Hotel Dining

Wayne departed yesterday (we'll see him again in a week) so it's just Iain and me. After Wayne left, we had a drink at the bar (see cheeseball picture - the bartender put the shaker on the bar to make it look more "authentic". It was really funny.)

Then we enjoyed a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant, where we were entertained by the ridiculous music selections: "Walk this Way" by Aerosmith & RunDMC, followed by Abba's "Money Money Money", "Mamma Mia", and "Dancing Queen". There were also some random pop/reggae tunes thrown in for optimal weirdness.

A big tour bus full of American tourists descended upon the property last night. The average age was around 65. Forget D-grade celebrities, home improvements, and chefs -- THIS is the untapped market for reality TV. The women spent the first half hour dashing around the property taking pictures and yelling enthusiastically to each other ("Over here Janice!"). I was laughing at them until I realized that I do the exact same thing. Then, while we were eating dinner, we noticed a sullen woman dining alone in the corner, while the rest of her group hung out at the bar and then dined at large tables nearby, laughing and talking. It was really bizarre, but interesting to watch. Like, you didn't know if this woman was just a martyr drama queen who insisted on sitting alone to get attention, or if she was painfully shy. Her behavior indicated the former. She had a pissy look on her face throughout her meal, and kept looking over at her companions. One of the guys approached her and asked if she was okay, she was welcome to join the group, and he got a sign-songy, "No, I'm just fine ... you all have fun over there ..." Uh huh.

Then we retreated back to our room for some after-dinner wine & cheese while watching "The Darjeeling Limited" (yawn).

Today we're headed to the Coromandel Peninsula for a week of camping!

Hiking

Yesterday we went for a 3 hour hike around one of the lakes, stopping off in the middle for a quick lunch and a beer. The rain held out long enough for us to get back to our car - -the timing was perfect!

Here are some pictures:





Here's the revolting possum carcass we noticed 2 feet from our picnic AFTER we sat there for an hour eating and drinking.... We all thought it was a piece of wood.






Private Maori cemetery on the hill.

Indian food!

After a day of fishing in the pouring rain (Iain & Wayne) and watching TV (me), we headed out for some Indian! Completely stuffed, we rolled home and collapsed in front of the TV to watch the last hour of "The Hills Have Eyes 2". It sucked.

Today, the rain's stopped so we're going out for a very long walk!!!!

Hotel

We had a great first day of vacation. It took us 3 hours to get out of the house -- we have a TON of stuff. There was also the random last minute things to do: write a note for the cat sitter, leave a check in the mailbox for the lawn guy, empty the garbage, make sure the cats have enough food and water, as well as the insane task of packing 10 days' worth of luggage, camping equipment, food, etc. into the car. Iain did an amazing job.

It's only a 3 hour drive to Rotorua from Auckland, so we took our time and stopped at the little town of Cambridge for lunch. We arrived at the hotel around 2:30pm. It's a nice hotel and we got an amazing rate, but I was disappointed to learn that they had no king rooms available, only double queens. It sounds high maintenance but for me, half the fun of staying in a hotel is the big bed. Oh well.

Oh - they also have shutters in the bathrooms that, we presume, allow you to take a bath while gazing out onto the lake. Weird.

Wayne arrived around 4pm. We met outside for some drinks before heading over to the hotel's restaurant for dinner. Already, our resolution to try to stay healthy while on vacation has been trashed. Good thing we're planning some hikes while camping!

HOLIDAY

WE'RE ON VACATION! So get ready for tons of pictures.

For the next three days we're in Rotorua at the Duxton Hotel. Wayne is visiting us, and he and Iain are fishing today. I'm enjoying myself by ordering room service and catching up on Lost.

Sign

Here's a sign we saw yesterday. All I can say is, "Huh?!" You've got a reference to pies, autoparts, vague "accessories" and a picture of Paul Simon. Huh?

Rotorua and Lake Tarawera!

Our weekend of fun was awesome. We took Friday off and drove down early, allowing Iain an hour or so of fishing and me some welcome relaxation with tabloid magazines. We had a picnic lunch by the water, a bottle of wine, and went for a walk along the stream. It's fed by an underground spring, so the water is a beautiful turquoise blue but it's freezing (despite this, loads of kids were leaping into it from the bridge -- it was great).

The stream empties into the lake, and the fish love it. Iain caught THREE fish in a little over an hour. Pretty awesome. Here are the pictures.

It's tough to see in the photos, but the stream bed is this insane blue color.



The first of three!!


Around 7pm, after a drink at the lakeside restaurant, The Landing, we met our friends Shane, Glenn, and Claudine for a night of BBQ and booze. Shane lives in Rotorua and let us all crash at his place. You'd think that 5 adults staying together (for the first time) in a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house would be potentially disastrous, but we all got along great. I admit it - I was pleasantly surprised! (it helped that no one wanted to do anything except eat, drink, watch the Crime & Investigations channel, and go to the lake).

The next day we headed to the lake for waterskiing and swimming. I had to take a picture of Iain's outfit -- he wore Glenn's shorts for waterskiing, a life jacket, his own floral shirt, and hat. Sex on a stick!

The last time I went waterskiing was 1988 on Grand Island, NY with Kate Brill. Times have changed! Waterskiing is SCARY! Our efforts resulted in one pulled hamstring (Glenn), major water up the nose and ears (Iain), extremely sore arms (me), and one 20 second success (Shane, pictured below). We are all getting old.

Shane and Iain decided to play some cricket, which was interrupted by a guy who was either drunk or severely mentally disabled, or both. We're guessing drunk, but who knows. Apparently, he took the cricket ball and threw it at family seated about 20 feet away. Not cool (but I'm a little sorry I missed it!)

We also lost a water ski, which was devastating for Glenn, who search the lake about three times. The only saving grace is that he was the one who lost it, not one of us. Here's Glenn and Claudine returning from an unsuccessful search....

The mountains in the background are volcanos that erupted in the 1800s, and no longer have their tops.