Rotorua, Polynesian SPA and bye, bye Rotorua hospital…

Tags

Appendix, Appendix removal, Camper van, Geyser, Hospital, Motorhome, New Zealand, New Zealand vacation, North Island, Polynesian SPA, Rotorua, Rotorua hospital, Surgery, Thermal activity

Last night I had to blow my nose around 30 times!! 😦 This night I only did it twice. Woohooooo, I am soon well!! 😀

Today we jumped out of bed and went to The Polynesian SPA. After breakfast, of course. OMG, what a lovely place. We chose the 5 pool alternative, de luxe, where towels and lockers were included. There were 4 pools, all with different temperature, 36, 38, 40 and 42 degrees C. The water in these pools are all from a specific spring, Rachel spring, I think it was. Very smooth water, the skin felt very soft after spending some time in those pools. And from all these pools you overlook the Rotorua lake, so very beautiful. The fifth pool was the Priest pool and it had water from another spring. That water should be good for rheumatism. There was also a cold pool and of course I had to jump into that one as well (it was actually not that cold, at least not to me, the cold pool at Kristiansborgsbadet in Västerås is colder, and that is 8 degrees, if I remember right). In the Preachers pool we met a girl from US. She was a nurse and 27 years old and she was on a 4 weeks trip in NZ and AU, just like us. We talked a lot, a really nice chat.

The morning was sunny and we had a great time in The Polynesian SPA. If you ever visit Rotorua, be sure to take some time and visit the SPA. It is well worth the time and the money.

At the Polynesian SPA

Love the Polynesian SPA

Jörgen feels close to religious at the SPA

The hottest pool

Happy SPA couple

At around 11.15 we went to pick up Jossan from the hospital. We came, as always, in the middle of a meal. This time it was lunch and they served meatloaf with mashed potatoes. Jörgen had a bite and went ecstatic. 😀 Jossan did not each much, just an apple. The stomach is not quit ready for a lot of food yet, I guess.

She changed her clothing from the hospital, purple kind of dress and back into her normal outfit. Strange, when you do a change like this you immediately go from sick to normal. The clothes do a lot, I guess. Rotorua hospital, I must say it has been a really great experience. They are so service minded, they have time for the patients, and you can ALWAYS get hold of a nurse. Yes, I liked it a lot. I felt like Jossan was in really, really good hands there.

Next thing was buying some screws and a screwdriver to fix the drawer that fell out in the van. It worked really well and the drawer is as good as new now! ☺ Then off to Countdown to get pancakes. Jossan has been having cravings for pancakes for some days now and luckily we found readymade glutenfree pancakes in the store, so we celebrated her leaving the hospital with a meal of pancakes, jam and whipped cream. Mmmmmm, yummie.

So, now we are back at the Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park. This is our fourth night here, at the same camping.

Our plan was to go to Hobbiton Movie set tomorrow, but I think we will have to skip that. It will be too hard for Jossan, to move around that much. She walks of course but she takes it very slow since even though she is on painkillers, every fast or unplanned movement still hurts.

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One more day in Rotorua…

Tags

Appendix, Appendix removal, Beautiful nature, Camper van, Geyser, Green hills, Hospital, Motorhome, New Zealand, North Island, Rain, Rotorua, Steam, Surgery, Thermal activity, Vacation

It is raining. A lot. Had breakfast INSIDE the van for the very first time. Is this really NZ summer? If the weather in the world are “political” coordinated, no wonder NZ are part of the Common Wealth, they sure do have the very same weather as in Great Britain. 😉

Took a shower and then we went to the reception to get our money back for Jossan. Here at all the camping areas you pay per person and Jossan has not spent one single night in the van while we have been here. Her nights have been spent at the hospital at a much higher cost than the camping rate. I hope everyone realise how important it is to have a good travel insurance. The first appointment at the doctor was 100 dollars and when we got to the hospital, to the emergency, the minimal cost just to get checked up in there was 400 dollars. And then you can imagine the rest of the cost for the surgery and everything else. It will be a HUGE bill!

Since the weather is so utterly boring, Jossan is at the hospital and I have a cold, I had to make myself a bit happier so I X-mas pimped the van today. ☺ Jörgen just sighs when I do this, but I must have a bit of Christmas spirit here in NZ as well. It is kind of hard to get the right feeling when it is summer all around, although a rainy one, but now at least we have some decorations in the front of the van. We just need to add some Christmas music and then we are on track! 😀 Hahahahahaha.

X-mas pimping the van

Our plan today was to go to the geyser but apparently we do not have the weather gods with us.

We visited Jossan twice today, as usual. First we went up there between 11.30 and 13.00 and then in the afternoon approximately 17.00 – 19.00. She is doing better today. Her blood pressure is still very low, 91/51, doesn’t say much to me but they are concerned about it here so it must be low. But she is not dizzy and she has got good colour and normal heart beat, so that keeps them calm…but they are still checking her a lot. She took a shower in the morning and when we left in the afternoon she had walked in total 8 times around the reception and the corridors. Really great!! But she has severe pain in one shoulder but that was quite normal according to the staff, had to do with them adding some fluids or something when they took her to surgery. But the pain in the stomach is better, although she is swollen, but I guess that is rather normal after removing the appendix.

Between our Jossan visits we went to the the geyser Te Puia. Looked at the geyser, had an ice cream, visited the Mauri cultural show (singing, dancing and juggling). I liked it, Jörgen was sceptic (as he usually is to these kind of shows). Tried to have a look at two Kiwi birds but it was so very dark, we could not see a thing. And the guide told us they were sleeping, so there was nothing to see. 😦 I bought a Kiwi necklace to Jossan from there and one for me as well.

A Maurii guy trying to scare me off

In the evening we got, guess what?? Yes, that’s right, pizza from Pizza Hut again. This time we ordered two Hawaii (only 10 dollar in total, soooo cheap) and the plan is to have some left overs till tomorrow (and the plan worked). Had a beer with that when we got back home to the camping ground.

Did some laundry late in the evening (late = 21.00, hahahahaha) since Jossan will be coming “home” tomorrow. Do not want a newly operated Jossan on dirty, old sheets and in a used pyjamas. Now everything will be fresh and clean.

Nighty night! 😀 Tomorrow we will visit the Polynesian SPA, if the time allow us to do so.

Surgery in Rotorua…

Tags

Appendix, Appendix removal, Beautiful, Beautiful nature, Camper van, Green hills, Hospital, Motorhome, New Zealand, North Island, Pain, Pizza Hut, Rotorua, Stomach ache, Surgery, Vacation

Woke up at 06.00 and now my cold is REALLY bad. I am sneezing and snoring and coughing and have a terrible headache. Also have to wear my sunglasses all the time since my eyes are so very “light sensible”. BUT, enough about me and my sickness, There are people having a much worse time than me. Jossan, that is. She had surgery at around 09.30 today. They took her to the theatre (they call it that here, the place where they do the surgery), opened 3 small holes in her tummy, removed the infected appendix and could also see that an area beside the appendix was infected as well. SO now she is officially the second person of the Wallin family to have the appendix removed at the hospital of Rotorua. Ain’t that some kind of coincidence?!

Jörgen and me visited her at the hospital at around 11.30 (by then she had not even returned from the awakening area) and we stayed there until 13.00. She was asleep almost all the time, just glancing up on us from time to time when we spoke to her. So tired!

We then went shopping at Countdown, some fruit, juice, water, salami etc. and then we went to the camping area and had a light lunch. I took a nap after that and then woke up one hour later with a terrible. On Jörgens advise I took two treos and then the headache actually went away.

We went back to the hospital at 5 o’clock and then we stayed with Jossan until 19.00. They really do take good care of her. There are nurses there all the time, checking her up. I told the story about my brother and Jossan, both from Sweden, had the appendix removed at the very same hospital in Nez Zealand just with a difference of approximately 25 years. She then laughed a lot and said to us, with a nod in a direction of a really old nurse, that it might also have been the very same nurse that took care of both of them at that hospital (since her colleague had worked there for more than 40 years) but her colleague did not appreciate her joke AT ALL. She just kept making up the empty beds in the room, not even a smile on her face. Hahahahahaha. But all the rest of us had a really good laugh. Such a good story! ☺

At the hospital

Passed by Pizza Hut after the visit at the hospital, ordered Hawaii, pineapple, mozarella and ham, and then we drove down to the lake and had our pizza and some beer there, overlooking the lake and many, many swans. Couldn’t even count them, but there was a lot of them. Not white swans but some kind of greyish colour.

Pizza and beer time by Lake Rotorua

And now I am at the camping grounds, sitting outside our mobile home, blogging. Jörgen is inside the van and Jossan is at the hospital and tomorrow is a new, fresh day. Our plan is to visit Jossan athe geyser then and to look at some thermal pools. And I can tell you, there are some real thermal activity here. Everywhere you drive in this town, you see hot steam raise up here and there. Even in the backyard of some houses. Really strange feeling to see that everywhere. Makes you wonder how safe this area really is????

Waihi beach and Rotorua…

Tags

Appendix, Beautiful, Beautiful nature, Camper van, Green hills, Hospit, Lovely beaches, Motorhome, New Zealand, North Island, Pain, Rotorua, Sea shells, Stomach ache, Vacation, Waihi beach, White sand

Woke up at 06.00. Jossan still is in pain but far from as heavily as last night. But she has had a hard time sleeping, aching stomach and aching back from laying down too much. We had breakfast outside as usual, no sea view this morning though, but warm and nice. Jossan just had a cup of tea and some yoghurt.

After breakfast, Jörgen and me took a walk on Waihi beach. Soo very beautiful. Just think about having a house near the ocean. Must be fantastic to be able to take a morning dip in the sea every day you wake up. And then do some on-the-beach-yoga. I Found a lot of seashells, black and grey ones, so lovely. I just love seashells. Collected around 15 of them and, of course, got questioned about it from my dear husband. I just answered: You collect military vehicles! I collect stones and seashells. What is the difference, we are both collectors!! My collections are just not as expensive and “storage demanding” as yours! 😉 Discussion closed! 😀

I am a collector 🙂

Rotorua, here we come
Left the Waihi camping ground a bit after 10 and then we took off towards Rotorua, the smelly part of the Northern island in New Zealand. The driving distance today will be around 110 km. Just a few km from the camping I saw the first vineyards. And they just kept on coming. Maybe we are entering the vineyard area now? Stopped after a while and bought diesel and ice-creams and then we continued the trip.

We got to the camping at around 12.30. Area number 36 is ours here at Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park and we started with getting rid of all the garbage, emptying the toilet and filling up the water tank. Then we went to the doctor with Jossan.

We entered the waiting room at 13.15 and we got an appointment at 14.00. Everybody here are dressed in normal clothes so it is kind of difficult to see who is working here and who is not. A doctors appointment cost 100 dollars for foreigners like us.

What is it with the Wallin family, New Zealand and appendixes?
Well, to make a long story short, they suspected inflammation in the appendix so Jossan ended up in the hospital. They made the same diagnose there so at around 21.00 we left her there. Then she was still in the emergency area, waiting to be transported up to the “ward”. She texted us later on in the evening, telling us that there would be no operation that day. They had too much to do so they were planning on doing her operation the next day. Poor Jossan, really bad luck that this has to happen to her during our vacation.

My cold is getting worse but who am I to complain about a shitty cold when Jossan has such a hard time, waiting for surgery at the hospital.

Texted my brother and told him about Jossan and the operation since he travelled on a job to NZ many, many years ago and ended up in the hospital then, having appendix surgery. He answered that Jossan now is in the same town and the same hospital where he removed his appendix several years ago. What are the odds for that???

And BTW, they are really sneaky on the WiFi here at all the campings. Just half an hour for free and then you have to start paying. Me no like!! 😦

Paihia and going back south again…

Tags

Auckland, Beautiful, Beautiful nature, Camper van, Hot Water Beach Camping, Maui motorhome, Motorhome, New Zealand, North Island, Vacation

This night we had the heater on so it was much warmer than last night. Not easy being a beginner of the motor home way of living but we are learning more about it every day.

Went for a shower at 07.30 and then we had breakfast, the best meal of the day according to me. It was sunny and we have a beautiful view, looking out over the sea in front of us. Magic. And the coffee is getting better every day, as well. The first morning we had instant coffee but then we found this special kind of “glass brewing can” so we bought the real stuff and made real coffee. Today the coffee was perfect, I made it with five tablespoons of coffee and a full can of water. Mmmmmmm.

After breakfast we started packing everything and then we went to the “service area” to do things like filling up the water tank, emptying the urine tank, etc. etc. and then at 10 o’clock we started our trip back south. Today we have a really long way to go, approximately 400 km, ughhh, it will be a full day in the van. Lucky enough it is cloudy, I would hate to be in the car for a whole day if the weather was warm and sunny.

Nothing much happened this day, it was a travel day. We passed through Auckland again and there we stopped at the car rental company to get a new table with more than half the legs, hahahaha, and also to get the wifi set to start from scratch. The very first time we started up the wifi, it said: You have used all available MB, please buy more if needed. And we hadn’t even been connected once. So they fixed that for us and now it is working.

Hot Water Beach
Spent the night at the Hot Water Beach Top 10 Holiday Park. Cost = 75 dollars for 3 persons. Went to bed early, as we do every night. I love to go to bed and sleep, it is so good to sleep well.

Paihia and The hole in the rock…

Tags

Bay of Island, Beautiful, Beautiful nature, Boat trip, Camper van, Motorhome, New Zealand, North Island, Paihia, The hole in the rock, Vacation

Woke up at 05.30 and it was freezing in the van. Every part of you had to be under the duvet or you would get frost bit (well, close to anyway). 😉

Beautiful trees in New Zealand

Bay of Island tour to The hole in the rock
Had an early breakfast and then we drove downtown and bought ticket for a boat trip around the Bay of Islands. It was a half day trip and we went all the way to The hole in the rock and back. It was cloudy so it was rather chilly and no one even thought about going into the water for a swim. We saw a lot of dolphins, so cute. They had one baby dolphin in the pact, only a few weeks old and we floated around them (with the boat) for maybe 30 minutes. So cool.

We also had a barbecue buffet on one of the islands, with chicken and pork and some salads. We were freezing the whole dinner, we should have brought more clothes to this chilly island. Brrrrrrr.

At around 13.00 we were back in the harbor and then we went shopping for some groceries. Chicken, cole slow and a new red wine from NZ. Hope this one is better than the last one.

Had som resting time in the van in the afternoon, very nice. Time for blogging and reading. And sleeping. I have started reading the book “Britt-Marie var här”, a book of the same author as the book “En man som hette Owe”., a book that I just loved. He describes really odd and special people in a so very special kind of way. I did not bring that book myself, a Swedish girl heard that we were Swedish and came over and asked if we wanted to have four books since she had read them all and did not want to bring them back home to Sweden. And of course I said YES and thank you. Perfect for us.

Britt-Marie var här av Fredrik Backman

After maybe two hours of afternoon napping we took a walk on a nearby uphill trail, overlooking the sea. Really beautiful, soft ground and surrounded by bamboo and lots of other tropical plants and trees. My guess is that the walk was around 3 km. Unfortunately I forgot to start Run keeper from start, otherwise I would have known the exact number of meters. ☹

When back from the walk, Jossan and I had a cider each. Mmmmmm, really good. We ate chicken, strips and cole slow for dinner and a new red wine from NZ. This one was better than the last one, but nothing close to a dream wine. Josephine had lasagne.

Nightly stock market adventure
This night I woke up at around 04.00 and then I realized I had gotten some money from my last “foundation”??? sale. Time to buy some stocks. Logged in to avanza.se and took a look at the stock market and all figures on the Stockholm Stock Market were red = had gone down, so it was time to do some investment. 😀 So, said and done, I bought some more Atlas Copco, Tobii and TC Tech. TC Tech is a newly introduced stock and it has increased more than 100% since I bought the first batch, a few days ago. Payed 24 SEK/stock then and now they are worth around 58SEK/stock. Should have bought stocks for 10 million kronor and sold for 20 million. Hahahahahaha.

Orewa, morning walk on the beach…

Tags

Bay of Island, Beautiful, Beautiful nature, Camper van, Motorhome, New Zealand, North Island, Orewa, Paihia, Vacation

Woke up in Orewa at 07.00 and had breakfast outside. Overlooking the sea. Lovely. Took a 5 km stroll on the beach, lots seashells, some other mornings strollers and their dogs. Great start of a new day.

Lovely morning beach walk at Orewa

The Orewa beach was filled with sea shells

Left the camping ground and then started our trip up north. The surroundings here look fantastic, all green hills but no sheep at sight so far! Where are they??

Jörgens is driving. I actually have no desire of driving, the van is HUGE and you have to drive on the wrong side of the road. And Jossan, who is used to drive on the wrong side, is not allowed to drive this kind of car. You need to be 25 years old.

The van is great except for the backseat. Not comfortable at all. I had to rebuild it and then it became acceptable, much more comfy.

Took about half an hour and then I saw the first sheep and after that I have seen a lot of them. They are everywhere! 🙂

Paihia
Todays drive ended in Paihia, a cute little town up north. We parked our van on a camping site called xxxxx. The price for 2 nights was 138 dollar, more expensive than Orewa that only cost 60 dollar for a night (20 dollar per person).

Now it is five o’clock and Jörgen and Jossan are both sleeping so I guess I will put away my computer as well and take a short nap. That is the beauty of vacation, you can do whatever you please! 😉

Jossan woke us up at 19.00 and then we jumped up and took a simple dinner with red and white wine. The white was better than the red wine, but none of the wines were great.

At the camping outside Paihia

Took a shower at 21.30, soooo nice, and then helped Jossan with some preparations for an upcoming interview for a job. Fell asleep at 23.30.

Hong Kong and Auckland…

Tags

Auckland, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Vacation

Did not see much of Hong Kong other than that it seems surrounded by mountains and that the airport is big. Got the feeling though that Heathrow was WAY much bigger.

Had time to take a Nasi Goreng and a beer at the airport and then we were off again, this time heading for Auckland, still with Cathay Pacific. We arrived at 13.00, then we had been on ”the road” for 36 hours. Jossans plane was approximately 45 minutes late so Jörgen had to head for the motor home company by himself. I waited for Jossan and she arrived at 15.15. She grabbed some pasta and then we took the bus to the Maui company.

There was our new home for the next 11 days, a huge motor wan, with four beds, kitchen, shower and toilet. And off we went.

Our new mobile home

Drove around 1 hour and stayed at a camping called Orewa, right by the sea. The beach is beautiful and approximately 3 km long. In the evening we had an simple outside ”dinner” with sparkling wine, cheese, crackers and strawberries, celebrating that we have met Jossan after 10 month away from one another and that we are all back together again. 🙂

Dinner light at the Orewa camping

Went to bed early and slept the whole night, I just woke up once, at 02.00 but fell asleep again rather quick . Perfect, where is my jetlag???

New Zealand next…

Tags

Arlanda, Auckland, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Heathrow, Hong Kong, London, New Zealand, Vacation

Today we started our trip to New Zealand and Australia, to participate in our daughters’ graduation at Griffith University in Gold Coast.

These last two weeks has been just crazy with activities and I think I have never been this unprepared for a trip as this time. Birthdays, Christmas parties, other parties, so unbelievably much has happened.

This morning I woke up at 07.15 and then the day was just filled with preparations for the trip. And Monsieur had a meeting today from 08.30 – 12.00, so crazy tempo in to the bitter end. 😉

Arlanda – London – Hong Kong
13.00 we took a cab to the bus station and then the bus to Arlanda. First stop was London and that trip was with British Airways went really well. A short stop there, approximately 2 hours and then off to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific. First flight had better space for legs but this one had better screens. I had pre-ordered gluten free meals and this worked just fine, but as always, flight food is flight food. Most of the time very boring.

Time to faint?
On the flight to Hong Kong we had red wine with the dinner and it took maybe one hour, then Jörgen said: Uh uh, I am not feeling so well. Sweating and dizzy eyes. OMG, he was about to faint as he has done so many times before on flight trip. He laid down and fortunately, it all went away and after a while he was OK again. He really has to stay off ALL alcohol when flying. It is his low blood pressure that causes this in cooperation with alcohol (which lowers the blood pressure even more).