Last Day of School

Well, it is hard to believe but we are on the final stretch of our experience in New Zealand. The kids had a hard time saying goodbye to their friends and teachers on their last day of school. For a look at the classmates and friends of Rachel, Lexie and Evan, click here.

South Island

We were able to snag a great deal on airfare to Christchurch, so we took the kids out of school for three days and jammed in a lot of sightseeing in a short period of time. The scenery was beatiful - a mixture of rocky New England Beaches, California Hills and Rocky Mountains. For pictures, click here.

Christchurch:

We took a couple of trips downtown and walked around Cathedral Square. We stopped into the Cathedral and listened to the Boys Choir rehearsing. We were also able to ride a cable car and get a guided tour of the city. For pictures, click here.

International Antarctic Centre:

Christchurch is the "gateway" to Antartica. The International Antarctic Centre is home to the New Zealand, United States and Italian Antarctic Programs. We took a tour of the Centre and saw NZ Blue Penguins and went into a snow and ice filled room and experienced a simulated Antarctic Storm. It reminded us of January in Pennsylvania! For pictures, click here.

Willowbank Reserve:

We also visited a nature reserve. The Wallabies were roaming about -- but the kids didn't get too close. Lexie was especially excited to see the Kiwis again. For pictures, click here.

Christchurch Gondola:

We took a ride up a gondola and got some fantastic views of the ocean, Cashmere Hills and Southern Alps. We took a hike that exhausted Rachel. For pictures, click here.

Sumner:

We had a couple from West Chester join our tour -- lucky for us, they had paid for a personal tour of the area, so we were able to get an added little trip to the bay to see a really cool beach town with a cave and great rocks to climb. For pictures, click here.

Soccer in Raglan

Lexie's soccer team had to play their last game in Raglan, a town along the Tasman Sea. The team was their toughest opponent yet and they eventually won (4-3). It was a great experiences playing on a field with views of the sea. We then travelled up the coast to see some surfers and the kids got to play on the rocky beach. On the way home, we visited Bridal Falls and trekked all the way through the Bush only to find that the trail to the lower falls were closed. For pictures, click here.

Tirau

I took my parents for a quick "touristy" trip to Tirau, a small town off of Route 1 on the way to Rotorua that boasts sculptured buildings made from corrugated metal. The views to and from Tirau are beautiful. For pictures, click here.

Waitomo Caves

On Sunday, we took a trip (one hour away) to the Waitomo Cave District. We went to the Ruakuri Bushwalk and hiked through a caves, tunnels, saw a waterfall and beautiful limestone formations. For pictures, click here.

Hamilton

We've spent most of the past month in Hamilton, going to school, participating in sports and just exploring the city.

Lexie's Soccer Team:

Lexie is playing soccer for Hillcrest United Soccer Club. Her team is the U11 Fireballs. It is basically an all boys league besides Lexie and one other girl. So far, they are undefeated four games into the season and Lexie recently received the player of the game trophy. For pictures, click here:

Rachel's Netball Team:

Rachel is playing netball on her middle school team. It is a very popular sport with girls in New Zealand. It is a lot like basketball, without the dribbling. We don't quite get it, but Rachel seems to enjoy playing. For pictures, click here:

Hamilton River Walk:

I took my parents to a river walk along the Wakaito River in Hamilton. It is fall in New Zealand (May) so we got to see the leaves turning. It is interesting to see the maple, oak and ginko trees turning shades of red, yellow and orange right along side flowering trees and palm trees. For pictures, click here:

University Rugby:

This is mostly for my nephew Henry, who plays rugby in Lancaster. We like to go to the University Campus to see the varsity rugby teams play on Saturdays. I still don't understand all of the rules, but it is exciting to watch. For pictures, click here:

Miscellaneous:

Rachel went to a dance at her middle school this past Thursday. It was very different from the dances she attended in Palmyra. They learned how to waltz and disco dance in gym class and Rachel was asked to waltz at the middle school dance.

Evan got a police/detective costume from his grandfather and has been posing as a detective for days.

For pictures, click here:

Northland

The kids had a two week vacation from school for Easter, so we decided to go back up north while it was still warm. We went back to Pahia at the Bay of Islands.

Adventure World:

On Friday, we spent the day at Adventure World a park with water slides, a trapeze, high wire, jousting, trails, etc. For pictures, click here.

Kayak Trip:

On Saturday, Joel, Rachel and Lexie went on a 3 hour kayak trip in the Bay of Islands. They were able to visit the Treaty Grounds where the treaty between England and the Maori was signed. They also traveled to individual islands where the girls were able to gather sea glass and cool shells. For pictures, click here.

Whangarei Falls:

On our way down the coast to Leigh, we stopped at Whangarei Falls. We were able to take a trail to the bottom of the falls and the view was spectacular. For pictures, click here.

Leigh by the Sea:

We spent three days in Leigh, a tiny fishing village in Northland. We spent one day snorkling at Goat Island. For pictures, click here.

Pakiri Beach:

On Tuesday, we spent the morning horseback riding on the beach. We spent the rest of the day at Pakiri Beach. It was probably the prettiest beach we've seen so far. For pictures, click here.

Rotorua

Rotorua is a small city on the shores of Lake Rotorua -- about an hour and a half from Hamilton. The surrounding areas are full of geothermal geysers, boiling mud pools, and steaming craters - accompanied by the stinky smell of sulpher. We went to a park to take a look at some of the geothermal activity. For pictures, click here.

Maori Village Visit

We went on an overnight trip to Lake Rotorua. We stayed at a Thermal Holiday Park (campground to us) and while there, went and visited the Mitai Maori Village. A bus came and picked us up at the campground and took us to the sacred village. The whole experience was a lot of fun. We all went down into the village to watch the canoe full of chanting warriors arrive. We then went into a theater and watched the cultural performance. After the performance, we ate a traditional Maori meal(called a Hangi). For pictures, click here.

Waihi Beach/Mount Maunganui

Since the weather was nice, we decided to take a weekend trip back to Waihi Beach and then came home via Tauranga and Mount Maunganui. Mount Maunganui, or Mauao, is also the name of the extinct volcano which rises above the town. Shrouded in history and legend, the mountain is a dominant feature of the landscape, and a climb to the summit offers amazing views of the surrounding city and ocean. We didn't get to climb to the top of the mountain because the kids hadn't packed their sneakers and were all sporting stubbed toes. For pictures, click here.

Opononi

We stopped at a little seaside town, Opononi, on our way to the Bay of Islands. Opononi, is famous for a friendly dolphin, Opo, that lived in the bay during the 1950's. The dolphin was referred to as Opo, the Gay Dolphin and the LVC College students laughed their way through a video of Opo. Information about Opo can be found here.

To see our pictures of Oponini, click here.

Bay of Islands Trip

We spend the weekend of the 24th on a bus trip to the Bay of Islands with the college students. Althought the ride was long, the scenery and boat cruise was spectacular and definitely worth the trip. Boat cruise photos are here.

Bay of Islands is about 5.5 hours North of Hamilton (where we're living). It's a Pacific Coast attraction that has 145 islands and sub-tropical weather. It also has the Treaty Grounds where the Treaty of Waitanga was signed between the English and the Maori in 1840. Scenery photos are here.

We saw a lot but really enjoyed the boat ride where dolphins swam next to the boat. We were on the front of the boat at the railing and had a chance to see the dolphins riding the between the two hulls of the catamaran style boat. Photos are here.

We also saw a Kauri tree, similar in size and age to our American Redwood trees. The Tane Mahuta tree is estimated to be about 1500 years old. Photos are here.

Chiefs Rugby

We went to a Hamilton Chiefs professional rugby game on Friday the 16th of March. The atmosphere and game was great. Tickets were cheap compared to American Football and we sat in a kids section which was free from alcohol and hooligans. The Chiefs are part of the Super 14 League which includes Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. The Chiefs beat the Lions from South Africa for their first win of the season. Here are a few photos of the kids with their free Chiefs merchandise.
Here's a link to the Chiefs Rugby Team.

Opito Bay

Black Jack Road: Joel met a really nice guy named Tony who owns a local scuba shop. He offered us the use of his beach house (his Bach -- pronounced "Batch" as they say in NZ) and we took him up on the offer. The bach is located in Opito Bay, which is on the Pacific side of the Coromandel Peninsula. It takes about an hour and a half to drive to the bottom of the peninsula and another two and half hours to drive up it to Opito Bay. The roads twisted and curved and many times it seemed as if we were going to fall into the sea. The last stretch of the trip took us over an unpaved mountain called Blackjack Road.

After returning to Hamilton, we learned that insurance companies won't cover you if you get into an accident while on Black Jack Road -- that's how dangerous it is. But, the scary trip was worth it. Opito Bay was absolutely gorgeous and the weather was great. For pictures of our travel, click here.

Opito Bay: The bay is absolutely beautiful with crystal blue water that was 74 degrees. The waves were pretty mild and the kids would have liked them a little stronger for body surfing and boogy boarding -- but they had fun nonetheless. There were islands all around and a lot of interesting vegetation and birds. For pictures of the beach, click here.

Kayaking: We were allowed to try our hands at kayaking in Opito Bay. We were able to take the kayaks from our backyard and travel down a creek to the beach. For pictures, click here.

Whitianga: Joel needed to do some things on the internet for his Ph.D class, and since the batch was without phone or internet acces, we had to travel to a really nice beach town, Whitianga. Although it meant another trip (there and back) over Black Jack Road, the town was really nice and the girls got to play with a Golden Retriever named Bailey that reminded them of Bear at home. For pictures, click here.

Kiwiana Festival

March 3, 2007: We went to a New Zealand Country Fair in a small town called Otorohanga, known as the Kiwiana Capital of New Zealand. The fair was billed as having "all things kiwi" and we got to see sheep shearing contests, sheep dog demonstrations and also kiwi arts and crafts. We also got to taste kiwi food and hear kiwi music (which was actually American country music). There were booths that had Maori's giving tattoos - - interesting to watch. The kids got to go on rides -- their favorite was trying the Zorb -- a huge ball that they could climb inside and roll around.

For pictures of our day - click here.

Raglan

February 24 & 25: We accompanied all 14 LVC students to Raglan Beach on NZ's western coast. We had a bus take us to Raglan, a small beach town about 45 minutes away. We stayed at the Karioi Outdoor Adventure Center and about 10 LVC students took surfing lessons. Our kids had fun on the Flying Fox, a zip-line/swing and on the ropes course. The highlight of the weekend was when Joel, Rachel and Lexie jumped off of a bridge into Raglan Bay. Lots of great scenery (and mozzies -- the kids have the bug bites to prove it)! Pictures here.

Trampoline-ing

The kids love to bounce on the trampoline and fight over its use on a regular basis. To see the pics of them showing off, click here.

Hamilton Gardens

February 15: Each year, the Hamilton Gardens holds an arts festival with live music, performances and whatnot. We took the kids to see a not so great juggler who insulted people of every nationality, including the US. The kids enjoyed it, but Joel and I were hot and cranky. Hamilton Gardens boasts several international gardens that are really quite nice. To see Lexie's photos, click here.

Waihi Trip

By Laura:

After visting the Gorge, we headed to the east coast to spend the rest of the afternoon at Waihi Beach. The kids had a blast swimming in the blue Pacific and collected some beautiful shells. We celebrated Rachel's 12th birthday when we got home. It was a great trip. See pictures here.

Karangahake Gorge Trip

On Saturday we took a day trip to the Karangahake Gorge. The Gorge is enroute to the East Coast and is an old gold mine. Functioning gold mines are still common in NZ and mining is a large industry in the country.

The views of the Karangahake Gorge are spectacular and there are marked paths with walks for different distances. Our walk included going through an 1800 meter tunnel through the mountain. Dark and damp! The Gorge has a river running through it with large rocks and boulders strewn throughout. You can see our photos here....

Hamilton Zoo

by Lexie

On February tenth we went to the Hamilton zoo. It was fun! It wasn't the best zoo we have been to but it was ok. I liked the monkeys. They were funny and the zookeepers put nuts in a bottle and the monkeys were trying to get it open.

We didn't get to see the tiger and I really wanted to see that.

We saw baby pigs and you could pet them. Then one of the adult pigs came over snorting for us to stop petting them.

You can see my photos here.

Our House

Lexie's friend Allie wanted to know about our house in NZ. It's a brick house that's probably what we'd term a cape cod style. It has 4 bedrooms and probably about 1800 sq. ft. Lexie took a house photo. She also took a photo of the trampoline the neighbors lent us, her orange bedroom, and our new (used) minivan.

A few Days in San Fran

We spent a few days in San Francisco before flying to New Zealand. We stayed a few blocks from Fisherman's Wharf and really enjoyed the culture and architecture. Here are some pictures that Lexie took.

Welcome to Our Blog

We're packing, preparing, and getting ready to leave. We leave for San Francisco on February 4th and then on to NZ on February 6th!