South Island - part 2

Our days were pretty mellow (befitting a vacation in the middle of a sabbatical) but we still managed to fit in lots of fun stuff.

We went to Abel Tasman National Park to explore some beautiful beaches.

The hiking wasn't too shabby either

One beach even came with a dinosaur cave:

complete with a velociraptor

Time to get back on the boat and head to our campsite -

where Luna hosted a feeding frenzy party

Other days were spent checking out the wildlife (seals just north of Kaikoura)

There was even a rogue panda spotted in a grassland

Panda snuggling with her mom while waiting for the sun to set:

Of course, lots of time was spent exploring various other beaches around NZ:

After all that exploration - it is time for some yoga in the middle of the road

South Island - part 1

We just got back from a 10-day trip to the South Island. We flew to Christchurch and then did a circumnavigation of the northern part of the island. It was spectacular - every time we got in the campervan to drive to another campsite, we were treated to incredible views.

This was our campervan - essentially a converted minivan. Noah crammed himself into the pop top - like a mermaid in a clam shell. Val and Luna snuggled below.

According to Luna - her two favorite cars are "Our campervan and a Dodge Viper". She told us we should check the campervan in with the luggage and send it back to Colorado with us on the airplane.

We stayed in some pretty nice campsites. Here is one in the Marlborough Sounds

... and one south of Blenheim on the Pacific Coast.

Some of the campsites came complete with a trampoline - which Luna calls a 'jumpoline' and Dad calls a 'hyper-active child containment facility'.

Of course no campsite was complete without every camper's best friend - a bottle of local sauvignon blanc.

The views weren't too shabby either - here is the scene from one of our campsites in the Marlborough Sounds (and, no, the rainbow wasn't photoshopped in).

The weather was generally pretty good, but a cyclone did roll through NZ while we were there so we spent a day and a half holed up in Nelson. We still managed to do a rainy tour of a local Japanese garden.

Another weekend at the beach

This weekend we went to Ruapuke Beach about 20 km south of Raglan. Just another in a long line of stunning and deserted beaches. It had a beautiful stream winding through the beach sand - a perfect place for Luna to spend hours pretending that she is a T-rex hunting a turtle.

Also a good place for Luna to practice her surfing technique. 

Back in Raglan to watch Noah working on his newest obsession (standup paddleboarding) from the porch of our house.

Microbes and Mowgli in the Big City

We are about to head out for 10 days of camping on the south island of NZ so I thought it would be a good time to clear out the backlog and post up some misc. photos from our past few weeks.

We went to Auckland about 2 weeks ago to attend a microbial ecology meeting (a.k.a. nerd-fest). The organizers put us up in a very nice hotel suite. Can't complain about the view from our hotel room...

... nor did Luna complain about the bed/trampoline in her room.

Toddlers and scientific meetings are usually a bad combination, but Luna was awesome (and was probably better behaved than her father). She even attended some of the talks and managed to stay awake (with help from the Jungle Book).

Then it was time to visit a city park so Luna could pretend she was Mowgli escaping the tiger .

Auckland is really a beautiful city. Great food and scenery with fountains for baptizing a beloved blankie.

Matapihi

Luna is attending the Matapihi Kindergarten while we are in New Zealand - an incredible school for children ages 3 to 5. On the first day, a couple weeks ago, we had our initiation and learned the rules at the new school...   1) Kiwi kids don't wear shoes.

2) Kiwi kids are encouraged to play in the mud. (Here is Luna and her friend Felicity cooling off in a mud pit.)

3) All works of art should be inspired by the great outdoors.

4) Each week a small group spends a day in the "bush" - the wooded area down by the little stream. Here is Luna eating PBJ for lunch on her "bush day".

Bush day often involves fishing in the stream,

taking turns with the high-tech fishing equipment (= bamboo stick, string, sock filled with bits of sausage),

developing the zen patience of an angler,

and feeling the joy of watching a freshwater eel nibble on the sausage sock!! These are longfin eels - native in NZ and actually rare. They live up to 80+ years and get pretty big. They leave the rivers of NZ to traverse a thousand of mile of ocean to breed in Tonga. Luna has caught the local 'big one' that is named Black Beauty. very special to see these on a regular basis!

5) Most days should involve pretending to be dinosaurs. Here is Luna doing her Velociraptor imitation.

Yeah, to say Luna loves it, is the understatement of the year.

Pot o' Gold

View from the porch of the house yesterday morning:

I went hiking with a friend up to the top of Mt. Karioi (a.k.a. the 'Sleeping Lady' or Wahine Moe) - the mountain that dominates the Raglan skyline. It was a 4 hour hike up a ridgeline - very muddy and treacherous, but beautiful views the entire way.

Looking south:

Looking north towards Raglan (on the small peninsula surrounded by water):

The resident cutester doing her standard cute stuff:

Hot tub + beach = awesome

Last weekend we went to the small town of Kawhia (pronounced Kafia - like Mafia) about 1.5 hours south of Raglan on a gravel road. We went there with another American family that is living in Raglan for 5 months. The dad is a professor on sabbatical form the Univ. of Minnesota and an expert in fungal ecology. What is the probability of finding two U.S. microbial ecologists of the same age (with kids of the same age) in a New Zealand town of 2,000 people?.

We went to Kawhia for the annual Maori festival, but we first had to make a stop at the local hot water beach. Just another crowded NZ beach:

The three explorers (Maddie, Fritz, and Luna) go out searching for the spot where the hot water bubbles up out of the sand.

Bingo! We start digging in the sand to build a hot pool and then some other folks join as well. We are all clustered together because that is where the hot water is seeping out of the sand. If you had to design an ideal setting - this would be hard to beat: dig a hole in the sand, sit in the hot water, swim in the ocean, repeat until the tide comes up. Really awesome.

Yep - simply no fun at all.

Soon the tide came up and the pools disappeared under the ocean. We went to the festival in Kawhia to eat some lunch. The mussels were delicious and beautiful - so beautiful that Luna ate quite a few with zero hesitation. Evidently palm-sized mussels cooked in seawater are the new kid-friendly food choice.

The festival was great - super mellow in a beautiful location with some local kids doing Maori haka dances. If you've never seen the haka being performed - check out this video.

There were some people getting tattooed right next to the face painting booth, but Luna decided to settle for the face paint.