After five fun, busy sometimes chilly weeks, we are all back in Singapore. Our holiday in New Zealand went really well, with us lots of time spent with the family. Most of my family has ended up living within a 90 minute drive of each other in the North Island which makes it easy to get to everybody. Our first port of call was Mum’s place in Hamilton as she had arranged the shuttle to pick us up from the airport. Then in the weekend we shot off to New Plymouth, the town where I was born and where we still have family.
Many of you will have seen quite a lot of the surrounding Taranaki area, including its beautiful mountain Mt Egmont, without even realising it. Remember that movie Tom Cruise made called The Last Samurai? Well the whole thing was filmed here, with Mt Egmont standing in for Mt Fuji. Almost perfectly conical, it’s a beautiful mountain which stands sentinel over the flat and fertile Taranaki plains which extend out like a patchwork until they tumble into the sea. My uncle is the Harbour Master which is one of the reasons we grew up spending lots of time here. I have many fond memories of fishing for sprats off the wharves, walking along the breakwater dodging the spray from the big rollers which come crashing in after their journey across the Pacific Ocean, and watching little blue Fairy penguins waddle across the stones under the wharf to their nests.
Our next port of call was Tauranga, on the East coast in the region known as the Bay of Plenty. Tauranga and its neighbouring town of Mt Maunganui are coastal towns with great beaches. Despite the winter weather we made the most of it by heading off to the beach with my sister Karen and her kids Aimee and Tazmin. As you can see in the photos it was an incredibly windy day, with waves crashing onto the beach and
sand being whipped up and skimmed along the beach by strong gusts. Just a few days previously the country had been hit by its worst storm in 150 years, although this area was not hit too badly so no damage was done. The kids loved racing around in the wind – there is something about windy days that hypes kids up – and almost being blown over.
Many of you will have seen quite a lot of the surrounding Taranaki area, including its beautiful mountain Mt Egmont, without even realising it. Remember that movie Tom Cruise made called The Last Samurai? Well the whole thing was filmed here, with Mt Egmont standing in for Mt Fuji. Almost perfectly conical, it’s a beautiful mountain which stands sentinel over the flat and fertile Taranaki plains which extend out like a patchwork until they tumble into the sea. My uncle is the Harbour Master which is one of the reasons we grew up spending lots of time here. I have many fond memories of fishing for sprats off the wharves, walking along the breakwater dodging the spray from the big rollers which come crashing in after their journey across the Pacific Ocean, and watching little blue Fairy penguins waddle across the stones under the wharf to their nests.Our next port of call was Tauranga, on the East coast in the region known as the Bay of Plenty. Tauranga and its neighbouring town of Mt Maunganui are coastal towns with great beaches. Despite the winter weather we made the most of it by heading off to the beach with my sister Karen and her kids Aimee and Tazmin. As you can see in the photos it was an incredibly windy day, with waves crashing onto the beach and
sand being whipped up and skimmed along the beach by strong gusts. Just a few days previously the country had been hit by its worst storm in 150 years, although this area was not hit too badly so no damage was done. The kids loved racing around in the wind – there is something about windy days that hypes kids up – and almost being blown over. Tazmin, who must be one of the most photogenic kids I’ve ever seen, had a great time pretending to be a kite with her arms stretched out into the wind and while taking the photo I kept an eye on the soles of her shoes to make sure she didn’t actually lift off!
After that it was back to their house for hot Watties tomato soup and cheese toasties – surely the staple diet of any true Kiwi!
Another day during our stay in Tauranga they had a snow dump. Sixty tonnes of chipped ice from a local fish processing factory – thankfully sans fish – was dumped in the centre of town for people to romp and frolic in. Now I realise that
this may seem a little pathetic to all you Cloggies our there who can usually count on at least one snowfall per year, but in Tauranga they don’t even get so much as a frost. My Dad’s house doesn’t even have heating, for goodness sake! So this is as close to the real thing as they get. As you can see it was a lot of fun, and after getting thoroughly chilled and having my boots filled with ice chips we headed off again.
After that it was back to their house for hot Watties tomato soup and cheese toasties – surely the staple diet of any true Kiwi!
Another day during our stay in Tauranga they had a snow dump. Sixty tonnes of chipped ice from a local fish processing factory – thankfully sans fish – was dumped in the centre of town for people to romp and frolic in. Now I realise that
this may seem a little pathetic to all you Cloggies our there who can usually count on at least one snowfall per year, but in Tauranga they don’t even get so much as a frost. My Dad’s house doesn’t even have heating, for goodness sake! So this is as close to the real thing as they get. As you can see it was a lot of fun, and after getting thoroughly chilled and having my boots filled with ice chips we headed off again.
No comments:
Post a Comment