A weekend away

Hi there..  No cards to share today as last week I was working on a commission that I can't share till after the person who it's for has their birthday!  In a couple of weeks.   And this weekend we went down to Rotorua with our friends, Michael and Yvonne and their family to celebrate Michael's 60th.  Rotorua is about 3 hrs south of Auckland and is a Thermal area.  Smells like rotten eggs at times but wasn't too bad this weekend.  So here a a few pics of the weekend.

This was Saturday morning down by the Lakefront.  Our friends have twin grandchildren who are 2 1/2.  They had a ball enjoying the playground and having a pony ride.

Some of the animals and fish at Paradise Springs.  I didn't get any decent photos of the lions that they have there.

This morning we headed about 30kms out of Rotorua to some thermal springs at Waikite Valley Springs

The bottom row shows the water that boils up in the Spring.  It was amazing.  You could see the bubbling boiling water coming up and the steam spewing out.  The pools were beautifully warm at around 30 degrees after the spring water is cooled by running it over some shallow cascades.  After sharing lunch we headed home.  An awesome weekend with lovely winter weather.