We're still here!

I must start way back at Mother's day, seems long ago. In honour of Mother's day I decided to allow Victoria to indulge in one of her favorite pastimes...wreck-less driving :)

So we drove a few minutes down the highway and came to the "Spring loaded Fun park".
Where for a small few, and brief lesson you get to drive a 4WD vehicle through a custom made park. Not many pictures from this part of the day because I was too busy holding on. It doesn't look like much from the pictures, however let me assure you that Connor was pleading to get out as he saw our guide vehicle take the course ahead of us and disappear over a near verticle drop. If you ever saw the Simpson's episode where Marge is on the airplane and paces back and forth saying "Let me off, let me off, let me off" That's pretty much what it was like for Connor from the back seat.



But being the mean parents we are, we told him to hold on and we carried on over the abyss. I think we were all a little nervous, and made more so by the fact that I started the course and took us over the hill, only to wedge us halfway down and stall the vehicle. Now understand that the sheer vertical sides of the track were about one and a half times the height of the vehicle, but only just wide enough for the width of the vehicle. Out guide had told us that he took the mirrors off the vehicle because he was tired of replacing them.
Of course I calmly started the vehicle and safely navigated the narrow track to the bottom of the hill, all while listening to the urgent pleading of son number one from the back.
After that point the ride was pretty tame and even the kids warmed up after Victoria took over and navigated us through not one but two water/mud obstacles and one tunnel. Connor ended up saying at the end..."That's it" he was thoroughly disappointed that it was over.

The smiles and giggles from my honey while she bounced us up and down the hills were well worth the effort.

After the thrill ride we settled down to lunch overlooking the river valley at the same location.

Then we headed off back down the road and stopped off at the "Kiwi 360" gift shop. There is a complete tour of a working Kiwi orchard, which didn't seem that appealing to us. We did however enjoy the gift shop, and may very well return to gather some souvenirs for ourselves.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing at home.












This past weekend Victoria had a seminar to attend in Auckland, it took up Friday and half of Saturday. On the drive up we were about 20 minutes from the hotel on the north shore of Auckland when the clouds opened up and brought traffic to a near standstill on the #1 State highway through Auckland. So we crawled along for a while but eventually made it to the hotel in time for the welcome lunch, which of course the boys and i were not invited to :(
So we went to the Buffalo cafe across the street in the pouring rain and had a nice quiet lunch.

We learned later that some places had gotten 12omm of rain that afternoon, sure glad we no longer have a basement to flood!


We stayed at the "Spencer on Byron" courtesy of Siemens, the hearing aid manufacturer that was holding the seminar. A nice hotel but it's now Westin. We did have a full kitchen and a great view. The boys and I even hit the outdoor, rooftop, pool. It was a little cool on Friday so we stayed mostly in the spa pool. However Saturday was a stunner and we managed to get in the regular pool before checkout.






So while waiting for the seminar to end the boys and I headed to the beach, 2 blocks away from the hotel.












After a quick bite of lunch we headed further north to Leigh, a quiet little one store town full of B&B's. The one we stayed at was set right on the shore, which in this case consisted of a rocky cliff.

We walked along a coastal trail in the afternoon, then out to dinner at the sawmill cafe, which true to it's name was in an old sawmill complete with huge ceiling to floor band saw.

We were planning to take a glass bottom boat ride around goat island, a mere 10 minutes from the B&B on Sunday, however high winds and rain led to us canceling due in part to the fact that kids would like get seasick, but also the fact that the day before the company itself had canceled due to poor visibility.

So we went with plan 'b' and headed to the reptile park, which was half price due to the foggy windows on some of the displays...I thought it was fine, but the nice older gentleman that is the operator had given the discount and who am to argue. "Pat" was the hit of the trip.


I guess that's all for now, quiet weekend coming up. We will hopefully be heading out to a holiday park, (campground) for the long weekend....The queen's birthday don't you know. Hope everyone had a good may long, it looked like great weather.

Ka kite ano

We walked the walk

Sorry for the delay in the post folks (I know some of you check daily!). I was holding out hope that I would get some pics from some other folks that I could use to fluff this post but they haven't come thru yet. So we will go with what we've got - which are stories and some blurry pictures :)

I need to start by sincerely thanking those of you who sponsored team McLeod in this event. Due to the generosity of our friends and family we raised $490 towards the education and reduction of childhood hearing loss. Really, I am so very pleased that so many of you helped us reach and surpass our fundraising goal. In your honour I will give you an all access, no holds barred glimpse into our Muster experience.

So, Don and the boys picked me up from work on Friday afternoon and we headed out to Rotorua. Fortunately, that's a city that is only 60 minutes from us so it was a quick trip. Once there we wound our way down to the city centre where we checked into our hotel. We stayed in a hotel right downtown, across the street from the marathon start line so in the morning we would literally just have to roll out of bed and walk down the street. The hotel was a lovely old boutique hotel with wrap around verandas and lots of history. We were lucky enough to have a little apartment with 2 bedrooms to give the boys in their own space - and mommy her own spot.

Rotorura is built on the edge of a lake and that lake is covering what used to be a major volcano that blew many a thousands of years ago. So there are hot springs and hot pools everywhere around the community. As we drove in to the city it was dusk and getting cooler. And you could see steam rising all over the place - it's very prehistoric looking. Anyways, most places in Rotorura use radiant heating, which makes a lot of sense. However, our unit was on the first floor and even with all the heaters turned off the rooms were incredibly hot as the heat just naturally radiates up and out of the floors. On the plus side the hotel had incredible hot pools on site; 3 of them to be precise that ranged from warm to 'take your skin off' hot.

The company that was hosting the event had an evening reception on Friday where we collected our lovely race shirts, race numbers, and timing chips. This was serious stuff folks. This marathon is the biggest one held in NZ so the organization of it is amazing. After a few drinks and a pasta dinner (does one really need to carb load for a 5 km walk??) we hit the hay as we had to be up for the 7 am race breakfast. Courtesy of my children I was actually up from 12:30 to 2:20 (Connor had a touch of insomnia and in a special burst of self control I didn't smother him) and then again at 4:30 when Aidan came to climb into bed with us (umm, excuse me? you have mistaken me for a mother who allows that sort of thing).

Needless to say I didn't awake all that 'bright eyed and bushy tailed', no one did. But I think we rallied nicely. The race organizers do encourage you to dress in costume for your run/walk so we decided to, as a family, wear Canadian Hockey jerseys and to wave our nice Canadian flags that we brought with us. We had lots and lots and lots of comments from the crowd and other walk participants around us regarding our Canadian gear. The boys were very proud and I actually got quite a kick out of it as well. It wasn't uncommon to pass a crowd of spectators and hear comments like 'go Canada!' and 'yay for Canada'. Claps and good cheer definitely greeted us all along the course. I felt in some strange way like we were somehow representing the country in our 5 km plod!

So we completed our circuit in 49 minutes. We did jog on occasion and for the most part the kids did it with pretty good grace. Of course, that could have had something to do with the threat of not attending the 'after' party if there was any grumbling. Connor did pipe up once and said something like 'you signed me up for this you know, I didn't volunteer'. So noted my son. The most interesting sight for me on the course was an old codger, bow legged and missing a few teeth, who decided to walk the course in gym shorts and gum boots. It wasn't THAT warm but apparently he didn't want to be weighed down by anything, including good taste. As you approach the finish line, the timing chip you are wearing transmits your info to the race announcers in the booth. Once within the last 100 yards you enter the finish-line area, and the urge to run is over whelming. As Aidan and Don were in front of Connor and I, in a bit of a lull of people, we heard the announcers bellow out "and here come Don McLeod and Aidan McLeod of Tauranga, well done!". I think they both got a thrill out of hearing their names over the PA.

Once done the walk you are directed in the huge convention hall where there is water, bananas and, for $1 a minute, massage therapists. Aidan has always had a desire to get a massage so he bounced up and asked for a rub down only to be told he had to have money. Well, really, who brings money to a race??? Anyways, the lovely young lady/masseuse took pity on him as she wasn't busy and Aidan was treated to a post race rub down. It was pretty humorous.

We did eventually make our way back to the hotel room where we then decided to plunge into the hot pools. Simply gorgeous. And with that experience all energy left my body and we all dragged ourselves back to the hotel room for a nap/tv break - depending on your age. We roused ourselves and prepped for the evening prize giving and beach themed party.

I am proud to report that our family took 3rd place in the costume category (we were beaten by a woman who walked in a very hot 'Flash' costume, and a pair of pirates). We were awarded with some toques! Boys were dead thrilled :). After supper the games started. The evening was based on a Survivor theme with the games designed to suit. Connor and I were on one of the teams and Don and Aidan on the other. First up was the joust on an inflatable mat. Connor won 2 matches for our team, Don won 3. Aidan and I didn't perform well in that event, but in the end my team pulled it out. Next up was a puzzle solving challenge, which went to the bad guys (aka Don's team). The funniest challenge was the Survivor food challenge where you had to choke down your food item and show your tongue before the opposite team member. I got down my beef jerky in record time but overall my team was pulverized 11-3. Aidan even took a turn for the opposite team, ever the trooper. He came up and was seated across from a 6 ft string bean from my team and they were both given a banana to eat. Poor Aidan. Gave it his best but was gagging after his 3rd bite. Don't know that he'll ever look at a banana the same way again. Our team took the next event, the trivia challenge. So it all came down to the final event where you had to scoop beads out of ice water with your feet. Our team was defeeted (haha!!) by a mere 2 beads. Sigh. And that marked the end of a very busy day.

On Sunday we were up and moving by 8 to get our breaky. One last trip into the hot pools and off we went home. Both boys have asked to go back next year they had such a great time. So again, thank you to all who responded to my pleadings and proddings. It was such a worthwhile cause and a really wonderful time. We may very well be participating next year, so if you missed out on supporting us this year, you may still get your chance!!

Thanks all!

Love the NZ McLeods