Prawn World

Just back from a weekend away back to our new favourite holiday spot Omori by Lake Taupo in the middle of the North Island. It was a long weekend here and we hit the road early Friday with only one car sick stop for Oscar on our 3.5 hour journey. NZ roads are SOOOO windy they make me feel sick if I am not focused on the fabulous green valleys & trout filled streams out the window.

 The big focus of this little holiday was a trip to the Huka Prawn Park which we were calling Prawn World until both my neighbour & mother misheard this as PORN WORLD. Hello why would be taking Oscar to PORN WORLD ladies. Made for very interesting conversation if not a confusing one!

The Prawn Park is near the mighty Huka Falls and also on a geothermal site so the water is nice & toasty for the Malaysian prawns to swim in. There were heaps of things to do at the Prawn Park and Nic hooked right into Prawn Fishing with the rods provided, trying to catch a bucket of prawns. 1 hour of baiting & waiting he caught one!

Oscar and I went on the nature walk looking for some brown trout to feed but the sun wasn't shining so the fish weren't biting. The adventure playground was cool with a giant tunnel made from industrial pipe works and giant prawn pots with springs on the bottom like a bouncy trampoline. Oscar loved it. Go little prawns!

We also had a paddle in the mineral water foot bath then checked out the restaurant passing on the $80 prawn platters and grabbed coffees to drink while feeding the ducks. All we needed was a sighting of the world famous Shawn the Prawn but alas it was his day off. WE HEART YOU PRAWN WORLD!

Snow Weekend

I am VERY excited about my birthday tomorrow. Not only because I have some mystery parcels & cards to open but we're off on a weekend away to somewhere we've never been to before. Huzzah an adventure into the wilderness!




We're off to a little village on Lake Taupo called Omori and there are Thermal Pools ($5 entry BARGAIN) and we're right by the sunny shores of New Zealand's largest lake. Wonder if we''ll see a taniwha (Maori water monster)! Its going to be a very chilly (-3 low 13 high) but sunny weekend and we plan to hit the National Park for some sledging too. Theres an epic 2m snow base up on those mountains and I want to plough down them on the toboggan. I might let 2 year old Oscar have a turn. Hmm maybe I better get more toboggans.

Auntys Art Deco Holiday

Have you ever been to Napier in NZ? Its an Art Deco mecca. The whole town centre is decked out in 1930s buildings thanks to a devastating earthquake that flattened the town in February 1931 that tragically killed 256 people.



The town council really put a lot of thought and time into the rebuild & employed Louis Hayes and others to redesign Napier in the spirit of Lloyd Frank Wright.



My fav deco part is the beach front gardens, the still in use soundshell & fountains. And I love the way the buildings are in the 1930s classic pastels. Not bright & flashy like Miami but more muted & humble.

There is also a bell-type glockenspiel in the Civic Park that chimes out Split Enz's "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" at 11.30am and Dave Dobbyn's "Loyal" at midday. It was very odd and even irritating the lunchtime crowd!

I also caught up with my Uncle Bill who is a retired Marist Brother. He studied and worked at the old Mission Estate Winery in the 60s and lucky us got our own special guided tour! Well my family did while I played outside with 2 year old Oscar on the Estate lawns. I did get some nice wine to take home with a massive 25% discount. Thanks Uncle Bill you're tops!

Queestown Adventure!

Aunty is just in the process of packing her bags for a much needed holiday to Queenstown in the very stunning South Island. If you haven't been there before most of the LOTR trilogy especially LOTR II&III were filmed there with the snow capped alps backdrop in many shoots. The house we have rented overlooks Lake Wakatipu which translates to "Place where the Demon Lies" in Maori. Wonder if we'll see any taniwhas while we're there? No plans for bungy jumping but might jump on the Shotover Jetboat which is a complete adrenalin rush and also up to the snow for a muck around with the kids.

We're meeting my husbands whanau there too so no doubt we'll be cooking up some venison on the BBQ and knocking back some wines on arrival. Yeah!

This will be my view this time tomorrow with giant glass of bubbly in hand. Cant wait.