A difference this year!

No secret that this weekend is much anticipated in the Traveling Narayanan family!

This year, there is a twist. Daddy Narayanan will be on a plane for the most part of the Father's day and the 15th wedding anniversary. 

We did our usual "dinner at Chaat House" early and as a present to the kids, I bunked yoga today and spent the entire morning making "hama bead art" with them. It was their request! They had already worked on this the previous day and made the "secret present".. more Hamma bead art!

I tried to do some powerpoint template to fit some patterns on to the bead frames. They sensed that although my body was with them, my mind was in the Hot yoga room. It was a suggestion that I try to do a Yoga Logo for my project! 

In the process, the kids learned the concept of "resolution". If you dont have an entire box in one color, chances are the final product will look nothing like the logo! So we hunted for other pictures and they found an "AUM" symbol for me to work on.

Jr. ironed out the bead art to make the beads stick. For a second I was worried that the 20 year old iron had been compromised by this ironing session. The little one was honest enough to let me know that the mishap had happened the previous day when ironing on a carpet and I was not to blame!

San was glad to just see us relax, do art, play cards (the little one is now adept at playing Rummy) and other board games. 

My dad gave us his "advanced" wishes for our anniversary, over the phone and I told him "the one good thing you did in this life is get me married to Sangeetha. so if anything, congratulate yourself for a job well done!"

They say that if you have a perception that "time flies" , chances are, you are having good times. As kids we were taught that happiness tends to create a perception of time moving fast and sadness makes you feel time is moving too slowly. 

Cannot believe it has been 15 years!

Good Karma?!

Wishing everyone out there a happy father's day!

Waitomo Caves and the Otorohanga Kiwi Conservatory in New Zealand

On yet another day trip from Lake Taupo during over December vacation in New Zealand, we drove north east to Waitomo. It was a very scenic drive with windy roads and sheep everywhere.

Well, if there were three common themes in our trip it was 

a. Fast moving clouds like you would not believe

b. Sheep that will put you to sleep when you try counting them during the drive

c. Scenic views that are unmatched

At Waitomo, they have a one of a kind cave system which is home to a glow worm that lives on the cave ceilings. It is pitch dark as we go through the caves in a small boat and if lucky the ceiling lights up with millions of light blue dots.  

We were lucky and got to see this. The staff were not friendly. We specifically asked them if a 1 1/2 old baby was okay on the boat and they said fine and sold us tickets. When it was time to board the boat, the guy stopped us saying the baby was too small and will make a noise that will scare the worms. We told him that the baby was a well behaved baby and went on the boat. For her part, the baby was well behaved.. and she would call out her mom's name in a shrill voice. We did not see that one coming. The worms were fine and did their display for us.

We came out from absolute darkness to bright sunlight and it took us all a few minutes to realize what was going on when the guy was trying to get us off the boat!

It was 90 minutes of waiting for a 5 minute boat ride to see a one of a kind experience. Fortunately, Mr. Disney had trained us well for such experiences over the last 15 years!

We finished a quick lunch at the outdoor cafeteria and headed on to see the Otorohanga Kiwi conservatory, which also is an avaiary that houses rare birds of New Zealand. There were three kiwi birds that are in the extremely endangered category and they seemed healthy and large, large gray fur balls that came up to our knees. They were in a glass enclosure which was dark. There was no photography allowed. We did see the birds and go "wow". They were very unique and we all felt sad for the bird that was most likely not going to make it.

Here are some pictures of the other creatures we saw while walking through the convervatory.

We saw the Kea which was once found everywhere and is now a rare bird.. guess that is what happens if you start eating sheep in New Zealand! 

We also spotted a lizard that looked like a dragon while wandering through the other displays and it had a peculiaar blue and green thing on its size. So I zoomed in and took a picture. When processing the image last week, saw that it was actually PLASTIC BEADS! Someone had done an Afro style beading job on the poor lizzard and let it out there! So much for us not messing with nature. 

It is a good 2 1/2 hour drive to Waitomo from Taupo. You are better off visiting from Auckland. Still we enjoyed the day and had a lot of fun. We drove through a city that claimed to be the "shearing capital of the world" and they even had a giant statue of a guy shearing sheep. This must have been at least 30 foot tall. 

New Zealand is a truly wonderful place and you get to see things that are far from run of the mill. Would strongly recommend a trip to Waitomo. If you have small kids who cannot keep quiet during a dark damp boat ride though, you may want to wait a while.. 

Whitianga and Cathedral Cove in New Zealand

It has been almost 5 months since we came back from our trip to New Zealand. The photos from the last four days of the two week Australia/New Zealand trip were lost in some Hard Drive rearrangement. Finally found them yesterday.

A good five hours went by editing the ~1500 photos found!

You have seen the photos from our day trips to Rotorua and Tongariro National park. After this we did a day trip to Whitianga in the North east tip of the North island. It was a scenic drive through mountains and rolling hills to reach the pier front. 

 

We had a lot of fun watching kids being taught how to fish in the pier. They have a grandpa society of sorts that teaches very young kids how to fish and prepare the fish etc. The kids did not like it, but it was a wonderful "intro to the reality of non vegetarian cooking" in a live setting!

Then it was our turn to board the "Ocean Leopard" tour speedboat. It was an amazing exprience. In 60-90 minutes depending on the weather, they take you to all the different rock formations and beaches in the area. You are not allowed to get off the boat and on to the beaches. If you do like any beach, you can always drive and visit them for a fee! 

The tourguide was amazing and patient with our group. He took our requests to steady the boat at places or turn it around for pictures etc. We passed a group of nesting cormorants on the shores. It was our first time seeing nesting cormorants!  

 

The beaches are beautiful, not to mention the women in those beaches! Everyone we met looked like a beauty queen pageant. Sorry.. no pictures! 

On the way back from the boat ride we stopped by to grab something to eat. Given all the restaurants in Whitianga are in one straight road, everyone went their separate ways. I wanted to grab a Chai at the local Indian place called Sangam and the rest of the family went to grab Pizza. Both the Chai and the pizza turned out to be excellent. 

The Sangam restaurant had something we have not seen anywhere else. A bunch of porcelain dolls of guys doing Bhangra! Was reminded of my nephews who have both taken to this style of dancing. A desi restaurant at the north east tip of New Zealand! Who knew!

Then we went to the Hot sands beach. A place where the ocean water is cold, but if you dig a hole in the sand a 100 feet from the waters edge, the water is hot because of volcanic activity underground. The problem with this beach is that if you dont get out in time, the high tide makes it impossible to cross back to the parking lot!

 

We have taken a lot of group pictures of the family at nature parks and beaches. An old granny took this shot with shaky fingers. She had actually pressed the shutter 30 times in the few seconds we gave her the camera without realizing it! This is by far the best background.. and I did not even edit the photo to adjust anything! Seriously, New Zealand has every other place beat by a wide margin when it comes to providing scenic backdrops. 

The entire group desperately clamoured back towards the parking lot and my sister-in-law cut her feet on the rocks and had to be carried to the parking lot by her hubby. The kids found this whole thing amusing. 

We were driving back and saw some amazing sunset views as we turned towards Auckland. 

More pictures from Waitomo, Auckland and Maori Rock face soon..

If you do visit the North island of New Zealand, do not miss the Ocean Leopard tours at Whitianga!