Drive from Paihia to Turangi for the next week!

Friday was a 6 – 7 hour drive to Turangi on the southern tip of Lake Taupo. Below is a picture of a road marker in Kawakawa directing visitors to the Hundertwasser Toilet Museum. The building is the only building in the southern hemisphere designed by Austrian born artist Hundertwasser and is the last building he designed before he died in 1999. Hudertwasser designed public toilets.

We were concerned about the drive through Auckland because the opening ceremonies and game of the Rugby World Cup was to be held that afternoon/evening in Auckland. While traffic going into Auckland from the west was really bad, our trip in the other direction was pretty uneventful. Thank goodness!Arrived in Turangi and found our resort. After talking with the host at the condos and getting info on local restaurants, we unpacked and went for supper at Valentinos. The restaurant (Italian cuisine)came highly recommended. While we were excited about ‘good’ Italian food, we were a little leery that it wouldn’t live up to the hype. It turns out that the chef is from a small town outside of Venice and he insists on staying true to the recipes he learned from his mother. His Italian product is imported and his bar is even stocked with true Italian aperitifs, wines and digestives. What an amazing evening! This was the best Italian food we’ve had since returning from Italy! We talked with the owners and several staff members for a while after our dinner. We left the restaurant and were walking down the stair to the parking lot when one of the ladies that served us came running down the stairs after us. We thought we left something but she wanted to give me something. She handed me a necklace of the Maori symbol representing the mountain overlooking and protecting Turangi. She said she loved my spirit and wanted to share that with me. When we told the host at the condo, she was quite surprised and said that was something very special and something not often done. For some reason, our spirits connected and that is very important to the Maori people.

We settled down in the resort lounge with several other folks, a bottle of wine and the TV to watch the opening game of the Rugby World Cup. The New Zealand All-Blacks creamed the Tonga team. It was nice watching the game with folks that really understand rugby rules and they could explain some of the finer points of the game as well as provide player info.

We drove to Rotorua on Saturday to go to our first World Cup game – Fiji vs. Namibia. It was expected to be a very one-sided game with Fiji dominating throughout, but Namibia held it’s own for a while. Ultimately, Fiji won. What a game, very physical and or so much fun!

An avid Namibia supporter

Ernie at his first Rugby World Cup game

All the games have been opening with a performance by a Maori warrior

The teams at attention while their national anthems are sung

This is the Rugby World Cup

Ernie went fishing for trout this morning on Lake Taupo. He expected to be out for 3 hours but actually returned after only 2 hours. It appears that he caught his limit (3) in the two hours. His total catch of 3 rainbow trout weighed about 10 lbs. So, guess what we’re having for supper tonight and again later this week! Check out his fish:

Well, that’s all for now folks! It’s pouring down rain and we have decided to hunker down and watch rugby games today. Going to have some shrimp and linguini along with pan fried trout for supper.

Y’all take care!