We had prepared the kids it was going to be tough.

But they only see the good things in life (whats wrong with them?)

This is their comment upon arrival, "that was great! They even came with food and put it in our laps, they took out the dishes and we did not have to do anything!, Just watch movies!"

And it was by far much easier than I remember flying on long journeys. Maybe we have a different perspective o comfort now, I think so.

I promised pictures from our tour before we took off.

It became a very short tour since we runned out of time. But the best part was to see old boat friends and hear their plans and stories.

We have been outside the sailing community as Whitianga is not their choice (will probably be though).

First group of pictures is from being with Miss My  in Opua

They had just launched their boat back into the water and were getting ready to leave for Tonga etc in two weeks.

Their plan is to continue westward and be back home in Sweden sept 2015

On the way to Whangarei we stopped in Kerikeri as they have the famous Hundert wasser toilet there

If you don't know about Hundertwasser you should Google him up, his art and architecture has it owns Dogma for sure.

he thought that straight lines were no good for humans...

In Whangarei we met Windarra and they are great hosts as well, we had a great time and went also to see glowing worms with them. 

Unfortunately glowing worm do not expose them selves in a dark cave unless you use a tripod etc so all you get to see is kids climbing a big stone on the way there

Rarotua, a city that lies by a huge lake and were the crest of the earth is only 3 km, meaning is is full of hot pools, boiling mud etc...

The Mouires have a tradition of cooking their food with the help of hot steam coming out of the earth

You can also bath in this wonderful hot water, but it has to be cooled down to 40-60 degrees

We went to the still active living village of Whakawakawakareva

to learn more about how Mauries lived and live and also see how they use the heat from the earth.

A good performance was part of the tour