Bestie, the Hubs, JJ and the Waitomo Glowworm Caves

Look at that, March came and went and no blog post.  Well, it's still the thirty-first in the United States where most of my audience reside, so really quickly, here comes my March post...

I looked forward to March for months.  It was kind of my holy grail of months in New Zealand as bestie and the hubs were coming for a visit.  It seemed like it took forever and then suddenly, bam, they were here!

I had a lot of fun while they were here and I really hope they did too.  The day of their arrival we had a little dinner party at our house due to the fact that our friends, the Alexander's were in town for a visit from Oz.  I swore and swore to myself all week that I was going to take some photos of the kids playing (my boys get on famously with the Alexander children), of Mrs. Alexander, who I was so thrilled to see before her move to the South Island and of my friend's who are adorable as ever, moving right into the third trimester of pregnancy - I didn't take one!

The rest of the time that bestie and the hubs were around simply flew by for me.  We did the Auckland day thing and a trip out to Waiheke and then Jesse had this really "great" idea...he wanted to see the glowworm caves.

God help me.

It started out pedestrian enough, we took a nice little drive south-west.

When we arrived, they fitted us with wetsuits.  We took a very dirty old van with two British hippies and were driven out into the middle of basically, nowhere.  We learned how to abseil -  wait, what?  Abseil?  I am totally afraid of heights and now we're going to abseil?  Oh, but there wasn't a rock wall to rappel against, it was free abseiling into a dark hole in the ground.  They were quick to warn us not to let go of the rope under any circumstances (like, oh, say a big spider jumps onto your face...)because the penalty is, wait, guess, guess...DEATH.

Here's how the rest went:

Half way down the rope, we come to a narrowing that we have to wriggle through -- okay, 17 meters down a hole and suspended with just a rope now I get to wriggle through a small opening in the rock - just gets better.  When we finally make it down, we have to make sure we latch our hooks onto the guide-ropes, no one wants to fall off the scary enough platform into the abyss.  Oh, next we get hooked up to a flying fox (zip line) so we can soar, alone, in the pitch black across the black river.

Quick break as they feed us high sugared treats so our blood sugar can continue to rage and our body heat can stay above hypothermia.

Break's over -- into an inter-tube we go to jump from a 15 foot rock into unknown (to me) black waters.  Go ahead, jump!  Dang, that's cold!

Oh, look there are glowing maggots on the cave roof...

After a little guided tour via inter-tube we take the tubes back and hike in the waist (and sometimes above my head) water for the next two hours.  We stop again for another sugar and hot chocolate snack, hike some more.  Fit through a little opening of rock (when there were actually lots of larger openings all around but this was the re-birth canal so we must!).  Finally, it's time to free climb twenty feet up through a waterfall.  At this point, I said, no thanks and walked out of the cave right around the corner.  Bestie, the hubs and JJ were good sports and did the climb.

I'm not going to lie.  I was annoyed.  I had a good time but the truth is, building all the actual risk into the trip when it didn't have to be there was in my mind, silly.  I didn't mind the black water or the hike or even the cold (I didn't really think it was that cold) but lowering myself down a rope and climbing on slippery wet rocks seemed ridiculous.  We weren't really exploring this cave, we were doing a touristy thing.  I don't get the point of forgoing the easy way in, floating on tubes ands seeing the glowworms and walking back out.  The flying fox was fun too.  I'm not risk adverse exactly but if I'm going to take risks, they should be worth something.

I will never forget bestie's trip and the fact that she and the hubs were the only ones (other than mamaw and junnie) who made the long, tiresome trip to the other side of the world, to see us.  I'll never forget that JJ took three days off work to spend totally devoted to us.  Those are reasons definitely worth scaling walls and flying through caves if I've ever heard any!

Waitangi Day Weekend

It's been a while since I did a scenes of New Zealand entry.  Part of it is that as my Kiwi friend Em would say, living here, you become spoilt for scenery.  There is another part of it of course, and that's the part that tells me that I've already shared it on Instagram or on Facebook and I'm too busy to take the time to record it here as well.  I've decided to attempt to slay the demon of laziness this week and start my Monday with a post from our weekend away.

We set out last Thursday morning for a bach in Russell.  Please let me begin by explaining that a bach is what a small vacation home was originally called in New Zealand and it was a shortened version of "bachelor pad".  It usually consisted of one or two rooms and was quite rustic, so I'm told.  Today, the bachs we've stayed in and visited have ranged from beautiful and luxurious too reminiscent of the origins of the term.  I booked our batch for the long holiday weekend and it was definitely more true to the original meaning.  What we lacked in luxury, we made up for with a beautiful beach, good company and excellent restaurants in a quaint little town.

It rained a bit while we were there but we took that opportunity and the holiday (Waitangi Day) to visit the Waitangi Treaty grounds and learn a bit more about the place that we have been calling home.  We were able to see the sites, let the boys run a little on sacred ground and watch a traditional performance.  A successful rain out day to say the least.

Finally, Saturday was beautiful and we took full advantage of our surroundings.  Played in the surf and sand and finished our time off with pizza in town.  Sunday we were back on the road and in Auckland early enough for a nice dinner on the grill and swim in the ocean.  Great weekend!

Click on the links above to learn more about Russell (the hellhole of the Pacific) and Waitangi.  Take a look at the photos below to see one one-hundredth of the beauty we experienced over the weekend (don't mind the fact that AJ4 doesn't show up here, he was present).  Visit New Zealand and enjoy it all yourself!

Cheers!

It's A Kiwi Christmas

So, one of my New Year's resolutions was to blog more.  I promised myself that at least once a month I would get some words and some photos here so that in twenty years, my babies could see where we were and what I was thinking.  Scrapbooks are heavy and take up room in suitcases and moving vans so this is my solution.

This was our second Christmas in New Zealand and probably our last.  We knew the lay of the land this year.  BBQ, maybe the beach, laid back, fun times at Christmas.  We knew not to expect the hustle and bustle of a US Christmas and we were willing to leave it with the snow!

We made our ornaments and decor this year and had so much fun...

We visited Grandma's Kiwi Christmas experience at Smith & Caughey and read the book EVERY NIGHT!!  I plan for this book to travel back with us and be one of the ways that we honor our time here as the boys grow.  You can learn more about Helen McKinlay and all her fun books.  We often enjoy Grandma Joins the All Blacks too.

Had a short meeting and photo op with Santa and his elves (my boys were 100% enchanted!).

Of course, we tried to simply live at the beach whenever possible.  This is something that I undervalued before I lived in Auckland and have full knowledge I will be missing immensely by next December.  This access to the beach is what I will not be able to pack up and take home, and I really regret that.  

We got a slip and slide and the AJs have decided that the best dress code is nudity!  So grateful for our garden wall!

Auckland puts on a natural show at Christmas time too.  It goes from really beautiful to magnificent!  

We got this giant tree.  Even I, despiser of the Christmas tree appreciated it for a short while (until it started dropping needles).  

It was the most beautiful Christmas I have experienced, ever.

As our holidays begin to wind down with Auckland City Day this weekend, I wish you a happy new year! 

 Cheers!