living social getaway

Here is a great deal I just purchased on Living Social.   If anyone is looking for a getaway at the beach.  Gearhart OR is right next to Seaside OR.  Click on the link to take a look.  Two nights for $99 can't beat that.
http://livingsocial.com/deals/26778?ref=personalized-link-box-6340153&rpi=6340153

***  And it's sold out!  Sorry to get your hopes up, HA***

Part 3 of New Zealand - Te Puia Rotorua New Zealand Temple

Have to get back to this blogging.  I am hoping to turn this blog into a book so bear with me if you have heard too much about our trip.

 We started out in Rotorua and wanted to visit the hot springs in the area.  So we went to Te Puia. They are known for being a place of gushing waters, steaming vents, boiling mud pools and spectacular geysers.

The boiling mud pots.

They geyser

 A water hole full of boiling water!

 Not sure what was going on here.. but I liked their dresses.  Te Puia is also the National Carving and Weaving Schools of New Zealand.  I think the actual school is called Te Whakarewarewa.

This is the entrance to Te Puia.  

 After that we decided to stop by the New Zealand Temple on our way back to the airport.  We had originally planned to go another way but after talking to the hotel owner he advised us that the drive we were going to make was not worth it especially with kids.  And it would have added on an extra couple hours in the car.  Anyways so we went to the Temple.. so worth it.  It was very beautiful.  I believe it was built in the late 1950's.  You drive through town and then at the end there is the Temple surrounded by farming land.  Also which we didn't realize was that they had a LDS college there as well. 

 Cooper walking around the grounds.

 Of course they had to park the tractor right in front of the Temple..   oh well.  We were only there for a short time.  We went into the visitors center and walked around.  Chatted with the sister missionaries for a bit.  Took some pictures and then drove back to the airport.  They had a nativity all set up and we wished we could have stayed till dark to see it all lit up.  A little odd to be standing there in very hot humid weather in the middle of December looking at a nativity.

 On the way home.  We got on the plane at 7:30pm on Tuesday night, had dinner (the big pink thing on Emma's plate is a Lamington which is her dessert), watched a movie and then went to bed.  The girls slept great. Cooper even slept 6 hours at a time which was awesome.  Just wish I could have fallen asleep.  To busy checking the kids every 15 min.  Cooper had his own bed but I had to be up just in case he woke up and crawled out of it.  Then we landed at 2:30pm Tuesday.  The girls thought it was awesome to fly back in time.  We had my bro in law Andrew pick us up from the airport because we were surprising everyone. They thought we were coming home after Christmas.  But we made it home just before.  Hopefully we surprised a few people. 
We are very grateful that we had the opportunity to travel like we did.  Never in a million years did we ever think that we would be visiting Australia or New Zealand.  We loved every minute of it.  It was tough to do with the family but it was worth it all.  I would even do it again!   We met some great friends and hope to go back some day to visit.

Come What May & Love It

Part 2 of New Zealand - Hobbiton and Rotorua

 We drove from Waitomo to Hobbiton.  Ok, so I am going to admit right now .. I have never seen Lord of the Rings movies.  Jordan made me watch parts of it only because he said I could not go unless I have seen it.  I am just not into that at all.  Jordan on the other hand really likes the movies.  I watched just the parts that showed the Shire and I was done.  I am lame I know. 

 So this is about all you get to see of Hobbiton.  We had to sign a waiver that said we would not post any pictures or videos on the web because of the upcoming filming they are doing.  They were working on the set as we walked through it and that was kind of cool.

 After we toured the set and saw the shire we headed over to the sheep shearing demonstration.  The guy doing it had to go to school to learn how.  I guess that is pretty normal. He also said that he plays rugby on the side.

 Taking their turns at feeding the baby sheep.

 The little Hobbit himself.  This was in the souvenir store and cafe where we had lunch.

 Later that day we drove to Rotorua, New Zealand.  We stayed the night here.  I told Jordan that if we were going to go to New Zealand I wanted to go to a Maori dinner and show.  So here we are.  I very much enjoyed it. 

 When we first arrived.  They were meeting the new chiefs from each tribe.  They bused us all over and each bus was a different tribe.  Not sure how many. 

 Then they took us into their village and showed us lots of demonstrations how they lived and how they worked.

 Lots of different statues.  Dottie was a little more into it than Emma was.

Dinner.  They cooked it under ground. Then after this we actually went to the show where they sang and danced.  We didn't get many pictures the lighting was very dark. But it was probably the best part if the whole thing.  By the time we actually ate dinner it was about 8pm. my kids were starving.  If I had known we wouldn't eat till then I would have fed them before hand.  Then we had to sit around and wait till everyone was ready to get back on the bus.  Everybody was having a good time by this point but we were ready to just get the kids in bed.  We did not get home until 10pm.  But I have to say it was worth it.  I enjoyed my Maori dinner and show.

Part 1 of New Zealand - Waitomo

 On the day we arrived we didn't get into Auckland until about 5pm.  We had some issues and didn't get out of there until about 7.  So we just headed down to the B&B we were staying at.  We passed that hedgehog on the way on the last post.  Let me go over some of the issues we had upon landing in Auckland.  The flight it self went great!  It all started at customs.  (This was probably meant for yesterday's post oh well)  Just FYI  don't try and enter a country with fresh fruit and vegetables.  To my defense..  we were moving and I was trying to clean out the fridge that morning and the taxi came early so I was rushed.  I threw the peaches and carrots in my bag thinking we could snack on them on the plane.  I completely forgot about them.  Well customs did not like it one bit.  They took us over and interrogated us, threatened to charge us a huge fine.  Finally I just broke down and was in tears.. and the guy backed way off saying I am not going to charge you but I really need you to think twice about bringing this stuff in, even if it was an accident.  I was a mess..   So we move on and go get our car rental where we realized we forgot to get our car seats when we got our luggage, which was back before customs.  Lovely..  Poor Jordan trying to take care of everything and his wife is a mess.  So 30 min later we get our car seats and head out to the car.  Backing up a bit we had a hard time deciding what size car to get.  We shipped a ton of stuff home but we still had a lot of luggage.  So we decided to reserve a full size car over a van or SUV we knew it would be tight but we thought we could make it fit.  We get out to our car and it's TINY.  There we are standing in the rain our kids are a mess I am a mess and we are already running way behind.  Jordan goes back in.. they don't have any full size cars to rent us.  What the heck..  that's what we reserved.  We didn't have time to go look for another car rental.. we just went with it.  (Well you know Jordan he did get a free tank of gas and we brought it back in on fumes)  Packed in a tiny car we headed out.  We made it to Waitomo.  We booked a place that was a B&B for families.  And it was an Ostrich farm..  it was great.  A little ghetto but it worked for us.  Our hosts were a very nice family and they had some granddaughters that were about the same age as the girls.

On the farm they had lots of other animals which were all miniture animals except the Ostriches of course.  Here is Emma with one of them.

 We also visited the Kiwi house in Otorohanga.  We had to see a Kiwi in New Zealand.  Sad we could not take pictures of it but it was the funniest looking bird we have ever seen.  It almost looked fake to us.  It was interesting to watch it.
Here are the girls watching some parrots.

 Back at the Ostrich farm.  Meet Victoria the Ostrich.  We had to wait for the rains to stop so we could walk around the grounds.  It rained every day we were there.  This was one of the only ostriches we could get close too. 




 Isn't this a great picture... I love it.  To bad Victoria's head got cut off in the picture.  (picture below)

 The girls really enjoyed this.   Notice Cooper on the left side of the picture.  They let you in but not the babies.  They weren't sure how Victoria would react.  That was okay with me.

 I have no idea how these little legs hold up these big bodies on these cows.

 These three ostriches lived right out side where we were staying.  The tall one is the male.  He did not like it when we got close to his women. 

 They showed us how to drain the ostrich egg. 

 The kids taking their turns on riding the ponies.

Even Cooper got his turn.  He really did enjoy it.  They also got to feed some of the animals a bottle  the kids were in heaven at this place.  To bad we didn't get to stay longer.  We also got fresh homemade bread with our breakfast every morning. 

 Well the main reason we went to Waitomo was for the worm caves.  The word Waitomo comes from the Māori language wai meaning water and tomo meaning a doline or sinkhole; it can thus be translated to be water passing through a hole. These Caves are believed to be over two million years old.  Jordan was a little more adventurous then the rest of us.  Plus there was no way to take Cooper down.

 Here are the Glowworms. (They are not really worms)They may sometimes resemble worms, but all are insects.

Click HERE for more images.  I tried to take some pictures but they just didn't turn out.  It was amazing to see. 

 Jordan did a little tubing trip down one of the rivers.  He had to get all suited up.  He had a BLAST to say the least.  Really glad he could do it even if we didn't get to go with him.

 Moa bones.  A Moa was only found in New Zealand I believe. It looks very similar to an ostrich, emu and cassowary.    They are extinct now but the bones are usually found down in the caves.  They would hide down there for shelter.

The tour guides took these pictures of the group Jordan went with. 

Coming out of the caves.  The girls and I did get a chance to go just not on the same tour Jordan went on .  We went on a walking tour.  But this almost looks like the same entrance that we went down.  Just a hole in the ground.  We went in the evening about 8pm.  I wasn't sure I was going  to get the girls down there.  We talked about it I told them it was going to be dark.  We made it and once they saw the glowworms they thought it was so cool that they didn't have any more problems.  We saw the river that Jordan floated down.  Our tour guide was actually the son of our hosts at the B&B.  So the reason we went in the evening is because when we came out of the cave and up the stairs it was dark outside at this point and the glowworms were all over the walls  but you couldnt seem them unless it was dark.  It literally looked like stars like the pictures above (I found online). 

on our way to New Zealand

 On our flight to New Zealand.  We decided to take a 3 day layover on our way home from Australia. 

 Cooper was all bundled up ready to go watching his cartoons with his headphones on.  He actually kept them on, I think he was just to tired to try and take them off.

Dottie about to eat her lunch... We were taken care of pretty well.  It was a short 4 hour flight and everyone did well.





In New Zealand on our way to the B&B and we saw a hedge hog crossing the road.