Keiteriteri

Today we found paradise.  We are in Abel Tasman national park.   Keiteriteri is very much like what we remember about Thailand except the water temperatures are not quite as hot.  We arrived at this orange sandy beautiful beach at 10:00 and played there and walked across rocks to little Keiteriteri beach until 3:30 enjoying the sights and swims.  I collected shells and sea glass as the boys splashed and swam.  We met a fellow cobourg family who are also on a three month tour.  The woman is a teacher and knows some of our mutual friends. Their last name is Drew, hers is Karen Drew. What a crazy coincident.

We went on a little drive to the iconic Split Apple rock.  This is a granite rock.  This coastline is all granite that is approximately 135 million years old they say. Granite splits along natural fault lines, then breaks down to form golden Quartz sand beaches. We hiked along these gorgeous beaches until we found a secluded little beach.  It was stunningly beautiful.  White sand, hidden coves fringed by lush native forest and caves to explore. The split Apple rock looks like it was next to impossible to be a natural formation, sticking out in the middle of the water.

I just realized that I have a sunburn.  My legs are starting to sting.  Being the good mom that I am, I made sure that the boys were covered and protected and only sprayed my face, arms and chest ( missed my legs!) Also, we are almost out of sunscreen so I sent Derek to buy some more. $22 a bottle for banana boat kids 50!

We lucked out with our flat.  OMG--- it is paradise.   Our home is situated in the middle of kiwi, orange,and lemon trees.  We are surrounded by gorgeous gardens and an apple orchard. the grounds are impeccable.  May not want to leave this place ( except to come home of course!).  Tomorrow we are heading out on an eight hour boat cruise which will sail along the coastline and drop us off at anchorage bay and midlands beach where we will do some hiking, swimming and swing bridges.  We will post about that later. Hope all is well.

Shloeless epidemic

Thursday February 26

We are just driving into Nelson, New Zealand.  We decided to leave Kaikoura a day early due to the "blow" that blew in last night.  It was sticking around for a few days, canceling any boating adventures so we thought it would be best to move to warmer temps and put in a few miles while the weather is not the best.  Those that travelled with Derek and I in Europe over the years know how I fare with windy mountainous roads.  Today I had to nap in the car to attempt to ignore the motion sickness coming on.  

We made a few stops enroute.  Walked to a waterfall and cruised around the shore spotting hundreds of fur seals and pups just hanging out.  We watched them be taken out by the tidal waves which the boys thought was quite funny to see.  Those seal pups make a lot of noise.  Once one starts barking they all do.  Today they must have been bothered by the stormy winds because we saw many seals fighting with each other.  We drove through wine country, Marlborough and stopped off at a little winery to visit.  

We are continually amazed with the number of people, young and old, walking around town and in stores with bare feet.  It seems to be the New Zealand way.  Even the school kids are outside running around with nothing on their feet.  So strange! Derek and carter visited a school the other day and learned that all students must wear a uniform in NZ.  Their year is split into 4 terms to follow the seasons.  In term 1 and 4 every kid has to wear a big blue floppy fishermans hat to protect them from the sun. This school had 100 students and only four teachers. The classes were all in portables. Gr1, gr2/3, gr4/5, gr6/7/8.  They had a school pool, tennis court, wicked play structure where we played American ninja warrior. Recesses are unsupervised and discipline was said to be limited.  Even though we witnessed a boy named Griffin wacking kids with a tree branch.  The next day, there was a board triathlon which our boys were excited about. For school trips, it's an everyone goes or no one goes.  If you can't afford to pay for the trip, you don't but the more affluent families have to pay for those other kids and that is voted on before the beginning of the year.  All or none! 

Today we bought our first real souvenirs.  The boys got an All Blacks rugby ball and an All Blacks tshirt each.  They are pretty excited.  We hope to see a live rugby game tonight if we can get tickets.  Braden said he'd like to play rugby if he was bigger:-) I told him he can stick with the surfing and travel the world as a cool surfer dude.  Lol

Mouraki boulders

I am so proud of myself.  For someone who knows very little about computers , I think I figured out the picture problem without Derek's help!  He won't believe it in the morning that I taught myself something about technology.  Please let me know if you can see these two photos.  This was one of the things we did yesterday.  We visited this amazing beach which had seashells and these large circular boulders on it.  The boulders are world known and were formed many moons ago at the bottom of the ocean.  We enjoyed running on them and jumping over them.  The boys enjoyed jumping the waves in their shorts, as we were not prepared with swim suits.  One little mishap that occurred was when the tide snuck in and got our bags and shoes wet, including our little camera.  It still works but has a few water marks inside the lens. Good thing our Nikon was safe:-) however, it's battery needed recharging so pics of this beautiful place are limited.

Stuck on a long road trip

We are stuck in the car for a five hour drive and so far doing very well. A few giggles here and there, entertaining ourselves or each other as this is not the most scenic drive.  It's flat with lots of farm fields and is raining so there is no stopping to burn off some energy at a park or two.  Those that know carter well enough to know his infectious giggle understands why we have smiles on our faces today.  He is such a ham! I thought this drive would be a good way to get some schooling started. Ha! All we can say is kudos to those parents who have made the choice to stay home to school their children.  It's a tough job:-) We are forgetting about all the ontario curriculum, including B's french until we get back and hope that what we are experiencing here will be enough to keep their minds enriched.  Derek throws out a couple of tough math questions for them to do and I try to ask them "good questions" with regards to the books they read.  Currently, Carter is comparing the penguins we see in NZ to those his teacher is teaching the class (Antarctica penguins) and is excited to send his class his hands-on research.  Braden is trying to research how he could adopt a little blue penguin and bring it back as a pet.  He says that would be so much cooler to have as a pet than a dog. Lol! 

After our funny start to our day yesterday (or not so funny start as Derek says) we have collectively nicknamed Daddy-o as Mudhead. This was thought of after the boys and I got back from a garden walk and play at the park and heard Derek had locked our only set of car keys in the trunk. We laughed at that because the day before I mentioned to be careful of such a thing. You all know Derek and how he misplaces things! To make it fair, I should share that I too lost something, my ray bans:-( actually, I'm sure I can put some blame on Derek for that one too.

Today we are heading to Hanmer Springs where we will set up shop in a cottage for a few days, and hopefully not too much driving.  We hope to go to the thermal spa and water park tomorrow and get some more hiking in.

 Our accomodations have been great so far.  The holiday park was amazing even though the bathroom facility was in its own building beside us. It was kept spotless.  We have picnics for most lunches and BBQ for dinners. So far, we have only gone out for dinner twice. We had lamb one night but still not sure I can eat kangaroo.  Btw, we have done this trip so far without a map!! That is Derek's strength, not mine.  

If there is any news from back home, we'd love to read about it. Hopefully the weather improves for you. It's been great hearing from some of my students, sounds like they are having fun with their indoor recesses. I have been searching for the GBM but no luck, close but it was the GBG instead. Soon, I hope.  

What a day! Ups and downs

Before I get started, if some of you could take a few minutes at some point and comment on Carter or Braden's blog, it would be appreciated.  

Today promised to be a good day - penguins, Moereki boulders, mini putt, seals...well, things didn't go exactly as planned.   After a pretty good night's rest, we had hoped to hit the road around 10:00 south to the Moereki boulders, a couple of dozen or so spherical boulders  that rest on the shoreline, some as big as six feet or so.   Kerri and the boys went to the park beside our "Holiday Park" while I took a few minutes to get somethings together.  I was out to prove that I Kerri wasn't the only one who could prepare for a day.   So, after scurrying around frantically getting things together, checking out some things online, I rushed out to drop some things in the trunk.  I looked back in the room, thought to myself, Kerri would like me to clothes the curtains to stop any would be thieves from breaking in for our stuff, shut the trunk and went in to do so.   Little did I realize that no car doors were open and I had just left the keys in the trunk. Needless to say, our little plan on leaving at ten was now upended.  Two hours, $90 later, we were on our way.  

(To be continued...time to pack up...again)

East Coast

Today we saw penguins!!!!! 

We have had a wonderful week with our "extended family" (as Dax calls us , lol) but today it was time for us to leave Queenstown and head to Oamaru.  Even though it was a three hour drive, we were all very excited to have the chance to see our first penguins.  Enroute we stopped off at AJays bungy zone and watched a few jumpers.  Their motto was "swingers have more fun," As Derek had already bungy jumped, he said he didn't need to do it again and I had no interest in it so we left.  We did try to talk Braden into jumping, but no luck.  We stopped at Lindis summit and had a picnic overlooking a beautiful valley that reminded Derek of Death Valley, Nevada . Another pit stop was to learn more about the Vanished World Trail.  Here we saw many fossils and artwork that have been recently discovered.  The artwork was painted on limestone rock walls by the Mauri people and some have been chipped away and placed in NZ museums.   Finally we made it to Oamaru. As we approached the city, we were a little disappointed with the way it looked.  Braden said it was an upscale Trenton! But as we found our accommodations, near downtown, we noticed it was actually quite nice.  There are beautiful limestone buildings, parks (with zip lines ) and gorgeous gardens with beautiful walking paths.  We went out for an Italian dinner at Cucina's and then drove to find the Penguins.  We were not allowed to go onto the beach past 3:30pm because the Penguins would avoid the area if people were there.  So, we walked along the viewing paths and waited patiently.  Carter and Braden first saw seals laying on the beach. Then a few more swimming and putting on a show in the water.  They were very excited with their findings.  But then it happened..... I saw this little bird like figure swimming in the waves. I was not sure if it was a penguin but watched it carefully wash up and down with the tide.  Finally it escaped the force of the tide and stayed grounded on shore, stood up and started waddling up the beach.  I started calling for the boys.  This yellow eyed penguin was a ways away for them to see and the pics I took were not in focus, but we saw one and that is all that mattered.  Then a big one waddled out of the water right below where we were standing.  Braden thought it was quite fat for a penguin:-) it waddled around for a while and we got a few pics of it, but just watching it was amazing. This penguin looked like it stood about two feet tall. These flightless birds sure put big smiles on our faces.  Derek came across a nest with a baby penguin in it which was quite accidental  to see.  We were told that we were very lucky to see three of these kinds of penguins because they haven't been coming around lately.  Now you have to understand that we were not on a tour or in a sanctuary, rather just hanging out on Bushy beach in hopes of seeing Yellow-eyed penguins and we DID!!!!! 

Tomorrow we hope to find the little blue penguins.  Stay tuned:-

Let the fun begin...

A word of sorts before I begin...we are really struggling to post pictures from the iPad, they come up as empty squares...for this I blame the Apple corporation.

The Family Richards have been incredible hosts - they have opened up their home to us, shown us around, joined us for dinner, and just hung out with us to share stories about their travels and life in NZ.   We have been very lucky to have been connected with them.   

Some insights about NZ, and particularly the South Island/Queenstown/Te Anau before I get into the last few days

-  there truly are a staggering amount of sheep, we are starting to count them in the 100's at a time

- eating at restaurants is super killer on the  budget

- groceries are not that much more expensive than home, but gas is double

- driving on the left hand side isn't hard when no one is on the road; however, I continue to go to the wrong side of the car when getting in and I regularly turn on the windshield when trying to put on my turn signal

- there is no garbage anywhere on the roads, especially no Timmies cups

-  the people are super easy to get along with, even though we don't understand them from time to time

- parts of the country remind me of a half a dozen other places Kerri and I have been, from Thailand to Ireland to Greece to BC

- so far, it appears to be super safe - I just left the grocery store in a real busy tourist town and saw two people leave their very expensive bikes with all their gear unlocked outside

- banana chili pizza isn't that bad, despite what you might think

Now to the last few days...on Sunday, after Kerri nailed her first run of our trip,  we left for a small town outside of Queenstown called Arrowtown.  This town was originally settled toward the end of the 1800's by people  looking for gold and in particular people from China - for the contributions of their hard work, their is a small settlement to recognize their accomplishments.  After eavesdropping on a lesson about how to pan for gold, we headed down the river to try our luck.   We don't know for sure, but we do have a few flecks of gold or gold luck minerals to show for our hard work.   To celebrate this possible retirement finding, we hit the town for a wee bit of ice cream.  

On the return trip to Queenstown, we stopped at Shotover Jets, one of the best known tourist attractions in the world (according to CNN that is), for a scouting mission.  This was on my definite to-do list activities while on this trip, and with blazing blue skies above, we decided, why wait, let's do it now.   This activity involves getting into a jet boat, and ripping down a canyon river at about 85km/h, narrowly avoiding canyon walls and pulling the occasional 360.  This was a truly a thrill of a lifetime and the boys and Kerri loved it.  Braden inquired about seasons's passes and said he would pay $3000 for a year's pass.  This might be a little excessive, but you get the point.  If you want, pull it up on YouTube, you'll understand.   Later that night, we went for a walk along the lake, but not before we met Richards neighbors, twin five year old boys doing bunny hops over sticks in the driveway.  These kids were unreal - I found out shortly after that they have 5 million hits on YouTube for their videos (check out samjaketheo riddles).  

We left for Te Anau the next day, a small town outside Fiordland National Park which was our departure point for Milford Sound.  Another stunning drive along Lake Wakitipu (spelling???) brought us to this charming little town.   We checked into our slightly dated, but sufficient, accommodations before heading down to the water for a swim, some mini golf and a Popsicle.  We've been blessed with good weather almost daily, with temperatures between 20 and 25, with plenty of sunshine.  A far cry from the motherland, where we hear temperatures have hit -25 and colder.   

Today our trip to Milford Sound was breathtaking.  From lakes, to mountain plains, to canyons, to waterfalls, to switchback roads,  this drive had it all.  As a rule, Milford Sound has rain 300 days a year, and gets upwards of 24 feet of rain.   If you come on one of these rainy days, you are witness to waterfalls everywhere as there is nothing to hold the rain because the mountains are steep cliffs reaching for the sky.  Also, you are more likely to come across dolphins in the rain.  However, today was not one of those days.   Again, the sky was blue and the weather was perfect.  We were able to get beautiful shots of Mitre Peak, some of the permanent waterfalls and two of the seal colonies.  Our captain was awesome as well, and told us this passage is home to numerous shark species, including great whites.  Once we got back, we took a short walk along the water and came across a family of kea birds, or as one New Zealander called them, swamp chickens.   On the ride home, we had a spontaneous game of frisbee in the open plains to break up the trip and eventually made it back to Te Anau in time for a late dinner.  Tomorrow, we'll head back to Queenstown for a couple of days before going to the East coast where we hope to witness the blue penguins coming in from a hard day's work.   

Till then...

Silly things we are learning

Our first full day as a Kiwi was adventurous.

* tried Vegemite on toast for breakfast.  Not sure if any of us will choose to eat that again! It is an acquired taste that is for sure.  A little like a bouillon cube and very salty.  However it says it is very healthy for you.

* popular new word is LEFT!!!! Still  getting use to the opposite lane to drive in. we lol every time Derek makes a turn because instead of putting his signal on, he turns on the wipers!!!

* when you approach people on the sidewalk, path, you move to the left, not the right or you will play chicken with them and end up dancing

* cricket is as popular as baseball . The boys love to watch it

* rugby...crazy sport played by men with huge legs

*. Banchili- we shared one today and I really thought it was delicious.

* hiked up mountain where we were sure hobbits must live.

* the heat is at its hottest around 1:00 till 7:00.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We had a solid nine hour sleep.  Braden is still sleeping tho.  Sending our love to all of you as we wake up on sat. Feb. 14 and you are in the middle of your Friday. All the best, luv us

We made it!!!

It's Friday February.13 at 9:15 pm New Zealand time (thursday 3:15 am your time) and everyone is asleep, sound asleep except me! I'm trying to stay up just a bit longer to get through jet lag a bit better tomorrow.  We landed in Queenstown around noon today, to beautiful mountains and lots of sunshine.  Here is a run down on our past 33 hours.

On Wednesday we had a slight delay in Toronto because the truck that pushes the plane to start broke down and couldn't move so they had to bring in another truck to push that one out of the way! Crazy. Our plane to vancouver was huge. I did not get to sit in business class like I had planned but we couldn't complain about our seats.  It was an easy flight.  Nothing to a five hour short flight! We landed in Vancouver to catch the sky train and then sea bus to meet Derek's sister and family.  Weirdest thing happened on the sea bus, one of the propellers broke off and we could not park it.  They eventually did after circling ten times around so we were now late to meet  Krista and would not be able to see Steve on his hour lunch break.  Had a nice visit and the boys were able to unwind with their cousin Ben, or maybe wind up with ben? Needless to say, even tho it was short and sweet, we had fun. Back at the airport we were wondering what this 14 hour flight would hold. We were told air new Zealand is one of the best airlines out there and from our experience, it is.  It was a big plane, roomy and excellent service onboard.  Derek slept for eight hours.  The boys caught a few hours and me...well, I sat between the boys so did not sleep more than 20 minutes at a time ( about 2 hours).  I was more concerned that they slept as much as possible so I didn't really mind them using my lap as a bed!

We landed in Auckland and missed our connecting flight by 3 minutes.  That absolutely sucked as we ran like we were on the amazing race and then arrived at an empty
gate:-( we  felt so deflated. I just wanted to cry. That is when we realized we were exhausted. Carter craved a milk shake and braden a bowl of cereal. No luck but we survived the unexpected three hour delay with iPads and books.  They even face timed a few people so time passed quickly.  Finally we caught the third flight and landed in queenstown!  It was a breathtaking sight as we left the plane.  Sunshine and mountains right at our fingertips. We arrived at Linda and Dex' beautiful home, freshened up and went for a hike around the lake.  It is stunning beautiful.  The boys wanted to jump in the lake but we weren't sure if they could.  Once the Richards came home from work, they told us it was a glacier fed lake so it's swimmable but freezing. Braden said it felt warmish to him so he'll swim it tomorrow. Well, that is all I have in me.  Must get to sleep.  Kerri

E noho ra Canada and Kia ora New Zealand!!

Last night was the first time I can honestly say the boys appeared a little anxious about leaving.  Even though they both indicated that they couldn't wait to land in NZ, they were both sad to have to say goodbye to their friends. I told them that they have to remember that it is only for three months and they will be back by Spring and that I will feel the same way when I wave to Grammie and Boppie on Wednesday morning.  That seemed to make them feel better.  We all went to bed early and got up feeling rested and excited!

Everything is packed and zipped up.  No more room to shove anything else, except for the banana bread that is in the oven as we speak (just a little homemade treat for the airplane ride).  Derek's parents are flying home tonight from Florida and then will come pick us up in the morning to drop us off at my parents in Toronto.  From there, we will go to the airport.

I've been trying to imagine what it is going to look like once we exit the plane in NZ.  Haven't a clue.  Maybe lush greenery and sun??? Oh, I hope so.  We have a car rented and will drive 5km to the Richards' home where we will set up base for a few days.  The boys are excited to meet Thea and can't wait to give her a Canadian mini stick to play with. This will most likely be the last post I write until we land in NZ.  Until then,
E noho ra, Kerri

One week countdown...

Well, in about one week today we’ll be landing in Queenstown (and Vancouver and Auckland before that).  Kerri has been in hyper-drive-pack mode the last few days.  I think we’ve got it down to a small, medium and large suitcase plus carry-ons.  Not bad for 11 weeks.  There have been numerous addition of items and removal of items – I really do think when we moved to Switzerland for two years we did less work.  On ongoing point of conversation is the need to iron clothes before we leave.  I welcome anyone’s input in this regard in the “comment” section below.  Do you have to iron clothes or not?  I vote no.  I’ve been getting more and more anxious the last few days, so for a night off I dropped Braden off at the ski hill and have not done any research for a whole two hours. 

For those of you might wonder what type of preparations we took in getting prepared, I’ve included some of the things below.

Those things to consider prior to the trip in Canada; organize bills coming in, remove car insurance, contact credit card company so we aren’t flagged while away, line-of-credit checks, get someone to check on the house every other day for insurance purposes, health insurance while away, contact school, pay for summer registration of sports, contact school and gather some work for trip (I can’t imagine this occupying too much of our time), soccer try-outs, start blog, organize 500 camera/ipad/GoPro/Memory devices devices/cords/plugs, break in new shoes, make sure last summer clothes fit boys and shop accordingly, ensure I have the correct hair products (threw that in their to make sure you were paying attention), complete report cards, visit some family and friends, work on the beach body ... 

Those things to consider prior to the trip in New Zealand/Australia; places to go, not to go, cars to rent, best deal on cars to rent, do we pack linens, what places have linens, what excursions are worth it, which ones aren’t, are all snakes/spiders poisonous (and if not, which ones), do I need to be a better swimmer to learn how to surf, what’s vegemite and was it created on a dare, can I afford to have a beer while away, do people in Australia really use words like bloke, Sheila, billabong, what’s the best way to defend myself if confronted with a shark.  As you can tell, there’s lots to think about. 

I would like to mention two people who have been especially helpful in this extravaganza – Kerri’s former co-worker Judy Noack and my high school buddy Steve Bridge.  Even in the last few days they’ve been sharing their wisdom (or so they’ve made us believe) about things to think about.  Also, Diane Meekes, Maura-Jo, Denis and Sarah Budgell, Dave Zoelman, Uncle John and Uncle Willy, Ang for her insight as to how expensive things are (thank you very much Debbie Downer), Chris Riley, Elle Noack and Linda Richards. 

As the weather here gets a tad colder, I’m excited to get somewhere warmer.  Whether NZ has beach weather I don’t know, but here’s hoping.  Thanks to all the well wishes prior to going.  Hope you continue to follow our blog once we’re there.    

DG

Packing frenzy!!!!!

We started our first official vacay day with it being a snow day! Braden and Carter were very excited to declare that they were also going to stay home today.  With it being their first snow day ever that they didn't have to be shipped off to school, we allowed them to hang low even though that put a wrench into our plans of getting stuff done for our trip.

My first job was to begin with packing.  Where to start? With whom?  I sorted all of my summer clothes and pulled out a few of my favourite long sleeves and jeans.  I shoved them all in my suitcase to see if they'd fit. Ha! Had to go through it again and discard a few t's, tanks, bathing suits.  Derek seems to think he can fit all of his stuff in a duffle bag, me...I get a full suitcase and will try to leave room for some odds and ends. It's a skill to be had to pack for three months.  We better have laundry services! Got most of the essentials done for both boys and myself and I think only one more load of laundry to do. I'll start ironing next weekend.

Next job was to clean the house.  I did that without a problem.  Derek went to the bank and continues to surf the web for firming up details.  I have said it before, he has put a lot of brain power and energy into this adventure and it is all much appreciated.  I can honestly say today that I feel very excited about what lies ahead.  As many of you know, this is Derek's dream vacation and all I had to do was give the okay to go.  I'm glad I did.  It's going to be amazing:)  I hope our cameras work and that I can figure out how to download the 1000's of pics while we are there and share a few on this blog. Fingers crossed.

The past few weeks we have been a whirlwind with getting reports done, saying goodbye to my kidlets at school and preparing the class for their next adventure without me.  A few tears were shed with students and co-workers.  We have started our bon voyage parties and have one more lined up.  So fun!!!  Thank you.

Well, my little man is calling to play The game of life, so that's it for now. Any tips on packing would be much appreciated.  Not sure a whole carry-on for hygiene purposes is acceptable.  LOL.  Derek just got all of his clothes in a backpack and is pretty proud.  I laughed and asked him if he fit the iron in there as well cuz it will all be wrinkled by the time he reopens it.  He thought I was serious and disclaimed "We are not bringing an iron!"  Shhh- I think it will fit in mine:-p.  JK