特色小镇之 Tirau ~ A Unique Small Town

Tirau 是个很漂亮的小镇，根据网络资料，镇上只有大概700多人，以农业为主（Tirau在毛利语里为‘一个很多朱蕉的地方’。
波纹铁是这里的特色，从旅游咨询中心到餐厅小店，都可以看到他们用这特别的波纹铁做招牌或装饰。我们在这里荡了好一会儿，还买了件特价寒衣呢！记载以下，在这里，看到好多小朋友都不爱穿鞋子的。。。
Tirau, a very small but beautiful town. According to the information from internet, the town has approximately 700++ populations, and basically its a farming town. In Maori, Tirau means "place of many cabbage trees (Cordyline Australis)."
 
Corrugated Iron deco is another uniqness in Tirau. From the i-Site to the restaurant to shops, you can see a lot of these beautiful and special corrugated iron.. We walked and shops and had our lunch here... it's just so relaxing. Besides, we saw quite a lot of kids not wearing their shoes here...

波纹铁绵羊商店，够特别吧？？
Isn't it special? This is one of the shop that next to i-Site

这是旅游咨询中心。。。
Tirau's i-Site

其中一家餐厅，那猪仔很可爱下。。。
One of the restaurant... the swine pretty cute :P




很庆幸在回程时有机会绕过这小镇，虽然错失了其中几个，不过能看到这么一个特色小镇，也很满足了。。。
Felt so lucky that we've got a chance to stop by this small little beautiful town (tho we've missed out few others in our planned route), I can still feel the tranquility ...

批评和建议

昨天在星周洲副刊教育版上看到了一篇觉得非常贴切管用的文章 ，探讨为什么父母总是在批评，如何按耐不住迫不及待的把自己的人生经验传给孩子好让他们走少一些‘冤枉路’而忽略和剥削了孩子选着做事情的方式。

不是想把人心当狗肺，只是，当父母提议的同时，是不是也应该让孩子有选着的余地？可能孩子的方式更适合他们自己呢？个人觉得这道题不单是亲子关系该探讨，对朋友和身边的人也一样。且来看看其中两段文：

文 一：
“管”，很多时候就带着批评--你这样做不好，不对，不够聪明：带着不信任--我觉得你肯定做不好；带着不平等，按我的方法来做才是更好的。

文二：
你为什么不？
批评是批评，指责是批评，比较也是批评。 还有一种隐性的批评也值得警惕，就是 “你为什么不。。。？
你为什么不减肥啊？你为什么不去健身房啊？你为什么不结婚啊？你为什么不找一份薪水更高的工作？你为什么不让小孩练钢琴啊？最近还被朋友很有创意的问，你这么有才华，为什么不做一份更能发挥才干的工作？
貌似是一个关心的建议，而背后的潜台词是，你完全可以更好，但你竟然没有做到，说明你还不够努力，你还不够好。
（以上两端取自星洲副刊-快乐家庭）

我个人是不抗拒别人给于建议，但是，我也希望当建议不被接受时，建议者会试着了解为什么，试着聆听，而不是一句‘硬颈’ 、‘固执’ 就抛过来。因为这样不是建议，而是看似客观的隐形命令了。

同样的如果别人以不一样的方式完成一项动作，我们是不是也可以先按耐着自己，让别人去探讨自己的方式，然后才给于意见呢，甚至不给于意见而是给于肯定？

就如英国作家劳伦斯提出的教育三原则（也是取自报章）：
一，别管他
二，别管他
三，别管他

当然，对某些过于关爱孩子和身边的人来说，这举动要拿捏得当，比登天还难。我们，是不是也在不知觉中，犯了这毛病？

农宿 Big Bird B&B Farm Stay @ Otorohanga

我们在这里留宿两天，一来这里靠近游绳的地方，二来因为同行的朋友没有住过农宿，所以游绳后的第二天我们可以好好体验下这农场的生活。主人家很热情，地方超干净而且细心观察可以看到他们用了许多再循环布置，别出新裁。。。值得推荐！

We stayed here for 2 nights as it is nearby the abseiling+glowworms cave, and we can experience the farm stay on the next day. Our host Ann is very friendly & she kept the place clean & tidy that I felt so comfortable just like in my own house... I will definitely recommend this if you wish to have a good experience of farm stay.

Quite easy to spot from main road.

住宿的环境都可以看到经营者的用心。用破烂的鞋子种花，是我的小梦想之一！
Can see the time and efforts that Ann & Ross put in this farm house. Using an unwanted shoes to plant is one of my small little dream!  

房间很舒适，暖气又够，还有架小小电视机呢。
This is where we stayed. Got one extra single bed somemore...its cozy and tidy and warm!

农场游记开始！
Here comes our farm tour!

小型的马种，小朋友可以骑哦。还有许多小动物等着我们喂呢。。。
Miniature horse, the kids can ride of it oh. There are many more animals awaiting for us to feed them!

以前我是很抗拒触碰动物的（觉得有异味），不知何时突然明白到自己的手分分钟脏几万倍。。。
For once I was very resist to touch animals (felt that there are always some strange smell), then donno since when hor, I suddenly understand that my hand could have been even more dirty than any of them...

这四只家伙出场时还真的蛮有形的叻！我还是第一次看到Llama呢！
First time saw Llama (till then only I know there is such creature call Llama ==')! They marked their debut in a cool way...hahahahah 

林肯好俊哦！那一头卷发想必迷死不少粉丝。。。呵呵呵。。。喂食完毕还给了我们一个亲吻呢！
Look at Lincon's curly hair! Damn, he is so handsome! He gaves Ann and myself a kiss after we finished feeding him!

这农场真的好大，不容易经营啊！
The farm is really huge! And seriously its not easy to run and maintain it... Salute to Ann & Ross!

嘿，还有机会牧牛呢！
Participating and helping Ann to move the barrier so that the calfs have more grass to eat!

笨鸟地带，呵呵。。。走进一点阿，那笨鸟就开始扇动翅膀，示意你别太靠近它的女友哦！
Ostrich's territory. The big bird was flapping his wings to warn you not getting to near of his gf!

这几只小家伙是前一晚在外游荡没回家的。。。在马来西亚可能连‘渣’都没有的剩，别指望把它们找回来。。。
These 3 little one were loitering outside a night before, Ann get them back home the next day morning. In M'sia, probably already gone case...

帮忙邻居‘除草’。。。哈哈哈。。。真的是一举两得。。。
Helping the neighbour to 'manage' their grass :P

他们有好多豚鼠！而且笼子是自己盖的哦。。。可爱死了。。。
They've got so many guinea pigs! Oh my, and Ross made the cage himself! They are really cute!

很棒的经验，怀念那青葱的草原，无争的环境，清新的空气。。。
A very great experience, missing the grassland, the pure air, and the stress free environment...

罗托鲁阿跳楼记 'Jump Floor' Experience @ Agroventures, Rotorua

话说在罗托鲁阿的第二天天气还不错，所以参观了温泉谷后我们就往这Agroventures去刺激刺激神经了。至于为什么说跳楼，看看就知道。。。

Second day at Rotorua the weather was so much better, not too sunny even drizzling from time to time, but we still able to visit the thermal wonderland and proceed to this excited Agroventures games. Our very first 'jump floor' experience...

我们的配套呢，是5选3，还记得我们但是大小声的说：“我们不要笨猪跳啦，就选sweep, swoop 和 freefalls 好了。” 唉，谁知道那个swoop阿，和笨猪没什么两样哩 ==||
We can choose 3 out of 5 games here (Bungy, Sweep, Swoop, Freefalls & Agro Jet)
"No Bungy we don't want Bungy, ok lets do sweep swoop & freefals," We said.  Then it turned out that the Swoop is just so similar with Bungy lah aiyoo... ==||  

强颜欢笑。。。
Forcing a smile...

开始质问自己为什么要虐待自己的神经。。。
Starting to question ourselves why we wanna torture our nerves in such way...

这时候我们开始看那些绳索是不是安全有没有要‘断线’的痕迹（虽然有点太迟。。。），汗颜 ==||
At this point of time, we started to check if the wire and the ropes are all OK, another sweat ==||

和铁杆平行时，地面的工作人员给指示：“OK 老兄你可以把绳索放开了！”下一秒钟，除了惊叫。。。还是惊叫。。。啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊！！！！！！！！！！！
Until we were at the same height with the poles, the crew at the ground shouted 'Alright, you can release the rope now...', and the next secs what we all did were just scream scream and scream! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

哎哟。。。怕到，打死都没有下次 >_<||  难怪人家讲 ‘难得糊涂’，如果一开始我知道是这样的，根本就没有勇气玩啦，无端端去跳楼，真的是。。。
Walau, really freak me out! No next time no next time! Seriously, if I were to know it was like this ah, no way man, I definitely no courage to play! No wonder people said sometimes its 'good to be blur'... grrrr....

这个很酷哦（那强风恰恰可以镇静神经）。只要可以保持平衡和做对指示，工作人员就可以帮你完成所有特技动作哦！
Hehe, this one is cool (and cold, hehe just nice to calm ourself after the swoop) ! All you need to do is to keep the body balance & follow the instruction properly, then the crew will help you get all the stunt actions done!

成功！Done!

第三项，还以为是最容易的岂知它竟然是最考体力的！要拼命的踩三个圈这‘子弹形’单车才会自动行驶1-2圈叻！脚都软。。。
Third games of the day, thought it's the easiest one yet it turned out to be the most tiring one! Gotto cycling 3 laps only the 'capsules'  

这位仁兄自己跟自己比赛咯。。。呵呵。。。
Hehe, he gotto race with himself since there were only 3 of us :P

不是搞笑的哦，我可是创了女子记录叻！
Don't play play ah, I made the record of the lady oh! Muahahaha

下次有机会可以来试一试，我是觉得蛮不错的哦！
I would recommend this activities if you were to visit Rotorua and have got extra time :)