Son can you play me a memory?

This weekend we took our first vacation from farm life. Who wouldn't after just 2 days?

Our hosts had some business to do in the lovely beach town of Tauranga, southwest of Auckland and invited us a long to see the sites. Who could turn that down?

After enjoying a relaxed breakfast and some sky diving videos (Dene is a competitive jumper) we started our journey mid morning and enjoyed a lovely drive through the North Island countryside to the Bay of Plenty. Along with great stories about the towns and country that we were passing through, Katrina and Dene had a surprise for us in Paeroa. This town is very special, and the Kiwis have bottled in magic in L&P 0r Lemon and Paeroa. A delicious fizzy drink that is like lemon and ginger ale but better. So good in fact, that it is "World Famous in New Zealand"

After the long drive, we were happy to get to our hotel and Tauranga and enjoy a cuppa tea before our afternoon adventures. Dene and Katrina had business to attend to so Kate and I were on our own to create an adventure.

First things first - we found lunch! Where we immediately took to having another L&P. Of course, the soda machine was not doing it's job right, and instead of a delicious taste of heaven, we got seltzer water with what may have been a taste of lemon. But we didn't let that ruin our day.

Katrina and Dene had told us the thing to do was walk around Mount Maunganui. So we headed in the direction of the hill.

After some misdirection (during which I may or may not have mistaken a tree for our mountain... what can I say, it was a small mountain). We found our way to the summit trail and began our stroll to the top. The views were breathtaking all along the way and we were teased by the sight of paragliders on uplifts from the other side of the mountain.

There were interesting people the whole way up, some who cared to share some interesting advice. Be forewarned: if Putin pushes the button, flee to the southern hemisphere (of course, there are several other events that lead to the button, not to be divulged here). We also found the world's worst lookout with the world's best bench. And best of all, we found the launch site for the paragliders!

The walk down proved far more interesting than the walk up. We decide to take the "steep" path. The drops between the "steps" provided quite a beating for the knees.

After the walk we headed back to the hotel, where we met up with Katrina and Dene, and enjoyed another cuppa tea! (Who can resist?) And got sucked into watching two movies. We were smart and tore ourselves from the tv before another came on!

We had dinner at a small restaurant in Tauranga. Kate and I were both daring enough to try the green mouthed muscles. The shells were quite pretty (they were green)! Then the real treat, brick fired pizza, yummy!

Then the Kiwis were in for a real treat. We went to meet a friend of Dene and Katrina. Angie is phenomenal at Karaoke. On the other hand, Kate and I performed what had to be the most terrifically off key performance of Piano Man. But the dancing and dramatizations where phenomenal. Our groupies - Angie and Laura (the real stars of the evening) - helped to make it the one of the most fun and hilarious moments in Karaoke history.

To our disappointment, Dene and Katrina went back on their promise. Neither one of them entertained us with their vocal stylings!



We had an early morning so we could check out an awesome organic farmers' market before spending the afternoon working on the farm.



Along the way home I saw at least 30 cyclists enjoying one of the most fun looking roads I have ever seen. If you think steep grades and sharp curves are fun. I was jealous of all of them! Hopefully one of our hosts will be a cyclists who happens to have road bike small enough for me!