Our New Wheels

Hello everyone!

I hope this all finds you well. I'm sorry that I haven't updated the blog in a while. Bryan has been very busy at work and we just got back from Darling Harbour on Monday. Bryan had a corporate event there on the weekend and WOW was it nice. I will have a post on our weekend at the Taronga Zoo (Sydney Zoo) and the corporate weekend soon. I just thought I would touch base with everyone and show you our new wheels.

We just got our new Hyundai Tuscon this past week and it is really nice. Bryan is really enjoying it. It has everything that we need. It has a lot of room for all of Bryan's diving gear and all of the luggage that you guys will have when you come over. It also has Bluetooth capabilities for the mobile phone so he has hooked it up through the car radio and when a call comes in he can talk hands free which is a great thing over here for if you are caught on the mobile while driving you can get a huge fine. I think it is something like $250 min. They are very stricted about that. A good thing with all the traffic here. I haven't had an opportunity to drive it yet but will have the chance on Thursday and Friday for we are going out of town again. We are heading to Horsham Victoria for a couple of days which is South of NSW. Bryan has work over there for a couple of days. So I get to acquire more driving experience. I'm getting better. I drove by myself last week. I was quite proud of myself. We had to pick up the new car and drop off the hire car in St. Mary's (where Bryan works). It is about a 30 minute drive from where we live. I must say that I did pretty good. No prangs!


Bryan in the drivers side of our new wheels in front of the Four Seasons Hotel, downtown Sydney.

Well, Spring has really sprung over here. The trees are in full bloom and the flowers as well. The air is filled with a sweet perfume. The temperature has been good as well. Today is quite cool with a top of 14C. and raining. Very low for this time of year. But, the weekend is suppose to be about 28 - 35C. My kind of temperature.

We are having our first visitor coming on November 6th. DVonne a girfriend of mine that I met at Business College is coming over for about a month. It will be nice to see her. Harvey and Donna from the Pike Lake area where we had the acreage are suppose to be joining us as well in November. Nice! Party time at the Willetts!!

Well, I think that is about all for now. I will try hard to get the Zoo and the Darling Harbour Corporate weekend posted soon. They were both just fantastic. Our bedroom furniture should be delivered by the end of the month so once that is done I will take another video of the unit and post that as well so you all can see the unit furnished.

Take care everyone and take care of each other. We love you all and miss you too!!


A picture of us taken from the boat at Darling Harbour at the corporate weekend.

THE GREAT BATWALK

Simply surprising. We decided to go for a walk and do a little exploration in our own neighbourhood. A short walk that took us from our unit through the campuses of Westmead and Cumberland hospitals. We stayed close to the river to see the scenery and along one point I looked up into the trees and saw hundreds of BATS!!! Once I directed Maureen's attention to the tree tops a short thottled squeal of recognition erupted from her throat.

I must give her credit for courage as she doesn't like bats but she was facinated enough to take the pictures. However I knew she was steeling her courage due to the repeated semi-stifled gurgles of "Oh my God, Oh my God".
Me? Well I wanted to come back at dusk to see them fly around but permission was not granted.

These are Fruit Bats, also know as Flying Foxes. They have a foxes coloring below the neck and are one of the largest bats weiging in at 1 Kg (2.2 lbs).

I just wanted to shake the trees and watch them all take off at once. Again! Permission was denied. Now I'm looking for my Batman suit to go join them.

Our Little Visitors

Our Feathered Friends

First Visitors

Last week one morning we woke up to these feathered friends talking and squeeking very loudly on our balcony railing. The colors on these parrots are fantastic. They carried on quite the conversation amongst them. Very special to see.

We also have had several kookaburras sitting on the powerline just past our balcony. These pictures are of one bird only. Once we had two kookaburras sitting on the same line and the conversation they had was really cute. They talked and laughed as kookaburras do. Really something to watch and listen to.

Our Weekend in New Zealand - Continued

Our Weekend in New Zealand continued - Sunday Sept 14 & 15, 2008

Hell's Gate Natural Geo-Thermal Reserve & Wai Ora Spa

Hello to everyone from Hell's Gate. This was truely a magnificent sight to see. It reminded us of how maybe the surface of the moon would look like. The water in all the different pools continuously bubbles all the time. Let us take you for a little tour guide through the gates of Hell.

This is the most active geothermal field in the Rotorua area. The reserve is set in a 50 acre area with quite the variety of geothermal pools, boiling mud and steam rising from the earth. This is a 2.5km walk around the area with hot water pools in excess of 100C. A Maori princess "Hurutini" lost her life trying to save her people and this led to the naming of the area as Tikitere. The Maori used this area as a place for healing and revitalising for over 800 years.

Playwrighter, George Bernard Shaw saw this area and looked at the "hell like" landscape and gave the reserve its name.

This is a sign that you see as soon as you start on the walk through the geo-thermal area. Not likely that we were going to litter!!

The activity levels of these pools varies throughout the year. They are very active like young children and thus the name. There is a thin crust of earth that can be seen hence the danger of walking off the path.

This pool looks like black mud or ink. It has a temperature of 120C. There are three different types of geothermal muds - black, grey & white. The black mud like in this pool has been used in the treatment of arthritis and rheumatism.

This is the only example of a mud volcano in New Zealand. Mud formations usually only reach a maximum height of 1 meter. This mud volcano currently has a height of 2.4 meters and is growing. It does erupt about every 6 weeks or so but usually at night.

The steaming cliffs pool is the hottest on the reserve. At the surface the water is 122C and one meter below the temperature is 145C. The boiling water at times can reach heights of more than 3 meter above the surface. It was hard to take a picture of this for the steam rising was thicker than fog at times. We took a video of the steaming cliffs but it was too large to download.

This is a Maori wood carving. We saw this on the start of our bush walk. Matthew it is up to you to figure this one out for we forgot what it is! Let us know what you find out. It is amazing the vast contrast in landscape as you go from one part of the reserve to the next. You need to walk through this luscious landscape to view the rest of the goe thermal reserve.

The "Kakahi Falls". This is the largest hot water fall in the Southern Hemisphere. Its temperature is approximately 40C, that of a nice hot shower. These falls hold a special place for the Maori people. The warriors used these falls to bathe in after battle. The sulphur in the water acted as a salve for the wounds and scratches that the warriors received in battle.

During the bush walk there is an amazing contrast from that of the geothermal area. From what seems like barren land with steam and bubbling mud to lush jungle like greenery. This bush walk contains many examples of the native New Zealand plants. The beautiful colors of these shrubs and their flowers are due to the fertilizing effect of the sulphur produced from the geothermal activity.

The flax was the most important for the Maori. It was used for baskets, clothing, binding for wounds, buildings, canoes, tools, and weapons. It also has medicinal purposes as well. An example is to aid a toothache and dressing for wounds.

The Silver Fern is New Zealand's national emblem. The Maori warriors used it to mark their path. The leader of the warriors would turn up a leaf. The underside (silver) would reflect and guide the rest of the warriors. The last warrior would then turn down the leaf so no one would know where they have been. For the Maori the fern has always meant going to achieve something, a goal.

The black tree fern was used for both food and medicinal purposes. The stem and trunk was used for food. The young fronds for skin inflammations. The pith for sore, swollen feet. Gum for diarrhoea.

The Manuka tree has many medicinal purposes such as to treat fever, colds burns. It was also used as a sedative and for body stiffness and more.

Hell's Gate also has a wide variety of spa treatments. We decided to take in the "private" mud bath. The water was nice and warm and the mud - well we'll say no more on that!!


After the mud bath we went into the sulphur pool. It was hot but refreshing at the same time. Nice to soak the body after the walk around the reserve.

After we left Hell's Gate & Spa we were on the road again. Here are a couple of pictures of the wonderful mountains we saw in New Zealand. Just breathtaking.

We stopped for the night in a small town of Levin. It was late at night so we didn't get to see much until morning. The tree on the right is a lemon tree. It was just behind our room. Nice room and reasonable as well.

How would you like to wake up to sheep in the morning. Our motel room was at the end and beside us was a sheep farm. First thing in the morning we went out for a "conversation" (smoke) (hence the lovely hair) and were greeted by the sheep.

Monday morning we started on the road again. Our last day in New Zealand for our plane was leaving early afternoon. We stopped at "Otaki" Beach which was not too far from Wellington where we had to catch our plane. Really nice beach but it was pretty cold and windy that day. There was lots and lots of shells which I would of liked to bring home but you cannot remove them from the beach let alone bring them back to Australia.

Clam shells on the Otaki Beach.

That concludes our trip to New Zealand. We cannot express enough how beautiful it was and the sights & tours we experienced were a thrill of a lifetime. We hope the pictures give you a taste of New Zealand. We strongly suggest that anyone coming over to Australia take the extra couple hour flight to see New Zealand. This is only the northern island that we saw and only the tip of the iceburg. We hope to go back there and see more of the northern island and take in the southern island as well. It was so worth the trip. Just to let you know that we took over 400 pictures of New Zealand. We will have to show more to you when we see you next.

Take care everyone and there are more posts coming in a couple of days featuring our little visitors, another beach trip and a new category "Same but Different".

Love always,

Bryan & Maureen