Posted on

But First, Christchurch

Before we went to the farm on the Banks Peninsula, we spent a couple days in Christchurch. A day or two before we arrived, there had been a pretty significant earthquake, enough to make the locals worry, but it was nothing compared to the damage done five years ago. The entire city seems to still be in recovery, with damage still very obvious and rubble or the remains of what once was. Everything seems weary and tired in a way.

But there are parks all over and the sense of starting over, new ideas blossoming. There’s a downtown area that is made up of  boxcars/shipping containers. The actual stores are in the containers and pieced together like a mini mall.

On our way out of town, we went to what we were hoping would be a nice Farmers Market, but discovered it to be the largest Flea Market known to mankind. It seemed like the optimal place to find some treasures, but since we’re not here to dig around junk to find the needle in the haystack, we bought a snow cone and got on our way.




Posted on

Glamming it Up

lavericks-59lavericks-72lavericks-73lavericks-125

There are many parts of this trip that will take a long time for us to understand…meaning, I still find it really strange and amazing that we’re actually doing this. I already know that our girls don’t quite get it, and I don’t expect them to. They’ve been troopers through all the places we’ve stayed, cars we’ve rented, and transitions to anticipate.

With that said, we just came off of a week-long stay at farm on the far, far East Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. We were glamping. You know…Glamorous Camping on a beautiful plot of land on a working sheep and beef farm.

Most of our days were spent just staring at the steep hills and making up stories about the cowboy-farmers doing work and the animals that we shared the land with.

Here’s a picture of Maggie’s face on the first morning we were there….pretty baffled to watch the cattle move from one place to another, with the working farm dogs barking orders. It’s pretty much how we spent the better part of the week, with our faces in awe of our surroundings.

More to come….

lavericks-127

Posted on

Sky High Mushrooms and Beach Glass Searching

Just across the harbor from Auckland is the small town we stayed near, Devonport. In the middle of town is Mount Victoria, but it’s really just a big hill. We came across it one day on our way home from the beach, but I didn’t have my camera to capture Audrey and Maggie karate kicking their way off the mini mushrooms scattered around the top.

We went back a second time while Audrey was taking a nap in the car just to snap a few quick images. Maggie insisted that she take one of me doing a matching ‘pose’. The mushrooms were incredibly random, the views spectacular, and the sun just warm enough.

Most days we wind up back at our room ready to collapse into a heap of worn out chickens because we can’t quite handle the amount of fun/sun we’ve had. I’ve left my camera behind, intentionally, on a few epic beach trips, which is okay. Just imagine Audrey doing lots of sprints and having no fear and Maggie fake swimming and digging/collecting things. And Barry and I taking shifts of taking deeper/longer swims.

On our last night in Auckland, we shoved some wine and cups in our backpack (a Party Pack!!!!) and walked to the beach near our fake-home. We spent the time collecting nearly 70 pieces of beach glass and watching the sun go down. My kind of date/family time!!