Princess Birthday and Queen's Jubilee!

Queen’s and Princess’ Birthday!  Weekend of June 2nd-June 4th

June 4th is Queen Elizabeth IIs Diamond Jubilee (60 years as ruler)!  The good news for us is no school or work on Monday the 4th in honor of the Queen’s Birthday!  The more important holiday for us was the princesses birthday.  Tara turned 7 on Sunday the 3rd!!!  

On Saturday morning we headed north.  Our first stop was Queenstown.  The boys really wanted to do luge one last time.  That was our first stop!!!  The kids had a blast!  We were able to go for a really fun walk through a conifer forest.  After a fun time there we headed over to the Manata Lodge (it is in the middle of no where).  This isolated lodge looks out at the Remarkable Mountains as well as several others.

The kids in front of Lake Wakatipu.

Brody and luge!

Dad and Tara.

Tara and mom on the ski lift going back to the top 

of the mountain for more luge.

Tara on a hike!

The boys trek on.

Dad and the kids take a break.

Manata Lodge!

On Sunday, after church, we walked around the Shotover River and historic bridge before heading back to Queenstown.  We had an awesome walk around Lake Wakitupu and the kids spent a lot of time skipping rocks and playing at a nice little playground.  Tara was able to choose what we did and she wanted to swim so we headed to the Aquatic Centre in Frankton.  

The Shotover River.

View of the historic Shotover Bridge from the riverbed.

Lake Wakatipu near Queenstown.

Downtown Queenstown.

The kids in front of a giant kiwi!

The kids take a break from our walk around Lake Wakatipu.

Tara enjoys the view from up in a tree!

Brody does the Titanic (no, he has never seen the movie).

Brody finds the perfect skipping stone.

Early morning at the Lodge.

Despite the nice weather on Sat. and Sun, Monday was very chilly and we woke up to a lot of frost-we have been forced to concede it is winter here!  Although, winter here is more like a brisk Autumn day for us!  After breakfast we headed to Arrowtown and strolled through the wonderful museum there.  We then braved the cold to the old Chinese village dating back to the gold rush days of NZ when there was an influx of immigrants from China who came to search for gold.  The kids were quite surprised by the spartan conditions.  We then went on a lovely walk before lunch and then heading home!

The Arrowtown Museum.

Moari!

Downtown Arrowtown.

The frosty walk, it was still beautiful.

Dad and the kids.

Mom and the kids.

Thursday May 10th Friday May 11th  Cromwell

Ursula got out an hour early on Thursday for us to drive two plus hours to Cromwell.  It is known for its fruit stands, wineries, and being the furthest point from the ocean as you can get on the South Island.  We enjoyed the giant fruit statues overlooking rows of grape vines.  The local museum was fun and gave information on its gold mining past.  A dam was built near here and flooded the old downtown area.  They actually dismantled the buildings and rebuilt them back away from the recently formed lake.  That section is the quaint area known as Old Cromwell Town.  

After the sightseeing we headed north to Aoraki Mount Cook (Aoraki is the Maori name and comes from one of their legends.  Aoraki was one of the sons of the sky father and earth mother.  Traveling with his brothers their waka (canoe) tipped over and became the South Island, the brothers took refuge on the canoe but the cold south wind came and turned them to stone, Aoraki was the tallest).  

Cromwell-lots of fruit around here-hence the giant statue.

Cromwell

Old Cromwell Town!

Tara looks over lake Dunstan.

It is an amazing drive north.

Friday night May 11th to Sunday May 13th- Aoraki Mount Cook

Aoraki Mount Cook is a small village of 300 in the summer and around 30 people in the winter (i.e. it's really really small).  You cannot live here unless you work here (you can't just come and buy land and build).  It is an amazing place and world famous for its scenery which is as good as it gets.  The Tasman glacier is right here and feeds a small river and lake.  The water is pristine glacier water but because of all the rock flour (the rocks here are soft and easily broken up) it looks almost creamy.  The mountain views are spectacular.

This is also home to the world’s southern most planetarium and the Sir Edmond Hillary Alpine Centre complete with movie, museum and statue.  We were able to see five of the six movies/planetarium shows and they were very interesting and educational.  Our first night here we were able to see the stars live (this is one of the best places to view the stars because of the low light contamination).  The Southern Cross is easy to pick out near the Milky Way band, all the other constellations are “upside down” as they were first imagined from the northern hemisphere.

On Saturday we had one of our cooler adventures, the Glacier Explorer’s!  After a short bus ride we had a fairly rough/uneven walk to the glacier jetty.  There we boarded a small speed boat and zoomed around the glacier lake complete with icebergs of various sizes.  We were able to touch an iceberg and the kids got to eat some.  The glacier ice is seven times as dense as regular ice and since it was formed over 300 years ago it is pristine.  It shone like a diamond.  The weather was stunning!  It does rain a lot here but the ground is like a sieve that drains it to underground rivers etc.  That night the clouds rolled in over the mountains and in the middle of the night we heard what sounded like a very long, very loud rolling thunder-it was actually part of the glacier breaking off into the lake.

An iceberg on the lake.

Gabe holds up the crystal clear 300 yr old ice.

A view towards Mount Cook from the water.

Mount Cook.

We were up close and personal with the icebergs.

The Tasman Galcier.

        Sunday was rainy in Aoraki-Mount Cook but we soon drove out of it as we headed back south.  We had many cool stops including feeding salmon at a salmon farm, lots of cool mountain views, clay cliffs, and Arrowtown.  This time they were not having the Fall Festival and we had a great time with a great meal.

The salmon were hungry!

Tara caught a big one!

Walking towards the clay cliffs.

The clay cliffs (yep, it really was all clay).

Snow capped mountains loom behind the clay cliffs.

A cool spot we stopped at along the way home.

The snow, the pristine sky and clouds were so bright, they didn't look real!

Photo by Tara!

Arrowtown (Brody in white, Gabe in green in the phone booth).

Downtown Arrowtown.

The kids played at an obstacle course, not a bad view.

Angelina in Invercargill!

May 2nd Angelina Ballerina

Today is Wednesday and Dad and Tara had a special outing.  Angelina Ballerina’s Big Audition came to Invercargill’s theatre for today only so Tara got out of school!  It is a lovely old theatre and Tara really enjoyed the show.  After the show Tara got to pick where we ate and chose Pizza Hut (we have eaten out at a fast food restaurant only twice the last four months)!

The kids are really enjoying the Southland Toy Library.  They check something out every week and get a lot of use out of it.

Tara outside the wonderful theatre in Invercargill.

Inside before Angelina starts.

A costume from the toy library-Tara is dancing!

Gabe's creation from the toy library.

The two houses on either side of our driveway.

Our driveway.

The house we are living in.