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| We are sitting with Eugene and Audrey while enjoying a wonderful meal at his parents house. |
| Glenn's Journal 01-13-03 & 01-14-03 New Zealand Well what is the weather like today you ask? It is still overcast and rainy but we are hoping for some sunshine later today. We can always hope, can't we? It was not nice enough to see much of Wellington so we decided to get some chores done today. We completed laundry this morning before going into town (Lower Hutt) and did some grocery shopping and a little internet. I filled the car up with gas and checked the tire pressure and all in all spent the day doing chores. We were having dinner with Eugene and Audrey tonight and they were due to pick us up at 5:30 pm from the holiday park. W returned from runing our errands around 5:00 pm and Eugene and Audrey showed up at 6:00 pm. They had called the park to let us know that they would not arrive until 6:00 pm but I guess the park does not have a decent message system so we did not get the message. (They could have left a note on our cabin door.) Dinner was at Eugene's parents house in Kelson, just north of where we are staying. We arrived and were introduced to David and Stella (Eugene's parents) and were shown around their beautiful house. They only moved from Singapore 3 years ago and were sharing stories of how they had to become accustom to the much slower pace of New Zealand and the way of life here. They were now pleasantly settled in here with no interest to return "full time" to Singapore. The family had a barbeque with chicken, lamb, mussels, potatoes, and vegetables. Dinner was fabulous and we enjoyed the whole evening talking with the family about all kinds of things. Erin was enamored by Eugene's bird, Tweety, and spent most of the night with the bird on her hand and talking to the bird. It was quite cute and we all enjoyed playing with the bird, Erin especially. She loves animals and can't wait to get home so she can have some of her own. We thanked David and Stella very much for a wonderful meal and evening before Eugene and Audrey drove us back to the park. On the way home we stopped at a lookout point over Lower Hutt and back towards Wellington. The sky had cleared, finally, and the stars were out even though it had cooled off considerably. Erin took a few night photos before we finished the drive home. We thanked Eugene and Audrey again very much for the evening and asked them to keep in touch. If there travels ever take them to the states then we look forward to seeing them again. We actually plan on seeing Audrey in Singapore during our stay at the end of March. We look forward to our visit. We didn't stay up long tonight as we have to check out by 10:00 am before heading on to Turangi and the Tongariro National Park tomorrow. 01-14-03 New Zealand The weather this morning was better as the rain and clouds were starting to clear. We checked out around 10:00 am before returning to the same overlook from last night and taking a few day photos overlooking Wellington and Lower Hutt. We then jumped on Highway 2 and found our way to Highway 1 which would lead us up the coast to Turangi (A 4+ hour drive). The drive included rain and sprinkles throughout the day and a few stops along the coast before we turned off Highway 1 heading west around Tongariro National Park. We drove by Mt. Ruapehu, Mt. Ngauruhoe, and Mt. Tongariro which are three, still active, volcanoes. They are snow covered and range in heighth from 1967 meters to 2797 meters. We stopped at Whakapapa for information on some of the may walking trails in the area. We bought a few maps of the area and local hikes and would decided on which hikes to go on later this evening. We finished the drive into Turangi, picked up a local map at information, and found our way to the Extreme Backpackers where we had reserved a room for the next two nights. We checked in just after 5:00 pm where the receptionist mentioned that the local grocery store closed at 6:00 pm. We quickly went grocery shopping for dinner for the next two nights and returned to the hostel around 6:00 pm. We quickly determined that there was not much to do in this very small town after 7:00 pm. Somebody mentioned that there were two bars in town and one of them you had to be a member of. Wow!! After grocery shopping Erin prepared stir fry for dinner (which was very good!!) and we sat and chatted with some other travelers for a while before returning to our room. I typed journals while Erin read. She even went to bed early (10:30 pm) and before me!!! Another Wow!!! I finished typing journals and read for a while before retiring for the evening. |
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| A spectacular view of Mt. Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park. |