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After yesterday was spent relaxing, today is our third day of tramping. At 6-30am everyone was up early at the Waikaremoana Holiday Park, with Julianne and I working to get everything ready, eating breakfast and packing the last things for the tramp while Robin stayed in his sleeping bag waking up and having his breakfast. Robin is not used to these early starts

Today is a day of rest!

Tired Robin after the last two days of tramping

After two day’s of walking, today is a rest day before beginning the next three days of tramping in the Whirinaki Te Pua-a-Tāne Conservation Park.

On this second day of the tramp there were two options for the walk back out to Lake Waikaremoana from Sandy Bay hut.

Option one is a four hour walk same as yesterday just in the opposite direction and option two is a longer seven hour walk which stretches further out towards a much smaller Lake Ruapani and then curves back to the road.

Today is the first day of our five day tramp. Lake Waikareiti is a smaller lake just north of the much larger Lake Waikaremoana and its well known Great Walk. It was only a short one minute drive from the holiday park camp ground to the start of the Lake Waikareiti tramp. The first section of the walk was like a highway with a large clear track heading north with a gentle up-hill climb over 3.3 kilometers towards the shores of Lake Waikareiti.

Julianne, Robin and I are heading away for a five day tramp for which will be Robin’s only second tramp.

We are heading to the Urewera’s where the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk is located. but there are a number of other walks in the same forest but without the without all the busy bustle of the a Great Walk and also a lot cheaper which we are heading to.

Today has become one of the most spiritual and amazing days of my entire life, I got to experience something that probably no-one else in the world has experienced for over a hundred of years; you will simply not believe what has happened today - I could see this huge waka canoe heading out to us, it was the Ngāpuhi waka tane (war canoe) at Waitangi with over 80 people on board.

Today is a day all about Tuia 250 celebrating the dual heritage of European and Polynesian ships who traveled over the oceans to New Zealand; 3 tall ships (Endevour, Spirt of NZ and the Tucker Thompon) and 3 waka including the Fa’afaite who navigated from Tahiti to New Zealand using only the stars.

So in another fantastic example of living history which I got to experience; I got behind one of the spokes of the capstan and started walking in circles to pull in the anchor.

I am writing this as a diary while sitting up in the fighting top on the foremast on the Endeavour tall ship replica, talking about living life to the fullest!

I didn’t need to arrive at the Endeavour until 8-30am so the morning was spent relaxing, having a last long hot shower, breakfast and then a taxi ride to the ships that make up Tuia 250 celebrating the dual heritage of European and Polynesian ships who traveled over the oceans to New Zealand; 3 tall ships (Endevour, Spirt of NZ and the Tucker Thompon) and 3 waka including the Fa’afaite who navigated from Tahiti to New Zealand using only the stars.

A few weeks ago I was looking online to see when the Endeavour replica ship was going to arrive from Australia as part of Tuia 250, celebrating not only Captain Cooks mapping of NZ but the pacific islanders who travelled around the Pacific Ocean using only the stars. While doing this investigation I noticed that the Endeavour actually takes fare paying crew, So I then thought – WOW and yes

After a great week in Melbourne staying in Luke’s very generous home it was time to head back to our house in Auckland, but we are not flying out until 6.45pm so we still have most of the day in Melbourne.

The only site we are going to visit today is the Shine of Remembrance, which was built after WW1.

Our final full day in Melbourne and today Julianne is going to rest and recover while the boys and I jumped in the car with Robin navigating again to visit several historical ships.

Today we all heading into Melbourne City along with Luke via the trains Once we were at Federation Square Luke took across the river to the National Gallery of Victoria; an art gallery which I didn’t even know about and was a great surprise – one of the advantageous of being a local.

Thursday is the day Julianne and I split up; Julianne is going to the Australian Tapestry Workshop a place she was very keen to visit whereas I wanted to visit the Royal Australian Air Force Museum at Point Cook with the boys.

Today is the day for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child! This is the main reason I am in Melbourne in the first place and involves two separate plays one after the other. Robin who is now 10 was asked months ago if he wanted to go, and he said yes.

Today I am back in the car, and this time heading out to Bendigo to do something a bit different and adventurous, I’m heading deep down into a gold mine.

Our second full day in Australia was spent in the centre of Melbourne city. I discovered that big Luke has a handy train station just down the road from his house – so instead of having to drive in we caught a train from Melton Station through to Southern Cross station in the City.

On Sunday the 13th of October, I decided to introduce Robin and Luke to the weird and wonderful wildlife of Australia by visiting the Healesville Sanctuary, which specialises in just Australian wildlife.

Today I’m off to Melbourne for nine days and the main reason is to see the Harry Potter plays!!

We ended up with an Air New Zealand Skycouch, so me sleeping, and Luke watching Paw Patrol

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the official sequels to the books / movies. JK Rowling said she would never write any more Harry Potter books and instead she decided that the next chapter would be a set of two plays instead of novels. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is only available in Melbourne near us, so to Australia it is.