South of the 45th Parallel - day three

After mining we decided that the next day we should drive to Queenstown and see what there was to do there. We had seen a bridge we wanted to check out in some tourist brochures that would be on the drive over to Queenstown. We very nearly missed the turn but we managed to go squealing into the parking lot burning some rubber. The bridge was over the Kawarau Gorge and is home to the first commercial bungee jumping in the world. So Erik and I each went bungee jumping! Yeah, right! But we did enjoy watching the other crazies do it. And there was a really long zip line that you could do tandem with a friend. So we did let Caty and Grace do that. Erik got video of it from a platform below and I got some stills from above. I was a little worried Ben and Maggie would want to go but they were too short. Turns out, they not only didn't want to go but Maggie was a little scared for Caty and Grace.

Caty had to fill out a toe tag. Hmmm...

Erik stood by the Bungee Bar (closed because it was morning). Next to him it says: We're not flying. We're falling with style. It's a quote from one of the kids' favorite movies, Toy Story.

At first we thought this couple was really bungee jumping in their wedding clothes. But then someone told us that they were actors doing it for a commercial. They went at least twice while we were there.

They don't pull you up, they lower you down into a raft.

The littles had to wait a while while the girls were getting set up for their zip ride.

 Grace was the first to suit-up.

Then it was Caty's turn.

They were the only two riding so the people working there had time to pose and goof off with the girls a bit.

Right before they let them go.

There they go!

Erik took pics/video from the lower platform as they whizzed by!

Weeeeeee!

On the way back the girls were able to wave to people and relax.

Ice cream helps make waiting for big sis easier.

Gorgeous buttercups.

Fall colors and a cool saddle formation.

Next we took a small detour to Arrowtown. It's a cutsie tourist town full of gift shops and a museum. But the foliage stole the show.

Next to the museum was a pretty little water wheel.

We saw posters that said there was a reward for the girls!

Wonder if they shot someone or cheated at cards...

It was remarkable how much this town looked like little mining/tourist towns in the Rockies. But no casinos here.

A little cafe in an alley.

We sent the girls ahead to claim a table while Erik brought lunch from the car and I dragged Ben and Maggie along at a tired snail's pace.

Grace and Caty. Besties.

It was so pretty around Arrowtown.

Picnic in the park.
Next stop: Queenstown.

We had kind of run out of time and only had a few hours of daylight left when we got to Queenstown so we headed straight for the gondola ride above town. The kids were excited to go up on the gondola. Caty and Grace got to have their own goldola cabin and were quite happy about that. Ben and Maggie were excited because Caty and Grace were excited. I don't like heights or small spaces at all (and this ride had both) so I broke into a sweat but tried to keep my cool so the little ones didn't get freaked out.

Happy girls!

Daddy's girl.

Ben and I have matching dimples on our right cheeks. This is one of the few photos where you can see both of them! :)

There's the option to bring your mountain bike up and ride down. Maybe next time.

Awesome view! The background is good looking too.

We felt like we were at the top of the world!

The big girls posed while Maggie tried to remove the No Smoking sign (bottom left).

If you wanted to, you could paraglide (or whatever it's called) from the top. Erik thought that looked like a good way to get down but decided against it in the end. Then we found out that to ride the luge we had to take a chair lift even higher up the mountain!

I got a pic of Ben on the chair lift with me up to the luge.

The chair lift took us over the luge course. It doesn't look steep from here.

Erik hung on to Maggie on the way up.

Grace and Caty got on the lift in front of Ben and I.

What did you think of the chair lift ride Maggie?

I make this helmet look good!

Waiting and watching.

I have so many blurry photos of Ben because he is always on the move. Mr Fidget!

These girls just HAD to be first!

You can see the luges in the background. They're like little go carts. They're not slow either.

I got one pic of the girls and then it was my turn! I took Ben on the first ride down (sitting in front of me) and the next time Erik and I traded and I took Maggie. Ben is a speed demon and kept pushing forward on the handles to go faster! It was like a tug of war with him! Maggie is more my speed. Erik and Ben must have broken the sound barrier on their trip!

No photos Dad! Call my agent and make an appointment! Can't you see it's milk-thirty?! All that luging makes a girl thirsty.

One last pic before we headed back to Cromwell that night. What a great day!

South of the 45th Parallel - Days one and two

Late April to early May is Autumn Break for schools here. So Erik and I decided to venture South for a holiday before the snows set in. One snow storm in the Southern Alps was enough for me. Erik was offered the use of a "cabin" in Cromwell by a fellow engineer so we made that our base of operations for a 5 day visit to Central Otago. We took Caty's friend, Grace, along with us. She moved to Christchurch recently from the North Island and hadn't been South of Christchurch before. So she got to see some more of her country along with us. :) The kids were packed into the car and it was forecast to rain for 10 days in Christchurch as we headed out of town. Turns out, we had really good weather for the time of year and location (mostly cloudy but no rain or wind to speak of) while it poured down in Christchurch. (I really, really don't like rain. Or snow. Or any kind of precipitation. In that aspect, Phoenix was perfect for me.)

One exciting thing for me was to get to go south of the 45th parallel again. We were once before when we visited penguins in Omaru but this was even further south. It only runs through three countries: NZ, Argentina and Chile. It runs to the South of Australia and S. Africa and is the half-way point between the Equator and the South Pole. Also, everyone had been telling me how great Queenstown was so I wanted to see it for myself. The kids were excited just to be on an adventure with new "gum boots".

Fish and chips the first night.

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These photos show the inside of the "cabin" which was actually bigger than the house we live in. It had nice cork floors that kept the ground floor warm and a nice big loft and second bedroom upstairs. But there was no oven. Weird, but no complaints. It was a great spot. It was in Cromwell and right on the lake.

Here it is from the outside. Erik's friend designed and built it from prefabricated, foam insulated panels and the windows were all double glazed. It is the warmest house I've been inside since we moved here nearly a year and a half ago!

The views were cloudy but very picturesque and the kids loved to walk and play along the lake.

These are all shots of our first afternoon at the cabin. The colors down south were at their height. We saw some gorgeous foliage. (More pics in the next post.)

The following day we went to see an old mining camp called Goldfields. Cromwell reminded me a lot of towns in the Colorado Rockies. It started as a base for gold mining claims and grew as the gold rush took off. I've toured plenty of places like this in Colorado and what was interesting was how similar the gold rush in NZ was to the US gold rushes. Mining brought services, which brought more people, which brought more services. Now however, the region is known more for its scenic tourist value and fruit. (Fruit includes lots and lots of vineyards as well as orchards, nut trees, and berry patches.)

To get to the mining camp you had to cross a teeny, narrow bridge high over this river.

The view straight down from the bridge. The water was a gorgeous periwinkle blue that seemed unnatural. It is caused by the minerals in the rock that dissolve into the water.

They had old houses that miners used to live in. The conditions were very rough.

There were at least two resident dogs at the Goldfields Mine. The black dog followed us all the way around the tour. The kids were at least as interested in throwing sticks for him and petting him as they were in looking at the mine camp.

The place was covered in wild rose bushes and they were covered in bright red rose hips. These are packed with vitamin C, lycopene, and anti-inflammatories. So I chewed a few of them as we walked. But they really aren't very good tasting.

This was the little Chinatown settlement. I don't know why I was, but it surprised me to find that the Chinese came to NZ just like they came to Colorado to mine and work on the frontier.

This was one of the nicer dwellings in Chinatown.

Benjamin LOVED the dog. He misses Scooby a lot.

Look Mom! A horse! Can we touch it?!

Maggie was getting left behind but Erik didn't mind imitating her girly run for the camera.

Interesting piping set up to get the water from here to there. They pumped the water up the hill to a pressurized spray-gun that would wash the soil and rocks off the side of a hill and then the run-off was collected, sent down hill in these pipes to a mechanism that crushed the larger chunks of quartz and then filtered out the gold. Primitive yet effective.

Meanwhile, there was still the horse to be touched!

Grace lives near a horse paddock and has more experience with horses than Caty. She was showing Caty how to get the horse to come to her. But Caty kept inching forward in excitement. They did touch the horse a bit and then it pinned it's ears back and turned around. End of horse petting.

No fear of lawsuits so you can go into these rickety old mines if you want. I lasted about a second and my claustrophobia got the best of me. Ben was really excited about the train tracks.

We had our picture taken and then Ben wanted one too but the girls had run off.

So we got a selfie.

More cool pipes and equipment.

Panning for gold ain't just for grizzly looking guys in black and white photos. First you scoop up some dirt...

Then you take it over to the water and use the pan to find the gold.

I gave the kids panning lessons because I'm an old hand. My dad owns his own gold pan and when we were little we would take it with us to the mountains. So I showed the kids while Erik got a 15 minute guided tour of the machinery with some Danish tourists. Erik likes to answer the question: So, where are you from? With the answer: We're from Christchurch! He gets this kind of astounded look from them and then you can see them trying to figure out how to rephrase it so they can find out if you're American or Canadian. Kiwis can't tell us apart very well. I tell them, that's OK, I can't hardly tell an Aussie accent from the Kiwi one. It's about the same difference. ;) Sadly, our sense of humor is totally lost on the Kiwis. We really should cut it out but we're still amused.

One of Erik's favorite things was the list of rules for mining that all fit on one sheet. He said now there are so many rules and regulations that they use a huge book. Of course, mining is slightly safer now-a-days.

All done panning for gold, petting dogs and horses, and begging for stuff from the gift shop.

Note the parking lot (or car park). There were a couple other cars there but we basically didn't see anyone on the tour until we got back to the main museum. Everywhere is like this. In the states this place would be packed with tourists. Nothing here is ever crowded by my standards. When you wait in a line there might be a few people in front of you but never a wait more than a couple of minutes. Never. This is both convenient and sad. I keep thinking it's too bad more people don't get to see this stuff.

Grace and Caty on the little, scary bridge. :) They had a great time palling around. Sometimes pretending to be sisters. I remember doing that with my friend Tami. It's cool that she's old enough to have a friend along on a vacation. My parents used to let me bring Tami along or go with her on vacations. Ahh, to be young again!

After this excursion, we went for lunch at a little road side bistro that looked promising and had a sign saying they sold local wines. But sadly, when we walked in with 4 kids we were turned away. There was only one table occupied but the hostess shooed us out because of the kids. We wound up at a nice cafe down the road and I still got my glass of local vino.