School of Fish, Murder of Crows, ??? of Sheep

            On Tuesday we left and headed to Mataura to visit the Taylors.  Among other things they own a sheep farm, which besides spending time with friends was the major draw for my dad.  On the way out of Invercargill, we stopped by and saw Henry, a 100+ year old tuatara.  I saw him move for the first time in 5 visits… he took a whole TWO STEPS.  Tuataras are not known for moving around.  In fact there was a blurb in the museum about how they fight.  There is a flurry of movement with the two tuataras lunging for each other’s throats for 4-5 seconds… then they rest for 15-20 minutes.  (Yes that was fighting for seconds resting for minutes.)

Henry

            When we arrived on Tuesday, we hung out at the church building with their minister, Chris DuBose.  Chris knows several ACU people, so we played a lot of do you know…?  LilliAnn also got to learn about the fun of a flying fox.

            That evening we had dinner with the Taylors, and then I headed to Raymond and Lisa Thomas’s.  Lisa is the Taylors’ daughter.  I really enjoyed getting to spend time with them.

            Wednesday morning, we went out on the farm with Alan and Julie, the Taylor’s other daughter.  We got to watch the sheep dog move some sheep which is really impressive.  Mist, the dog, responded to very low commands and whistles.  It was raining off and on all morning and so things were pretty muddy.  I was grateful for gum boots, esp. when the 4x4 pulling our trailer got stuck so we had to jump off to push.  I really thought I was about to do a face plant in a bunch of muck while carrying my camera, but I’d slung it around my back.  I did not in fact, take a mud bath, although I nearly lost a boot to the mud.  We also got to watch them feed the cattle.  When we went back to the shearing barn, we watch Alan shave off the dirty end of the sheep. 

Julie and Mist moving the some sheep.

Cleaning off the backend.

Getting up close and personal… the only reason they didn’t run away from me back to the other end is that is where the shearing was occurring.

            In the afternoon, we went down to the Taylors’ café that they run in town.  Jennifer and the workers were starting to clean up, so of course that is when all the friends and family showed up.  J  We did show up before closing.  Julie, Lisa, and the gradkids helped clean up.  We offered to help… but we weren’t particularly helpful.  J 

            Wednesday night, we went to the Thomas’s for dinner.  It was really great.  LilliAnn had spent most of the afternoon with Elijah, the Thomas’s younger son.  They were two peas in a pod and had a great time.

            Thursday morning, we went out on the farm again for a bit.  Mom, LilliAnn, and I wandered to the creek… one of the fun things about gum boots is that you can wander into the creek. 

Even I got into the creek this time… shortly after this picture.

LilliAnn riding with Julie on the 4 wheeler.  Mom and I are in the trailer it is towing.

            In the afternoon, we headed out toward Dunedin.  We went on the scenic route along the southeastern coast.   We again were blest with lots of really bright rainbows. The scenic route was beautiful, even though it got dark on us about halfway through; the moon was incredibly bright so we could still see quite a bit.  We arrived in Dunedin in time for bed.

A rainbow somewhere in Southland

Waipapa Point

Curio Bay at Sunset… ok technically I think the bay is behind me… but that’s where this was taken.

The sea in the moonlight

            Today (Friday), I had a new experience.  David and Aaron, from the Dunedin church, have a radio show that they do every other week.  Dad had been a guest on it two weeks ago and we were both guests this week.  It was my first experience doing radio.  It was interesting to see how they put it all together.  I was quite impressed with what I good job they did.  Afterwards, we went and picked up some lunch. 

            In the afternoon, Dad and I took LilliAnn along with Aaron and Vanessa’s children Gabrielle and Liam to the Cadbury factory.  When Vanessa picked the children up from school she didn’t tell them what they were doing.  It was great fun to see their reaction when they realized they were about to tour a chocolate factory.  The tour was quite interesting and we got a bag full of chocolate by the end.  It was really fun to go with children who were both well behaved and enthusiastic.

Liam, LilliAnn, and Gabrielle ready to go on the tour in their hair nets.  (Yup we all wore them.)

Having fun after the tour.  I couldn’t take the camera on the tour.  Notice which side of the car the driver is on.

            Tonight we went to dinner with the Woodrows, with whom we are staying then came back and hung out at their house.  It has been a fun few days.

ANSWER:  Mob of Sheep

Blown Away By Bluff

This morning (Monday), Mom, LilliAnn, and I went to Bluff.  It is the Southern most community (I think) on the South Island.  Before we left I finally had my camera downstairs so I could capture a picture of one of the tuis that hangs out in the Stantons' yard.  They are incredible birds, like parrots they can mimic a large variety of sounds.  This one has sounded like a cat, a monkey, a robot, among other things.  I can hear it from my room in the morning and evening.  It is a very cool bird.

I think the tui may have been checking us out too.

 The weather was very spotty.  It rained, then cleared up and then would rain again.  It turned out it made it absolutely beautiful at Sterling Point.  The wind has been up as high as 45 mph, so the sea was a bit rough.  I took a few hundred pictures.  It was amazing to watch the sky and the sea change colors.  Because of the rain showers drifting in and out and the sun shining through occasionally, we were able to see several rainbows.  I have not done any photo editing to the following pictures.  The colors really kept changing and they were all taken within 45 minutes or so.

Only 4810 km from the South Pole. 5133 km from the Equator.

A couple of rainbow pictures:

Mom and LilliAnn are always trying to get as close to the water as possible.  If you look carefully you can see the blue of LilliAnn's jacket through the bush on the left.

The seas were really rough and showed lots of different colors.

After hanging out at Sterling Point, and experiencing the ever changing sea and using an exciting toilet that played us music, we headed to the look out over Bluff.  We could see for miles and the scenery was beautiful.

Can it rain rainbows?

Looking towards Invercargill

It was beautiful, but maybe the strongest winds I've experienced.

LilliAnn and Mom.  LilliAnn has her ears covered because of the winds.

After enjoying the scenery we came home for lunch.  After lunch we had afternoon tea with Vi Downham, one of the ladies from church.  I stayed with her for a weekend during my first trip to New Zealand and have stayed with both her son and daughter on different trips.  She is an amazing lady. Vi was a teenager in England during WWII and survived the bombings by the Nazis.  She also incredibly kind and loads of fun.

This evening we had dinner with the Stantons and are now watching a movie.  Good times!

I know I've said this before... but this may be the last time I can upload pictures until I get back to the States.  I'll try to at least update our activities.  But I know the pictures of New Zealand are way more exciting than my writing... I have no illusions about that.  :)

Hanging Out in Invercargill

The past few days we've had a great time hanging out with Grant, Chrissy, and others in Invercargill.  Thursday morning, we slept in, then headed into town.  Chrissy has been putting together packages to send to children in Christchurch (where the earthquakes have been this year.)  We went to a second hand shop and bought dolls and stuffed animals.  After a trip to the grocery store, we stopped by and saw the estuary.  There was an old engine that ran on wooden rails that LilliAnn and Chrissy had a great time playing on.

Invercargill Estuary/ River at Low Tide

LilliAnn and Chrissy

How do we run this thing?

Hey look!  The metal sides make a lot of noise if you bang on them!

 When we got home we spent a quiet afternoon.  LilliAnn helped Chrissy make gift boxes and they had a big time.  Mom helped out some too.  I got reacquainted with my computer and did some photo editing.  :)

Taking a break from work for some playing.

Thursday evening, several folks from church came over.  We sang for awhile and then had supper.  Nice sweet treats.  

Friday we planned to do some sightseeing in the morning, but Mom with our help spent much of the morning on the phone with the website through which we booked our tickets.  The fourth of our original flights home had been canceled and we had been rebooked which is good.  The only problem was that our 4th flight was scheduled to last in Little Rock before our third flight landed in Charlotte.  Needless to say, that was a problem... anyway... it took us most of the morning to get our flights rebooked.  In the afternoon, we went to Riverton and visited a paua shell jewelry factory and went to a rocky beach.

We had a good time trying to dodge some splashing waves.

Aren't they cute?

A picture of all four of us on the beach.  Can't you tell by our clothes that it was good beach weather?

Friday night we followed a good Stanton tradition and had fish and chips for dinner.  Then we sat around and relaxed.

Saturday Mom, LilliAnn, and I took Chloe another 11 year old from church to McDonalds.  11 year olds all over the world love MickyD's.  The girls had a good time.  After lunch, Mom, LilliAnn and I did some shopping.  In the evening, we had tea with Mike and Sue Hewitt.  We had a good time catching up with them.

Today (whew) at church Dad taught class and preached.  Mom taught the children's class.  (Yes just one class they have 3-4 kids on a Sunday.)  After services, we had a potluck.  Chrissy baked me a birthday cake.  (Its my 5th birthday in New Zealand, so that makes me 5 here, right?)  Since we've gotten home its been a nice quiet afternoon.  LilliAnn has enjoyed watching the Muppet Show.

Mike, Sue, Chloe, Vi, Jeanette, and Margret during services (with a blurry Sam)

Dad preaching

My birthday cake

Glow Worms

Wednesday morning we left Queenstown and headed South (and a bit west for awhile) to Te Anau.  It was another gorgeous day with great scenery along the way.  I have heard it said that there are somewhere between 4 and 20 sheep per Kiwi (person from New Zealand).  I think we saw a pretty good portion of those sheep.  They covered the hillsides.  All the little white dots in the picture are sheep.

When we got to Te Anau we had a picnic lunch of fish and chips.  It was another gorgeous day so it was fun to sit in the sun at a picnic table.  (Granted we were in sweatshirts and jackets... but it was still nice.) 

We then boarded the boat to the glow worm caves.  Mom, LilliAnn, and I braved the top deck and all the wind to get the great view and to get good pictures.  Plus... what 11 year old wouldn't want to be out on the deck.  Dad, gallantly stayed with our stuff inside.

 

It was a tad cold.

 But it was beautiful.

Once we got to where the caves were we disembarked and were divided into groups.  We then hiked into the cave.  We had to bend all the way over at the waist and crouch to get into the cave.  We weren't allowed to take pictures, so I don't have any for you to see.  It is a relatively new cave, so the big stalactite we saw was about an inch and a half long.  There was quite the stream roaring through the cave that we walked over on a raised sidewalk.  We then boarded a boat and all the lights were turned out.  The guide moved us through the cave using guide ropes.  In the pitch black, the ceiling of the cave looked like the night sky because of all the ends of glow worms lit up kind of like fireflies, except on permanently.  Bugs in the cave are attracted to the light then get tangled in little sticky strands the glowworm creates.  It was really pretty cool.  On the way back we stopped for awhile.  After a bit I realized another group was passing us.  We could only see them because there was a little glowing sticker on the corner of the boat.  I was the only one in the family that realized they had passed by.  It was that dark and we were all asked to be very quiet... I guess not to scare the worms?

After the caves we could hike along a short nature trail.  The lake (Lake Te Anau) is on the edge of the fiordlands and gets lots of rain.  It was super green including lots of ferns.

After some more information on the glow worms (where I resisted asking exactly what chemicals caused the bioluminescence), we headed back to the boat and back to Te Anau.  (But I think they may use luciferin and luciferase like fireflies).  From Te Anau, we loaded up then headed to Invercargill.  When we got to Invercargill we ate dinner at a Thai restaurant that Mom has been talking about for two years.  It was pretty good, but it wasn't Ann Thai. 

We then came to Grant and Chrissy's.  It is always fun to spend time with them.  I have many fond memories of their house and cooking breakfasts in their kitchen.  Its good to spend time in Invercargill again.

Frisky Kiwis

We've had a great day in Queenstown today.  This morning we took the gondola up to the lookout over Queenstown.  The weather has been absolutely beautiful today.  So we had a great view of the area.

While up there Mom, LilliAnn, and I rode down the luge.  The luge is really a little cart with brakes and steering that we use to ride down a concrete track.  (Don't worry Heather, its not too dangerous.)  LilliAnn didn't like it much the first time, but we made her go on it a second time.  Of course then she loved it.  :)

After we rode the gondola back down, we went to the Kiwi bird park.  During my previous visits the Kiwis were pretty boring.  They didn't do much.  This time however they were feeling frisky.  We got to see the mating dance of the kiwis.  We even got to hear their call.  One of the care takers was in there with us , she thought we were even going to get to see them mate.  But they got out of the mood.  The female really did put on quite a show though.  It was pretty funny to watch her dance around.  We enjoyed the rest of the birds, but the kiwis were the highlight.

After lunch we headed out to the place where bungy jumping originated as an extreme sport.  We waited for awhile and about gave up.  But then we got to see two individuals jump and one tandem pair jump.

After the jumpers, we headed to Arrowtown which was originally a settlement during the gold rush.  Now there are lots of tourists shops in the old part of town.  After that we picked up dinner and came back to our hotel.

Tomorrow we head to Te Anau and the glow worm caves, then on down to Invercargill where we will be for the next week or so.

Camp

This weekend was Queen's Birthday Weekend.  (The queen being Queen Elizabeth II.)  Since most people have Monday off, the churches of the South Island get together to have a family camp.  There were 40 or so people there for the whole weekend, with more driving in from Dunedin for church on Sunday and afternoon activities.  There were people from four churches in Dunedin, Invecargill, Matura, and Christchurch, a group from Harding University, and my family.

I had a really great time reconnecting with old friends and meeting some new ones.  Dad, with help from Mom and I taught the classes.  It hit me Saturday night, that Dad had me do all the activities that involved being mean to people.  But hey, I guess when your talents are identified, they should be used, right?

Many people have made comments about Hobbits and such and coming to New Zealand.  One of the ways we've felt Hobbit-like over the past few days is the camp meal schedule.  It goes like this:  Breakfast, Morning Tea (snack), Lunch, Afternoon Tea (snack), Tea (Dinner), and Supper (snack involving fantastic cheese toasties.)  The first time I came I was very confused by all the meals called Tea and the fact that Supper wasn't a proper meal.  These occur every two hours of so, so we certainly didn't go hungry.

We had lots of kids at camp this year, which made things fun.  It was great to hear the kids singing songs in Bible class and running all over the building playing.

There were two major highlights for me at camp.  The first was reconnecting with my friend Leith.  I stayed with her family in Christchurch on previous trips.  We got to relive some of the previous silliness we got up to and had a good time chatting in general.

The other major highlight was representing the old crowd from 10-15 years ago by winning at Links.  This is a some what violent game that involves everyone standing in a big circle around a chair, linking up by holding onto one's neighbors at the wrists, then trying to knock each other into the chair.  If you touch the chair or let go of your neighbor you are out.  Well in the end it was me and three college boys... I thought for sure I was toast... luckily they had never played before, so while they had strength, age, and agility on their side... I had experience...  EXPERIENCE WON... I dedicate this win to my friends Leith and Marianne Edwards and Stephen Woodrow who trained me long ago in the ways of Links.  My favorite two quotes about it were "You got beat by a girl!" and "That's why she can keep up with her college students."  :)

After cleanup we headed to Queenstown which is a big tourist spot where among other things, bungy jumping was started as an extreme sport.  It was a beautiful drive.  However, as we have limited MB access on this webserver, at least without paying extra, I'll have to wait to upload a bunch of pictures.

Greetings from Dunedin, NZ

We had a good trip down.  From the time we left Little Rock, AR to the time we arrived in Dunedin, just about 24 hours went by.  Of those 24 hours, we spent about 16 flying.  We didn't have any long layovers and in fact had to do a bit of running to make our last flight.  Our flight was half an hour late into Aukland, so by the time we cleared passport control and customs, we had to hurry quite a bit.  But we made it, and so did our luggage which was nice because that meant ours was the first luggage off the plane.  The flight from Aukland to Dunedin is beautiful.  I'm not sure how many pictures I took from the window of the plane of the Southern Alps as we flew over.  Photos to follow in a later post.  LilliAnn, my 11 year old niece, did great on the trip.  This was the first time she has flown since she was 4 so this week has been one new experience after another.

After we arrived yesterday, we had lunch with the Woodrows, with whom we are staying.  In an effort to stay awake for the afternoon, we drove around Dunedin taking LilliAnn to some of our favorite lookout spots.  It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon.  We came home about 4:30, managed to stay awake through dinner.  LilliAnn was the first to give up the fight when we let her go to bed at 6 or 6:30.  My goal had been to stay awake until 8... Shirley sent me to bed at 7:30.  After we all got 10 or 12 hours of sleep (maybe 13 or 14 in LilliAnn's case) I think we have beaten the worst of the jetlag.  We'll see about 4 or 5 this afternoon when its approaching midnight at home. 

Tonight we head to camp.  This is Queen's birthday weekend, so most folks have Monday off.  The churches here on the South Island, or at least the Southern part of the Island get together and have a retreat.  I think they are expecting 40+ people.  I'm looking forward to reconnecting with lots of old friends!  I'll try to post again next week from Queenstown.  (It's a rough life.)