Heck of a View.

This is my view as I catch up on writing about all of the excitement from the past few days. What you can’t see in the picture is a yummy glass of New Zealand wine sitting on the table by my side (cheers to the Bach’s and Merrill’s in wine country!!). It is a bit chilly on the patio so I am snuggled up under a fleece blanky, listening to the neighbors belting out rockin’ tunes. Kids are in bed. Life is good.

Flight.
I had debated trying to find out if we could cancel everything because Ty hasn’t been feeling well and Lily had a cold/cough bit going on, but decided that this was a trip of a lifetime and we just needed to suck it up and go. The flight from Gold Coast airport to Christchurch, New Zealand was about 3.5 hours. I could tell Ty wasn’t feeling great, so we had all 3 barf bags ready to go, if needed. About an hour in he said he didn’t feel good, so for the remainder of the flight I held a barf bag up to his face. Most of the time I had Lily in my arms, also, so I felt like a rock star mama. Thankfully he only had one cough/gag but somehow managed to keep everything down. He fell asleep after that and slept through the landing. Lily, however, did not like the landing at all. Nor did any of the other 500 kids on the flight. I tried feeding her to relieve some ear pressure but it didn’t seem to help. She settled down after we landed. Ty woke up and felt good enough to walk off the plane. He was pretty excited to be in New Zealand and go to the first hotel. There is a 3 hour time difference between NZ and Hope Island, so we landed about 11:30 PM. On the way to the hotel we drove by a McDonalds sign. Since I hadn’t had supper I thought a quick Maccers meal would do me good. We turned into the street after the sign, and could not find the restaurant. We went completely around the block and could not find it. Um. What the heck? So random. No supper for me…

Chardonnay.
Our first hotel was the Chardonnay Motor Lodge. Kiwis love their motor lodges. It was about as you would imagine. We pulled in, grabbed our instructions off the lobby door (nobody was there to greet us) and parked in front of our room. Our room was fabulously decorated, complete with a pink bathroom and asbestos tile. But it had a little kitchenette and milk in the fridge for Ty (thank goodness!). There was a Queen size bed in the living room, and two twin beds in the bedroom. Ty was super excited to have Lily sleep in the cot in his room. It was a short night, but the beds were comfy.

Highway to Heaven.
We left Christchurch as soon as we got up and at ’em on Friday morning. We had a long drive ahead of us, which according to Google maps would take about 6 hours to get to Queenstown. We followed highway 1 among the eastern coast of South Island. The first part of the journey reminded us a bit of Wisconsin, with a strong English influence.

Sheep. Sheep. More sheep. Look, there’s a horse. More sheep.

Everything was so green and lush. All of the homes were neat and tidy, and they all had beautiful flower gardens. The trees along the highway were so different – I called them twisty trees (I am sure this is the technical name). The hedges were spectacular. I don’t know if I can properly explain how fascinating they are, and the pictures don’t do them justice. Between nearly all property lines were hedges that were probably 8 stories tall, all perfectly trimmed to be straight up along the sides and a completely level top. I kept hoping to see someone trimming theirs, I have no idea how they do it.

Ashburton.
Lily was hungry so we stopped in a little town called Ashburton. We parked the car next to this beautiful park that had a duck pond, walking path, and gorgeous flowers and trees. The boys stretched their legs and explored while I fed Lily. Such a quaint little town.

Random Left Turn.
The road so far was inland so we hadn’t seen the ocean yet. We drove a bit further down the road and finally saw the ocean. Wow. Not like anything I have seen before. Turquoise water, crashing waves, cliffs, black rocky beaches. I told Jay to turn left on a random road and we ended up at an abandoned rest area that had been “fenced” off. Lily was sound asleep in the car so we climbed through the squashed fence and went over to the edge of the world. Nana would have had a heart attack. We were on a cliff probably 100 feet above the black rocky beach and crashing waves. Jaw dropping. I have pictures on our good camera that I will post when we get home.

Another Lucky Left Turn.
The next stop was Oamaru, and it was time to feed Lily again. This was a coastal town, and I wanted to find a really good spot to park. Once again I told Jay to turn left on a random road. We found ourselves on the coolest road, felt like Europe, with old sandstone buildings on either side of the cobblestone road. As luck would have it, we parked the car overlooking a Penguin Refuge. As luck wouldn’t have it, there were no penguins on the beach. BUT, the view was incredible. The waves hit the sea wall and poured over the top. Jay and Ty went and played on an awesome park, and then we wandered through the “garages” as Ty called them. There was a neat bicycle shop with the old fashioned big wheel bicycles that you could take for a ride. Ty found a bike that we think Papa should make for him and Lily.

Puke.
Ty couldn’t make it the whole trip without puking. But like a rock star he caught all of it in a barf bag. Poor kid…

Mountains.
We entered a part of the country that felt a lot like Wyoming. Big. Beautiful. Barren. We drove for miles and miles and didn’t see any homes. And there was surprisingly not much traffic. The mountains were breathtaking. Indian paintbrush in purple and pink was all over everywhere. Kids asleep in the back seat. Jay and I just enjoyed the ride.

Wine Country.
The next area we drove through was wine country. I have never seen so many vineyards. I couldn’t wait to get to the hotel and pour a glass of local vino. Not sure if you can tell in this picture but there are vineyards on the hillside.

Queenstown.
Aka, heaven on Earth. It is no surprise that parts of The Lord of The Rings were filmed in this part of the world. Mountains, ginormous lake, perfection. We got into our condo and both kids were wiped out, so Jay went to the store for some essentials.

Saturday morning we got up and rode the gondola to the top of the mountain. The views from up top were amazing. We watched someone bungy jump off the mountain. New Zealand is where bungy originated – we drove by the first bridge on our way in. We watched the para-gliders coming down. I really wanted to do it, but since Lily relies on me 100% for survival Jay wouldn’t let me. Lame.

Jay and Ty went on the luge racetrack, which is like gravity-powered go-karts. They had such a great time they bought another ticket and passed 9 people on their way down (Ty’s goal was 10). They had a blast! Ty wanted some ice cream to cool off from their “smokin’ fast” racing. Twist my arm…

We wandered around town, went into a few shops, picked up some souvenirs for the kids. We ate lunch on a sidewalk cafe along the lake. Ty was fascinated by the shiatsu massages going on in the park so I had to get one. Twist my arm.

After lunch and naps in the stroller and baby Bjorne for both kids, we had one more little bowl of gelato. Ty got chocolate. Jay got mint. Ty didn’t love the chocolate. He did love the mint. So he looked at Jay all serious and said, “How about we switch.” Can’t say no to serious cuteness.

We came back to the condo to rest up, then went back to town for a Mexican dinner. It wasn’t quite like home, but so much better than the crappy “Mexican” food they have in Aussie.

Midnight.
We have been trying to stay on Aussie time so that the kids don’t suffer from bad jet lag. It is now after midnight here. The stars are amazing. They literally twinkle here. Time to sign off for the night.