Skiing in July!

Thursday
Breakfast by the fire in the Cyprus Tree Restaurant. Oh and we took another photo!

Minibus collected us at 10.30 for a normal 30 mins journey to Mt. Ruapehu-‘opening to a new world’ which took three times as long due to weather conditions and age of vehicle. Missed our 12.00 lesson but got one at 1.00. Lasted two hours and very enjoyable, although the weather conditions were blizzard-like. (minus two degrees). Unusual to think that we are skiing in July (and in NZ). There should be a law against little kids whizzing around on their skis making it all look easy. Felt like tripping them up more than once. There were a lot of them around as these are school holidays.
The resort was just that, a skiing station that was all inclusive. The place was too barren and high up for a village. But it was great to be able to get everything that we needed in one spot and not to have to walk too far in those boots.

Ohakune

About twenty minutes later we arrived at our destination on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu. We stayed in the Peaks Motor Inn which was like a Swiss Chalet complete with hot tubs, sauna and jacuzzi. Ohakune means 'opening to a new world' in Mauri. It is the 'Apres Ski' capital of the North Island with many fine restaurents. It is also famous for turnips! The two don't really marry as an image but I have the spoon with both to prove it!

Bleak Desert and The Coldest Winter...

The drive from Rotorua to Ohakune took about three hours and the first half was through very picturesque forests. Then we came to The Desert Road. I did not know that there is a desert in New Zealand and this was a surprise. It wasn't a sandy desert and it even had water in the stearms but boy was it bleak. Think Connemara without the scenery!

It is called The Rangipo Desert and gets 1500 - 2500 mm of rainfall per year. It resembles a desert because of a poor soil quality and drying winds. The vegetation is minimal and scrubby, and the headwaters of many small streams, later to turn into large rivers, gouge deep serrated valleys through the earth. The climate here is harsh and alpine, with close to 270 ground frosts per year in comparison with less than 30 in the coastal regions of Hawke's Bay, 80 kilometres to the east. Heavy snowfalls - rarely seen in the rest of the island - are also a common occurrence in winter.

The Lord of the Rings films were shot in New Zealand, and the Black Gate of Mordor scenes were shot in the Rangipo Desert in 2000. "Not a lot of people know that!"

At the end of the desert we arrived in Waiouru. At that stage the temperature had dropped to zero-it was 14 when we left Rotorua. Bleak and miserable best describe this town. We stopped for petrol and on the way out of the shop I noticed a sign which summed up the place for me:
"The coldest winter I ever had was a summer in Waiouru!"

Rotorua 2

Hell’s Gate Geothermal Park is New Zealand’s most active geothermal park, with boiling mud pools, a mud volcano and the southern hemispheres only hot water waterfall.


O My God the Smell!!!!!

Steaming Cliffs

The steaming cliffs pool is the hottest in the reserve. At the surface the temperature is 122 o C and 145 o C one metre below the surface.


Kakahi Falls

The Kakahi Falls is the largest hot water fall in the Southern Hemisphere. Its temperature is approximately 40 o C. The Maori warriors used to bathe themselves in the warm waters to cleanse the blood of battles.

Ink Pots

These pools appear as a black crack in the ground where the water temperature is approx 98 oC. The black colour is caused by sulphides which form the graphite like colour.

Depth approx 20 metres.

Devil's Cauldron

The black mud has a temperature of 120 oC. The black mud has been used in the treatment of arthritis and rheumatism.

Cooking Pool

The cooking pool has a temperature of approx 98 o C, which remains constant throughout the year. Although smelling of sulphur and containing black water, there is no tainting to the food cooked in the pool. An adult pig can be cooked within 2 hours.

Baby Adam

A collection of small pools with constantly changing levels of activity. Depth 1 metre, temperature 68 o C.

Out Door Mud Bath
I felt like a child playing in the mud but this was no ordinary mud it was Hot Mud!!

Geothermal Spa also outdoors
After the mud was washed off in an outdoor cold water shower (This was necessary to close the pores so they who must be obeyed told us) we bathed in the sulphur spa which was a pleasant 39 o C.
I don’t think we will ever get that smell out of our togs.

Massage
Following a lovely cup of manuka tea and a muffin, while we were nice and cosy in our big fluffy bathrobes, we were met by our respective masseuses. I got the short straw as my masseuse was the “Strong girl”!!!! Enough said about that…..

Regent's Restaurant.

Had a lovely meal in a fab restaurant. Although you cannot see, believe me when I tell you that all the mud is gone!

Rotorua 3

Wednesday
Kiwi Encounter.



Based in Rotorua at Rainbow Springs, Kiwi Encounter is the only purpose-built kiwi conservation centre open to the public in the world!
It was a unique opportunity for us to take a behind-the-scenes glimpse at kiwi conservation. We were able to observe how the eggs are incubated and watch kiwis as they foraged for food in an enclosure that is similar to their natural environment.

Just a few hundred years ago there were millions of Kiwi living in New Zealand. Today that population is declining so rapidly it is halving in size every 10 years and kiwi could be close to extinct by 2015.

Only 7% of young Kiwi surrive in the wild due to predators such as stoats, rats cats dogs & possums.

Kiwi encounter is a big part of of the kiwi recovery "Operation Nest egg" programme.

Kiwi eggs are removed from the wild and transported to Rainbow Springs where artificial incubation is carried out.

The success rate for the survival of young kiwi released back into the wild as part of this programme is 60% compared to 5% for those left in the wild without human intervention.

Then we went to the Rotorua Museum where the highlight was an audio visual show of the last volcanic eruption where the earth literally moved for us! (Our seats shook in sinc).

Rotorua 1

Rotorua is an attractive city in the central North Island, just three hours' drive south of Auckland. It has been voted NZ's most beautiful city five times.






Maori culture
Rotorua has long been the home of Maori culture. The Arawa people of Rotorua were New Zealand's first visitor guides, leading the way to the natural wonders of the region that have been part of their home for more than 600 years.

The Story of Rotorua’s Bath House
Read the story of Taking the cure

Auckland

Sunday July 4th: 14 o C and raining. Today we headed out to explore Auckland.

Our first stop was Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World.
The first part consisted of a replica of Scott's hut containing genuine paraphernalia and video footage. The history buff was beside himself with excitement! Then we took a snow train ride around the penguin enclosures which was a close encounter of the frozen, but up close kind. Fantastic. Lastly we walked through a water tunnel and observed sharks, stingrays (just a flat shark really) and various other sea creatures. Oh and we got our photo taken:





-5 Ice Bar

Cold & wet outside but we still ventured into the Ice Bar. Dressed in big Eskimo jackets and gloves we were lead into a bar which is totally made of ice with a constant high of -5 o C. The bar contains various impressive ice sculptures. No cameras are allowed which would have been difficult to use anyway wearing our thick gloves.

Vodka was the only drink available as it doesn’t freeze at these temperatures. There was a choice of vodka based cocktails which all sounded tempting. The drink was served in an ice glass which needed two hands to pick it up due to the thick gloves. After finishing the drink we could smash our ice glass into a plastic bin. This was actively encouraged!! ...and we got our photo taken!





St Patrick’s Cathedral

Nipped in to say a quick prayer for all our family and friends at home. The organist was play a Liam Lawton Gloria, practising for the mass later. I resisted the temptation to say:"I know him!"

Sky Tower

We went to the sky Tower but the weather was so bad and visibility so poor we decided not to go up. Hope to go back next weekend. There was a tourist office open-they call them 'I-Sites' and we booked our accommodation in Rotorua and our full skiing holiday in Mount Ruapehu.

Leonard very kindly picked us up and brought us home for some lovely home made grub that Denise had prepared for us.

Saturday July 3rd

Short three and a half hour flight to Auckland. My brother Leonard and his wife Denise met us at the airport. They have a new house since I was last here in 2007 and it is lovely. Cozy and modern yet over a 100 years old. Nice meal in a local Indian restaurent. Bed early.

Good value

There is a great Shopping Centre just across the road: got a pair of Converse for €60, a pair of Sketchers for $38 and some tight-fitting Calvin Klein’s !!! Had a lovely meal in Max’s on Hardware Lane where Gerry and I ate, many a night, in 2007. Still the best of food and ambiance. Bed early!!!! Off to New Zealand tomorrow.

Déja vu

Thursday night I stayed at the Best Western on Spencer Street (Melbourne) and went to see Carlton play The Brisbane Lions, just like I did in 2007, when I stayed at the same hotel. Carlton won again also but it was a shocking bad match. Mistake after mistake from both sides. Setanta was playing but he had a really bad game. He did nothing all night until the very end when he got a soft goal. That is twice I have seen him play and twice he has not played well. I reckon that he is in danger of being dropped.
The match was on in the Etihad Stadium and it cost only $20 general admission which is good value. There were dearer tickets but at least if a family went it is affordable. I am getting in on the lingo. If a player is tackled and does not release the ball, everyone shouts ‘ball’ which is supposed to signify to the ref (umpire) that it should be a free to the other team. I was shouting with the best of them and looking indignant when the umpire did not award a free. This apart though, there was a lack of atmosphere as the standard of play was so poor.

The Big Chill.

On Wednesday last the temperature went from two to ten and the lead story on the T.V. News was ‘The Big Chill’!

Eureka Building and Parliament Tour

On Monday we went on the city tour and then went 88 stories up to get panoramic views of Melbourne from the Eureka Building. Oisín went out on the glass floor but I chickened out. There is something very disconcerting about standing on a floor so high up and being able to see right down. After that we met Steve Herbert, the Parliamentary Secretary for Education and got our own private tour of the Parliament. We saw the old and the new and all the old nooks and crannies. They even had a lawn tennis court and bowling green, right in the centre of Melbourne with magnificent views of the city and St Patrick’s Cathedral. We had a nice meal with Steve and then went on a tour of ACMI (Australian Cinema and Moving Images). We had not planned this and it turned out to be very impressive and informative. This was followed by bit of window shopping and then the three hour drive back to Warrnambool. We arrived ‘home’ late at night and shattered. It’s great that I am on holidays and can sleep in!

‘Christmas in July 1’

On Sunday last Oisin and I went to Melbourne for a couple of days. We contacted Niamh and Joe and the vets. As they were having a ‘Christmas’ dinner, they invited us along. It was great. Normally in Australia they have a celebration on July 25th (the middle of Winter) called ‘Christmas in July’. As they had visitors from Ireland and July did not suit, they had it close to June 25th. It was a real Christmas dinner and we all wore the party hats and sang along with the Christmas songs. After dinner we all watched ‘Home Alone’ and eat Roses and Quality Street. Some of us even fell asleep on the couch! After that we all played ‘Pictionary’. It was great craic.
At 7.30 Oisin and I went to ‘The Quiet Man’ pub to meet Karin and Rick our Canadian friends. We had a bit of grub and then watched ‘The Craic Hooers’ performing. I finally got a photo with them for the blog, see below.

Footy Tips

In school there is a group of teachers and spouses who have formed a tipping club whereby we have to predict the results each week. There are about twelve in the group and after 13 weeks I was joint third in the predictions. Not bad for a fellow who hasn't a clue. I am enjoying teasing those die-hard footy fans who are below me in the table.

Carlton Scarf

Speaking of 'footy mad' I won a Carlton scarf and as I support them, wore it into school the other day. Everybody, as in teachers, pupils and parents noticed and remarked. I was unaware that I was wearing it and would get this big smile or a frown followed by a comment. Male, female, young and old all had something to say. I was really taken aback.

World Cup Fever

I can’t believe that the kids in school have been playing soccer at breaktimes these past few weeks. Up to now it was all ‘footy’as they are 'footy' mad! The power of television.