New Zealand Day 2

Day 2 - We had an early flight from Christchurch to Queenstown, we left at 7:00am to land at Queenstown an hour later, but we didn't get there till afternoon. A storm rolled into Queenstown and just wouldn't clear, so we circled overhead for 1/2 hour then diverted to Invercargil, from there we got on a bus and the drove us back to Queenstown for 3 1/2 hours. There went our morning, but at least we got to see the countryside of that part of NZ. We picked up our car, called our tours at TeAnau and rescheduled since we were late, and got into TeAnau just in time. This is on Lake TeAnau on the way to the glow worm caves. The storm that was in Queenstown was still hanging around on the other side of the mountains at TeAnau...as you can see.

There is a freshwater river flowing out of a spring deep in the mountain, this forms the cave where we saw the glow worms. Sorry, no pictures of glow worms, the don't like to be photographed, they think it steals their little worm souls or something.

The sun started to come out, and so did the colors. This is the Dock where the boat dropped us off and picked us up for the glow worms at lake TeAnau. The town of TeAnau is across the lake way in the distance.

There is my main squeeze checking out the river.

This diagram and map show the cave and river system where we travelled to see the worms glowing in the pitch blackness.

Will on the western shores of TeAnau.

Some tasty drift wood that looked like a big dookie.

Even though the sun was shining, the wind out on the lake was still so cold.

Here I am back on the TeAnau side.

Yep, I like him...still.

We didn't fish, but the sign was cute.

This fisherman has an extra arm...gross.

One of the fingers of Lake TeAnau stretching back into the canyons. So Amazing.

There will be lots of this type of photo on the NZ posts, so much natural beauty in this place.

I don't need to say anything about it, it speaks for itself. So I will stop typing now...

Here is our friend Small Scott holding the key to our hotel in TeAnau. He likes to travel with us and is quite an adventurer.

New Zealand Day 1

First Day in New Zealand - It was a packed day that started really early, we left the kids with Miki Ogao, our long time friend from AZ who flew out to watch our kids for us (Thanks again Aunt Miki!) Next the day went on with us leaving to catch an 8:00-ish flight to Sydney out of Albury, which was late. Consequently we missed our international connecting flight. We were pretty upset over the whole ordeal but they rebooked us on another airline that had us in Christchurch 3 hours earlier, so we were overjoyed. Only they didn't have seats next to each other so when we got on the plane Willy asked the guy sitting next to him if they would switch, and we did, so we sat together after all. Here's Will, in the rain at cathedral square. Dang construction worker messed up our photos of the church in the center of Christchurch.

Switcheroo, and here's Audrey.

We stayed at a little eclectic place called Off The Square. It was decent, but really small. I would recommend it because it was comfortable, stylish and cheap, but, only if you enjoy new age porn. All of the art work on the upper floor was artsy photos of naked women, we were a bit uncomfortable about that whole nude painted, posing chick motif.

Our bedroom

Oh how darling...like a little kitty resting and watching out the window.

We actually found a nice Mexican restaurant down town and really enjoyed it for the first time since we left the USA. We walked around downtown in the rain till it got dark, had a nice dinner then hit the sack. Early flight the next morning. Don't worry, we have another stop in Christchurch later.

Jacob and Spencer Joint B-Day

The Schwabe family came up to Yarrawonga to visit for a weekend, their son Jacob has a birthday close to Spencer's so we had a joint party at the lake and water park. Here are some shots of the action.

Maeby bravely going solo down the water slide

Ben taking Emily down the slide

No time to waste, gotta hurry and get in line for the next run

Melanie waving to the camera.

Once we let her go alone, that's the only way she would have it.

Maeby getting out of the way as fast as she can as one of the boys comes careening down right on her tail.

This is the cake we get all the time from the local Safeway, they are rich, chocolatey and moist, we all love them. Plus it saves us having to bake a cake that would not be as good or as pretty.

Back to the lake swimming area for some high flying fun!

This is where Liam shines.

Maeby has some good fun jumping too. If there is fun to be had, she is going to take part, she is so adventurous and full of energy she could have been a boy.