Christmas in Cali

This year we traveled to Temecula for Christmas. Sunny 80 degree weather was a nice break from the single digits in Colorado. On Christmas Eve we went ice skating down town and out to dinner at one of Jane's favorite vineyards. On Christmas Day we opened gifts and spent some time with extended family.

Girls Ski Day!

This year for my birthday I invited my best friend up to Loveland to go skiing! We had a great time! Cathy and I spent all day racing down the mountain. I was snowboarding and she was skiing. More than anything it was a great day for the two of us to just hang out and have some girl time. It was a great way to celebrate my big 3-0 by acting like kids again.

Christmas Carol Classic 10k

     We ran in our first 10k! After completing 5 or 6 5k races we have moved on to longer distance. For a little more of a challenge and in preparation for our half marathon in April we went for a 10k race. Our friend Kelli came too. There were carolers singing and Santa to cheer us on. It was a chilly day around 28F, but a fun way to get in the Christmas spirit.

Parking Lot Birthday Bash

     This Thursday Amanda turns 30! Since there is so much going on we celebrated a little early. It worked out great because Russell was actually home to join us for a dinner out and presents in the parking lot. We went out to Rock Bottom Brewery for dinner and had some fudge we had brought back from New Zealand for desert. Although a little cold we had a great time opening gifts in the parking lot and laughing about how silly we must have looked.

Denver Botanic Gardens Blossoms of Light

    Last year we had gone to see the trail of lights at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield, where we were married. This year we went to the Denver Botanic Gardens in the heart of the city to see Blossoms of Light. We had a great time seeing all the lights with our friends Joe, Sheree and their kids.
     There were some beautiful ice sculptures throughout the gardens and more lights then anyone could possibly count.

Sigma Theta Tau

     Our first day back in the states was a cold one! We had temperatures below zero and it was quite a shock. Thankfully we had something fun to attend. Amanda was inducted into the International Nursing Honors Society for scholarly achievement in her graduate program. At 2/3 of the way through her program it was the perfect boost to keep her motivated. She is looking forward to wearing her honor cords at graduation next December.

Canyoning Kiwi Style

One of our last high adrenaline activities was canyoning. We hiked up the canyon and used zip lines to reach the top of waterfalls. To get back down the canyon we rappelled, jumped, swam and slid. The water was a balmy 5 derees centegrade. We had a good time and learned that we could go canyoning in Hawaii as well... planning for the next trip already.

Shotover High Five

We stopped through Queenstown for a day and had a fun filled afternoon with as many activities as we could fit in. We first started on the shotover jet. We went up and down the shotover canyon in a jet boat doing 360s and getting pretty close to the rocky sides of the canyon. It was fast and exciting! To leave the shotover canyon we flew on a helicopter to the top of the skyline gondola. The views were magnificent and flying in a helicopter is pretty cool too.

We were able to have a look around at the skyline gondola and stopped to have a snack and take in the scenery. We got a perfect day for it all, sunny and not too windy. Before we took the gondola ride back down to town we both got to take 5 rides on the luge. It is similar to the alpine slides at home but there are handle bars like a bike and space on the track to pass. We took the go pro and had fun getting footage of our race down the mountain.

  

Superfun River Surfing

   We had originally planned to go canyoning while in Wanaka, but on Monday morning we woke up to rain. It had rained enough that the river had come up to a level that was unsafe for us to go into the canyon. In order to make the best use of our time we moved our sledging tour up. Sledging and river surfing are almost the same. Sledging is a bit easier because the body board is more buoyant and outfitted with handles. River surfing is very similar but it really is just a boogie board and a pair of flippers. We suited up in a full wet suit, life jacket, and helmet. We took video of the two 6k trips we took down the rapids. The river was a class three river. It was quite a struggle to go the direction we wanted to and the river flows were pretty high creating a faster current. One of the guides told us that he has guided in Aspen, CO river surfing on class five rivers. Our trip was enough of a thrill at class three.

Tramping on the Hooker Track

Tramping is the Kiwi word for hiking. We went up the Hooker Valley to the Hooker Glacier. At the glacier we had a picnic lunch and skipped rocks on the glacier lake. It was a beautiful sunny day. We had clear views of New Zealand's tallest peak, Mount Cook. After a nice hike we went to a film at the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center. Sir Hillary was the first to ascent Mount Everest and used Mount Cook as a training ground. The museum was also fun to see. We had an afternoon snack at the Panorama Cafe and soaked in the sun on a beautiful day in New Zealand.

Stay Left and Look Right

   Our Thanksgiving day was spent driving to Mount Cook from Christchurch. The drive took us about 4 hours with stops along the way to see the beautiful scenery. Scott has gotten pretty good at driving from the right side of the car and on the left side of the street. We also crossed many single lane bridges. Fortunately, there were very few cars on the 'highway' so they didn't cause much problem.

   Along the way we also stopped by Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. The towns were pretty small. We stopped in a small dairy town called Geraldine for lunch and ice cream of course. We were happy to get into Mount Cook and our chalet at The Hermitage. For our Thanksgiving meal we went to The Old Mountaineers Cafe. The t-shirts worn by the staff were pretty great - a picture of a mountaineer on the summit of a mountain had the caption, 'the person on the top of the mountain didn't fall there.'

The Garden City - Christchurch

    Our fist day in Christchurch we took a bike tour to learn a bit about the city. It rained the whole time we were out on our bikes. Although the weather was less than cooperative, we had a fun and informative time learning about the origins of Christchurch City and the country of New Zealand. The River Avon runs through the city, aside from being beautiful it is interesting because the river is very shallow due to the fact that it is filled by aquifers that seep up from below rather than run off from the mountains.

    After our bike tour we went to the city center. There isn't much to be seen because many of the streets are blocked due to damage from the earthquake last year. There are a lot of closures because not all shops have gotten clearance to rebuild. One of the streets, however has taken a new approach. Containers have been dressed up as store fronts. We had a snack before heading back to our bed and breakfast for the evening.

 

   We went to the botanic gardens for a stroll on Thursday morning. It was beautiful and the rose garden was magnificent! We also went to the Canterbury museum. Following the museum and the gardens we went up to Victoria Park expecting to find something similar to Sol Vista. The park is simply trails without an incoorporated visitor center, or at least one that we found. It was a very pretty drive and we were able to see practically all of Christchurch.



If we could only live in a tree...

While in Kaikoura we stayed at the Hapuku Lodge & Tree Houses. It was Ah - mazing! The view from the tree house was breath taking and the tree house was more lavish than any hotel we had ever been. Equipped with a fireplace, two person jetted tub, heated floors, views of the ocean out one window and of the majestic mountain range out the other. Although there was a television there was no need at all since right out the window one can see the sheep or watch the more than 50 deer buck raised here on the Hapuku farm. They are not raised for venison however, they are raised for their antlers. The growth factor from the fast growing antlers has quite the market in some countries. You never would have guessed, but it may also be a drug used in the NFL by athletes. The farm also has an olive grove and a vineyard. We had the pleasure of tasting both the olive oil and the wine over dinner. If the accommodations aren't enough to get you excited the service is more than fantastic with a picnic lunch provided to us when we borrowed the lodge bikes to take a ride up the coast to see the baby fur seals. What a great place - what a find! Anniversary material for certain! 



Planes, Trains and Automobiles - We mean Ferries.

   Monday morning we traveled across the Cook Straight on the Interislander Ferry from the North Island to the South Island. The wind was quite strong, so our ride was a little wobbly. After making it across the straight the scenery was absolutely beautiful through Queen Charlotte Sound and the waves were more calm. While in the Queen Charlotte Sound we stood on the back deck watching the hills roll by. There were single homes tucked into some of the bays; many of these people are fishermen. There is also quite the logging industry. It appeared as if there were clear cutting projects that get re-planted. Many travelers were heading to the tramping trails while others like ourselves continued their journey on the Kiwi Rail down the coast.

On the Train we traveled from Picton to Kaikoura. Along the way we saw lots of vineyards, cattle and sheep. Kai - meaning food and koura meaning cray fish, once was a small cray fishing town made up of a few who would make their living fishing and working on the rails. Once the fisherman started offering whale watching tours the town began to boom. There are many boats and small planes that will take tourists out over the ocean to see the largest mammals on earth.

Windy Wellington

In Wellington we had a day to see the city so we took the cable car to the top of town and walked down through the beautiful botanic gardens. The trails wind down the hill. There are small parks for children to play, ponds for the ducks and a beautiful rose garden. Closer to the city there is a memorial as the kiwis say. Many old head stones line the paths. It was a nice day so we continued our walk down to the dock where we had lunch at One Red Dog and made our way to the Te Papa museum. Upon leaving the museum it began to rain. The remainder of our evening was quite relaxing. We had dinner on the dock and rested up for our travels the next morning.

- Kia Ora – Welcome -

The Adventure Browns have arrived in New Zealand! Wanna know the details???

San Francisco, USA to Auckland, NZ

Total flying time: 12 hours 15 minutes

Distance: 10, 651 km

Auckland, New Zealand has a population of 1,225,000, elevation of 25 meters and an area of 637 km^2 – but who needs facts – we didn’t even stay in Auckland! After 13 hours on a plane we flew some more. ;) We are in Wellington, it is beautiful with good eats and friendly folks. We went to a neat little pub on the pier for lunch – Mac’s Brew Pub. The wall behind the bar was decorated with furniture that you would expect to find in your grandparents home. In a little game of eye spy we found a familiar play toy – Sophia’s little giraffe was sitting there on the wall.

Today the name of the game is stay wake till after dinner. We have already made two trips to the café and are bound and determined to switch over to Kiwi time. Tomorrow the adventures begin – we will see what fun we can find in Wellington before leaving the north island by ferry.