Hot Pool Action

When Fiona asked if I wanted to join her and the other people sitting in some pools of water all day I immediately thought of my good friend Paddington Bear and his fondness for puddles. Naturally I declined.

As it turns out I missed a really fun day at the Waiwera Infinity Thermal Spa.

Fiona and the other people left the house for the five minute walk to the bus stop. Thanks to the tail end of Cyclone Betty (which has been causing a bit of a nuisance) they were all soaked before the bus turned up. After a short fifteen munute journey admiring the beautiful scenary on the way, the bus let them off right outside the spa complex.

Once inside there are a number of indoor and outdoor pools, all heated with natural thermal water, ranging in temperature from 31 degrees in the Opal Pool to 48 degrees in the Lava Pool.

Fiona and the other people had great fun splashing about in the pools all day even though it was pouring with rain. Apparently lazing about in a warm pool of water while the rain streams down on top of you is quite an experience! One of the covered pools (a mere 38 degrees) also has a huge movie screen and so Fiona and Kate were able to watch cartoons from the water. No BearMan films though :-(

The spa complex also has a number of suicidal water slides, which Fiona and her Dad went down.

After about five hours in and out of the water Fiona and the the other people caught the bus back home, only to be soaked once more on the walk down the hill from the bus stop. Perhaps staying at home wasn't such a bad idea after all.

My New House

My New House, originally uploaded by Fluffy Bear.

Aunty Katy picked us all up at the airport and drove us to my new house. It has a nice back garden for me to play in.

Back Garden, originally uploaded by Fluffy Bear.

We went for a nice walk along the side of the estury and along the beach into Orewa village to buy some things for the people to eat for lunch. After that though everyone got very tired and sleepy.

Jet Lag, originally uploaded by Fluffy Bear.

You can see some more of the photos from our first day here.

The Journey

Taxi for Bear, originally uploaded by Fluffy Bear.

We started our journey in style by travelling to the airport in a smart car with a New Zealand flag. I expect that the New Zealand government had learnt of my visit and sent the ambasadors car to pick me up.

We then sat around in the airport until our flight to Heathrow where we played on the travelators and looked in the shops.

Finally it was time to get onto the plane to LA. This was very full and so I let Fiona share my seat.

Seat Belts On, originally uploaded by Fluffy Bear.

At this point things began to go a bit wrong. There was a problem with loading some of the bags that delayed us for 30 minutes. This meant that we missed our take off slot and so we had to go to the back of the line. We finally took off about an hour behind schedule. I wasn't too worried though as we had more than two hours to spare at LA airport. Wrong!

As a VIB (Very Important Bear) I don't have to bother with things like imigration however unfortunately the people I was travelling with do. They took almost an hour to get through the imigration controls by which time we had missed our flight. Luckily I was able to pull a few strings to get us onto another one (although we almost missed that too because of all the queues - queue to get out of the airport terminal, queue to check into next flight, queue to hand in the bags, queue to go through security again!).

Happily though we finally boarded a nice Air New Zealand flight to Auckland and were able to relax and enjoy the ride. There was plenty of space and so Fiona got her own seat this time. A nice lady called Nicky looked after us all and insisted on having her photo taken with me at the end of the journey.

Nicky, originally uploaded by Fluffy Bear.

Finally, after about about 30 hours of travelling we touched down in Auckland and our holiday could begin.

Auckland, originally uploaded by Fluffy Bear.

You can see some more of my photographs from the journey here.

Welcome to my blog

Hello. This is a blog about my trip to New Zealand.

Here you can read all about the exciting things I do with Fiona and the other people. I've already packed my bag and so I'm all ready to go. Please check back later to see how we all get on.