We're in Byron Bay with Wyeth and Trina!

Hello everyone. I know it's been a long time. There's not too much to update you on. After our last entry we left Queenstown and went to Dunedin for one night. In Dunedin we went on a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. It was a great tour. Very informative and lots of free chocolate samples. We are both big Cadbury fans and have bought lots of Cadbury bars on this vacation. Our favorite is the Morro Bar.

Next we went to Christchurch for a few days. We went to the Antarctic Center. Rick lived in Antarctica for several years and insisted we went to this museum. It was very interesting and we enjoyed it. We had a great last day in New Zealand as well. We went to the Botanical Gardens and the Art Center and finished getting all of our souveniors.

We flew into Brisbane on Tuesday and it's been so beautiful. It's warm and sunny here, about 75. And it's winter!! We spent a night with Julene and Wyatt. We got to see Wyatt at school (so cute) and the new house, which is gorgeous. Julene dropped us off downtown and we saw some shops and the gardens and sat by the Brisbane river. She took us up to the top of a mountain for dinner and we got to see a magnificant view of the city. We see why she wanted to move home. It's really a great city.

We got to Byron Bay last night. It's so wonderful to be here and it's so great to be with Wyeth and Trina again.
They have a great house with a wonderful view with cows and chickens and tons of birds around. We have decided to stay in Byron Bay for a week through my birthday. Bret is going to go scuba diving and we are going to do some hikes and relax and soak in all the wonderful sunshine. I might not be writing as much this week. Lots of Love!



  ¶ 1:29 AM

  Last Comment from Queenstown

This is Kristin again. I'm so glad Bret updated the blog and was able to tell you the details of the Canyon Swing. I just couldn't do it. I had a feeling I would wimp out so I built it up in my head as this thing that I would do to conquer fear, prove to myself I am daring, etc... Bret was standing there for a while not able to jump and for a few minutes I thought we were both going to wimp out. But, then he had them do it for him and he did it. After he did it I was a bit disappointed in myself. I wanted to be able to say I did something adventurous and talk to Bret about the rush of the jump. But, that's not really me and it's ok if I don't like to do things like jump out of airplanes or leap off steep cliffs. We picked up the photo of him today and I'm glad we have it because you can see how scary it was.

Our stay in Queenstown has been really great. I'm finally starting to feel better today. On Monday we went to Milford Sound. We have lucked out with weather this week. It has been clear sunny skies all week. The bus driver on our way to Milford told us they only get days like that 2 times a month. The scenary was so amazing. I know pictures won't do it justice so you'll all have to come see it for yourselves.

On Tuesday we did the canyon swing and Myfy (my second cousin) gave us some vouchers to do the shotover jet here in Queenstown. This is the most famous one and the one Mom made us get off. I had clear memories of the cliffs the boat goes through. We had a good time. I'm not as scared now that we've done it three times.

Yesterday we went skiing at Cardrona. Another beautiful day and no crowds. The skiing fields here are a lot different. For example, this mountain had three chair lifts. There were many different ways to get to the bottom, but only 3 lifts for the entire mountain. Also, there are no trees on the mountains, but lots of rocks. There were hardly any crowds so no waits for the lifts and lots of fresh powder. Very nice!

Today has been our lazy day. We slept in (which we haven't been able to do very much of at all on the trip) and walked into town for lunch. The hostel we are staying in is right on the lake so whenever we walk into town, we walk along the lake with views of the Remarkables and other mountains as we walk. Now we are just relaxing and reading and tonight we will stay with Roger and Gillian for our last night in Queenstown.   ¶ 8:16 PM

 

More from Queenstown - From Bret!

Yes, I know this is supposed to be ''our'' blog... well I'm finally updating it a little.

Luging

Kristin, her relatives (Parents and 3 of the 4 kids), and I travelled up the gondola in downtown Queenstown to the top of the hill overlooking the town. They have parasailing, bungy jumping, rope swing, and luging. We went on the luge a number of times. It has two cement tracks, an easy one and a more difficult one. You pull back on the bike handle bars to break, and move them foward to go faster, and turn to turn. it was a blast zooming down the hill (even though we were barely paying any attention to the beautiful surroudings).

Canyon Swing

Today, I attempted a bit of adventure in Queenstown. There is adventure everywhere... bungy jumping, jet boating, parasailing, skydiving, bungy rocket, on and on. We decided to try the Canyon Swing. it is the world's largest swing... 109m or 360ft. We took a bumpy 4 wheel drive trip to the canyon overlooking the river. It is huge. Kristin decided not to jump fairly soon after getting there (I can't blame her... read on) I got strapped into a harness around my legs, torso, and shoulder with a large rope attached near the stomach area. Two people jumped before me and that gave me just enough time to get the jitters. You have a choice of many jumping styles, but I decided to do a regular jump (... just jump off the platform). I got up to the edge, strapped to the swing via my stomach rope and got the green light to jump. Well... long story short... I couldn't bring myself to jump off on my own.



So instead I went the easier route. I sat back in a sitting position in the harness and they swing you out over the canyon with a boom arm. Then they pull the switch and drop you (it was much easier than jumping on your own)... It was a rush... about 4 to 5 seconds of free fall before the swing catches you. It was surreal... all I remember was thinking "this is unnatrual!!!!'' I guess I was doing the Running Man.. my legs flailing and searching for the ground. As I swung over the canyon, my mind returned to me and I was happy to be alive. It was wild and I didn't opt for the second jump. I'll leave the crazy jumping to Todd.



Here is the link to the Canyon Swing.

anyway, thanks for reading.. hello to all  ¶ 3:40 AM

  Pictures

Thanks to Chester we were able to get some pictures uploaded. There are only a few and they are high resolution so it might take a while to load on your computers.

Rangitoto Island: This is a picture of the Island that is visible from Auckland.

Jam session at Robyn's: This is Bret playing music at Robyn's dinner party with Mark.

Cousins: This is a picture of all the cousins. David, me, Anna, Mattie and Nicko.

Kristin on the ferry: This is a picture of me on the ferry on our way to the South Island.

Stacy and Logan: This is Stacy and Logan at Hot Water Beach.

Kristin and Bret: This is Bret and I at the thermal pools park.

Abel Tasman National Park: This is Abel Tasman where we went for our long hike.  ¶ 4:48 PM

  Good Day from Queenstown

We arrrived in Queenstown around 5:00 on Friday night. The Magic Bus took us through Arrowtown and Wanaka. These were really cute little towns. Then we went to the world's first bungy jump location. Bret and I didn't have the courage to jump yet. I don't know if I'll ever get it. We were able to stand on the bridge and watch people jump and it looks really scary. This is one of the smallest jumps too. The story goes that Bret's brother, Todd went to New Zealand and didn't have enough money to do the bungy jump so he just jumped off the bridge. Twice!! We'll have to make sure this is the spot. If so, he is crazy!! ;)

Queenstown is absolutely amazing. We decided to stay an extra day here because there is so much to do. We have spent the weekend with cousin Gillian and her family. Gillian is my Grandmother's sister's other daughter (Robyn's sister). Gillian, her husband Roger and their four kids have been wonderful. We have really enjoyed getting to know them all. The only unfortunate thing is that I've been sick. I got a cold in Makorora on Thursday and it's just starting to let up today (Sunday). As soon as we arrived they took us up to this cabin they just purchased up at Coronet Peak. They purchased this old University lodge with 10 other families and one of their friends was having a birthday party. We were picturing a small cabin near the ski area. We arrived to see a huge lodge, much like a hostel, right at the foot of the ski slopes. You could walk out the front door and go across the street and be at the lift. The party was great. People were coming in and out and hitting the slopes for some night skiing. There were kids running around everywhere. There were about 40 people at the party and 30 of them spent the night at the lodge. They have a great group of friends. The next day people went skiing but I was too sick and Bret decided to wait until I was feeling better. We hung out at the lodge and played games.

The kids are just finishing up their two week school holiday. They have so many activities going on. Hugo is the oldest and he is in a school play and at practice right now, Max is the second oldest and had a soccer game today that was cancelled, Myfy has ski racing lessons and plays net ball, and Jonty the youngest plays soccer. There's probably a lot more than that too. They all just moved into a house the Gillian designed. It's right on the lake with beautiful views. I think we are going to go for a walk along the lake in a few minutes.  ¶ 4:14 PM

  Hello from Makorora

Hello everyone! I hope all you readers are doing well. We're in a SMALL town tonight (pop. 40) on the way to Queenstown from the West coast. After my last post, we left Nelson and drove down the west coast. It is beautiful. A lot like Big Sur, but different trees and tons of huge waterfalls. Our adventure options for the day were horse back riding or ski diving. I've been reading the book, Seabiscuit and wasn't able to get into it until about page 50. It's about a race horse that was famous in the 30's. I'm almost done with it now and it is wonderful. Since I was just getting more into the book at the time of deciding on an adventure activity, I was drawn to the horse back riding. Bret is not into horse back riding so he didn't come with me.

I have been riding about three times in my life when I was little. I remembered it being lots of fun. I think as you get older you think more about how you can get hurt. Well, at least I do, and I'm a big whimp. I got up on Sandy, my horse and felt a little uneasy. We started off on our treck and it was raining pretty hard. The horses wanted to stay under the shelter and weren't too happy about going out in the rain. I was getting more comfortable on Sandy, but he kept eating the bushes along the way and I wasn't strong enough to pull him away. We ended up seeing 4 or 5 beautiful rainbows and went along this river with sandy beaches so it felt like we were riding on a beach. The horses walked through a lot of mud and that was fun hearing their hoves clop through the muck. I was glad to be up on the horse. We even crossed several rivers which was lots of fun. I ended up having a good time, but was happy to be off and on the safe ground.

The next day we went to Franz Josef which is famous for two glaciers near by, Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier. We were scheduled to do a half day glacier hike. Bret was really looking forward to this adventure activity. But, the weather got us again. It had been raining all day and was raining when we arrived. They said we could still go on the walk but we would have to walk through a river that would be up to our waist for 30 minutes and then walk in the rain another 2 hours and they couldn't even guarantee that we would be able to walk on the glacier or even see it. We opted out.

We were staying in a hotel so we rented the Lord of the Rings DVD and borrowed Monopoly and had a lazy day. When we were dropped off at our hotel it was really cloudy, but several hours later it cleared up. Oh, I was wrong about the South Island not being as wet as the North. It's a rain forest down here. Anyway, we looked out our window and there were the most beautiful snow covered mountains. We had no idea what was surrounding us. It was a nice surprise.

Today we drove down the west coast and through the Haast Pass. Then we arrived in this little town, Makarora. We decided to do another jet boat adventure. This time was about an hour long and we saw some amazing scenery. The weather totally cleared up today and we had clear skies. Tomorrow we head into Queenstown to stay with Gillian and Roger and the kids for the weekend and hopefully do some skiing. We've heard all this rain has brought lots of snow to the mountains.   ¶ 9:29 PM

  The Sliver Fern

Our Magic bus driver told us a story of the silver fern. I don't know if it is true or not, but I thought it was a nice story to pass on to you readers. As you probably know, the silver fern is New Zealand's national symbol. Every sports team is required to have it on their uniforms. You have probably seen the All Black attire. We have seen silver ferns on most of our hikes. They look like normal ferns, green and leafy, but when you turn the leaves over, they are silver on the other side. When Maori hunters would go on the hunt through the forest, they would pick the silver fern leaves and place them on the ground with the silver side facing the sky. The moonlight would shine down on the silver fern and cause a natural lighted pathway to appear. The Maori hunters would follow the lighted path back home.  ¶ 1:48 AM

  Change in Plans

Oh man, I just wrote an entire post and then tried to do a spell check and the computer freaked out and I lost my post. Stupid computers. From now on, no spell check. You'll have to live with my spelling errors, etc....

We had a change of plans and didn't end up going to Greymouth today. We were planning on spending two nights there and heard that there wasn't too much to do there. So, we decided to spend another day in Nelson. It was great because when we were walking around town the other night I was saying to Bret how much I wanted to do some shopping here. The downtown is a lot like Santa Barbara and our hostel is in a wonderful location right downtown. I did some shopping and Bret found all the music stores in town. I can't buy too much though because I don't have much room in the pack. I bought a few pressies for people and one thing for myself.

They have this great thing at this hostel where you can swap a book for a book. Bret just finished a Steven King short stories book so he swapped and got another book. He is really into this spy book and I think he might finish it tonight and might even be able to swap again. What a great idea! I don't think I'll be finishing Seabiscuit anytime soon, but it is starting to get better.

We met another traveller from Ireland who is traveling for 15 months. He worked in Australia for 15 months though. Can you imagine that? He is near the end of his vacation. I'm happy with our 6 weeks. I think it's a perfect amount of time. We are saving money by staying in hostels, but we are also treating ourselves by going out to nice restaurants and doing lots of fun activities. We don't have to worry about running out of money and having to go home early. It's also nice to know we have jobs to go back to. Hopefully. :)  ¶ 1:43 AM

  Trekking in Nelson

Right now it is Sunday night and we just finished dinner. We had a long trek today in Abel Tasman National Park. This is a national park outside of Nelson. The area we hiked along is not accessible by car. We took a boat out along the coast and then hiked about 7 miles back into town. Most every day we've been on the Magic Bus, every stop we go to has a cafe with sandwiches, snacks, tea, etc... We just assumed that would be the case today and didn't go on the hike very prepared with food. Of course today was the day we didn't stop for food. We had two zone bars with us and heard that there was a cafe at the end of the hike. We got there only to find out it was closed. So, we just now had some dinner and I'm feeling pretty tired. It was fabulous though. We're back to our good eating streak. Last night and tonight, both in Nelson, have been great. We've discovered that here in New Zealand, you don't get monstrous portions like you do in the states, but they focus a lot more on flavor and quality.

The hike was so spectacular. Bret is getting some pictures up right now so you'll be able to see some of it. We hiked along the coast amognst huge jurassic tree ferns and other trees and then inland sometimes along bright emerald green streams. It is really cold here and there have been frosts at night which is unusual. There was frost on the sand on the beaches. That was quite a site. It was strange to be walking along the coast with the sun shining and be freezing. It felt great to be out walking though.

After the last entry on the blog we headed to Wellington, the capitol city. We had a nice drive through the countryside and saw lots of sheep and rainbows. The bus drivers usually play music on the bus which can be nice if it's music you like, but not so nice if you don't like the music. Once we got to the South Island the bus driver didn't play any music so we got to listen to my iPod which was really nice. It gave me a nice feeling of home listening to all of our favorite tunes. We arrived in Wellington around 5:00 and it was a rainly overcast day. However, what I saw of the city I really liked. It reminded Bret and I a lot of San Francisco. We left early the next morning to catch the ferry over to the South Island. It's a three hour cruise and the weather was still bad so they were anticipating a rocky ride. In order to get our minds off the seas, we went to the movies. They had a little movie theatre on board. We saw Bruce Almighty. We got out of the movies just in time to see the Marlborough Sounds. These are beautiful pieces of land jutting out on the tip of the South Island.

We finally had some sunshine. I've heard that it's colder here on the South Island, but not as wet. So far, that has been correct. Tomorrow we head on to Greymouth and then on to some glaciers. Bret is having technical difficulties getting the pictures up so you'll just have to wait a little longer. Thanks for reading. I hope all is well back home.  ¶ 1:13 AM

  A few more NZ terms

NZ/US

Crook/Sick Ex: You look crook.
Good Oil/Gossip, juice, the scoope Ex. Give us the good oil.
Heaps/Lots Ex. There's heaps of meat.

One more thing that is different here is the toilets. You have your choice of two types of flushing. On most toilets there are two buttons. One is a full flush and one is a partial flush. I'll let you do the rest. The other thing is that they refer to them as "toilets". It's weird to ask for the toilet.
  ¶ 1:19 PM

  Two days Too many in Turangi

Ok, so it hasn't been that bad, but it hasn't been that great either. Everyday on the trip can't be perfect and it was up until this point. I'm hoping that you all can laugh at our day. We were able to last night. We're looking forward to getting on the Magic Bus this morning and heading to Wellington. Tomorrow we take the ferry over to the South Island.

Our first day in Turangi was very relaxing. Turangi is a small town on the Southern end of Lake Taupo. The Magic Bus doesn't go through each town every day so I had a choice between staying in Rotorua for three nights or here in Turangi for three nights. When reading the guide book, I saw there were several mountains to go skiing on and this great hike called the Tongaririo Crossing so I figured there was more to do here. Well, the weather changed that. We found out you can't go on the hike because there is snow and the mountains were mostly closed due to bad weather (blizzards) and not enough snow at the top.

Our first day here was very relaxing, which was good. We did laundry, exchanged money, and walked around the little town. We went on a hike a few miles away around a small lake, which was nice.

We decided to go skiing yesterday even though we knew there were only a few lifts open at the base of the mountain which were mostly bunny slopes. So, we got up at 7am and caught a bus to the base of the mountain. This bus service cost $50 NZ, ($25 US). Then we caught another shuttle up to the ski area. I couldn't see a thing out the window and was starting to feel nervous. I've never skiied in a white out before. We decided to ski a half day in the afternoon and see if the conditions got any better. We hung out in the lodge for three hours without any books, etc... We couldn't believe how many people were there with the conditions as bad as they were. We found out only one lift was open and still so many people. I'm so bad with estimating how many. I'll ask Bret in a minute. Ok, Bret says at least 500 people. All on one bunny slope and we heard you couldn't see anything going down the slope.

Once the afternoon hit, we decided it wasn't worth it. It was freezing just standing around and we didn't want to pay a bunch of money to be miserable. We had to wait until noon to catch the first shuttle down the mountain anyway. But, the bus back to our hostel didn't arrive until 4:00. So we had four more hours to kill. There was a hike to do, but it was raining at the base of the mountain. So,we went into this fancy resort hotel. They ended up having a movie theatre. This was the best part of the day. A free movie theatre. We watched Men in Black II and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Then we waited in the cold rain for the bus. We felt like it was a day of waiting. We got back to the hostel and went to have some dinner. The service was pretty bad. We were waiting forever. Just went with the day. Bret ordered a shrimp cocktail and I ordered tomato soup. We were trying to eat heatlhy because all they eat here is meat. They don't really have salads on the menu. Anyway, even though it said cocktail sauce on the menu, Bret's shrimp were covered in mayonaise. Bret HATES mayo!! He tried to wipe it off, but it didn't work. My soup was sweet. We were so embarrassed because we've never complained about our food before, but we had to last night. We ended up eating pizza. ;)

So, sorry for the complaining,but we were hoping it would be amusing for you. Yesterday was the first day we were a little homesick. I think it was mostly the weather. It was rained most of the time we've been here. But, the sun is out today. Horray!!!  ¶ 1:16 PM

  Lake Taupo and Turangi

Today we drove to Wai-o-Tapu. This is a thermal park you can walk around and see craters, cold and boiling pools of mud and water. It smells of sulfar and we saw some really amazing sites. We had a choice to go ski-diving but we weren't up for it. It seems like NZ is the adventure country of the world. Bungy jumping, rafting, river rafting, ski-diving, etc... Bret really wants me to go bungy jumping, but I don't know yet. There is a tandom bungy jump in Queenstown he has his eye on. We did go on a shotover jet today though. Some of you may know the story of my last trip on the shotover jet. Some of our rellies got us tickets to go on the jet down in the South Island. The jet is a small boat that speeds down the river going up against the side of the river and doing 360's. Anyway, 16 years ago when I was here, we went on this jet and started to go down the river. The driver stopped and jokingly asked if anyone wanted to get off. Mum said, "YES!!" and made us all get off the boat. Bret and I did it today and it was scary, but lots of fun. I asked him if that could count as our adventurous activity in NZ. He said, "we'll see".

There is this thing called zorbing. Those of you who were with us at Peter Gabriel will know what this is. It's like a giant hamster ball you can get in and they roll you down the hill. That sounds nice and safe and fun. I'd like to do that maybe. We'll let you know.

Well, there might be more to say, but I think my time is up and it is getting really loud in here. We're hoping to go skiing tomorrow. I hope everyone back home is doing well.

Lots of Love!!!!  ¶ 11:36 PM

  Magic Bus

I wish I could insert more links for you, but this computer doesn't let me have more than one window open. I'm sure it does, but I don't want to waste my special time. Anyway, we started the Magic Bus tour yesterday. Here's one link for you: Click here to read about our Magic Bus Route. We are really happy we're doing the Magic Bus thing and we would recommend it to anyone else traveling here. It's been so nice not worrying about driving or where to go. We arrive in a destination at just the right time and the bus driver passes around a book with activities to do in the next stop. We also have discounts everywhere we go which is fun.

Yesterday we went to Waitamo first and had a tour of the caves. The best part was seeing the glow worms. We got in a boat and floated through the caves in total darkness. There were about 10,000 worms glowing above you. Looking up felt like you were looking up at the sky looking at stars.

We stayed in Rotorua last night. Our second night in a youth hostel. So far they've been really nice. Right now Bret is sitting in the bar at a table right behind me talking to people. I think that's the greatest thing about staying in the hostels and doing the bus tour. We've met some really great people. Most people we've met are from the UK. One guy from Brazil is on his way to California. We told him to hit Big Sur!

Last night in Rotorua we went to a Maori hangi. Bret and I really enjoyed it. It was a great way to learn about Maori culture. They pick you up from your hostel and take you up to this replica of a Maori village. You walk in through the gates and walk through this grove of trees that had little huts with Maori people doing things outside. It may sound cheesy, but it was great. There were groups of people dancing around fires, playing music, etc.. It let you see a glimpse of what might have been going on in a village. Then we went into the hall and they performed Maori dances and gave us information on history and their lifestyles. Lastly we had a feast. More good food. But, not as good as the home cooked meals we've had of course.  ¶ 11:26 PM

  Magic Bus

We started our magic bus tour today.

  ¶ 11:12 PM

  Weeked with Logan, Annastacia, Judy and Kevin

Stacy is known as Annastacia here in NZ. I couldn't do it though, I've known her as Stacy all my life. Anyway, so I mentioned before how much we like Logan. It was great getting to know him better and spending some quality time with Stacy. Logan's parents live in Wahei. This is over on the Corremandel Peninsula. Logan drove us around the peninsula and through this great path through the jungle. It was amazing. They have huge tree ferns here. I wish I knew their names. It reminded Bret and I of something out of Jurassic Park. Everything is so green and lush here. We drove through some old mining towns and Logan gave us history of the areas. On our way through the jungles we saw a man with three dogs. He looked like someone from the Lord of the Rings. Logan informed us that the was a pig hunter. One of the dogs was the seeker, the other was the catcher and the third was a holder. The hunter kills the pig with a knife instead of a gun. Logan brought his gun with him to shoot rabbits or possums. The possums here are killing the native wildlife and kiwis. We saw one and it doesn't really look like the possums we have in the US.

Bret and I really enjoyed getting out of the city and into the countryside. It was so beautfiul. Miles and miles of green hills and trees. We went to this beach called hot water beach. There are thermal waters that brew below the sand. People go and dig holes and sit in the hot water. It was really amazing. I got some pictures. Unfortunately, I don't know if we'll ever get any pictures uploaded because we don't have access to the computer.

Logan's parents, Judy and Kevin were so accomodating. They have a lovely beach in Wahei with a view of the beach. They cooked us another amazing lamb dinner. The first 5 nights we were here, we had 4 home cooked meals. We have been so spoiled. Everything has been so good too!!!

On Sunday we went on a hike through Karangahake Gorge. This was an old gold battery site. We went walking along the river and there were tons of little gold mines. We walked accross bridges and forrests filled with ferns and other trees and plants. We went through a tunnel that freaked me out. You could see the light at the end in the distance, but I started to get really scared in the middle of the tunnel. Stacy was in front of me and I couldn't even see her. She kept making me laugh though so that was cool. We saw two glow worms. ;) Kevin gave us so many facts about the trees and the area. They were really great people and it was nice to be with such wonderful people so far away from home. The kiwis really are nice and the food is so wonderful. We will probably gain 20 pounds here.

Speaking of food, on Sunday night Logan's friends Rachelle and Johan invited him over for dinner and we got to come. They own a cafe so the dinner was out of this world. It was venison and dumplings. It was Bret's first time eating venison.   ¶ 11:10 PM

  Dinner at Robyn's

On Friday, Tony picked us up from Christine's house and we had a wonderful dinner. I got to meet David who was just a baby still in Robyn's tummy last time I was here. I don't think Anna remembered me either so it was greatn to get to know her a little. I wish I could upload photos because we got some great pictures of the cousins. Everyone thinks Anna and I look alike. It was Robyn, Tony, Anna, David, Autie Peggy and Unlce Keith, Mark (Christine's brother) and his two sons Mattie and Nicko. Nicko is the actor and is currently doing a children's James Bond series. Robyn made us a wonderful lamb dinner with NZ veggies and a yummy dessert. It was a great night, but I wish I had more time to spend with them. They call relatives, rellies here so it was great to spend time with the rellies, but it wasn't enough to really get to know them. There was a huge thunder and lightening storm that night. It was supposed to be the worst storm here in 20 years. It snowed in areas it usually doesn't snow and roads were closed, etc... Thankfully it cleared up for the weekend and we had blue skies and sunshine.   ¶ 10:54 PM

  Update from Lake Taupo

Hi everyone! It's now Tuesday, July 8 here in New Zealand. Bret and I have just arrived at our hostel. We'll be here for 3 nights. I have so much to write and tell you about and I only have an hour so please excuse the spelling errors and the lack of links. I'm sitting in a bar too so it's hard to concentrate. Oh my. I hope this turns out ok.
  ¶ 10:48 PM

  Update from Auckland

We have had a great couple of days. Yesterday ended up being a really rainy day so we went to the Auckland Museum. Wow, what a great museum. They had wonderful exhibits on Maori culture, natural history of how New Zeland was formed, and a wonderful hands on children's museum with real animals as well as stuft animals. We were very impressed. On our way to the museum we stopped and saw Christine's first ever nail bar in a shopping center. The one in the pharmacy. It looks fabulous.

After the museum we walked down Queen Street. This is the main street in downtown Auckland and it was really exciting to walk down yesterday and see all the people and shops. It was raining, but most of the street has coverings over the sidewalk. One thing that is different here is that when you get to an intersection, all four directions in the intersection will have stop lights so the people can cross in any direction across the street. It was funny to see people crossing diagonally.

We had to catch the bus back home and we were cold and wet and tired. We didn't know which bus to catch and we were wandering around asking people and bus drivers how to get to Kohimarama Road. The problem was, we couldn't pronounce this word and every time we went to ask someone, it would turn into, "you do it, no you ask this time". There are a lot of Maori names for streets so it's a bit hard to find your way around at times. We ended up making it on the right bus, but by this time it was dark outside and we got off the bus too early because we were worried we would miss our stop and ended up walking several more blocks in the rain.

We ended up having a really great night with Stacy and Logan. They came to pick us up and took us to Wildfire, a Brizilian restaurant. This was the most amazing restaurant and wouldn't you know it, I forgot my camera. Thank goodness they have a web site, becauase I won't even be able to explain how fabulous this place was. The restaurant is in Princes Wharf near where the America's Cup is held. First, they came around with a beverage bar, which I had never seen before and made us Mohitos. We ordered the Churrascaria dinner. You can read all about it on the web site, but the best part was that they came around with skewers of meat and cut you off as much as you wanted. They had chicken, pork, fish, beef, ribs, lamb, you name it! Everything was so delicious. We had a great time hanging out with Stacy and getting to know Logan. I think I mentioned this already, but Stacy is my first cousin from LA who is living in NZ for two years working with Christine. It was so weird to be hanging out with her all the way over here. Stacy was pointing out all the differences between America and NZ and we were laughing at all the different pronouciations of words. Stacy and Logan are going to take us to the beach for the weekend.

Today we walked to Christine's office and warehouse. It was really amazing. I didn't realize how large her company was. They have about 15 employees and a warehouse filled with cosmetic and other various beauty supplies that they supply for all of New Zealand. We borrowed a car and went to Mt. Eden, the tallest valcano in Auckland. There was a lovely view of the city from the top. We also went up the Sky Tower. We are such tourists. The sky tower was really awesome and we got to see someone jump off the top (they have bungy jumps from the top).

Anyway, that's it for now. We are going to be picked up by Tony soon to be taken over to Robyn and Tony's house for a family dinner. We probably won't be able to write for a few days. I hope everyone reading is doing well.

Lots of Love!  ¶ 9:45 PM

  Kelly Tarlton's
We visited the Kelly Tarlton museum near downtown Auckland (mostly with info about Antarctica... spelling?) They had many penguins and a few baby penguins swimming around in a tank. They also had an underground aquarium where you walk through a tube under the water, and the creatures were swimming all around us. They had sharks, rays, huge crawfish, and many others.

Little Sayings

Bret and I thought it might be fun to keep track of phrases and sayings the kiwis say and share them with you. Here is what we've heard so far.

Kiwi/US
Boot/Trunk of the car
Flat Out/working hard
Necked/out of it

Today Susan, Christine's good friend is going to take us all around Auckland and see the sights. We are also going to go see Christine's products in a Pharmacy. In NZ, you buy cosmetics in a Pharmacy, not in a department store like in the US. This is a huge thing for her company so it's exciting to be able to go see it.

Unfortunately we aren't able to upload any pictures yet. Hopefully we will next week. Also, the blog puts the date in the US so when we post pages, you'll have to add a day to figure out which day we wrote it. ;)
  ¶ 2:23 PM

  Rainbows in Auckland

Bret and I walked down to Mission Bay this afternoon and had a lovely lunch. It is winter here right now. One thing that is very different is the weather. It is sunny and warm with a cool breeze one minute and the next it is cold, windy and raining. It made for an interesting walk down to the beach and lots of rainbow sightings. Christine and Ken are on their way home to make dinner and Stacy is coming by with her new boyfriend.  ¶ 11:33 PM

  Blogging from Auckland

Well we arrived in Auckland safe and sound. The flight wasn't too bad at all. We were planning on taking the train up to LA and then a shuttle over to LAX, but we missed the train by 2 seconds. Momma ended up driving us up to LAX. It ended up working out because I got to spend more time with Mom. We had a great last weekend in San Diego. Mom and I visited with Nanny on Sunday morning. Nanny is my maternal grandmother who is from New Zealand. She had so much to tell me about who to see and what the weather was like. It's so exciting for her that we are visitng her native land. I will be thinking about her the entire time we are here.

Mom, Bret, Geoff and I went to Dave and Busters to play video games on Sunday afternoon. It was so much fun. It's a place for adults to run around and play video games. Mom screamed so much she lost her voice. Then we went to Krissy's and she had Rob and Janna over. Rob, Geoff, Bret and Bob played a video game together, they each had their own computer and they were killing each other. It was a lot of fun.

Bret was nervous about the plane. It was the biggest plane and the longest flight he's been on. The plane was huge and we were sitting in the very last seat. We couldn't even see the front of the plane. The ride went well. We were actually able to sleep most of the night. Robin and David (Robin is my Grandmother's sister's daughter) picked us up and took us to Christine's house. (Christine is my Grandmother's brother's daughter).

We are now going to walk down to the bay to have some lunch. I better sign off because Bret is getting hungry. If you want to know the time here, add 5 hours to the time in the US and add a day. So, right now it is 12:12 on Wednesday in NZ. That means it's 6:12pm on Tuesday in California.

Lots of Love!!

  ¶ 5:07 PM