Phone Call from the travelers

We have heard from sara and gareth several times in the past week. On their blog they spoke about the bed bugs in Kuala Lumpur, and the "monkey business" in the city. :)

They have since landed in Bangkok, Thailand, and have seen some of the sights. It sounds like the food and clothing are pretty cheap there, so that is good for the travelers on a budget. No more bed bug sightings so that is good.

I spoke with Sara this morning. They have purchased a phone so it is easier to make sleeping arrangements, and connect with people at home(s). Their phone number is 668-0071-1093. They are 12 hours ahead of our DLS time in Minnesota, so that makes it pretty easy to figure out. They sounded really well, and seemed to be excited to be on to the next leg of the journey. They will leave Bangkok on Monday. Sara said they were excited to get out of the city a bit and head to the beach area. They have spent the last several weeks in the city and are ready for a break from that. It was great to actually hear Sara's voice, and Gareth's in the background.

Back to Christchurch: Meet the Parents

Roger, Gareth, Joan, Jone, Hal and Sara

Jone peering in the window of the restaurant where we are eating later that night.

Boys playing chess in the square

That is where the penguins were......riding on the top of the bus

On Saturday May 16th we got up, ate some breakfast and headed out to meet Richy and Sharon for lunch at a cafe outside of Christchurch. It was great to see them again. We told them all about our trip around the Island. Richy and Sharon had enjoyed reading the blog. They had bought a New Zealand book for each of us, and we gave them their Chilly, and a bottle of wine from the Framingham vineyard. We promised to return to New Zealand some day. We also invited them to visit us in Minnesota. We told them to come in the summer though. :) After lunch, we checked into our hotel, and went out for a walk. We came upon a flea market where Mary and Jone bought a few last souvenirs. Hal and Gareth decided to climb a tree. I am sorry I didn't have my camera since Hal had a bit of a time getting down out of the tree. Gareth helped him down. We checked out the restaurant that we had made reservations at for the night, and went home. Hal and Gareth went to the airport to pick up Joan and Roger Short. We were excited to finally meet Gareth's parents. Now, if you have seen the movies, Meet the Fokker's, and Meet the Parents, you can imagine how Sara and Gareth felt. ha-ha-ha-ha. It turned out to be nothing to worry about. The parents got along very well. We chatted for awhile, and then walked about 6 blocks to the restaurant, "Cooking With Gas". The food was very good, and the company even better. We packed, went to bed, said our goodbyes to Roger and Joan, and left for the airport on Sunday morning. Sara and Gareth hung out with us for about an hour until we left. Airport goodbyes are always sad. It will be a long time until we see Sara and Gareth again. (unless we decide to travel to some unknown region this summer or fall :) We flew into Auckland where it was raining, took a bus to the harbor and ate lunch. We boarded the plane to LAX at 9:30pm and settled in for a long ride. Of course, Andy always seems to take pictures of Hal and I sleeping. If you would like to see them, send me an email. You will not find them on this blog.......sorry andy. hahahahaha. We hope you have enjoyed this blog. When the time came, I certainly was not ready to come home. New Zealand is an amazing place!! You should check it out sometime. Or as the Kiwi's say, "Cheek it out" Good Day All !

Friday May 15th On the road again......to the hot springs! And we thought Chicago was windy

The Hot Springs of Hanmer Springs

Our Villa

Friday morning we picked up coffee in Nelson, and began our drive to Hanmer Springs. We had another nice drive through the mountains and countryside. We stopped at a waterfall along the way that had been formed when two tectonic plates had shifted. It was drizzling, and fairly warm. We checked into the Heritage Hanmer springs villas which had three bedrooms, a living room, and kitchen. The wind was blowing so hard it blew the door of the main hotel open while we were checking in. When we looked outside, it looked like a tornado. After check in, Gareth headed out to find a computer, and the rest of us went to sit in the hot springs. It felt really good to sit in the warm water. We went between the 36, 38, and 40 degree Celsius pools. The 40 degree was 104 degrees Fahrenheit. We could only sit in this pool for a little while.....too hot. After we spent a couple of hours in the pools, we went back to the villa, took showers, and walked down the hill to the Asian/Indian Fusion food at the Malabar restaurant. The food was fabulous. We ended the night with some green tea, and lemongrass ginger ice cream. It was amazing. We went back to our villa and watched a movie.

Thursday May 14th Treking, Tracking, Hiking, Tramping???????

Very Tasty

Sara cutting apples for the pie/crumble. Of course, it would have been helpful if the toaster oven wouldn't have knocked all the power out every time we plugged it in. Andy stood by the circuit breaker with the flashlight, and every couple minutes, had to flip the switch. The apple crumble finally got done and was delicious.

The gang after dinner. Gareth and Andy are trying to figure out the wireless. Always in search of the Internet.

Sara and Gareth making dinner

Mary and Jone petting the penguins.......hmmm As the Kiwi say: "Sweet As"

Sara and Gareth on the trail. They were very patient with the "old folks" who were hiking behind them. :)

Mary had to remove several layers. Let's see.......fleece, under armour, turtle necks, and raincoat

Time for lunch: cheese, crackers, and apples, yum yum

We made it to the top.........taking a water break

Walking along the beach at Anchorage Bay.....before the big climb up the hill

This is the Elvis rock........I think it looks more like Snoopy in this picture

Split Apple Rock

On Thursday we woke up to a beautiful sunny day. We ate breakfast and headed out to the Abel Tasman National Park. We stopped for coffee in the town of Moutueka, where Sara and Gareth called home for the past couple months. After we toured the town, we drove to the Abel Tasman info center to pick up the water taxi. Gareth surprised us and had booked tickets for a ride out the the hiking trails. Our water taxi driver, Mike, was very nice and took us on an hour long tour showing us the bays and sites along the park from the water. He took us to the split apple rock, shared some of the history of the area, showed us a seal colony, and took us out to the spot where the penguins hung out. We finally got to see two penguins floating in the water. Mary and I were happy, the search for the penguins was finally over. The tide was high, so he dropped us off at Anchorage bay. We started out on the 13-14km hike (about 8.5 miles). We walked about half way, and then went down to the beach for lunch. The hike took us through the mountain side, through parts of a rain forest, and along the beach. The weather was perfect for a hike, not too cool or too hot, (16 or 17 degrees C, or 59-62 degrees F. On the way back, we stopped in Moutueka at the apple orchard that Sara and Gareth worked at. We met Ross, the owner, and their friend Simon. We picked some apples from the orchard. Most of us liked the Jazz apples the best. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home, and Sara and Gareth cooked us a wonderful dinner of chicken, veggie sausage, broccoli, tortellini, peppers, and Alfredo sauce. We watched a movie and went to bed.

Wednesday May 13th continued.......Can we hit 15 degrees Celsius?

Jone making faces at Andy .............yikes

Having dinner at the Honest Lawyer Pub.

The Flats in Nelson at the Mercure Nelson Resort

Sara showing us the clips on the nets at the Vineyards. She and Gareth put up nets at various Vineyards for a week. It was very hard work.

On the way to Nelson, we stopped at the Framingham Vineyard in the Marlborough region of the South Island. We tasted some wine, and bought a few bottles to drink and bring home. We pulled into the town of Nelson about 4pm. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the temperature was 15 degrees C or 59 degrees F. We had been at 0 or 32 degrees the day before, so we were delighted, (especially Mary :) Our accommodations was a lovely 2 bedroom flat with a kitchen, a fireplace, and two bathrooms. We ate dinner at the British pub across the street called the Honest Lawyer. We laughed because we have never seen a name like that in the states. The food was great and the atmosphere was fun.

Wednesday May 13th, Still in search of penguins......we found seals, dolphins, and whales instead

Sperm whale diving to get some food

Sperm whale getting ready to dive

Sperm whale

Albatross flying by the boat

Mary still in search of the Penguins...........where are they?

In the morning, Mary and I left to go whale watching at 7am. Hal, Andy, Sara, and Gareth decided to go hiking (or tramping according to the Kiwi's). The hikers saw a huge seal colony, however, there will not be any pictures since Jone and Mary took both cameras.......(whoops, Sorry Mates). The whale watching boat took us out several miles to where the 1000km deep ocean shelf was located. Kaikoura has an interesting under water topography that allows a safe spot for the sperm whales to live and eat squid. These whales have large heads full of oil. When they need to go to the bottom of the shelf to eat squid, they turn the oil hard and it helps them dive to the bottom. When they get to the bottom, they drop their heart rate to 1 beat per minute so they can preserve the oxygen in their system. When they need to come to the surface for air, they bring their heart rate up, turn the substance in their head back to oil and swim to the surface. These whales look like a log on the surface. While we were out on the water, we saw 4 whales, a bunch of sea gulls, some dolphins, seals, and a few Albatross birds. After the ride was over, we went into town to shop a bit, and ran into the rest of the group who were finished hiking. We ate some lunch and headed t0 the town of Nelson.