Summer Begins....

Yesterday was the first day of Summer....
Really?
Same type of weather today too.

Hey, it's not been that long since my last post here.

Since Sept, I have learnt to make some cute creatures out of paper. (I need to be careful otherwise the house will be taken over by cicadas, butterflies, cranes and swans).

I'm sort of avoiding Aidy and Sarah's blog. They haven't seen Wellington in all its glory yet! Just wait until it's Christmas day and 28 degrees!!!

Well, that's it. Masterchef Australia is on soon.

Tsunami Hits Samoa

An 8.3 Earthquake hit Samoa this morning, followed by a tsunami. My mom called me about 8 times and finally I woke up enough to answer my phone. We weren't sure how bad this would be and if it would hit New Zealand. She wanted me with her at her work. (This is the first time we've been through any act of God - other than same Earthquakes).

I got ready as quickly as I could. And since I might have been stuck there for a while, I took my laptop and camera, and of course a coffee. I was absolutely soaked when I finally got there!!!

At about 11am my Mom's boss got a phone call. Gisbourne had been hit with a 40cm wave.... not that big. So Mommy let me come home. I'm still checking the news reports but it seems to have ended. My clothes are still drying as I got even more soaked on the way home.

We just got back from the grocery shop, and it just seems eerily quiet. I wanted to get this post up in case any family members happen upon this. We are all fine! (Sorry)


Samoa is circled. In relation to the world.

I guess I should update this blog more often.
Since May, we have been to Hamilton.
Met A and S (who started they're world wide travels)
Gone to Doctors and Dentists.
Went to Auckland for SENZ
And loving that the sun is coming out more and more....

One Year...

We have been living in Wellington

ONE
WHOLE
YEAR

Flight from Auckland to Wellington
May 1st 2008
Arrived 2pm

One Year Ago

We left Guernsey for the last time.
The 25th was our leaving good-bye party, and on the 26th we flew away.... to Jersey for a few days.

25th April 2008
We were packing up the last of the house to go into the container. Checked into a hotel and had a good bye party.

25th April 2009
Celebrated our first Anzac Day in NZ. And did some shopping - which seems to be normal for a Saturday.

A Journey to the Center of The Earth - In Review

Friday 10th April
We left Thorndon, Wellington at about 10am and drove up the middle of the country to Taupo, arriving at about 4pm.



Saturday 11th
We left Taupo to head up to Rotorua. On the way we stopped at this Hidden Valley Thermal Park. This was very cool to see. You could feel the heat coming from the water.
But sulphur smells! And it was a hot day! The mud pools were really amazing to see. Just lots of blob...blob...blob....

Tonight, for dinner I was given pine nuts in my pasta! Yuck! Nothing in the menu suggested pine nuts! So I took a dozen pills and got some soy milk and ginger beer when we got back to the hotel. In case you didn't know, I am allergic to nuts and seeds. My throat/tongue swells a little and my stomach starts trying to kill me!! I only had half my meal before I noticed the pine nut. So I wasn't that ill this time.


Sunday 12th
Happy Easter! I went outside for some fresh air while everyone was getting dressed and all these little kids and their parents were walking back to the hotel. Of course, it was an Easter Egg hunt. (I've never hunted for Easter Eggs). One of the hotel workers coming back with the little unfound eggs gave one to all the adults.

After breakfast we went to....

STARBUCKS

Heaven in a venti cup!

And walked back to the hotel via the Free Access Thermal Park. Lots of steam and a few mud pools.

We headed to the market near the lake, then back to the hotel for lunch.

Our hunt for the Buried Village begins! The Buried Village was buried after a Volcanic Eruption in 1886.

Monday 13th


The long drive home.
And not missing the smell of sulphur!

The Eclectic Artisans Team: Celebrate MOM with EART!!!

The Eclectic Artisans Team: Celebrate MOM with EART!!!

One Week Ago

This is moms first real skating injury on me!
She fell in her skates and the wheels gashed my leg. It looks a lot worse than it is. But bled quite a lot.
It's pretty much been constant rain since so we haven't been able to get out.

Saturday we went to the Cuba Street Carnival. Took some photos but not looked through them yet.

http://theeclecticartisansteam.blogspot.com/
http://fotogeeni.etsy.com
http://pnkgeeni.etsy.com

Crafty mommy!
Feeling Ignored??
Guess what!
My socks match!!

Friday was Waitangi Day. So we went along the waterfront to Waitangi Park. There was a huge festival etc. Live music. Lots of people dressed up. (Men dressed up as pink fairies, convicts, pirates, elmo, smurfs, etc).

Me and momma got some air brush tattoos.

HAPPY WAITANGI DAY

Saturdays Adventures

The colossal squid has caught the world's attention, and no wonder - since 1925, only two of nine adult specimens reported have been complete. Come face to face with Te Papa's amazing specimen: 4.2 metres long and weighing 495 kilograms - nearly half a tonne!

We finally got around to going to Te Papa to see this Colossal Squid.
(Not a squid or octapus - COLOSSAL SQUID).
The photo above is the very top of the Squid.



It wasn't as creepy as I thought it would be. And it didn't move!
It was quite busy there, but it is a pretty new exhibit.

His lovely legs!

His eyeballs are the size of footballs!

A couple days later, we received some belated Christmas pressies from A&S.

Momma opened her birthday pressie last.

A little cutie, who can't decide if he's a boy or girl.


I will make sure that I get some great photos over the weekend.

Hopefully we'll be out skating!

Monday Words

LOOKIE! Momma is skating and not holding anything!

We both went out for a skating day on Saturday. But it was a little windy, so I had to try my skates to see if it was TOO windy. We didn't pick the best surface, it was all uneven with pieces of gravel all over the place. And of course, I fell down.

And these skates are practically impossible to fall in! I landed on my wrists and elbows. Only I didn't have my elbow pads on. So now I have a bruise on my forearm. And a few graizes on my hand.

But at least I have learnt the importance to elbow guards.

After dropping our skates home, we went out for a well deserved Starbucks. (Venti Iced Soy Vanilla Latte and a Tall Caramel Light Frappacino).

We walked along the front and decided to go see the Colossal Squid at Te Papa. Not as creepy as I thought it'd be. I did take a couple photographs.

Then onto OurSpace. An interactive type thing.

We went on The Deep Ride. You go down to the deep black sea depths to see Black Smoke and Volcanoes etc. Then we went on The High Ride.

The High Ride is amazing! You get taken a really fun journey. As motorbike racer, a bird, a netball ball, a maori warrier, etc.

http://www.lollishops.com/pnkgeeni

http://www.lollishops.com/fotogeeni

This was the route we travelled.
From Wellington to Picton by ferry (1)
From Picton to Blenheim by coach. (2)
From Bleheim to Kaikoura by coach. (3)
From Kaikoura to Christchurch by coach. (4)
From Christchurch to Queenstown by coach. (5)
From Queenstown to Fox Glacier by coach. (6)
From Fox Glacier to Greymouth by coach. (7)
From Greymouth to Christchurch by train. (8)
From Christchurch to Wellington by plane. (9)
From Wellington Airport to Home by Shuttle!


Look Bro, It IS an actual REAL place and that IS how you spell it!
Pronounced "WONacca" or "WANacca"
Apparently you can tell that my brother and I are related coz I wanted to say the same thing.

Even the flight back felt like coming home.

"The temperature outside is.... beautiful." Said the air stewardess(??)
The passengers laughted.

Day Seven

>
Left the cold glacier weather behind and went on a coach to Greymouth.

Stopped at Franz Josef Village and Hokitika. At one of these places were deers, chickens and goats. And huge sandbeetles.

At Greymouth we got on the TranzAlpine train to Christchurch. With a stop at Arthers Pass. The train ride took about four hours.

Then we had a flight from Christchurch to Wellington.

Grabbed a shuttle and eventually got home.

I might come back and add some more photos.

Time to upload the videos from new years eve, so I will add those to the approriate blog post.

Day Six

Today we jumped on the coach from Queenstown through Wanaka (which is an actual place and is spelt correctly) to Makarora, Haast, Paringa to Fox Glacier.

I think this was taken at Lake Wanaka.

Beautiful sky.

At Fox Glacier we went up to see the glacier and walk on top of it at 5pm. The whole thing only took 30mins.

The helicopter flight wasn't any worse than a normal plane - noisier. It reminded me of Disney's Soarin'.

Taken through the window. Beautiful snow capped mountains.

The bottom parts of the glacier looked lovely. But you could definately see how much damage they could do if they just started to move (earthquake).

Had to make sure that I got this shot since it looks like we are going into the cliff.

We didn't.

We went over to the frosty icy snow.

We were told that it was only about 3degc colder up there - it might have been a bit colder than that.

Peter making a slushy snowball. It wasn't like normal snow but small bits of ice.

My socks and sneakers got soaked.

There was a mom and her two daughters that came with us. They were wearing jandels (flipflops). But we only stayed there for about five minutes before flying back down. When we got back we just sat in the sun to warm up a little bit.

At 9pm we went for a mini bush walk to try and see some glow worms. We walked through the track three times before it was dark enough to see them.

The glow worms are just little dots of glowing lights that get brighter then disappear.

They were lots of these little glow worm dots around. Once you find them, they are everywhere.

Earlier in the day. At Lake Wanaka - I think.

Big sculpture of a hand at a lake.

Some beautiful waterfall a few minutes walk through native bush.

On the motorway into Fox Glacier. Just taking a few minutes rest before going back through the glow worm trail.

Day Five

We got to spend the whole day in Queensland.
It was raining quite a lot, so we went to find some coats, grabbed an okay coffee from Starbucks and went up the cable car gondala thing.

Up these steps, up a hill, then got our tickets and went up the cable car.

The view from about half way up.

At the top.

The view.

It was still raining and the cloud came down quickly covering the mountains so we only got a few shots.

Someone did the bungy jump.

The misty hills in the background.

The white things are the cable cars going up and down. If you wanted to walk down it would take about five hours.

Before dinner we went to the Minus 5 Ice Bar.

Putting on some thick warm hooded coats and gloves.

The tempurate when we went in was -7.5degc. The temperature alternates between -5 and -10.

All suited up and ready to go in.

Enjoying my IceBurg cocktail inside a glass made of ice. The drink was lovely and I did drink a bit of my glass.

The bar.

There were a lot of ice sculptures around. Even a Christmas tree with tinsel.

Awww.

I told mom to think drunk and this is what I get.

After the vodka. I wanted to get a shot of the menu so I could remember what the lovely drink I had was.

After leaving the ice bar we went for dinner.