OK People. Here are some pictures so far of our trip. There are more coming but there is so much to do that to sit and organize them and then explain them takes time out of my important schedule of relaxing and enjoying the scenery. But, I have been asked, begged and finally chastised, so here we are. A small glimpse.

In Ed’ton airport at 7am hoping to catch a flight to Vancouver that had been cancelled the night before due to flight crew shortage by Air Canada.

This is actually on the way from Saskatoon to Ed’ton. I was across the aisle with Will who had a grip of steel on my arm for most of the flight. He later admitted he’d been a “little” worried. That made two of us.

Sarah – who hates to fly. Rechecking to make sure her seat belt is in the tightest position it can be in just so that she’s REALLY strapped in to this flying metal tube.

Waiting. A game we played most of the way to NZ. This is the Vancouver airport where we waited an extra hour before getting on the plane and then another 3 on the ground waiting for the plane to be de-iced. A little shout out to the flight crew of Air NZ here – they shamed the Vancouver Airport Authority in what we are beginning to see is a classic fashion and then rescheduled all of our missed connecting flights whilst we slept.

NEW ZEALAND!
Hell…
LAND!!!!!!!!!

Auckland. Ignore the guy putting in his contacts…
We got off the plane after 20 hours in the air and 2 and a half days of battling our way across two continents.

Christchurch. Beautiful low rise city.

The day after we arrived we took a bus down to Sumner where we were looking at a house to rent. The bus driver was so hilarious. He found out we were from Canada and spent the entire trip showing us the sights and giving us quite the tour. What a sweetheart.

This is a block from the house we are going to rent beginning in Feb.

I think we’ll enjoy living this close to the beach. This is Sumner beach. Absolutely gorgeous.

The campground with the big massive jumping pillow. We decided to mostly stay in Top 10 Holiday Parks because all of them have kitchens, showers, dining rooms, bbq areas, playgrounds and tv rooms. When camping with 2 kids for over a month you need some small comforts.

Sarah and Jack our first night in our new MEC tent which I will be writing to MEC about. It is fantastic. Deluge rain storms NZ style and it stays dry and cozy.

Will and his mom.

These are the carts the Top 10 Holiday Parks rent out to kids. They enjoyed burning around the camp ground in these things.

Back at Sumner Beach on New Years Eve.

Jonathan. I love this picture. He also forgot to put sunscreen on his feet this day and got quite the nasty burn on them.

Sumner Beach and the boys in the waves.

And then running from the waves.

Jack probably spent a good two hours building quite a complex of complicated tunnels and towers. Sadly, no picture of the final product but take my word for it… it was impressive.

There are no words to capture the sheer joy on Will’s face so this picture will have to do.

And then he zonked out on the bus on the way back to the campground.

Come hell or high water.

This is Akoroa, a french town about an hour from Christchurch. We bought fish right off the boat and they BBQ’d it for us right there on the wharf.

Akoroa and our fresh grilled fish. I can’t even explain how good this was.

My little tourists with their new hats watching a street performer. There was a Starbucks directly behind. It was magnificent.

The botanical gardens in Christchurch. The flowers were amazing and we didn’t even get to see all of them.

For you Pagoda lovers in S’toon. I was so excited to see this sign. I’ll be sure to check out their cuisine on our return to Ch’church. Yum.

We left Ch’church on Jan 5 (bought our mean green NZ machine – Subaru Impreza – and hit the road). This is in Timaru.

Caroline Bay in Timaru.

Moeraki boulders. Amazing spherical boulders all along the beach.

The dog trailing behind was Havoc. He and Will became good friends and by the end of it Will was attempting to convince us that Havoc should continue with us on our journey.

Larnach Castle on the Otago Peninsula outside of Dunedin.

The Otago Peninsula – view from the top of Larnach Castle.

Lounging in the Larnach Castle gardens.

One of the many beautiful beaches along our way.

On the ferry to Stewart Island. Stewart Island is, according to Maori myth, the anchor of the south island. The south island is thought to be the boat that was catching a rather large fish (the north island). In order to stabilize the boat, the Maori fishermen threw over an anchor, Stewart Island. It was initially believed to be part of the south island by Captain Cook in 1760 when we “discovered” NZ but later charted accurately by William Stewart, ergo its name.

One of the albatross who followed the ferry across to Stewart Island. The boys were understandably thrilled.

This is the town of Oban on Stewart Island. It was a quaint little village. The Island was beautiful.

The beginning of our 6 hour walk on Stewart Island.

Stewart Island.

On our way up the very steep muddy trek on Stewart Island.

View from the top.

And then we got to the bottom and were met with a clear blue bay with a lovely little beach.

Where we soaked our weary feet.

After our walk on Stewart Island. The boys enjoyed a relaxing game of chess in the village square while we waited for the ferry back to the South Island.