New Zealand - Jan 21
Our trip to
Patarura started off at 6am in the morning. The trip would
take us due North 5 hours through some of the most beautiful
countryside we had ever seen. I kept telling Michele that I
felt like we were inside a postcard that changed every time we
turned a corner. The scenery was breathtaking in all
directions. What gets me is the people who live in New Zealand
claim that the North island can't hold a candle to the South island.
But I wouldn't know how to make it much better. We felt like
we were in paradise as it was.
Pictures taken between Wellington and Lake Taupo on the way to Patarura
Pictures taken between Wellington and Lake Taupo on the way to Patarura
Lake Taupo is New Zealand's
largest lake and sits right in the center of the North island.
The city of Taupo sits right on the lake and is a huge tourist area.
We stopped for lunch in Taupo and strolled around the town a bit.
Taupo is where I experienced my first ever Super Loo. A Super
Loo is a pay public restroom, or toilet as they say in Australia and
New Zealand. It will cost you 40 cents to take a piss in the
Super Loo. I did it just to check it out. It was one of
the cleanest public toilets I had ever been in. Was it worth
the 40 cents? Not! But as they say, when in Rome....
After my visit to the Super Loo,
we took a stroll up the shoreline and I had to try out the Great
Lake Hole in One Challenge. Picture and 20' x 20' concrete
platform floating in the bay with miniature golf greens set up on
in. I paid $15 for 18 golf balls. Remember the US dollar
is much stronger than the Kiwi dollar, so it really only cost me
about $10 US. So the goal is to hit one of the balls not only
onto the platform, but into a hole to win about $10-50,000 depending
on which hole you hit it in. If you ball hits the platform,
you get another ball. Money is only paid out on the hole in
one. The odds in winning had to be about a million to one, but
I figured I'd chalk it up to driving range practice. I
actually hit the platform once. I didn't feel so bad after a
bus load of Japanese tourist stopped by and hit about 40 balls at
the platform, and only about 5 hit the platform. What a money
making venture that game was!!
After golf and
lunch we headed to the North side of Taupo to visit a National Park
called Huka Falls. It was a very cool waterfall. The
water came from the lake and way a brilliant blue color. It
was so clear you could see right through the water flow to the rocks
below. After a few pictures, we were off again to travel about 30
minutes North to meet up with Kathy.
Pictures taken skiing with Clive at Lake Ohakuri. From left: Kathy Duxfield, Clive & Lorraine Chester, Michele, and Chuck
Pictures taken skiing with Clive at Lake Ohakuri. From left: Kathy Duxfield, Clive & Lorraine Chester, Michele, and Chuck
Kathy was waiting for us at
turn-off up the road that we would have easily missed. She was
taking us to a favorite local ski and camp site on Lake Ohakuri.
It was about a 6 mile drive down a dirt road around the mountain.
I was a miniature Road to Hana, like they have in Hawaii. If
you don't know what I'm talking about, just imagine a 1 line dirt
road on the side of a cliff swerving back and forth. At the
end of the road was a beautiful lake and huge camp site where
everyone in a 50 mile distance came to camp and ski on the weekends.
It's here where Kathy introduced us to Clive and Lorraine Chester.
I later found out that Clive and Lorraine had cut their vacation to
the beach short just to drive to the lake and ski with us for the
day. Kathy had called Clive and asked him to meet us and he
was happy to oblige. Clive took us across the lake in his
Flightcraft and we skiing for about 2 hours. Kathy asked me to
teach her a new trick, so I gave her some quick tips on her one
foots, and by the end of her second set she was doing a toe-hold on
shoe-skis. Now to describe Kathy to all you wimps out there.
She is over 40 and is a mother of 6 kids and runs a dairy farm with
her husband Roger. She's up each morning before 5am milking
cows, runs kids back and forth to school functions, substitute
teaches at the local school and coach's soccer, basketball, and
whatever other sport the school asks of her. She and her
husband have just finished building a new house on their farm and
she's always fixing something around the farm. All that and
she still finds time to squeeze in a ski set now and then. She
told me she usually only gets to foot about twice each month.
With that little time, she has managed to learn forwards and
backwards and is eager to learn more. You can tell she is
totally eat up with the sport. Her husband doesn't ski, but he
does come out and drive for her. She what we'd call a double
tough woman.
Thanks again to
Clive and Lorraine for taking us out to ski. It was nice to
meet you both. We'll tell Willie Farrel high the next time we
see him. Clive was telling us that Willie visited that same
lake many many years ago.
We didn't know
where to go for dinner that night, so Kathy told us she knew just
the place. She wanted us to experience a native New Zealander
feast, so she booked us seats at the Pohutu Cultural Theater where
they feature a show put on by native Maori tribal dancers. After the
show, we would partake in a hangi feast, which was a typical feast
of native New Zealand Maori tribes. It was a great show, and
Michele even got selected to go on stage with the dancers and learn
some of their moves. It was very fun.
Pictures taken during Maori show and feast
Pictures taken during Maori show and feast
After dinner, we followed Kathy
back to her house to spend the night. We couldn't see anything
during the drive since it was dark, and it had been a long day, so
we went straight to bed. It was around 11:30 pm. Kathy
informed us that we needed to wake up around 6am because we had to
leave around 6:30am to drive to the lake we would ski at the next
day.
During our visit
with Brenda Groen the day before, we had met Teresa Old.
Teresa had called Kathy and invited us to come ski at her and her
husband Peter's private ski lake in Pirongia. That was about
45 minutes west of Kathy's farm. We did some quick drive time
calculations to see if we could drive to Teresa's place to ski in
the morning and still have time to make our plane flight at 2:30pm
going to Christchurch. The airport was about an hour the
opposite direction from Kathy's place. We calculated that if
we got on the water by 8am, skied for about 2 hours, then left
Teresa's place no later than 10:15, we would make it just in time.
So the plan was set.
New Zealand -
Jan 22
We awoke the next
morning to the sound of roosters crowing. The sun had just
come up and the air was a little chilly outside. When I walked
into Kathy's kitchen, she already had a huge breakfast spread
waiting on us. Then I turned to look across the room and
couldn't believe my eyes. I thought I was looking at a
painting, but it was a picture window. This is the window that
looks out to Kathy's back yard from her dining room. And this
is what I saw:
How would you like
to wake up to that every morning? Here's a few more shots of
Kathy's place. It sits up on a hill overlooking the valley
below.
Kathy & Roger Duxfield's farm
Kathy & Roger Duxfield's farm
After taking in the beauty of the
countryside for a few seconds, we all jumped into Kathy's car and
headed to Teresa and Peter Old's lake. Kathy had never been to
Teresa's place either, so she had arranged for us to meet up with
Alan Clare. Alan also owned a Flightcraft Barefooter and Kathy
trained with him any opportunity she got. During our ride
over, Kathy told us how Alan loved to barefoot, but that he almost
died from a massive heart attack about two years earlier. He
was still recovering and still had plans to return to the water some
day. In the meantime, Alan drives and teaches anyone who wants
to learn to barefoot.
Pictures taken during visit to Teresa & Peter Old's lake
Pictures taken during visit to Teresa & Peter Old's lake
We arrived at Teresa's lake house
right on time. Once again, we were blown way by the beauty of
the landscape. Peter and Teresa had worked on their lake for
nearly two years and it was gorgeous. Talk about lifestyles of
the rich and famous! This was yet another postcard of every
skiers dream. I couldn't wait to hit the water.
We skied for two
solid hours in water that was so clear you could see the bottom
anywhere in the lake. It was about 70 degrees and crystal
clear. I wanted to stay there all day. Unfortunately we
had a plane to catch. But before we left, Teresa's daughters
Jarna and Lauren wanted to show us the Super Slide their dad Peter
had set up for the kids. Image walking about 150 yards up a 45
degree hillside. The lake used to be a coal mine and the
mining company had left all the 4' wide rubber belts they used to
use to transport coal from the one place to another. Peter dug
a ditch up the hill and put the rubber belts end to end in the
ditch. Add a water hose at the top and you have the biggest
slip and slide in the world. You'd start at the top with a
slight push and by the time you reached the bottom you'd be moving
at speeds of 40-50 mph. Put on your barefoot suit and you'd
shoot out across the lake. The kids couldn't get enough of it.
Before we left for
the airport, Teresa insisted we eat a bit. She also prepared a
full spread breakfast. Everything was perfect except for the
fact that we had to leave. So we took some quick pictures of
the group and promised to return some day. We hopped in
Kathy's car and sped off as quickly as we arrived. We stopped
back by Kathy's place to pack our car and headed to the airport.
We ended up making our plane with only 5 minutes to spare.
Michele and I
would like to thank Kathy, Clive, Lorraine, Alan, Teresa, Peter,
Jarna, and Lauren for making us feel so welcome. WE appreciate
you going so far out of your way to come ski with us. Sorry we
couldn't stay longer. We hope to return soon.
Our next and final
stop would be Christchurch, a city on the North side of the South
Island. We would spend our last two days there before we
headed back to the US.
