Yesterday we went on the HukaJet and it was fabulous. I had arranged to go down to Taupo to met up with Fiona, a new colleague. I mentioned before that Fiona has a daughter Harri's age. Well when we spoke in the morning she had to shoot off somewhere for work but said we should call into Hukajet (her husband is one of the managers there), where her daughter was and we may be able to go out!!!! The Hukajet a jet boat(!) that goes up to the Huka Falls one way and down to Aratiatia Dam on the Waikato river the other. I can't do posh links but if you go to www.hukajet.co.nz you'll see what it's all about. It was absolutely brilliant. We have got/will have photo's on their website (for 22 July) but they haven't been posted yet. We have previously done the Camjet up to Karapiro Dam but this was MUCH better.
I was soaked (thank heavens Fiona had said to take a spare set of clothing) and when your face is wet and you're flying over the river at 80kph it's like pins sticking in your face, but it was fabulous, and the driver incredibly skilled, and very amusing. Poor Eric, Uni (doing an exam) am and working pm was so jealous when he got in and read my note saying where we were. I walked into the kitchen on our return to a cry of "I'm jealous, I'd have gone off sick if you had waited for me" (we left about 10 mins before he got home from uni!!). He sulked looking at the photo's. Poor Eric, maybe another time!! When we got to Taupo we were not able to get on a jetboat for an hour or so so we took Meg and went for a walk at 'Craters on the Moon' a thermal walk nearby.
We had coffee at Fiona's, awaiting her return, which she did as we left to go back to the Hukajet. She came and watched and then we went back to there place afterwards to change into dry clothes and have warm drinks. They are a lovely family and we hope that they can come here for a meal in a few weeks. We can't compete with jetboats but hopefully they will enjoy a day in the country!
Mount Ruapehu and Taupo Lake. Fiona lives close to where this photo was taken.
Both H and A have had birthdays this month. Harriette went swimming with some friends adamant that she didn't want Alice to come. That was fine, I told her she couldn't go with Alice on her birthday. Harriette was happy with that until A. said she wanted to go bowling!! Mandy, Adam, Oliver and Hannah came over Saturday night for a meal and stayed over. As usual we had a good evening with them, they are a real laugh. When I mentioned bowling Mandy said she had some 'buy one game get one free' vouchers for Tauranga. We decided we'd go there and take Hannah with us.
On Sunday H,A and I went up to the Stokes to catch up on all their travel news. They had had house sitters in for the 4 weeks they were away and apparently they left the house looking like a hovel. No windows had been opened all the time and the condensation had left mould everywhere, the hoover had not been used, the washing up had been left, the cookers work tops and every thing was filthy. Washing had been left in a machine and gone mouldy etc etc etc. Poor J and K, they came in from a long haul flight and had to spend 2 days cleaning. How inconsiderate can people be. Apart from that they'd had a fabulous holiday!
We bought Emma back with us for a few days. Alice then phoned her friends Sam and Katherine to advise them of the details of her birthday to find that Sam had gone away to her grandparents. Leaving a spare booking, Alice decided to invite Harriette as she felt mean not inviting her!! More than Harriette would have done! We had a good few hours at the bowling alley after birthday cake at Mandy's when we picked up Hannah. I decided to take the cake over there as after a birthday tea the last thing kids want is cake!
On Thursday Juliet came down with Hannah to collect Emma and stayed overnight. So, we've had a busy week. Today we actually got the children outside doing some work. It was a beautiful day and, with the log pile down to a few days supply we needed to chop and restack. The area at the top of the drive by the kennels was a mess with wood all over the place. By the end of the day, and several refuellings of the chainsaw it was clear and tidy and we had a replenished woodpile.
Oh. One depressing bit of news. The bill for the Mistral. It came to about $7,000!!! which equates to about 2 and a half months of my salary!!!!! But what option did we have?
So, apologies to those of you who have been leaving comments about lack of blog. I hope the photo's make up for things!
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