Back to the Naki

This morning Spartacus, Glenny, Missie and I headed back home to the Naki. It was a very nice day for a drive, that is till we got to Mt Messenger then it started raining. We mostly had the road to ourselves which was lovely, the only truck we got stuck behind was on SH3A and being only a short way from home we did not mind much at all.

We stopped a couple of times at places we have always driven past and thought 'we should stop there one day'. The first was the stairs going up the hill at Lake Whakamaru, turns out it doesn't go to a lookout but seems like it's attached to a walk or something. We just went to the top of the stairs and stopped there. The next was in the middle of nowhere along SH3 just past the 80km section for that bad bit of rock wall at the top of that hill. Nothing to see there really but it looks like there should be a lookout as there are steps by a pulloff area. Lots of farmland to see, spose to a tourist it might be a great photo, to us it was just a photo and a good chance to change music :) 

Group photo at Lake Whakamaru

 

Halfway down the stairs

 

Spartz at Lake Whakamaru

 

Middle of nowhere, SH3

 

Random pic, middle of nowhere lol

Rotorua part three

Ystdy (Saturday) we went to the Rotorua A&P show, mostly just for a wander around and to see what was there. Missie, of course, made some more friends, she seems to rack up new friends quite easily. And me and bro had fun wandering around. There wasn't as much good stuff or shopping type stuff as we were expecting but we did watch the wood chopping and highland dancing for a bit and chatted to a few of the animals. After the A&P show we went to find some boiling mud at one of the local parks. We did managed to find some as well so Missie is happy. She has decided to come back in winter when the ground is not so dry as she thinks she will see more then.

This morning we went for a wander in the Redwoods, and I just wanna say getting a full redwood in a photo is hard enough but when you are trying to get Missie in as well, and seeable, it's a bit of a mish, bro did a great job though and got me and Missie and a redwood :) it was a lovely walk, nice and cool cos of all the trees and ferns :) 

 

Missie's friend Donkey

 

Missie got on very well with the Alpacas

 

And the sheep, even though the sheep didn't seem to like me as much :(

 

She then decided she'd have a go at using a chainsaw

 

We watched proper horses doing their thing

 

Missie's favourite army vehicle, I think it's cos of the stars so she thinks she has a rank hehe

Boiling mud :D

 

We just liked the view with the steaming lake :)

 

Me, Missie and a Redwood :)

 

Yup we stayed behind the fence....

 

A fallen redwood

UK adventure top pics

Finally have sorted out all my holiday pics and have my top 20 favs, took a while as there were so many photos I loved for either the photo itself or the memory of what the photo is off.  Anyhow these are my fav 20 and they are in date order...

The Meadows, Edinburgh, Scotland

Arthurs Seat, Edinburgh, Scotland

Run or Dye, Hopetoun House, Scotland

Luzern, Switzerland

York Castle Museum, York, England

Cairngorms, Scottish Highlands, Scotland

Water of Leith Walkway, Edinburgh, Scotland

Paris, France

Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland

Aviemore, Scotland

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Inverness, Scotland

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

Cong, Ireland

Dublin, Ireland

Tenby, Wales

Bath, England

Brighton, England

London, England

Rotorua part two

Today Missie and I wandered to the lake via the Thermal Walkway or atlst that is what we have decided to call it :) we were hoping to see some mud pools cos Missie ain't seen any before but it seems Vegas has cooled down some since last time I was here. We saw plenty of steam but only a few areas where the water was boiling and no boiling mud :( closest we got was boiling muddy water. The lake was very pretty so was worth the walk even if did see all that we wanted.

 

Poukeko friend :) 

 

We have been warned 

 

Just like the colours in this pic :)

 

Steam, we found steam

 

Burnt trees, looked rather spectacular and a lil weird

 

Back of the Government Gardens buildings

 

Boiling dirty water

 

Lake and a tree

 

Lake and lots of trees

Rotorua part one

So am chilling in Vegas with Brudda for the week. Came over on Friday as we were going to the Medieval Faire in Tauranga on Saturday. The Medieval Faire was alright, not as good as we were expecting so we didn't stay long but still was good for a trip :)

Yesterday we just chilled cos the weather was mega ick, summer yeah right. Today Missie and I did some exploring, wandered to the Rose Garden next to bros place then found a cemetery and then after a bit more wandering we found Government Gardens then we wandered home. Don't wanna do all our exploring in one day :) 

Missie found a suitably coloured shield 

 

An old school lathe

 

Getting ready for battle

 

Apparently this is Missie's Rose 

 

Our friend at the cemetery 

 

A family of quack quacks :) 

 

'The Ghost Soldier' sculpture at Government Gardens

 

'Mana' sculpture at Government Gardens

 

House at Government Gardens, for once without loads of tourists in front of it :) 

 

Missie making friends with the locals

 

We like how they paint these, esp this one :)

 

More local friends for Missie