We Adopted a Duck! 🦆🇳🇿 Lake Home Living in New Zealand & Polynesian Spa Tour | 197 Countries, 3 Kids

Join us on our journey adopting a duck at Lake Rotoiti, New Zealand!

Shortly after settling into our bach home on the lake, we were greeted by a very territorial and rather noisy paradise shell duck.

The duck, that we named Bobina, chased our girls around the yard and would not allow them to sneak past even while trying to move some kayaks. So, they had to get creative and take drastic measures! Yep, gumboots and all!

We later found out from a neighbour that she was not chasing us - she was lonely. 😢 We learned that she recently lost her mate and was simply looking for attention and someone to pet her, thus resulting in our adoption of her :-)

During our time at the lake, our friends Richard and Christine invited us for a boat ride to visit the Manupirua Springs Hot Pools at Lake Rotoiti.

First, we stopped at an ancient Maori spot with caves and then continued to the hot pools. The lake waters were kind of chilly, so we truly enjoyed the warm water in the hot pools.

One morning on our way out, we found an unexpected “apology in advance”. Our neighbor left us a jar of honey for the noise we would probably hear during the weekend due to his birthday party. We had the idea to make him a nice b-day card, crush the party and pretend we were his friends! Oh boy, the poor guy was so confused trying to figure out who we actually were :-) It was an epic prank that went over really well.

At the same time, we also celebrated our good friend Jessie’s birthday and organized a movie night to watch the scary “It” movie. Unfortunately, we had a little mishap when Chantal and Jessie’s mom Anne decided to prank the kids and scare them, but instead, they ended up breaking a window! Luckily no one was hurt and this prank also was a success :-)

And if you thought our duck story was over, you were wrong. We literally had our home invaded by Bobina, the duck. We swear she was getting smarter by the day!

While staying in Rotorua, we also visited the famous Polynesian Spa, ranked among the top 10 in the world. This spa’s waters come from two different water springs and feed into a combination of 28 alkaline and acidic hot mineral pools.

The first thing we noticed before entering the spa was the Rachel Spring Whangapipiro - a hot pool named after an esthetician called Rachel who swore by the silica’s softening properties.

At the Polynesian Spa, they offered different options to choose from depending on what you wanted to experience.

One pool after another, we tried mineral waters with different temperatures and PH levels. We also enjoyed some cozy heated stations where we could lie and relax after taking a dip in the pools, then took a reflexology walk, slowly walking a short path paved with stones with different textures.

The cool thing about the Polynesian Spa is that it’s the only place with access to the Priest Springs whose waters are great for treating skin conditions, swelling, arthritis, and different types of aches.

It was also really awesome to try the hot pools after sundown when the temperatures dropped a little.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, so it was time to do a final clean-up and leave the house. We will miss the place a lot, but we will miss Bobina the most!

1:17 Chased by a Paradise Shelter Duck in NZ
2:10 Trying to Reason With A Duck
4:43 Why We Are Being Chased by a Duck
5:15 Loving Lake Life in New Zealand
5:52 Shirley Valentine Movie Night
6:36 We Adopted the Duck!
7:26 Boat Ride on Lake Rotoiti
8:07 Maori Storage Caves on Lake Rotoiti
9:48 Lake Rotoiti Hot Springs
13:20 Celebrating Jessie’s Birthday
14:00 Movie Night Gone Wrong
14:58 Operation “Birthday Prank”
16:20 Duck Invasion!
18:38 Rachel Spring in Rotorua, New Zealand
19:15 Rotorua Walkway Map
19:47 Polynesians Pools & Spa
20:52 Trying Different Hot Pools
20:30 Alkaline Vs. Acidic Hot Pools
21:57 Priest Baths
20:08 Reflexology Walk
22:29 Family Area at Polynesian Spa
23:35 Goodbye Cleanup!

Enjoy the video and let us know where you are watching us from!

#Duck #LakeLife #NewZealand
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