Waiwera Thermal Resort
The day after New Years we decided to get out of Auckland and go to Waiwera Thermal resort, which is about an hours drive. So armed with Juice, snacks, towels, sunblock and jandles, we set off at about mid-day. The wonderful thing with it being summer is that the sun is setting around 9pm - so at 5pm in the afternoon its still incredibly hot and sunny. Its greatJust a little bit of history of Waiwera for some general knowledge - Maori would immerse 
themselves in holes dug along the idyllic beachfront and line them with branches for padding. Caressing mineral water would then gently surround them, magically materialising from the earth below. Translated from Maori, Waiwera means simply ‘hot water’ but it was so revered that many referred to it as ‘te rata’ which translates as ‘the doctor’. The special healing powers of Waiwera water came to be known far and wide. People travelled to the resort by horse or steamer in the early days, disembarking at a man-made jetty.
So now that you have a bit of history behind the place you will know that its very si
milar to Tschipise in RSA, but I have to admit that Tschipise is far better...........I guess something about being in the bush kind of makes it nicer. Anyway, we arrived and had a glorious time sunning our very fair winter skin (although a couple of hours later, I didnt look any different - I think I put on too much sun block!!) I must comment that David absolutely LOVED it - the first pool we went into was a little too cool for him but then Toni and I went off and found the "movie pool" , where they show a movie on a huge screen. The pool for him was like his bath but only 10 times bigger and with so many children splashing and having a ball - you could tell he was in his element! Such a social baby!
On the way back to Auckland, I decided to try my hand at taking pictures of the city whilst going over the harbour bridge - I must say that I was very proud of myself at how well I did in a moving vehicle!
Below left is some New Zealand country side, the one on the right is going over the harbour bridge and the bottom centre is Auckland - the City of Sails - must admit Im getting good at this photography thing! Till next time....
themselves in holes dug along the idyllic beachfront and line them with branches for padding. Caressing mineral water would then gently surround them, magically materialising from the earth below. Translated from Maori, Waiwera means simply ‘hot water’ but it was so revered that many referred to it as ‘te rata’ which translates as ‘the doctor’. The special healing powers of Waiwera water came to be known far and wide. People travelled to the resort by horse or steamer in the early days, disembarking at a man-made jetty.So now that you have a bit of history behind the place you will know that its very si
milar to Tschipise in RSA, but I have to admit that Tschipise is far better...........I guess something about being in the bush kind of makes it nicer. Anyway, we arrived and had a glorious time sunning our very fair winter skin (although a couple of hours later, I didnt look any different - I think I put on too much sun block!!) I must comment that David absolutely LOVED it - the first pool we went into was a little too cool for him but then Toni and I went off and found the "movie pool" , where they show a movie on a huge screen. The pool for him was like his bath but only 10 times bigger and with so many children splashing and having a ball - you could tell he was in his element! Such a social baby!On the way back to Auckland, I decided to try my hand at taking pictures of the city whilst going over the harbour bridge - I must say that I was very proud of myself at how well I did in a moving vehicle!
Below left is some New Zealand country side, the one on the right is going over the harbour bridge and the bottom centre is Auckland - the City of Sails - must admit Im getting good at this photography thing! Till next time....
PS. More pictures from our Waiwera trip can be found on my web album.
posted by Deborah @ 9:09 AM
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