Funyaking

Today took us back to Glenorchy for a trip on the Dart River. We suited up in wetsuits and fleeces, sunscreen and bug spray and started in a jet boat.

The jet boat rides made famous in Queenstown are the ones in the canyon of the Shotover River – where the 360s take you within inches of the canyon walls. We were on the gentler version, but the 360s were still fun and we got into a water battle with the 2^nd boat on our tour, that left Daniel especially drenched to start the day! The guide showed us lot of the settings for the Lord of the Rings movies and the sets they're building for the Hobbit movie they're filming right now. He said that some people ask to see the ruins that were in the movie - uh...they're film sets...

Next stop, blowing up our canoes and launching into the river. We stopped for lunch along the way after a trip into a narrow canyon formed by an earthquake. Our kids had more than their fair share of desserts and bananas. Daniel and I were an adequate team – until the late afternoon when he didn’t approve of my steering. It might have had something to do with the boat carrying Mike, Molly and Charlie passing us.

There are so few people here – really, so few. Partly, spring break just ended for the school kids here, so we’re almost the only persons with uneducated children. Wouldn’t you know it, 2 of the people in our 24 person group were from Grand Rapids and the guy is an adjunct professor at MSU’s law school.

We spent the evening watching the All Blacks win the rugby World Cup on National TV. Mike drove to town to check out the scene, but it’s really a young town and it didn’t offer much for the middle-aged American tourist.

Down and Out

We started our morning at the Skyline Luge. A gondola ride is included, then 6 runs down the luge track (buy 5 get one free). There are two tracks and you need to do your first run of the day on the Scenic Track. Charlie was young enough to be free, as long as he went tandem on the Scenic Route for the day. His strategy was to push the handles as far forward as he could, attempting to speed up the cart. He didn’t really understand that there was a fine line, if you went too far forward, you’d come to a complete stop – dangerous copilot. We zoomed passed a woman on an early run and she found us afterwards and apologized to us afterwards for causing Charlie and me to slow down. She explained that the last time she did this in Park City, Utah, you had more control of the speed. We said no big deal because we were waiting on our daughter who was cautious and, who liked to take it easy. She asked how old Molly was and after telling her, she said, “Well 80 year olds like to take it easy too”! You go girls!

The views over Queenstown and the Remarkables was an added bonus for the grown ups and eased Mike’s disappointment at losing a head to head luge race with Daniel.

The Queenstown Jazz fest was Saturday morning along the water. The local face painting artist decorated our kiddos and we enjoyed salmon salad along the water while listening to “L is for the …”. I don’t really know any of the words to that song.

We spent the afternoon in Glenorchy, a small town 40 kilometers from Queenstown. The drive is…well, here it is:

Glenorchy and nearby Paradise are the setting for most of the Lord of the Rings films. Turns out we were too tired to hike, so we just pitched rocks into the braided river. Some of the other tourists milling around took pictures of Charlie, the dragon faced boy, who is always thrilled to ham it up for a crowd!

On the way back into town, we headed to Fergburgers for dinner – a local institution according to the woman in one of many, many backpacking shops. Our host there was a woman from Cambridge, England, who came over to New Zealand for a year and, like many, ended up in Queenstown for a few months because it is that kind of place.

For my entertainment, Mike keeps singing his version of the “all that glitters is not gold.”

Remarkable(s) in Many Ways

Yes, we have some BANANAS! $1.99 (NZ) per kilo! I must say, they’re pretty yummy sliced on a toasted English muffin spread with Nutella, accompanied by “trim” milk (skim, we think). The view from our place of the Remarkables enhances the dining experience.

We started and finished the day in Queenstown set along Lake Wakatipu surrounded by the Remarkables. A quick visit to the medical center was on the agenda for the Charlie cough that won’t go away (lots of rest and regular meals haven’t been part of his recent days). He’s back out on the field in no time.

Our low-key day included the observation decks at A.J. Hackett – the founders of the sport of bungy jumping. I know with certainty that I could not dive off that bridge and Daniel seems to be with me. Mike would do it if he was sure he wouldn’t get hurt. Molly is first in line as soon as she reaches 35 kilos. Charlie keeps repeating that he’s “afraid of heights.”

Next stop, Arrowtown, a nearby town that was central in the 19^th century gold rush that attracted Europeans and Chinese gold seekers. The visitors' center rents pans for $3 each so the Conlin 49ers (?) planned what to buy with their nuggets on the way down to the river with Mike. No luck at all at first…after I arrived to check in on the action and Mike fetched (Molly’s term) them some river bottom from a promising part of the river, their luck changed. No one can believe that they each found a nugget of approximately the same size within minutes of each other. Daniel thinks it might be pyrite (fool’s gold), but they’ll wait until they get back to the States to have it fully appraised, while continuing to make their lists of how to spend their fortunes. Charlie insists that they’ll split their earnings in half. Clearly, we have a little work on fractions to do with that boy.

The day out ended with a walk along the water in the Queenstown Gardens and the nearby neighborhood. The tulips and rhododendrons are in bloom, well into spring. The fern, as seen on The All Blacks jerseys and everywhere else in NZ is a national symbol.

As I type, we’re watching the consolation game for the Rugby World Cup. Go Wallabies! According to the commentators, someone needs a warning about too many “hands on the ruck”. The blood is flowing freely and at least one ACL and a few teeth are not in the shape they started in. The athletes seem, on average, more well-spoken than the athletes, on average, in the United States. Mike says it’s because of all the public speaking practice they got in elementary school.

International Terminal

Leaving a mostly empty apartment in South Coogee, we checked into our Jetstar flight to Christchurch. We lost our sun tan lotion that came from East Lansing in security – too big and doesn’t qualify as medicine. I also lost my watch on the plane after failing to fully clasp it when changing the time to NZ time zone. I realized it 10 minutes from the airport when Mike asked me what time it was. With luck, they recovered it on the plane and delivered it safely to my empty wrist. A Happy Meal from the Burger King drive through (I know, I know, what a way to start, but we had a long drive ahead of us and no time to dawdle) took the edge off our hunger and provided small plastic Simpson’s toys that light up for the ride.

Flying into Christchurch, you can see the fields divided by something. Up close, they’re HUGE hedges perfectly manicured. To our disappointment, we didn’t catch the gadget that gets the 30 feet (10 meter) high hedges to be even height.

No roos or wombats on highway signs in New Zealand, but the warning that a choo-choo train track is approaching is pretty sweet.

We stopped for dinner at Lake Tekapo in the central South Island. It snowed here the day before, but was easily in the mid to high 50s, so it was definitely packing snow. The lake was a turquoise colour set off by the snow covered mountains.

I hope the sermons here are fascinating, because a picture window about the size of the wall faces the mountains and lake.

It was a long drive (probably 6 hours in the car) on a mostly deserted, but very well marked road to Queenstown in the south central part of the South Island where we’ll start out day tomorrow.

Ciao Coogee

Bright Sunshiney Day with weather in the 70s. Our last night in our South Coogee Apartment. We have a rental car to drop our bags for the trip to MI off at the Airport Holiday Inn and get us all to the airport in the morning for our trip to New Zealand. I'm nervous that we have too much stuff to pack but the voice of reason suggests that we have one more afternoon at the local beach.

The Coogee Surf and Rescue Club is housed in the building you can see right on the beach just right of center in the picture. There's a "rock pool" we've been meaning to check out since we arrived. It still isn't really warm enough to swim (water is 18 Celsius and air is about 21 or 22 in the sun), but my standards, but as team photographer, I'm in.


Up close, Daniel is standing on the edge of the rock pool, which is just a cement wall that holds some of the ocean water as it pounds in and out.

Molly has the cliffs on the opposite side of Coogee Beach as her back drop.

Can you make out the rule on the right in the 2nd row? It says "Bombing Prohibited" and has a silhouette of a person cannon balling onto another person. We're not sure of the exact definition of bombing, but we now know that the water is not deep enough for men of Mike's size to attempt without smacking bottom (of pool with own).


'The pool had some of the stinging blue bottles in it, at least that's what we think they were. Mike found a disgarded Macca's (I'm not sure how you spell the nickname they use here) cup and caught it few. Combined with the "Thirsty for Prizes" ad on the side, it made a nice shot :-).

Charlie takes over the hunt.

Enough fun - home to pack and hope the swim suits are dry by morning!

Next post will be from New Zealand, where the All Blacks will play for the Rugby World Cup Title this weekend. Looks like we planned it that way.

Goodbye South Coogee Public School

We got to school early today to take a few pictures of the wall art created by the Year 6 students. Luckily for us, they JUST hung it yesterday AND, they only finished hanging half of the art pieces, but Daniel's rain forest flower (large and smelly) made the wall!

The Artist, The Art and The Entourage

We turned all the uniforms into the uniform shop that we're not bringing home so that others can have the good fortune of finding the gently used version. The shorts I dropped off today weren't quite dry from being washed last night - it wasn't warm enough overnight for the drying rack to do it's work. We were there early enough for Molly to wait on the S1M benches for school to start. Her last day was an excursion to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

But first...she got to give out her gift from America - MSU playing cards, direct from the SBS Bookstore in East Lansing (thanks to my very kind friend who did the shopping and shipping for me!).

At the end of the day, I got there a little early to capture S3S on the camera. Daniel's buddy Benji is in the picture, but Dion was on the same excursion as Molly, so he's not in the picture.

We definitely were much less involved in the schools here than in Michigan, which has it pros and cons. For example, I cannot tell you a single kid's name in the picture above, except for Daniel/Dan. That said, there is no question that I'd export the uniforms to the US in a second (I emailed Molly's principle, jokingly requesting uniforms and she told me it would have to be a district wide decision - maybe I should email the superintendent :-)). You know, I'd export the school song too - still gets time every time to hear my kids singing it off key:

Here I stand beside my friends, as we share with you our vision

Of a school where knowledge grows like leaves on trees

And I am proud to bear the name, of a school which gives me courage

To reach great heights yet bend and feel the breeze

This is my school, my place of hopes and dreams

My roots are deep, my branches full

I do belong here, this vision includes me

Stand Tall Stand Tall

South Coogee Public School

School Song

Shrinky Dinks!

Halloween Shrinky Dinks arrived in the mail earlier this week and the kids cannot make them fast enough! Who knew?! The Halloween season is much less dramatic here - you can tell by walking into Target, which doesn't have a single Halloween display! The kids haven't made a big deal about missing the plethora of Halloween activities in Michigan (school parade, downtown trick or treating, neighborhood trick or treating, candy trading) and Mike hasn't been up all night designing costumes. Wait until next year...

We did get invited to a party here that we'll have to miss, hosted by some Americans in the economics department. Costumes are required and you cannot wear the same as last year! They're trying their best to introduce the holiday to Sydney.

Watching the Magic

The package of Shrinky Dinks (from the US) had a flier in it for the brand of colored pencils. Notice what they used to draw with the pencils in the ad...