Garden Update,

We got the first round of plants in. The transplants are alive and and and .... um alive? They are not doing well, but they are not dead yet. This picture was taken on May 8.

1 Week after planting.

Last weekend (26th of March), I planted some seeds for the Garden. Zucchini, Squash, Cucumber, Tomato, Cilantro, Basil, & Eggplant were on the list. This weekend (April 2), we saw the first few sprouts from this effort. Nothing to show visually. Of course I am going to post a picture of pots with dirt in them!

Out in the garden, there are a few seedling from the Pak Choi sprouting up. There is nothing from the asparagus or the spinach.

We spent Saturday hiking up Bear Canyon, from NCAR. Pictures are to come.

The start of a garden

We finally figured out that some of the early season plants should be planted. We started with a run to garden center to get some seeds. We also picked up some asparagus. Not sure what to do with that. We got the asparagus home and learned that you should not harvest the first year. It is an early plant, so in the ground it went. So we planted Pack Choi, Asparagus and Spinach. We should seed the rest, but that will have to wait until after a Home Depot run.

Other things that we want to plant are Cucumber, Squash, Tomato and who know what else.

The Farm!

After we toured the Rotorua area we returned to the farm for Alison's birthday.

Here is a picture of the river that flows through the farm. On the right is a little picnic area where the birthday party was held

The farm has two houses on it. One on each side of the river. This is a view from Glenda's house looking at Ann's house:

We met Max's sister, Glenda and her daughter Claire. Claire has a cook book for teens. Here is her website ItsMyTurnToCook. Glenda took us on a wonderful tour of the farm. I thought it would take a few minutes. It took a few hours! We saw where they are growing trees, clearing trees and leasing out pasture for cows. Max then took me on a tour of the bike tracks on the farm. They put a lot of effort into building the tracks. Thankfully I did not break anything.

On Sunday evening we did a tour of Tauranga. We started by walking up Mt. Muano Reserve.

At the start of the climb, we finally saw some New Zealand Sheep Up until that point all we saw was cows. And they said New Zealand was all sheep.

The view from the top of the mound looking south east towards Tauranga.

The motley crew at the top. The picture was taken by Ian, Max's brother.

The view towards the Port of Tauranga:

From the top of Mt. Mauao Reserve, looking at the Tauranga entrance. It was impressive the amount of tidal water that was flowing. The boats were working very hard to get in.

Exploring New Zealand

On Friday, February 19, 2010 we went to Metal Image, met Max and got a tour of the Metal Image production facility. Max's brother Andrew was then nice enough to let me borrow his wonderful Ellsworth bicycle and led us on a tour of his local bike tracks. His tracks were wonderful, quite tight with all the vegetation around. Without hesitation a branch decided to find its way into the wonderful carbon fiber derailleur and went the extra distance to find several of the spokes on the wheel. Quite an accomplishment considering it was a low spoke count wheel. I was not hurt but the wheel would not even turn so I got to carry the bike home. The reward for breaking the bike was a wonderful home cooked meal made by Andrew and his wife. After a consuming the wonderful meal, Max, Jill and I drove down to the farm.

We arrived at the farm late and tired. Max's mother, Allison was there to welcome us into her house. His sister and her husband (Ann and ???) lived in the same house in a separate wing of the house.

On Saturday, February 20th Max, Jill and I went on a tour of the Rotorua area. This is a volcanic area that is popular with tourists.

The first thing we did was a ride called The Luge. Quite fun. Here is Ed, Jill and Max heading up the gondola

Here goes Jill Screaming down the track:


Although it doesn't look like much, that little luge did get off the ground and did get quite exciting around some of the corners.

Here are some pictures of Lake Rotorua from the top:

We then went off to explore the town of Rotorua. A nice little tourist town the main attraction is the volcanic activity.


Redwood Forest

There is a walk on the south end of Lake Rotorua that has some of these features. I think the smell of rotten eggs would be unbearable if we did not have that wonderful wind that we had during our visit. Here is one sign that I thought was interesting.

Here is the pool that the sign was talking about. Not really inviting. I am sure there are better ways to enjoy the therapeutic benefits of hot water.

There is a Redwood forest in New Zealand. This forest was planted in the 1900's as part of a trial of over 170 different tree species. Most of the tree species did not survive but the Redwoods have grown well. The tallest is now over 67 Meters. We did a walk through the forest while there was a mountain bike race close by.

Jill in the Redwood forest..

Ed in the Redwood forest..

We then drove through the "Lakes District" on our way back to the farm. We only got a little lost.


Jill and Ed at the Lakes District:

Ed and Max at the Lakes District:

First day in Aukland

On February 16, 2010 Jill and I flew from Denver to LA on United, then took Qantas from LA to Aukland. We left the house at about 12:00 pm, arrived at the hotel around 12:00pm on February 18. A long trip indeed. In Aukland we rented a car and drove to the north shore of Aukland. After the travel from Denver to Aukland, it took a little bit of concentration to drive a manual transmission car on the other side of the road and navigate to the hotel. Luckily Jill did a great job navigating while I concentrated on not getting in a wreck, we were able to get to the hotel without a problem.

The hotel, Spencer on Byron was located in an area called Takapuna, a wonderful little area near the beach. They gave us a room way up on the tower. We checked in the hotel early in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day exploring Takapuna and trying to stay awake. We explored the beach area and had some wonderful Thai food.

This is Takapuna beach, looking at Rangitoto Island. The island is designated as Native Forest.

Another view of Takapuna beach looking south East towards North Head.

A link to a map of the area.

The area is volcanic, with the beach an old fossilized forest. Here is the explanation:

And here are some pictures of the fossilized forest. It may not look like much but you really can see the trees in the rocks.

Another view of Takapuna Beach:

The hotel room had terrific views, these were taken in the morning

Morning from the hotel room looking left from the balcony, the body of water is lake Pupuke

Morning from the hotel room, looking straight out at Rangitoto Island,

And finally looking right from the hotel room, looking right towards downtown Aukland: