despatches from.....new zealand

Its good to be home.  Just returned from a whirlwind tour of New Zealand's north island.  I have been to NZ before but its natural beauty always takes me by surprise.
We drove south to Rotorua to see volcanic activity and shweeb, zorb and swoop (I am not making these up).  We explored glow worm caverns and geyser parks and ooohed at the cherry blossom on rolling green hills.  Ridiculously pretty!

A visit with dear friends who helped us discover Auckland's inner cool (and not the weather).  Best of all a weekend on Waiheke Island, untouched beaches, milky blue waters and vineyards, but only 40 minutes by ferry from Auckland.

So now its almost back to normal, school and blogging will start again.  First there are piles of laundry to wash, seems like we took all our clothes, and important birthday cakes to bake.

For those who want to know:
- zorbing is rolling down a hill inside a giant plastic ball - big ball and a big big hill.
- shweebing is a self propelled monorail - bicycles of the future perhaps.
- swooping is a bungee king swing kind of thing - very very scary, lots of screaming!