See ya mates, bye bye New Zealand and off to Sydney!

Hi all,

It has been a while but it has been crazy for us for the last wee bit. I will attempt to bring you up to date on our travels and remember all the stuff we had seen and done... wish me luck.

We had a wet time in Queenstown. The town was still in the midst of flood warnings and it was still buried under sandbags. Ironically, it poured the whole time we were there....

Looks like snow but they are sandbags.

Queenstown in the fog and rain.

Danger flooding.

Outside of Queenstown are the most beautiful mountains. The riding was tough and really steep - just ask Paul.

Arrowtown was a highlight for us. A perfectly preserved town just outside Queenstown. Don't you just love the family photo? Mom? What mom?

Fall colours in Arrowtown.

A really huge Tuatara in Invercargill.

The trip down to Invercargill was windy and hilly and the town? well, it is the gateway to the Catlins, an absolutely breathtaking road that leads from beach to deserted beach along the coast ending up at Dunedin. We did leave Mira's sandals on one of those beaches and NO we did not drive back to get them. That road is beautiful once but not to be done twice!

Along this coast we did get to visit the seal colonies. Cool!

Say Good'day!

More seals.

Looking for a way to stay out of the car Paul?

In Dunedin, we did the Cadbury chocolate tour. Way yummy and educational too. We got to wear these groovy hats and eat lots of chocolate.

Right this way....

Riding in the Cadbury trucks.

In Dunedin there is also the steepest residential street in the world with an incline of 19%! There is the gutbuster race that is held here where folks run up and then down. We just walked. In July, they have a charity event when they roll Jaffas (chocolate balls) down the hill. Whoohoo!

Paul on Baldwin Street.

Sign post on Baldwin Street - steepest street in the world.

Wanna race down?

In Oamaru, we checked out the penguins. We got to see the rare Yellow-eyed Penguins come in on the beach at dusk. This town is also famous for its bike building history. The penny farthing was made here in NZ.

Kate on a Penny Farthing bike.

Paul in front of a bike shop.

Watch out for penguins.

We all enjoyed Christchurch. The girls and I climbed the bell town in the town square and got a great view of the town.

Art in Christchurch.

Enjoying the leaves.

We changed our plans quickly at the last minute... one minute we were planning on going out to sea in Kaioura then ... given the rain and cold... we decided to made a quick trip to catch the ferry for the North Island. We were bound and bent to get one more ray of sunshine before we returned to Canada. Just when we decided to go to Australia for 10 days because we couldn't get tickets to Toronto, Cathay Pacific put us on the wait list for mid june, so now we suddenly had 3 weeks to play in Australia. We joined our friends Krista and Ray in Cambridge for some fun and a lot of packing and then we caught an early flight to Sydney... the adventure continues.

Kate doing a Kapa Haka - saying goodbye to New Zealand.

Mira and Kate get to say goodbye to their friends in Leamington.

Luggage... we got lots. Off to Sydney at 4 am.

Are we there yet?

If I had a $1.00 for every time Kate asked us, "Are we there yet?" during this extended trip - ON, South East Asia, and NZ - I would be a really rich woman... the time has come for THAT blog.. what goes on during the hours and hours we have spent in the car.. the LC, Loser Cruiser.

On a travel day, which is typically every other day and more recently, every day, we travel 4-6 hours in the car. Kate climbs in the back and announces... 'good night!' It is true, she spends most of the time sleeping - to avoid being car sick, to deal with the boredom, because she is warm... who knows. She sleeps! Which of course means when we arrive at our destination of choice, she is awake - very awake - often until midnight awake! Mira passes the time talking, daydreaming or counting bridges. I bet you didn't know that between Franz Josef and Queenstown, there are 97 bridges. I estimated 93, Paul 100 and Mira estimated 80, Kate guessed 150.. I was so close, the last bridge being just before our campground. I suggested we walk the last bit to avoid the bridge but I was vetoed. So Paul won... I was not pleased. No I am not competitive.

Paul as driver.

Mira being silly.

Catch a picture of someone that passes us...

or our names written on the window...

Kate doing what Kate does best.

Are we there yet?

Sometimes... the best thing comes along. This Flying Fox in Gore, just happened to be by the highway and so we just had to stop. Look how awake Kate is now.

Mira is up for the challenge.

Take a photo of fruit?

Or mom's toes?

Paul relaxing with a nice glass of vino after a long drive with his family... anyone around? hope not!

The road trip continues. Cheers mates. sharon

Franz Josef Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier, the whole area reminds me of parts of the Yukon. When driving along, Mira noted that parts look like the Skagway pass, other Haines Pass, but there is the rain forest that makes it very Kiwi....

We arrived in Franz Josef with the intention of just passing through but it was so beautiful and the girls were so tired of the car, we decided to try our most ambitious hike yet. The kids had completed 2 - 4 hour hikes so we thought they were ready for an alpine ascent! We headed off to get above the glacier on the Robert Point Trek. It is supposed to take 5.5 hours to complete. We left at 10:30 am on our adventure. The tramp was much more challenging than we had anticipated but the girls were amazing. We climbed, scrambled, awed at the view, swayed on bridges and completed our mission. A couple of German tourists greeted us at the top and said they had 'much respect' for us for having made the trek with kids. (hmmm does that mean we are crazy or just....?). We crossed a rope bridge that had the weight restriction posted on the far side! yikes and only had a couple of tumbles... I rolled off the side of a hill when I lost my footing but didn't roll far. Kate climbed 'steps' that were at her hips. In the end, with snacks and a wee lunch the trek took us just under 7 hours. The kids slept really well and I did too.

The mountains from afar...

Reflections in Peter's Pool. Mira took this photo.

The hike starts out in the rain forest.

First Bridge - that is Paul on it.

Mira crosses the first bridge.

Great hiking attire.

Scrambling along some rocks.

Another bridge/foot path along a cliff. Don't look down.

Streams to be crossed.

When in doubt, go up.

The glacier, pronounced glass-ier by the Kiwis.

AT the top, the German tourists were carving their names into a picnic bench. Kate wanted to do the same but we only had a butter knife, so she had to scratch her name in the mossy, mould on the seat. Mira was laughing so hard, she had tears. Kate wrote her name about 6 inches high.

Congratulations Girls - you did it!

Happy Family at the top.

Cheers, for now. sharon

The Northern Tip of the Southern Island

Autumn in Nelson, NZ

Hi all,

Happy Mother's Day.

We have been enjoying the road trip so far. Here are some highlights from the Nelson/ Abel Tasman National Park. We had two great nights in Pohara, right on Golden Bay Beach, where we had to share the beach with maybe 20 other people. We were told by the caretaker there that over Christmas they have 1200 campers there a night. We were happy to have some sunshine and the beach to ourselves.

We drove out to the end of the road - cause that is what we do - so that we could say they we had been to the tippy top of the South Island as well as to the top of the North Island. There we had a hike through farmers' fields, by cows and sheep to the Farewell Spit at Cape Farewell. James Cook said his farewells here before sailing to Australia. It was a few hours long but well worth it. The kids found what we later identified as a dolphin skeleton and Mira has a souvenir bone (more to take home) and Kate hiked back another 10 kilos of rocks for her collection. She also had to bring back a tooth that fell out during our trek. The tooth fairy comes to NZ too.

Sharing the trails with the wildlife.

Tooth number 3? Gone!

Sharing the beach with..... no one!

Farewell Spit.

Mira drawings in the sand.

Kate's horse in the sand.

Sisters having fun.

Playing in the surf.

After leaving the Abel Tasman area we drove through some of the windiest roads to Westport and Greymouth. Towns of little note other than they are on the beach and we got to see some fur seals. There were tons of them but they blend in really well with the rocks and don't provide great photos - especially when it is pouring rain. The pancake rocks - limestone carved out of the surf- were amazing and also too wet to photograph. Fun continues... cheers. sharon