Taupo

The following day we got up fairly early and took Lily and Lucas to the swimming (hot) pool.  

They also had a rock climbing wall.

Notice the box in the top middle of the picture?  Let me zoom in on that for you.

After that, Viv, Roberto, Annita and I played a round of golf, which I played even worse than usual.  Worse than my golf game was the fact that I didn't wear a hat or sunscreen.  You might notice that I have a bit more "color" than usual in these later pictures, but that's only because I was successfully working on my sunburn.

We made an early night of it and were up early the next morning.  My plan was to bow out of the second day of golf to tour downtown Taupo to look for Evolve charms for the bracelet Amy and I purchased for Annita for Christmas.  I had offered to not play and allow Annita to go play with Ian and Roberto.  Unfortunately, (or, perhaps, fortunately) Annita decided that it was a family vacation and if I wasn't going to play, neither was she.  In the back of my mind, I was a bit relieved.  I would hate to pick out some charms that she hated!!  On the other hand, if she helped me pick it out, that kind of blows the whole "surprise" thing.

She did love the charms, but they didn't fit on the Pandora bracelet we bought.  That meant we had to buy a new bracelet....LOL

The lady at the jewelry store was absolutely lovely and we will continue to order our charms from that store.  Annita has a catalog and will circle the charms she likes so that I can purchase them as needed for special occasions; Valentines, birthdays, the start of National Potato Week, or "James Has Screwed Up and Needs to Buy His Wife a Gift Day" (which could happen 7 days a week).

We went back to Robert and Viv's for the small birthday party for Annita's father.  The big surprise about that was the fact that I drove home from downtown Taupo.  Annita and Kerrie suggested that I walk the four or so blocks back to get the car while they waited at the pie shop.  That was an interesting drive back to them by myself.  Then, they didn't let me park the car, they just piled in when I arrived and gave me directions.  I did make it back without hitting any vehicles, or pedestrians!!  There were a couple of Robert and Viv's friends that came by that night, but most were coming by on Saturday for the lake cruise.  We ate supper and had drinks until LATE into the night.  

We spent a couple of days in Wellington, including a great supper with family and friends on Wednesday night.  Unfortunately, we didn't take the camera so the night can't be displayed here!!!

The next post will show some of the sights of the drive back to Taupo.