Bureaucratic Conversion aka New Drivers Licenses

Callie and I made wonderful use of an afternoon earlier in January and visited our local New Zealand Transport Agency location to experience one of the many joys of living in a free society... pay your $50 dollars and turning in your paperwork. The process was really simple. We completed the forms which allow us to show our US drivers licenses and they basically gave us a free pass to get our official NZ drivers license. We recently received our the official drivers licenses and thought we would share. We figure this was money well spent as they are good for ten years, but as usual, good pictures continue to elude this type of official identification. Do we look like Kiwis, yet?

Bouncing Around

It's tough to want to stay in one place when the weather is so gorgeous. Last weekend, despite having just returned from our week on the South Island, Adam and I jumped into Atlantis and zoomed off down the coast for a half hour to find this cute little Holiday Park in Paekakariki. Consisting of a dairy, cafe, and a train stop, Paekakariki may not be your typical holiday stop - but the campsite bumped up to the Queen Elizabeth Park which runs along the West Coast for a couple of kilometers. You'll never hear me complain about being too close to the beach - so it was here we threw up our tents. PLURAL?! you may ask. Not to worry, I didn't ask Adam to get his own sleeping arrangements - the little blue hut is our "sun shelter" for the beach. It definitely paid for itself as we were actually able to enjoy hours on the beach without turning ourselves into crispy fritters.


The Holiday Park boasted not only two side by side trampolines but a huge Jumping Pillow to satisfy everyone's bouncing needs. It's been a LONG time since I've been on a trampoline, but for a few minutes it felt like I was a pre-teen back in Omaha in the backyard jumping for joy. Looks like I need to work on the landing gear.




With still many hours of daylight remaining following a lazy afternoon on the beach and a tasty campsite dinner it was time for a beautiful walk-about through the Park. The scenery was beautiful but the company was better :)

St Arnaud

The second part of our kiwi Christmas found us in the little town of St Arnaud, about an hour and a half south of Nelson on the northern part of the Nelson Lakes National Park. Rich with the essentials for survival in New Zealand, the town included a place to stay when the campground was full, a grocery store and a fish and chips shop. Okay, there was a cafe and a restaurant as well but the restaurant never looked open. We went for the peninsula walk that separated Kerr bay from West bay where we were greeted with this spectacular view.



It was in color, but for all the modern lives out there this scene might as well have been from when the world was in black and white.

The next day we hiked from the town up to Parachute rocks. The beautiful hike up the side of the mountain looked like this for most of the trip up.



While I know nothing about Lake Rotoiti or where St Arnaud is perched on it, it would appear the lake has a good supply from at least one river keeping it topped up.



In case there was any doubts that I was actually along for the hike, Callie saw fit to make sure I was documented in the woods. While Adam was thoughtfully and artistically documenting the trek for posterity's sake, Callie was too exhausted from the nonrelenting incline to even raise the camera long enough to focus.



The view from Parachute Rocks shows off the northern end of Lake Rotoiti beautifully. Kerr bay is the closer one with West Bay being on the other side of the peninsula.



This bit of the journey was through a swamp, and despite the 98.9% DEET bug spray, I was able to determine the best way to keep from getting bug bites was silly walk #2, flailing arms and legs.



Down in the carpark, we got this shot of the climb up but your guess is as good as mine which spur we actually went up. The area does not lack for tree cover which made the hike both beautiful and well hidden.


This area provided a great escape and a nice change of pace from the much more touristy areas and allowed us a good opportunity to take in some of the beautiful life on the waka.

New Year in Nelson

It's a very "Kiwi" tradition to take annual holiday leave to get out of the cities and go exploring more remote areas of the country. Adam and I began our own version of this tradition by hopping on a very small flight to the South Island.Flying with SoundsAir was perhaps the highlight of my airflight travel career.

THIS is exactly how we all should travel:
Step 1- show up to airport 10 minutes before flight to hand over luggage. Skip any sort of security, identification checkpoints, or otherwise beaurocratic stuff.
Step 2- walk out onto the runway and climb into the plane - choose your own seat from the 12 or so available - all of which are within poking distance of the pilot.
Step 3 - Enjoy a gorgeous scenic flight across the Cook Strait. View slight turbulence as a free rollercoaster ride.
Step 4 - Disembark from grass strip landed aircraft 20 minutes after take-off to retrieve your bag that was directly handed to you from the pilot. Then it's off to your adventures!

Having made our way to the coastal city of Nelson (only one 2 and half detour later) our first order of business was to find Adam's parents Bed and Breakfast. We left them a cryptic message consisting of mascara and TimTams before hunting out our own dinner at a great little Mediterranean restaurant. The next morning, having made the "big reveal" that we were in town, we all headed out on a walking tour of Nelson. Our first scenic stop was in the botanical gardens which surrounds this picturesque pond. At least, I thought it was simply lovely until my living nightmare reavealed itself from among the leaves and lily ponds...EELS!!! I've seen The Princess Bride one too many times from too early an age to have any kind thoughts for this slimy mistake of creation. I still have vivid memories of my dear sister's horrible nightmares about the hideous shrieking eels and being dragged to the stretching machine. On the other hand, the water sculputre art was pretty...

Another important stop on the tour was to the actual jeweler who was commissioned by Peter Jackson to create the 40+ different rings for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Here, Adam models the ring that was filmed in the opening credits. Can't you just hear him now, "My preciousssss."


The view from a tree is always the best one in the park. This tree was lucky enough to inhabit the cathedral courtyard that watches over the valley of Nelson.

Having bid Steve and Linda adieu for another few weeks while they continue their Southward travels, Adam and I headed out to Abel Tasman National Park for some good ol' sea kayaking. Our Big Tonga tour included two different water taxi adventures, several seal-infested nature reserve islands, and even kayak-sailing (which is taking the lunch blanket and holding up two ends on top of kayak paddles to create a "sail" by which to catch Tasman Sea wind.

Split Apple Rock...you get the idea.


Lazy days of seal watching. Our kayaking guide describes seals as "Gangsters in sleeping bags" because they're grumpy - but they don't move around very quickly. Adam and I were particularly impressed by the "gangsta' pups" who are just in their first few weeks of life. It isn't for a few more months, apparently, that the pups get up the strength, courage, and curiosity to start invading the tourist infested waters and begin their antics of climbing up on kayaks and chewing on paddles.


Wind baked and sun fried, we relaxed after our day of kayaking with some friends from Wellington in their campground for New Years Eve. Great pizza, pop, and people added up to an awesome way to be among the very first in the world to greet 2011. The evening even included an amazing sunset.


Happy New Year everyone!