NZ adventures with Emma and Kortney - Part 2 Queenstown

We spent the first day in Queenstown just chilling out and enjoying the view from our friends house we were staying at and shopping for supplies. We did brave a short dip in chilly Lake Wakatipu in the late afternoon.

Emma braving the cold waters of Lake Wakatipu

The next day we headed in to Queenstown and while Aaron was visiting the doctor to get his man flu checked out the girls went shopping! We then headed up the Gondola and had lunch overlooking Queenstown and Aaron and the girls spent the afternoon racing down on the luge.

Emma and Kortney in the gondola

Emma and Kortney heading up to go luging

Aaron and Kortney whizzing past!

View down over Queenstown from the top of the gondola

The next day Aaron and I went up to Lake Alta for a morning walk and then in the afternoon we took the kayak out on the lake.

Emma in Sprite... 

Looking back from the lake towards the house (middle one in the top row)

Wednesday we took a jet boat ride from Queenstown down the Kawerau River - with the driver throwing in multiple 360 degree turns along the way - making sure that we all got a little wet! Our friend Rebecca arrived in the afternoon to catch up with us for a few days.

Kortney, Emma, Helen and Aaron in the jet boat still dry at the start!

Thursday was our final day in Queenstown and Aaron and Rebecca booked a shuttle to go mountain biking over towards Coronet Peak and Skippers Canyon. Kortney, Emma and I headed up towards Glenorchy at the head of Lake Wakatipu to go for a horse trek along the Dart River. This is the area where Lord of the Rings, Prince Caspian and a number of other movies have been filmed. In the morning the clouds were low - but they burnt off and lifted to reveal the spectacular scenery. The riding was good and we even attempted a couple of trotting sessions along the way, and had to cross a couple of braids of the river.

Emma, riding a horse called Ben, and Kortney, riding Yankee, along the Dart River

Kortney on Yankee

After 2 hours riding along the river our legs were like jelly - so we drove out had lunch and did a short walk at the start of the Routeburn Track to stretch out the legs and enjoy the beautiful beech forests and mountain scenery.

Emma walking through the beautiful beech tree forest

Emma and Kortney with the clear Routeburn River

NZ adventures with Emma and Kortney - Part I road trip along the west coast

After spending Christmas in Oregon with the Lyman family, Aaron brought our nieces - Kortney and Emma back to New Zealand for a 3 week visit. They spent the first couple of days in Wellington getting over the 3 hour (+ a day) jet lag and sorting out phones etc.. and having a brief look around we headed down to the South Island for a 10 day road trip.

Day 1 - We had an early start on the Ferry on New Years day and then headed down the coast and inland to Hanmer Springs. We stopped a few times along the way to see the seals and some views. After a rather full on day of driving we had a relaxing evening hanging out in the hotpools at Hanmer Springs.

Emma, Kortney and Aaron on the ferry

Seals and the pups

Relaxing in the hot pools at Hanmer Springs

Day 2 - we headed towards the west coast, stopping to do a couple of short walks along the way at Lewis Pass and then the start of the Kirwans track north of Reefton to see a rather crazy tunnel swing bridge. Unfortunately the girls got to experience the menace that is sandflies.... and clearly they are both pretty tasty... especially Kortney. We ended up at Franz Josef. 

Emma on the swingbridge

Kortney in the tunnel

Day 3 - The weather gods were kind to us and first thing in the morning there were few clouds and the sun was shining on the west coast. This is a region that gets up to 10 m or rain a year.... so this was an unexpected surprise. We had a nice walk up to the glacier (or as far as you can get these days). Then we continued south to Haast then back inland towards Queenstown - with a short stroll to the blue pools to break up the drive.... Finally making it to Queenstown.

Emma and Kortney with Franz Josef Glacier in the background

Emma showering under a waterfall at Franz Josef

Blue Pools

Christmas in the US

Taliesin West

'Jeepin' with Uncle Les and Kendall

Our driver for the day

Hiking up Camelback Mountain

Christmas trees at the summit

Oregon coast

Blow hole at Depot Bay

Christmas Day bike ride at Marys Peak

Beach weekend with Rangers

Over the last few years it has become a bit of a tradition for the rangers to head to the beach for the weekend at the end of year. We are very fortunate that the other ranger leader, Jo, has a very nice family bach at Peka Peka beach on the Kapiti coast, which we are allowed to use. This year the weather wasn't great - but we still made it out kayaking and swimming on both Saturday and Sunday morning. Some of the girls got quite good at surfing the small waves. The rest of the time we spent playing board games and cooking... pizza, cookies, meringues, spring rolls...

Hannah kayaking

Sophie on the swing at the beach house

So the end of rangers for another year... lots of certificates and awards presented to the girls. A couple of girls leaving us to head off to Uni next year. Can't believe I have now been doing rangers for almost 5 years and seen quite a few girls grow up.... I guess I might have to as well next year!

Peanut - 19 Weeks

Today we had our 19 week anatomy scan to check how peanut is developing. Perhaps we need to stop calling it peanut as it is a little bit bigger now.... 

Everything was fine. A good strong heart beat and everything else was present and correct and normal size - so that is a relief. For a while she kept putting her hand in front of her face making it tricky for the ultrasound specialist to measure the nose, chin and jaw, but eventually she moved it away. I say "she" as they are 90% sure that it will be a girl as there was no evidence of any boy bits...

A few scan images below.... 

  

Goodbye Safi

Tramping on Mt Taranaki

The New Zealand Geosciences conference was held in New Plymouth this year. A great excuse to go for another tramp on Mt Taranaki. However, I am not in top tramping fitness... so we chose a pretty easy tramp up to Pouakai Hut, only 2 and a half hours from the carpark, starting off pretty gently and slowly getting steeper. I went with one of the students who grew up in New Plymouth and had done this tramp many years ago and wanted to take her 10 year old niece on her first tramp. We were also joined by her brother, Ralph.

Sophie, Ana and Ralph Barton

On the drive up to New Plymouth it was rainy and cloudy and we could barely see Mt Taranaki, but as we arrived at 1pm in the afternoon the clouds lifted and we walked up the Mangorei track in the sunshine and got some great views back down to the city and the coast. When we got to Pouakai Hut we dropped our bags and headed up to the ridge above the hut and got some great views across to Mt Taranaki. It was perfect weather with no wind and warm, so we spent quite a bit of time just hanging out before heading down to the hut for dinner. 

Pouakai Hut

Looking across at Mt Taranaki

We had a nice evening eating and playing cards. Unfortunately when we woke up in the morning it was cloudy and drizzling... we had originally planned to walk out along the ridge to North Egmont (part of the Pouakai circuit), but there was no point as we wouldn't have been able to see anything. So we had a lazy start and then pottered back down the same way. Probably enough for Ana, the 10 year old... 

I felt pretty good on the walk up - but had to take a little more weight on my shoulders as I couldn't tighten my waist belt around the small "bump" that is developing. So this will probably be my last overnight walk - unless I can convince someone else to carry most of the stuff. I will just have to stick to some day walks over the next few months.