Turangi. We stayed in a red roofed cabin that was up a hillside, it felt like it was surrounded by a jungle and had amazing bird watching from the windows and decks. It had beautiful views of the lake from, and we saw some amazing sunsets, sunrises, a blood worm moon, and amazing starry night skies. Each day we enjoyed a good walk or two, we were grateful that there were two nice hikes located close to the house and many others found by driving in the surrounding regions. Wonderful natural thermal springs and bubbling mud pools. I have discovered my love for waterfalls is shared by many Kiwis, there are so many to see. Alastair enjoyed getting out mountain biking again and Aiden learned what fun a pedal assist bike can be for keeping up with his dad on mountain bike trails. We enjoyed having a BBQ and self-catering, including Kiwi berries! The local grocery store had many of our favourite foods from home and fantastic fresh produce, with seasonal stone fruit. The kids did a good job of working hard at school as our days were a little slower paced and had more time to focus on school. We enjoyed watching lots of different movies as a family, particularly The Hobbit series.
While staying near Tarangi we enjoyed a fantastic white water rafting adventure. Sophie was in the front of the boat. Her paddling skills were impressive, she got thoroughly soaked on numerous occasions. There were several scary moments when the kids went high, but luckily no one fell out of the boat. We stopped for a swim on two occasions, one spot had a cliff jumping opportunity and not surprisingly Aiden let the way. The guide, another trickster called out to Aiden right as he jumped! We spent over two hours on the river and went through 56 sets of rapids, each had a unique name many with funny stories to support the name. Aiden’s favourite being “Grandpa’s green Undies”. We were all grateful for the wet suits and booties, the water was 8° and cold.
Leave a Reply