Papa Bear and the 2 elder cubs woke up early for another round of farm tour. This time, they managed to go nearer to the animals. Brother Bear was very happy as he loves animals a lot. Baby Bear was a bit cranky, she wanted to nurse, hence we both missed the fun. OK, I had to admit I was happy to sleep in, hehe...
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| Brother Bear loves NZ very much, as NZ spells nature, farm animals and love. :) |
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| George and Alan's beautiful dining area. Lake Rotorua was within our sight. |
We bid George and Alan goodbye after another meal of sumptuous breakfast. We stopped by Lake Rotorua to take some pictures. Lake Rotorua was very beautiful, I love its blue water, it was a very special blue which I had not seen before. Sitting at the bench facing the lake, accompanied by a good book and a glass of wine, in the cool weather, would be a very enjoyable experience for sure. This would only happen on our next visit perhaps, as we could not stay long, we had to depart soon.
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| Lake Rotorua. |
As we were driving on the main road heading to Rotorua city centre, we spotted the signage "Fun Ride for Everyone" and we saw Choo Choo Trains for the kiddos (and adults alike!). Kids were screaming excitedly, "I want to ride choo choo train, please, please...?" So the pictures said it all about our another great experience in Rotorua.
Fun Ride for Everyone is a community project by the local council, designed for the retirees, so that they will have a platform to socialise. On certain weekends, the retirees and their teenage/adult children will be setting up a big Thomas and Friends bouncy balloon, a stall selling hotdog buns and operating the steamed engine choo choo train. We were glad to have come a crossed this place, as all of us had so much fun here!
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| We were so lucky to bump into this place, which operated only on selected weekends. |
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| The volunteer was getting the steamed engine train ready. |
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| Everyone was excited. |
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| The big bouncy balloon. |
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| More volunteers were making the hotdog buns for sale. Super yummy. |
We continued our journey towards Taupo. It was an easy one hour drive. We stopped by Huka Honey Hive shop for free tasting of New Zealand honey and we bought a few jars home, namely its popular white honey and manuka honey. This is a great place to call in if you have time, as they also have an educational area explaining all about bees and honey with live hives. Of course, kids loved their honey ice cream the most. :)
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| The wide selection of honey. Free tasting available. |
After honey ice cream treat, we moved on to Huka Falls. The river leading up to the falls was beautiful and the roar of water was spectacular. It's just a short walk from the car park to the viewing platforms, so you can definitely bring elderly or kids along. There is some great nature walking tracks too. Highly recommended!
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| The powerful roar of water at Huka Falls. |
We were all hungry after some good exercise (walking and photo taking) at the falls, so Papa Bear suggested to find something for lunch near Taupo town. I felt like having sandwiches at one of the cafes, but the kids saw a Kebab shop which served Kebab with rice and they craved for rice! To make everyone happy, we packed sandwiches and Kebab from the 2 different shops and stopped by Lake Taupo for picnic lunch. Lake Taupo was beautiful. We saw snow capped mountains from far, everyone was excited, as we knew we weren't far from seeing and playing with snow!
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| Lake Taupo. |
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| Doing some exercise to keep ourselves warm. |
We continued our another 2 hours drive to Napier after a good picnic. We reached Napier around 5.30pm, it was all dark. We proceeded to Countdown Supermarket to buy ingredients for dinner before we drove to our B&B. We arrived our B&B at 6.30pm in the cold and windy evening. We felt so warm and grateful to see that Jan, our gracious host, had switched on all the lights and heater for us.
Jan's place was truly awesome. It was well equipped with everything a traveler needs, from toiletries, washer and detergents for washing of clothes, wifi password, travel info, food guide, electric blanket on each bed, plenty of towels, etc... If you are visiting Napier and you are reading this, please take my words, do not waste time to look any further, this is the place to stay. You can look up for Jan here: http://www.bnb.co.nz/thecoachhouse.html :)
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| The master bedroom. |
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| Kids room in the attic. |
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| Jan's place was small, but very cosy and had everything traveller would need. |
We had Papa Bear's home cooked pasta for dinner. We had a really good rest at Jan's place after a full day of travelling. We were really grateful for Jan's hospitality. All of us had a good night sleep, as the beds were so comfortable and the electric blanket was really superb during cold winter nights.
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