Rotorua

This place is a right load of steaming mud pools and hissing fumeroles. The woods are steaming with volcanic and geo thermic activity. The park was full of hot pools encrusted in different coloured minerals, some huge and over 60m deep.

Bubbly mud pools that stink of rotten eggs. Reminded us of India :)

Definitely India!

This was great; it's a geyser that goes off like clockwork every morning at 10.30am. Now I'll tell you why. Underneath are 2 chambers of hot and cold water. One is about 170 degrees, the other 75. The surface tension between the two prevents it mixing...... until.......you add a small packet of soap powder in the hole.

here we go, after a short speech the chap empties in the soap

2 minutes later the soap has diluted, the suface tension collapses and the cold hits the super hot creating steam that blasts 30m into the air !!

Like a river except it's solid, composed of mineral deposits from the water

Pea soup

Skydive 2 Rotorua

From Kwik Fit fitter to Skydiver.....Well what can I say it's just good fun jumping out of planes. Rotorua was certainly a sight to see from 12 grand. I jumped on my own this time with no other skydivers at my altitude; kicked out at 12k while the tandems went on up to 15k. Strange looking out the door on your own, the wind blasting through, biting cold, gripping the side rails outside the door and then just dropping away. It was good but it's a much better experience when its with others. Felt quite lonely falling through the sky on my own.

Good to be back on the ground :)

Rellies

It was great to catch up with my rellies who have lived in NZ about 37 years - Jayne and James, John and Olwen. Fun evening - eating and drinking.






Great to spend some nights tucked up in a proper bed. This is Jayne's new house.








With my Aunty Jean and Uncle Keith completing crosswords with the aid of some home produced wine from home grown grapes.














Aunty Jean was an angel feeding and watering us, ferrying us up and down to Wellington to sort out our replacement passports and find new luggage. Big big thanks.

We also tucked into some tasty fish and chips one night to remind us of home though not so sure about the Fried Paua Cakes.

I'm also pleased to retain my title as their most frequent UK visitor as it was my 3rd visit to NZ. Come on all you other Keningales - get your flights booked :)

Not so happy apres ski :(

No pictures just pissed off. After a great day skiing we thought how about a pint and a bite to eat in front of a roaring log fire. Every other night we've enjoyed staying in the van, eating and drinking. Parked right outside the pub. We left the pub about 8pm to find some nice chaps had broken in and nicked all our kit, boots, rucksacks, passports, driving licences etc etc. Just perfect! In through a back window. Even took a pack of coffee. The local police took some fingerprints off the window so hopefully they'll nail em some point down the line. Well that's that, the van wasn't badly damaged and we got passports replaced. Thanks to great friends back home and Diane's family here in NZ, it made 5 really bad days better. I'll finish with a smile, Di said as long as we have each other that's all that matters :)

Great day skiing Ohakune North Island

Having missed a fantastic ski season back in Europe, it was great to get out on the slopes in NZ for a day. We hired all our clothing, boots and skis from a shop in town for less than 20 quid and the lift pass was just another 25. We drove up to the car park at the bottom of the lifts - luckily we didn't need our snow chains. We carried them but god knows how you fit em!

Stuck to the runs at the top of the mountain as it was a little stoney on the low slopes but great skiing.

Blue skies and sunshine all day :)

Thought of you guys Gary and Neil.

One happy bunny at the end of the day and now off for apres ski :)

Home sweet home

Could be the Tewkesbury Road back home heh. You'd be way out, that's 70km not mph ! It's a little place on the North Island between Palmerston North and Ohakune. Think I prefer the place back home :)

Cavendish House ?

Not quite the Queens !

One for the boys

This was one of those "Ice Cold In Alex" moments. Like a man coming in from the desert I turned the corner in the supermarket and lo n behold, a vision appeared before me. My eyes flitted from label to label , blimey makes you proud to be English.

Like a fine summer rain after a drought, cheers lads :)