Mt. Cook

We drove up to Mt. Cook today and went for a hike along one of the trails there. It was a beautiful day. Incredible views of the snow covered mountains. We drove past Lake Pokaki which was a brilliant turquoise color – really amazing, and an interesting contrast to Lake Tekapo, which was a much deeper blue color. Different colors because of the fact that Lake Pokaki gets most of its water from the snowy mountains, whereas Tekapo does not. We brought a picnic and ate on a rock just before a suspension bridge that we then crossed over. Crossing the rickety bridge that went across a fast-flowing, rocky river was my dad’s least favorite part of the trip. He even considered trying to ford the river to get back across. Jordy’s least favorite part was hearing that we couldn’t walk up in the snowy part of the mountain, and so declared, “if we can’t get there on a path, I guess I will just have to make my own way there!” and tried to start bushwhacking her way in that direction. Zeke’s least favorite part of the day was when he tried to follow Jordy on one of her bushwhacking adventures and got bloody hands when pricked a number of times by a Wild Spaniard, a very sharp, pointy plant. The rest of us had no notable upsets. When we got back to Tekapo my parents went out to dinner while the five of us barbecued back at our place. Later we went over to Helen and Geoff’s for a New Year’s Eve celebration, but came back to our place to check out what would be on TV at midnight. The NZ midnight highlight was a motorcyclist attempting to jump a story tall 2006. He achieved no lift crashing into the 6 and plowed through the rest of the year finally falling onto the mattress on the other side of the 2. Apparently this is the kiwi way of welcoming in the new year – it was pretty hysterical but after the 5th replay we decided to change the channel. We found fireworks being set off of the big “needle” building in Auckland – a bit more mainstream entertainment.

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Christchurch to Tekapo

We got up and went to a playground that had a little wading pool in it in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens to let the kids have a bit of a runaround before leaving for Lake Tekapo. They had a lot of fun there, trying out new equipment and befriending other people around the park. Zeke encountered a man with his 2 year old son on a circular climbing structure – the man asked his child if he wanted to climb the “tree” so Zeke jumped in and said, “this is not a tree. And just so you know, it is made of plastic.” I’m sure the guy was appreciative of Zeke’s knowledge. Zeke then went on to explain to the man how he was born as a girl on cloud 9, and that his real name is Fairy Cutie-Pie. He has continued to tell this story to anyone who will listen. He has gotten some very interesting looks.
We drove on to Lake Tekapo, stopping in Geraldine for lunch at a little café. Once we got into Tekapo and were unloading our stuff, our friend Helen (who is originally from Tekapo but has moved to Wellington, but is in Tekapo for the holidays) came along. She welcomed us and invited us to come to her house for a cup of tea. She lives right around the corner from where we are staying, right across from the lake. It was an incredible view of the lake with the mountains coming up behind and around it. I walked down over the rocks with Maddy and Jordy, who proceeded to go into the very cold water. We went back to our place where Maddy, Jordy, Zeke, and Tony went for a swim in the little pool and the luke-warm hot tub. Later my parents, Tony and Maddy went out for dinner while I stayed in with tired Jordy and Zeke.

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Akaroa - Swimming with the Dolphins

My parents stayed in Christchurch and explored the city while the five of us took a drive down to Akaroa to go on a boat ride out to go see/swim with some Hector Dolphins. These are very little dolphins, only found in NZ, and are totally wild, but very friendly, and enjoy swimming around people. The drive down was very windy and hilly, but worth it – as we approached Akaroa the views were beautiful, and we had an amazing time with the Dolphin Experience. Tony, Maddy, and Jordy got into their wetsuits, were given flippers, and we all went onto the boat. We went out a bit, and before we knew it, we came upon a bunch of Hector Dolphins! They were so cute, swimming all around the boat – they would come around in small pods – 3, 4, 5 together at a time. We stopped at one point and the swimmers got in. Zeke and I stayed on board pointing and screaming to the others to show them the direction from which dolphins were coming. It was a great day – Maddy’s best day of her life! That night back in Christchurch my mom stayed in and got fish and chips to go with the kids while Tony, my dad, and I went out to dinner at a place called Le Bon Bolli, rated the Best Restaurant in NZ for 2005 – it was very delicious.

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South Island Trip - Christchurch

This morning we left Wellington on a 9:30 A.M. flight, arriving in Christchurch around 10:15 A.M. Thankfully it was a short and uneventful flight. We got our rental car and went straight to the Omara Wildlife Park. It is an incredible place that has lots of cool animals, including giraffes, cheetahs, rhinos, monkeys, lions, and meerkats. We were there just in time to feed the giraffes. It was awesome – we stood up on a platform to be right up close to the giraffes and held out branches with leaves on them – the giraffes wrapped their big black tongues around the branches and pulled the leaves off. If we let go of the branch by accident, the giraffes would chew up the leaves and spit out the branch. We had lunch at the park, and even bumped into two families that we know from Wellington! After that we went and checked into our accommodation – the Amross Motor Lodge. Maddy, Saba, and Rachel went for a walk to stake out a place to have dinner while the rest relaxed at the motel. We all later walked right down Victoria Street and ate at a pizza place, which Bubbe and Jordan deemed as having the most incredible chocolate fudge cake for dessert.

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Martinborough & Cape Palliser

We switched cars with Sam and Matt and the seven of us drove out to Martinborough – wine country in the Wairarapa Valley. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great that day, but we walked around the square anyway and popped into their library which was set up in a really sweet way. We stayed that night at a “bach” called The Bunch of Grapes Cottage, with the three bedrooms decorated with the themes of grapes, lavender, and olives. On Saturday, we drove out to Cape Palliser and got to see a bunch of Fur Seals hanging out all over the grass, rocks, and heading into the sea (video). It was a great. We also walked up a bunch of steps to go up to the Lighthouse there. We stopped at Lake Ferry to have lunch, and then went back to Greytown to get some chocolate from the Schok chocolate factory there. They have really delicious and unusual flavors of chocolate, including sea salt (my personal favorite) and bitterchilli (Tony’s favorite). We then headed back to Wellington to spend a few more days in Wellington before heading off to the south island.

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Maddy's Birthday

Maddy turned 8 today! She had a fun day going off on a picnic with her friend, Charlotte, and her family, while we went to Zeke’s kindy for a Chanukkah party. That night we went into town to have dinner at One Red Dog for pizza. Tthen all of us except Tony and Zeke went to see the Narnia movie, or as the kids constantly correct us – the Nah-nia movie.

Rich and Clare in Wellington

At midnight my parents arrived in Wellington. We stayed in Wellington with them through the 27th, mostly just walking around and showing them some of the places we really love, particularly the Botanical Gardens. They got to see the kids’ schools, and meet our good friends here when we had five good women friends (Kerrie, Sam, Amanda, Belinda, and Helen) and their kids (13 in addition to our 3!) over for afternoon tea on Dec. 20th, the girls last day of school. My dad even survived the chaos with 16 kids coming in and out of the house!

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End of School

Kelburn Normal’s last assembly of the year was held today. Jordy was excited to play a seagull in her class skit about the sinking of a frigate. She also sang with the Room 1 & 2 choir. She was one of the kids leading the group in their song “Seasons Come, Seasons Go.” Maddy also performed in the year 3 Tui Choir singing Deck the Halls, then also with her class, Room 12, singing “It’s Christmas.” (No, they don’t have laws here about separation of church and state, and actually, people are so unfamiliar with Judaism that when I tell them that we are Jewish and celebrate Chanukkah they still say “Merry Christmas!”) Both girls loved performing, and we had a lovely surprise hearing that Maddy was awarded by her teacher - “Most Improved Student.” Each teacher gives out two awards, so it was a genuine tribute that Maddy got one of the two awarded in her class of 32. We are very proud of her.

Sydney Surprise

Friday, Dec.9th – Tony and I flew to Sydney to surprise my parents there who were going to Australia before coming to visit us in NZ. They were stunned to find us waiting for them outside the customs area. We had a fantastic weekend in Sydney – stayed in the Rocks district at a place called the Russell Hotel on George Street. Friday we walked along the harbor by Circular Quay, the Opera House, and through the Botanical Gardens. We had a good time despite the heat and annoying flies. Friday night went to dinner at a too fancy place – not worth it, especially given that Rachel’s mom was falling asleep about halfway through the meal. Saturday we walked through a street flea market then took a ferry out to Manly beach - Another beautiful day. We walked along the beach and had some lunch at an outdoor café. That night we went to an early dinner, much shorter, cheaper, and better at a place called the Waterfront. Then we took in an interesting, somewhat dark, cabaret show at the Opera House called The Boulevard Delirium. Although we had to leave early the next morning to catch our flight back to Wellington, Tony decided he needed a night cap. Somehow his quick trip to a bottle shop to get a Guinness turned into a two hour excursion. But we’ve agreed not to talk about that… The kids were happy to see us, but reported having had a wonderful weekend with our friends.

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