NZ part 12 - Christmas Eve in Cromwell

We woke up in Tekapo and found (you guessed it) a playground.




Soon we were on the road driving past some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. Especially Mt. Cook over Lake Pukaki.

Eph did some off-roading for a better view.

We made it to Cromwell our next stop. It was a small town known for gold and fruit (but not really known at all.) Kids played at a park with zipline while I loaded up on holiday groceries.

Our place from Ella's perspective:

We had a proper meal.

Acted out the nativity (improptu) and called it a night.

NZ part 11 - Lake Tekapo

Nothing says vacation like morning kiddie shows in jammies. This morning we checked out of our hotel and did some shopping. Holiday rush was iin full swing for everyone else, nice for us to not care.

West of Christchurch is the Lake District and we were heading to Lake Tekapo for the night. On the way you pass farms, berry fields, wide rivers, and cute little towns like Geraldine where we browsed a local museum. Ella played on a real switchboard and I played a foot-pump organ.

After a few hours we pulled into Lake Tekapo and wow-ed at the blue color.
"Finely ground rock in the glacial melted waters gives Lake Tekapo a beautifully unique turquoise color."




Had a picnic at the stone church erected to honor Christian settlers. Yay Christians!

The kids were knocking on the door, and suddenly this grumpy person opens it a crack and says “It’s closed!! The church is closed!” Slam. We had to laugh.

Aren't these wildflowers a sign of a skillful, joyful Maker?

Side note: Mariko mentioned high taxes in NZ. I don't know about land or housing, but there is a GST (Goods and Service Tax) of 12.5 % included in each purchase. It's quite high, but when the price says $10 including GST, you never think about it. And they do have a fabulous infrastructure from all these taxes, so you're basically paying yourself back in services. Works for me.

NZ part 10 - Christchurch, Akaroa

I know this seems long. We were gone about 17 days. And I know it's mind-numbingly tedious reading, but since we couldn't take all our families with us, we'd like to show them everything. So love it, or leave it, I guess. And now we continue...

“Very efficient drapes. ” That was a comment I wrote to the hotel in Christchurch since we slept in until 10! We needed the sleep. Today we’d planned the botanical garden and Banks Peninsula.

Amusing shuttle bus for the International Antarctic Centre . We didn't go. Just liked the penguins.
The Christchurch Botanical Garden gave us cool things to discover at each turn. Large old trees, "glasshouses" (greenhouses), ponds, a rose garden and of course, a playground.

The fern leaf is the symbol of New Zealand. I love it.

When we’d had our fun, we grabbed some lunch and drove through a tunnel through the mountain to Lytttelton, a quaint old harbortown, for ice cream and more play.

Next we drove scenic Banks Peninsula to Akaroa.

Wanna buy some land? Views! Views! Views!

Akaroa was settled by French sailors and shows it in architecture and style.

Check this out. It's even clean under the bridge! No rubbish? Clean happy little ducks? I even remember a little cat under that bridge. Clean and happy little cat. If this were Am Samoa it would be full of rotten garbage, old clothes, and rusty carparts leaking oil.

Kiwis say, yes we can.

Another G'day.

Side note: Ephraim discovered meat pies—like a beefstew hot pocket. We soon learned not all meat pies are created equal. This night we grabbed some for dinner and they were not impressive. (Naaaasty.)

NZ part 9 - Christchurch

America, meet the jumping pillow. It's a giant air-filled...thing...that you jump on. Like a pillow. But big. They are common at holiday parks and campgrounds. And if you place a heavy person at one end (like Ephraim) and tell him to bounce, everyone at the other end goes flying in the air and laughs like crazy. You should really try this, America. You'd like it.

This day (Dec 21st) we were in Kaikoura, a nice little coast town with a peninsula that had lots of fur seals.


We walked along the black sand beach and saw some penguins! But they flew. So they weren't really penguins. Just some other black and white sea fowl.


We loved this view of the beach and a snow capped mountain in the background.





This episode cracked me up. We were driving past "Fifeshire" (down the road from Bag End.) (Not really.) Suddenly we're surrounded by stampeding sheep racing past us. Ephraim slows and as he pulls over we hear a THUMP against the car. "I think the sheepdog just broadsided us," he says. But the dog was unaffected and loped along behind the herd. Farmer Bilbo brought up the rear on his 4-wheeler and followed the herd as they turned off the road. I didn't realize people still herded sheep and stuff. OK, I know it happens, but I loved seeing it.





We drove down Hwy 1 and took one detour to see a "surf spot" at Gore Bay and a cool site called Cathedral Rocks.

Christchurch was a biggish, modern city with great English flavour.


Our friend in Wellington had helped us find a great hotel deal online, so we stayed at the Copthorne Commodore for $90/night for 2 nights. It took awhile to find—we had to consult the "i-site". Every city has a visitors center called an i-site, which is basically like your own free travel agency. It's a fabulous resource.

We finally checked in to the hotel and went to the pool! The kids loved our “new home”.

For dinner we went out for Thai, because we could! (No Thai restaurants in AS.)

Have I mentioned that it got dark around 9:30? So it was a real challenge convincing the kids to sleep at bedtime. We were getting more and more exhausted. But what's a holiday without a messed up sleep schedule?