Day 7 – Sunday

The alarm rings out at 5:30am and I’m probably not quite ready to get up yet. I force myself out of bed and give the kids a shake. We have some brekky and jump in the car to get to the Zip Line Canopy Tour Office by 6:30ish. The weather today is perfect, just like yesterday, a bit fresh but blue skies. Once at the office we fill in some forms and the guides rig us all up with harnesses. We are in a group of 10 with a family of 5 from NSW and one bloke from the UK. Our Guides, Kris and Abbey (or Ebbey and she pronounced it) loaded us into the bus and took us for the short drive to the forest, about 5-10km’s away. Once there it was a short walk through the forest to the first zip line platform for a 70m long zip line ride. Kris and Tyler are packing their daks and it was hilarious to watch Kris stepping off the platform. We do a couple more zip lines and then we get to the big daddy, a 220m long zip line way above the forest canopy. At this stage Kris still hasn’t managed to do a zip line with her eyes open or with her hands off the zip line rope. This didn’t change for the 220m long zip line for Kris but the rest of us are loving it. In total there were 6 lines totalling about 670 metres and the tour took about 3 ½ hours. It was a lot of fun and a tour I think all of us would recommend. After we arrived back at the office we crossed the road and headed to Skyline Rotorua. Skyline is a gondola ride up to the top of the “mountain” or “very high hill” and at the top there are a bunch of different activities to do with the main one being the Luge. We purchase the family pass which gives us the gondola ride and 10 luge rides to share. There are 3 tracks, the scenic route (for pussies), the intermediate route (also for pussies) or the advanced route (for tough guys). We start off on the scenic route (because it’s our first time and they don’t allow us to do any other route without the necessary experience) and the luge proves to be an instant winner for us and we can’t wait to get back up to do the intermediate route. This is not to say the scenic route was lame but it was full of Indians and Asians. Now I know this is can be viewed as a contentious remark but if you have ever driven a car you will know that Indians and Asians cannot drive. This is no different on the luge. The scenic route is meant for beginners but you risk you life dodging and weaving the Indians and asians putt-putting it down the hill or the stationary Indian women who has decided it’s all too hard for them and they decide to leave their luge and bail. Anyway, once we get back to the top via the chairlift, we hit the intermediate track and I become Daniel Ricciardo but only better and I zoom down the track at a speed only previously witnessed on the space shuttle Atlantis! I flog Tyler and Mia by about 3 days and wait at the bottom to gloat. Kris decided with only 10 rides that Tyler, Mia and me should have 3 each and she’d stick with just the one scenic ride which was a good idea because Kris, a helmet and a luge just do not mix. This combination redefines the word NERD!!! We chair lift it back to the top and we line up for the advanced route. The kids are now aware that they are up against probably one of the worlds best luge riders and are talking about who is going to come second. I give the kids a good head start and it’s a lot of fun chasing them down. This track is insane and at one point the track dips and it feels like you get airborne. I’m on Mia’s hammer jut as we get to this bit and as we come out of it Mia is heading for the wall. She slams on the skids and I go whizzing past. Tyler also proves an easy get and by the time we get to the bottom we are all talking about purchasing some more rides. We get to the top and decide we will come back and do the night luge which starts at 6:30pm. The night luge is cheaper and as we have already paid for the gondola ride it’s cheaper again. We head back to the apartment to have some lunch and a swim before jumping back in the car and returning to Skyline. This time we purchase 14 rides, 2 for Kris and 4 each for Mia, Tyler and me. We have an absolute ball and this place has become a favourite of ours and its great to know they have one in Queenstown and we all agree that we will be heading there once we make our way to the South island. We head home around 9:30 and everyone thinks that this has been our best day yet. It’s been a long day full of adventure, excitement and fun and a great way to leave Rotorua for Napier tomorrow.

Day 6 – Saturday

Today we are leaving Auckland for Rotorua so we pack our gear, have a quick breakfast and it’s a short walk down to collect the car from the car rental place. Once were all signed up we pull out and as I turn left into the first corner (as per my google maps instruction) I quickly realise I’m turning the wrong way down a one way street. I make an emergency adjustment and avoid the oncoming traffic. Not a good start! We get back to the hotel, load up our gear and try to get the Navman up and running. The Navman has other ideas so we resort back to my printed maps from Google and hit the road. The directions are pretty simple, a couple of turns, get onto highway 1 and keep going. The roads are extremely well sign posted which makes the drive even easier. Once out of Auckland and into the country the view opens up and we have mountains to the left and rolling hills to the right. The scenery is very picturesque and about half way into the journey we stop off at a roadside café. I was told by a friend just prior to leaving that there are a lot of roadside café’s through NZ and they all sell home made food and that we should stop and try them out. Her advise proves correct and the café we stop at sells muffins that are still displayed in the tins they were cooked in and they were awesome. We continue on past some lovely towns and eventually get within a few km’s of Rotorua. The view coming down the hill into Rotorua is spectacular looking over the lake. We arrive at the accommodation office and jump out of the car and the first thing we notice is the smell. It smells a bit like a sewer! We are a bit keen and have arrived too early so we get back in the car and head down to the lake for a look around. A quick trip to the supermarket and then back to the office at 2pm. We get shown to our accommodation and as we walk in the smell is intense. I said to Kris “It smells like this house has a gas leak”. It’s not until Kris mentions that Rotorua is known for it’s sulphur smell that it twigs. We dump our gear and head out to check out the city centre. Rotorua city centre is a lot like Busselton but a little bigger. Not much is open today and even less as far as somewhere to eat. We stumble on the Pig & Wistle, an old pub and as we walk past we notice they have two plasma screens side by side showing the NZ v Sri Lanka ODI and the Aussie Boxing Day Test. Tyler and I make an executive decision and decide “we’re eating here”. I can’t think of anything better than being at a pub and watching two games of cricket simultaneously, especially when one of them is the Boxing Day Test!! After that we walk back to the apartment where Kris and Mia go for a swim in the complex pool. Kris jumps in and goes under not realising that the pool water temperature is at about 37 degrees. It’s a warm day in Rotorua so probably not what she was hoping for. I take Tyler down the park to have a hit with the cricket bat. We brought over Tyler’s bat, gloves and a few balls so we could continue to train a bit whenever we get the opportunity. After that we shower up and head back into the city centre for dinner. Theres a spot they call “Eat Streat” which has about a dozen restaurants side by side along a mall style street. We settle on CBK (Craft Bar & Kitchen) which is a stone-grill restaurant. Steaks and other meats come out on a hot stone and it cooks while you’re eating it at the table. The food was fantastic and great value for money. By the time we finish it’s nudging 10 o’clock so we make our way home because tomorrow we’ll need to be up at 5:30am to go on our zip line canopy tour through the forest.

Day 5 – Friday (Xmas Day)

The kids come in and wake us up early this morning keen to get the second round of present opening underway. After that it’s our Xmas breakfast which consists of croissants and jam, orange juice and a couple of coffees which Kris and the kids went to get from the Coffee Club around the corner. The weather this morning started out cold and cloudy but as the morning goes on it starts to clear a little. By 10:15 we are out the door heading off to the wharf to catch the ferry over to Devonport. Devonport is only a 12 minute ferry ride away, similar to catching the ferry from Sydney to Manly. It costs $36 for a return family ticket which is reasonable. We’re pretty much expecting there to be little open today being Xmas day so we intend to just see how we go. Once in Devonport we walk past the main street, where everything is shut apart from one café, and we head up Mt Victoria. At the top of Mt Victoria you get a fantastic view looking back over Auckland. After taking some photos we walk back down with the thought of getting a coffee at the café we walked past earlier. When we get inside and check out the menu it looks really good and the prices are even better so we decide to stay and have a Xmas lunch. We order a bottle of wine and some lunch and when it comes out it looks fantastic. We finish off with some desert and we reckon for 150 bucks we weren’t going to get anything better or cheaper in Auckland on Xmas day so it turned out really well. We walk back to the ferry terminal, jump on the ferry and head back to the city. We decide to go back to the apartment for a quick break before we head back out. While there I decide to call Mum to say merry Xmas. As soon as she answers the phone she sounds upset and puts me straight on to my brother, Greg. At this point I know something is wrong. Greg starts to tell me that there has been an accident and his son, Lachlan was badly injured in a traffic accident in Kalgoorlie. He was flown down to Perth by the Royal Flying Doctors Service but unfortunately he succumbed  to his injuries. Lachlan was 16. I’m in total disbelief and I can’t speak as my brother is explaining to me what happened. It happened on Tuesday but no one has been able to get in contact with us to let us know. I’m devastated. Devastated for Lachlan, devastated for Greg, my Mum, my family, Lachlan’s family and everyone who knew Lachlan or was associated with him. The afternoon was a bit of a blur and we decided to stay in.

After the devastating news of Lachlan’s passing, I initially decided that I could not continue writing the blog. I have had 3 or 4 days to reflect and feel that whether I write my blog or not, it  does not change how upset I feel and it does not change how much I am thinking of my brother and my family at this time.

Day 4 – Thursday

This morning when we get up it is pretty cold and very overcast and looks like it could rain today. After brekky we head down to Queen Street where we are going to jump on the InnerLink bus. When we get to the bus stop, there’s a cop standing there with a dude in hand cuffs. The cop has a heap of dough in his hands so maybe this dude’s just been busted for ripping someone off. The bus we are catching is the local bus that costs $2.50 each ($10 total) and pretty much loops around the wider outskirts of the city taking in the fringe suburbs. The one thing we’ve found out about Auckland is, nothing is cheap. When I asked the bus driver if the ticket last all day he says “Nah, when you get off and you want to get back on you have to buy another ticket”. Far out, I’m thinking. Maybe that dude in handcuffs was a bus driver!!!. This bus pretty much does what the Perth CAT busses do but obviously in Perth they’re free. Anyway, the loop around took about an hour and it was really good to see the outskirts of the city. There was hardly a dead zone around the entire loop with the streets lined with shops, cafés and restaurants. Ponsonby Road, Karangahape Road and Parnell Street reminding me a lot of Mt Lawley, Leederville and Vic Park. By the time we have done the loop it has started to rain. This puts the kibosh on our next activity which was catching the ferry over to Devonport. So instead we wonder around trying to find somewhere cheap for lunch. We soon realise that “cheap” and “lunch” do not go together in Auckland so we end up buying some stuff at the supermarket and heading home to make something. The rain has set in now, it pretty much has been going non stop, just heavy enough to be annoying but after lunch we decide to find something to do indoors. We originally decide to go to the Auckland Museum thinking it was close by. But just before we leave we realise it’s a fair hike and with the rain getting harder we change our mind and head to the Maritime Museum instead. We leave the hotel and it is raining hard now. One umbrella between four of us aint cutting it so Kris and I don the rain jackets. By the time we get to the Museum we are drenched. As we approach the entrance we notice the sign on the door “last entry 2:30pm”. It’s 3:20pm….damn! We decide to find a coffee shop instead and as it turns out we end up at the coffee shop 20m from the entrance of our hotel. Could have saved ourselves an hour and a drenching by just going there in the first place. As we leave the coffee shop the rain has stopped. We head back to the apartment and research a few things, one being what we re going to do in Rotorua and we end up booking a 3 hour zip-line tour for Sunday the 27th. We then shower up and head out for dinner, to guess where? We can’t beat the quality and value of this joint so it’s spaghetti bog again. Just before we leave we check the sky and it looks like the rain is done for the day so we head out without our jackets and very small dodgy umbrella supplied by the hotel. While having dinner the rain comes back and it’s getting heavy. We finish our meal and we have to make the mad dash home in the rain always passing people with big awesome complimentary umbrellas from their hotels, Stamford Plaza, Rydges, Pullman Hotel, all the classy joints but not our little budget Barclays. This kids jump into bed, while Kris and I wrap presents for round 2 of Xmas day tomorrow.

Day 3 – Wednesday

We wake up and Auckland is turning it on. The weather is as close to perfect as you’re going to get, blue skies and early to mid 20’s. The forecast is for rain but we aint seeing it. I’m up around 8am but it’s not until 9:30 that the kids surface. We brekky up, get ready and hit the road. As we leave the hotel we ask the concierge for some advice on where to head. He tells us about Parnell or Parnell Rd which is about a half hours walk away past some of Auckland’s parks. To get there we need to go via Queen Street, Auckland’s main shopping street. We look through a few shops and keep going. We head up through Albert Park on the very edge of the city which is really nice and keep walking. We find ourselves walking down a bushy track before popping out at Parnell Rd. This road reminds us of walking through Vic Park but smaller. There’s lots of street shops and café’s. It’s approaching lunch so we stop in at “Mink Cafe”, a café on a corner. We grab a table outside and order. The food was alright but way over priced. I overheard the kiwi guy on the next table order the “simun silad” but when it comes out I hear him say to his friend “it’s a bit of a case of spot the simun” so I guess he’s feeling he’s not getting his money’s worth. We continue walking, but this time back toward the city along the waterfront. We stumble on a bunch of funky areas along the way, little squares and malls, some with bean bags on grassed area’s with a band playing. Auckland is quite a cool little city with little vibrant pockets scattered around. We get back to the apartment and rest a while before getting ready to head out in the late arvo. Before finding somewhere to eat we are going to check out the Sky Tower which we can see clearly from our apartment. It costs us $61 for a family pass to head up the tower, firstly to level 51 and then to level 60. It is a great view from up there, you can see a 360 degree view of the city and you can see for miles. After that, it’s back down to the Viaduct area for a drink at a bar called “The Crew Club” which is like an up market Lucky Shag. We move from there and straight back to Portofino (the place we had dinner yesterday) because we are creatures of habit and when you’re onto a good thing you stick to it. This is a very Italian restaurant, owned and waited by very Italian people so it feels very authentic. A bottle of Chianti and some spaghetti bog later we start the walk home. By now the weather has become cold and it’s raining so we head to Countdown (Woolworths) for some ice-creams and the Coffee Club for coffee and back to the apartment.

Day 2 – Tuesday (Part 2)

We make our way outside the airport to catch a cab into the city. We are greeted by Rayson, the taxi driver (who looks a little bit like Mr. Miyagi) and we load up and get going. Mr Miyagi take us on the scenic route to our accommodation. After a journey that takes longer than the plane flight here and with a $103 cab fare to boot, we finally arrive at the Barclay Suites in downtown Auckland. The lovely receptionist at Barclay’s informs us that they have given us an upgrade and we are also being given free wi-fi, YAY. We dump and run (our gear that is) to head out and grab a feed. We are all very tired and hungry. After a feed we head back to the apartment to put the feet up (snooze on the couch) before heading back out for dinner. We stumble on “The Viaduct” area which is down near the marina and jam packed with pretty good looking restaurants. We settle on Portofino, an Italian restaurant and it was a good choice as the food was great. The sun doesn’t go down around here until about 9pm which we like so after dinner we wonder around the city a bit. As the sun goes down and the night arrives we quickly realise that Auckland has it’s far share of freaks as the city starts to resemble “I am legend”, that movie with Will Smith and Mia is starting to show signs of that sheltered life she’s been living as her eyes are like dinner plates. We quickly dodge the freaks and escape back to the apartment and hit the sack around 11. We’re looking forward to getting out and about tomorrow.

Day 2 - Tuesday (Part 1)

It seemed like the flight to Melbourne went really quick, we stop for a couple of hours in Melbourne before waiting to board the Emirates flight to Auckland. So we’re sitting in the departure lounge waiting for the boarding call and we here over the loud speaker “Would the Scroop family please make themselves known to an Emirates representative”. I’m thinking “after all these years we’re finally getting that upgrade to business class”. So we head to the desk and get ushered downstairs to where the boarding gates are. We get asked for our boarding passes (which the rep takes) and then we’re asked to sit and wait. After about 10 minutes an Emirates rep comes over and says “Ok then, we just needed to change your seats and you will now be sitting 3 on the window side and the other is across the aisle”. We originally had 4 seats in the middle like always. Obviously, I’m not overly impressed with Emirates little change so I go back to the desk and ask for an explanation. The rep said that someone was unable to sit at their allocated seats and the Scroop family needed to change to accommodate them. So I explain to the rep that I booked these tickets back in March and I also picked my seats back in March and we are a family of four so why in hell would you ask us to move? The woman starts rabbeting on about a load of shit that I don’t really care for so I said “Not happy, change us back!!” So she rings a supervisor and says over the phone”Mr Scroop isn’t happy, can you please come down”. So about 10 minutes later, down comes Perry, “the supervisor” (or dickhead to me) and person who made the change. So Perry starts doing the usual apologising and telling us the plane is full we had some seating issues, blah, blah, blah. “I don't care Perry, how has your problem become our problem? I ask. “The people who cant sit in their designated seats have a problem, Emirates have a problem, not sure how that translates to us having a problem, PERRY” I said. “You would really be doing us a favour if you could help us out on this one” Perry says. “Mate, since when is it my obligation to do you a favour after forking out a heap of dough for four airline tickets and being organised nine months before the flight? By this stage Kris and I are starting to get loud and argumentative with Pez and the other passengers can see a brouhaha about to break out. I bail out before that happens and grab the kids and start walking toward the boarding gates. I’ve seen those airline shows and it never ends well for the poor old passenger. But Kris ain't letting go, she’s giving it Pez. I call for her to give it up because we are needing to board the plane and I give Pez one last serve as I’m walking out. We managed to arrive in sunny Auckland without any further issues……

Day 1 - Monday

Today is the first day of our holiday. We don’t fly out until 11:40pm so the day is spent getting organised and packing. It starts off as our official Xmas morning where we get under the tree and give out our presents. We will still do the proper Xmas morning but it will be low key. On our past two holidays through Europe I have been extremely organised having plane tickets, accommodation details, train tickets etc all printed and organised in a travel folder three months in advance. This time I’m rushing around printing stuff a couple of hours before we’re about to leave and shoving it into a crappy file I found at the back of the drawer. We have been so busy this time with work, with me now coaching two cricket teams and Tyler’s cricket consuming most of our time we feel a little unorganised this time around and we’re thinking “bloody hell, where did the time go”. Before we know it, 8:40pm has rolled around and it’s time to get in the cab and get to the airport. We check in and make our way through to the departure lounge. While we were waiting we decide to look through the news agency and Mark Waugh walks in. I find Tyler and give him a nudge and point over to where Mark Waugh is (he was looking in the “personal development” section of the books) thinking Tyler might go over and ask him for his autograph but Tyler is too scared so Mark Waugh walks out. Opportunity lost! We get the boarding call and jump on the plane. The adventure begins!