New Zealand Day 3

Once again I was up with the sun. Everyone else was still asleep so I thought perfect time to jump in the shower. Their two younger kids were in bed when I arrived so I didn't want to scare them with my bed head right out of the gates. Rachael asked me the night before not to leave until I met the younger two, they'd want to meet me and hear my accent. After I showered I got dressed, packed up and sure enough their boy introduced himself and then went right into his parents' room and said mom she talks funny. I was thinking to myself, yea I get that back in the States too. :) Bishop Tata had already left for work but during our silly pose so you can see his picture above my right arm. The other oldest daughters were still in bed.

Rachael was ticked I took this while she was in her PJ's and not from the waist up but like I told her...#1 who's going to see this (hehehe) and #2 my camera is balancing on top of a cereal box.

That day my goal destination was Rotorua. I made a few random stops along the way. Glad I did, freedom of having my own car!

Along the highway I saw a sign that said Looking Glass Garden. Having a bit of a green thumb myself I thought this is going to be good. I got up to it and they didn't open till 10:00 and I got there a little after 9:00 so I went for a walk. Love the green rolling hills! I got back to my car about 9:40 and this older, tall, skinny lady walked up to me and said if you'd like to come to the garden you're welcome to come on in dear. (so kind!!)

The owners of the Looking Glass Garden was Gayle and her husband. They've been working on this for 23 years and everything in the pictures you see they did themselves minus the statues. A friend who's a professional carver did those. It was children's fairy tales themes like Little Red Ridding Hood, Humpty Dumpty, etc...with some Alice in Wonderland.

If someone asked me what does New Zealand smell like...easy...gardinias. My favorite flower!! You really had to be somewhat physically fit to go through this garden. It took me about 90 to see it all and as you can tell either I was going up or down.

The photo next to the flowers is a path looking up the Stair Way to Heaven. Look close...it goes really high. Gayle said that entire path was full of daffodils 3 weeks ago. Bummer I missed it.

At the top of the mount were the gates and St. Peter waiting for you. I gave him a hug.

I was getting hungry since my hike in the garden. I stopped at a town in the Bay of Plenty called Whakatane. Great shopping, food, amazing weather, and the beach right there. I took a picture of this shirt that I saw in a sporting good store and loved it. Found my size and took it off the rack. I glanced at the price $169.00 and put it right back on the hanger. What the??? I actually took another one down just to make sure it wasn't a typo. Sure enough...$169, yikes!

I went to the Bean Cafe for lunch. There I was complemented on my teeth. The lady at the counter asked if I was American just after I said hi. I asked how could you tell by just the hi? She said no, you have gorgeous teeth, all Americans that I've met have had beautiful teeth. Good thing I've continued to brush all these years. Didn't know I'd be impressing the Kiwis.

Back on the road and I couldn't have been more thrilled. We were stopped for a cattle crossing on the road. I had read all about it in every single NZ book but sure enough, live in person. On my way to Rotorua I stopped a few more times just for some photo opps.

I then saw a McDonald's and a light bulb went on above my head...drive thru where you have to order on the right hand side. So of course I ordered a medium coke and took a picture.

When I arrived to Rotorua I pulled up to my hostile which I call hoity toity. Seriously nicer than some of the hotels I've been to the in States. I checked in to my dorm that I shared to Alex from the UK and Tino from Germany. I asked what there was to do there at night and Alex told me he was getting ready to leave for a Maori dinner/experience and to ask the front desk if there's any others. I did and sure enough there was another dinner/show that night. A bus picked us up at the hostile where there was about 10 of us waiting and about 6 already on the bus. We had to pick a Chief on the way. Mike from Ireland was chosen to represent. There was another bus of visitors waiting there for us.

The Maori's came out to greet us chanting and sticking out their tongues but it's disrespectful to smile or laugh at them. They accepted us all and went into their village to learn of their ancestors.

I participated in a game which involves this stick I'm holding. In her right hand she's got a weapon they would use to crack open the skull or scalp an enemy. We all walked around a bit then they told us dinner was being uncovered. We gathered around and sure enough Cooks Jeremiah and Chase (which was funny to me since everyone else had an authentic name and here's Cook Chase) uncovered our potatoes and chicken.

Below is my dinner table. A couple across from me were two LA snobs, super cool Sherry from Portland next to me, Dan who was just chillin' with us during dinner, he worked there, and then a couple at the end from Australia. They were hilarious!!

After a bit of singing and dancing on our bus home thanks to Chief and Florence, our bus driver, some of our group from the hostile decided to head over to Lava, a pub. While others got their drinks on I got my dance on. I LOVE to dance!! There were two girls that weren't in our group at our table so I jumped on the table to cover them up during the picture. They had their backs to my back so they didn't even know. :)

I had a hard time falling asleep. No, I was tired, it was about 12:00 but as soon as I walked in my dorm room both Alex and Tino were snoring. I'm a very light sleeper. Around 2ish I finally fell asleep and about an hour later I was woken up from Tino not talking but screaming in his sleep in German. Scared the freakin' day lights out of me.