New Zealand - Day 7

No... My postings on NZ is not over yet. To my readers who do follow this travel journal, sorry for the wait, again ;-) And for those who are not, you may want to start from Day 1 which I published somewhere in Feb. My... I really have to get over this before it comes somehow basi... hehehe! I have learned from my past experience. If I do not take the time to write about this trip, we will certainly forget. Here I am trying to make our holiday sort of vivid :-)

On the 7th day, we planned the drive to the East Coast. A couple whom HB met in Wellington mentioned about this thermal water theme park in Hastings & that was where we headed.

You see, on this trip what we did most of the time was sight seeing. Hardly any other activities besides strolling in the parks but none of the girls did complain ( a maternal trait they inherit of course... hehehe!). Well anyway, I woke up early together with Yasmin & Wardah that morning. Showered in the common bathroom & when we returned, Balqis & Nadeen were wide awake themselves.

and... breakfast awaited us. It seemed that somebody was busy whilst the girls & I were away ;-)

The girls, having breakfast outside the Britz.

We followed Street Highway 5 to Hastings. The route was hilly & we were most of the time descending. We were putting up the night in Taupo again & the journey back climbing up this road wouldn't be much fun...

The distance to the twin cities of Napier & Hastings is about 145km. After passing through the pine forests, we experienced the countryside with orchards & the vineyards.

Transporting out lumber

Apple trees

Vineyard

The many vineyards came to no surprise as Hawke's Bay is a wine country.

We continued down to Hastings.

A small town near Napier

We reached our destination but no sign of the water theme park.

This was the wrong junction we took. A GPS in hand but not familiar with the local geography landed us on a wrong Grey Street. Apparently, there were 2 of such in Hastings.

After quite a drama, we managed to get to the Splash Planet as it was called.

The girls were all excited. Ready in their swimming attire, sunblock cream applied but upon reaching the entrance it was written there, bright & clear "Open only during weekends" @>%#$* Guess what? It was a Monday!! I can't explain how my heart felt that time. The looks on my girls' faces almost tore me to pieces. They were so looking forward to having fun in the water. Seriously! I felt like crying. Perhaps the girls could sense my maternal reaction, as making up to them was rather easy. Not that I was always lucky... I promised that they could swim in the pool in Taupo. Back in the Britz, we changed & HB got busy with the GPS searching for other tourist attractions along the way. There were quite a few but the girls chose to go to the National Aquarium. I guessed that was the closest they could get to the water... My poor girls!

This National Aquarium is the largest aquatic life display in New Zealand. Situated in Napier by the seaside. It was quite a phobia really approaching the entrance. Hahaha! No, this one was open. The receptionist there informed us that shark feeding was scheduled at 2pm. We were an hour early & decided to have a quick lunch by the beach facing the Pacific Ocean.

A pose with the aquarium building in the background. The elder girls ran straight to the water but they knew well not to get too close.

It was no sandy beach but stones & pebbles. A unique sight to the girls.

HB noticed a heart shaped pebble. Wardah was so excited to take it home with her as a momento. Her dad however disagreed with the idea instead they made do with this shot as a remembrance ;-)

Having our lunch with the ocean & the breeze as the appetizer.

We simply settled with this dip seafood.

Nadeen loved it!

From far, we had an opportunist waiting for any leftover lunch.. a seagull.

With full tummies, we again posed for the camera before heading back to the aquarium.

The girls, thrilled to start the explore.

The aquarium not only exhibits the aquatic life but also the wildlife (mostly reptiles) of local & all around the world. Besides shark feeding, the dinosaur discovery display captured my girls' attention. Enjoy the photos. (We were not allowed to use the flash. Hence the photos did not come out the best)

What was displayed in the background was a crocodile.

It came all the way from Singapore.

The National Aquarium Oceanarium in the background. 24 metres long, 30 metres wide & 3 metres deep.

Waiting for the shark feeding show

Even little Nadeen was patient ...

At last... but it was kind of familiar. Very much like the one at our Aquaria ;-) Just that here, they didn't have mermaids! Hehehe...

Giant Squid

Attire used in the deep sea

The fossils exhibition

Joan Wiffen - "the dinosaur lady" who claimed that the Kiwiland once was inhabited by dinosaurs

In a Megalodon

The giant tooth

The final pose at the aquarium with HB.

Off to Taupo again.

134km to go...

On the way back we stopped by to have a closer look of the vineyard. Since time did not permit, we merely made do with a couple of shots of the girls.

The journey back was not easy as we were climbing most of the time. The girls however had a good rest napping in the Britz. Of course not Yasmin.

Finally, we were back in the Waikato Region.

Reaching Lake Taupo

The weather was beautiful when we reached Taupo. It was early & HB suggested us to have a look around the shore of Lake Taupo. By then Nadeen was already awake. We stopped by the lake. There were a lot of other admirers of the lake too. Enjoying the cool breeze & the tranquility of the water right in front of them. Yasmin thought of having her first dip of the kiwi lake. Little did she know it was freezing cold.

It sure was breezy

She ended up running after a duck!

Quite nearby there was a Fire Station.

No, we didn't have a tour of the station! Instead we found a public park... We are very synonym to the park, I know ;-)

We managed to take a stroll of the town. Unfortunately at 530pm, most of the shops were closed. Window shopping was really such a pain when most of the items were on sale!! Grrr...

Nadeen was really attached to Balqis. With Balqis's record (you can read here), I tried hard not to get too involved with our window shopping.

We had this pizza in Wellington. A delivery & really good.

The public toilet. The door closes automatically. Do your business at brisk. After 10 minutes, the door will open by itself!

We found a Myvy. But carrying a Daihatsu logo.

Now Everyone Can Fly?? Nah... It was I'm Loving It!

More photos of the Taupo

As you can see, it was getting cloudy. I had promised the girls for a swim at the park resort. We rushed back to the Holiday Park & off the girls into the warm pool.

The elder girls were at the big pool & I totally forgot to snap their photos. Sorry girls..! I was too engrossed with Nadeen. She was having such a good time!

It's not everyday I agree to the idea of HB being surrounded with women in swim suits... ;-)

The girls were all hungry after that. They showered & I started making dinner. The night before, they saw our neighbouring campers were having pasta & that was what they requested from me. It was really a simple pasta sauce with shrimps but the way they ate, looked like there was no tomorrow!

What HB was preparing was more to look forward to. He purchased some Crayfish in Napier & whilst the girls were having their spaghetti, this resemblance of a lobster was on a grill in the Britz.

The spaghetti feast did not stop the girls from attacking this special meal prepared by their dad. Well... that was the last photo on day 7 as everybody was occupied with what was served on the dining table ;-)

*to be continued