New Zealand Part 2

Wednesday, December 6, 2007

(Thanks to Ryan for this entry!)

We all went to bed early on the day we arrived in New Zealand, so on Wednesday we woke up with a day wide open for activities. We drove downtown to find the Rotorua information center to help us plan our day. As we looked for the information center, we noticed that we were right next to Rotorua Lake, so we drove toward it and found out that there was a city park by the lake. We decided that after a 12-hour flight, a three-hour car drive, and driving around town looking for a place to eat the night before, our kids would probably benefit from some unconstrained time, so we got out of the car and let them play on the playground. Ryan watched them while Amy drove to the information center. Mason and Katie spent their time on the playground playing…surprise, surprise…Pokemon. Andrew simply relished in the freedom, running and climbing to anyplace he could rest his eyes.

When the kids had played for a while and Amy had returned from the information center, we decided to do the Zorb and the luge in the morning, and a museum in the afternoon. “Zorb” is an 11-foot clear plastic ball that you climb into and then roll down a hill. When we arrived, however, we found out that (1) they recommended riding in a ball with water inside of it because it is more fun, but we hadn’t brought our swim suits, (2) they would not let Katie do it because she was too young, and (3) it would cost $50 for each of us ($150 for Amy, Ryan, and Mason). We decided to forget about the Zorb.

Our next attempt at entertainment was to go to the luge (which is similar to the Alpine Slide in Park City, Utah, but it is more of a road than a track to ride down). There was a sign up that says that it is the first luge in the world. Hmmm… The luge was a successful activity. We rode a gondola up the mountain, which gave us spectacular view of Rotorua. Then we went down the hill in three luges—Amy and Katie, Ryan and Andrew, and Mason in his own. Mason did a great job, but wiped out twice, so he was not particularly excited about piloting his own luge the second time. Katie and Andrew loved it, though. We went down a second time, taking turns, Mason with Amy and Katie with Ryan, and both of them loved it the second time. Andrew happily wandered up and down one of the walking path. He made a couple of attempts to dive off the cliff, which was a bit frightening. He is a baby who does not like to be constrained.

After riding the luge we had lunch in a nice restaurant at the top of the mountain with a beautiful view of the mountain valley. The kids had their first experience with Christmas “crackers”—where you pull both sides of a little roll, which makes a cracking firework sound before you find little cheap plastic presents inside. Those were a big hit, except for the tragedy that Mason got two cheap plastic magnifying glasses and Katie did not get any, which sent her into a fit of tears. Mason did not want to share, but eventually did. This made Katie happy, until the ride back down the gondola, in which she dropped her magnifying glass behind a railing and lost it, sending her into another fit of tears. Sensing a pattern in Katie’s decision making, Amy gave her a lecture about thinking before acting. Andrew liked the dinner at the top of the mountain so much that he wore most of it home all over his clothes.

We went back to our sulfur-smelling trailer and put Andrew down for a nap while we played card games with Mason and Katie and read them books. When they woke up, Amy announced that we were going to the museum. There was not a lot of energy among the rest of the family for this activity, but Amy then had a talk with the kids about how most of what we have done have been fun things for the kids, and that this was something that Mommy wanted to do. They understood and reluctantly agreed, and were surprised with how much they liked it. Mason, in particular, was interested in learning at the museum.

The highlight of the museum was a movie on the history of the bath house that the museum was made out of. The museum had been a bath house because there is so much underground hot water, because New Zealand is made out of so many volcanoes. As the movie reviewed the history, it came to the part in the story where the nearby volcano erupted. During this part, the music got intense and the seats in the museum’s movie theatre started shaking. This freaked Katie Quinn out: “I’m scared! I want to leave!” Ryan took her and Andrew out, and left Amy and Mason, who both thought that the volcanoes were really cool, to finish the movie. Katie also refused to go in the dark, underground , pipe works part of the museum, and Katie, Mason, and Andrew all refused to stay up on the rooftop of the museum. A family of chickens—that’s what we are.

We tried to play croquet on the beautiful lawn in front of the museum, but were told you had to be club members. Instead we went to the rose garden, and then let the kids play on another of the playgrounds we found. While at the park, Ryan started to climb a tree, and re-tore his abdominal muscle (recall his hernia surgery from last February) as he was hoisting himself up. Amy thought he looked pretty funny moaning in pain on the tree branch and took pictures of him doing so.

We picked up Subway sandwiches on the way home and crashed for another exhausted 10-11-hour night of sleep.