Wildside
Friday, 27 January 2012
 After 3 nights at home we've repacked (or really just transferred stuff from various not-yet-unpacked bags to other bags) and headed out to Tasmania's west coast for the Wildside mountain bike race. It is 7 racing stages over 4 days starting at Cradle Mountain and ending at Strahan. It starts tomorrow and apparently a good support crew is vital to competitors. Unfortunately for Jon, he's only got us. Being the not very dedicated support crew that I am, I also have my bike and a borrowed little kayak with us so I can get out when ever there is free time. Today I had time for a quick paddle on Dove Lake. The water was so warm the whole family had a swim afterwards.
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Fresh perspective
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
 Today was the first time I've been in my boat for a few weeks. After paddling other various sea kayaks and plastic sit-on-tops I've got a renewed appreciation of the following things:
1) My paddle is light. Really light. And a bit slippery in my hands - I should do something about that.. 2) My boat is tippy! Even compared to the multisport kayak I paddled at Waimarino. It took a bit of getting used to again today and you can see how flat the conditions are! 3) The water is really warm at the moment - apparently warmer than NSW water. In view of number 2) I practised some self-rescues today and didn't get cold at all. 4) My boat is really responsive to the rudder movements. In one of the kayaks we rented I really had to put all my weight on the rudder pedal to make it turn - in my own boat I barely need to twitch a toe. What does this all mean? Nothing much except that I'm not expecting to be very competitive in tomorrow's Sandy Bay Regatta paddling criterium thingy. Especially as it has a Le Mans start so I'll still be dragging my boat into the water while the rest of the starters are rounding the first mark.
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Apologies
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
 Dear North Island,
I'm very sorry that I ever doubted you. You were awesome. I hope you'll have us back some time. Regards, Impressed, Kingston.
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Mud Pools
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
 I have to admit that we didn't do quite as much mud-pool viewing as we probably should have given where we were but I guess we were pretty busy on the doing-stuff-activities rather than the looking-at-stuff things. We did do a quick (free) stop in a park in Rotorua to check out some boiling mud pools. Jon reckons it took him hours to recover from the burning tyre type smell though so we didn't go to the really touristy ones where there are geysers and pink pools and all that stuff. next time.
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MTB in Rotorua..
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
I can only comment on the riding based on my current ability and I have to say that I really wished I had more skills (and riding fitness ) so I could enjoy it more and worry less. The trails didn't have many obstacles as such (like logs or rocks to go over) but they were all about fast and sharp corners, drop-offs, steep pinches and lots of flow. The track surface generally beautifully smooth yet soft (if you fell) at the same time - 'Hero Dirt' apparently. I found that I was comfortable on the tracks rated 'easy' but on the intermediate ones I had the odd moment where I felt out of my depth so I couldn't hoon through them the first time round as I didn't know if was going to find myself at the top of a 1/2 metre drop off, or attempting an impossible corner or something.. - obviously as I rode a track for the second time I got more confidence but there were still tricky bits for me such as tight steep turns with tree-roots creating drop-offs right before them. There's no doubt that the scenery was great, and I only rode 1/3 or less of the trails I recon.   
Jonno went out every day for as long as we let him (generally 2-3 hours) and he loved it. Paul declared it the best area ever after about 2 minutes of riding and each day they discovered new 'favourite' tracks. The only thing I recon they could improve on the tracks would be to do what Woodhill have done and create some linked routes so that if you are new to the area you can just follow one set of signs to get out for a great ride and not have to stop every few minutes to work out where the heck you are and what trail to take next.. Luckily though we did have 4 days of riding to get an idea of the lay of the land. There is lot of linking one trail to the next by 4wd tracks and logging roads which were often quite nice to ride on anyway. Next time though I might take advantage of the shuttle service to get out to the trails which were further away or more importantly, higher up, as I often spent the first 30 minutes of my rides slogging away just getting to where I wanted to start from and as I normally only had 2 hours or less to spend riding, whilst it was great for my fitness, it might have been more fun to spend more of that time on the single tracks. Hopefully we'll get back to have more of a go some other time - it was great and I know I'm going to dream about the trails despite the scary bits.
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Zorbing
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
 There are many many ways to spend money in RotoVegas and Zorbing is one of them. Basically you get put inside a big plastic ball with some water, and then you roll down a hill on a straight or zig-zag course. Zali, Miley and Toby had a go all together and were grinning ear to ear afterwards. The run looked short (maybe 30 seconds?) from the sidelines, but Jon confirmed (after a ride with Jett) that it was totally awesome on the inside.
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Lake Okareka, Sweden Part II
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Now we've been here a few days I know for certain that we'd only ever stay here at Lake Okareka if we came back to the rotorua area. It does make the ride to the MTB trails 10-30 minutes longer depending on where you want to start but it's just so nice and opens up all sorts of other recreational possibilities including long swims (great to cool down with after a ride - photo below), horse riding and of course paddling as well as running on the walkway alongside the lake.. When I did a paddling lap of the lake (9-10km depending on how close you stay to the bank) I discovered some sea caves and arches on peninsulas on the other side of the lake which were fun to explore. I also discovered some free (or at least very cheap) quiet campervan sites with toilets and stuff. It's an ideal place to stay for a MTB holiday out of the hustle and smell of Rotorua itself..    
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At least there is free wi-fi
Friday, 20 January 2012
Right next to the luge is a place called Rainbow Springs which promises lots but is actually just an almighty ripoff especially when the major (and only) ride isn't even working. To tell the truth we didn't realise there was a ride in there (something called 'splashdown' but having been in here for 10 minutes we realised that without it, it's just an expensive garden) In fact many of the attractions on the map aren't actually built yet. Unable to console ourselves by feeding the sheep with a $2 bag of sheep 'food' I'm at least taking advantage of the wi-fi and really, we've been and seen a lot of cool stuff so one miss is no drama.
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The Luge
Friday, 20 January 2012
Anyone who has been to Rotor-Vegas will know that the visit to the luge is practically compulsory! The last time I was here was in 1986 so I was shocked to discover that you have to wear helmets nowadays. Actually with the new tracks and signs it's now probably way more likely to comply with western safety standards but it's no less fun. With two chairlifts and 3 different runs, no queues and great views it was great! Zali had one go on her own (with her new cousin buddy Abi) but the rest of the time the kids rode with us.   
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Coverage
Thursday, 19 January 2012
 The beautiful Lake Okareka is unfortunately a dead-zone for mobile coverage so I'm sitting in a park in Rotorua updating my blog. Jon on the other hand, is planning on being the next NZ headline for some form of death by misadventure, by standing on the deck balcony corner of the aptly named 'Tree House' we are staying in. You can image how long the drop is...
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Rotorua MTB
Thursday, 19 January 2012
This is the main reason we've been lugging our bikes around for a week! I've ridden once here already but I was with Paul and Jon so they had to wait for me often enough without me taking photos as well. I'll write more about it later (after a few more rides) but feast your eyes on the trail map..  
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Lake Okareka, Sweden
Thursday, 19 January 2012
The map says NZ, but the place screams Sweden to me. We're staying by an idyllic little lake surrounded by forest (on one side anyway- the other is NZ farmland). The lake is long enough to get a good paddle in (especially in the slow-arse plastic fantastic I have access to) and it's also got waterlillies! - cool huh! The oldies in our group (mum, dad, his two brothers and their wives) are staying in a lakeside house - and as you can see it's really lakeside and comes equipped with kayaks and other toys. It's fantastic. I haven't done it justice with the photos - I'll add more when they come to hand.  
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Family
Thursday, 19 January 2012
 We've arrived at the main point of our entire trip to NZ - the family reunion 5 day event in Lake Okareka, just outside of Rotorua (not close enough for it to be stinky luckily). The only official scheduled events are family dinners so the rest of the time we're here to catch up in smaller groups, let the kids hang out with different cousins for a change and to relax and have fun - which should be easy given this crew..
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Land Sailing
Thursday, 19 January 2012
 Rob has always wanted to go land sailing, so on our way to rotorua we stopped at a place and him and Jonno rented them for half an hour and went around an asphalt track (for the traditional experience Rob should really get together with Jon's brother in law Tim who hoons them around on a beach in SA in high winds ). A bit disappointingly the wind was a bit light so they alternated with some speed and no speed. Higher winds would have been fun. Nethertheless the bright colours of the sails make for good photos!
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Mt Maunganui
Thursday, 19 January 2012
 
Today we punished the kids for having such a great time yesterday by forcing them to walk up Mt Maunganui (you can see in the photo how happy they were about that) which is a high hill overlooking the merged towns of Mt Maunganui, Tauranga and Paloma and the rest of the Bay of Plenty which is pretty amazing beach and bay wise. It does have a dirty great (and I mean HUGE) port shipping out wood and everything else from the many plantation pine areas around the place (oh and the stricken Rena is out to sea somewhere too but we can't see it).The beaches around here are amazing and they stretch for miles and miles - if I was a surfer who wanted space, I'd come to NZ for sure - also apparently no-one has ever been eaten by a shark in NZ so that would be a bonus. Mt Maunganui would probably be a fine place to live, but as a tourist destination the hustle and bustle was a bit of a shock to the system after our BCV..
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