Rotorua

Rotorua, as many of you now know, is just over an hours drive from where we live.
As all my family are there then we go that way often, not as often as I would like, but it is easy to go when we have to.
The drive is very pleasant through the Waikato countryside and like any road in New Zealand through the countryside we are not talking of dual carriageways and straight roads. These roads go straight through farming land and so bend at every possible moment.
This can make the trip interesting but also very annoying when you get stuck behind a huge truck with double trailer that is travelling at 50ks an hour!

To get the Rotorua, you have to cross the Mamaku Ranges. Nice big hill with huge sweeping canyon to the side, and of course the road is as close to the edge, apart from the trees as they can get it.
The weather is also very unpredictable crossing the ranges because you go so high. It can be lovely in Hamilton and then you hit low cloud on the ranges.

Yesterday we went to Rotorua for Harvey's 4th Birthday party. It was foggy when we left Hamilton but in fact the ranges were ok.
Had a great time with all the relatives, even got to watch some of the Targa Rally, another story.

As we left, it started to rain and I knew we would be in for a slow ride home.
You may remember me talking about how I got stuck in Rotorua due to floods last month, and the fact I didn't want to drive home at night on my own in rain and fog, too spooky.

Well as we left last night I had that same feeling, although I knew we were fine as Steve was driving.
Visability was quite poor, the rain lashed at the windscreen and we drove at a rather slow speed, just like everyone else, or at least most people.
When we were down from the ranges and through the first town we pass then everything cleared and it was fine driving.
I am just grateful to Steve who drove very carefully and too the conditions and got us all home safely. It makes me feel safe to know he is there caring for us all.

Family Blogging

Seems I have started something within my own family. In the last week my little brother and my mother have both got into blogging, my brother in a serious way and my mum is just starting out.

So let me tell you a little about my family.
Well you have me, Kathryn, nearly 37 years old, Registered Nurse who lives in New Zealand after moving here, on my own just under 10 years ago. I am the partner of Steve, for almost 8 years now, wow where does the time go?
He is the one that has just secured a new job in Hamilton, about 1 1/2 hours south of Auckland, thus the reason why we are moving in October to Hamilton (you can check out our moving status here).
We met at work, of all places! And actually worked in the same department (Operating Theatres) for nearly 2 years before I finally agreed to go out with him, much to the happiness of the whole theatre department who were sick of us not actually getting our act together. Don't you just love doctors and nurses for match making!

We are lucky enough to have 2 lovely little rascals called Ben and Alex. Ben is just turning 4 and Alex is 2 1/4. You could never ask for 2 children so different, but then if they were the same life would be so boring!

Then you have my baby brother, Iain. He has just turned 35 and emigrates to New Zealand on 14th September with his wife Claire and their 2 little rascals Ellis(6) and Harvey(3)
They are going to be living in Rotorua, about an hour away from us in Hamilton, so I am sure we will get to see them often, especially as our boys are all about the same age, it will be so cool for the 4 cousins to get to know each other etc.
You can check out what Iain and crew are doing here.

Then you have our parents, who at present are in Dubai, UAE. They also live in Rotorua (emigrated out here in 2001) but are currently in Dubai for a little while. You can check out what they are up to here.

So that is us, at present.
My baby brother has actually challenged me to a "blog off" He is a head of me in the design stakes, but I think I am a head with hands down as I am keeping 2 blogs going at once and he only has 1.
Be interesting to see what he comes up with on his blog.

Thrill Seeking

Ben has decided that the Luge in Rotorua is a fabulous place to go and have fun.

He loved going up in the gondolas and watching the giant swing and the people going down the luge.

So finally we relented and decided to take them up. We planned the trip up very well. We found out how early in the morning they started running and realised that with our charming early wake up calls we get daily we could beat the crowds! So at 0830 the next day we were up the top getting ready to throw ourselves down the fast moving luge.

With a 5 trip ticket we were able to take the two boys down twice and then Steve took Ben down once on his own.

So definitely the right time of the day to go up there. I think we were the first people down of the day, although by the time we had finished all our rides the coach parties had all arrived.

The boys loved it. So my biggest tip of all is - go early in the morning to have the best fun with limited people about. Means that the kids can enjoy it without being over powered by bigger faster people around, and when you are only 3 you don't like too many crowds.