New Zealand: Wellington, Kaikoura, Christchurch, Queenstown

From Lake Taupo we headed down to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.  They call the capitol building 'The Beehive' because it looks like....a beehive! 

Originally Auckland was the capital but the leaders of the day thought that if the capital wasn't closer to the south island that the south island would create its own country.  So, Wellington is seat of power even though Auckland is where 35% of where the country's 4.5 million inhabitants live.  There is a saying in New Zealand that there are more sheep than people in the country (and it's probably true based on what we saw!)

AJ found these little flexible sticks and the kids had a samari-like battle in front of the capitol.

We really just spent an afternoon + one overnight in Wellington as we waited for the huge ferry which crosses over to the south island.  There is a massive slide near the docks which the kids really enjoyed (especially AJ).

David Bussau

As a part of their home school assignments, the kids read books about Christian missionaries who did great things in the name of Jesus Christ in this world.  The one we read in New Zealand was about a man named David Bussau who grew up in a broken family in Wellington, spent most of his childhood in an orphanage, but ultimately found success in business.

From that success, he was one of the first people to empower the poor through micro finance loans.  He started Opportunity International and his ideas have now been widely adopted by many organizations helping literally millions of poor people around the world rise out of poverty in a self sustaining, developmental, empowering way (compared to the failed model of consistent 'handouts' which leads to dependence and more poverty).  He can best be described as a social entrepreneur, and he clearly loves Jesus Christ.

This book about David Bussau became a very interesting part of our journey later on as we traveled to Australia.  We happened to be in Wellington while we were reading about his younger years.  We spent some time that evening driving to the areas mentioned in the book so the kids could see that Jesus can use anyone from any background to do amazing things in this world if we will just follow His lead.

The South Island

The next morning we headed to the south island.  The wind was quite strong on the top deck!

They had all kinds of entertainment on the 3+ hour voyage.  AJ made fast friends...

Kaikoura

Our first stop on the south island was Kaikoura which is a beautiful area in the east coast.  We spent 2 nights here in a place right on the beach....

During this part of the trip we were studying the Old Testament using Scripture Union's E100 book (100 key scriptures from the Bible).  It is a book we went through as we took this journey around the world.  On this particular day we had studied Noah's Ark, figured out was a 'cubit' was and then marked off just how big the ark actually was.  S is marking the front of the ark and if you follow the footsteps around the bend in the beach you will see a tiny light blue shirt by the cluster of people far in the distance (that's me)....and that is how long the ark was.  No wonder it took so long to build!

This couple saved us from a major headache.  Our thanks to Peter and Sarah from Christchurch as we locked our keys in the car.  They were just about the only other people on the beach.  They were so kind as they called their AAA-like car service who came and opened the car at no cost to us.  While we waited we learned all about the massive earthquake in Christchurch about 2 years ago, what it was like, how it has impacted the community etc.  AJ loved their boys and could have played with them all day because 'they have little cars!!!'   Thanks Peter and Sarah for saving the day!

Kaikoura from the hill above....

Christchurch

One of our goals for this journey was to serve Jesus Christ as we traveled the world.  We didn't just want to vacation and be tourists.  Due to the earthquake, we really thought we would spend 4 or 5 days in Christchurch serving in some capacity.  But what we found is that western countries kind of have an attitude of 'we got it covered....thanks, but no thanks!'

We really had a tough time finding organizations who would allow us to help.  We contacted churches, soup kitchens, organizations helping with the clean up but none of them wanted our help.  I think maybe they were intimidated by the age of the kids as it seems odd to turn away volunteers, but that is what happened.

We eventually found a church who needed help in their Op Shop, and it was a perfect fit for our family and for the church in need.  Thanks to Bo and her church for setting that up during our last few days in New Zealand as we did the same thing to serve in Australia.

Anyway, instead of spending a lot of time in Christchurch, we basically spent most of one day here.  It is really incredible the damage that mother nature can incur when her full fury is unleashed.  Even though the earthquakes happened 2 years ago (there were several with the biggest one being in March 2011), the community is still in recovery mode.

Many churches look like the one above with their steeples sitting upright on the church lawn.  The downtown area as hit very, very hard.  Most roads in the downtown area were still closed to passenger traffic.  To get things back up and running they have created a new downtown for the time being made of fancied up shipping crates.  I've never seen anything like it...

And the demolition continues....(AJ thought is was SO funny that the car is on the side of the building)

We headed out of Christchurch with much goofiness & ice cream....

....and an absolutely beautiful drive....

The color of several of the lakes was like something out of a dream (Lake Tekapo and the one pictured below Lake Pukaki).  The pictures really don't do the color justice.  It was an absolutely amazing blue that almost forced you to stop the car to get out and look at it.  Stunning.

Queenstown

And then we arrived in Queenstown where we stayed for 5 nights and 6 days.  This is the view from where we stayed that week.  Literally, the most beautiful place I have ever been.....

I couldn't believe the deal we got given the views....

We had SO many wonderful memories around this table....from hilarious videos of AJ doing his talk about sheep (after the girls had written and recited poems they had written) to pretty funny dances as well as very interesting home school reports on different animals from New Zealand.  

Each family member put together a report on a native New Zealand animal.  I had the Huhu grub of all animals and ended up doing an interpretive dance with AJ.  He was supposed to be the Huhu grub and I was the bird who was going to eat him for breakfast....but AJ didn't do his part so well and just copied exactly what I did in the dance.  Very funny and I can still hear the laughter from around this table as I'm writing seven months later.

Without question, this place was the nicest and most 'spacious' place we stayed during the entire journey. 

Amazing.  Even when it rained, it was beautiful....

And the sunsets were gorgeous...

One of the things we most enjoyed was just sitting on the deck and watching clouds form out of the water, climb the mountains, and join the clouds above.

Rainbows!

We tried to get pictures of the evening sky but they didn't come out so well.  For the first time in my life, I very clearly saw the Milky Way at night.  Rachel and I sat on the balcony one evening and just watched shooting star after shooting star fire across the sky.

When you are in a place like this, you cannot help but feel God's presence!

There is one warning, however.  Queenstown might be the allergy capital of the world (we actually had a guy say that to us!).  Rachel doesn't have bad allergies but something was in the air in Queenstown that had my poor wife absolutely miserable the first day we were there.  Sneezing, red eyes, swollen sinuses, no sleep.  She was about as miserable as I have ever seen her.  Fortunately, we met a man at the church we attended the morning after we arrived, and he pointed us to a pharmacy in town.  We got eye drops and other medications and thankfully those things worked to at least make the week bearable for Rachel.  Otherwise, it would have been a disaster!

So, if you have allergies, be careful coming here during their spring / summer season (October to March)  We were there in mid January.

Kiwi Birdlife Park

We spent an afternoon at the Kiwi Birdlife Park and give this place two thumbs up for those traveling with families.  It is very affordable + has an audio guide included + has a couple of good animal shows included....and you get to see the national symbol of NZ, the Kiwi (which is a nocturnal animal).

This place is also where the kids did much of their research on their 'New Zealand Animal' projects.  My favorite memory happen just after this picture....a bird of prey which has been trained to fly low over the crowd literally flew right over Rachel and AJ.

AJ compared to the largest bird...

Back at the house AJ learned that the windows are REALLY clear and clean.  He is crying because he bumped into the window while trying to walk out onto the porch.

But the funny thing is Rachel did exactly the same thing later...

And even left a big face mark on the window (see the smudge?)  LOL

We loved Queenstown...

Arrowtown

One of our day trips during this time was to Arrowtown which is less than 30 minutes from Queenstown.  It is an old mining town as this part of NZ had a gold rush in the 1800s.  We started at a little museum and then heading out to pan for gold.

I will readily admit I thought the probability of us finding gold was very close to 0%.  We just thought it would be a fun experience....

This area of New Zealand is where the Lord of the Rings movies were set.  There was a placard here indicating one of the scenes was shot in this area...

But we were searching for gold....and having a lot of fun

Then we met a guy whose hobby is searching for gold here.  He had all kinds of equipment and showed us gold he had found...there's gold in them thar hills & rivers!

And believe it or not, Miss V found a flake of real gold (confirmed by the 'hobbyist' above....but not worth more than about $5)

Kingston Flyer

Another day trip was to the Kingston Flyer which is an old fashion train that runs between two towns on the south island.  It's really just a business built to thrill little boys ;)

AJ still remembers this outing and talks about the Kingston Flyer by name....

P.U.R.E.  J.O.Y ;)

Our last adventure in Queenstown was riding the ShotOver Jet.  The high speed boat goes flying through a canyon doing 360s, barely missing canyon walls, and is generally a thrill seeker's fun ride.

Our family really grew closer during this time in New Zealand.  I look back on it with such joy.  But I think what I will remember most about this particular time in New Zealand is that somewhere in this time frame God decided to surprise us with quite a wonderful surprise....new life growing in Rachel.  We didn't realize that at the time of course, but this time really was life changing for our family on many different levels ;)