This is Lisa. Lisa was a brave girl, she was travelling New Zealand and then on to Australia by herself! The group got to talking to her in the spa and invited her to join us for pizza and beer.
Group photo, going clockwise from bottom. Lisa, Karen (Blondie), Yvette (Corvette), me (Mal), Alan (Toa), Trevor (Horse), and Richard (Spider).
Ahh. The spa was so nice and warm.
Toa and Yvette toasting our arrival.
Cute and cozy. With wet clothes hanging to dry.
The insides were very nice!
Our cabin in Rotorua.
There is some land over there with the sun shining on it... back the way we came from.
The lichen grows thick in these parts.
A bit of blue sky!!
Wringing out my gator.
That's my girl, she never stops smiling, even when the conditions are less than desirable. She brightens all my days!
This is our arrival at Lake Taupo. It's still raining.
This depicts an Amazon. They were women who would volunteer to collect monies for the war effort.
A diorama of life in the trenches.
There were several dioramas that were very authentic and extremely detailed.
The inside displays.
Some of the medals in this display were stolen recently. The national outcry was enormous, but the perp's were found, and the medals returned.
The History of New Zealand's participation in war.
The green wall. Greenstone is sacred to the Maori and was donated to the museum to create this wall.
Jazz acting fancy.
Notice how wet we are. Never wear a hoodie in the rain, it wicks the water into the inside of your gear and you end up sopping wet.
Hot food! Wedges with ham and cheese. The Kiwi's call their ketchup Tomato Sauce. It is similar to our ketchup, but more spicy.
The inside display of a paratrooper.
The rain slowed a bit, but not for long.
The outdoor exhibits.
The National Army Museum.
Wet but still smiling.
The pit stop to change gear.
A bit damp.
Raukawa Falls.
The Wanganui River. The Rhine of the south. It's still raining.
Horse and Spider
Spider and Jazz
Day 4 started out grey and gloomy. Jazz said that it looked like it was breaking up to the north, which was the way we were heading. It turns out Jazz is the eternal optimist. Trevor Johns (Horse) showed up the evening before, and Richard McKeown (Spider) showed up in the morning, water running off him in sheets. We finished the last of the packing and headed out. Jazz has some spare wet-weather gear, so we were mostly geared up. We tried to find me a face shield, but no dice. 1/2 helmets are not popular in New Zealand, except with the Harley riders, and there was not a face shield to be found. I tried to find a full face helmet, but their XL was too small. We headed out into the rain without the proper gear. We got a good way before I had to stop, my sunglasses were all fogged up, and the rain was stinging my face. No help for it, we carried on. Jazz saw me covering my face with my hand while riding, and he offered me a balaclava to ease the sting, but I foolishly tucked it in, and it wicked all the rain under my gear. My hoodie was rapidly soaked, and I got chilled. We pulled over at Raetihi - the top end of the Parapara Highway, and drove thru a lake disquised as a puddle that filled my and Yvette's boots with water from the spray. With my leather on I was much warmer, but everything was wet by now. I ditched the balaclava and used my gator to protect my face, and we carried on. The rain finally stopped about 30 miles from our destination, and there was blue sky to be seen. When we arrived Toa and Blondie were at the campground. Toa had beer in the fridge and pizza on the way. He's a Good Man. There was much socializing and drinking and sitting in the hot tub to thaw. We called it a night and retired to our cabin.
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