Monty is up and about

Monty: Has started walking and is now getting quite mobile. As Brian & Valerie arrive from the UK next Monday S & J have delayed his birthday party until next Saturday. We have booked for Sarah, Kipp and Monty to go and see the Wiggles. Pity we didn't think about it earlier when the tickets first went on sale, but with the boys being limited in their TV watching (which is a good thing) we weren't really aware of how interested Kipp was in the Wiggles.

As for the Monty Moo Monster - is always smiling and happy!! - and he can poke out his tongue.

As Promised

The two above are from Hobbit Town -
Matamata - where they run tours for the Lord of the Rings sites.

Katikati - some great murals all around the town. How they don't have a graffiti problem defeats me. The last time I was there was for a flat mates wedding over 40 years ago. It is odd in this transient world that we still remain in contact as he and his wife live locally and we are all members of the same Probus Club.

Now to White Island

The colours are incredible.

All masked up.

Look at the size of the people

Below are a couple of pictures taken at Papamoa.

White Island: The photos from our visit to White Island plus a couple more from the trip North.

Visitors: Joe's parents, Brian and Valerie, arrive from the UK next Monday. They might be able to help the fabulous Quiz Team (yeah right!) - last night we were 'Xt Phone Home' but on second thoughts maybe we should have been XT:The Extra Terrible with all the problems Telecom are having; now up to their 4th outage since Xmas.

Ohhhh ....... the Quiz - 1st and a one seventh share of the bonus. Although we had a couple of extra friends so we shared it amongst 8 of us.

Sport and other randomness

Sport: So much on at the moment - Rugby, Cricket, Olympics, wven Soccer with the Wellington Phoenix doing well - an overload. The Chiefs Lions game 72 -65 to the Chiefs set all sorts of records -
the highest aggregate (137)
highest winning and losing score
most tries
highest individual total (Steven Donald - 32)
most tries by the a Chiefs player (Kahui - 3) and there are probably more.

The Phoenix have been a revelation. Any time we beat the Ozzies is great.
As for the Olympics - I have enjoyed the Curling and of course Luge, Skeleton, Ice Dancing, Speed Skating although some like Ice Hockey (I can't see the puck) leave me cold (pun).

Imperial/Metric: At the Olympics why do commentators persist in using the old Imperial (ponds, feet etc) when we changed over 30 years ago. We still don't speak in Pounds shillings and pence. Is it to placate the 3 idiot countries that haven't changed - US, Liberia and Myanmar?

Defeats me as do the ads on TV saying 'I lost 30 pounds". I always think who could care less if you lost some money in the UK - but the idiots are talking about weight measurements that are 30 years out of date. Why??

Police: When going past the Prime Ministerial house in Lower Hutt the other day I was surprised to see armed Police outside. First time I have ever seen that. Currently the Governor General is using it while Government House is being done up.

We're Bach

We are back - or as Arnold Swarzenegger would say Bach.

White Island: We went away for a week with the goal of going out to White Island. The last time we tried we couldn't due to the bad weather. However, this time we made it. The above photos are from the Net but I will post some of our own once Christine has downloaded them.

Whakaari/White Island is an active andesite stratovolcano, situated about 48K's from the east coast of the Bay of Plenty. It is roughly circular, about 2K in diameter, rising to a height of 321m above sea level. But this is only the peak of a much larger submarine mountain which rises up to 1600 m above the nearby seafloor.

Sulphur mining was attempted but was abandoned in 1914 after a lahar killed 10 workers. The main activities on the island now are guided tours and scientific research.

The full Māori name for the island is 'Te Puia o Whakaari', meaning 'The Dramatic Volcano.' It was named White Island by Captain Cook on 1st October 1769 because it always appeared to be in a cloud of white steam. Although Cook went close to the island he missed the fact that it was a volcano.

The last time we went we stayed at Ohope Beach but this time we stayed in Whakatane; which is a very pleasant town and seems quite prosperous.

The trip was a very interesting one once we got onto the island. The day was fine (a little overcast but very hot) but the swell from the sea was probably 2-3 metres and they just seemed to try and get to the island as fast as possible. Being a 'great' sailor, I took a seasick pill beforehand but this time it failed (although it certainly helped stave of the sickness for 60% of the trip) so I, along with many others, was seasick. One person started throwing up after about 10 minutes!! - and it it takes over 2 hours to get out to the island.

It was so bad that Christine was seasick for the first time in her life.

One of the crew said although the medicine container said take the pill 30 minutes before leaving his advice was to take two the night before and one two hours before leaving to give it time to work.
Luckily coming back, as we were going with the tide, we had a much smoother ride with nobody being sick.

The Trip: For the remainder of the trip we went up to Mt. Maunganui, Tauranga, Hamilton, Rotorua and came back staying at Taupo overnight.

As something different, being members of the Petone Workingmen's Club, we decided to have our evening meal at each place at a fellow Chartered Club. It worked out well and it was interesting to see how the different Clubs worked.

At the Rotorua RSA at 6PM they lowered the flag and recited the famous ode

They shall grow not old... as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them

from For the Fallen - Laurence Binyon

Also at the Rotorua RSA I didn't know it was still done, but the Salvation Army went through selling the 'War Cry". At the Mt. Maunganui club you can only attend 3 times as a guest before joining and members had to use a swipe card to get in.

Probably the best Chartered Club was at Ohope. The fish meal was so good rather than attend the club in Whakatane we drove over the 10K to Ohope again.

Motels: I suppose for the money compared to overseas they are a reasonable product but still they sometime lack the little bit extra that would make them excellent. One didn't make the bed, one the remote was missing, no shampoo in a couple etc. Small things easily fixed.

Army Museum: Coming back we stopped at the Army Museum and had a bite to eat and also this time visited the musuem itself for the first time for a number of years. We were impressed. It has certainly improved and it is really a 3-4 hour tour. Good to look at the medals now they have been recovered and to read the information about Willie Apiata.

A couple of BIG days coming up

BIG Days: A couple of BIG days with Kipp's 3rd birthday on Sunday and our 40th Wedding Anniversary (Ruby) the same day. We have the boys tonight and they have just settled down to sleep.




Waitangi Day: And of course tomorrow is our National Day. All the talk is probably about the flag. As the Labour Leader Phil Goff says we should be concentrating on Maori unemployment and crime rates - the flag is a minor issue compared to them. I of course want a change. The photo above is of the two flags flying at Parliament. I like the so called 'Maori flag' but unfortunately that idiot Harawhira (and that is the politest word you can think of for him) is not helping. Is he thick - yes. He is basically destroying any middle ground of that flag taking over and I think it is now a 'goner'.

Below is some that still have the Union Jack on them.

Sevens: Started today with France losing to Canada being the big upset. I have given up on it as a Rugby event - it is now an enjoyable marketing exercise and is interesting to watch overall but if you want the Rugby (which I do) then TV is the way to go. Later - we lost to Samoa in the semis and Fiji then defeated them in the final so at least the big guns in monetary terms didn't win. Funny how we do better in the away games having won the two previous sections - now to Las Vegas.

Some photos are below.

Nutters: The Poll below was taken last week and only Republicans were interviewed. They are MAD!!! When asked on what grounds they would try to impeach Obama some said because he was Black!!!

Quiz: We are attending a cancer fund raiser on Tuesday but the BIG news was Sarah knew the answer to the Bonus last week and we shared the $$$ with another team. On top of that we came second equal so we are back in the 'free' drinks mode as we won $250-00. !!! Imagine if we had won the Bonus on its own.