What a weekend

Saturday morning started very badly when we realised spam had been sent from my account and not only that, all my contacts had been deleted so there was no way I could let people know. I had also lost my recent inbox and recent sent mails so I could not get the addresses that way. An automatic "not in office" response had been put on with the email copied in the response. How can people do this? I managed to put on some addresses and set up a group on Facebook asking for people to let me have their addresses.

Saturday lunchtime we went over to Mount Maunganui and had lunch and then a walk along the beach and across to a little island that is joined - just about - to the beach when the tide is out and it is really pretty to go there. At the tip of the island is a blow hole where we stood watching the waves come into.

Sunday morning the same thing had happened with my Hotmail account and I was in a desperate state!

I emailed my nephew who, to cut a very long and complicated story short, was so helpful and on Monday morning I got an email back from him saying he thought I had been hacked. He gave me all the information I needed to report it and a website to try and get my contacts back - I am still waiting for an answer from them. So far I have managed to get 58 contacts back but I had 101! It was of some consolation that when I went onto the website I found many stories of the same thing happening to many people and a lot over this last weekend. It had made me feel like I was infecting people! Ugh! Horrible!

On Sunday we went to Rotorua. We had intended to leave early but due to the email problem didn't leave until gone 10.00 but we were there by 11.00. The weather was not as good as it was forecast and so we decided to just have a look around rather than visit one of the big thermal parks as it looked like it might rain. Rotorua is a pretty place and we walked around the lake and then to Kairua Park which is just an open to the public park with lots of thermal activity. It last erupted in 2003 and covered the area with mud and it is a fascinating place just to see steam coming up out of the ground in various places. Next time we go to Rotorua we will visit one of the big parks which put on Maori shows and have big geysers.

I would now advise anyone with an email account or any account for that matter to make sure you have a "strong" password and not use anything obvious . I learnt the hard way.