The Quirke Tribe: NZ - Martinborough

On our way from Lake Taupo to visit the Twin Tubs (Margaret and John Bath) in Martinborough we crossed a big crater where the New Zealand national ARMY mmuseum and training base is located. The boys were very excited to see all the Tanks, you could say nearly as excited as Jodie was to see all the Wineries around Martinborough. It was great to stay with old friends from Tonga and to have us all in one house. It was a real flash back to a many a Hash House Harriers BBQ with John and Margaret telling each other and us what to do. We had such a great night that they even asked us to stay a second which we did and was very helpful after a day of touring the local wineries.

The National ARMY museum.

Even more exciting was the opportunity for the boys to climb all over the tanks.

Dyl and Jack liked this one because it had the biggest canon.

When travelling with a car load of kids it's hard to pass by a play ground as big as this one. As the girls say they aren't Monkeys?

The boys found this huge flying fox. Only problem was you had to run it back up to the next person.

After a big play we finally got to enjoy some silence in the car.

We finally arrived, an hour late and John & Margaret had cooked up a storm but they didn't mind at all, they sere extremely happy to us all. The girls were straight back into the Tongan gossip over the kitchen bench and a bottle of vino. It was like Margaret had never left, she seemed to know more of what was happening on our Island than we did an she had been gone for over 6 months.

Thanks possibly to many wines and beer after the kids had gone to bed and us adults were up talking about the good old days, John & Margaret decided to look after our kids while we headed out to the vineyards for the day. Just look at these Innocent faces "Have fun mum & dad you can trust us to be good." In Johns famous last words "what trouble could they possibily be???"