Happy New Year!!

We can't believe how amazing NYE in Sydney was! You may have seen some similar footage on the news of the firewarks over the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. Here are a few pictures we took from our location between the two in the Circular Quay area. We went to a cocktail party that was in the heart of it all at a place called the Italian Village, which is waterfront. It truly was a night to remember!

Landed in Sydney

It is almost 6pm on New Year's Eve, Kelly's 30th Birthday! David started the celebration with some balloons in our hotel room! Will and Kendra gave Kelly a bracelet that she can wear out tonight to celebrate!



We arrived yesterday after a 3 hour plane ride from Queenstown. We have been exploring the city. We had dinner last night at Darling Harbour. Today we did some sightseeing at the Sydney Tower and Sydney Aquarium. Take a look at the pics below...including the sharks, yikes!

Awesome views along the way

We have seen some amazing landscape throughout the entire country of New Zealand. Here are just a few pictures that don't even do it justice. We took these around Queenstown and Milford Sound. There is also a picture of Dave and Will on the luge in Queenstown...look at them go!

Whitewater Rafting

December 27th - Queenstown, New Zealand - We went whitewater rafting on the Shotover River today. There were rapids from Class 3 - 5. The picture below is a Class 5. The water was really cold! We were suited up with very thick full body wetsuits, booties and splash jackets. The rafting itself was about 1.5 hours and we had about 4 or 5 major rapids. One cool part was going through a tunnel where we had to get down inside the raft and David got to steer the front of the raft through the tunnel. The road to the river was half of the adventure. We took a bus on Skippers Canyon Road which was winding narrow and had turns called "Bus Crash Curve". One of the turns required one wheel to be partially off the cliff. Overall we loved it! Check out a couple pics below.

Fun in Queenstown

Our first stop in Queenstown was the Gondola/Luge. We were taken to the highest point in Queenstown (Bob's Peak) by gondola, and then at the top took a chairlift just a bit higher so we could luge down. This was really fun! It also gave the most spectacular views of Queenstown. To give you a perspective of where we are exactly...this sign may help!

On Saturday, we went whitewater rafting on the Shotover River. The water was VERY cold, but we were suited up with wet suits, boots, jackets and life vests. It was definitely a great adventure. Kendra and Will opted for bungy jumping today, while David and Kelly got massages! We leave Queenstown today (28th) heading for Milford Sound with a stop along the way...somewhere, we'll see! Only 2 more days in New Zealand and then off to Sydney!

On the road again!

On Dec. 26th, we left Wanaka on our way to Queenstown. The roads have just gotten more curvy and crazy as this trip goes on. On our way down to Queenstown, we stopped in a very small town called Arrowtown for some shopping and a meat pie! Yum!

The boys sure are enjoying all of the joys of life on the road like emptying the waste! David loves his first experience driving on the left side of the road.

More Christmas...

On Christmas Eve we went to a small church called St. Columba's Anglican Church. The 11pm service probably only had about 100 people. It was cute. The next morning we opened a few gifts and spent the day relaxing around Wanaka. We ate Christmas dinner at Bombay Palace Indian Restaurant- it was pretty odd for all of us to have Indian food on Christmas, but it was very good!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We are spending Dec. 24 and Dec. 25 in Wanaka, NZ. It is a small town that sits on Lake Wanaka. The weather is absolutely beautiful here, and lots of people were swimming, boating, skiing, and laying out in the sun yesterday. It's such a crazy way to spend the holidays compared to the U.S. The Christmas decorations just don't seem to fit in with the climate.

Fox Glacier Helihike Adventure

On Tuesday, Dec. 23rd we did our first big adventure. We took a helicopter ride to the top of a glacier and did a 2 hour hike up on the glacier. The glacier is basically 150 meters (about 500 feet of ice) that has been compressed from snow fallen over the years. This particular glacier moves about 1 meter a day, and even 5 meters a day in the steepest parts. The pushing causes beautiful caves, ripples and water holes full of the bluest water you will ever see in your life! It was truly unbelievable. Fortunately, Fox Glacier is still growing despite the state of our environment. Here are a couple of pictures from the helicopter and the hike.

The Mobile life...

Our campervan is quite comfy, with all of the necessities of home. Everything's just a bit smaller! It's actually been really fun driving from place to place. The views are breathtaking, so it makes the trips seem to fly by. Here is a picture of a chance sighting on our way from Fox Glacier to Haast on Tuesday. A local shepherd was moving the sheep from one pasture to another and we had to herd them ourselves to drive past.
The other one is us at Arthur's Pass, one of the first National Parks that we went through on our journey.

Papeete, Tahiti

After the first leg of our trip was complete, we spent the night at The Sofitel (courtesy of Air Tahiti Nui due to our flight change) in Papeete, Tahiti. We got in late, but enjoyed a stroll on the beach this morning. Check out the view in the pictures!

Our "home for the holidays"

Well, it's not quite like our real homes, but this is what we will be calling home while we are in New Zealand. Of course, we will decorate a bit to get into the holiday spirit!

Links to the activities we are doing

Click on the links below to see the activites we will be doing while on our trip.

Hike the Fox Glacier:
Dec. 23 http://www.foxguides.co.nz/helihike.asp

Whitewater Rafting:
Dec. 27 http://queenstownrafting.co.nz/index.cfm/Shotover


Cruise of the Milford Sound:
Dec. 28 http://www.mitrepeak.com/cruises_pricing


New Year's Eve:
Dec. 31 http://waterfrontrestaurant.com.au/home.asp?pageid=C9B5600A1371BD05


Harbour Bridge Climb:
Jan. 2 http://www.bridgeclimb.com/default.htm