In April of the year 2008, our friends Dan and Steph and their kids
came to visit New Zealand and to stay with us. They were here for just
over two weeks, not long enough, of course, but a long time travelling
with two small kids; also long enough to cover an exhausting amount
of ground.
(Dan plans his travel with military detail and precision.)
Naturally we ate at our "regular" eatery, Oasis in Cambridge.
We are so well known here that the chef starts cooking
Kiwi-breakfast-no-eggs-extra-bacon for Edwin and Tom Kha Gai for
Merinda as soon as she sees them come through the door.
June and Oliver also liked Oasis, possibly because the glorious deserts are
served with fruit on the side, taking some of the curse off the
evils of cake and cream, earning parental points....
Almost as soon as they arrived, and pretty much whenever we
could fit it in, somebody was hooning around in the Blue Typhoon.
June and Oliver rapidly got into the swing of this activity.
Sadly---perhaps much to Dan's relief---Oliver could not reach the pedals,
but June got driving pronto. Jonathan took Steph for a thrash around
the course with a quick Lance Armstrong gesture a la
A Good Year.
Oh dear, Dan, your girl's gonna feel the need... the need for speed.
We are not going to discuss the mission to swim with dolphins.
The dolphins did not cooperate at all, not a dolphin in sight, nada, nyet.
While Dan went with Vladek to tramp the Routeburn and kayak Milford Sound, Steph and the kids stayed in Hamilton...
The kids played chess. June picked this up very quickly.
They visited Hamilton Gardens... Where is June?
Here is Oliver and friend:
Where is June?
The kids beached...
...and visited the trains at HME where they helped get the carriages out, while Jonathan pushed the odd loco into the station. Parks were visited, and the excitement of the relatively hazardous and imaginative NZ play equipment was not lost on June.
Oliver got to ride real steam trains; June got to be photgraphed with Jonathan before the graduation parade through the streets of Hamilton; the Hamilton Zoo was visited.
Throughout this, all Dan got was a few miserable bits of scenery! You will have to look elsewhere for those pictures.
Near lake Taupo there is a trout farm. Some trout.
The kids swam and beached...
Dan tramped some more:
After this Jonathan joined the party, meeting in Rotorua.
In the hotel, with communicating rooms, we got to play
Settlers! Steph pipped Jonathan and Dan at the post.
We played this game so often in Santa Rosa, so few times these days.
Next we did very touristy things. We rode the cable car up to the Rotorua Luge...
... which is enormous fun.
...as is the chairlift back up.
Just to ensure that we overfilled the day, Dan and Jonathan tried freefalling,
while Dan and Kay did a swoop.
The swoop is picured at right. See the little black two-headed sack
right up near the top of the crane?
That is Dan and Kay. You pull a ripcord and move too quickly to be
decently photographed.
This is what you look like after you stop swinging:
Freefalling seems tame after that...
You would think that coming home after all that was gonna be pretty dull, but it was not. We eased into a few extraordinary ales (JBS had his faith restored in bottled beer by the Monteith company) and spent the last two days in wonderful conversation and sad contemplation.
