Archive for October, 2010
back to reality
Won’t be having another holiday for a while.
Holiday account balance.
3 thousand – 4 thousand
A bit over 2 weeks ago I took the 3,000th photos on our digital SLR.
this is it.
Today I took the 4,000th
Not the best photo ever but could have been worse.
In other news we drove near-ish to Mt Cook today. So here is some snaps.
KudZone
Some mornings since being over here we have put on the kids channel for Oscar to watch.
In between shows there is a man in a yellow shirt, At the start of our trip Oscar would say “no no no no” when the man came on. But now he just wants the man and not the actual shows. I can’t stand the man.
See if you last hte 5 mins.
Q-Town
I’m really enjoying Queenstown. I have been here before but it was back in 1998, me and Dad travelled around NZ for a few weeks only using public transport and sharing rooms with nude Germans in youth hostels.
12 years later and I’m back.
We have had a lot of fun here and Oscar has been a happy chapy (mostly). We went up the skyline gondola the afternoon we got here and inquired at the desk if we could take Oscar on the luge. The lady said yeah he’s fine just need to go down with one of us. So the first run he sat in between my legs and we whooshed down the hill in a little cart on the concrete track. Oscar LOVED it, he was saying a lot of ‘Woweeee’ and even more excited when we went through the two tunnels ‘nunnels’.
We later found on their website there is a minimum age limit of 3. Don’t tell our almost 2 year old, he loved it too much. Infact we took him back up today for more!
We also did the shotover jet, but he was definitely too little for that so we tag teamed that one.
Today I went on a Ziptrek eco tour. Which was 4 big flying foxes on the side of a mountain going through a Forrest. It was pretty awesome although the loud Americans singing Disney tunes in my group sure did get annoying. Why are Americans soo looud!
On the second ‘zip line’ I even hung upside down, It didn’t make for good scenery viewing but it did relieve the pressure on my berries from the harness.
Tomorrow I hope to have a super duper afternoon nap.
Here is some pics from our apartment. I haven’t taken photos of everything we do as I feel that is well covered by the online media department that I travel with.
get me Outvercargill
Not blogging much the last few days as I’m in Invercargill and it is one of the most boring places I have ever been to in my life.
L&P
I really like L&P, its good casue it’s cheap here in Aus its a sometimes drink.
put it away Arthur
Today we went on a train adventure on the Taieri Gorge Railway. It was pretty cool.
A 4 hour journey from Dunedin station (New Zealand’s most photographed building which I refused to photograph).
It winds it way through tunnels and over rickety old bridges and around cliff edges propped up with rusty old used train tracks.
Oscar was very excited to reach the half way point so he could run around on the grass, he has a new obsession with grass.
I love a good train trip but a train trip that also provides my immature mind with amusement takes this train trip to a whole new level.
Timaruined
We finished up our time in Christchurch yesterday morning and left our awesome house for a town called Timaru, If you come to NZ avoid it!.
We arrived in Timaru around lunchtime but almost all the shops were shut, we walked up and down streets for ages untol we found an overpriced cafe that would sell us some food. I got a burger and asked for no beetroot, it came and had 5 pieces of beetroot on it.
Then our accommodation was dingy and had no internet.
Today we drove to Dunedin, it is much nicer. We found food easily, we drove up and down the world’s steepest street and we purchased the most important item one can purchase on a holiday.
After last nights disaster of no internet, and the realisation that internet in our Dunedin place would cost us $20 a day I went and got me a vodafone internet stick thingy.
I love it, it also means I can just share my internet through macs lovely airport so jenny has it too.
tomorrow we are going on a train trip into the Taieri Gorge, hope to get some super photos and a choice fridge magnet!
ding ding
Yesterday we went on the tram lots, I was happy.
I’d put up photos on facebook but for some reason it won’t let me upload photos using any of the upload methods.
2 ply television
flicking through the channels in prime time.
A show where people have to close their eyes and guess what sort of toilet paper is hanging from a rack.
I love New Zeeland!
like rural NSW but better
When you drive around NSW there are generally two things that every country town has, they have an antique shop tea rooms and a Rivers factory outlet store. And the oldies love it!!!! If you look at old people walking around they all look the same, that’s because all of them shop at rivers whenever they go on a little holiday.
Well Christchurch just seems to be one giant factory outlet city. Today I picked up some new jeans, beanie and some bright green skate shoes all from a factory outlet store that was 60 – 70% off everything! The difference between Christchurch and rural NSW is that the factory outlet stores here don’t just sell 3/4 length grey pants and rugby jerseys.
Today we also did the tourist thing and went on the Gondola up a hill. It was choice.
Grow up Robert
Today I turned off the infamouse water jet in the shower so was able to have a more adventurous day.
Walking around westfield and walking up some muddy hill. I don’t want to bore you with every details of what we did, there is jenny’s blog for that.
What I will show you is a building that makes me smile each time we go past, I’m pretty mature. You will also notice the earthquake affected building next door there are heaps of buildings like this across the place.
choice NZ ad
plum pudding
After this mornings shower experience plans for the day where thrown out the window. It was instead turned into a rest and recuperation day.
A slow walk around some markets, a lie down and a trip to a museum. After a shower like that, ice packs would have probably been prescribed by a medical professional, luckily the wind chill in Christchurch has had a similar soothing effect.
Jet Balls.
NZ is famous all over the world for it’s extreme sports. Bungy jumping, mispronouncing ‘i’, jet boating, hele skiing and others.
Well there is a new extreme sport on the scene here that I’m going to have a go at. It is extreme showering.
This is the shower in our Christchurch place, you will notice it has the standard ‘head height’ water outlet, you will then notice it has 2 more water outlets. One at stomach height and one at bits and pieces height.
I’m not really sure I want to be blasted in the equipment with hot water, but I’ll give it a go. I’m hoping it’s tender and not some kind of turbo bidet.
choice
This morning I woke up early, had some loose and unformed stool and headed to the airport with wife and son.
We got on a plane that flew to Christchurch.
On the plan I got to watch bits of Toy story 3, bob the builder and Thomas & Friends, all with no sound.
I had steak for lunch with vegies including almost crunchy potato, it was one of the best tasting plane meals I have ever had.
In Christchurch I went to Pak n’ Save and pushed around a trundler.
I’m having frozen pizza for dinner, although I will heat it before eating.
tomorrow I’m going to dig a hole, put a pig in it and have a hungi
Le Tour De Immigration
choice bro
I promise my blog will get a tiny bit more interesting in the next few days as I’ll be doing something different to going to the post office, napping and watching iview.