March 17th and 18th

Saturday March 17th Green for St. Patty’s Day

Today the kids watched a few cartoons before we headed out for some local walks.  Before lunch we got a little lost and couldn’t find the Forks Flat Track, but did find the Forest Hill Scenic Reserve.  We ended up exploring this for the rest of the day (we did drive home for lunch).  We saw lots of cool NZ trees and wildlife.  There were cool totara and rimu trees and a 600+ year old rata tree.  We had several fantail birds sing to us and follow us around.  One spent a few minutes flying ahead of us and fluttering around our heads!  Brody finally spotted the elusive weta (kind of like a grasshopper/cricket, only super sized-only found in NZ).

A typical Southland scene-lots of sheep.

The kids on our trek.

Lots of green for St. Patty's Day.

Notice the vines, they went all the way up to the tops of the trees.

Tara dress for the day.

Gabe prepares for the Weta cave (those are two flashlights hanging off his head light).

More sheep!

There is a fantail bird right in the middle of the pic, you can't see

it really well but their tails are spread out like a fan.

Vine art.

The weta cave.

Tara and dad.

T and Mom.

The boys by an old rata tree.

Sunday March 18th Cars in Winton

After church we headed over to the rugby fields for the Winton Car Show.  We felt bad as it rained all afternoon.  Despite the weather, there was a decent turnout, and the boys enjoyed all the old cars.  Tara and Mom enjoyed the live music, dancing, and the log splitting competition.

Southland sunrise.

The boys at the car show.

An old "car" aka corvette, and a car that looked like Flo from Cars the movie.