Christchurch Week 2

 

Just getting around to posting about our final week in Christchurch. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great for doing all we’d planned. Jennie had kindly bought us tickets to go to Quail Island – you get a ferry there midmorning and another doesn’t leave from there until around 3pm. Which is great when it’s a clear day but most days at some point it was just on the verge of dumping rain on us and we didn’t want to get caught in the rain on this island with no way back. So unfortunately we didn’t ever make it there! Next time!

Henry’s class has been doing a farm unit back in Bellevue and though it was mostly on the process of growing and harvesting crops we thought a trip to a local dairy farm show would kind of fit in on the homeschooling and fun front. The boys watched them load up the cows onto this turntable and get milked and they had displays out to show kids how much grass was consumed each day and how much milk a cow produced daily. They gave out free ice creams so the boys thought it was a good day.

We also went to a sheep farm to watch a sheep dog demonstration and sheep shearing. It was a miserable rainy day and we were the only family there but it was still well worth it. I’m still always amazed at watching sheep dogs round up sheep and how they get stray ones back in the pack. They family was really nice and found out Henry was going to do a little report on sheep farms and sent us away with a patch of sheep’s wool and some leaflets. We’ve seen numerous talks on animals and visited a lot of wildlife preserves and parks over our trip and the boys have asked some really great questions about habitat and predators. When question and answer time came up Grant asked “How do you tell the difference between a girl sheep and a boy sheep?” Because it was pointed out with a few different birds and animals that the female or male will have some different markings or color Grant thought the same might be true with sheep. It was cute. I explained to him that sheep were more like people and the girls and boys just came with different parts.

 

Another rainy afternoon was spent at the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch. This is a free little museum in Christchurch down near the Arts Centre that’s being rebuilt. It was a pretty quiet afternoon in the museum and the boys had a good look around. In the museum they had a section on “Kiwiana” (traditional kiwi type stuff) and had a rebuild of this house that used to be located in Bluff, New Zealand. This couple had decided they loved Paua shells and started nailing them to their living room wall until the entire thing was filled and then opened their house up to tours every day for 27 years. It was a cute little story about this couple and they had their entire entry way and living room recreated in the museum. The place was wall to wall paua shells and weird trinkets.. everywhere. In a few more years they’d have been candidates for Hoarders. Grant walked in and looked around and said.. “This is actually really nice!” a young guy next to him smiled and said “Yes, you should have your mum decorate your house like this!” Grant thought it was a good idea, that thankfully he’s forgotten about.

 

 

Last week David and Sarah had called over and let us know that they wanted to have a Thanksgiving meal for us the night before we left which happened to be Thanksgiving. It was such a nice gesture and so thoughtful especially when you consider that David (who was preparing then entire meal) was still working and as it’s not America, he still had to work the next day as well. We had an amazing dinner that included New Zealand whitebait which the boys loved as well, some fantastic stuffing that had pistachios, roast potatoes, a beautiful turkey and an incredible apple pie with berries. David works for Moet & Hennessy so there were no shortage of really nice drinks along with the great meal. I know the amount of work that goes into preparing Thanksgiving and doing that while doing a full work day was a huge feat that was much much appreciated.

 

The next morning we finished packing our bags which were all amazingly NOT overweight and got to the airport midday. We’d charged every single electronic device the boys would touch and packed their backpacks with activity books and reading materials. We flew Air New Zealand from Christchurch up to Auckland (about 1hr 20 min) and then the international flight from Auckland to Vancouver (about 13 hours) and then a quick flight from Vancouver to Seattle (50 min). Air New Zealand have the seatback video screens with tons of kids movies and games. The boys didn’t even open their backpacks. Henry watched a movie and played a couple of games and then decided he was going to bed and slept for a good 8-9 hours.. possibly more. Grant slept about 2 hours max and watched endless movies the entire flight, Peter (unbeknownst to me or I’d have kicked the back of his seat endlessly for checking out when I might have needed his help) took an Ambien and slept a good part of the flight as well. Apart from a little kerfuffle with Grant leaving his backpack in the international customs baggage area and running through the airport to try and get someone to get it and get it back to us, it was pretty uneventful – thank god. Traveling to New Zealand by cruise ship is definitely my preferred method of travel but for the sake of time this wasn’t so bad.

Re-entry into the real world has been a little weird. No one is sleeping right. We had weird night where Grant woke up at 10pm whining because he thought it was morning and didn’t want to go to school because he was tired. Henry work up at 10:30pm crying because he just couldn’t sleep and came into our room and somehow lost his pants. So I had 1 kid crying with a superman top and nothing else in my room and the other in their shared room yelling that he didn’t want to be left alone. After pants were located both kids were in our bed for about 10 minutes before Grant got fed up with being kicked and poked and yelled at by Henry and went back to bed, only he needed tucked in again. Then about 20 min later Henry started whispering Christmas carols which was really creepy and sounded like some horror movie and a little later he got fed up and went back to his room only to need tucked in.. and then a tissue… and then tucked in again.. and then to go to the bathroom. This was all around 2am. They woke up around 10am the next day (totally meant to wake them at 7am to adjust for school wakeup) and Grant had somehow lost his pants (what the heck is happening to all the pants?!). They boys are out of sorts and cranky. Grant just gets naughty which I can almost deal with but Henry’s eeeeeendless whining and inability to just deal with the normal stuff in life – big tears over not being able to open a bag of chips.. “I just caaaaaaaan’t”. The drama overload is driving me nuts.. it’s funny in reflection but right now it feels endless.

Big final wrap up post with final thoughts on our trip coming up in the next few days.

Campervan - Orewa, Auckland and our first week in Christchurch

 

We left Whangarei Falls and headed to our next destination thinking we really wanted to be near-ish to Auckland so we wouldn’t have a huge drive on top of sorting our bags and then the whole airport hassle as we leave for Christchurch. We checked into this nice little campground, again on a really nice beach in Orewa.

View from the camper at sunset + Henry with some shellls from the beach

 

The campground gave us these coupons off this Thermal Pool Holiday park 6km down the road so we ended up spending the day there. The park was deserted and the thermal pools were different degrees of warm so we bounced around at all the pools. Grant and Peter first went over to check out the 6 waterslides but on the first one Peter sprained or possibly broke his toe so he’s been limping around all day with that. We all had a great time though still all smell faintly of sulfur.

We came home that night and just had BLT’s that might have been one of the best meals we’ve had to date. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that end up being so good.

We got into Christchurch bleary-eyed and very late and headed straight to bed – Thanks to Peter’s Mum (Jennie) and Bryan for picking us up with all the luggage at such a late hour.

The next morning we woke up and found our 5 yr old had turned 6! A very special thanks to Jennie and Bryan, Sarah, David, Arabella & Luca for making Henry’s remote birthday very special. As a special treat Jennie bought us a family pass to the International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch where we spent the day. We saw little blue penguins, rode a Haglund, watched a fun 4D movie on the Arctic and did a ton of other fun things. The boys loved it. We got back and Jennie had set up a spread of chocolates and lollipops and we had dinner and a nice chocolate cake she’d made specially for Henry’s birthday. By the end of the day, Grant was asking if sometime he could have his birthday in another country.

 

 

The rest of the week has been spent catching up with family and seeing things around Christchurch. Bryan has taken us around and showed us the state of Christchurch after the earthquake and some of the rebuilding things they’re doing. There’s a section of the city that has been built all with containers and it’s actually really modern and cool. That evening after we went to bed Christchurch decided to give us a little shake with a 4.7 earthquake. It only lasted a few seconds but I wouldn’t want to be around for larger and longer ones.

One night we had fish and chips at Sarah and David’s while the kids ran tirelessly around the backyard with their cousins Luca (13) and Arabella (11). And another night we were invited to Bryan’s for a BBQ while the kids ran around again in the backyard and fed the ducks in the stream behind his house. While at Bryans a minor 3.7 quake also hit!  Three years on and the shocks keep on hitting…

We also took a day down to Hanmer Springs which is another thermal springs place about a 90 minutes drive out of Christchurch. The boys had a great time swimming for the rest of the day and Grant enjoyed the water slides. Henry was just too short to be able to go on them, which is a shame as he’d have loved them. But again, shallow water and more practice swimming was good along with a lazy river the boys really enjoyed. All with really nice warm water.

We’ve had sort of iffy weather that’s put a damper on some of our plans. At one point we were going to make a 3 hour drive south to watch some penguins but the weather looked like it was going to be pretty rainy so we decided to stay closer to home and headed out to the Orana Wildlife Park. They have a great set up with a schedule for feeding the animals and walkabout guides that take you pretty much from feeding to feeding giving you info along the way. The boys fed giraffes, and sheep, kuni kuni pigs, rabbits, and we watched rhinos, lions, monkeys and all sorts being fed. They also had a Kiwi house and we got to see them come out and eat. I managed to be the only one that got a really bad sunburn that is still bothering me 3 days later.

 

Wednesday we headed to the Christchurch Gondola that had just re-opened from the big quakes three year ago.  Great views from the top.  You could also see many of the boulders that rolled down the hills during the quakes – a number of people were killed by boulders rolling down Christchurch hills from the quakes.

 

Today we headed down to a farm show at Lincoln University and watched a ton of cows getting milked and learned about dairy production. The boys got free yogurt and cheese samples and a free ice cream so they thought it was awesome. J

Campervan - Matauri Bay and Whangarei Falls

 

We woke up to a gorgeous sunrise at Matauri Bay and let the boys sleep in a bit. Matauri Bay is where the Greenpeace boat The Rainbow Warrior was re-sunk and is apparently one of the best dives in the world. There is a memorial erected on the top of the hill that we climbed that is pretty cool and the views were absolutely amazing in every direction. It looked a little steep for my liking but with NO ONE around I figured we could stop a few (or thirty) times along the way. We ended up only stopping a couple of times up which was surprising to even me. I am finding out that I don’t hate hiking as much as I’d originally thought, I just don’t like an audience or Peter being annoying and wanting to chant and sing songs.

Camper on the beach at Matauri Beach + view from our bed in the back window:

 

Rainbow Warrier Memorial and view from the top…

After our exploring we left Matauri Bay we headed to Whangarei Falls where we pulled into the most backpackery youth hostelly place we’ve stayed yet. It didn’t have an amazing view and it was a crowded camp park full of 20 yr old (mostly) German students backpacking. We were feeling like we really should have shopped around a bit more before we landed at this place when Grant got out of the camper and saw the rusty old swing set, TINY (and freezing) pool and trampoline and declared “this is actually the nicest place we’ve stayed!” The campground sat adjacent to Wharangei Falls so we had a hike down and around there and then came back so Peter could have round 3902390 of fish n chips. The next morning we were groggy and I was sent to go wash up the dishes and we could see the kitchen was packed so Peter told me to just march in there and say “OY, <insert some German sounding sentence Peter learned when he was 13>” and not to mention the war. Peter’s one German phrase he knows is “I am thirteen yrs old” oh.. and the word “squirrel”. Any guess as to how old he was when he learned it? For some reason at 8am this made me laugh and forget I was mad at him for losing yet another thing on our trip.

Campercan - Hururu Falls, Kerikeri, Manganui and Matauri Bay

 

(Ok who’d have though internet access once off the ship would be much more problemantic than on the ship!)

So we spent the evening at Hururu Falls which was really scenic and nice. The campsite next to us gave permission for the boys to use their pool and did a small Guy Fawkes firework display that evening that we watched from our campsite in jammies. Peter of course got his Fish n’ chips takeaway from a place called Shippeys that was a restored ship. We had a nice sleep in except for Grant waking up at 1 am and announcing that he was up, couldn’t sleep anymore and wanted breakfast. I woke up sometime in the night with no recollection to where we were.. home, ship, country, I couldn’t place anything and it made me slightly panicky. Pete rolled over and grumped “New Zealand” and I had to work my way backwards to figure out where we were and why.

Hururu Falls by our campervan and campsite…

 

The next day we made our way over to Kerikeri to this StoneHouse store/museum and Maori fishing village. When we visited here the last time the place was so incredibly full of tourists that you could hardly move. This time we were one of 2 cars in the parking lot. We had full run of the Maori fishing village and then wandered over to the Stone house where weirdly we ran into the family from the cruise ship that had the only other kid (on the Sydney/New Zealand leg).

Maori Fishing village in Kerikeri

 

The Stone House in Kerikeri one of the first European settler buildings in New Zealand (1836)

 

After a quick lunch we headed over to the campsite we were staying at for the night. This campsite that was on a Kiwi reserve and Kiwi birds were meant to roam at night. There are CAUTION: KIWI CROSSING signs all over this area and at the campsite there’s a little informational place that tells you all about Kiwi, the sounds they make and all sorts of info and this sweet little bird. So, for those unfamiliar with Kiwi birds, they are nocturnal, brown, maybe around the size of a duck and a flightless bird. They have horrible eyesight and even in the dark humans apparently have better eyesight than they do. The female lays this ENORMOUS egg that makes women giving birth seem like a cakewalk. The male bird then sits on top the egg and doesn’t eat for around 90 days til it hatches. They female calls out in the night and the male answers the call. They information place gave us 3 flashlights with red lights (they’re can see the regular lights) and told us where to go.

 

 

Because they’re nocturnal we had a few hours to burn and we walked down to the waterfront and found a little handmade swing made from a small log tied to a tree. We sat and watched the tide go out and the boys laughing their heads off pushing each other around on the swing.

Kiwi Reserve:

Once it got darker we were ready to go on our kiwi hunt. I was worried that we wouldn’t recognize the calls but they’re pretty distinct. The boys thought it was quite an adventure walking around these trails in the dark with their special flashlights. Unfortunately, we started the walk quite late and they were pretty tired so we heard them but didn’t actually see any. However, I was woken in the middle of the night by the calls right next to our camper and poked my head up in time to see one in the moonlight scurrying into the bush right behind our camper. There were plenty around and they kept me up the rest of the night but everyone else seemed to easily sleep through it. Pretty cool though.

We got another late start out of the Kiwi conservation place and headed out today with no plan. We drove further north and enjoyed the scenery and ended up at (yet another) fish and chip shop at a place called Manganui Fish Shop. We had a nice lunch and headed back down to our next place. We had to make a stop at Warehouse (sort of like Target or Walmart) to get little Henry a birthday present. We fly from Auckland to Christchurch on a really late flight the night before his birthday and I couldn’t have him wake up to not a single present. I have sort of prepped him about it not being a traditional birthday and that on his birthday I’d look online with him and he could choose a present that we’d have shipped home waiting for us when we got back to Bellevue. He seemed to be excited about that.

We’ve stopped for the night at place called Matauri Bay. It’s cold and overcast but that didn’t stop Henry aka Beach Dood from running around getting completely full of sand. This kid loves a beach no matter what the weather. The campground place seemed to be apologetic about the weather and told us we could stay tomorrow til 5pm if the weather turned nice. We’re definitely here out of peak season and it’s such a contrast to the last time we were here. No real plans for tomorrow so we’ll see what the weather looks like and figure it all out then.

Can’t beat the view out of the window from our bed in the camper:

Australia and New Zealand Cruise - Auckland

 

So packing wasn’t fun. More than just being annoying and something you had to do, it felt like goodbye. Which could seem silly, we knew most of these people superficially and nothing more than recognizing a familiar face at one of our ports. But everything I put in the suitcase was a reminder of our huge adventure and how part of it was coming to an end. While shaking out still MORE sand from the snorkel set I remembered Henry and Peter splashing around in the surf and the huge sea turtles. When I unearthed the pile of seashells I remembered looking at my little blondie blonde boy digging for shells all afternoon. And aside from the material things and locations there were some amazing people that we got to know and most of them crew members.

Tonight, Ketut is probably making new little friends and *zapping* the 7 new kids coming on board, Danielle and Christina in the kids club are meeting an entire new set of parents (no doubt wishing they were as cool as we were.. haha), Matt, the vocalist and guitarist is probably already learning the names of the new people in the crow’s nest and teasing them endlessly, and Luke my dance partner is probably gearing up for the Welcome Aboard show. I felt like we were leaving a weird little family that we’re not likely to see again. There’s a sort of connection that you have with people when you spend 41 days on a boat with them. Some of the people I really hope to remain in contact with and I wish we’d met earlier on in the cruise. In the middle of packing I sort of sighed and started to get a little teary about it all and Peter caught my eye and knew exactly what I was thinking. Henry suddenly noticed a change in the room and then said “I’m sad too because pretty soon, when we go back home Daddy is only going to get to see us in the morning for a little bit and before bed at night” – which then brought on another load of tears and snuggles. Henry’s next statement was that he’d also now have less time in hot tubs with Dad and would miss that too.  We’ve truly been fortunate for Peter to be able to spend this much uninterrupted time with us – it will be weird trying to remember what “normal” was like when we’re back.

On top of all this the recent hurricane to hit the Philippines is likely to have affected many of the Filipino crew on board though as we left the storm was just hitting. I think about how helpless I’ve felt when things have happened and I’ve felt far away from my family or how we can’t stop watching the news nonstop when natural disasters occur. These crew members have to put on a happy face and still go out multiple times a day and serve drinks and food and clean rooms when I’m sure all they want to do is have some sort of confirmation from their loved ones that things are ok. Hard stuff.

So all that being said. We somehow stuffed our entire room into our bags and wheeled them all off in Auckland, hopped in a cab and went and picked up our Campervan! Which will be home for the next week. After spending the good part of the day, sorting out the campervan Peter keeps muttering “we’ve been too spoiled over the last 41 days for this sh&t”. It’s a bit of a drastic change going from having someone take care of all the cooking and cleaning, turning down your bed every night, washing and ironing your clothes – to trying to stuff 4 suitcases into an RV and organize it so you can get to whatever items you might need over the next week, burying any gifts bought, any formal wear, and anything thing you aren’t likely to need camping. Currently, we’re both online at a campground across from some really pretty waterfalls up in the Bay of Plenty near the top of the North Island. We’ve both burned through our allotted “free” internet minutes given to us by the campground so who knows when we’ll actually get this posted with pictures.

Arriving in Auckland @6am…

Australia and New Zealand Cruise – Gisborne and Tauranga

 

We thought Gisborne was a weird stop and every time we mentioned the port to a New Zealander they’d raise their eyebrows. There’s really not a lot there and the weather wasn’t helpful at all. We got off the ship and wandered into town. It was a long-ish tender in and when we started walking into town it started raining, by the time we reached town center it was pouring. We were just going to have a look through town but halfway through a toilet was needed and we ended up ducking into the local library. The boys and I had a look around and did some reading while Peter checked mail. We stepped out to even heavier rains that had no signs of slowing and we decided to head back to the ship early. It was about time for happy hour. They have some great happy hour drinks on HAL. From 4-5 every day in a couple different bars they do a “Buy one drink get the second for $1”. We go up and get drinks and they bring the boys endless goldfish crackers – happy indeed. J The boys love this but it makes people laugh when they ask with excitement almost daily – “Is it almost time for happy hour?”

Grant and Henry with some of our favorite bar staff on the cruise – Ernie and Wednesday (born on Thursday) – The Gold Fish Grant is holding were not a normal part of the happy hour snacks!

The next port was Tauranga. We rented a car and headed out the bubbling mud pools of Hell’s Gate at Rotorua. There were several spa options that included bathing in some of the mud and then the use of their thermal spas but when we got there Grant had a sudden panic attack about even going in the place. I have no idea what he thought was going on but he was really nervous and scared and wouldn’t tell us what was going on. We opted for the self tour to walk around the bubbling mud lakes ourselves. This tour also included a complimentary mud foot soak. We figured if Grant warmed (ha!) up to the idea by the end we could upgrade our tour. It took ages and a potty trip before he decided he was ok putting his feet in the mud.

By that time the cruise ships had started arriving. If our experience at other ports has taught us anything it’s that you kinda don’t really want to be associated with people on an excursion from our cruise ship. For some reason people on these excursions seem to exhibit some of the most appalling behavior that makes it embarrassing to even be associated with the ship. People are pushing and shoving and being really rude at every turn as if the scenery is going to run away before they can get a picture. When a bus stops people just get up from the back as if they’ve been given elite status and they charge to the front before all the aisles in front of them leave. People that we’ve become friends with over the trip have cancelled the last two shore excursions they’ve had booked with the cruise ship because they were so embarrassed to witness and be associated with people being so jerky.

Hells Gate:

We ended up looking around at the pools and feeling lame because we were returning the rental car early and going back on board again but Auckland is tomorrow and that’s when we get off this roving hotel we’ve called home for the past 40 days. Once we started packing and realized what an epic job it was going to be we didn’t feel so bad about only spending half a day off the boat.

In the midst of all of this I also have the Dancing with the Stars finale and I have been terrible company over the past few days rehearsing in my head all the steps to my Tango routine. I had our final rehearsal tonight and then we performed at 9:30pm. I was so nervous that I didn’t even enjoy my time backstage hanging with my amazing dance partner Luke. I was last to perform and made it through completely without messing up any steps! Yay me!. I even got the highest score of all the dancers 29/30 but I didn’t woop up the crowd as much as the Jive dancer did to score as many audience applause points and came in second place. It was still a ton of fun and I’m glad I did it.

Misty with Christina and Danielle from Kids Club and Matt Bauer (signer/guitarist from happy hour bar):

 

Misty with Luke Jacobs her Dancer from Dancing with the Stars right after the show:

Australia and New Zealand Cruise - Napier

 

We arrived in Napier this morning and met up with some good friends Dave and Jill. I’ll not to bother to tag them as Dave is still holding on to win the Last Man on Earth to Join Facebook Contest. We last visited Dave and Jill as we both were starting on the parenting chapter of our lives. Grant was about 4 months old and Katie had been about 3 days before our last visit in Feb 2006.  A sign of true fiends – you can pick up exactly where you left off 7+ years ago and nothing much has changed!  It had definitely been far too long though this time.  If only we were all closer geographically.

Dave, Misty and Jill with Hawkes Bay backdrop and Jill + the kids mountain top:

Since then we’ve of course added a little Henry and they’ve added a George to their brood. It was so good to see them all again. They took us back to show us their new house and the kids got to know each other and have some swimming time in their pool. Imagine my surprise when Katie pulled out her ukulele and started playing for us! Her school teacher is a Uke player and has included it in part of their curriculum as well as learning to play in music class. Apparently the program has become so popular that even the 5 year olds are now having lessons at their school

Kids and parents under the orange tree that grows in your backyard if you live in Napier!

We went to a winery for a really nice lunch (many thanks again, Dave & Jill!) and then went back to their house to catch up some more. The weather was predicted to be cold-ish and rainy but the rain held off all day and it was actually pretty sunny most of the day. Great day with great friends, can’t beat it!

Time in port is always too short and just like in Akaroa this was one of those times – before we knew it it was time to head back to the ship again….

On the way back onboard the boys had the chance to jump in an old car!