Tongariro Trout Centre - Turangi

Wednesday August 29th  - 2012

On Thursday we made the short drive over to donate 2 fly rods, 1 of which belonged to my dear darling dad and also one of Brian's and fishing vest that Brian purchased when we were on holiday in the Snowy River a number of years ago, we had decided to donate these items for the kids fishing at the centre. The fellow Brian had been in email contact with was in a meeting so we left the rods and vest and our contact email. He emailed Brian back and asked could the donations be used for the kids however for use in photos of the kids dressing up in fishing gear for their parents to take photos - this was fine with us and we will go back there to see him and have a look around. Below are a few photos I took of some of the surrounding bush and area - oh and the fisherman himself. It was a beautiful day.

Happy Birthday to our eldest nephew  - James Vallance Happy 21st Birthday to you James.

Turangi and surrounds - Day 1

Tuesday August 28th:

Once settled into the house at Turangi we went out and about. Brian made a couple of trips to the river so far no luck fish for eating, I did go with him one morning so that I could get some photos for him. We have been to Tokanau mineral pools and these are great,there is also a thermal trip you can do which shows hot mud pool and a pool of boiling hot water, you will also see the trout in the stream outside of the thermal area.We took a trip over the range on the way back to take some photos of the mountains and Mt Tongaririo was easily visable still steaming away from the 3wk ago eruption. The bottom two photos show a morning of frost - brrrrr.  Hope you like the photos will add more later - bye

Auckland - Rotorua

Tuesday August 28th - 2012

After a great night sleep we woke at 0830 to a clear and sunny morning all be it rather chilly. The day had arrived for us to take flight #2 to Rotorua, we had to be out of the hotel by 1000am and again as we had large bags we decided to get up and head straight off to the airport with the complimentary shuttle transfer. Arriving at the airport at 1000am we were able to check in again straight away and pay excess for those fishing rods for the final time, it was great to get rid of the luggage. We had rather a long wait for our flight to Rotorua as it did not depart until 1240pm, we went and got oursleves a nice cuppa and just spent time relaxing and waiting for boarding time. The flight was finally called and we boarded our rather small Beech aircraft (20 passengers + 2 crew) the flight time was only 35mins and flew at 12,000ft. It is a twin prop aircraft with 10 seats down each side of the aircraft. We arrived into Rotorua with just a hint of the usual sulphur smell that you associate with Rotorua. We were met by Rudi the guy from Pegasus Rental Car and after the formalities were over and a toilet stop we headed off south toward Turangi where we are to stay for 7nights at one of the police houses.

Aug-Sept NZ Trip 2012

Departure -  Monday August 27th - 2012

The day had finally arrived for our departure to Auckland from Brisbane, we left home at FKS - Little Mountain on Monday 27th Aug around 0915am as we had to be at Brisbane Airport at 1030am and knowing the Bruce H/Way the way we do for smashes and hold up's decided to head away in plenty of time to avoid any of the above. Once arrived the car was parked and all luggage loaded onto a trolly and we headed to the airport, not expecting to check in straight away so found the Air NZ counter open for just that to grea relief to get rid of the luggage as we have 2 large bags and Brian's tube of fishing rods that we had to pay excess for however these are to be donated to the National Trout Centre at Turangi therefore they won't be returning with us. Once checked in we headed off and got ourselves a coffee and filled out the departure documents ready for immigration and the boarding of the aircraft. Time had come for us to depart and it was great to actually be flying on a large aircraft - we travelled on an Air NZ 777 which was great, very comfortable and arrived into Auckland in just under 3hrs. We managed to get through customs and immigration at Auckland with no drama's and no lost luggage and made our way outside to wait for the shuttle to take us to our overnight accomodation at the Formule1 hotel. The room was small however clean and had all we needed, we did have to change rooms as the blind in the room would not stay down, I went and advised them at reception and it was no problem for them to change us - good service. Once we had got organised we went next door to a great restaurant for dinner, it was great very tasty well priced and great service. From there we headed back to our room and showered and got into bed and watched some tv, will catch up tomorrow when we leave Auckland and head toward Rotorua. Night all.