MWNews 278

 Blogger has told me they are going to take down some of my pictures. Apparently, they are movies that are not allowed. I haven't put any movies in here that I know of. I think it might be something about my iPhone taking movies with all its pictures and saving them that way. I have no idea. They said they will not play on the platform and never have. I really don't know what they are talking about. I guess I will wait for them to disappear and then replace them. I am hoping they are not deleting the entire entry and only deleting the picture. They recommend I make a backup of my blog before they do it. So I have 30 days to figure out how to back this up. Then I have to figure out how to restore it if I ever have to do that. Not a lot of instructions on how, why, and when this is going to happen. They say in the next 30 days. We will have to see.

I have kind of looked it up. It will be something I need to do at home. There is an option to backup your blog, but I don't know how that works and I don't want to do it at work. There is also a section on pictures and videos in the blog. It says I do not have any videos. I have no idea what that means. It also says there are three sections for MWNews, each with a couple of hundred photos in each. I have no idea what that means either. Going to require me to do some work at home. I hate that. I have no desire to work on computers at home. I am burned out on working on computers. Don't want to do it anymore. Don't want to have this job anymore. But, I have 30 days to get it backed up, so I suppose I need to do that. My question is, if I back it up, and they delete the pictures or entries or whatever it is they are going to delete, how do I restore it. If it does not allow the videos it says are there, how do you restore it without the videos. 

I hate change.

Enough about me, let's talk about me. I went to the doctor yesterday to report my heart attack. I made the horrible mistake about saying I thought I had a heart attack. We spent the next 10 minutes trying to explain that I have no evidence of a heart attack, only past experience with this type of pain. No matter how much I explained, he kept asking me what hospital I went to. I finally had to say never mind, I didn't have a heart attack, I had chest pain and the cardiologist said I should have my GP arrange for me to go visit him again. I said that was why I was there. If he had some tests or anything he wanted to do first, then we can do that. So I am scheduled for an echocardiogram in a couple of weeks. He did a listen to my chest and back and said I also needed to be checked for fluid in my lungs and then to come back and we would go over all the medication I was taking to make sure it was the right medication. Since some of it has been prescribed by the cardiologist and some of it by him and some of it the last time I was in hospital and some of it from my previous doctor four years ago, he thought it would be a good idea to go over it all. I said I thought it was all in my records but he said no, it wasn't. Have I ever mentioned my distrust and lack of belief in the competence of the medical profession. Maybe I have.

So I am scheduled for more tests. I am sure, a year from now, they will decide I need another angiogram, which will lead to angioplasty. So time off work. Or maybe I will be retired by then. I doubt  it as retirement is looking farther and farther away. I have this sneaking suspicion I will be back in for open heart surgery at some point. No evidence of that, it is just a suspicion on my part. The surgeon who did the last one, twenty years ago, said I would probably be back at some point since I was so young at the time. Maybe I am too old now and they won't do it, but I think this is the age when most people have it done the first time.

I am also very tired all the time. I have always put it down to lack of sleep, 5 hours a night is about all I get these days. But it seems I am extra tired and get tired very easily these days. Plus, I am having trouble breathing or I am short of breath all the time. And to top it all off, my back hurts. Don't think that is related to anything, but it hurts all the time now. Old age, overweight most of my life, it is finally starting to catch up with me. And I have to mention, happening right now, that I am eating a mandarin and it is one of the most sour mandarins I have ever eaten. Just thought you needed to know while I was complaining.

Expect other updates on my health, or what little I have left. Mentally, I am still a wreck. Forget everything, get lost all the time, unable to concentrate, just a series of events that will eventually cause me to lose my mind. But hey, the doctors tell me there is nothing wrong with me. They will keep saying that right up till the time they diagnose me with Alzheimer. Everything says early detection is key, but since I have nothing wrong with me, and forty percent of all people have it, I am one of the lucky few who will not get that disease. Good on me.

Have you enjoyed my tale so far. I am going to publish it as is. Have no work to do, so I need to go pretend I am useful. I published the last report for the trip to New Zealand. I have a lot of other stories but I thought I should stop doing this for the day. It is only 9:00 in the morning, so I might start another one soon. Three in one day. That would be interesting. This one doesn't really count, it is just me complaining. I should reserve a special tag for those. That might be the largest group when I am done.

So it's goodbye from me and its goodbye from him.

Later

MWNews 277

 Back again, and yes, it is Tuesday. I didn't type on the weekend. I thought about it. Even got the keyboard out that I can actually type on, but I never got around to actually typing. I played Civilization. Not that I am good at it. I have only ever won once, but I enjoy it until about halfway through the game, then it becomes a slog and I never win. You think I would learn how to play better. I never do. I am not sure what that has to do with typing entries in here, other than it distracts me when I sit down to the home computer.

On out last episode, I think we were about to drive home from Rotorua. Speaking of Rotorua, I just heard that name in a podcast I listen to. It was about how dependant humans are on sulfur. I didn't really listen to it, but they mentioned Rotorua because apparently, people who live there do better on some type of mental tests. They said it was because of all the hot springs and that the town perpetually smells of sulfur. We noticed it and I had warned everyone about it before we left, but it was interesting to hear the report that it might be a good thing.

Next day, we got up fairly early, around 8, and were out of the house by 9:30. I had decided to drive back on a route that took us to the coast. It was just a brief tap of the coast before we headed back inland, but no one had ever been that way so we made a trip out of it. It was a pleasant drive, mainly because everyone slept most of the time. It was a nice road that went through some small mountains and along some river. We got to the coast and there was nothing there. Didn't keep us from staying for over an hour. We had some lunch, and then had to go to the chemist. I don't remember why. I got some more pain medicine and the girls looked at some perfume that was supposed to be exclusive to there, but I am not sure why we had to go to that chemist. And I only mention it because it was packed. I have no idea why. We had to park a long way away from it and walk back. I have no idea why so many people were there. It seemed kind of strange to me. There was nothing else in the town, or nothing we saw. Maybe we just didn't go down the right road, but it seemed like a pretty dead town. 

Anna and the boy decided they were not going to go with us to Wellington. We were to drop them off at their house. It was along the way, so we didn't mind. It was going to be easier for them because they would have to take a train back to their house the next day since we did not have time to take them back. I am told that is about a 3 hour train ride. 

Once we dropped them off, we had to take the original road we had planned on taking when we got there. You know, the one they had said was washed out. Now I have no idea how you rebuild a road in three days, but Anna said it happens all the time. Almost every time it rains, the road through the mountains is closed because parts of it has washed away. A regular occurrence I am told, and not just by Anna. Either they don't know what washed away means or they are really good a repairing the roads, in the mountains, very steep sides all the way up with no room for trucks or anything. 

I think they are making it up. I was not so sure about taking a road over the mountain that had been closed two days before, but we gave it a shot. It was very windy, and I am not sure that says windy as in twisted or windy and as in a lot of wind. Too lazy to make sure. I mean it was very twisty. And there was a lot of it. I think, to get there from where Anna lives to Wellington would be about a 20 minute drive if you didn't have to go over the mountain, it is not that far. But it takes about 2 hours on the road. Or maybe it was 2 hours to the place we were staying. It was on the other side of Wellington in a very steep part of town. Scary to drive in and out of the driveway, but we made it ok.

I won't go into the first night we were there. We didn't want to go back out, so we ordered Uber Eats. I have never ordered from Uber Eats before. Maeghan had to show me how to do it. I ordered way too much food and we ended up not getting to eat it all.

I was looking for a place to have breakfast the next day. We were planning on spending the day in town. I found something that was never expected to be in New Zealand. I found a Denny's. I have not been to Denny's in 30 years, maybe more. It was not a place we frequented in America but they had heard me talk about it on many occasions. I always say, let's go to Denny's when we are out at night, even there are no Denny's in Australia. I say it all the time. No place to go for late night, early morning food in Australia, or we have never found any. 

Wasn't that special, but now the kids can say they have been to Denny's.

We then went to the museum in Wellington. They had lots of different things. 5 or 6 floors worth. The first thing was a big tribute to the Anzac memorial. It was a long, very detailed accounting of what happened during the war. Lots and lots of exhibits. Juanita and William were not that impressed. They moved on pretty quickly. Maeghan and I saw everything. Spent way too much time in there. They have these very enlarged enactments of scenes from the war. Probably three or four times life size. Most of it was pretty interesting, but way too much to see. You could spend all day in there and not see it all. We probably spent and hour and a half, Maeghan and I. We only left because there was a lot of other things to see in the museum.

Most of the other stuff was interesting also, but since we had spent so much time in the war memorial, we kind of rushed through the rest. I would have liked to spend a whole day there, but Juanita and William were already restless. Maeghan and I went through the first 2 floors and then Maeghan went the the remaining floors while the rest of us had coffee in the coffee shop. The museum is worth the time, but you either spend all day there and see everything or just kind of wander through and miss a lot of it. I don't know if I would do it again, but it was worth the first time through.

After that, we just wandered around the town and hit up some shops. We also took the 'cable' car up the hill. Totally not worth it. It is a very short tide up the side of the hill on a tilted train. Maybe two blocks total from bottom to top. You could probably walk it faster. And there is nothing at the top. A gift shop, some houses, a restaurant sort of but it was closed when we were there so I have no idea if it is actually a restaurant or not. 

After that, we went and had steaks somewhere. I wanted our last meal to be good. Wasn't that good, but we didn't know that before we went. The next morning, we did have a wonderful breakfast on the water. Problem was, it was raining and heavy fog so we couldn't see anything, but it was a good breakfast. I have a couple of pictures in hear from there. We had the flight later that afternoon, so we had plenty of time. 

I guess that about raps it up for the New Zealand vacation. As I have said, probably the best vacation we have had. We did go to Airlie Beach a couple of times in the Whitsundays that would rival this vacation, but for the amount of stuff we did and the enjoyment we had doing it, this was still probably the best. We will go back to Airlie sometime, but probably won't be back in New Zealand. Something for years in the future, all depending on my health and wealth in retirement. 

That is going to be all. This has been way too long. I thought about cutting this entry into two more and giving some more details on what we had done, but I decided against it. If you made it this far, I must have put something in these that was more meaningful than I thought it was. 

As a quick side note. New Zealand was so good, I have honestly considered it a destination for retirement. Haven't looked into it much, but it might be something to think about. But I digress.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 276

I've said it before and will probably say it again, but I am not as good a writer as I was before. I do ok, but these things used to have some very clever and amusing parts to them. I think some of that is missing these days, or it seems like they are. I am not sure if it is me, or maybe the kids are not as funny as adults, or maybe I realise it would be embarrassing if I wrote stuff about them like I used to. I don't know what it is. I know if I try to be funny, it never comes out right and I delete most of the funny parts. I used to not have to even try, but now, it is a little harder and doesn't come as easy as it once did. Probably just losing my fastball, but I still enjoy writing and this is something I really enjoy doing. The fact that I just published the last entry and started this one immediately after might indicate how much I like it. Or, I am just bored and not wanting to work anymore, so I do this in between classes. It's fun, and I expect to be doing a lot more of it when I retire. Might even start a book, but that seems a bit ambitious. I guess I will keep going, see where it takes me, and find out if it is all worth it. I hope the kids get enjoyment out of it someday. I know, since I have been back to the writing, no one is actually reading these anymore. I get a lot of views, so maybe they are, but nothing that it consistent or any kind of feedback on if they are actually good or not. Probably just people flying by in their search for something else. I don't mind. As I repeat over and over, it is for me and the kids. A remembrance of Daddy, I hope. I was here once and they are the only legacy I will ever have or need. 

Now I have a show to do.

Oh, and by the way, I just got a notice that Blogger is going to start enforcing some content rules soon, or maybe they already have. I have no idea what that means. They sent me a copy of the rules. I am wondering if they are going to object to my posting pictures of the kids. I know, from other things I have read, there are restrictions on what and where you can post pictures of kids. Even from the beginning, I have always worried about putting pictures of them in this. I know how people are these days and some of the things that could happen. I have always kept this semi-private and not gone the push for views route partly because I was worried about that. I am just wondering if now, Blogger is going to flag some of my entries. I guess we will find out. I thought I would mention it in case things started to change for no reason. I don't know what it might be, but it's possible I suppose. 

Once again, back to our regularly scheduled program.

We didn't get up early the next day, or they didn't. I think we got on our way around 9 or 10. First on the agenda was going to the downhill cart racing track. This is a little roadway built into the side of a hill that you take a cable car up to and then sit in the little carts and race down the hill. Didn't really need reservations for that, just show up, pay your money and ride down the hill. Turns out there were 5 different tracks you could go on, but I think one of them was closed. You can pay for sets of 1, 3 or 5 rides and you get to pick which track you want to go on. They all start from the same place and there are different exits you can turn off to go to the different tracks. 

I got the set of 3 rides for me, Maeghan, William, Anna, and the boyfriend. There was no way Juanita was going to go on it, so she stayed at the top to wait for us until we finished. There were a couple of restaurants and a gift shop up there, so there was something for her to do. Each ride only took about 5 minutes and then you had to take a ski lift back to the top. We would meet back with her after about 10 or 15 minutes and then go again.

It was fun, except for the ski lift part, which was terrifying.  William took off each time and raced down the hill as fast as he could go. The boyfriend kind of did the same thing so I was left to make sure Maeghan and Anna were ok. It was nice. The first time, we went down the scenic route. They had dinosaurs and cabins and other things to look at on the way down. The carts themselves were easy to drive, once you figured out how, so not a lot of problems. The only real problem occurred when I tried to get out. You are supposed to just stand up and step out, but they are so low to the ground, I had to crawl out sideways and then roll over to stand up. Several of the workers helped Maeghan each time, so that was good. 

On the last trip down, William and I decided to take the fast track. It was steeper and had many more turns. A big issue was if you did not turn correctly, your cart would dig into the pavement and slow you down, or in Williams case, flip you out of the cart. That happened when I passed him and he was trying to catch up. Got going to fast and did not make the turn. He crashed into the wall and flipped his cart over. I was long gone but could hear him yelling behind me. He wasn't hurt, but now he had a big story to tell to his mother, and everyone else, that he milked it for all it was worth. I think by the third or fourth telling, he had flipped the cart and did several barrel rolls down the track before coming to rest in a giant pit on the side of the road. I am sure it would have been exciting to watch.

All in all, the carts were really fun and if Anna and her boyfriend did not have a fight, it would have been a very pleasant experience. Another place I would recommend.

I think we went to lunch next, although we might have done that later. I only mention it because we went to Wendy's. Wendy's has just opened in Australia and they all love it. Especially, William. There was one on the way to the carts and we said we were going there before we left but I am not sure if we went after the carts or for dinner that night. Doesn't matter, I just thought I would mention it. We ended up not being that impressed. It just didn't have the same feel as the new one's in Brisbane. And, they were out of chili, so that was a big disappointment. Maeghan and I love the chili. It is even mild enough for Juanita, but they didn't have any. Very disappointing.

Our next adventure was the tree walk. This was on the other side of town, but since the town is not very big, it didn't take more than 10 minutes to get there.

The tree walk is just what it sounds like. They built a raised platform between the tall trees in some forest. Kind of like the one in Tasmania that we have been on before. This one was pretty good, or it was at least longer than the one in Tasmania ( I refuse to say Tassie, which is what they call Tasmania over here) but the scenery in Tasmania is much better. And the trees are much bigger and taller in Tasmania. This one, they have put art works and stuff in the trees and most of the walkways sway slightly. We were scared to walk across the really long sections. There was a cutout point where you could end your trek early and not go on the really tall and swingy bridges. Anna and the boyfriend opted for that, although I think the boyfriend wanted to continue with us. William and Juanita went ahead as Maeghan and I took our time with each crossing. They finished about half an hour before we did. 

Maeghan and I took about an hour and a half to complete the whole circuit. Juanita and William did it in about an hour. Anna finished the shortened version in about half an hour. Maeghan and I stopped several times to let people past and to sit and rest. It was a long trek, with lots of up and downs. We met several older people along the way. They were fascinated that I was from Texas and that Maeghan was 21 years old. They thought she was very brave to go all that way on her own until they found out she was a young adult. They stayed with us for a while but eventually, I think they went on ahead. 

Another fun time and again, I would recommend it if you are in the area. None of these things are what New Zealand is famous for. It is the long mountain hikes and scenic roads that most people go for when they are there, but those are kind of unavailable to us. Me with the heart thing and Maeghan with the wheelchair, but what we did do was very enjoyable and I would do it again if given the chance. It was a fun couple of days in Rotorua and we ended up fairly well exhausted each day. There are other things we would have liked to do, like the heated spas and stuff coming out of the local springs. I won't go into that as much but it is really what that area is famous for. That and the sulfur smell that permeates the town. There are other things, but with only two days, I think we got a lot of memories out of it. Maybe someday we will go back, but there are so many other places to go in the world, and I am so old, I don't see it happening. Maybe, but probably not.

We do still have the drive back the next day and our one day in Wellington. I have that for the next entry. I didn't really think I would be going into this much detail, four entries if you are lucky, but I just keep typing and it keeps getting longer. This one is too long. Time I closed it out. Since it is Friday, I won't be back until Tuesday. Maybe I will type at home. I have to start doing that at some point since I plan on retiring in the next year or so. For now, it is a way to pass the time when the students are in class.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 275

I tried to think of a clever opening for this entry, but as you can tell, I didn't think of anything.

We left Hobbiton at around noon. We had an appointment to the caves at 3. It was about an hour away. We had the option of taking the canoes through the caves or taking the walking tour. We decided on the walking tour. There are several companies that do the tours. I have no idea which one is best or anything. I thought I had booked one place, but it turns out, I booked another. The one I thought I had booked had a restaurant and a gift shop in it. We went there first, only to find out our reservation was down the road a bit, near the start of the caves. 

There are several caves in the area. I am not sure if they are all connected or not. Since we seemed to be the only ones going on our tour, I don't know if the other groups went to different caves or were all on the water. It didn't really matter. Our tour was great. 

Since we had so much time, we went to our tour place, looked around, and then decided to return to the other place to have lunch before our tour started. It was only about 5 minutes up the road.

Lunch was ok, although everything we wanted, they seemed to be out of. We wanted a cheese plate, no cheese, a pizza, no pizza, some chili fries, no chili. We ended up just having a couple of orders of fries and I think something else, but I can't remember what it was. Wasn't bad, just wasn't what we wanted. 

Of course, we went through the gift shop. Juanita got a t-shirt. Maeghan got a poster or something. The rest of us just kind of waited for them to finish, or they waited, I had to hang around and pay for everything. Funny how that works.

The tour itself was pretty good. I had picked that one because it said it was wheelchair friendly. I am not sure what other paths there might have been, but this one was friendly except for one very tight squeeze. We made it, but not without some finagling. There were a couple of places where it was totally dark, where they turned off the lights for us and you could just hear the water running down below. What I assumed was far down below, but when they turned the lights back on and shined a flashlight over the side, it was about three feet away. Scared most of us as we didn't expect it to be that close. We did have one other encounter with the water when a group of kayakers went by far below us. We could talk to them and they to us but they were pretty far away. Good acoustics I guess. 

The highlight of the tour was something that is not normally part of it, or so I am told. The young lady who was our guide, and I say young but being as old as I am, everyone is young, she apparently was a singer. On the way back up, she sang a couple of songs. Long slow dirges, but she was pretty good and we enjoyed it immensely. She was that good. She went on a bit long when we were on the spiral walkway back to the entrance, but it made the walk a bit easier. She apparently couldn't walk up with us and sing at the same time, or maybe she had to wait at the bottom for some reason, but once we got to the top, we had to wait for her to climb up to let us out. 

It was a good tour, and I assume the other tours that other companies have are just as good. I would recommend going to the glow-worm caves if you get the chance. Well worth the drive from Rotorua, about an hour and a half from there. Hobbiton is about an hour but it takes you towards the caves, so that is why we did both in one day. A very good day and I must say it was planned very well, even if I did all the planning. 

We had another busy day planned for the next day. We didn't need to get up as early or travel very far, so it was a slow, see the sites and do some adventuring the next day. I was going to put it all in this one entry, but I think I will do the next day in the next entry. I know you are probably getting tired of this trip report, but we had fun. 

And, I believe, I can say this is the best trip we have ever had together. We have had some good times before and have done a lot of things that were enjoyable, but this one was a good trip. A bit short, I should have planned for 10 days instead of 7, but we were busy the whole time and were doing things constantly, even if part of it was driving back and forth. A good trip. I guess it is up to the others to say how good, but I had fun. And I haven't even talked about the next day. Maybe I should have put this paragraph at the end of the next entry. I probably will, so memorize it now and play it back again later.

But until next time, that's all for now.

Later 

MWNews 274

Once again, I am going to say I will not have time to do this. I am over-worked and need something to break up the day and even though I have a lot to do, I am going to ignore it until someone tells me to do something specific. I am tired. This job is getting to me and has for a few months now. I don't want to do this anymore. But what can you do. I will forge ahead.

On with the show.

We arrived to this huge house to stay for the next few days. The first day, I think we went out to a restaurant for dinner, but I am not sure which night that was. Had to have been the first one. We were tired from the trip but had a lot we wanted to see so we went to the restaurant district. Some special place that has a lot of restaurants and bars. We walked past them all before picking on that was ok. Nothing to write home about but apparently it was good enough for me to mention it here.

The next day was a big day. We had plans for Hobbiton and some glow-worm caves. Hobbiton in the morning and then another hours drive to the caves. Hobbiton was an hours drive away from us, although I think it took an hour and a half. 

I wasn't too sure about Hobbiton. I expected a few fake Hobbit houses and some fields or tourist shops

or something. It was over priced for that. Or so I thought.

Hobbiton is worth it. It really is. I think there are over 40 hobbit houses and gardens and trails and all kinds of things to look at. It really was interesting. Far beyond my expectations. Lots of hobbit holes, lots of walking also, up and down hills, but they were all interesting. You could only look from the outside, which was kind of disappointing, but it is a movie set and not meant to be real.

At the end, they had two hobbit holes you could go into, although you were only allowed to go in one since there were 40 people in our group. I have to mention you can only go through Hobbiton as part of a guided tour. I am assuming they range in size but 40 is the maximum. I had booked the second tour of the day, months in advance, and it was full. That is another thing, not only do you have to book, but you have to do it at least two months in advance as they fill up quickly. I did mine three months in advance and most of the later tours that day were already full when I booked. We wanted the early one anyway, so it didn't matter to us.

The hobbit holes we went in were packed with all kinds of stuff. I think it would take at least an hour to look at everything in there. We only stayed for 20 minutes, but you could have stayed longer I think. Then again, they have tours following you, so they might have kicked you out at some point.

This was the last thing on the tour, unless you count the Dragonfly Inn, which is kind of a bar at the end of the tour where you get one free drink, beer or wine, and can pay for more if you want. They have food, but we didn't really look at it. I don't know how long you are allowed to stay at the Dragonfly. We were called back to the bus after about 20 minutes, but I am sure you can stay longer and come back on a different bus. I should say you have to get to Hobbiton by bus. No one is allowed to drive there. There is a parking area with shops and restaurant across the street from where it is located. You catch your bus from there and return when your tour is finished.

The shop is typical tourist souvenir shop. A lot of Lord of the Rings themed things. I think we picked up a few things. The restaurant was not bad. Not really anything special about it, although they did have a different variety of the usual pies and sandwiches. I might have liked to try some of them, but we were not there to eat. We did get some chips and a couple of different sandwiches to share after our tour was over. Since we were headed to the caves for the afternoon, we decided to eat when we got there.

All in all, Hobbiton is really worth the price. There are other more expensive options where you get a private room at the Dragonfly to have lunch or dinner. The tour is no different but the end of the tour is where you would get the extra meal and celebrations, whatever the celebrations are. I would recommend the tour, can't say anything about if the other meal is worth it. I can't imagine it is, but then I thought the tour would not be worth it and it turned out to be great.

I am going to end this entry now and go into the caves in the next one. That will also probably include what we did the next day, which was in the town of Rotorua. Tree climbing and go cart racing. We never made it to the spas or the lake, but we had a good time. More about that later.

Until next time,

Later

MWNews 273

 Maybe, maybe not. I don't have time, but I will make time. It's a quandary.

Well, I was thinking about Hobbiton. I had misgivings because it is kind of pricey for what I thought was not a great reward. It is located near a town called Rotorua. I had a look at what else was there or what else was near by. Turns out, it is quite a destination place. Lots of things to do. I didn't like the drive, but once there, if we stayed, there was plenty to do.

I made the decision to go for it. Spend the money, spend more money, and then spend money again. It was going to be a costly trip. I knew Anna and her boyfriend had never been there, or I assumed they had not, so I included them on all the tourist packages I was booking. It would be a busy time with adventure filled days, but I thought I could make it worth our while.

I was going to go into the entire itinerary, but I will just hit the highlights. Probably mention everything we did, but not in the detail of what we did every day. Just what we spent time on.

We were to arrive in Wellington around 2 in the afternoon. I rented a car, so we had to pick that up at the airport. A van so we could haul six people and Maeghan's wheelchair. We got the KIA Carnival like I used to drive. It was different than I remembered, but not too much. The plan was to pick it up at 3 and then drive to where Anna was. I had rented a room there, so we were not staying with her.

The problem was, they had big storms before we arrived. The main road between us and them had been closed due to the road being washed away. I kind of thought that was a big deal, but according to the locals, it happens all the time. There is an alternate route around the mountains that takes about 4 hours to travel on, instead of the 1 1/2 hours the pass over the mountains takes. 

We didn't actually get to leave until around 4 because the car was not ready, and then we had to get dinner in Wellington somewhere. We ate at Burger King, which was a treat because in Australia, Burger King is Hungry Jacks. Same exact menu, same exact store, just a different name. Basically, we ate there because it was the first place we came to and we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us.

Other than saying, it was dark and we crossed the mountain passes on very narrow and winding roads, we got to the hotel around 10. I had already called ahead to say we would be late due to the road closures, so they left the door open and the key on the inside for us. It worked out well, and we were only staying the one night, so even though the room was nice, we really didn't see much of anything when we arrived and before we left the next day.

We went to pick Anna and the boy early the next day. We wanted breakfast and I didn't want fast food again, I was trying to avoid fast food for most of the trip, so we ended up in some Indian/Arab place. Not really a breakfast place, but we went anyway because no one knew what was on the road ahead of us. It was different, but we managed to get away a bit after 10, so not too bad. I wanted to be on the road by 9, but that was never going to happen.

Not a lot to the trip. We stopped for coffee at some point and I wanted to get to the lake town we would be passing through. It ended up being a lot farther than I thought it was. We didn't stop for lunch until around 2. But we did have a reward waiting for us. The have a Popeyes Chicken in New Zealand. I insisted we go there. Mainly, because I had heard about the chicken sandwich for a long time and I had never tried one. I am not sure everyone else wanted to go there, but I'm driving so it was dealers choice. Turns out, it wasn't all that great. I don't think they actually cooked it like it should have been. Probably because it was not that great of a fast food restaurant and the staff really did not seem to want us there. They probably don't get a lot of business because I know Australians seem to think KFC is good fried chicken and I have always told them, in America, it barely ranks as fried chicken. Lots of KFC restaurants, in America and Australia, but the ranking for KFC is never high. The workers did not seem to like the idea of 6 adults showing up at 2 in the afternoon to order a lot of food. 

When we got it, some of it seemed to be a bit over-cooked. I ordered a bit of everything so everyone could try it. I was not impressed, especially by the chicken sandwich, but they seemed to think it was ok. Better than KFC, at least. The one thing I found disturbing was the lack of Cajun rice on the menu. They did not have it. I thought, and my memory is old, that the Cajun rice was the main reason I choose Popeyes when I was in the states. They had none. I have no idea why. I never thought the chicken was that great, but what made it nice was the rice and we didn't get to order any. A big disappointment for me. Not so much for the others. Overall, it was a good experience and it got us out of the car for a while, so all good from there. We only had about an hour left to travel, maybe 2, but we were ready to go when we left.

Nothing more to report about the rest of the trip up there. I have already reported more than I had planned. I'll end with the house I had rented for the next three days. It was an Airbnb type thing that I had arranged for. Kind of expensive, but as the trip was expensive, one more addition didn't seem to make a difference. It was a four bedroom house with a large kitchen and three baths and a huge rec room. I have to say, it was a huge house. Very, very large. It was a hike to get from the back bedroom to the front of the house. We had an ensuite and there was one in the front bedroom, plus another bathroom in the middle. The kitchen was nice also and I would have liked to cook a couple of meals there, but we were not going to have the time for that. Just a very large house we stayed in for the next three nights. And kind of centrally located. Still an hour away from Hobbiton, but there are no places to stay closer to there. I will go into that with the next entry.

So long for now. I am going home from work. I have to take online courses the next few days, so I won't have time to do this, although I have typed this entry in the afternoon, so maybe I will.

Later 

MWNews 272

Back for more adventures. 

As a side note, before I get into the actual entry, I have been re-reading and trying to correct all the previous blog entries. I am up to about 120. I got over the missing years. Only a few posts over about a 5 year period. A sad time, as I recall, and some of the entries reflect that. But I hope it gets better as I read. 

Back to this entry.

I was talking about the New Zealand trip. We had decided that was where we were going. Juanita wanted to visit Anna, so it was a good place. Now I had to come up with an itinerary. 

She lives near Wellington, which is the south end of the northern island. It looked to have a lot of good things there, but nothing that was going to take any time to go see. They lived about an hour outside of town, but it was across the mountains. Going back and forth from where they were to Wellington was not really an option. We were going to have to stay in Wellington for most of the time. And while there were things to see, it was not really the big touristy things in New Zealand. Most of that requires hiking or backpacking to see the picturesque parts and we are not really the hiking kind of people. Plus, I don't think I mentioned, I was taking the kids with us, so Maeghan has her wheelchair and everything would need to be wheelchair accessible. Staying in Wellington made that possible, but was not really exciting.

Early on, Juanita mentioned that she had friends somewhere in the north of the north island. Near some famous bay or something. I am not going to look it up. It was a six to eight hour drive to there and she was not sure what part of the bay they lived in, so that could possibly add another two hours to the drive. I did not think this was a good idea, spending at least two days of our total of seven days traveling. And on unfamiliar roads and unfamiliar weather. Seemed like it might turn into a major issue. I said it was a last option, but if we found nothing else, I would consider it. Fortunately, her friend said they might be going away during that time and we would only have one day to visit, so that encouraged Juanita to agree it was a bad idea.

I was trying to discourage it and I had looked it up, but there is one major attraction on the north island, and it was only six hours away from where they lived. That of course, is Hobbiton. It is about midway between Wellington and Auckland. Auckland was out of the question, unless we flew there. I wasn't going to waste that much time driving. Hobbiton is in, or near, Rotorua. Turns out, there is a lot of things to do in or near Rotorua. So much so, I decided to make that our base of operations. It was a good decision.

I have to step away now. It would seem someone found me some work to do and since I do not work on Mondays and it has to be ready Monday, I am going to spend the rest of the day doing work. It means I will forget my train of thought and the rest of the entry may not fit with what I have done so far, but I will attempt to do this at home. Have to switch the keyboard to one I can type on, but William is not there this weekend, so he won't notice, unless I forget to switch it back. He says he got the new keyboard for me, but it is more for Juanita as she likes those types of things. Me, not so much. 

Be back soon. I have to go to lunch before I do all this work.

Ok, several days later. Been busy and not up to doing this. Might be more to talk about on that front later, but for now, I am going to end this entry and start another one. I think I was deciding or describing making plans for the New Zealand trip. I will complete that maybe today, but work is kind of busy, we are losing another person, so there is more work to do. We have lost four in the last month. I had a meeting about two months ago trying to tell them that people were not happy. I don't mean hating their work, most of them like what they do, but this place is not providing any incentive or joy to come to work. I tried to tell them that it was not just a few people, it was almost everyone, in all departments. They wanted an example and I mentioned an incident I had recently witnessed. Instead to listening to what I was telling them, they took it to mean that this one person was a problem and they needed to do something about it. She quit two weeks later, along with one of the people I had the meeting with. I will say it in here, but I have said it many times to people up here, they just don't get it. I have always, or for the last three years, said it was not my problem and I did not need to fix it. I am retiring soon, and taking on more responsibility is not what I want to do. I want to pass on responsibility. So now, I am treated like I don't know anything and my opinions or suggestions don't need to be listened to. Maybe that is right, but maybe it isn't. Not my problem, not my issue to resolve.

How I got into that when I was just going to close this entry, I have no idea. Maybe it was because I might have insulted some people last night, we had another good bye drinks excursion. I can never hear what it going on because it is just a too loud environment, but I thought they were talking about one thing and I made my comments about warning them about it again, but they seemed to think I was talking about them. I was, but not in any insulting way. I think they might have taken offense. So I had to try to clarify myself.

And there I go again. I am going before I start another diatribe. Is that the right word. I have no idea, but the word I wanted I can't think of. Mental issues that doctors say are just normal. Makes it hard to work.

That's it.

Later