January in Wanaka, post 1

Super behind on my posting.  Going to attempt to catch up so the words may be a little less.  After the new year, we had the whole month of January off for school holidays.  Our first adventure was to go to Wanaka to spend a week with the cousins.  But before then, we hung out with our friends in the neighborhood.

Ice Blocks on our favorite beach.

Swimming with our buddies and having crazy hair after!  The kids hair is getting really blonde with being in the sun so much,

Kid table and easy BBQ dinners!

And then we headed to Wanaka.  It was awhile since we had been down there (since Archie was a baby).  It is alway amazing to fly into Queenstown!  The planes come down in-between the mountains and it is so beautiful.

We stopped in Arrowtown (an old mining town) to visit some good friends and enjoy the town.  

We found the sweets shop.  The Remarkables is actually a name of some nearby mountains.  The shop was impressive.

And then we arrive in Wanaka.  The first day was the only day of cloudy weather.  The entire week was gorgeous.  We all went out on runs and walks.  The cousins had many hikes and we were able to make quite a few.  There were rivers, mountains, and bush to explore.

We had a rainy day so we went to Puzzling World.  It was indeed the coolest puzzle world.  There is a massive maze that is VERY difficult to master.  We all split up, in the rain, and spent the next 90 minutes trying to get out.  Luckily there are emergency exits to use....which I did.  Then there were tables full of puzzles plus a fun exhibit space to explore. It was a day well spent.

The maze that was supposed to be hard.....and it was impossible to get out of.  The photos don't do it justice.  We were all in there for at least 90 minutes.  Sylvie and I had to use one of the emergency (give-up) escape doors because we couldn't figure out how to get out.  It was super fun.

And Jane introduced us to a lovely new gin.  That topped off the rainy day.

We also met new cousin George.  He is a cutie and we were super lucky to overlap with his parents trip!  It is nice to get all the kids together.

We did a lot of walks and just went out and enjoyed rivers, lakes, and the bush.  NZ is definitely amazing and we are so lucky to live here and enjoy it.

 I have so many photos that I have to split this post into 2!

The End of 2018

So we spent the end of 2018 in Hawkes bay.  More time with the relatives and hot weather.

We went for a short walk thru a swampy area on a boardwalk.  It was a nice little time outside.  Archie thought an area of the swamp was grass except it was green algae on top of the water.  He stepped of the walkway and went shoulder deep into water.  He was fine but a little scared.  The only loss was one of his shoes that was never found.  And he didn't like his wet clothes so he walked around in his wet undies.

We had a couple more walks up Te Mata Peak before we returned home.

We explored nearby Napier and its revamped waterfront.  Lots to do and walk thru.  The kids took their scooters and had a great time.  

We had a few more games in the back garden with the cousins before we left.  The kids were super sad to leave them.  

And Hugo the dog found 2 hedgehogs in the garden!  I had never seen one in real life and didn't know they were in NZ.  They were introduced long ago and are actually classified a pest in NZ because they eat food that native birds and lizards may eat.  But they are too cute to be called a pest!

And we visited the honey factory again.  Super fun and we had a good time sampling all the different types.

And we tried to get some family photos.  This was pretty good for so many kids to get together in one place.

And we were able to get out to a nice dinner at Elephant Hill winery.  It was a nice evening to go out without the kids.