New Zealand Childhood House

And we're off!

I had a small list of activities and places that I wanted to show Mark. Let me preface the next paragraph by saying that Mark is a sentimental sort of man. He likes to show me around Madison, WI when we visit... to see his elementary school, the house he grew up in and all the haunts of his youth. He had also voiced his enthusiasm for seeing similar things from my childhood, so that was high on the list.

We took off from New Plymouth on December 30th. Dad driving, mom navigating. Mark and I in the back, eating Licorice Allsorts and Cadbury mini's. Welcome to my childhood, Mark!!!

The first stop was actually Te Kuiti... for cabinet food and a flat white, of course.

I introduced Mark to a custard square dessert. They are hard to cut in half while still keeping the "square" shape but using a butter knife clearly doesn't help!

Then Mark got up close and personal with a shearing dummy before we headed off to Otorohanga, for the first event for today, the Kiwi House. We DID see a kiwi shuffling around in his dark enclosure, but sorry, no pics allowed.

Kea - NZ parrot

Tuatara - NZ lizard

And then we cruised through Tokoroa. I lived in this small city (17,000 people) for the first 13 years of my life. Mark got to see my childhood house, 12a Dalmeny St - which has seen better days. And the neighborhood it sits in, which looks shockingly the same!

Driveway

12a Dalmeny Street... 35 years after my dad painted it, it has not been repainted. The residents may or may not have been home when Mark and I crept up the driveway to take this pic. Mom and dad waited in the car on the street. I think the condition of the house that my dad lovingly built would have made him sad. 

A couple of burned out houses on my street? Just sitting there... with no plans to change?!

This is my elementary/primary school. I was super glad to see that it has had a lot of positive changes and looks great. 

We finished the day in Rotorua. All I can say about the hotel I booked, is that I didn't have that many options and it seriously looked much better online.  There were red flags the second we drove up. It didn't get better when the manager "showed off" his thermal spa pool which was in slimy green condition. But OMG I laughed so hard when dad found his reading light was attached to the wall with first aid tape! (At least his had a light bulb... mine didn't.)

See... I wasn't exaggerating.

On the bright side, Mark is still hanging in there with me.  :-)