LOOKING, SEEING, BELIEVING

Has this happened to you before?

You see something on the net. You get the price. You believe it is right. You travel several miles expecting to see your paradise. You get there. You are shocked.

Well, if it hasn't happened to you, what can I say..... lucky you.

I've been short changed in the past. It's happened with tour packages, which we swore off, after the lousy hotel we landed in almost eight years ago in Langkawi. It happened to me again when I got my Dad and sis to join me in Amritsar. Dad had been attempting to convince me to stay in the Army mess, but I thought something we paid for would be much better. I couldn't have been more wrong.

That's why when I see fantastic pictures advertising a particular property, I book it with almost a sense of disbelief. I wait till I get there to see everything for myself before pronouncing judgment on it. Yes, pictures sometimes lie.

Which is why when I saw these, I was holding my breath. Could it really be that beautiful?

After a visit to Gill and Barry's amazing Tudor style home nestled quietly on Mountain Road in Rotorua the verdict is - YES, YES, YES....

This is the view from the slopes of Mount Ngongotaha where the picturesque beauty is housed......


This is exactly how the cottage looks......


These are the interiors. I loved every bit of it but what truly stole my heart were the bed-side lamps. I reckon they are common enough in New Zealand, but its the first time we'd seen the one touch wonders. Gently touch it and they light up. Touch them again they go from a soft to a warm to a bright glow. Touch them once more they switch off. No more meddling with annoying switches when you the book you are reading is sending you to slumberland. So if any of you are headed my way from Middle Earth, you know what to get me. Wanted to pick these beauties up but never got to a mall on time. As always so much to do, so little time.


And if you have money to spare, this property also happens to be on sale. I do hope, whoever buys it next will make this labour of love live on. Everyone who has stayed there has had a story to tell. The visitors book in the cottage a testament to that. And that is what travel should be - a story, an adventure, another page flipped, another one still to be written.