Beijing, Badaling, The Great Wall

We're back online after taking some time off of doing our blog. We wanted to update our trip to Beijing in May. The first day we were there we went to Badaling to see the great wall. Mao said that you aren't a man until you have seen the Great Wall, so I guess we all qualify as men now (phew, glad Jaron and Peter checked that box).

The Great Wall was pretty great. It went on for miles and miles and never seemed to stop. We took a creaky but reliable cable car/sky tram up to the top and then took an alpine slide down to the bottom. It was on the Great Wall we learned that the Ballentine kids are "stars" in China because random people come up and ask to have their picture taken with them. The kids going good at standing with the Chinese kids whose parents posed them for a picture with our kids. Our kids even got good a flashing the two finger peace sign in the pictures.

It was also in Badaling that the kids tried their absolute FAVORITE ice cream - Pea flavor! (that's pea, not pee). It was vegetable and ice cream all mixed in one. We decided that ice cream and vegetables don't mix. Friends don't let friends eat pea ice cream!

The Last Hurrah - Sydney

Our last day of our trip. We saw a few more sites in Sydney we had not seen at the beginning of our trip. Everyone was tired and we limited ourselves to a few sites. The Australian Natural History Museum with its collection of bones, minerals, and dinosaurs. It was a wonderful museum and a big hit with the kids. They had a great hands on area.

The "Bone Ranger"

The Museum curators have a sense of humor.

We can't say enough about the people of Australia and New Zealand. They were always kind and friendly, even the the big cities. We love the Aussies and the Kiwis. We will be back!

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island with 400,000 people. It was a lovely little city with a church and beautiful river running through it. We visited the church and went punting on the Avon River. There was very little evidence left in the city of the powerful earthquake they had recently. It was all repaired, or under reparation.

Christchurch Cathedral

We climbed the bell tower

Resting in a very fashionable seat after the tower climb

Punting down the Avon River

Glacier Walks

On the remote Western Coast of NZ are two glaciers: Fox and Franz Josef, and a wonderful place called Glacier Hot Pools. After hiking to Franz Josef we soaked in the hot pools - which we all loved. Glacier water brought in and heated to 3 different temperatures in 3 different pools. It was a relaxing slice of heaven. It relaxed Andrew so much he slept for 3 hours on our drive to Christchurch afterwards.

Franz Josef - We loved the blue color of the glacier

We got a kick out of the warning signs, esp. the one that is watching for falling ice while you are being swept away in a flood.

We met a fun Australian family who heckled us until we kissed for the camera. Mmmmm.

A nice shot of the glacier for perspective. It has receded a lot as well. We drove past the markers of where it used to be in previous years, and then proceeded to hike 45 minutes into the glacier.

We didn't take a picture of the hot pools ourselves, but this is what they looked like. There are two more pools behind this one. There were less people when we were there too, we were usually in the pools by ourselves or one other couple. Ahhhh, the joys of off-season travel.

West Coast wandering

New Zealand is a spacious, dramatic country. Once we left Queenstown, other people were few and far between, but the scenery did not disappoint. The pictures will show you some of the wonders, but fall short of the reality. Our goal was to get to the glaciers on the West Coast.

Lake Wanaka - We read that the mountains in the back were in LOTR - Sara has a small, okay large, fascination with LOTR. Some of her favorite novels.

Haast Gate - a river we crossed on the drive. This was a highlight for Sara

The above 2 photos are Knights Point. This was very dramatic and felt very wild.

Quieter Queenstown

Okay, so you can drop a lot of money to get an adrenaline rush in Queenstown, but it's best attractions are free. We have already discussed going back so we can backpack on one of New Zealand's famous tracks. We settled for a half-day hike on lovely Queenstown Hill. It would have been even lovelier if the weather was better so we could enjoy the view of the town and lake more. Each night we had a great view of sunset from our townhome.

Partial view of Queenstown

The top of the hill

The Sunset

Queenstown=Adrenaline

Queenstown, NZ is the self-proclaimed "Adrenaline capital of the World". So, we thought we had to get our fair share. Thankfully our kids are too young for bungy jumping and the 200 Meter canyon swing, so we had an excuse not to do that. We were able to participate in other heart-pumping activities. Namely, the Shotover Jet (Andrew's favorite), Ziptrek (a tour of the forest on 4 ziplines), and the Luge (a large alpine slide).

The Shotover jet is a specialized boat running in a mouth droppingly beautiful canyon, but you don't notice that when the jet is doing 360 degree spins at 85 km/hr, and driving nerve-wrackingly close to the canyon walls all on just a few centimeters of water. It was a 1/2 hour of great fun.

Decked out in waterproof and lifesaving gear before our Jetboat adventure

Post jet adventure with approving thumbs up and clown noses

A view of the shotover jet speeding up the canyon

A view of the bridge and river at the entrance to the canyon

Andrew didn't weigh enough to go on the Ziptrek tour so he and his Mom when fishing on the beautiful lake in Queenstown instead. They caught grass and had a great time.

Jaron took Peter and Lucy on the Ziptrek. It was an eco tour on ziplines through the woods at the top of a mountain.

We all rode the Luge 6 times down part of the mountain. We got pretty good by the end. 6 times wasn't enough for the kids, they wanted to go more times. We are creating adrenaline junkies at a very young age.

Peter and Jaron speeding down the track

Lucy hot on their heels