Christmas morning we set out gingerbread men, Nutella, and pastries then got on Skype with my family (although it was only Christmas Eve for them). No presents, no stockings, no stress. Just us and New Zealand. Perfect.
Christmas is now way in the past, so I'll just get to the fun. We drove through Queenstown along Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables Mountain Range. I thought it would be windy mountain driving, but actually it was still plains, farms, and rivers.
We made good time and found our Te Anau Holiday Park. I booked a budget room and had "budget" expectations, but it was very clean, modern, and quite comfy. We took a little Christmas nature walk to a Wildlife Park and saw pukekos, fat ol' pigeons, parakeets, and you know, a partridge in a pear tree.
To answer Meredith's question about hike time: A hike that takes normal people 15 minutes takes us an hour. So our max is about 3 hours (there, look around, return) including lots of breaks, whining, and stories to keep them entertained. This hike had Ephraim giving Ella the complete history of The Ring of Power. Notice how extremely exhausted she is in this photo taken before we started back. Once the story started she barely noticed how not-tired-anymore she was. But yeah, hiking with kids means quality, not quantity.
Didn't you play with techno-gadgets Christmas evening? Here are our Pac Man fans back at the bunk beds, settling down for a big day tomorrow.
4 comments:
I've been loving all your posts about New Zeland. I'm glad we aren't the only crazy parents out there who travel with small kids. And New Zeland has moved way up on my list of places to go. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.
No way--are you seriously strong enough to hike with Ella in that swaddler thingy! I am thoroughly impressed and now have a new ideal as to what it means to be in shape!
No, no i don't carry Ella. not if i can help it! i had owen in the sling. he's easier to manage, but still gets heavy. no ella's on her own two feet, and that's what takes so long! i'm really not very in shape, btw. i wish.
Wow! I'm DRIPPING with envy. New Zeland has always been on my top 2places I'd like to visit someday. (Costa Rica was 1st, and checked off the list)
Somehow it seems to take FOR E VER to get enough frequent flyer milage for NZ. Then when we finally have it, we have another kid! dang. ;) Someday we'll leave this frozen wasteland of WI. But for now, I"m living through you! Thanks for the fun posts.
-Tamara
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