAware is really starting to pick up. I have some advertising opportunities coming up in a few months that should help, but what I am most excited about is that I am going to sponsor a Team MedAware. I have been talking to a young woman here who competes in triathalons and she is training to do the Iron Man (not her first) and she is a Type 1 Diabetic. I have it in my head that I want to associate MedAware with a positive message. What better than supporting diabetics training to compete? (or any disease for that matter) I haven’t quite figured out how I am going to do this financially…but I was so excited talking to this young girl . I know I am on the right path, I feel it in my heart.  Stay Tuned.

Martin just had his 11th birthday. Can’t believe it. He is starting guitar lessons again this week. The school arranges for the kids to have lessons at a reduced rate, so we are taking advantage of the opportunity. He is settling in with school as well. He is still a loner (doesn’t fall far from either tree), but he says he is making friends. I took him to the pool with me today and he blew me away. He asked if he could go do “laps”. In my head I was thinking…yeah…ok…whatever….I knew Sundays were a big play day there so I agreed and brought him with. I get there he puts on his goggles and takes off doing freestyle down to the other end. Uhm…what the hell? He left me standing there with my cap in one hand and my goggles in the other…mouth wide open. You have to understand that both of my kids are fish “under” the water but neither of them especially Marty would let me teach them how to swim. The last time I saw Marty swim he could only get one arm out of the water at a time and only lasted about 8 strokes. So as he makes his way back to me he pops his head up with a huge smile. I looked at him and said “WHERE IN THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM? WHERE DID YOU LEARN HOW TO DO FREESTYLE???” His answer hit me…”At school, Mom!?!” Then I had a flashback where I was bitching about the schools mandating that the kids take swimming lessons even if they know how to swim. Now obviously kids need to know how to swim here, it’s an Island for Pete’s sake…but what upset me was that it was mandatory and we had to pay. I felt that if it was mandatory, the schools should have paid. Well…in watching my son swim freestyle (which is something I never thought I would see) I wished I had never bitched about paying the fee. It was worth every penny.

So, the Porter’s are doing well. We absolutely love our new home and location. We are really taking a stab at moving ahead. We have had so many years of frustration and it seems like things are starting to fit together. Thank God.

No pictures this week. I will post pictures next week to include a rugby game we went to. Side Note: Those of you who were struggling with opening the pictures. Just be patient. Your computer will load up the picture and then size it to fit your screen. It might take a minute…but you will be able to see it.