Koala&Kiwi

The site was beautiful, lush greenery and with a cooler air about it. After another good  nights sleep it was an early start to get ready for our visit to the living Maori Village; the village is owned by the Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao people and is completely worked by them, a great example of an eco-village. On entering the village we were greeted by the children asking us to throw coins into a hot pool where they would dive to retrieve their rewards, a contradiction of generations.  The ground was hot under foot as it has geothermal vents. Ecological Slow \Cooker We joined a guided tour and learned that to be a tour guide is a very well respected job and is given to  village elders, after the tour you can sped as much time as you wish in the village, my top highlight, was to watch the cultural show. Cooking sweetcorn     So good it watched it twice! Food was cooked in the hot ground; sweetcorn is wrapped in bags and dropped into a the...

After a very comfortable night's sleep and duly refreshed after a shower and breakfast, we had a walk with our fab hosts around a local dog friendly park. We then had an orientation drive before sadly leaving at 10.45. It is strange how people drop in and out of your life, we had not seen one another for a few years and after a very welcoming stay of less than 24 hours we were off, not knowing when we would see them again. Friends and acquaintances seem more important when you get older. We had a very pleasant drive as we headed to our next stop, Lake Taupo arriving here around 3.00pm. We headed out on the Napier - Taupo Road and came across Waipunga Falls. https://world-of-waterfalls.com/waterfalls/new-zealand-waipunga-falls as manicuring his beard. Along the way we passed a Maori Cemetery or Graveyard. This was set into a hillside. As far as I can ascertain, Maori buried people of high status close to settlements and then disinherited the bones to place them in secret locatio...

Never be put off by first impressions, how I should have heeded my own thoughts. I had the first impression that Raglan was a bit of "a one horse town" and I am sad to admit this. We stayed here for a second night, giving us the opportunity to enjoy all that is on offer here for one full day and a second night. After a lazy morning on the site, we walked over the estuary's foot bridge where children were jumping off and into the freezing water below. Children and parents were busy on the beaches black sand, school summer holidays for the children had just begun. Raglan, is a quaint and to quote the Supermarket employee: "A town run by the town for the town". The vast, if not all, the majority of shops are independent: shoe maker, dressmaker, artisan crafts, tiny bakery and Radio station, to name a few. We  had a humorous encounter at a general stores where we were looking to purchase a postal tube. The shop was full to bursting with all manner of random stock;...