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

Milford Sound

There are few words and pictures that can describe this. Our drive to the sound was stunning. It was raining, which I guess it does all but 80 days of the year. It is the best way to see the sound. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of waterfalls on the canyon walls as you drive down. And the canyon walls are towering. Once you get to the sound there are more and more gracing the sides of the cliffs of the sound. Some large, some small, but most are only there if it is raining. And it was raining. We all got very wet, but Jaron, Peter and Lucy were soaked. The boat would occasionally pull as close as it could to the cliffs. One had a pretty large waterfall, and they were at the front of the boat (on purpose) and were so covered in the water that Sara and Andrew (who were sitting inside laughing heartily) could not see them. Another waterfall they put a tray of glasses down to fill so we could drink - Wow!

Can you see the faint rainbow?

Lady Bowen Falls

Filling the drinking glasses - there is a tray on the front of the ship

Drinking waterfall water - delicious

Peter in a waterfall - this wasn't the soaker

There are Fur seals resting on that rock behind Lucy

A photo for perspective - can you see the kayakers in the small yellow boats at the base? Yet you can't see the tops of the cliffs.

Soaked and Happy

Our car - we are stopped at Homer tunnel - only one lane of cars through at a time.

The drive home was just as great. All the sites we missed because we were driving like crazy to get to the sound for our boat time, we stopped to see on the way back.

The Chasm-just like it sounds with loud and roaring waters that have carved their way through the stone - stunning.

Keas-a local mountain parrot that they call the clown of the mountains. You would stop your car and they would land on top. Or plant themselves in front of the open doors of buses and wait for the tourists. Hilarity ensues when you combine kids and Keas.

Lake Gunn Walk - a forest covered in soft squishy moss that led to a big blue lake. It was very windy at the lake

The root system of a fallen tree on the Lake Gunn walk

Shores of Lake Gunn

Lake Gunn path - we kept expecting to see Hobbits

South Island - Te Anau

We are on the South Island - it is paradise. We could live here, among all the sheep. I feel like we are in Middle Earth. I keep humming the LOTR theme song.

We landed in Queenstown and drove straight West in anticipation of seeing the Fjords on the coast. In our stop over town, Te Anau, we took a boat to the glowworm caves. Spectacular views, clear air, quiet town, and clean water (we drank straight from the lake).

The lake we drank from and rode on to the cave.

Entering the glow worm caves