New Zealand continued

Xmas eve Saturday we woke up and tried to quickly pack out of the rental house. A short drive over to the redwoods mountain bike trails and getting everyone set up with their e-bike. Cannon and I stayed behind and waved as they all drove off. After a short start, with some tricky handling, Gwen got very frustrated, crying and refused to go any more. Isabelle also said she was ready to quit after 30 minutes. Ben says he will bring them and Chad and Emily can take the rest of the kids on a ride. Ben tries to get back to the beginning but can’t- one way trails and weird loops. After an hour, they finally make it back to the starting place and me Ben and cannon go for a little ride. Cannon does great, even though the bike was too large for him to handle comfortably. Just a short time later the rest of the gang reappears and we turn the bikes back in. Our lunch options gross, so we decide to take out family to an Indian- yummy kebab and meat and rice. After that, we start our drive toward mount manganui with a short stop for a vigorous Waterfall hike down to swim. Water is pumping out of the waterfall- a Very strong current the boys challenge each other to make it to the rope and climb next to the waterfall. Grocery shopping ($200 for 2 days) beach at sunset. We have gross Chinese for Christmas Eve dinner. Play a fun pass the parcel (Isabelle wins) Emily reads a New Zealand  children’s story, we light the whirligig candle and read Luke 2.

Sunday Christmas morning stockings and yummy coffee cake for breakfast. Eat candy all morning, listen to piano guys on YouTube get ready for church at 12 nobody there. The 2 wards had combined at 9:00!! We Talk to elder platt and go to the beach. Steak and potatoes dinner hike to the top of mount mainganui. Brielle broke Eva’s sand dollar :(  we thought cannon did it and so we played truth or dare to get him to tell us the truth. Brielle was so scared when she broke the sand dollar she dropped it and ran away. We all had to clean it up. She confessed in the car ride and cried. Worries that Eva would be so mad- but she wasn’t. 

Monday potatoes steak eggs breakfast clean up house beach parking full so Ben drops us off- Brielle cannon and Connor do 5 minute trampoline with their Christmas money. Then we rent scooter- play at fun beach ocean for 1 hour pb jelly at the park drive to Auckland for flight to queenstown — really trying to hustle worried about making the flight.. plenty of rain and wait. Fly all the way to queen town (1.45 hr) and try to land twice. Pilot decides to fly all the way back to Auckland — what a crazy turn for our trip. Stranded and rebooked flight for Wednesday. Late booking for Airbnb take 3 Uber - everyone so hungry we walk to gas station and get donuts, milk and some weird fried meat Pattie’s the cashier lady passed to us through a bank tray box. 

Tuesday check into kiwi hotel. A driver offers to take all of us in his Toyota Prius downtown to thenAuckland Museum. Ben was very comfortable in the fort while 5 of us were crammed in the back!! We walk through the museum until we are ready to go, then walk downtown to an arcade for video games. Started looking for a place to grab lunch/dinner and arrive at a new shopping mall food court with so many options at the mall! We decide to watch the 3 hour new avatar movie.

 

More New Zealand

Thursday- we load up and drive out for the next adventure. Along the way I tell Ben to stop an grab us some refreshments at such a yummy fresh bakery! The best meat pie and apple strudel with fresh cream. The short stop may have made us a bit late meeting at the waitomo spellbound glow worm caves private tour- veronica distressed/late and missed her tour) joins us and our tour. Nice walk and educational information about the limestone caves and area. The kids enjoyed feeding the freshwater eels in the river. We drive a short way to a lovely bush walk loop after enjoying another sandwich/chips/ and apple picnic. We did get a bit of rain,

And then we stopped at the otorohanga kiwi house— in the hopes of seeing a real kiwi bird, but they were staying in their house boxes. As we were getting ready to leave a massive hail storm starts and the kids think it is so funny getting pelting with tiny ice balls. We grab self serve Chinese takeout for dinner - Eva approves of the lemon chicken.

Friday- our adventure today— 3 hr zip line — super fun and enjoyable— except Sam tried to rip his arm off on the race line lunging forward and his arm was looped around the safety strap. He had quite the mark left on his arm!! After the zip line We decide to take a short okere falls walk and check out the raging water pumping over the falls. Sadly we would not be able to raft this time. The big kids group were going to go mountain biking so- Brielle, cannon Gwen, and Chad left quickly to go on a horseback riding in the hillside. We ran into a bit of a snag, because all of the mountain bikes were unavailable, and so some of us decided to head into town for some souvenir shopping. When the horseback riders made it back- we all loaded up for a swim at kerosene creek- a warm creek from the geothermal activity in the area. Not the best smelling place— and then all of our suits smells like sulfur for days— even after we washed them!! Chad grabbed just the right amount of pizza for dinner — happy campers!

 

Epic New Zealand Christmas trip

 Monday- jet lag arrive, Been Brecon and Connor take a different line to get through faster and grab most of our bags to go get our rental car. I have Cannon and Brielle with only a few backpacks and customs asks “where are the rest of your bags?” we are all feeling pretty exhausted after we get our rental car and we still need to drive 2 1/2 to 3 hours down  to rotorua where the Bangerter’s are waiting for us. It was so fun to see our dear friends again!! Oven baked pizza dinner at the house. We decide to take on evening lantern walk at the redwoods… getting lost and wandering around in the dark.

Tuesday - we start our day heading up to our first adventure. The weather looked like it was going to hold off for us but as we got all geared up and out where the first zip line tracks were it begin to rain, and then it got wetter and it rained harder and then there was lightning and thunder  but this was already after we had sent a couple of kids across the river. When we all made it, we decided we were not going to keep going. We would reschedule and come back another day but by then we were already completely soaked!! rained out zip line everything soaking wet! We decide with the weather it would be best to Chill back at the house and it rained all day. Probably a good jet lag day. Dinner at house of spice Indian - walk Kuirau park. Cannon croc falls into hot thermal lake Gwen wants to sleep and is grumpy. Kids play at the park and Brecon pushes cannon in a shopping cart.

Wednesday- drove to Matamata and eat a picnic lunch before starting our hobbiton movie set tour. Emily’s family has land nearby and so we went to the family pond farm and explored the area by climbing Pond farm and hillside climb. Back in Rotorua we head to the Skyline luge … a mountain racetrack ride the kids loved!! let’s do it again! Another misadventure while waiting for chairlift to bring us up to the top again, Ben kicks when Cannons blue croc kicked down onto a nearby track. Also while riding in the life cart- Cannon croc falls off while riding down and almost causes major pileup crash! Ben had to get out and pick it up while dodging carts

Funny Cael

 Funny things cael says

“What I can’t read can’t hurt me” — drink in Cambodia called sting 

You feeling tired?? No not when I have sting 🦂