Wellington Visit

By some crazy coincidence, my dad's brother is also visiting New Zealand (from Singapore) at the same time my parents are here. My aunt and uncle were visiting their friend Bin Liong in Wellington (who my dad also knew from way back) so we drove down to meet up with them for a few days. We were kindly invited to Bin's birthday celebration and had a delicious buffet dinner at the James Cook Hotel. The other highlight of the trip  was the Te Papa museum, reputed as the best museum in NZ. And it lived up to expectation! We did not have time to thoroughly see all of this highly visual and interactive museum, so I look forward to going back!

My dad posing by Mount Ngauruhoe, aka Mt. Doom. Nobody really knows why he  went for an Egyption pose, haha

Drove through the gumboot capital of the world (Taihape) on our way to Wellington

Somebody wrinkled these hills!

Delicious dinner!

Family and friends

Walking with Dexter and my mom near our hotel. 

Porirua Harbour. Pretty!

Delicious pavlova berry chocolate smash dessert.

Burger Fuel is yummy! Clever burger holder provided, aka "doofer"

Dexter says grass is yummy. 

Te Papa!

Cool-looking exterior

Cool-looking interior too

The was probably my favourite part of the museum

Learning about the colossal squid

Largest specimen of colossal squid ever found

Kiwi birds and other cool animals

It would have been so cool to see a moa! 

Surprisingly cool map of NZ

We are standing at the farm in Whakamarama!

Onto the next floor, eep so much to see!

Cool  glowing circle that we only noticed after going up a couple floors

A computer that Scott was excited about :) [Scott: It's a Commodore VIC-20! My first computer!!]

Maori exhibit

Crazy longboat

Lunch after the museum

Mmmmm

More mmmm! [Scott: This tasted just like lava cake. SO GOOD.]

Home time! Dexter gets in the car early because he's nervous about being left behind.

My parents visit!

My parents arrived this week! It's been so nice to have them here :) My mom is going nuts in the garden...she has spent every morning weeding (often in the pouring rain) and now it looks beautiful! I'll take some pictures once we have a nice sunny day. She also loves the chickens and sheep, and of course Dexter!  Dexter is very excited to have her visiting :)

My dad's favourite part about New Zealand is probably the seafood. Or L&P. Or saying "kiwi as" and "sweet as" etc. all the time :) 

Charlie (my brother's girlfriend) sent me some shirts. Thanks!!! I love David and Goliath! 

Dexter got some treats from the pet store :)

At the beach in Tauranga

Mussels! They were still moving, eep!

Having a nice dinner

My mom got a sliver :( Dr. Lim and manuka honey to the rescue!

Taupo with friends

Our friends are heading south for a few days, so we joined them on the first leg of the journey to Taupo. We took them on the Huka Falls walk from town. It as a bit hot (especially for the sunburns!) but still a nice time. After a quick play on a zipline we found, we retreated down to the lake for some relaxing in the shade. Ryu and Beka (and Dexter!) went for a swim to cool down. We ended the day with an awesome meal at Taupo Steak and Ale bar. The ale selection was a bit lacking, but the steaks were fantastic. Or so I heard (I had some filo-wrapped fish instead, mmmmm). The presentation of the salad and the whole dish was really pretty!

Bye for awhile friends! Time to drive home to greet my parents tomorrow morning!

Jetboat at Huka Falls

The falls are great!

Picnic lunch

We found a zipline!

Weeee!

Ahh hitting the end!

Dexter likes it too :)

How did you get up there?

Don't eat me!

Hiding in the shade at Lake Taupo

Dexter gets a swim!

Delicious steak!

Nice meal with friends :)

Everybody's gone surfin'

Surfing USA NZ! Fun times at Waihi beach today surfing and relaxing in the sun! Finally a nice sunny day! The downside: everybody got sunburned (except me, mwah ha ha!)

I'm proud that all 4 of our friends gave surfing a try :) It was a great day for it too, nice shallowish breakers that were easy to catch. Everybody was pretty successful! Didn't get pics of everyone unfortunately, it's so hard to remember to take out the camera when funtimes are happening :)

Playing in the waves!

Relaxing

Surfing!

Ahh!

Eep!

Whoaa....

Alicia gets brave and tries too!

Chillaxin' on the board

Looking for a good wave

Dexter had fun too!

Scott hiding from the sun

Horses! Dexter is surprisingly uncaring