This has been a slower more relaxed visit, hopefully, compared to the see all, do all, visit of two years ago. Hopefully Mich enjoyed herself and will be coming back again. We’ve alrady started planning the great Northland trip to see the top end of NZ and a drive along 90 mile beach.

Katherine to the rescue…… They are going to the beach today with the boys and did we want to tag along. If so meet at the L&P bottle in Paeroa.

So off we go….

While there we had a sandcastle competition us versus the Caddys and already the twins are very competitive, Luke came up to us and distracted us while Tyler stole our shell decorations.

All I can say about it is that it was a really hot day, there wasn’t any shade and we all know our own limits.

On the way back we stopped off at the Bridal Veil Waterfall

A nice long drive interrupted by a visit to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal park.

Although we took Mich to a thermal park on her previous visit to NZ we thought that these were a bit more spectacular and worth the stop.

From there it was onto sister Jennifer’s just out side Hamilton

The following day it was on up north to Auckland and the North Shore. (Takapuna) to meet up with Angela, Kirstey and Mimi.

On the way back we stopped off at the sky tower for a trip to the top, leaving Jo behind to go to the casino.

Today we decided to hire a bike for Mich and go for a cycle ride.

Unfortunately for Mich when Jo & I get on a bike we forget when to stop and turn around. We cycled along the sea front and onto Clive some 16Km away. Here we stopped at a very nice cafe and had lunch.

On the way back we made a detour and stopped of at local brewery specializing in ciders. I didn’t realize that there were so many different flavours. We ended up buying a sample of 6 ciders to share.

Unfortunately the drinks or more likely the bike ride took it’s toll on Mich and we left here at the Aquarium while we returned her bike to the hire shop.

We returned the bike safely and then went back and picked her up, she only missed out on a couple of kms.

Like an idiot I had left my garmin in the car while we were out on the bikes so I don’t have a track for today.

The one thing we nearly forgot when arriving at Tracy’s was that the bikes on top the car would not fit under their power lines. Luckily I stopped a few inches short of cutting them off.