Auckland & Lake Taupo, New Zealand

Greetings from Lake Taupo, New Zealand! It is a rainy, overcast day today as the New Zealand Ironman Competition is taking over the lake area. These Ironpeople swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles then run a marathon!!! From this Internet Cafe, I hear sporadic clapping and a New Zealand accent on the microphone outside making announcements as finishers cross the line. It's funny the things we run across and don't ever expect. We haven't had Internet access for a few days, so I will attempt to catch up some.

It's only 3 hours from Nadi, Fiji to Auckland so the flight went fairly quick and smooth. We certainly did not need to be at the airport two hours before; however, time allowed us to buy a few souvenirs and have breakfast. Good friends of my Mom, Paul & Diane, picked us up at the airport early afternoon on Thursday and greeted us with warm hugs. We had only seen photos of one another so we weren't quite sure who to look for! Luckily I am a spitting image of my Mom so I wasn't too hard to spot.

We drove a few hours through beautiful NZ countryside to the south to their cottage in a village named Arapuni outside of Cambridge. This tiny little town only has about 30 - 40 homes and solely has the sounds of the soft breeze in the trees, crickets, birds and children's laughter. Talk about tranquil. We enjoyed a couple bottles of wine and good conversation on the patio in the remarkably fresh air as the evening passed into night. Afterward, a delectable dinner of roasted lamb with gravy and mint sauce, boiled potatoes, a load of fresh vegetables (many of which were from their garden), and fresh fruit and cream for dessert. We were vegetable deprived in Fiji so this wonderful meal certainly hit the spot! Not to mention Diane's wonderful cooking. She and Paul used to run a Bed & Breakfast (how my Mom met them years ago) and I can see why, as they are superb hosts with amazing attention to detail. We went for a walk after dinner and I have never seen so many brilliant stars in my life. Orion was practically hidden in the Milky Way! This is heaven for me.

After sleeping 12 peaceful hours, we awoke to birds singing and breakfast on the table. Andy tried the Vegemite, but after smelling it then seeing his reaction I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It's like pure salt in a dark brown spread. We then left for Lake Taupo, about an hour's drive to the south. Paul and Di have a friend who has a lake house here so here we are for a couple of days. Yesterday was sunny and beautiful as we saw the unbelievably turquoise blue Huka Falls and went for a 20 km (about 12 mile) walk along the lakefront. Andy was wearing jandals (the NZ word for flip flops) as we thought we'd go for a quick stroll, then it was 4 hours later - ouch!

Although I am slightly bummed it is raining I am pleased that the countryside is getting this much needed water. It is late summer here and it's the brownest it's been in 45 years, Paul said. Apparently NZ is suffering from quite a drought so we haven't seen the bright green rolling hills that the country is famous for. At least not yet - there is much more of the country to see. The climate sure is changing around the world, isn't it? Even in Fiji when we went snorkeling, although we saw loads of brilliant fish and various coral, much of it was shaved down and dead grey coral was prevalent. So sad. Thankfully, a Coral Rehabilitation Project is underway using funds from a $120 million Japanese grant. I am surprised and pleased to see the level of awareness in the form of public service announcements about saving water and energy in both Fiji and NZ so far. In fact, toilets have two flushers - one that uses less water for Number 1, and a second, stronger flush for Number 2. To think if these sorts of energy saving toilets were in the United States? Toilets made before 1982 use 5-7 gallons PER FLUSH. Toilets since then use 1.6 gallons, which is still an exorbitant amount of waste. I think the states could use a bit more forward thinking on that front. It will be interesting to see the Composting Toilets on some of the WWOOFing Farms where the "worms do their work."

We left our camera cord in Arapuni, so please check back in a few days for some photos. Despite the bit of brown, New Zealand is still incredibly breathtaking so far, and we haven't even hit the South Island yet!