Last night in New Zealand

Thursday evening - 8:12 p.m. which is Thursday 1:12 a.m. in Idaho.

Just a final note about New Zealand.  We have never met so many wonderful people, ever.  These folks are nice.  They are laid back.  They don't get in a hurry, but they are happy and smiling and kind.  They treat everyone with respect.  That's the stereotype we have attached to the people of New Zealand and we believe that as a whole, it is a correct one.

People in New Zealand do not expect to be tipped for doing their job.  Taxes are built in to the prices.  You pay the price you see.  You don't tip the Kiwi who pumps the gas into your car.  You say please and thank you and they say "no worries" and "cheers".

The only downside is that after 11 days, I'm still not use to looking to the left to see the rear-view mirror and when coming to an intersection  I still have a hard time looking the right direction to see if traffic is coming.  At the first motel, even the hot and cold water was opposite of what we are use to having.  And that is a personal problem, not a problem with the country.

This is a beautiful country with beautiful people.  We are leaving a bit of our hearts with the Kiwis.

NEW ZEALAND - DAY 10

Wednesday, March 28

Today we just drove around and enjoyed the scenery.  I took lots of pictures (I was compared to "Asians" by a Kiwi LOL) but I wont post them because they are same.  Well I will post one of the back swans and a video of Virgil and the Paradise Duck.

NEW ZEALAND - DAY 11

Thursday, March 28
Sadly, this is our last day.  We will leave tomorrow morning (Friday) which will be Thursday in US I think.  We arrive in LA at 11:30 Friday morning which is 4 hours after we leave although it is a 12 hour flight.  The trip takes 23 hours and 22 minuites - we leave 7:30 Friday evening and we arrive in IF at 11:30 Friday night  EYES SWIRLING AROUND AND AROUND

We went driving through the hills and walked around the Thermal Pools area.  It was like a miniature ... no, not even that big.  Took about 20 minutes for us talk walk all the way around - and that's with Virgil tap tap tapping his away around.
So - today's pictures. These were taken on the little "track" around the Thermal Pools.

The pictures below were taken in Tangariro National Park.

I love this view!  I do not know the name of the mountain.

NEW ZEALAND -DAY 9

Tuesday, March 27

Aha!  I had an AHA moment!  I had purchased some New Zealand Lemon apples.  I was curious to see if they had a lemony flavor. They were definitely tart, but they weren't quite ripe.  I found that I could fry them and even without sugar, they made a nice breakfast side dish.  Then I remembered a conversation I heard at the little market.  Two ladeis were discussing the colors of some knitted items - pink, white, green and lemon.  Yup - New Zealand Lemon apples are YELLOW apples or the same as our Golden Delicious.  No worries Mate.  I'll figure it all out by the time we leave.  LOL

So, today we went to Taupo.  To drive from Turangi to Taupo is to drive along the edge of Lake Taupo.  Lake Taupo is 216 square miles.  It is absolutely beautiful.

As we got in to Taupo, we stopped at the Taupo Museum.  Virgil didn't have Mel to coax him, so he stayed in the car and napped while I went into the museum.  It was interesting.  This area has a rich history in timber and fishing.  Trout were actually introduced by the Europeans.

I was too curious about what a SUPERloo was.  I new it was a restroom, but wondered what made it super.  It was very nice inside and had showers.  I didn't want to pay 50 cents to go in though.

Next stop Huka Falls.  A lady at the beauty shop said - pronounce it Hooka - like a prostitute.  LOL

NEW ZEALAND - DAY 8

NEW ZEALAND - DAY 8
MONDAY, March 25
Today was a lazy day.  We had breakfast, then Virgil turned on the TV and we watched a show.  He went upstairs to nap.  I walked to the Welcome Center and purchased a few things and came back to the condo.  Virgil was still in bed so I walked to the grocery store and bought a couple of plums.  When I came back, Virgil was still in bed.  It was almost 2:00 so I told him we should get moving.
We went to the Tongariro Trout Centre and Museum.  All over the island, we had seen trees we were calling Palm trees.  At the Trout Centre we found out they are actually called "Cabbage Trees" and aren't even related to palm trees.


The trail to the museum was beautiful and had a lovely aroma.  We heard some birds singing loudly and Virgil wanted me to tell him what they looked like.  However, they were deep within the foilage and I never got a good look at any of them.
The trout were huge and the water was very clean and clear.

The museum held a collection of flies and rods.  One person had told us that they were from a man's personal collection and that he had been offered $3500 for one of the rods.  He would not sell it though.

When we got inside the museum, a gentleman was cleaning the tanks.  He said normally the water is flowing full and has the affect of white water as it rolls over the stones.  He stopped his task to escort Virgil around the museum and explain to him what was in each tank.

NEW ZEALAND - DAY 9

Welllll I'l be!!!  I had a realization this morning.  I bought some New Zealand Lemon Apples our first day here.  The first bit was a bit tart so Virgil finished it for me. The next morning I fried the second one for breakfast and it was really good so I bought more.  We have had fried apples almost every morning.  BUT today it hit me.

I was at the market the other day and a couple of ladies were talking about some knitted items for sale.  They were pink, white, green and lemon (yellow).  Each time they referred to a yellow item, they called it lemon.  So - my aHA moment - New Zealand Lemon Apples  are not "lemon" apples, they are YELLOW apples - or what we would call Golden or yellow delicious!  No worries mate.  I'll figure things out eventually.

NEW ZEALAND - DAY 7

Day 7 - Sunday, March 24
Sabbath!  This Sabbath had started off in an awe-inspiring manner.  We got ready for church, lazed around for a bit, then off we went to be there at 11:30.  I had checked on the church's website, and it said church began at 11:30. We went into the building and the assembly room was empty.  We saw no one moving about, so we started to go back out.  A sister came out of a room (Primary I assume) and I asked her what time services started.  She said 9:30.  We disappointedly left the building and returned to our car.  As we got to the parking lot, another family arrived.  He asked if we were going to church.  We told him we were too late, that it began at 9:30.  He had also checked on the internet, so thought 11:30 was the correct time.

As we were standing in the parking lot chatting, we learned that this was a family with 4 young children and had decided to visit an old friend by coming to his church.  The young mother was from Washington State, the young man, Brother Skee,  was from one of the Polynesian islands.  They had met at BYU-Hawaii.

Soon the members of the small Branch came into the parking lot.  As an aside, the parking had spaces for 12 vehicles.  The Branch President came to us and introduced himself as Toi Walker.  President Walker walked away just a moment then came back and asked if we would like to partake of the sacrament.  We and the Skee family said we would like that.  We went back in to the building and visited with some of the sisters while President Walker and Brother Shamas set up the sacrament table.  We  were invited to take a seat and Sister Walker led us in a sacrament hymn.  President Walker knelt at the sacrament and offered the prayer and Brother Shamas passed the sacrament.  President Walker offered both prayers at the appropriate time.  The Stake High Councilman was there.  After the sacrament, President Walker offered us the opportunity to bear our testimonies, which we did.

President Walker then bore his beautiful testimony.  He said his family had come to Turangi on a working holiday.  The were building a vacation home and had come to finish up their log house.  When they attended church, the Branch President said that they had been praying for people to move in to the area to help build up the church in Turangi.  Brother Walker and his wife both felt the spirit stirring within them and within the next few months had sold their house in the Southern part of the North Island and moved to Turangi.  He said his daughter, who was 13 at the time, cried for three days.  However, after moving that daughter brought three other girls into the Church.  One is preparing now for a mission and one is preparing to go to BYU-Hawaii.  Perhaps, he said, the reason they were inspired to move there was for those three girls.  So now, the Branch is again praying for others to move in to the area.

So actually, the Branch President and Stake High Councilman had an entire second sacrament meeting for their 8 visitors.  The total membership of the Branch is 4 families.

So began our Sabbath Day.

Paradise Duck

We spent the afternoon driving through Tongariro National Forest.  We pulled over at one spot that said "Two Maori houses".  We didn't see the houses, but we did see a Paradise Duck.  Another couple was taking pictures of the Duck.  The man said the ducks usually are in pairs and that they mate for life.  They gave it some crumbs and we all took pictures.  I then took pictures of a volcanic mountain across the way with billows of smoke rising up into the sky.

These were dams we found on a gravel road on Genesis (Electric Company property.  The ladders are so the trout can get upstream.  New Zealand has a law than any obstruction in any stream must have ladders to enable the fish to go upstream.

 

  We then returned to the condo after stopping for some Chinese take out.

The Chinese food was edible - barely.  Virgil said it was better than a lot of people got in the world today.  Good point.  Time to be thankful.

Ahhh, time to relax and enjoy a restful evening.

NEW ZEALAND - DAY 6

Saturday, March 23
Day 6 - New Zealand

Today began with a "Sausage Sizzle" in the lounge of the lodge.  This was an opportunity for guests to meet one another and listen to sales pitches for tourist attractions.  They served coffee, tea, and milo along with grape juice, orange juice and kiwi juice.  The sausage was a fat sausage.  You picked up a piece of bread, put your sausage on it and put a spread on top of the sausage.  They had ketchup, b-b-q sauce, apricot and pepper spread and corn sauce.  Virgil said he wanted his plain.   I put apricot and pepper spread on one end of mine and corn sauce on the other.  I found it delicious.  I commented to Virgil that the apricot spread was delicious.  He then asked for me to put some on "this burnt thing".  He was a little grouchy about it, although he will not admit it.  He didn't like it very much but I enjoyed every bite of mine.

We went back to the room and took a nap.   I then went walking around the City Center and bought a few souveniers for the kids.  I found another grocery store so I purchased some frozen fish cakes and tomatoes.  All the bake shops have meat pies so I bought Virgil one.  He was on the couch when I returned so I gave him his warm meat pie.  He said it tasted like a hot pocket.

He went back for another nap and I walked down a path that led to a river.  When I arrived back at the room, Virgil was up, so I asked if he would like to do anything.  He said I could do whatever I wanted to, but he is content to watch Animal Planet.

I walked to the Visitor's Center and bought tickets to go the a fish hatchery.  When I came back, Virgil was asleep so I went online to find the church here.  Turangi has a branch with services beginning at 11:30.  I asked Virgil if he wanted to go.  He said, "not really".  I said, that's okay.  I'll go.  I figured I've done things by myself for most of the trip so far, so going to Church by myself is not problem.  He said that he would like to go afterall.

We then walked back to the grocery store.  All the shops were closed.  The grocery store was still open.  We purchased laundry detergent, ketchup ($5.00 for a small bottle), some lettuce, salad dressing, noodles and cup of noodles.

We came back to the room where I attempted to fry the fish cakes.  I am so accustomed to my gas stove, that I obviously cannot good on a ceramic cook top.  I burned three of the of the fish cakes.  I found a book for the oven - I need to include a picture just to show how complicated it is - and put the other three fish cakes in the over.  I then burned those.  I did manage to cook some "chips" (french fried potatoes that weren't fried) without burning them too badly so Virgil had his cup of noodles (Ra-men noodles) a salad and some potatoes.  I had potatoes and salad.  He suggested that perhaps it would be cheaper just to eat out the rest of the time instead of buying food to through away. LOL  I agree - although we still have ham and eggs.

That is the end of Day 6.

NEW ZEALAND - DAY 5

Day 5 - Friday, March 22
We left Hamilton and headed to Turangi (Too-rang-ee) where we would begin our stay at the Time Share condo - Turangi Leisure Lodge.

On the way we stopped by Hobbiton - the movie set for Lord of Rings and The Hobbit.  As we were walking down the path to the office, a gentleman introduced himself to Virgil as John Wells and explained that he drove a bus for Hobbiton.  He told Virgil not to waste the $75.00 because he would not enjoy the tour.  He told him he should just get a bite to eat and wait in Shire's Rest (a snack bar/restaurant of sorts) for me to go.  So we decided to do just that.

It was a good thing Virgil did not go.  The bus took us to a point and dropped us off. We then walked some narrow gravel trails around to see the Hobbit houses, the Party Tree, and a break at the Green Dragon.  They gave a free beverage - ginger beer being the only non-alcoholic drink.  It was cold and delicious ginger ale.  I purchased a scone which was a very big, dense cheese biscuit.  I saved half of it for Virgil.  The tour took about 2 hours.  The movie set was built on a farm owned by the Alexander brothers.  It was chosen because it was pretty much virgin land. It was a sheep farm, had no power lines over it and had a wonderful big tree which fit the description of the Party Tree described by J. R. R.Tolkein.  The New Zealand army actually helped construct the sets and some of the soldiers were even in the movies.  When the movies were over, the film company promised to have everything removed in 6 months.  At the end of the 6 months, they had not completed the work so they negotiated a new contract with the Alexanders.  Part of that contract was that the Hobbit Houses would stay and the Alexanders would be allowed to give tours.  They charge $75 per person, and appear to be doing very well with it.  Virgil and a hot dog and bottle of water at The Shire's Rest for a cost of $9.00.

We then continued our way to Turangi.  The GPS took us a scenic instead of direct route, but we didn't mind.  We enjoyed watching the countryside change from grassy hillsides to mountain forests.

We checked in to Turangi Leisure Lodge about 3:30 and received our complimentary milk.  Virgil laid down to rest and I walked around and found a grocery store.  I purchased ham, eggs and milk, which became our supper.