Day 3 – New Zealand

Up at 5:30 – instant coffee – the water heater pots sure can heat up water quickly.

Everyone else is asleep – a great view of the lake from our room . I start charging the cameras, phones, and try to get wi-fi access. No luck – yikes – I want to check e-mail, get weather report and submit hours and work. I decide to catch up on blogging – finish day 1 and day 2 – on to this day.

The girls get up – there is an ironman triathlon being run – we see the swimmers circling the buoys from out balcony. A tremendous view – Aria falls down the stairs – I am so nervous someone is going to get injured – I hope not.

I have to download the pictures yet and I have some work to do – Pam is scoping out the activities – I am trying to see the natural wonders and such sites without paying the tourist fees for the adventure aspects – jet boating etc. We have spent a goodly sum already and this is only day 3 – I am a bit surprised by the prices for food and accommodations.

I am going to schedule the day and try to get some internet access.

The day planning turned into a bit of a family argument – I want to focus on activities that expose us to culture or natural beauty of NZ yet the girls continue to be attracted to the entertainment activities – amusement parks, high ropes etc.

We could not agree on anything and I spent over an hour getting internet access – finally had to use a static IP and get the IP of the wi-fi gate-way – DHCP services were not working.

Was able to catch up on some email and work before the hunger pains set in and we headed to breakfast. The first place that we went to was recommended by the Inn keeper – Replete – it was order from the counter and we could not understand the lady behind the counter – the menu was confusing and there was a big line so we moved on and ate at a chain Breakers Café. It was ok – the meat in my hamburger was amazing – so flavorful and the Red Lion local beer is quite good.

We went to Pak'n'Save to get water and snacks and decide to take a lake sail and see the Maori Carvings. It was beautiful – the wind was erratic so sometimes we were under motor power but the girls got to steer and the Ship – the Barbary – once owned by Errol Flynn, he won it in a card game – was a fine vessel – she had a 6 ton keel so we sailed with the rails in the water – Pam almost fell off during a tacking maneuver – it was a peaceful 3 hours.

We took a short drive out to Huka falls again breathtaking – I did not know New Zealand generated 15% of its electricity from hydrodynamic sources.

We decided to cook in our room (Pam was resistant at first) – stopped at Woolworths – picked up some fruit, salad, sausages, pasta and wine (all for 65$) – Allysha prepared food – all in all a pleasant meal.

Sat in the hot tub – it was not very hot – a quick shower and I tried to learn about rugby by watching the All Blacks decimate Kenya and USA beat France. It is an interesting game – still not clear on the rules.

I fell asleep on the couch and moved upstairs later. Not sure when the girls went to bed but I was back up at 6 to work, write the blogs and work on geo-locating the pictures.

I am having some trouble with that – I have the tracks and the pictures but something is wrong with the time conversions -I will keep trying to figure it out but for now I posted a few non geo-located pictures to flickr. I tried to upload the tracks to google maps but the internet connection is too spotty – I will do so when I have a better connection.

Well, time to plan the day and get a move on – it is Sunday morning and we only have a couple more days – we still need to surf and see some geo-thermal activity.

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