Flight and Day 1 (Fri-Sun, Dec 14-16)
The 11 hour flight to Auckland on Air New Zealand was suprisingly good. The kids were great on the flight. They each slept about 8 of the 11 hours - Brynn slept close to 9 hrs. Everyone had there own personal video screens with the seat - so the kids were well drugged with TV. I think I was seated next to the rudest passanger in the history of aviation, so our kids seemed great in comparison. The lay over in Auckland was a bit painful (27 sec video clip). We waited 3 hours for our flight to Nelson. Again, the kids were great - but waiting 3 hours for a 50 minute flight wasn't a whole lot of fun. We arrived in Nelson about 10:30am and got to the house about 11am.
Given all the variables in play, the door-to-door travel time of 21 hours was relatively uneventful. We can both think of about a million ways that it could have gone worse. We went to the supermarket and had locally-caught salmon for dinner.
The kids explored the house and left nothing left unturned - literally. The neighbors stopped by and gave us the lay of the land - as with every other kiwi we've met, they were nice folk. The view is amazing. The house is about 500 ft above sea level and less than half mile from the coast. The first night we left the doors open and fell asleep to the sound of the waves.
Day 2 (Monday, Dec. 17)
Everyone awoke about 6:30am. We busted-a-move in morning and drove to the city of Mapua. Kelly and I remember this town fondly from when we visited back in 2000. Its about an hour drive from Nelson and is home to an amazing smoked-fish restaurant. Of course, the kids were dead asleep upon arrival to Mapua, so our plans were folied. We turned around and headed back to Nelson. On the way back home, we stopped at a vineyard and had lunch (The Waimea Cafe). The food was outstanding.
After arrivng back in Nelson, we found the local school playground. We played for about an hour, and then hiked to the beach. The wind was whipping pretty good and the para-surfer were out in force. It was quite a site. For dinner, we happened upon a pizzeria, The Hot Rock, that could have held its own in Napoli - they served a thin brick oven pizza that spectacular. It was kid-friendly as well. They gave the kids a handful of pizza dough and told them to form any shape they wanted and that they would cook it. I'll leave the end of the story to your imagination.
Day 3 (Tuesday, Dec 18)
We made reservations for the night at a nice lodge, the Awaroa Lodge, in Abel Tasman park (90 minute drive from Nelson) - arguably the nicest national park in NZ (which is no small claim). There are no roads in or into Abel Tasman. The only way to get to the lodge is by water taxi. Again, the wind was whipping pretty nicely - 5 foot swells. I had a tough 1 and half hour taxi ride; Brynn happily sang Twinkle Twinkle the whole way.
The lodge was really nice. We took an hour hike before our room was ready, and then settled into our room. We met the Stark family from Benton Harbor, MI at the lodge and had an enjoyable dinner with them. Small world. They had a daughter and son of babysitting age. Jack was smitten with the girl, so our dinner was suprisingly quiet and relaxed. Pictures from the trip.
Day 4 (Wednesday, Dec 19)
We took a big hike (43 sec video clip) around the lodge in the morning. During the hike, Jack discovered that he liked to take photos with my camera - the memory stick in the camera got a work out.
We then had lunch and took the water taxi back. The sea was rough. Again, Dad suffered and Brynn sang. This time, however, we got to see some seals playing in their habitat. The seals were a welcome break to the 5 foot swells.
On the drive back to Nelson, we managed to find a Christmas tree farm - well, actually, more like a Christmas branch farm. We had been looking for an Xmas tree, upon Jack's insistance, since the moment we stepped off the plane, but had been woefully unsucessful. Getting a bit nervous, we cut down the tree (trunk diameter: 4 inches) tied in on to the car and headed home. I made pasta for dinner.
Day 5 (Thursday, Dec 20) Thursday
After looking at our Christmas branch a while and concluding that even Charlie Brown would be embarrassed, we decided that we had to find an alternative. We headed into the city of Nelson in search of an early lunch and a fake tree. We had heard a lot about Morrison's Cafe, so we headed there for lunch. It didn't disappoint. The coffee was outstanding and the food was excellent.
After lunch, we found what we were looking for in a department store called Farmers. We were successful - Jack enthusiasm couldn't have been greater if we fed him a hunk of chocolate. He broke a couple of ornaments in the store during our tree purchase, but it was a rounding error compared to the cost of the fake tree (yikes).
Unable to hold Jack at bay, we had to decorate the tree that night. Listening to Bing Crosby, Sinatra and Elvis Xmas CDs, we "built" our tree and placed all of the store bought ornaments and candy canes that night. Mother nature got into the act and gave us a 6.8 earthquake! We felt at home.
The only thing a little disconcerting was the Tsunami warning siren that sounded for about a half hour after the earthquake - disconcerting because it was pitch black outside. We turned on the TV and looked on the Internet - there was no mention of the earthquake or potential tsunami. Very disconcerting.
Day 6 (Friday, Dec 21)
After constant movement for the first 5 days, we decided to avoid the car on day 6. Kelly and the kids made Christmas cookies in the morning (see video). The fat content in the New Zealand butter is a lot higher than the US, so the traditional Rauser Christmas cookies tasted a little funky - but 'good' funky - just how bad can extra butter fat taste?
We walked to the beach and had a lof of fun in the water park adjacent to the beach - we rode the water slide (38 sec clip), bumped boats and a big slide. The kids had a blast. After a busy day, we went back to The Hot Rocks pizzeria for dinner.
Day 7 (Saturday, Dec 22)
Our friends, Donald and Mari, highly recommended the Nelson Saturday street market, so we headed there first thing. It is held in the middle of the city and was wonderful way to get a concentrated dose of the local arts, crafts and foodstuff. We didn't buy anything at that point, but we planned to return another Saturday.
Already stuck in a rut, we headed to the Morrison's Cafe for lunch. Did I mention how good their coffee was? We spent a little time after lunch walking around the city slyly purchasing Christmas gifts for the kids. We spent the rest of the afternoon back at the house making paper garland and finishing up the tree decorations.
