Here is Dave at night on the star gazing trip. Everyone had a compulsory warm coat.
This is the view of Lake Tekapo from our motel window!
We then drove on to Queenstown, but took a detour to see Mount Cook, passing another beautiful blue lake, Lake Pukaki on the way.
We also ventured down a long unsealed road to see the Tasman Glacier
Then on to Queenstown
church, church music meeting, church podcast creating (failing), walk in the cemetery, not much. sleep
we drove 45 minutes up north this morning to catch the royail mail post boat to kawau island. jane was felling the cold
here’s a weka. that’s an endangered new zealand bird. there were loads all over the place
the island used to have a copper mine and smelting place.
the green in the cave and the rock on the beach in the picture below are from the copper
we did some walking
saw an historic hole
saw some abandoned holey underpants
had a walk round the historic homestead
we also saw the dolphins and esther and i saw a penguin. there are wallabies on the island but we didn’t see any of them today
then this evening we went to a friend’s pool warming party. the pool was cold so not many people went in.
guess what this is. yup, a dolphin. one of a pod actually
this was one of the highlights of our day trip to kawau island
there are so many pictures i thought i’d do this as a separate update.
kezia had her friend emma to play today. esther washed the final guinea pig and that went well.
there was swimming this evening and gym for jane.
i went out for lunch with my colleagues as it was the new guy’s 30th birthday. this evening we watched some more te radar whilst eating hearty stew. winter’s on its way.
Hello. Today was a day at home. Chores for me. Esther had a friend round. Kezia finished off a little toy hedgehog she started making nearly 3 years ago. We also washed the guinea pigs, which I don’t think they enjoyed much, but now they smell very nice.
This evening we went to Biffy and Malcolm’s house for dinner and played cards after.
the girls went to the circus today and couldn’t stop talking about it all evening. it was one of those fancy asian ones where there are amazing feats of gymnasticness, motorcycles in a ball (?), contortionists and plate spinners.
i went to work where there was less of that.
this evening kezia had her swimming lesson and jane went round to see the old music lady (who is on maternity leave) to work through this term’s roster.
esther and i put up the trampoline net in the dark which was handy as there were various bugs and beasties about which i didn’t have to see.
i had another busy day at work. nothing like going on holiday for a few days to add extra busyness to the days before and after the holiday.
jane had her morning working in the church office doing her church music things. meanwhile the girls went to Tracey’s house and watched movies, did some cooking and generally had a nice time
not entirely sure what they got up to this afternoon.
and this evening kezia’s tuesday night swimming has started up (instead of early saturday mornings) so jane went to the gym whilst kezia swum
the picture above is an advert regarding marmageddon which is sweeping the country. this is how we do national panic in new zealand (compare to the recent fuel panics in the UK for example)
oh, and kezia would like you to know that she is paying esther to tidy her room! Esther has now almost completed it and kezia is very pleased with the results so far. Looks like esther will get her full payment of $10 when completed (hopefully tomorrow)
We got to the airport so early it wasn’t open yet and by 8 were in Christchurch, where we picked up our hire car and started on our journey to Lake Tekapo. We stopped at various places on the way including Geraldine, which boasted the world’s largest jersey. With a Guinness world record certificate and everything.
Our motel for the night was right by the lake.
The lake was an amazing blue colour because of rock flour in the water. It was very beautiful.
There was a little church.
There is a mountain nearby called Mount John. We drove up there to look at the views of the glacial valley. Dave went up later on a star gazing tour as it is internationally renowned for being a brilliant place to look at stars.
In the evening we went to the hot pools, before Dave went out on his night time trip. What a great day.
Dave went back to work today – boo. The girls and I went to visit my friend Sylvie from school. She lives on a peninsular about 45 mins north from here and has a house with spectacular sea views. The weather was certainly warmer than in the south island and this afternoon Kezia was even swimming in the sea with Sylvie’s children.
Nice.