Weekend Away in Taupo and Waitomo
Got back yesterday afternoon (I took Monday off) from a nice little weekend away in Taupo and Waitomo. Here's some photos for those that can't be bothered reading, photos are always more exciting anyway.
So yes we packed up the car on Friday afternoon, dropped Biscuit off at the doggery (they said he was a lovely dog the whole time and they enjoy having him, good good) and set off for Taupo. The drive was pretty easy, a few spots of crappy rain, but we made it to Taupo no worries and got some dinner at the Mexican place. The food looked small so we ordered a few things and that meant a massive feast was brought out to us. Nevermind. Then we went and checked into our hotel, they told Sarah the hot water might not be working in our room and they'd upgrade us to a Villa if not. Surprise surprise who'd have guessed but the hot water wasn't working! So off we went to the Villa instead and checked in, getting nice and comfy and then drifting off to sleep.
In the morning we got up and went to the breakfast buffet which was great. There was heaps of bacon and eggs and all that good stuff, a pancake machine. What more could you ask for really? We had a nice breakfast before going for a swim in one of the lovely thermally heated pools, then had a little dip in the spa pool. After that we went to the Prawn Park for a bit of fishing, but didn't manage to catch anything at all. Got quite a few nibbles, but not a single prawn. Some other people were pulling them in though, so we just didn't have the skills, even though we all tried. I took the kids for a ride on the paddleboats instead, which they seemed to enjoy.
Then we went into town and met up with Ben, Di, Jacob and Abi and had some lunch, then headed back to the hotel and we all jumped into another pool for a swim for an hour or so. Then we had a bit of a rest before cabbing it into town to visit Cobb 'n' Co, which is becoming a highlight of our trips together. Two down, ~8 more to go or something. They're an icon of New Zealand, though there's hardly any left. But they're still fun and a great place to take the kids with their Playstation/Games corner, fishtank etc. Great fun. We cabbed it back home and headed off to bed.
Sunday we got up and drove the long drive to Waitomo. I trusted Google and of course it took us on this shitty, windy road because it was 10 minutes faster. So farking annoying, I just wish Maps had an option that said "Sure it might take a few extra minutes but it won't make your 6yo want to vomit from motion sickness". I'll put in a feature request. Anyway we got there just as Beth thought she was going to hurpie, but she didn't. We ordered some lunch, only half of which came, then went for a visit to the Glowworm! The guide told us usually the queue would be out the door and around the corner and wow, look at it today, there's 12 people here. Thanks I guess, COVID-19. We even got a bit of an extended tour of the cave, and were allowed to sneak in some photos. Just how bright the roof was is really amazing, I can see why it's an attraction, it was way brighter than I was expecting.
After glowworms we went and booked into our hotel - we'd told the kids imagine if the big plane we could see as we approached was a playground! They were very excited when they realised it was a hotel and we could stay in it. In the end we agreed Theo and I would sleep upstairs in the cockpit and Sarah and Beth would sleep downstairs in the room under the cockpit. It was pretty cool, if a little cramped. And Theo kicked me all night, so matter where I slept.
Anyway, after checking in we went to the Troll Cave with the kids, while Sarah and Di went to the Float Tank. The Troll Cave was a big dark room thing, basically an "escape maze" but for kids. With a story of a troll who needs his tracking device re-attached. It was a great bit of theatre. The kids though, far out. They were scared, and got even more scared as the story went on. But we weren't ever really given a "do you want to stop and the kids to leave" option? We sort of tried but the guy just pushed on. His whole thing was it's a TEAM exercise and kids you'll feel great when you've done it.
It was pitch black, we had little "blacklight" torches instead of real torches. You had to solve riddles, but if you couldn't figure out the answer to a riddle you could stick your hand in one of 3 holes with the hope of finding a clue. In 2 of the other holes would be things like a rubber chicken that was dead etc. Anyway, I won't go over the whole thing, or maybe I'll expand on it later. But it WAS really well done, it had a very long-game goal of encouraging kids to always wash their hands with soap and water (Trolls hate it when you smell clean) but far out, Ben and I spent half the time trying to console crying/screaming children. In a dark room full of smokemachine smoke, water and little to no lighting. Fun!
Once it was over though the kid really did look back on it with a bit of a "that was quite cool" attitude. So that was nice, they weren't totally freaked out. A bit like watching a movie and hating the scary bits, but enjoying the whole move when you finally get to the the end.
After that we had dinner in town at a place called Huhu where the food was actually amazing, and then went back to sleep in our plane. For a pretty good sleep really. Monday was Jacob's Birthday, we packed up the airplane (haha) after he had a good play with his new toys that included a drone (Which Theo was desperate to have a go with) and drove to a playground to have a fun time there for an hour or so. Then we said goodbye to the Knotts and drove home, this time ensuring that Google didn't try to navigate us via stupid back roads in the name of saving a few minutes.
So yea, that was our weekend away. Had a great time. Back to work today.
Have to try and update more often, as always. Other things I can think of:
Have been brewing beer, it's going well though I haven't yet got the hang of dry hopping, I keep blocking up my liquid out post. Need to get a hop sock so that hops can't escape and block everything up. Got up on the roof a few weeks ago and cleaned up all the Wisteria, unblocked all the drains, hopefully patched up the gutter where it was leaking all the time. Cleaned out the back shed where another fucking rat got in and called it home, even though I lay rat traps all over the show the little fuckers still get in there.
I think that's everything that's been happening. Aside from this afternoon I've noticed that a) Biscuit has a sore leg and will need to go to the vet probably and b) The oven has started to play up and not work properly. ARGHGHG! Oh and we got two new Covid19 cases today, after 25 days of having none and being back down to Level 1 COVID alert. Bugger. They're UK tourists though that were given an exemption to come in for a funeral.
Tim