Gavin

Don't want to leave you out little man, but not sure of Mom is following along w/ our blog. If so..
Here's a duck that Uncle Scott had lunch with...




& a dog he met & shook paws with!!







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Location:Beach Rd,Auckland,New Zealand

Hurry up & wait

We have safely returned our amazing Escape rental van in Auckland & are sitting ( which we will be awesome at by the end of the next 24 hours!)...waiting now for a shuttle to pick us up & bring us to the airport to begin our adventure back to the States.

We are both sad to leave, back to "the real world"... But both admittedly anxious to get "home" & see our dog girls & friends & families!!




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Location:Beach Rd,Auckland,New Zealand

Bridal veil falls

Coming out of Raglan (surfer's paradise), we drove out 17k on a side road to check out Bridal Veil falls.
This waterfall is a short 10 min walk thru the "bush" & then opens to a stunning view:


The falls is 165' down. We walk the 261 stairs down to the bottom & it's worth it- gorgeous & louder. You can feel the mist from the water hitting the pool even though you are quite far from the fall itself.


Everything behind & around the falls is so lush & green, as you can imagine tropical plants thrive in this sunny misty location!!


261 stairs up was a bit of a workout!! Why is down so much easier than up?!
Unbeknownst to us ( but learned while at the falls), is that this water originates & travels from Pirongia Mountain ( where we were married), and ultimately creates this "bridal veil". We think this is cool & quite ironic!! :)


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Location:Beach Rd,Auckland,New Zealand

Lauren

Lauren-
Look what we discovered on the beach!!!



& my breakfast at the farmer's market turned into a heart just for you!!! :)



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Location:Beach Rd,Auckland,New Zealand

Finally!!!

I'M IN LOVE!!! (sorry Scott- you just can't compete!)












& 10 days old!!!!


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Farmers market

Read up on local things to do Sat am where we stayed over- farmer's market..cool....
SO COOL!!
best either of us have ever been to!!
Music:


Cutie Kids diggin' the tunes:




Beautiful fresh roses & flowers for sale:







A super cool car for sale (comes w/ watermelon says sign)! Scott says I can't buy anything else that's heavy, so I don't even ask! :)




Super cute puppy ... So busy- impossible to get a picture!!!
(vizsla bred w/ lab- like Penny!!)
owner said they had to " calm" the vizsla down a bit so hence the lab! yup-good thinking!! :)


A gent sharpening kitchen & trimming tools:



Cooking in a tandoor:



People everywhere enjoying themselves,





buying produce, cheeses, jams, wines, etc... & everyone drinking fresh coffee & eating foods to order: whitebait Fish fritters, mussel fritters, crepes, Italian food, the best burger Scott has ever had ( homemade roll, grass fed buffalo meat, handmade cheese from thebuffalo milk, organic lettuce & beet root relish - best $8.50 burger EVER he declared!!
I had a homemade Belgian waffle (apparently made w/ love!!)



We can only hope this kind of market evolves from our small ones at home & a reminder of WHY we should support them now as they could grow one day into a great market like this!!

A great theory, one we should all strive to follow:




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Location:Beach Rd,Auckland,New Zealand

Daylight savings & more..

Not only are we on the other side of the world...apparently we are going to have daylight savings " end" tonight. So, it's " fall" here... So tonight we will fall back 1 hr. ( even though everyone in the States "sprung ahead" 1 hr 3 weeks ago!! I FEEL VERY FAR AWAY!! :)
also, Scott just reminded me... How strange it also is that everyone is serving apple cider, selling pumpkins, vineyards are harvesting & business owners are talking about how after Easter comes they can enjoy their "off season"! ... But yet Easter is next weekend & there are baby chicks & Cadbury eggs & Easter chocolate galore for sale!!

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American hot dog

menu on wall says, " American Hot Dog" description: (roll, frankfurter, sauce, mustard, cheese, fried onions) ... Not sure about anyone else, but this is UNLIKE any "American Hot Dog" I've ever had, made or been offered! No wonder their fascinated w/ us!! They think we eat this!!!


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Marshall

Marshall - we've seen TONS of tractors & dirt movers!!
& have been talking about how much you'd LOVE them all!!!
Here's a few photos just for you:








Oh yeah & here is Aunt Emily cruising on the tractor!! :)




(Lauren- your special post is coming!) :)

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Location:Matakana Rd,Warkworth,New Zealand

Madelyn

Shark sighting.....




& these kids were out on a school group looking for blue penguins!!
None seen!! (the penguins are off & will be back in June I guess!)


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Location:Percy St,Warkworth,New Zealand

The GlenFalls Club

So awesome stay in Hamilton.. Which our tour book describes as, "often the butt of many a Kiwi joke."
We stopped here as a "stop over" & to regroup & plan our last couple days in NZ, but ended up being pleasantly surprised.
We stopped at the information center) or "i" as I like to call it!
& got a tip on lodging...the Glenview Club. (?) ok...



Yeah, a "club" maybe like the American Legion or Swedish Social Club (for my family), we went in...dining room, bar, talked to bartender (maybe owner/manager), signed into a book & put in a "donation" of our choice- stay up to 5 nights!! :) so, $5 in the pot & out we went!
Park anywhere... There were 5-6 motor homes already parked



so we went into our own grassy corner..only a really cool (permanent?!) bus converted camper was set up!!



We went exploring, found the river, a cool secret/overgrown trail & an amazing & serious lawn bowling set up!! Scott thinks if Fran & George lived here they'd belong to the club & lawn bowl on a team! :)
This is the back of the "club" from the river.


Overall it started out pretty sketchy (to me), but proved to be quiet, safe (slept w/ our can door open breathing the fresh air) & cheap!!
We got up & when I decided to wander into a door which had been open all night ( appearing to go into a function room) surprise, surprise- a different bathroom (away from bar) w/ a HOT shower! Yay!!! Such a nice surprise! Well worth $5!! :)

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3 sisters

We stop at Tongaporutu... It has 3 super cool rock formations called the 3 sisters (except 1 fell down apparently shortly after they put up the sign...says 1 of our tour books), we however didn't get to see the sisters because the tide was incoming & therefore doesn't allow you to go out far enough to view... (see below- we'd need to go out & wrap around to the left)....


It was amazing how "Caribbean island" like this area was- which is funny about NZ the landscape changes from place to place so much!



The explorer...



The rock here which made up the ledge of the cliff is sandstone & unfortunately people couldn't resist putting their "mark" on it... Like Bubba 'hearts' Gracie Lou anymore- but it's in stone now!!!
Anyways- one that was nice although still destructive.....



I've been anxious to see it & finally for to dig my feet in at this same spot- "black sand"!!!
A little different from Wells Beach sand!! Weird!!



The sand is black because it's full of iron. The black in the sand itself is caused by the hardened lava being constantly eroded by the water current from Mt. Taranaki's (volcano) long ago eruption!







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Location:Percy St,Warkworth,New Zealand

Jandals

So here's an idea for those of you thinking about new landscape ideas for spring:


Yes, that's all sandals & a few shoes!! A statement for sure! Something to top those pink flamingos finally!!

The NZ fun fact here is, flip flops are called: Jandals! Yup!
But only flip flops- regular sandals are still sandals! "Hey, nice Jandals mate!!"

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Location:Percy St,Warkworth,New Zealand

Foot long anyone?

Anyone want a Subway sandwich??
Special: $11.90 for a footlong!!!



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Location:Neville St,Warkworth,New Zealand

Mr.Hedgehog

(Madelyn, Lauren & Marshall-)

Scott (Mr. Science Guy),
finds a new friend on the side of the road, Mr. Hedgehog!! He's all curled into a ball shape because he's scared...


Lots of pics: (this is our friend Simone):


& he's released....





He wanders (runs at his hedgehog pace) quickly into the perennial garden..happy to be free.!!




Hedgehogs are mostly nocturnal ( meaning they sleep during the day)...if you keep a hedgehog as a pet, you should feed it canned CAT FOOD! :)
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Location:Lepper Road Upper,Egmont Village,New Zealand

Stinky

While we are checking out the mountain (via car & viewing platform) Rosemary was home preparing us a perfect picnic!! (tea & coffee too!) We went into a local public park ( which NZ seems to have endless ones- so great!!)
& upon entering we encountered a cricket game!! ( most similar to baseball- but different for sure!!)






We found a nice little sunny spot & enjoyed our picnic! (lamb sandwiches!!) :)


Shortly after eating we discovered a golden retriever wandering around... after a few inquires we realized she was lost!!
She had a bad odor to her, so we encouraged her to bathe a bit ( & also teach Chase (R&R's dog) to like the water!)



We quickly named the dog quite appropriately, Stinky.
A quick lesson then ensued in how NZ gov't works/ & doesn't work: Stinky had a tag on her pretty collar- so we "rang the council" (it's a Sunday)- we're told by the useless dispatcher that the animal control lady is busy, can't come, she cannot give us the address or name of the owner due to privacy ( they don't put names etc on tags here just registration #s & then you call the dept to help...), they cannot give us a time frame when the animal control lady can pick up Stinky & actually suggest we just let Stinky go (WHAT?!) even worse, when Rachel tells her we were planning on going to the beach nearby to walk our dog so we'll take Stinky along... she ACTUALLY implies we'd be " kidnapping" the dog!!!! The cell phone is hung up by Rachel & flung into the car ( as we're all sitting beside the car w/ 2 dogs in wait.) LOL Squared!!
Rachel's cell phone rings back- the dispatcher... This time Rosemary has to answer because Rachel now has understandably lost her temper! The dispatcher revokes her "kidnapping" comment & we let her know we'll be taking the dog to the beach & carrying on w/ our day plans & the animal control officer can call us when she is available...
We're off:


Off we go to the black sand beach & then hokey pokey ice cream!!



We treated Stinky to a fun day at the beach (many attempts involving me on the sea trying to clean stinky- even though she continually rolled on the sand EVERY 5 min!! :) The "kidnapping" comment provided out of control laughter from all of us... Here's Scott losing his mind laughing:


We finally got a call from the A.C.O. & we arranged a "handover" of Stinky at the Mobil station...!!! What a very funny day !!!

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Location:Lepper Road Upper,Egmont Village,New Zealand