Hamner Springs and the West Coast

We flew into Christchurch and spent one night there before heading off on our New Zealand adventure. We found an amazing pizza place (Hells Pizza) and the next morning we checked out the market (some great souvenirs and food) and Botanic Gardens which were beautiful. The devastation of the earthquakes is evident all around town. It was sad to see such a huge area fenced off because the area was so unsafe and broken. It seemed to us that the churches were hardest hit or really anything made of brick.

After spending the morning in Christchurch we drove 2 hours to Hamner Springs which reminded us of Jasper and Banff combined. We headed to the hot springs which had about 10 different pools of varying temperatures.

The kids had a great time swimming, it had been a while! In the morning we wanted to explore the town but the stores weren't open and we had six hours of driving ahead of us so we decided to head out.

After driving for three hours in the rain we finally saw the ocean. The west coast seemed a lot rougher to us, but maybe that was the weather conditions.

We spent the night in Fox Glacier but didn't get to see the glaciers due to low cloud and lots of rain. In fact, this is the Haas Pass which we almost didn't make it through. Chains on your tires were essential and guess who didn't have chains for their rental car! We spent an hour debating whether to try to get through or detour 6 hours and exchange cars. So glad we didn't detour, even though there was snow the road had been plowed and it really wasn't bad at all, we were more scared that cops would tell us to turn back than the actual road conditions!

This country must have the most incredible views. Everywhere we went there were postcard worthy spots!

This is the view from our apartment in Queenstown. Queenstown reminded us of Kelowna. Lots of shops and tons of activities. We decided to do a 4x4 Lord of the Rings tour with the kids. We had the jeep to ourselves other than the driver.

The morning started out overcast and rainy but this is a view of Queenstown from half way up the road leading to one of the ski hills.

This area was used in a scene from the first movie where a boat goes through two greek god pillars. Bungee jumpers were a minute up the river as well, we saw three people jump!

We weren't sure how Miles would like the trip but this is what he looked like when we were going through the river (which we did about 15 times!)

Clint and Izzy enjoyed the bumpy ride too!

This is what it looked like when the jeep went through the river.

Izzy had fallen asleep in the jeep and Miles feet were freezing from our snack break so we got a moment to ourselves on a road to another ski hill.

Te Anau was our next stop. We did two trips out of here, the first to some glowworm caves and the second through Doubtful Sound. Here are some scenery shots of things that we saw, beautiful!

Canada Day Birthday Party

We decided to have a joint birthday party for the kids on Canada Day which falls in between their big days. Miles turned 5 on June 13 and Izzy turned 2 on July 21. We had a big hockey night in Canada party where guests were asked to wear red and white on Canada Day, which they did!

We took an idea form our friends the Masters and had 4 games to get everyone involved and enjoying hockey. We started with a hockey shoot out where each family chose 2 family members to shoot at the net and try to get points depending on if they could get the puck in the net or hit a milk carton, which was worth more points! (Just so you know Clint had to carry the hockey net home while riding his bike because it wouldn't fit in the car! He got a few weird looks on the 10 minute ride!) This is Snake, Clint's assistant principal having a shot.

Next, another family member played Snock Knock. A golf ball was put in a pair of nylons and attached to the players belt. Without using their hands they had to knock over three hockey pictures on the floor. Lots of fun, thanks Scott!! Sarah and Rochelle represented their families although the fastest time went to Ben in another round!

The kids each got to play pin the puck on the faceoff. We had a very close game with lots of pucks piled on top of each other.

The last game was orange art where each family had to use an orange to create something Canadian. One family came up with a hockey player while the winning team included our exchange family and a bear encounter that Bree (the daughter) experienced on a school camping trip.

Our camera ran out of batteries so sorry there aren't any more pictures but hope you enjoy our party as much as we did!


As lots of you know I spent a bit of time cooking Canadian food from scratch and after some failed attempts some things were scraped because they just didn't work with the ingredients I could find here. I made perogies while my mom was here (which people here have never heard of) and we had sweet and sour meatballs, a baked ham and some side salads for our main meal. For dessert the big guns came out, I made Nanaimo bars, beaver tails and cupcakes. After getting over the name beaver tail everyone gobbled up the desserts and there wasn't much left at the end of the night!

Everyone seemed to have a good time, including the birthday kids! I couldn't believe how much the other kids loved hockey, they were out in the back yard all night and the only injury went to Miles at 9:30 pm which was way past his bedtime.