We do our best to sharpen the pencil to keep your costs down, contact us for our best rates.

For more information please see http://cosycottage.co.nz/groups/

Raggamuffin wil be performing on Monday the 4th June ( Queens birthday weekend) with Fiji, J Boog, Peetah Morgan, Spawnbreezie headlining their special tour.

So if your planning on coming down to reggae it up, Cosy Cottage is the place to stay! We have spots for camping and a range of accommodation and prices. For those of you on a budget we have thermally heated tents sites which makes camping in the winter that much more endurable. Come home late and crawl into your warm tent!

Having run 21 marathons (19 which was then Fletcher Marathon and 2 Hamilton marathons) I have full admiration for any-one that finishes the marathon whether it be run,walk, jog or race.
I was very lucky to have my brother-in-law (Colin Smyth, Mr Marathon Man, the only runner to have run every Rotorua Marathon) as my coach.

The Rotorua Marathon was known as one of the most challenging marathons in the southern hemisphere due to the hills around the course. Over a period of time some of the hills have been shaved off but never the less it is still a challenging course to respect.

I had pressure put on me on my very first marathon. Firstly being, I wanted to break that magical time of 4 hours. Secondly our niece was getting married in Whakatane that day and our daughter was flower girl. If I was not at the 30k mark at a certain time, I was going to have to pull out. However, I took note from my seasoned club mates tips, e.g Do not start too fast, take on plenty of water, relax and enjoy it. I made it to the finish just in time where my husband was biting his nails and we made it to the church 2 minutes before the bride arrived.

I went on to run 18 more Fletchers and was lucky enough to better my times enabling me to pick a few placings. I do not know if the supporters and people of Rotorua realise just how much they make this marathon special. All around the course you hear wonderful words of encouragement etc which makes for a awesome atmosphere.

To every one that has entered this years events,good luck, enjoy and you have my full admiration.

21 Marathons! Thats 550.2 Miles! What a stellar effort. Thanks for sharing Dawn.

If anyone is interested here’s the official info.

1. Stay free on your 4th night

Treat yourself to a little more time off.

2. Book 2 nights and save a 10%

Perfect for that weekend away.

3. Book 2 nights or more in a kitchen cabin and request a free upgrade to a flatlet.

Enjoy a made bed, kitchenette, and thermally heated room.

4. Book a KAITUNA RAFTING TRIP – $75 per person, normally $84.

The worlds highest commercially rafted waterfall!

Conditions Apply

Available 22/04/12 to 28/09/12. Discounts must be arranged prior to stay. Direct on line customer bookings only. Not available for group or agency bookings. Discount subject to availability. Cannot be combined with any other discount or promotion. Not available School Holidays, Queen’s Birthday weekend or peak weekends or peak periods . Available only by request with on line reservation or PH 0800 22 24 24 at time of booking.

Chris, a nice bloke,  recently stayed with us and decided that he’d have a go at trout fishing in the Utuhina Trout Stream down the back of Cosy Cottage Holiday Park.

Sure enough, with some local advice he got his bag limit of 8 trout each day for the 3 days he was with us.  As luck would have it he didn’t like eating fish!  Needless to say there were some very happy campers.

He handed me this one over the counter, dripping wet.  Made quite a scene in a busy office.

Chris kindly shared a few tips which I’ll pass on, stay tuned…

Danny

We had a lovely family stay with us who enjoyed some of the on site facilities.  Particularly the steam oven.  The steam oven has a pair of heavy duty welding gloves to protect your hand from the steam.  Our poor old gloves were a little tired (maybe a lot tired!) and the lovely family mentioned they would send us a spare pair they had lying around.

Low and behold, the promised gloves turned up.  Made our day here at Cosy Cottage!

Thanks again to Paul, Erin and Precus!

Tonight we made a pork spare ribs.  Easy as…

Add pork spare ribs to a pot with a sauce of choice.  I used my homemade BBQ sauce (diced garlic, soy sauce, worcester sauce, puree tomato, salt & pepper, a bit of chilli, and a splash of whiskey).  5 hours in the steam oven then grilled the ribs and reduced the leftover sauce.  Paired with some coleslaw and baked vegetable salad.

Verdict: Success.  I promise we’ll do these again and I’ll get some photos!

Until next time,
Danny

The details about the event are listed here and we still have some availability.

http://www.rotoruanz.com/events/2012/feb/17/te-arawa-regional-kapa-haka-competition

Cheers
Danny

A few months ago we joined in on the ‘Cycle Hub’ initiative through Holiday Parks New Zealand (HAPNZ).  We’re big cycling fans here and last year my wife and I clocked up thousands of Km’s on the saddle, but thats a different story.  Anyway, back on topic, being a part of  ’Cycle Hub’ means we have secure lock-up facilities for bicycles and cyclists gear.   Today I got chatting with a couple of nice young lads competing in the competition this weekend.   They gave me a few tips which I’ll put to good use when things quite down and I’m able to get my bike out.

Good luck to all our guests competing this weekend!

Cheers
Danny

Natalie is the eldest of the Greenwood daughters so it’s no surprise that as soon as Nat could see over the counter she was put to use in the office. Prior to that, she was ironing pillow cases and collecting litter from around the camp for her pocket money. More recently Nat has travelled around the globe twice, and worked for New Zealand’s most prestigious primary school, Kings.

I’m a half-kiwi half-american guy who realized he was at least three quarters kiwi after doing my final year of schooling at Matamata College.  I followed my brother’s footsteps into the ever-changing world of IT.  After university I worked for the world renowned Queensberry where I finished up managing their IT Department which included running the subsidiary software company, Photojunction.

So together, Nat and I bring an eclectic mix off skills but thats probably just what is needed, a little bit of everything!

Oh and I almost forgot – our new yellow lab, Buster is sure to bring his abilities too, right now that’s limited to cuteness and the occasional response to ‘sit’

Sorry for the long post, you’ll here more from us soon, but in shorter bursts.

Cheers
Danny (and Nat)