Day Sixteen- Wednesday

Lisa enjoys her Count Chocula

In honor of our last day in New Zealand and a long travel day, we all slept in- thank you Lillianna! Then we all went to the Auckland museum where Lisa and Ian gave us the highlights tour of the place. They had one section on volcanos that I think I was glad to see on the day we were leaving. You sit in a mock living room where a news program starts to play and then the volcano errupts, the house shakes, the lights go out and pretty much you are no more. Oh my! Tornados suddenly feel much safer.

Home for lunch, naps, and repacking, then back to the airport for the return trip home. Lillianna again did really, really well. She was a bit disapointed that there was no Barney on this flight and made due with Mickey Mouse club and some others. Thankfully, she again did sleep for a good chunk of the flight and thankfully this time did most of that when the lights were off, so we didn't have to worry so much about her waking others up. Mike and I didn't get much sleep and were very happy to be off the plane. We made it through our layover in San Fran. and home. Lil slept through part of that flight home and loved having the portable DVD player on that flight. Then we were in O Hare where Mike's parents picked us up and brought us home. Good to be in our own beds!

An amazing trip!

Day fifteen- Tuesday

The monster hedges they have as windbreaks. Who trims these things?
Trusty pink car seat and our super travelin girl

Cathedral square

We woke up to another day of cold and rain. So, it was a museum day. The Cantebury museum is right next the botanical gardens and was a great way to spend the day. It covers a lot of the history of New Zealand with interactive exhibits. You walk by displays of Maori tribes, a cave. They have one section on transportation you can climb on an old bike or get in a stage wagon. They also have a mini- Victorian Era Christchurch you can wander through. Upstairs they have a discovery area for kids to play in and other displays.

Afterwards, we headed to the center of town, Catheral Square and had lunch. Then it was nap time, but we didn't have a hotel to go back to, so we just drove around for a few minutes until Lil fell asleep and then we found a quiet road in a park to park on so she could sleep.

After naps, it was time to get the rental car returned and get to the airport. The start of the journey home. We were able to spit our flights up, so Tuesday we just flew back to Auckland where Lisa was waiting with the trusty red car. One last night at Lisa and Ian's house! We had dinner from their favorite curry resteraunt and got to hear them practice some for their Maori concert the next night and shared stories of our South Island adventure.

Day Fourteen- Monday

When we woke up, the clouds had swallowed Mt Cook. It was crazy, there was no sign of it at all! None. I thought once we drove up to the base we would see it, still no.

We had signed up for a glacial boat ride the day before. Our big splurge activity of the trip. We read about it online before coming and seen the pictures. We debated in the morning if we should do or not. It was cold and misting a bit. We got conflicting advice, some said it would be fine, others said it might be too cold. We decided to try it. Lil likes the cold, we had her dressed warmly, even got her a hat. But, no mittens. Her poor hands froze and she was a wreck. She screamed the whole time we were out on the boat. She took a small break to eat some ice fresh from an iceberg and then went right back to it. It was so sad and frustrating and I am sure the others were ready to throw us all overboard (thankfully they didn't). Our boat did return a little early and she continued to cry back on shore. One of the other guys there tried to bribe her with chocolate when we got back to the hotel, but it was too far away and her hands were too cold. Sigh...

So, we grabbed a quick lunch and started the four hour journey to Christchurch. Poor Mike was pretty beat by the time we got there. It was a long drive following a gut wrenching morning. The campground we stayed at this time had a heated pool and we figured after all we put the little one through in the morning we should do something she loved in the evening. Heated I think is a realitive term. It was not warm enough to me to want to get in, but Lil had a great time. There was a tiny little wading pool next to the big pool (also pretty small) she loved playing in. Mike had to coerse her out when her lips turned blue.

Day 13- Sunday

Mt Cook

The best way to get the chocolate frosting off the donut

We celebrated the first Sunday in Advent with Paul and Amy in the morning with a little donut breakfast and tea. Then we had to pack up and say good-bye. We were sad to go, we had such a good time with them. They extended great hospitality to us.

After about a 3 hour drive we hit our first stop- a place called elephant rocks. It reminds me a bit of South Dakota, in that you are driving along and everything is flat and then all of the sudden there are these huge rocks and valleys. It was also the place they used to film the battle scene in the movie The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Lillianna liked the rocks so much that she found an elephant rock to bring with her.

Next stop, lunch. The Lonely Planet guide book gets two thumbs down here. The first place we tried to stop they reccomended- not open. The sign on the door said there were, but doors were locked. The next place we tried on their reccomendation, didn't really serve much in the way of food. It was really more like a coffee shop that had some pre-packaged sandwhiches. So, we went to a place not in the guidebook and found great food and they had a room of kids books and toys for Lil to play in while we waited for food!

Last stop, Glenntanner campground. It was about 15 miles south of Mt Cook, right on Lake Pukaki. Our room was nice, with a kitchenette in it, but the best feature was that the doors to outside was a big sliding glass door with a view of Mt Cook framed by pine trees! Dinner in and a movie.

Day 12- Saturday

Botanical Gardens

Saturday morning Lillianna helped Amy garden a bit and helped water some flowers and plants. Then it was off to a look out point to see over the city of Dunedien. Then we headed the city's botanical gardens. They are impressive! We hardly had time to see any of them. They have a great averiy there as well. It has several buildings and just tons of birds to see from all over. There were a lot of really unusual ones that I had never seen before.

After naptime, Paul, Amy, Mike, Lillianna and I all headed back up the coast. We went to a little fishing village that holds a two for one attraction. On one beach we got to see the famous boulders. The look like giant dinasour eggs scattered across the beach.

From a NZ info website:
"The Moeraki Boulders are huge spherical stones that are scattered over the sandy beaches, but they are not like ordinary round boulders that have been shaped by rivers and pounding seas. These boulders are classed as septarian concretions, and were formed in ancient sea floor sediments. They were created by a process similar to the formation of oyster pearls, where layers of material cover a central nucleus or core. For the oyster, this core is an irritating grain of sand. For the boulders, it was a fossil shell, bone fragment, or piece of wood. Lime minerals in the sea accumulated on the core over time, and the concretion grew into perfectly spherical shapes up to three metres in diameter.The original mudstone seabed has since been uplifted to form coastal cliffs. Erosion of the cliffs has released the three tonne captive boulders, which now lie in a haphazard jumble across the beach. Further erosion in the atmosphere has exposed a network of veins, which gives the boulders the appearance of turtle shells. Similar boulders occur at Shag Point, and the nearby swimming beach of Katiki. In Hawke’s Bay in the North Island, scientists have found that the central core of similar boulders contained perfectly preserved skeletons of turtles, sea snails and extinct reptiles, such as plesiosaurs."

Then we went back south to another beach. This time we got to see penguins and seals playing in the wild. We had to cross another sheep pasture to get down towards the beach and right up top next to an outhouse was our first penguin sighting! So cool! It wasn't real happy though, its mate was on the other side of the fence and it couldn't figure out how to get there. It must have eventually because by the time we came up, it was gone.

The penguins come in from the sea at night to nest in the bush and as we walked do towards the beach you could hear them. It was a really windy evening, so we were thankful that there is a building, called a hide, where you can see the penguins through windows, but can be out of the wind. On the beach there were 20 seals! Some of them were just sleeping and looked like big rocks, but there was a group of them that were playing with one another. It was delight to watch them.

Not too long after being there out from the sea popped a penguin! What great fun to watch it hop and waddle its way out of the water, across the rocks, and onto the beach. At one point it tried to hop from one rock to another and totally face planted. I guess that's why they have so much padding, it just got right back up! After it made its way across the beach and into the beaches it came back and went for a swim in the water. Very fun to watch it swim and play. Then some seals decided they wanted to swim and the penguin very quickly went the other direction. The seals went from clumsy and ackward on land to graceful and quick in the water. Good thing Mike didn't have to outswim that monster one- he would have totally lost!

All the nature worked up an appetite. We headed to town for a pub dinner. The place we went had good food and good service. If you ever end up there- order the ribs- I think you get the whole pig. Another customer did and seriously- I have never seen anything like it in my life! I think they may have been Rhino ribs, because I have never seen pork ribs like that. We commented to the waitress and she said, "Yeah, I wish we had a camera ready to take a picture of people's faces when they get them. They are surprised at their size."

Day 11- Friday

Train station

Friday morning we had another slow morning. We hung around the house a bit, did some laundry, called home to wish everyone Thanksgiving, then we went to the playground near where Paul and Amy live to get some of Lillianna's energy out. We got followed home by a stray dog. When we got home Mike tried to look at his tag and he kind of freaked out. So we went inside so Lil could take a nap. Two hours later this poor dog was still sitting outside the gate. Even me the non-dog lover's heart was soften a bit by this. Mike went out one more time to see if he could see his tags. This time, the dog was more open to Mike and we found he lived just 4 doors down, so Mike brought him home.

Then it was off to the train station. We went to Taieri Gorge railway. It is a historic route that heads away from the coast. It is a nicely restored train and goes through some cool gorges and by some amazing scenery. We also went over the largest steel structure in the southern hemisphere. The largest in the northern is the Effiel Tower. Lillianna has already been to both! It stopped a couple of times along the way so we could get out and admire the beauty.

Day 10- Thursday- Thanksgiving

When we woke up Thursday the weather was sort of cloudy and we were all moving a bit slow. We took the chance to relax a bit and enjoy some downtown- it was Thanksgiving after all.

Then we headed to town to the Cadbury Chocolate factory. Lillianna continues to talk about this day, probably because I think she ate her weight in chocolate that day. It was pretty crazy. As we signed up for our tour, the woman handed her some chocolate and gave some to her parents as well. Then we met our tour guide, CocoJoe who pretty much get gave her more chocolate any time she finished what had been in her hands. We each got a bag at the start of the tour to put our samples in, well Lillianna often was given one to eat then and one to eat later. She also got a special chocolate Easter Egg that was the size of her head. Crazy. The highlight of the tour was the chocolate "waterfall." We had watched Willy Wonka just a few days before, so we were excited for this famous part of the tour. It wasn't like Willy Wonka, but still cool. This waterfall was located in a purple silo where they take a giant bucket filled with one ton of chocolate pour down. The room smells amazing! The pouring itself was really loud and during it Lillianna didn't like it because it was too loud for her, but as soon it was done, she requested that it go again. It left a pretty big impression as well- she kept saying Chocolate waterfall LOUD. After we managed to get her away from the chocolate factory it was time for naps and Thanksgiving feast preperation.

The one ingrediant that we hadn't been able to find was the French oinions for the green bean casserole. After some internet research it seemed like the best substitute was fresh made onion strings- never made them before, but turns out they are pretty easy and really tasty. We had enough for the casserole and for snacking. The "turkey roast" not reccomended. We are pretty sure this is what happens to all the parts they don't use when they sell the turkey breast. Turkey isn't really eaten a ton in NZ, so the regular ones they had were huge and pricey- over $60, seemed a little over the top for 4 of us. We topped our meal off with the chocolate egg and Tim Tams- a super yummy chocolate biscut (cookie). It was a great evening of fellowship and feasting with Paul and Amy.

Day Nine- Wednesday

Path blocked

We woke up Wednesday morning to beautiful sunny skies and warm weather and decided immedatly that meant it was a day to go to the coast. We made our way to Tomahawk beach which has fine white sand, clear blue water and beautiful, rugged cliffs around it. It wasn't really warm enough for swimming and water is cold here. You sometimes can see Icebergs floating off the coast- we are that close to Antartica. We did however, enjoy digging in the sand and getting some vitamin D in the form of sunshine.

After playing in the sand for a bit, the clouds started moving in a bit and the wind picked up, so we decided to drive around and see a bit more of the Oertago penisula. The goal was to get to Allen's beach which didn't look far on the map, but turned out to be a bit of an adventure. The roads were very narrow and windey and a bit scarey. We would driving near the edge of a very tall cliff and there were no gaurd rails. After a bunch of wrong turns and a lunch stop at a vey nice cafe we finally found Allen's beach.

According to the guidebook, this is beach is one of the ones that seals and sea lions sometimes hang out at. To get to the beach we had to hike through a sheep pasture and through some sand dunes filled with amazing smelling yellow flowers. When go to the beach, it looked like it was a bust. There were lots of foot prints, but no signs of any sea lions or seals. Mike took a walk way down the beach and past some cliffs and found one seal lion napping on the rocks and came and got Lil and I. We walked back the main part of the beach, but Mike thought there might be some more beyond where we had been, but in order to get there you had to get a bit wet, so Lil and I stayed on the main part of the beach and looked for sea shells. We found a lot and wandered around for awhile and there was no sign of Mike anywhere. He had been gone a LONG time when he finally emerged at a run. Turns out he found one small sea lion and one very large sea lion found him. He walked right by it looking at the other one and when they are sleeping the do just blend in with the rocks. When he came by it again to go back it was not happy. It barked at him and then moved to block him from getting back to the main part of the beach. The two of them had a stare down for a while, Mike clamored over some rocks to get some distance between them and just took off at a run and thankfully was able to outrun him. A day he won't forget anytime soon!

Day Eight- Tuesday

From the plane
A stop in the city near where Lord of the Rings filmed Hobbiton

Another travel day. Our dear friend Lisa got up at the crack of dawn to come and fetch us in the trusty red car. We had a quick stop at MickeyDs so she could have some breakfast and Lil could play in their playland- way cooler than ours before starting the 3 hour trip back to Auckland. While driving back we stopped in hobbiton- the area where the filmed part of Lord of the Rings. You can take a tour of the film site, but we couldn't figure out why you would pay $100 to see farm fields when the sets aren't even there and you can see farm fields that look the same for free as you drive by. All the same, still cool to see.

Then it was lunch and to the airport. We were making our switch from the North Island to the South Island. From Cross Fire friends to camp friends. Our flight went well- less than two hours and Lillianna slept the whole way. When we arrived we got our rental car for the week and Mike again did a great job. We arrived and were greeted warmly by Paul and Amy.

Day Seven- Monday

Enjoying swimming in Hot water

Maori cultural performance

Mike braves driving on the other side of the road

Lisa and Ian had headed home on Sunday so Monday was our first day of driving in New Zealand which means driving on the other side of the street. Mike handled it like a pro. It took him a while to get used to the turn singnal and the wipers controls being opposite as well, so we had a really clean window.

We started our day at Te Pue which is another geothermal park that also has a lot of information about the Maori people who are the native people to New Zealand. We got to walk through a mock village and see how they once lived. We also want to a cultural performance where we learned about the welcome ceremony as well as saw them do some singing and dancing. Lillianna LOVED it. I was worried how it would go because part of the performance was a bit scarey but even when they finished with that she wanted more. She was so not happy when it was done and didn't understand why we couldn't just hit the play button like we can with the DVD player. The other cool thing this park has is a geyser that shoots up 20 meters in the air. It was pretty cool to see. There is a smaller one that goes off first and we nearly missed the big one because we thought we had seen it when the little one went off and weren't all that impressed. We hiked another trail and came back so what all the fuss is about.

The afternoon we spent exploring a bit of the countryside outside of Rotorua and made sure we got our moneysworth out of the rental car. First we went and saw the blue lake which wasn't much bluer than the lakes back home and then we went to one of the trip highlights so far- Kerosene creek. It is a hot water creek that has an awesome swimming whole. It is about 20 miles out of town and thank you guide book for the directions, we had a blast! About a 5 minute walk down a path there is the swimming hole with a nice sandy bottom. It was the PERFECT temperature! It was just like getting into the hot tub, except instead of smelling like chlorine it smelled like rotten eggs. It was pretty shallow- at the one end about knee deep- perfect for sitting and the other about waist deep. One end had a waterfall that gives an amazing massage. It was so great to stand under it and have water beat down on your neck and bath. Both Mike and I took turns doing that. Lillianna put her trusty bucket to good use once more. I wish I had a creek like this in my backyard (minus the egg smells- our suits still stink after being washed).