Marvellous New Zealand - Day 3 (Rotorua)


Our stay at George and Alan’s included a farm tour.  Every morning at 7.30am, George and Alan would go around their farm, checking and feeding the animals, such as sheep, chicken, alpaca, cow, goat and also a pet pig.  Unlike the day before, the weather was always on our side from our 3rd day onwards in New Zealand - beautiful sunny day throughout the 2 weeks trip, believe it not.  Oh, we did experience another wet day while we were in Queenstown, but the kids were ok, as the wet day brought us snow.  It was snowing on our 12th day in New Zealand. :)
Mini farm tour led by our host and hostess.
Sister Bear was taking picture of the sheep.
The chicken house.  We had fresh eggs for breakfast. 
The friendly goat. 
The other part of the farm which is facing Lake Rotorua.  
Brother Bear was admiring the furry cows.  They looked like they were wearing a thick furry rugs on them. 

Our kids enjoyed the little farm tour in George and Alan's private farm.  They loved the furry cows, which we had only seen this breed in NZ and the pig.  It was their first time seeing a real pig in action. 

After the farm tour, George and Alan served us breakfast, which was sumptuous.  They provided continental and cooked breakfast.  George cooked the best scrambled eggs that Sister Bear ordered the same menu and double in quantity for the next day's breakfast.  It was really great enjoying our super yummy breakfast in their beautiful house, overlooking Lake Rotorua.  
Papa Bear likes this retro van a lot that he took quite a few selfies with it.   LOL  
George and Alan's beautiful home.

After breakfast, we hang around the garden, Brother Bear was busy chasing the chicken and playing with the friendly goat.  Sister Bear was busy admiring the blossomed flowers and the lemon tree which was full of fruits.   Baby Bear was busy running around.  Papa Bear was busy setting up the tripod to take a good family picture.  I was walking leisurely, watching everyone and enjoying life.  Haha... 
Overseeing the beautiful Lake Rotorua.  
Lemon tree! 
After photoshooting session, we took a rest in our rooms.  We decided to go easy with the itinerary, as we were all still a little tired from the red eye flight, time difference and travelling.  Kids played in their spacious room.  Papa Bear and I managed to rest our tired mind and body, a complete off-load of all our work related issues.  

 After we had rested enough, we drove out to buy picnic lunch.  We wanted to have picnic at the very popular Hamurana Springs.  Hamurana Springs is the deepest natural fresh water springs on the North Island of New Zealand.  People aren't exaggerating when they tell you that no visit to Rotorua is complete without a visit to Hamurana Springs and it's FREE.  It offers a nice family oriented area with calming picnic spots in a picturesque setting.  It passes as a wildlife sanctuary for birds too, it hosts herons, ducks, black teals, etc..  Do remember to bring some breads to feed these birds.  
Someone was too tired after a whole morning of fun.  :)
The springs water was crystal clear that we could see the bottom.   
Papa Bear was babywearing Baby Bear using his new found love - Onya Baby SSC.   
Kids were busy feeding the ducks and black teals together with their new friends. 

The easy walk to the springs through the lovely redwood forest was truly magical - we felt as if we were walking in the Lord of the Ring movie scene.  LOL   We love Hamurana Springs so much that we decided to name it as one of the Highlights of our NZ holidays.  
The easy walking trails for all ages.  
The lovely redwoods forest.  
The towering trees.  
The picturesque springs.
After spending close to 2 hours at the springs, we moved on to our next destination - Kuirau Park at the city centre of Rotorua, to discover the steaming, hissing and bubbling geothermal activity.  There were 2 foot pools which we did not try, as both were occupied by a big group of tourists.  But it was fun strolling around the park, sniffing on the sulfur, haha... and not to mention the well equipped and super fun children playground.  
The well equipped and super fun children playground at Kuirau Park. 
The bubbling and steaming geothermal activity.
After Kuirau Park, we drove and stroll around Rotorua city centre, just to take pictures, relax and do nothing in particular.  That's what holiday was all about, right?   Oh wait, we did something in particular - smelling and sniffing on the strong sulfur smell.  Haha...  Papa Bear and Sister Bear disliked it, but the rest of us were ok and thought that was a unique smell.  

Believe it not, we loved the Chinese food which we had for dinner last night so much, that we went back there again for the 2nd time.  Hahaha... 
The port which was near the Maori village.  
Spotted this oldie.  :)
Another playground which was carpeted with dry leaves.  
Love this picture! 
The building of Rotorua city council?  If I remember correctly... :)

We went back to our B&B after dinner, packed up as we would be leaving Rotorua for Napier, via Taupo on the next day after breakfast.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Sparkling Snowy Korea (14 Days 13 Nights Itinerary)

Image
Kids did not have enough of snow from our last New Zealand trip in June (read more of our New Zealand self drive trip  here ).  Since we had got all our winter apparels readily available, so we thought why not a winter holiday in the sparkling snowy Korea.  After checking through all flight fares, we decided to fly with Malaysia Airlines again.  This trip was a very relaxing trip, as we only use 3 places as base, which were Seoul, Alpensia Ski Resort and Jeju.  We were lucky that all planned and scheduled time set in perfectly (not too early and not too late).   So here's our another kids friendly itinerary for your reference. :)   Day 1 -  touched down Incheon International Airport, Seoul.  We then  purchased the T Money Cards from 7-11 and shuttle bus tickets (KWN29000 per person for adults and half price for children) to Alpensia Ski Resort at Gate 9C, before our hotel picked us up.  Initial plan was to visi...
Read more

Western Australia Road Trip & Farm Stay (9 Days 8 Nights Itinerary)

Image
One of our favourite family picture from the trip.  :)  We had a very wonderful trip to Western Australia in September covering Perth, Pemberton, Margaret River and some other small towns/attractions.    It was early spring and the weather was perfect to our liking - it was fairly cold with beautiful sunshine and lovely wind.  It rained a little on one of the days, but it didn't hurt, as we still managed to do quite a bit by checking the weather forecast beforehand.   So here's the itinerary of our super relaxing WA road trip and farm stay experience.  I'll write more on our each day's adventure as soon as I can.  I actually couldn't wait to start writing as I miss the wonderful time we had so much!  We ate well, slept early and breathed in lots of fresh air!  Hahaha...  I shall stop writing and let our amazing pictures do the talking.   Day 1 – Touched down Perth in the late afternoon and headed straight to ...
Read more

Beautiful China - Chaozhou (潮州)

Image
Year end exam was over and the schools had requested for kids to return all textbooks, which spelled school's out, well, almost.... :)  So I made a decision that all of us to tag along Papa Bear's business trip to China.   We spent 9 days 8 nights in China and we visited Xiamen, Chaozhou and the Tulou in Nanjing.  Here's the entry of our visit to Chaozhou ( 潮州).   The ancient Chaozhou city. We were very lucky that Papa Bear's business friend volunteered to be our tour guide for a day trip to Chaozhou.  Chaozhou is about 3 hours drive from Xiamen, it's a city in the eastern Guangdong province.  Renting a 7 seaters MPV with a private driver will cost you around RMB1600 to and fro from Xiamen.   It was an easy drive on the highway to Chaozhou city.  Our first stop was Han Wen Gong Temple ( 韩文公祠),  which is located on the foot of Bijia Mountain ( 笔架山) at the bank of Hanjiang River in Chaozhou.  It was built in the S...
Read more