Ladies' Christmas Night

So big party last night - Ladies' Christmas Night.  Highly anticipated by everyone and it was a lovely evening.  I had a dress made by the lovely Ruth at Lovelies and I was over the moon with it.  I had ordered a dress from Debenhams, but unfortunately they emailed a week ago to say they couldn't send it as it was out of stock.  I went to Lovelies with photograph in hand and with a desperate look on my face to see if they could make it.  Considering they only had a week to make it, I think they did a stunning job!

So off I went to the 'red carpet' experience in the transport.  We were met with pipers which was a nice surprise.

So welcome drinks, then into the mess itself for the meal...and what a meal!!  Delicious - proper roast potatoes and everything!  I miss good old roast dinners out here in Brunei, so when we have them it's rather special!

Father Christmas was very generous and I got a lovely box of Thorntons chocolates (again unusual to get good chocolates here) and a nice pair of earrings from 'Secret Santa'.

After the meal was Santa and the raffle - didn't win anything - but plenty of people did :-)  I left earlyish (for me) about 12.30 as I'd been out the night before doing the 'Movember' quiz and was knackered.  On the upside, I therefore do not have a hangover - although I am knackered!

Last few days before home

So the last couple of days in New Zealand were pretty tiring and we were ready to make our way home.  We were at Lake Tekapo for a couple of days which was just beautiful (as you can see from the picture below).  The whole place is just so awe inspiringly beautiful it's difficult to know where to point the camera! There were some hot springs again near the campsite - within walking distance - so across we went.  There was also 'tubing' for the kids to do - basically tobogganing on a rubber ring.  Needless to say I enjoyed a glass of wine by the fire while they were up to that.  Then in to the hot springs.

This is a couple of videos of the kids tubing.  While they were doing it, a film crew turned up who were making a film about New Zealand - they asked permission to film the kids, which of course they thoroughly enjoyed - particularly Christopher.  We have contact details for when the film is finished - should be interesting.  Hopefully I will be able to post on here when it's done.

So a quick hot chocolate and something to eat to warm up after the tubing, then into the hot pools :-)

Hot Chocolate to die for!

Once we left Tekapo, it was then a straight drive to Oamaru (and the final leg back up to Christchurch).  We saw a colony of blue penguins there - apparently the smallest and most rare penguins in the world.  We saw them come in out of the sea and hop their way up the shingle beach back to their nests - very sweet.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures as the flash from the cameras damages their eyes.  I've grabbed a photo off the internet just to give you an idea of what we saw.

This was the last 'touristy' thing we did before we drove up to Christchurch stopping at Akaroa on the way.  We stopped overnight at Christchurch and dropped into the shopping centre for dinner.  Holly picked up some clothes as a 'treat' from Nana Jo.

Thanks for the new clothes Nana!

Alex has chosen to buy more books from amazon from nana and will order when she gets home.

So from Christchurch, fly back to the gold coast Australia - one overnight (with travel authority in our hand!), Australia to Kuala Lumpur - one overnight in KL, KL to Brunei.  Phew!  I need a holiday to recover from our holiday!

All in all, it may sound 'cliche', but we really did have the holiday of a lifetime.  It probably is, realistically, the last 'big expensive' holiday we will have now that we have chosen to grow up a little bit and get a mortgage!

New Zealand Day 17

So we had a good night's sleep last night - Adrian managed to get a picture of the stars - gives you at least some idea of what I'm talking about.

Southern Hemisphere Stars

So we decided to head out to the village - a lovely walk along the lake to sort out lunch.  Found another nice pub with a roaring fire, plus the ladies' olympic diving and cheap good honest pub grub.  Gorgeous walk back along the lake.  The kids are currently at the park while the grown ups enjoy a couple of glasses of wine in the van :-)

The Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo

Admiring the view

Me and Chris walk back to the van whilst Adrian and the girls pop to the shop

New Zealand Day 16

So setting off from Te Anau towards lake Tekapo today.  We stopped off at Puzzling World on the way.  Good fun - a massive frustrating maze and lots of illusion rooms and quirky things to look at.

This is only a small section of the maze - which as you can see also incorporates bridges!

Bloody bloody difficult maze - you had to make it to all four corners of the maze and then find the way out.  Apparently takes most people between an hour and an hour and a half to complete, and between 3 and 5 km worth of walking.  We were definitely nearer to an hour and a half and 5 km of walking!

There were 'emergency exits' for those with not much time or who lost patience.  We managed to find our way to all four corners, but we'd had enough by then (an hour and a half or so later) so dodged at the emergency exit :-)

Dad and Christopher cheating!

Me and him

The kids reach one of the corners of the maze.

I'm glad these toilets are only pretend!

A very strange lopsided room - everything was at an angle!

Another strange room - Christopher appears to be taller than Holly and Alex!

Thanks nana!  Christopher chooses his treat from Nana Jo

Three sleeps here at Lake Tekapo - in which we intend to do...well not very much at all!  We've done so many visits and trips out, that we'd just like a quiet couple of days :-)

New Zealand Day 15

So after a late night last night, we were up again early to go to Doubtful Sound - it's a wilderness area inaccessible by road.  It was quite a trek to get to - bus ride to get to the boat, boat ride to get to the next bus, bus ride to get to the next boat....3 hour cruise through the fjords...then all the way back again.  Quite a tiring day! Well worth it though - we saw lots of seals, lots of beautiful birds including albatross and eagles and some pods of dolphins riding along with the boat.  Still haven't seen penguins, but hoping to see them in the next few days as we travel back up the East coast.

First order of the day is obviously to catch up on sleep from the previous day!

Doubtful Sound was beautiful - exceptionally quiet - no engines, no roads....quite often the captain would switch the engines off so we could enjoy the tranquility.  Super :-)

A nice photo of Hol

Holly and Alex messing about - notice how much taller Alex is than Holly - still shooting up!

A really nice picture of Alex

Holly again

A lovely, if not tiring day!

New Zealand Day 14

So skiing is all finished and it's time we were heading to Te Anau.  We were hoping to visit some gloworm caves while we were there and go out onto Doubtful Sound which is an area of rivers heading out to sea in Fjordland.  The drive over there was really quite spectacular as there were clear blue skies and we were driving on the highest tarmac road in New Zealand.

Heading out of Te Anau

Once we had got to Te Anau, the first thing we did was visit the gloworm caves.  Not leaving until 7pm, it was a lovely night cruise across the water with a completely clear sky.  One of the things we have been amazed at while we've been here are the stars - so clear and so bright with hardly any light pollution - I've never seen the sky like this before - even in Brunei.  You can clearly see the milky way - it really is amazing.  Adrian is going to try and get a picture later in the holiday.

This is us on the boat on the way over to the gloworm caves.

When we were going over on the boat, Christopher asked if I could take him outside on to the deck - it was absolutely freezing cold, but I agreed I would.  I had to squeeze my way past Adrian to get to the aisle between seats.  What I'd forgotten though, was that there was a foot-high step up to the seats!  As I  manoeuvred my way past, I obviously didn't realise there was a step down - and went crashing down like a sack of spuds!  Luckily I didn't hurt myself...only embarrassed as the staff all rushed to my aid. It could have been a lot worse, I could have hit my head on one of the steps.

The evening was fascinating - we went into the caves by small boat and in silence went around the caves in the pitch black looking at the light show.  Literally millions of gloworms all lit up pretending to be the stars so that their prey fly up towards them.

Holly and Alex reenact Titanic again on the boat :-)

New Zealand Day 13

So it was a long day yesterday - early start and hard work on the slopes for the kids.  Holly and Christopher excelled and can't wait to try it again, but Alex who is not quite so adventurous decides to give it a miss.  I'm just happy that she gave it a good go yesterday and did ok.

So today, Adrian, Holly and Christopher have gone up the mountain again, I've stayed here with Alex. We got up, got showered and decided to walk into town - it's about 2 miles - so was a fair walk.  We mooched around the shops - Alex chose some new books.  Holly has had quite a few treats in the form of mostly bits and pieces of jewellery while we've been here, but Alex hasn't been too worried about getting anything.  As books are her thing she was more than happy to browse the shop and choose a couple more titles.  Her only dilemma has been which to start first!

It was a lovely walk - the mountains around the lake, browsing the shops.  We stopped for lunch at a lovely cafe by the lake and then walked back to the campsite.  I'm sitting here in the lounge with a bottle of wine, watching the olympics (just seen team GB win the equestrian silver) updating my blog while I get nice and toasty by the log fire.  Life is good :-)

I should have some more pictures of Holly and Christopher skiing when Adrian gets back.

Alex can't wait to start her new book!

New Zealand Day 12

So we arrived in Wanaka late in the afternoon (after the glacier and the Pancake rocks) and the business of the day was to get organised for skiing for the following day.  We were advised not to drive up the mountain ourselves but rather to get transport up there, which is what we did.  I have to say, I'm bloody glad we did!  Once we actually got to the base of the mountain, the bus had to stop to put snow chains on the tyres, then we began the slow climb - very slippy slush covered roads, very narrow roads with hairpin bends and big drops on either side - driving through a blizzard!

Christopher was lovely - he doesn't remember snow at all - doesn't remember being cold either.  He was absolutely beside himself when we got there "It's snowing...it's snowing" he was shouting.  He then was amazed at how it 'crunched' when you walked on it (it was nice fresh snow) and then went on to ask if he was allowed to touch it!  Talk about sweet!

So we went to book the kids in - we hired everything and went for an all day ski-school for them.  All three did brilliantly - Chris was very lucky to bag himself one to one tuition as he was moving along much quicker than the others in his group.  Considering it was minus 10 degrees up there, I think he did brilliantly.  

Adrian was going to ski with them (he did quite a bit of skiing with the school in his teens) but his knee has been aching and popping and cracking over the last few months.  What we didn't want was to bugger his knee up and end up needing hospital treatment and more or less bringing the holiday to a close, so we decided for him not to ski.  What a shame - we have to settle ourselves in the cafe overlooking the slopes with a nice hot lunch and a bottle of red :-)  Dreadful afternoon!

Christopher skiing!

Holly skiing

Alex Skiing

It was difficult to get many pictures or videos of Holly or Alex as they moved on to a bigger slope quite quickly - Adrian managed to get a video of Christopher though, here it is :-)

New Zealand Day 11

So we were driving from Franz-Josef to Wanaka today - it's a fair old drive (between 4 and 5 hours).  It was a pretty miserable day - low clouds and drizzle and very cold.  On the way we decided to stop off and have a look at the glaciers.  It was a nice walk to the bottom of the glacier - I don't like rope bridges at the best of times though, and this one was a cracker.  I turned into a snarling beast "DON'T BOUNCE IT!" was my manic chant.

Hmmm - 'nice' rope bridge

This is the Fox Glacier coming down off of the mountain.

So this was another stop along our way - Pancake Rocks, because yes, unusually, the rocks look like layers of pancakes on top of each other.  Another nice walk :-)

Enjoying the walk

Pancake Rocks - look at the shadow on the right, I think it looks like a man hiking with his rucksack on his back and wearing a wide-brimmed hat!

Alex finds a 'natural' chair!