CHRISTCHURCH, NZ

I will have to be honest my first experience with the "City of Gardens" was not a good one. We got into town late Saturday night for a quick stop over. The only reason we stayed in Christchurch was so that we could attend sacrament meeting on Sunday at a local ward. However, we happened to get a hotel in the middle of the city on a Saturday night with many local bars on the street. Needless to say we didn't feel very comfortable walking to the hotel from the parking lot down the street and all we heard were drunk people all night long. I was glad to get up early the next morning and get ready for church. I was surprised because people had told me what a beautiful place Christchurch was. Well lets just say my opinion quickly changed the next day. This was my kind of city!

We headed to sacrament meeting at a local ward. I love that we belong to a Church that is worldwide. It doesn't matter where you are you can find somewhere to go and feel the Spirit of the Lord.

After we left we noticed there was a little path into a park. We decided to go for a little walk and came upon an old house that has been turned into a lovely green space - it was called Mona Vale. This is when my opinion of Christchurch changed. This place was beautiful. There were gardens surrounding it and they were so well taken care of. If I had money this is what I would love to have. There was even a rose garden that reminded Kev so much of his grandfather's backyard - just the smell brought back so many memories for him.

One funny thing happened while we were here. Cooper saw this moss covered pond and thought it was grass. I was out taking pictures and all I heard was screaming from Cooper. Kev pulled him out but his pants and shoes were covered in moss and were soggy. We had one sad little boy. I probably shouldn't say this, but I thought it was kind-of funny.

We spent a good while walking around and smelling the flowers. As we were about to leave all of the sudden a procession of old cars and bicycles came riding through. They were meeting and having a picnic. I enjoyed walking around taking photos.

It was a lovely morning and one of the few times we saw the sunshine during our entire trip. Just what we needed to rejuvenate and head back on the road this time up north. We would come back to Christchurch a few days later....more on that later.

Madz, Dadz, and the Possum

I will spare you all from putting a picture with this post but thought that I just had to write about my funny conversation with Madz.

On Saturday morning I usually go and play basketball with the fellas at the church. Sometimes, if the kids are up, they will go with me and play at the church while I play ball. Today Madz was up and asked if she could go with me. Well, while we are driving out of our subdivision I spotted some nice possum road kill on the side of the road that must have happened during the night. This was the conversation.

(K) It looks a possum got hit by a car in the middle of the night.
(M) Where? I can't see it.
[I stopped the car so she could unbuckle and stand up]
(M) That's too bad, he almost made it to the other side.
(K) Yea, I don't know what he was thinking?
(M) That's just it dad, he wasn't thinking. If he was thinking he would have jumped to the middle of the car or the left of the car as it went by. But it went right over him.
(K) [Laughing] Yea, maybe he should have stopped and looked both ways before crossing.
(M) That's right. But it is a good thing that he wasn't in the city because there are a lot of cars in the city.
(K) [Wondering why it was a good thing since it was laying dead in the road.] Why? How many cars are in the city?
(M) Well, there are like 350 cars in the city.
(K) What, are we in the country? How many cars are out here?
(M) Yea we are. There are only like 50 out here. But it was good that he tried to cross in the morning or at night because there are less cars. Like 5 or 10. But I guess he still didn't make it.
(K) Yea, I guess not.

We love Madz!

Madz wants to say something in addition to this:

(M) I want to say that I was wrong and my mum told me that we actually live in the city. That's all!

FIRES!!

At the beginning of February the state of Victoria was overwhelmed with fires. These fires destroyed countless homes and properties, killed hundreds of people, and changed lives. The news was all over and apparently it was a bit overwhelming for Madi. Ever since she can't go to sleep at night because she is afraid of the fires - she is afraid that they will get our house. We have tried everything we can think of...including a FHE all about fire safety and our escape routes. The FHE made her feel better for a night, but then we had scared Cooper for a night. Kevin even bought a fire extinguisher and made her a CD full of happy songs to listen to at night. So this is what she is to do before she goes to bed now - write in her happy book (a book I made for her to write her feelings in) about all the things that made her happy that day, read her scriptures, say her prayers, and listen to her happy music. It takes her hours to settle down and she is driving me crazy. Some of it I believe is because she is scared, but she works her self up and then it is hard to get her to calm down (this is typical Madi). Any suggestions?

MAORI HISTORY

We planned to go and get a little Maori culture while in Queenstown. This meant riding the gondola up to the top of the mountain. Not so bad - even for a girl who doesn't like heights much. There were even sheep underneath us at one point - seriously, they are everywhere.

Before getting on the gondola we stopped by the Kiwi wildlife center to see what kiwi birds really look like. We couldn't take any pictures. They have to trick the kiwi birds into thinking it is night time (they are nocturnal) by having really dim lights during the day and then full on lights at night. Sadly to say, but we are pretty sure that we hit a baby kiwi the night before on our late night drive to Queenstown - sorry baby kiwi! My Kiwi friend, Kate says that it might have been a hedgehog. That makes sense - it was small and round and squished like a water balloon....sorry TMI???

Since I couldn't take any pictures I found one on-line. They are cute little birds and it was fun to see them during their feeding.

After seeing the kiwi and other wildlife we headed up to the gondola to see the show. We got up to the top before the show and had time to check out the view. I only lasted about two minutes before I was back inside - it was amazing though!

The show was fantastic. Madi and I got to be part of the show and do the poi balls. It was the only part of the show that we could take pictures of.

They also did the haka dance. This is a dance traditionally done when the Maori warriors wanted to scare of warriors of another tribe. There is a lot of tongue sticking out and bulging eyes. The all-blacks (New Zealand's rugby team) does the haka before every game, so does BYU football. I thought Rylee might get a little scared, but she was so intensely watching the whole thing. In fact at the end we got to go out to get a photo op and she made everyone around us burst out laughing. As soon as she saw the dancers she stuck her tongue out at them. The guy stuck his tongue back out at her and she continued unfazed. Every picture we have Rylee has her tongue sticking out. This is proof that she is a true COUGAR!!!! I have scrapped this one already so here is the page:

Later in Christchurch we briefly went through a Maori history museum. I am always interested in the people who were first on the land before the "white man" came. I often wonder where they came from and love to hear their stories. We need to be proud of the history of the nations around the world. These people were here before we came to take over their land. They were not always treated kindly and it is just now that we are beginning to appreciate their culture and heritage.

DEER PARK HEIGHTS

In Queenstown we found that there is a place that not only had Lord of the Rings sites, but where you can also feed animals. That sounded like the perfect spot for our family to venture out to. The weather had been terrible in the morning with pouring rain so we were a bit worried, but decided to try it out anyway - no rain was going to stop us on our family vacation. We drove around the lake and it was gorgeous (that is what I kept saying about New Zealand GORGEOUS!!!)

We entered the gates and came to our first feed station. We saw two llamas and a two donkeys nothing too big. We got out and put our coins into the feed station and filled two cans of food. Soon this is what we were surrounded by:

Ducks, llamas, and donkeys, oh my!!
They just kept on coming - we were laughing so hard. At one point the donkeys even stole Madi's can out of her hand. I have so many pictures from this one place and the kids had a ball.

We realized later that we were supposed to actually fill the can and then take it with us full of food to feed the animals along the way. We did that too and fed some goats later on. Madi even got brave enough to let them eat out of her hand.

The view from the top was AMAZING!!!

We also saw a few LOR filming spots and an old Disney film set was at the top of the hill as well. It was a Korean prison. Apparently this is a popular movie spot.

For those of you who care:

There were three other spots as well - but we didn't have enough time to do the other loop so we missed them.

saying goodbye

A friend of mine had this link on her blog today: http://thegledhillfamily.blogspot.com/

So I went and had a look. I was heart broken and tears filled my eyes as I read the story of this sweet family. I cannot imagine the pain that they are feeling. I know that families are forever, as does this sweet family, we will see our loved ones again. We never know why we have trials in life. The Lord know what we can handle and he knows what is best for us. I also kept thinking about my adorable niece, Claire, who was born with a heart condition. How blessed we were that things have gone so well for her.

I have been touched by the testimonies and the strength of this family. They have grown stronger through this ordeal and have touched my life - even though I have never met them. I just had to share.

A BIT OF ADVENTURE

Well, when you are in the adventure capital of New Zealand you have to have a bit of adventure right? Queenstown is the place. I asked Kev if he wanted to bungee jump off of the really high bridge - I of course would not be joining him, but he could go by himself and have all of the fun. He declined because it would be boring to do all by himself. However, he did have another adventure up his sleeve, one that the older kids could do as well. The shot over jet : http://shotoverjet.co.nz/

So while Rylee and I wandered around Queenstown doing a bit of window shopping they all went off on their adventure. What an adventure it was - as Cooper got off the boat apparently he told the driver, "That was cool, I wish I had one of these by my house!"

Here is a description of the boat: How the shotover jet "Big Red" h=jet boats works - different form other boats, it has no external parts. Water is drawn in through inlets in the bottom of the boat, impellers (internal propellers) then force the water out through the nozzles at the rear of the boat at great force (800 liters per second). It is the force of the water that propels the boat and turning the nozzles provides direction. The boats can break and reverse using defectors and thrust buckets similar to a jet aircraft.

Imagine shooting across the water of a river inside of a rock canyon, doing 360s, and coming very close to rock canyon walls. Apparently it is quite the rush and everyone enjoyed their morning of adventure. You have to train for three years just to drive one of the jets. Of course they got a bit of education about the gold rush in that area as well as the driver stopped at a few places to give a little history.

Kevin splurged (I only say that because Kev doesn't usually do this) and bought the photos and a short DVD we can watch about their trip. I am actually glad that he did because you can download the pictures and I can see part of what they did.

LAKE TEKAPO

On the way to Queenstown we stopped at Lake Tekapo. I had read about it on-line and there was an old church there. It was beautiful! The church had so much character and the whole setting was so peaceful and serene. The temperature was perfect. The water was calm and soothing. The rocks were round from being washed over with water and perfect for skipping across the lake. The scenery was unbelievable. It was perfection. What a beautiful world we live in. Rylee spent all of her time throwing rocks into the "waters." That kid loves water so much it is unbelievable. For the entire trip anytime we saw water she wanted to throw something into it or get herself into it.

There were all these rock towers that people had built and left behind so of course the kids got into the act. We stayed there for a good 45 minutes before climbing back in and heading on our way.

We liked it so much we stopped by again on the way back to Christchurch a few days later. The temperature had dropped and the water wasn't as smooth and soothing, but it was still a gorgeous place to stop and spend some time.

As we were driving away the second time heading north to Christchurch this is what I saw out my window. I made Kev pull over so I could get some pictures. I did this so many times on our trip and he was so nice to pull over for me. Isn't it gorgeous - this one will get framed one day and hang on a wall in my house in Utah!

Just a disclaimer - the pictures are all straight out of my camera. Most of the time on my blog I don't edit them. I wait until I scrapbook to do that.