Cheapskate Millionaire

Yup, I'm a cheapskate millionaire!  I mean, not that I have a million buckaroonies stored in the bank but that I have everything I need (and then some!) and I hardly pay truckloads for what I have!  We just recently went to a garage sale across the road and picked up a vegetable drawer set for $20!  I have always wanted one but been reluctant to pay $260 for it.  So here is one, a little scuffed and worse for the wear but I dare say, with a little TLC (I'll wait for my Christmas holidays to do her up), she will be quite the little useful and beautiful piece of furniture she was meant to be.

Vegetable drawers with bottom screen for aeration
The top opens up .... great for storing root vegetables.

I found 4 books, and 2 Indian statues for a total of $4!  I am not into dust -collecting ornaments but these little guys will find another life as something else soon - a garden deity tucked away or furniture decoration perhaps.  We'll see.  The books are handy for holiday reading. (Nope, don't have an electronic kindle - don't even have a mobile phone!  Never had the need.)   Have already finished one book - An Equal Stillness by Francesca Kay - delightful book about an artist.  Well, delightful is not quite right - it was a bit tragic, but I loved the descriptions of the art materials and art works.  Made it seem so real!

And at the same garage sale, I found a table.  $10!  Not in the best of condition but a throw hides the hideous veneer top (which, I might add, is an extending table in working order).  The legs are good.  Almost as good as mine, my hubbie joked.  I think mine have a bit more substance to them!

Indian inspired knickknacks and holiday reading

Front room table served the purpose

Final resting place for our as-yet-unrestored
veggie drawers.

Now, while still on holiday at home, Mike took us off for a little romantic night away, for 2.  We stayed at a favourite motel in Rotorua (Mike stays every 2 weeks for work, and being on a loyalty card, for every 11 nights he stays, he gets one free night - ha!)  So off we toddled.  First stop - an Opp shop where I managed to score the coolest gear for a princely sum of $4 each (the blanket was only $2 as it has a burn mark).  All washed and fresh - pre-loved but new to me!  The woolen poncho is pure angora wool - beautifully soft and decadently warm!  I think I shall work a renovation miracle on the little woolen blanket.

Opp Shop treasures.

Then we headed off to Hell's Gate in Rotorua.  Rotorua is New Zealand's Yellow Stone National Park equivalent.  A thermal wonderland!  Now a little while ago, we purchased an Entertainment Book from our Kindergarten fundraiser - with all sorts of special deals and coupons.  Cost $60 but we have long since recovered our initial expense.  One of the coupons was a 2 for 1 at Hell's Gate, hence the outing.  It is the first time we have ever been there (even though we have been to Rotorua several times) and we were veritably impressed.  It has bowls of burping mud, venting plumes of steam, bubbling,boiling water pools in excess of 100degC and terrain akin to a lunar landscape.  The walk took us an hour, with lots to see along the way.  We felt it is a very under utilized tourist attraction - the only other folk we met were a french couple (we swapped cameras to take friendly couple pics for each other!) and as we were departing, a tiny handful of tourists arrived.  Where were the hordes?  The busloads of Japanese and German tourists we always see closer to the heart of Rotorua?  This place rocks!  I mean, erupts!

The sign says it all!

The GreeNZ at the Hot Foot Spa.

An impressive carving of Ruamoko (God of Earthquakes) at the entrance 

Other impressive carvings

Lunar-like landscape with French couple's feet in the Foot Spa

The silky gritty mud is great for exfoliating whilst immersing feet in the sulphuric
water which is so hot at first but then one gets used to it - Bliss!
The waters and mud are said to be hugely healing, especially for ailments
 like rheumatism  and arthritis.

Heat-tolerant Algae in the boiling waters creates great swirling patterns

The pungent sulfuric smell of cooked eggs adds to the adventure

Boiling Kakahi Waterfalls  where Maori warriors used to bathe their wounds after battles.  It is the largest hot water waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere!

 The walk was an easy one, not too many uphill gradients and it was well-signposted.  Some signs of a wicked sense of humour too - one sign indicating the Inferno pool which reaches 100degC had a second sign saying that anyone found guilty of littering the pools would be asked to retrieve the litter at their own risk!  Hee hee!

Boiling point spots

Not much grows in this environment apart from some scrubby tea-tree bushes.

Steam everywhere.  Anyone for a cuppa tea?  This pool reaches 122degC!!

After a wonderful morning checking out all the steamy sultry sights, we headed to another coupon deal - the Polynesian Spa for a soak in a alkaline mineral water spa.  Beautiful little secluded area for bathing but once we were immersed, we started to see "floaties" in the water!  Eeek!  Even at a 2 for the price of 1 ($35) coupon deal, it was a bit of a grossing out rip-off experience.  We saw pubes and what looked like spermy guys floating in the water (definitely not ours!!).  Mike tried to joke feebly that the temperature of the water was hot enough to kill any foreign sperm and so there was little chance of me becoming pregnant from a visit to the Polynesian Spa.  We hopped out before our 20 minute time limit light came on and showered off the sexual advances of the previous spa couple.  Won't repeat that one again in a hurry!  Gross!

The lovely little Love Pool

Coming back home, we always feel pleased to get back to our little sanctuary. I have just added a Balinese touch to our fence.  There is a lovely little reasonably priced Bali Shop in Katikati.  My Buddha plaque creates a lovely feel to our enclosed entrance courtyard and a great place to have our Friday night French Henry's wood-fired pizzas from the market.

A touch of Bali

Henri's pizza night, with freshly squeezed apple juice, all from the Friday night market.  Caspian yoghurt, sauerkraut and homegrown salad.   (Ooops!  The toilet roll is for wiping hands!)

A week still to go of blissful holidays............. time to tuck in to some more books!