Rotorua



Rugby in New Zealand is a national past time (actually much like Gaelic sports in much of Ireland).  It'll be interesting to see what happens with New Zealand as World Cup champions after last night's match.  Much celebration and warm fuzzes I'm guessing!

It seems timely to finally work my way through my photos of my trip to Rotorua to see the Ireland Russia game.  Its a bit of a long trek from Wellington but the presence of Mt Ruapehu is a beautiful milestone. 


The town of Bulls is also a rather fun stop along the way - I went into an antique store and purchased some bits and pieces I'll share later.  The town makes a LOT of puns based on its name.  And this particular one was accurate!



BM and I stayed in a charming motel on the outskirts of Rotorua - the hideaway lodge - thankfully the entire town wasn't booked out like New Plymouth!  We managed to stay somewhere nice for a lot cheaper!

The motel had a petting zoo attached with some BBQ and picnic facilities.  It was the type of place that would be really fun to visit with children. 


Check out this funky BBQ in the boot of an old car!

\

Plenty of colourful planting too.



And fancy a picnic in a bathtub?



But the animals were the stars of the show...





Can you imagine how much this would have appealed to your 8 year old self?







After the prerequisite amount of time staring and petting the locals, we headed towards Rotorua itself for the build up to the main event.  The Russians were getting into the spirit of the thing - I loved this fan's garb - though the Russian singer was a tad on the tacky side.



Excitement building, waiting for the bus to the stadium...




Watching the teams warm up and enjoying the supporter colour...



One of the highlights of the match was the double rainbow which seemed to enclose the field and end just at the touch line.



The next morning included a short peaceful walk along the lake.



Marvelling at the black swan.



Looking at a waka.



And then on to the thermal wonderland: Waiotapu - I love this place.  Its been a highlight of my move to New Zealand and my second visit didn't disappoint.  Steaming (stinky), bubbling pools of mud...





And finally - the sunset from the Kapiti coast over the South Island.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Siding stories

Image
We've had a tonne of house projects this year and currently the house's siding is being fixed.  If the weatherboard is cracked or rotten, we're replacing it.  If a lot is coming off we're putting insulation in behind it.  Lots of hammering and sawing and lots of scary pictures! We had a fun afternoon tracking down the colour of the house paint.  As it turns out, its Wattyl's Flemish Blue (Deep Base, Solagard, B 144.0, E 280.0, V84.0, KX 144.0).  I love this colour and need to think about sheen's for when we get the house repainted next year.  For now we just went with the closest to the tin we already had.  One side of the house is done and we've painted a first coat of the blue. We've also had scaffolding up for a while.  Its been hard to get in and out of the house with it though - this is our entrance walkway. This is the other side of the house after a day's work removing the weatherboards.  There's a lot more work required
Read more

The great WSBN sewing room tour

Image
Gemma from Sixty Six Stitches started off a rather revealing tour of the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network sewing rooms. I was far too intrigued not to join in.  Of course, I wanted to snoop around the creative spaces of some very creative people and felt that I had to participate rather snoop unrequited! ;) Previous in the series is:  Zara from Off Grid Chic  (Loving the idea of the screen and rather jealous of the mannequins) So here we are - a view into my study, sewing and craft room (and erstwhile cloak room during parties).  Be warned this is not a pinterest worthy room - I'm treating this like my before pictures as I plan on removing and renovating sometime over the next few years! And here it is in all its higgledy piggledy glory.   Hanging on the door are my current works in progress.  Each with a neat label reminding me what I need to sew next or what's left to finish off. To the right is my spare table.  Grea
Read more

Harping on about Harpers

Image
Wendy  (of Sew Biased ) made a StyleArc Harper Jacket and I loved it.  It helped that I bought the same fabric at some point and couldn't think what to do with it! So I made the exact same jacket!  Lacking imagination, me?  Sorry Wendy! So comfy! I really like how the jacket closes.   There's a button hole on both sides. I managed to find a covered button that's really close in colour to the jacket. The whole thing was a quick make and the fabric didn't need to be hemmed.  Nicely work appropriate and also so comfy.  I didn't really follow the instructions as its fairly straight forward. I also made a second version very quickly with some wool fabric I felted by mistake.  I didn't quite have enough so I used a fabric-a-brac fabric (from desiree) for the back of the jacket.  Not much more to add about it!
Read more