Turangi

On Sunday (31st July) we headed down to Turangi to stay with my friend Sarah Medlicott, Wayne and their two sons, Lachlan and Anders. They were staying at Oreti Village Apartments (which were awesome and I would highly recommend http://www.oretivillage.co.nz/ ) and kindly invited us to come down and stay with them for a couple of days.


We had perfect weather for the drive down so the scenery was stunning. The plan was to head up the mountain on Monday then return to Auckland Tuesday.  

Yet another feed in the car for Elsie...

On Monday morning we awoke to cloud which was ominous but we perservered with our plan and headed up the hill

View over Lake Taupo Monday morning

Fortunately we burst through the clouds as we drove up the Mt Ruapehu to reveal perfectly clear blue skies and no wind. A fab day. Joel and I bundled Elsie up in her new snow suit and loaded her up in the back pack (her new favourite place). Off we headed with Lachlan and Anders to do some tobogganing. Elsie got to go down in the taboggan too - and she went on about eight chairlifts over the course of the day.  As the weather was so nice we were able to stay outside for the whole day without Elsie or the boys getting too cold. After lunch Joel got a half day pass and dusted off the snowboard. Sarah, Wayne, myself and the kids got a sightseeing pass and headed up to the top of the chairlift for a beer and an amazing view all the way across to Taranaki. Fab day.

Lachlan

Jo and Elsie - not breaking any speed records

Lachlan with Anders chasing after

Anders

Mt Taranaki in the distance

Mt Ngaruahoe

View from the top

Lachlan

Anders

Anders

Anders and Lachlan

Wayne, Lachlan, Sarah, Anders

The fascination with glasses and bottles still going strong

On Tuesday Joel and I headed back up to Auckland. We had a great trip back - making lots of stops and enjoying the change of scenery

Tokaanu - gorgeous little place near Turangi

Tokaanu

Lake Taupo

Lake Taupo

Lake Taupo

Craters of the Moon - some geothermal action - Taupo. Elsie is back in her snowsuit and backpack and loving it!

Little bit excited by all the steam..

One of us is excited about solids. The backpack doubles as a highchair.

Stunned by the camera

Our lunch spot. We just sat down on the boardwalk it was really warm down there from all the geothermal.