Virtual tour, part one of....lots

It's good to get away, but always good to get home! Sorting the photos is the hardest part.

We covered just over 1100km (that's about 700 miles in American) 2100 km (that's 1300miles in American) in seven days and had such a great time doing it. The weather was fabulous and we only had one little setback--more on that later--and we couldn't have asked for more exciting things to see and do. Kudos to Hubby, who is the greatest organizer of trips!

I will post the 'touristy' stuff on this blog, along with links to their websites, and the great scenery on my photoblog (click here for that link).

To get from Stratford (which is to the right of the green circle-which is Mount Taranaki-in the 'bump' on the left side) to anywhere, there is a lot of driving involved, as you can see from th is map. Click for larger view.

To go north, we have to travel across Mount Messenger, which is one of many winding mountain roads in NZ. After getting across there, we always stop at Mokau for a rest and the kids get to play in the sand. Otterboy enjoys digging trenches and 're-routing' the water from a run-off drain there and that's where he always ends up. This trip, we got a bit a a surprise as several other 'boys' had the same idea and brought their own pipes and things to 'play in the water'.

To Otterboy's utter disappointment, we didn't have time for him to 'help'.


Before we left, we let the kids look through a bunch of brochures and asked them for things that interested them and they both agreed that 'the luge' would be fun, so that was one of the first stops. It's a great idea for kids entertainment. They get pulled up to the top of the hill in a go-cart on a conveyor belt and then choose one of the paths (slow, medium or fast) to cruise down.

I know I don't like rambling posts, no matter how interesting they are, so that's the first installment of....[tv announcer voice] Our...northern...holiday...(trailing off) [/tv announcer voice]