Bay of Plenty with Si and his folks

During the week Si managed to have a really nice time off with his folks exploring parts of the north island whilst I went to work.
I had a very busy week in work, which as much as it knackered me I prefer to be busy. I did manage to have a nice night out on Tuesday night with the girls, where we went for a lovely meal and a few drinks.

Just to give you a little recap on what Si and his folks got up to.
Monday they went over to Raglan to check out the surf, as well as manage to see bridal veil falls (we went to see them a while ago), Tuesday they went over to Rotorua for two days where they fit in a fair few of the geothermal sights including Wai-o-tapu, kerosene creek, hells gate as well as visit a Maori village for the evening and enjoy a hangi. Thursday they had a nice relaxing day in Hamilton, with a lovely wander round the lake seeing all the wildlife and NZ birds.

On Thursday evening (because I had managed to get Friday off) we headed over to the Bay of Plenty for the weekend. We stayed at a lovely hostel in the centre of Tauranga, after a lovely (massive) meal and a few drinks we headed back for a relatively early night. The next day we had booked to do the swimming with dolphins trip that I attempted in November, unfortunately I was unlucky then so was given a free trip in the hope of seeing them this time. And did we!! We found a pod of nearly 100 common dolphins, pretty big and very very impressive. Plus we managed to get in the water to swim alongside them, unfortunately, because common dolphins like to swim fast you cant free swim with them cos they'll bugger off, so they drop you in behind the boat and get you to hold onto the back while the boats still moving - so so awesome! That night we went out for another good meal and a slightly later night.

Saturday we enjoyed a little bit of a lie in before heading over to Mount Mangaunui for a nice walk up to the summit. unfortunately it wasn't the nicest day but the views were still pretty amazing. After coming down we met up with Gem and James and headed over to Kiwi 360, where we learnt all about Kiwi farming. Not as interesting as it sounds, no really! We did have a few chuckles along the way - mainly involving Si and his stupidity. There was however, a helicopter ride down to the coast for just $59 which is only about £25. Bargain! Of course, I didn't bother with it as I fortunate enough to get the chance to fly with work. Saturday evening we got some food for a nice BBQ and had a very chilled night with beers and cards.

Sunday we had another lazy start, checked out the surf (which was rubbish) and headed over to Waihi to the Karangahake gorge which is a really nice walk and had a lovely lunch in the cafe before heading home for another busy day in work (and Si another week off), I'm telling you now, getting up Monday morning was NOT easy!!