Tuesday, April 28, 2009

New Zealand in review - Day 6 - Queenstown Dinner



This photo probably won't mean much to anyone else other than Luke and me. But I think it is beautiful. It is the lights of Queenstown from the restaurant at the top of the Gondola.


Mrs Nic kicked us out and Luke and I enjoyed the marvellous buffet at the top of the Gondola. We went up at 5.30pm, we watch paragliders continue to fly off the Peak, we sat in the bar with the cable cars whisking past the windows and then we enjoyed a lovely meal while watching the light change from afternoon to dusk to evening. Beautiful!

For after dinner entertainment we listened to the screams of the night bungy jumpers and swingers in the dark just below the restaurant. Crazy folk but gave us a laugh.

New Zealand in review - Day 6 - Queenstown


Our first fun in Queenstown was a trip up the Gondola at the top of Bob's Peak. The gondola ride was deemed fun by Gondola veteran Georgia.





Just inside the door at the top of the gondola is one of the karts that is used on the luge track. Ethan would have been happy to sit on it and not move for the rest of the day.












While waiting for the luge track to open, Luke found there was paragliding operating off the peak. So he was strapped to a 'pilot', ran off the edge of the mountain and sailed off in front of our eyes. Georgia was very unimpressed that she couldn't go too.





After Luke returned safely, he, Nic and the munchkins went luge riding. I took lots of pics but in most of them, the people look too small to be noticeable. I was happy to sit and enjoy the view. It looked so perfect it could have been a blue screen.

New Zealand in review - Day 5 - Franz to Queenstown

What is it like travelling with a time bomb? Or two? To say I was very nervous about travelling with car sick king Ethan and gastro post one day Georgia between Franz Josef and Queenstown is an understatement. But with towels at the read and the lightest of breakfasts, we ventured off. First stop was a quick photo snap at the Fox Glacier.






Then lovely river/steam views through Haast Pass.









We found a terrific park on the edge of Lake Wanaka and the munchkins had a great time running around there while we enjoyed the magnificent view across the lake to snow capped peaks.




And then we got brave. Which route to Queenstown? The 120km route via Cromwell or the 70km Crown Range Road via Cardrona. With Mummy taking the wheel and driving as slowly and carefully as she could, we made it to Queenstown via the Crown Range Road. It is listed as the highest main road in New Zealand. To me it was the quickest option to get us where we needed to be! And the views weren't bad either......










New Zealand in review - day 4 - Franz Josef




Part 2 of our day in Franz Josef....
A pic of Luke and Georgia on a quadbike outside the adventure place where Luke was waiting for his quadbike tour.
And a pic of the Franz Josef glacier. Thankfully this view was only a few minute walk from the car park. My type of hiking :)

Friday, April 24, 2009

New Zealand in review - Day 4 - Franz Josef

I didn't sleep soundly. I felt uneasy. And when I woke up I found that Georgia had been sick during the night and was suffering from a nasty bout of gastro. Thank goodness for a motel laundry about 10 steps from our unit. It had an honesty box for laundry money and I told the owner that he could probably retire on the proceeds of the MANY loads I did.


Motel was http://www.bellavistafranzjosef.co.nz/ and Adam, the owner, was a treasure.


The weather was clearing so Luke got to tick one of his 'New Zealand to do list' items off the list when he took a helicopter flight up into the snow
at the top of the Glacier. He said it was FANTASTIC.


Georgia started to improve during the early afternoon so with Nic and me taking the munchkins to the playground and then for a walk, Luke headed off on a quad bike excursion. Mud, scenery and bikes apparently are a perfect boy combination. Each to their own I say!


The thought of driving down to Queenstown with a recovering Georgia + Maestro of the Carsick Ethan didn't appeal so wonderful Adam priced flights for us. At $2500+, it would have been cheaper to fly to Australia. It was one of those rare times in life that I would have loved to be rich and say 'fabulous, yes, no problem, we'll do that then'. Alas for living within your means.

New Zealand in review - Day 3 - Christchurch to Franz Josef

The day started so simply with a lovely drive across the Canterbury Plains. Beautiful green fields, snow capped mountains - just lovely. And then we hit the winding road into Arthur's Pass. Still gorgeously scenic.

Had lunch at the Wobbly Kea (amazing cheese/garlic bread!)
at Arthur's Pass and we were not two minutes down the road when Ethan got car sick. And that turned out to be car sick episode 1 and episodes 2, 3 and 4 were to follow.

Winding mountain roads don't often present easy places to stop to try and clean up and change a very unhappy little guy. It wasn't fun.

By the time we got to Hokitika, our thoughts of a nice wander around the greenstone/jade, glass, jewellery shops were replaced with a trip to the local supermarket to buy towels!


By the time we arrived in the lovely little township of Franz Josef, I was totally over car travel - as I think all five in the car were - and very glad of the promise of a rest day to follow. Little did I know.

New Zealand in review - Day 2 - Christchurch

The credit for our sightseeing today goes to Aunty Leanne and Uncle Steve who visited Christchurch last year and gave us a list of what to see that was child-friendly. As always, they were so right!

We started the day with a wander through the beautiful Botanical Gardens. What we thought would be an hour or so turned into a 2-1/2 hr meander which was delightful...other than Georgia's tantrums because she wanted to push Ethan's stroller and he was just as determined she wouldn't push him.

We saw the beautiful Avon, the lovely Gardens and found the terrific playground. We also had a quick wander through the lovely Canterbury Museum.




After lunch time snoozes all round, we headed off to the Gondola. We saw snow capped mountains in the distance and Ethan would have been happy to sit in the playroom at the top all afternoon.

Lovely Lyttleton was spread out below us and after heading back down in the Gondola, we had THE MOST AMAZING fish 'n' chips there from Lyttleton Fisheries. Luke is not a chip man but he LOVED their chips. That says a lot!



Thursday, April 23, 2009

New Zealand in review - Day 1 - Brisbane to Christchurch

No matter how prepared I am, no matter what time of day or night we leave, I don't sleep the night before a flight. As we were being collected at 6.30am on Thursday 9 April for our trip to the International Airport, I was wide awake and ready to roll well before dawn.

How to get four people, including a child needing a seat + a mountain of luggage to the airport proved to be a challenge in itself.

Being early, I didn't want to ask my ever helpful and obliging parents (just as well as it turned out Dad needed a root canal or some other yucky sounding dental thing done early that morning so he wouldn't have been available anyway), driving ourselves and parking for 2 weeks would have cost nearly A$200, a taxi wouldn't fit all our stuff, a maxi-taxi won't guarantee their arrival time as disabled clients take priority (and rightly so I say!) so our option was a private transfer. And I found:

http://www.luxinblack.com/

What a way to travel! Magnificent van and driver (John) , perfectly on time, help unloading at the airport - we couldn't have asked for more. When we were flying home, Georgia asked 'John pick us up in his van?'. She's obviously decided John is her preferred mode of travel on airport commutes from now on. Can't say I blame her.


Accompanying us on our New Zealand excursion was the ever marvellous Mrs Nic. Known as Nicole to the rest of the universe. Our children love Nic, she seems to enjoy them too and our friendship with her and husband Craig stretches back nearly a decade. As Craig is currently on assignment in the USA, Nic volunteered to come travelling with us to be our extra set of hands. What a woman! I know that there is a real St Nic and I'm so lucky that she's my friend :)



So we all checked in, loaded off oversize baggage (stroller and car seat), did the Customs thing, walked a mile or two or three to the departure gate (yes, it was the second last gate at the airport and the walk from the Duty Free Shops/food outlets to the gate took 7 minutes - I know - I did that walk three times) and waited for the plane.

Flights aren't overly fun for most people but a fuller than full flight and two very exuberant children isn't my idea of a fun way to start the day. After flying over lots of beautiful snow capped mountains as we crossed New Zealand, when we landed in Christchurch things degenerated from bad to worse as Georgia had just had enough. So getting her through Immigration and Customs involved a lot of screaming (from her although I was tempted to join in), crying (still her although I was thinking about it) and tantrums.


Thank goodness New Zealand realises that travelling with munchkins is a challenge and has an express lane for people with children. LOVE IT! The staff were superb in trying to assist us, bringing her a drink, holding her hand and trying to talk to her while other staff whisked us through and told us to bypass the exit line, which we happily did, to get us out of there as soon as they could.


Picked up hire car, fitted all baggage and people into van, found the very comfy and super clean motel (http://www.riccartonmallmotel.co.nz/) and went straight across the road to McDonald's where they have a huge and amazing indoor play centre. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!


Nic and I had to test out the shopping so we went into the Riccarton Mall to buy groceries. Yes, after we did a lap of the specialty shops and decided that shopping in NZ is very like shopping in Australia. Not a lot of difference in stock.


We found Pak'Nsave and oh how we loved that place. Nic exclaimed 'It is just like a Bunnings - BUT FOR FOOD!!!'. We had far too much fun, went back to McD's to collect Luke and the munchkins and fell into bed.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

We are home a few days earlier than planned

Under the cover of darkness last night, we arrived home in Ashgrove. We are here two days earlier than planned but with Georgia having yet another bout of a tummy bug (count - gastro - one, tummy bug bouts - two....yes three illnesses in 13 days), we decided that enough was enough.

We sadly forfeited two days in Christchurch to come home and get our girl back into 'synch'. In her own bed, with easy access to the magic tummy medication that we'd nearly run out of despite me taking everything we had 'in stock' and being sure she wouldn't need any of it (wrong) and very importantly, into the arms of her Grandma and Grandpa who she had missed terribly.

We are all still on NZ time which is 2 hours ahead of Brisbane so we've all been up very early this morning but we hope that our body clocks will catch up in the next few days.

Off to unpack bags, wash, get a grocery shopping list together and plan meals for the next few days.

And yes, as soon as I can find the cable for my camera to download pics, I'll endeavour to get them onto the blog.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Hello from Mt Cook, New Zealand

Hello Family and Friends.

Why am I sitting in a hotel floor foyer, in my lovely blue and white starry flanelette PJ's? Because I've found free internet? Shouldn't that have been obvious :)

I feel like I'm on some weird parallel planet. I've been using my eyes to work out the weather, I've been relying on the ATM to tell me how much $ are left in our accounts (not enough!), we've been using PAPER guide books and leaflets to work out what to do and where to go.....I MISS MY INTERNET!!!!!!!!

I did sneak a 5 minute peek at the messages a few days ago but how do you reply to over 100+ messages in that time and update a blog? Needless to say, I read fast and the blog didn't get updated :( Where are my priorities?

So, since my last post, we've flown from Brisbane to Christchurch (New Zealand)......and who thought that children SHOULDN'T be given meds on a day time flight? Well we won't be making that mistake on the way home. Let's just say that the flight was plenty long enough for the patience (or lack thereof?) of our munchkins and their accompanying entourage.

Christchurch was lovely, we took in the gorgeous Botanical Gardens, the Gondola (loved it), the lovely fishies and chippies at Lyletton and the weather was magnificent.

Then across the plains to Franz Josef Glacier. Sounds so simple doesn't it? How many times was Ethan car sick between Christchurch and Franz Josef? Four. Doesn't sound like a lot but at Hokitika I went supermarket shopping for towels. Forget jade, glass and all the things Hokitika is famous for - give me towels!

Franz Josef started with me waking up to find Georgia ill with gastro but at least Ethan was well by then. Luke went helicoptering and quad biking while our dear friend Nicole (who was travelling with us) and I ran what felt like a hospital ward in a motel room. How many loads of washing did we do that day? So many I can't remember!

We tried to charter a plane to get grey coloured Georgia and car chuck boy Ethan to Queenstown without the drive from Franz Josef but the $2500+ price tag was enough to fortify us that it could be done, and by car. Damn I wish I was rich! But we made it with all stomachs in tact - hooray!

Queenstown was lovely. Georgia did the 'zoom bungy' (kid bungy....aka trampoline) just about every day, we fed ducks, we spent lots of time in various playgrounds and we thoroughly enjoyed the GORGEOUS lake view from our apartment. Luke and Nicole went on the bungy swing (no I didn't do it, no I didn't think about it, for goodness sake you think I'd part with cash to do that - oui!!), everyone other than me went on the luge at the top of the Skyline Gondola (I was enjoying the sun, the view and was happy minding the bags), Luke went paragliding (Georgia was VERY ticked off to be told - repeatedly - that she couldn't go....next time sweetie!), AND I got to visit Pumpkin Patch...twice. What a great town.

We very sadly but Mrs Nic on a plane home to Brisbane on Saturday (sob, weep, oh how we miss her!).

Today (Monday) we packed up our toys, clothes, toiletries, food, towels (got to love those slightly used Hokitika towels!), the two strollers, various coats and all the other bits that make our van very, very full and we have driven the 'short' trip...only took us 4-1/2 hours....from Queenstown to Mt Cook.

Wow, this place is gorgeous. Despite low cloud we've been able to see glaciers from our hotel room. Our children are going to grow up with such a bizarre sense of normal.....Mum, can I go parachuting today - please? (No) Look Mum, the cloud has moved and I can see the glacier. (Wow Georgia...amazing). Mum, can we go on a gondola tomorrow - pleeeeeeeeease. (No Georgia, no more gondolas and besides you've been on them in two cities already on this trip). Yes, just like standard 'ordinary' kids speak - not.

Tomorrow we will take in the gorgeousness of Mt Cook and Wednesday it is on the road again back to Christchurch. All going well, we'll be home at Ashgrove on Friday night.

Love to all....except if you Aurelie and Nico in which case I'm saying Au Revoir as I have no idea what love to all is in French :)

Michelle (the pyjama clad blogger!!)

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

It's snowing!

No, it is not snowing in Brisbane. Now wouldn't that be a reportable event.

In New Zealand, both Mt Cook and Queenstown have had their first snow dustings of the season. You can see the pretty white stuff at:

Mt Cook - http://www.hermitage.co.nz/accommodation/webcam/

If you slide the arrow below the picture to the left or right, it will change the camera images to earlier/later in the day.

Coronet Peak - http://www.nzsnow.com/html/coronet-peak-webcam.htm

Currently looking rather cloudy but there is snow visible in some of the smaller thumbnails beneath the big pic.

Queenstown from Gondola - http://www.skyline.co.nz/queenstown/webcams/

The cloud is currently too low on the mountains for the snow to be visible.

Bring it on!

Two fairies


I achieved lots today (hooray!) but still lots to do before I can say we are ready to fly. Thank goodness I have tomorrow to tackle the remaining items on my 'to do' list.
Today was Georgia's last day at school this term. We gave her a special treat of her first ever tuckshop lunch. She told us her ham and cheese sandwich was 'very yummy'. Isn't it marvellous that the small things in life can make a little girl so happy?
After school, Georgia and Ethan, under the watchful eye of St. Sarah Supernanny, had a big play in the park. When they got home, Georgia announced it was time for 'fairy dancing'. Ethan was happy to watch but he passed on Georgia's very kind offer to put a fairy dress on him. A boy must have his standards I suppose.
This entry starts with a pic of two fairies I found dancing to The Wiggles. Full marks to St. Sarah Supernanny for squeezing into one of Georgia's fairy dresses!! Aren't those smiles just gorgeous? Or should that be GEORGEOUS?

Monday, April 6, 2009

An S day

An S day? Substitute chauffeur, stroller sans children, sisterly car parking, silly access, scrape goes the post, + speech therapy!

Today was a BIG day. Lots and lots done and lots and lots and lots still to do.

* I dropped Georgia and our neighbour Bianca to school this morning as I do each Monday morning. Georgia really wanted Daddy to take her as it is his first day of holiday. But he was running a little late so she had to put up with me. Apparently I was a reasonable substitute chauffeur.

* I came home, packed up the car and headed into the City to run around like a crazy chook and deliver the Entertainment Books. Ok, maybe not run as in really run but I certainly wasn't dawdling and at the end of 2 hours, I was dripping with perspiration, felt absolutely exhausted and probably looked as scruffy as if I'd run a marathon.

* How to carry 20 books, weighing nearly 1kg each around the City? With my dodgy back? Enter our double stroller. A box of 10 books in the top, a box of 10 books + book bags + bonus vouchers + + + in the bottom. Ok, so I looked like an idiot pushing a stroller sans children but it gave many people a laugh as I ran (ok, not really ran but very briskly more than walked) past.

If I had $1 for each time someone in a lift, standing at traffic lights or standing in the checkout line at Big W (book delivery + buy 2 pairs of jeans + other NZ essentials while in the City!) looked at the stroller, looked up at me and said 'Where is the baby?', I could retire. Functional, effective and much easier than carrying. But who would have thought our City had so many uphill stretches in it?

* Parked in a car park in the City, loaded up the book-mobile stroller, went to head out and realised that I'd parked 3 car spaces along from where my sister's car was sitting. What's the chance? Many City car parks, many levels within this car park, four parking areas on this level and yet I end up 3 car spaces from Margaret's car. Spooky! The Lawson girls obviously have similar tastes in parking.

* Found the only way to get a book-mobile stroller out of the carpark was to walk up the car ramps up onto the street. A lift is in the process of being installed but currently wheelchairs and strollers have to dice with the incoming and exiting traffic traffic. Not impressed.

It is less than 3 years since Georgia started walking and the thoughts of 'but, what, if' she wasn't ever able to walk are still far too clear in my mind for me to accept anything less than clear access for those unable to manage steps or a rickety old and narrow escalator.

* From the back, the X-Trail looks like a very well loved vehicle. In its 5-1/2 years to date, it has had quite a few scratches, scrapes and marks applied to it that make it look like it has had a 'join-the-dots' things going. Well, add one more after an unnamed person (hint, it wasn't me - for once!) backed it into a post this afternoon. Upon hearing the timber on metal grind, I sauntered on down into the garage to have a look at the alteration to the tail panel.

The unnamed person said that at least it was their first mark on the car. Oh yes, I commented, but at least my marks are many, varied and usually quite small......other than the one where the wheelie bin jumped behind me. The one applied today is quite large......and doesn't size matter to the males of this world? At least only a bit of paint is missing and fingers crossed the rest of it might polish off? Or we might win Lotto and take it to a panel beater and get the marks erased? I can only live in hope!!

* And then there was Georgia's speech therapy session this afternoon which wasn't too good but you get that. Some weeks are great, others aren't.

Tomorrow is the wash-a-thon and pack-a-thon day. Won't that be fun?

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Luke has been rescued from the lift

This post is for my friend Janelle as she often tells me it is my duty to make her laugh and Praise God for her comparitively quiet existence.

Luke has just phoned. He went into work about two hours ago to pick up some stuff, tidy up etc. As you do when you are on the first Sunday of your holidays. Knowing he can often get sidetracked and will eventually turn up, I hadn't given it any thought as to why he was taking so long.

He just phoned. He's been trapped in a lift at his work for the last hour. He tells me it was hot, not enjoyable talking to a muffled voice coming out of a speaker but at least he was on his own and did have a drink with him. A service man eventually turned up to rescue him. I think he would have preferred an Angelina Jolie type gal in a crop top and tight pants abseiling in through the roof but lift captives can't be choosers. Only in our family :)

NZ weather forecasts

NZ weather forecasts according to www.wunderground.com are:

Christchurch

Thursday - 11 degree maximum, 5 degree minimum
Friday - 16 degree maximum, 7 degree minimum
Saturday - 19 degree maximum, 10 degree minimum

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/93780.html

Just a tad (lot!) chillier than the 27 degrees it currently is here. BRING IT ON :)

Someone needs to own up!







As Georgia is on her weekly Saturday afternoon/night and Sunday 'holiday' at Grandma and Grandpa's, Luke, Ethan and I took off on our weekly Sunday morning magical mystery tour. We usually leave home with a 'to do' list. Inevitably we get very little of the list done and end up places we hadn't planned. But today we stuck to the list.....luggage shopping.
We are now the proud owners of some new luggage (lime green no less!) for our forthcoming NZ trip. But more on luggage another time as I have a mystery to solve. SOMEONE NEEDS TO OWN UP!!! And what we are trying to find out is......who has taught Ethan about coffee?
While we were out, I ordered a cappucino to try and keep me awake without a lunch time nanny nap. Ethan all but jumped out of his chair, wanted to stir it, put the sugar in (yet another generation supporting the cane farmers!) and then wanted to drink it. And when I wasn't keen on his having coffee, he was very, very unhappy. So I ordered him a babycino and he was in raptures.

Considering I drink coffee very, very rarely, there must be someone, somewhere who has introduced him to it. Now let me think......Aunty Leanne and Unca Steve....love coffee but alas we haven't seen them in months, Aunty Maria and Uncle Wayne....Aunty Maria loves her 1/2 strength skinny cap but I've never seen Ethan take much notice of it, Grandpa....likes a cappucino but I can't imagine he and Ethan sitting in a coffee shop enjoying one on their weekly Friday shopping trips, daycare....cappucino at daycare....doubt it, St. Sarah Supernanny....possibly...will have to ask her. The mystery continues...

Here are some pics of Ethan's babycino experience....and once he'd scooped out the froth he picked up the cup to drain the last shreds of milk in it. We couldn't stop laughing....particularly when he'd finished, he put the cup down and declared ''Aagh!".

I'm still learning about many blog things and uploading pics is one of them. The pics I've uploaded are in reverse order to when they were taken and how I would like them display but not enough time to play with that today.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Not one but TWO

Oh I feel LOVED! Not just loved but LOVED. My blog has not one, but TWO followers. I now have concrete proof that there are TWO people out in cyberspace who actually WANT to read what I write. Even better, I know them and they aren't anonymous blog followers who just happened to find me when they had nothing better to do. So a big cheery hello to Angela (you were my first follower!) and Aunty Maria.

Thanks to everyone who has sent lovely emails since I started my mutterings. I'm glad my ramblings have given you a laugh, enabled you to see updated pics of the munchkins and pass the time. I haven't replied to many of these emails yet, sorry, but they've brought a smile to my face....and this week, I've been a bit short on smiles.

I've been a really grumpy bear this week. I think getting up at least once, if not more than once, between the hours of 11pm and 5am is not a good start. Earlier in the week it was Georgia doing the night owl wandering, the last few nights it was Ethan. Thank God there are only two of them.

Ethan is just about over his cough/cold, Georgia's snuffle is now a cold that we are hoping like crazy doesn't become a sinus infection and Luke had a day off this week to visit the Doctor for some steroids to help his hacking cough. Too little sleep, too many cough/cold germs flying around and just too much to do and too little time to do it in.

Tonight Luke started his annual leave until.....wait for it......5 May. A fully fledged nice long break for him. Hooray!! Georgia's first question to him was could he please take her to school on Monday (read here.....any alternative to my Mum who doesn't let me play on the playground AFTER the bell has rung is good) so he'll be pressed into 'housewife' service by her quick smart. And that is before he sees the to do list I've got for him :)

We fly out to the land of the long white cloud on Thursday morning. Tomorrow will be the day where Thursday appears on weather forecasts and we'll be able to see how bitterly cold it will be. Can't wait for that!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

It's always nice to sleep with someone.....


It's always nice to sleep with someone... particularly if your bed companion is snuggly, furry and doesn't snore :)
This is Ethan and his BIG teddy bear, Richmond, snapped tonight.
Richmond came home with us from Teddies on the Green in Richmond, Tasmania in November 2007. He wasn't the easiest bear to transport but there are some things that little, and big, boys just have to have....regardless of the postage cost!