Northwards, and downwards

And yet one more video from Rotorua -- I thought Julian and Noah might be interested in seeing what a whole Zorb trip looks like (this is the least adventurous -- the others all involve bounces and shocking turns):

At the end of our stay in Wellington, we headed north -- a day of endless driving, broken only by some emotional, pirate-themed minigolf.  By the end of it, everyone had earned a place here:

We hit some murderous traffic on Wellington's only road north (one lane in each direction), as everyone headed out of town for the Easter holiday.  We crawled along for over an hour, hungry (if you were paying attention in the last entry, you'll remember that all the cafes in the city were closed...).  Finally, as we hit the holiday towns on the coast north of Wellington, we began to find some places that were open.  We drove past McDonalds's and KFCs, hoping to find something better -- and then I stopped here, because I am sure that Margaret and I had lunch here when we were in New Zealand.  Just outside of Waikanae, with a beautiful little garden in the back (where we ate).  Does this look familiar?:

The food was so good (the best lunch we'd had in NZ), and so beautifully presented, that the kids insisted we should have photos of all of it:

Our goal was Waitomo, the famous network of some 150 cave systems a couple of hours south of Auckland.  We finally limped in there around 9 pm and collapsed exhausted.  We stayed in the Waitomo Big Bird B&B, a very basic but perfectly comfortable 3-room hotel; aptly named, because it is also an ostrich and emu (and alpaca, and sheep ...) petting zoo.  We went out on the early morning feeding rounds, coaxed out by the extraordinarily soppy Border Collie, who just wanted to be loved (by humans, cattle, guinea pigs, anything):

This is, by the way, the second-smallest full-grown bull in the world:

Retired circus donkeys:

Both kids got up close and personal with giant ratites:

So that was fun, and then it was off to the caves.  It turns out that iPhones are pretty lousy at capturing astonishing limestone formations and glowworms in the dark, 200 feet underground.  So this is about all I have; but you'll have to take my word for it that it was spectacular (and the kids were really very impressed by the whole thing too):

We arrived back in Whangaparaoa last night in time for a birthday dinner with Debbie; then today (Easter Sunday), several of my aunts and uncles came around for a lunch party to see me and meet the kids.  A large group, as you can see from the pictures; but less than a fifth of the whole family -- probably for the best, as it was quite overwhelming already!  But the kids did very well, even when Mum announced to everyone that they (and I) were now going to perform on the piano and sing -- we all did creditably well, or at least Alice and Tommy did.

Still to come in the next couple of days: a sailing trip around the harbor with friends tomorrow, a trip to Auckland city for shopping on Tuesday -- and then to San Diego!  I'll try to post one more set of pictures before we leave.