New Zealand

Here we go...New Zealand!  After spending 2 days up at the Great Barrier Reef in Port Douglas, my family flew to NZ and we came home (Sydney home, which we call our apartment more than home because home is still home to all of us).  We spent Monday night in Sydney then flew to Christchurch, New Zealand Tuesday night.  This was flight #3 within 4 days.  My first thought is to say the kids did good on the flight, b/c overall they have done really well with all the traveling, but I think this was the bad flight.  Neither kid slept and it was time for them to sleep.  It was only a 3 hr flight so that was good.  We got to Christchurch, in the rain, with no problems until we got to the hotel.  Brian and Jen did a great job of finding hotels in NZ.  They were all cheap and nice.  I had called the hotel earlier in the day to confirm that there would be a crib...we get there...no crib and roll away for Aaron...and its 1 AM NZ time.  So, we get moved to a bigger room with a king size bed so we can possible share the bed with the kids.  Somehow they can't get into where the cribs are or something like that.  So, the kids sleep on piles of blankets on the floor and are out since it is after 2 AM by the time we get to bed.  That would be so bad if we didn't have an 8 AM flight to Queenstown.  So, 6:30 AM we meet my parents and Brian and Jen for our flight.  To move on.  We get to Queenstown and enjoy time in the town (cutest town EVER) before catching a bus to Te Anau.  At this point I should back up and say that the weather was not the best while we were there....rained most days or snowed.  it was the beginning of spring in NZ and they had a late snow storm.  With the snow storm our reason for going to Te Anau was spoiled.  We drove there to be able to do a tour of Milford Sound the next day.  This was the #1 thing on our list to do in NZ.  The road (the only road) to Milford Sound was closed the 2 days before we got there but was open the day we got to Te Anau.  We found out at 7:45am that the road would be open so we could do the tour.  Then at 9 AM we found out the road was getting closed for fear of AVALANCHE!  What?!?!  So, that is how our #1 plan for NZ got cancelled.  Anyways, we now feel as if we HAVE to go back to NZ and Caleb and I are even thinking about going back in our last 2 weeks here.  Instead of Milford Sound we got a last minute ride back to Queenstown.  We had a beautiful day in Queenstown and thankfully no rain.  Some great pictures and stories of this day to come.  The next day, Friday, my family flew back to Sydney for their flight home on Saturday.  While they were flying home Caleb and I (and the kids) rented a car and drove north up through NZ's West Coast and back across to Christchurch.  We drove 5 hours up to Fox Glacier.  It was a BEAUTIFUL drive and we stayed that night in Fox Glacier.  Saturday we spent time at Fox Glacier and Franz Josef (2 cool glaciers).  We were going to do a helicopter ride around the glaciers but this too got canceled due to clouds and rain.  Even with not perfect weather, beautiful pictures to come.  Saturday night we stayed in a little town called Hokitika.  It was small town on our way back to Christchurch.  The drive to Christchurch was about 4 hours.  It was a pretty drive that we didn't get any pictures of since it was rainy and we took a ton the previous days.  Our flight back to Sydney Sunday night was GREAT!  We flew Emirates after getting a deal on tickets.  We had buckhead seats, sat next to a nice grandpa who worked for Salvation's Army (who was doing relief work in Christchurch due to the earthquake).  Side note, Christchurch has cleaned up a ton since the earthquake.  We some some damage, but not a ton.  We spent a few hrs there before our flight and would like to go back because it seemed like a cool city.  Back to the flight...they brought out little bags with toys for the kids before takeoff and the first thing after take off, they brought food for the kids (which Lydia devoured), the flight attendants were very helpful, we had movies and dinner and free drinks (which we had non of on our way there and the tickets cost the same thing).  Anyways, we had a great time and LOVED NZ. We really are planning on going back and some point in our lives.  There is NZ summarized in words and 20 post of pictures to come.