This week we finished up our exchange work at Otane (30 minutes south of Napier), where we've been staying with Gwen and Neil on their farm. We spent the last two weeks repainting their farmstay accommodation, which included some paid hours, and Wes has still been working at the cafe over the weekends and is learning lots of yummy recipes both there and with the family.
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| Lavosh, hummus, and mussel dip on crostini |
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| Gwen and Neil serving up roast dinner |
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| Sticky Date Puding |
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| Pavlova! |
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The boss hard at work (Anna)
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| shop at the cafe |
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On Monday we finished up the painting job, and decided to take a mini vacation (from our vacation!). We went to Taupo (2 hours northwest) for three days. Taupo is on the north end of the lake
(Lake Taupo is the biggest freshwater lake in Australasia). It's a beautiful town, with tons of restaurants, shops, and lots of nature-y things to do. We did a hike to Huka Falls, went to some mineral hot pools, and I (Wes) went skydiving (spur of the moment)!
We drove through some mountains on the way, lots of pine forests, which is of course not something unusual for us to see, but then you can see all the trees are in perfect lines covering the mountains. All the pines are planted by logging/foresting companies. They grow them up to 25 years and then clear the forests and plant more.
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| the hostel- Base (a NZ/Aus. chain) |
We also went to the local museum where they had quilts on display from a recent fabric arts show.
There was about a 30 minute gap from when Chris said I was allowed to go skydiving and when the company picked me up (in a limo!?) from the hostel.
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| View of Mt. Tongariro (Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings) |
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| not horns, just the eye mask |
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| got my game face on. |
Chris tried his luck at the "Hole in One Challenge", where you try to make your shot into one of the three holes, top prize $10,000. Needless to say we did not win anything, but he came pretty close a few times.
We also enjoyed some of the many local watering holes in town, including one that had quiz night when we went. Didn't win anything, but we did take part in a 'couples' contest where I had to stick as many clothes pins as I could on Chris' face in a minute. Wasn't allowed to clip them to the beard and we only got 15 on, for second place.
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| quiz night visual round |
Huka Falls is the most visited attraction in New Zealand, 220,000 liters of water every second goes over the falls. Apparently it can fill 5 olympic pools in a minute. On the hike there we also passed by a natural hot spring that flows into the river, which is free to soak/swim in.
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| crystal clear Waikato river |
Now we are back near Otane, and are staying with some friends of Gwen and Neil's. They also have a sheep farm, and we are going to be house sitting for them for four weeks while they go to a wedding in England. So, there may not be much to post for the next month or so but we'll see. Meanwhile, we will be taking care of the house and dogs here, and Wes will be working at the cafe still.
