Hot Water Springs, Miranda

Hot water springs in Miranda is the largest hot water pool in the southern hemisphere. There are three pools outside and a four more private pools that can be booked. Plus barbecue areas and a play area and a large inflatable jumpy thing for the children.
The largest pool seen in the image below is the largest hot water pool in the southern hemisphere.

It is a concrete pool that the hot water feeds directly. There is a faint smell of sylphur occasionally but it is very faint. The pool is so relaxing. It is at about 40o centigrade. There is an adult pool aswell which is slightly hotter. Four hours just flew by.

Mt Eden

Mt Eden is another extinct volcano above Eden Park and it provides panoramic views of the CBD and beyond, here a few images of our trip out and to the park we found at the foot of the mountain.

Eden Park from Mt Eden 

If you open up this image or save it you can see the workmen still erecting the temporary stands for the world cup.

Ginger Beer

We tried the age old family recipe for Ginger Beer recently...

I remember as a child Mam making this recipe and decanting the mix into glass Corona bottles to ferment. The gas builds up and then twice as I recall the bottles exploded. Once in the outside toilet and once behind the front door. It blew a hole in the front door and destroyed the toilet too. The 21st century recipe recommends PET bottles, as you can see from the images below we now await the tasting. One test is to check the 'hardness' of the PET bottle to check the carbon dioxide is being generated. It most certainly is!

 

The proof is in the pudding so to speak! This is the first bottle of ginger beer we have tried. It was extremely gassy. PET bottles are an excellent invention for making ginger beer.

Amelia's11th birthday .

This weekend - July 16th we celebrated Amelia's 11th birthday. Last night Amelia and two friends slept in the rumpus room. At 3am Joanne could still hear them giggling. At 10am Sarah came around, woke the girls up to do some painting with them and they created some original art! Sarah has now taken them off to the cinema to watch Kung Foo Panda in 3D. Jacques, Sarah's husband has gone with them too. by Daddy

Ellen and Hannah are going to Cockle Bay school so at that Daddy can see Ellen go on the monkey bars.While Amelia is with Sarah and Jacques. by Ellen

Auckland Botanic Gardens

This weekend we went to Auckland Botanic Gardens when Amelia was at Howick Country Club for a birthday party. Amelia was 11 this week and had a lovely day. Jo, our friend from around the corner came over as she had her birthday on the same day as Amelia. What a coincidence! Anyway back to the Botanic Gardens. They are about 12 miles away and free to enter. It is winter here at the moment but the gardens were lovely we spent the afternoon there and had a little picnic. As we arrived a bus pulled up and it was full of Tongans (I think) on a church trip. It was fascinating.

Here are a selection of the images from the day out.

Maori Week

This week was Maori week in school. A week of activities and prayers in Maori. Each day the staff would sing a Maori prayer before the morning meeting and then on Friday the pupils greeted the staff with a traditional Maori song. It was hairs on the back of the neck time. Truly mesmorising.

Pine Harbour

This weekend we popped out fro lunch to Pine Harbour. Ellen's suggestion. We took scooters and it was a lovely day sunny and warm. Not bad for winter, however wasps in the winter, how bizarre.

This week we also went to the Hillary school ball which was at the Crowne Plaza in Auckland city centre. It was a lovely night.