Down on the farm

So after going to watch Avatar - which we loved by the way - we stuck by our decision to not waste all our money on steaks and so went for a lovely long walk around Auckland searching for any food which was not fried and was less than $20. Apparently this does not exist. We got very moody with one another and ended up settling for a pizza which had doner kebab meat on it - which was cheap, but not particularly nutritious. However by this point it was late and I think we would have eaten a small dog if came with BBQ sauce. And was less than $20 obviously.

We then headed back to the hotel for our last night of sleep in a hotel for some time. Only to be woken at 2am by the loudest fire alarm in the world. We were slightly baffled (at first Chris thought it was our alarm to get up in the morning) so we casually took our time getting dressed, getting the passports out of the safe, going for a wee - you can see fire safety is a real area of concern for us. We still didn't really want to leave the comfort of our room so we read the hotel information pack, which helpfully informed us that if the alarm sounds we should evacuate. So we did. Onto the street in pyjamas and jumpers with all the other disgruntled hotel guests who had equally sticky-up hair and confused faces. We couldn't see any smoke and eventually the manager emerged to inform us all that there was no fire, but they had recently had a new fire alarm system installed and "the slighest thing"could set it off - but he didn't know how to turn it off. Genius.

Then a grand total of 5 fire engines turned up and after about 20 minutes they manged to turn it off. So we went back to bed. And then it went off again at 4am. But luckily only for a minute so not even long enough for us to get up and and go for a wee again.

In the morning we agreed that we would complain in our very best outraged English voices but instead Jen just stood uncomfortably by the bags whilst Chris sorted it all out and we ended up getting $50 off the bill. This made us feel better about the accidental steaks from the first night so we left pleased.

We then set off for Alan & Pam's farm - being careful not to go above the speed limit of only 100km/h (60mph) on the motorway which was a new experience for Chris. He loves driving slowly. We stopped on the way for breakfast at some ropey service station only to see loads of much nicer cafes on the way there.

We arrived at the farm in the early afternoon and Pam showed us around. They mostly grow avocados but they also have oranges and pumpkins and apples and plums and a whole heap of other fruit. It was nice and sunny and it all looked beautiful. Then Alan came home from work and they took us out for a drive around Tauranga and then a walk round Mount Maunganui which was very pretty. Then they took us out for dinner which was also very nice! After dinner we felt ridiculously tired so we ended up going to bed at about 9:30.

This morning we went out with Pam to Tauranga again and had a mooch round some shops - she also took us to the beach and we had our first paddle in the pacific ocean. It was a beautiful day and we saw lots of old people on the beach looking the colour of beetroots. Then Pam took us for lunch and we came home to use their computer for the afternoon to try and sort out where the hell we're actually going to go for the next few weeks. Which was useful.

This evening they cooked us pizzas in Alan's outdoor pizza oven which he built himself - again, bloody delicious.

Tomorrow morning we're leaving to go and see the glow worms at Waitomo caves and then on to Rotorua to pitch our little tent for the first time near Blue Lake. We will be sad to say bye to Alan & Pam and the farm but it's about time we stopped fannying about.

Sorry there are no photos in this post but this is not our computer. It's Uncle Alan's. And it's fancy.