THE NEXT ACT

I have been blogging in Blogspot for more than a year now. Well! Well! Well!

"Do you wanna ride the Gondola?" Ruth asked me when we were on vacation in Rotorua. For me that was very interesting. When I think of Gondola, what comes to mind is the romantic boat in Venice, Italy. They have them here. Great. Finally I would ride a gondola. And so the Palines Clan and I went to Skyline to ride the Gondola. When we reached skyline I tried to take a look beyond the ticket line and I haven't seen any canal or any small boat. All I could see was the mountain and cable cars. And so I learned that gondolas are cable cars in Rotorua. Take a look at this video! Gondolas or cable cars would bring us on top of Mt Ngogotaha where we had the extensive views of Rotorua City, lake, geothermal activity and surrounding hinterlands. The kids were so excited to ride the Luge which they have been mentioning on our way to the Skyline. What is Luge? The Luge is a fun ride for all ages. A World 'First' proudly designed and built in Rotorua, the Luge is a fun filled ...

I was in Christchurch Airport waiting for flight to Auckland when Brigitta told me that I got a flight scheduled to leave for Taupo this coming Monday. I haven’t recovered yet from the taste of England of Christchurch and here I was having to think of another interview in Taupo District Council. I checked on my email and there it was my electronic ticket to Taupo. I felt bad right away because the flight to Taupo was scheduled at 7:30 am and the flight to Auckland was scheduled at 11:30 am. It lead me to think that I have no ample time to look around. I heard that there are a lot of interesting lakes and falls in Taupo to see. Well! When I arrived in Taupo Airport, I immediately looked for a taxi that will bring me to the council. Just when I was about to go through main door of the building, a Chinese lady with perfect kiwi accent was running to catch me calling my name. She introduced herself by the name of Krissy from HR department of the council. She was the one who would bring me ...

Palm Sunday is celebrated in New Zealand very much the same way we celebrate it back home. The only difference is that you can have palms for free and you can just get them from a box displayed beside the main entrance of the church. And a palm is just a small branch of a cypress.

I went back to the Cathedral Square in front of the Christchurch Cathedral. The flea market was setting up. And then I noticed a crowd watching a street performer within the large area of the square! My God! There are street performers in the Square. Who says Christchurch is a lonely place? They seemed enjoying the funny street performer who calls himself Bruce as he did juggling acts and stunts. I thought that this was interesting and I watched. He was a funny guy because I found myself laughing with the audience. Bruce was a crowd drawer and he even had the talent to convince two guys and a lady to volunteer in some of his acts. Or maybe it does not need talent to summon people here to volunteer because kiwis are such "cowboys". After his last act, he held his hat in front and the crowd just swarmed in and put money inside his hat and even thanked him. For me that was amazing. The crowd may have just enjoyed the show and left. But they just have to approach the guy and show...