South Island Whirlwind Tour, Part 1... Wellington, Ferry, Christchurch, Queenstown

Hello Everyone,

Okay… I just want to start you off knowing that this is a long one…. one, two, skip a few… if you want.

Traveling the roads of New Zealand is an amazing experience.  The terrains and landscapes seem to change vastly at every corner.  It is such a beautiful country offering vast forests, high snow capped mountains and desert wastelands with turquoise blue rivers and lakes flowing in between, all in one view.  The South Island so far has been completely different from the North Island.  The north Island is a dotted with rolling green lush farms with cows and sheep everywhere separated by the lines of hedges and old rock walls.  Once you cross the ferry into the South Island you are in the central valley of California with dry desert lands spotted with vineyards.  There rare small valleys of green down here so far but we have only been traveling down the east side.

On our way to ChristChurch

Road from Picton to ChristChurch

Lake Takepo, New Zealand

Lake Takepo is this brilliant blue from glacial flour but this glacial flour is so fine that it is unable to sink so it stays suspended in the water refracting the light and will always be this color.  I believe it also carries the flour down the rivers but I haven't looked into that yet..

Lake Wakatipu

These turquoise blue waters of the lakes and rivers were stunning and we often asked ourselves what in the world made them like this or is it natural.  Well the answer is yes the color is completely natural but it is not permanent.  The lake used to be the regular beautiful deep blue that you would usually expect from a crystal clean alpine lake.  Then in January 2014 a landslip (or slide) in the Dart valley caused a bunch of glacier silt to flow down into the lake and the "flour" (glacial silt) is suspended in the water and refracts the light, it shows this brilliant blue.  It truly is amazing to see this glowing light blue water in the lake.  They say it will eventually change back to its deep blue color but probably not in our life time.

Glenorchy, New Zealand

We started our trip early catching the ferry in Wellington for our 3 1/2 hour ride to Picton.  I felt like I was back in the puget sound traveling in the San Juans.  It is beautiful.

Future picture of Chris and I on our road trip... love the suitcase on the back!

 Next we headed to Christchurch.  Here we were excited to visit the Antartica Center.  It definitely didn't let us down.  We thought it would take us about 3 hours to do through but 5 hours later we were still running through the center and looking at the exhibits and exploring.  This is a must do for anyone coming down the coast with kids.  We learned so much about Antartica. There were so many hands on activities and videos that were captivating from the land above to the sea life below... I found myself going back and re-watching quite a few of them.  The kids favorite part was the 4D movies especially the one that showed the journey to get there.  We all came out a little wet from the water that they spray.

Here you do in this room and they simulate a blizzard (sort of) in Antartica.  The lights start to dim the temperature drops way below comfort and the winds pick up drastically.  It was a fun and frightening experience for the girls not knowing what to expect.  It lasted about 5 minutes and I think we finally coerced Alina out of the igloo in the last minute so she could see what it was like.

After Christchurch we are making our way down the coast and stop to view some New Zealand Seals playing in the water... there were so many pups all around instead of the 5 min short break it turned to almost an hour... We were having such an amazing time watching them plan with each other that we lost track of time.

Just down the road from there I saw an opportunity to grab a sand sample for Mallory and myself.  I am collecting sand all along our journey of every anchorage and shore line that I can grab.  So far I think I have over 140 samples stretching from Mexico to New Zealand with a few more shorelines to gather along the way... I am loving doing this and the sand vial when you put them together are so beautiful and also help me to remember where we have been.  It is funny how you can hear the name of a bay or anchorage and it will bring back such vivid memories of the time that you spent there.  I am loving it and I want to thank Mallory Pierce for the idea... She is one of the science teachers at Amaia and Alina's school and a dear dear friend... XOXO

Always a learning opportunity like I said.. It really is amazing how well this country and all that it has to offer is documented and explained.  Awesome!

Roaring Meg

We have rented a house from a friend in Queenstown for a week and it has not let us down.  It is a quaint little log cabin that fits us quite nicely.  The only downside is that is does not get reception for internet or phone service and with Tristan's school activities we really need access right now so we have been venturing into town to crash the local library, coffee shops or at times just sitting in the car and using the hotspot on my phone.  Queenstown is loaded with tourists... I am not sure how they all get there except to fly in.  Once the people are in town then there are masses of buses crowding the narrow streets and parking everywhere waiting to take them on all of their adventures.  So besides the loads of people shopping and touring it is a cute little town right on the water.

One of the things we have been trying to do are visit some of the Lord of The Ring filming sites.  We bought a book in Hobbitown that has town and locations for the sites and it has been fun visiting some of these places and trying to figure out what scene in the movie they filmed there.  Even if we can't figure out the scene the areas, towns, roads and trails that this book has taken us to are simply majestic and incredibly beautiful and often times pretty remote.  So off we went to Glenorchy and Paradise where they filmed the scene for Eisengard, the evil guy with the big tower where Gandolf gets kidnapped and thrown on top of.  Anyway it is straight in the background in front of the little rolling hill in the middle.  We did get a closer and had a picnic but I liked this photo better.

Glenorchy, New Zealand the small mounds in the back was a site for lord of the rings

Notice the danger sign for where we are headed and then the 100km sign as we enter our dirt road... sometime I swear I don't know how they figure the speed limits around this country.  We get the most confusing signs... 

Glenorchy, New Zealand

This is our picnic site and the river basin off to the left is where they actually filmed the scene.  It is really pretty back in these fields and we had to pass the Forest of Middle Earth where Legolas lives.  Of course Alexia was running all throughout the woods in search of our long blonde haired elf but to no avail did he appear.  So she sat and waited...and waited... and waited.

Tristan was finally able to bust out his throwing knives will we were there...

Found these in the woods not far from where we ate.... Hmmm maybe some elves were back there!

After lunch we headed up to another location to go for a hike.  This hike was the Rayburn Track outside of Glenorchy that some more of the elvish scenes were filmed.... I was a little disappointed in this one because of so many trees.  There was a river winding through it but unfortunately you never really were able to see it through the trees.  Maybe I am getting a little spoiled with all the beauty down here.  We still had a good time and it is always nice to go out for a walk, crossing suspended bridges, forest floors covered in ferns, water dripping out of cascading rocks walls that line your path way and trees that seem to reach the sky.

Goof balls......

I just loved the suns rays reaching down on the girls... Maybe there are fairies in the woods after all... 

Then to top it all off.... New Zealand always seems to have some explanation of what you are seeing, or why it is important to the environment or ecology/habitat/region... anyway you can always turn your trip into a science discovery and lesson.  I love it but the kids... Not always so happy with me and often I get, "Ugh... Mom, get a life... we are trying to walk here!"

After the day of tramping (what Kiwi's call hiking) we headed back to Queenstown to rest up for our next adventure... The Wanaka A&P Show.. It was a fun day of your typical county fair competitions, best jam, best rabbit, best chicken, best goat, best cow, best sheep, best horse and jumping, fastest lumber jack with chain saw and axe, jack russell terrier race, snow cones, fried steak sandwiches and coffee for me... I love going back to these and the kids get a kick out of them too now.  They always love seeing the animals up and close.

On Chris' bucket list was paragliding... so we just had to check that one off.  It was a beautiful day for it and the wind conditions couldn't have been better.  We finished up one of Tristan's tests for Health so he is all done with that course of the year now... YAY!  and headed out of town to watch Chris land at the Flight Cafe... Super cool to see all these paragliders and hang gliders taking off from the top of the mountain and then make their way over the tree tops and down to the grass area we were at.  They all seem to drop out of the sky at once... a little hectic but since these guys do this all the time never once are you concerned for anyone riding with them.  They all dance amongst them selves until they get clearance to come in.... 

Landing target for everyone... 

Then for something fun for the kids to do we headed back into town for the go cart racing and laser tag... We were lucky in our timing,,, it was Saturday night and the place was empty... so we had it all to ourselves.  For the little girls I was surprised at how much the loved it... They are such scaredy cats that they can't even go to the bathroom on our boat by themselves... STILL!  I thought for sure they wouldn't leave my side... but NOOOOO... With it dark and creepy with walls all around for us to hide and jump out at each other and to top it off roaring moving dinosaurs they weren't afraid a bit... How does that work???  Also with them being so small you can't see them until they are right up on you and your tagged... then you hear a little giggle and off they go for their next victim.  

Our last day was a relaxing day to enjoy and hang out... we decided to go up the gondola and Amaia really loves to do the luge... so here we go.. It really is quite beautiful up there and the luge tracks are always fun for the kids and us too...

Alina is a little pistol these days.. always messing around..

The skies started to turn grey and you can see the rain coming in on the right of this picture.  It always comes over the lake from Glenorchy on the right of this picture.  So we headed down the mountain to go do a little indoor miniature golf... It wasn't quite time to go home yet and I wanted to try to get to Arrowtown right up the road which is a historical mining town.  New Zealand had a huge gold rush in 1860 and the major finds were on the Arrow river that runs through Arrowtown... the town is still kept as an old mining town with all the little mining cottages and store fronts to make it look older... there were many cottages with the solid rock walls that they had built back in the late 1800s ... I just love this old stuff... kids suffer through it, I had to bribe them with fries, ice cream and some fun playing in the river time just to stop the occasional wine and asking... "Why are you dragging us out here?"  "At least it isn't Science guys... today is History! Whoop Whoop"

So there you have it... We are now in Dunedin and getting ready to leave here to go to Milford Sound to see the Fjords.  We had originally scheduled Invercargill (home of Worlds Fastest Indian, if you haven't seen the movie with Anthony Hopkins you should) but we had to change plans because being a sailor and wanting fair weather we had checked the weather for the South Island and we are going to get hammered on after tomorrow and we wanted to be out on the water in Milford Sound on the boat with fair weather and calm seas... so off we go for our 6 hour drive leaving at 6am trying to catch the last tour boat at 2:45 for a 2 hour tour and then back to our rental house another 2 hours away... At least you never know what you will see along the roadsides of New Zealand... there is always something quirky that comes up and so many times I have missed a picture but when possible I am making Chris pull over to grab a shot.... 

Do you see the confusion here... 80km and then stop??? again.. why don't they just put the speed sign on the road it is intended for....

I am beginning to feel the wear of our adventures and I believe the kids are as well.  It has been crazy and is only going to get crazier with the amount of driving coming up and the activities... We will have a number of long days ahead of us... but we are sucking it up and enjoying as much as we can... you only live once and we are trying to see and do it all... We have gone 2600km in 11 days and stayed at 5 different houses... Thank goodness we have flexible kids that travel for the most part pretty well.

Hugs and love to everyone and I will try not to wait so long next time... thanks for sticking with me and checking out what we have been up to... believe me I know it is a lot to get through!

Oh... and Chris cut my hair with kitchen scissors, not to bad a job I might say... 

Hee Hee, it will grow back.

Heath

Carabosse... Auckland art festival... Fire garden by French Fire Alchemists

Hello Everyone,

We were finally able to finish off 3 of Tristan's mid terms.  He did really well and I am really proud of his determination over the last month to get caught up successfully.  We had a hard mid term cram session that included 4 12 hour days of studying and then exam pattern.  It was definitely a challenge and I think he got really burned out at the end but stuck to it and received A's for his classes.  We are very proud of him.

We secured the boat to its new home on a piling system in the marina and hit the road.  It is always a fun time with us all crammed in the car dancing and singing at the top of our lungs.  It always amazes me the vast amount of songs our kids have memorized.  We got to auckland and checking into our air bnb.  On approach of the house it sets a new definition to the worst house in the best neighborhood.  This house was so delapitated on the outside I thought it was a empty.  The porch is rotting and falling off and all the windows in the front door are broken and all the paint is pealing away.  Now the owner did warn us that she is in the process of fixing it but sheessh.. The house was built in 1910 and feels like it.  It is a super cool old house and she has done an amazing job refurbishing the inside.  You can almost hear the stories coming out of the walls as you walk down the hallway.  I think a good portion of this neighborhood built it self around it.  I feel like we are in the original house from the movie "Up" and it is holding its ground strong.  There is a really big grass park right outside the front with a fountain and surrounding it are rolling grass hillsides.  I could just see Alina's eyes light up as we pull into our parking spot.   As we got all of our stuff in and were settling into the house Alina is begging to go to the park and play... she just can't stand it, she is all wiggly.  Then before we know it we hear the front door doorbell and here is little Alina who took it upon herself NOT to wait and not only did she go to the park but she also decided to play IN the fountain and came back soaking wet.  UGH>>>>  Okay I can't be too mad because unfortunately the little stinker got out and no one noticed she was even gone.  We need to work on that one.

Another big benefit to the house is it was located just 2km from the Fire Garden Art venue last night.  This is a festival comprised solely of pottery, metal and fire and fuel.  It is in an outdoor park, like Golden Gate Park (but smaller), right in the middle of Auckland.  It was amazing.  The heat that this art show produced was intense as you walk by some of the sculptures.  Several times I ended up shielding my phone from the heat.  Now the pictures definitely don't do it justice, being night and all.  But I think you can get drift.  The had baskets of coals hanging in trees, artists letting out huge puffs of flames, rotating garden pots of flames in a circular dance, garden pots strung up into the trees along wire, tee-shirts hanging in trees with candles in them, Large flows of burning embers off the ground, little glass balls of fuel hanging in the trees and then just garden pots on fire to line the walkways.  There was something lit on fire and burning every turn you made.  It was so beautiful and mesmerizing to think of all the people walking around, getting so close the the flames to take pictures, some pretending they are in a kung fu movie.  By the end of it the kids were ready to go home with their burning eyes and throats from the burning fuel but it was well worth it and one I would love to do again.

Here are some of the pictures of last night... I wish you could have experienced it and all the kids kept saying was, "They should bring this to San Francisco!"  Hmmm do you think the states would bring this into one of their city parks?  

We are now heading back to Celia's house for the night.  She has been so amazing to offer her home once again to our family and let us stay there.  The kids are really looking forward to it, they just love it there! It is also a little closer to Wellington, which is our next stop and that should take about 7 hours.  From Wellington we catch the Interisland Ferry with the van and cross over to the South Island.


Hugs and love to everyone,



Heather

Thinking of all our friends in Fiji...

Hello Everyone,

One of the devastating things that has touched our whole family is hurricane Winston that hit Fiji... I just can't tell you how hard and sad it is for us to see the devastation to this beautiful slice of heaven.  I think the hardest part for me is remembering all the amazing instant friendships, the welcoming people with the huge smiles, extra large super sized hugs and their generous hospitality to all of us.  Most of the villages that we visited in the last part of our cruise have been completely demolished, some not even a tree left standing.  The most thankful thing through and through is that there weren't more people hurt in this huge natural disaster!

A few of the places that we were mesmerized with were Makogai, Numea, Vuya Village, Viani Bay, Paradise Resort, Suva Suva, Lautoka, Taveuni Island, just to name a few... Most of them completely gone.  All those little faces of Fiji that I posted are now working their way back to some resemblance  of a home life and stability.  I am just so thankful that we were there and able to meet and participate in all of the villages that we were welcomed into.  Vinaka!

One of the most amazing things that happened to me today was I received an email from Brooke, Vuya Village.  I couldn't believe it.  Brooke was a girl that came and stayed with the Vuya village to help them become a sustainable community and ended up staying for a few years.  When we arrived they realized we were from the states and asked if we new Brooke, they continued to show us where she lived in the village and were so proud of her and loved her so much.  As we were leaving the village Chris and I new we had to try and find her... but how.  As miracles in social media play out, I received an email from Brooke today.  She was looking for information about Vuya Village and found our blog online and sent a note.  I love how small this world really is and how interconnected we are all around the globe.

Patrick from Shine was still there on his boat, while Anna has taken the kids (Xesca and Archie) and moved to Australia for a short time so the kids could return to school.  The kids are loving it there but it is very difficult for Anna to be away from the boat/Patrick and wanting to help out with the relief efforts.  Patrick was able to tie his boat up in the mangroves outside of Denerau along with a bunch of other boats.  This is always the safest place during a hurricane because of the root system amongst the mangroves.  They are always the last thing to do.  All of the boat faired well and Patrick actually ended up sleeping through it.  We were so relieved to hear that he and others were okay, only to find out that others didn't fair so well.

I am so proud to be a part of this small community and hear all the humanitarian efforts jumping into play.  At a time when much of what you hear in the world is bad news and political game playing it is really nice to hear how people can still come together for the better good and do the right thing and help people.  I have always said how amazing the sailing community is in general.  We all come from any different walks of life, many different countries, speak many different languages but it doesn't matter who is in need... any cruiser will step up and offer assistance to help.

Many of the cruisers have that have been undamaged in the hurricane are participating in delivering supplies, food, water, medical, what not to the remote villages that are desperate.  With the hurricane many of the ferry systems that used to deliver goods and supplies have been reduced so they just don't have the means to get items distributed.  Thank you Patrick and everyone out there that is able to help.  I can't imagine the relief those villagers are going to feel when you are able to help them.

I know there are many funds that people are setting up to help the Fijians... I am so thankful that we can all do our small part to help out.

*********************************************************************************
Back at the Dock...

Well there hasn't been much to talk about since we have been sitting dock side hanging out at the marina and doing boat projects... blah blah blah... but oh well, such is boat life... it isn't all fun and adventure... we actually do have to do maintenance, up keep, school, laundry, grocery shopping, hair cuts, you know the regular stuff everyone does on a daily basis....  We finally have some of our South Island trip set up... We have organized the first 2 weeks of it.  What was going to be a two week trip has now turned into four and a half weeks... it is so nice to have the flexibility to plan and make sure we really enjoy all this wonderful country has to offer.  Even with that said it is 4 weeks in the south island and we STILL aren't able to do everything we wanted to do... Dang blast it!

Tristan finally wrote a short story about his experience with bungy jumping.  It was a school assignment to write a short story...  so the story is a little changed but still super cool to read about it from his perspective....

The Time I Almost Died

“Bock bock bock” is the sound of my sister that is standing behind me not even waiting for her turn to jump. “Shut up” I say, “It’s not as easy as it looks.” The truth is that I was scared. Imagine jumping 150 feet down and getting dunked in a lake, yeah sounds fun doesn’t it. Well actually it is terrifying, as I am barely scooting along the overhang with the bungie attached to my feet, making me look like a prisoner, all at the same time, the butterflies in my stomach feel like I stepped on a hornets nest. “Well if you’re to chicken to jump, then don’t go.” the comebacks little kids come up with these days are so childish. The circulation is cut off from my feet by the bungie that has a grip on my feet like a vise.
Although I feel like I am moving in slow motion onto the platform where I jump, I can see my hands shaking a thousand miles an hour. “Ok, but don’t push.” I tell the man working the bungie. Earlier that day I saw him push a terrified teenager face first over the platform, and right then I knew I wanted to jump. Now that reality is staring at me in the face, and I am about to jump, looking over the edge looks like death for sure. I am constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure he doesn’t push me. “I am not going to push you” A faded voice says in the background. Okay, I tell myself. I squat down and with my adrenaline building up pressure like a geyser, I leap off the platform.
I feel just as I imagined I would once I started the descent. I feel amazing and indestructible, like a super hero, as I am free falling through the air. “Wahoooo wahooo!” I scream as I am free falling. But as I am rapidly descending I realize that the water is coming up fast and that I am not slowing down enough. So the little drill sergeant in my head is yelling “Brace for impact!” I am now feeling like this is the end, and that I am about to die.
“Sploosh” is the sound I hear when the upper half of my body is dunked in the water. “Ahhhhh!” I scream as I am flying back up through the air and feeling like there is no gravity around me. “This is amazing!” I yell excitedly, as I am on an up bounce I feel a drift of wind and feel like I am flying with eagles. The scenery of the beautiful lake and sky matches with what I always thought it would be like to fly. As my final bounces of ups and downs are finished, I look back down and see a raft with two people in it ready to take me back. As I get closer, I start to hear distant voices in the back of my head, but all I am actually hearing is all the yelling and the experience of what I just did.
“Grab the pole” they say as they hold it high above their heads. It took about three times but then I finally got a good hold on the pole and they pulled me down into the raft. Once I got onto the boat, they started asking me how it was and telling

me that they are going to take the bungie off. It felt so good to have that vise like bungie off my feet that when they got it off I reluctantly let out an “Ahhhhhh” of satisfaction. Once they got me to the dock they told me I had to follow a trail to get back to the top and to watch out for thorns. I thanked them and start going to the top when a dog comes sprinting out of the bushes like a wolf and scares me, but luckily it was one of the friendliest dogs I have ever known. While I am walking up to the top I am replaying the whole scene in my head, and I keep thinking about how I thought I was going to die.
Once I get back to the top, only stopping once or twice to get some thorns out of my feet, my family is waiting excitedly for all the details. As I am talking to them one of the employees comes up to me and hands me a CD disc saying that they filmed my jump. I was very happy that I could always have this memory of the time I almost died. 

Alexia is still writing her short story that is now 11 pages long and growing... hmmm... I do have to say that it is really fun to read and if she lets me I would love to put it on her page.  In the mean time, when she is done from school I keep asking her for the next chapter of her story.  Hee Hee... I really do look forward to reading it.  I see some similarities in the characters she is developing.  I think I am the mad queen... go figure...!

Thanks,  Hugs and extra love to everyone at home....

Heather