The De Jager Family’s RTW Adventure

Another month has flown by.  We had no preconceived ideas about New Zealand before we got here (well maybe a few about sheep 😉 but we leave with a wholly impressed perspective about this great country.

In my last entry I said that I thought New Zealand would be too remote for us, but since then we have visited Christchurch.  If it were practical this would be a great place to grow old. For those of you who have not been to Christchurch it’s a wonderful mix of ethnic New Zealand and old English Charm.  The town has everything one could need – believe me the nightlife and club scene is thriving, at least it was three storeys below our apartment on Saturday night.

Skiing was a highlight – Caelan loved it and was completely finished after 2 days after skiing school.  Tate picked up the obligatory nursery school cold after spending two days in the nursery, which is a bit of a bummer but to be expected in the winter months.  We decided on Cardrona as it has a good reputation for beginner slopes (www.cardrona.com) and we were not disappointed.  The lessons were good and there were plenty of them and it wasn’t too expensive.

Without a doubt the highlight of our trip was the Cessna flight over the Southern Alps from Wanaka to Milford Sound.  It was breathtaking – the weather in the Sound was absolutely perfect (cold though) and the kids loved the experience of flying in a very, very, very little aircraft.

New Zealand is such a beautiful country, we’ll miss it so much.

Tomorrow we fly to Melbourne.  I’ll update from there.

Love

Stell & the Boys

x

Sorry it’s been so long since I last updated. Internet access has been a little less available than usual – actually it was non-existant in Fiji and I have to brave the cold in New Zealand and go out to an internet cafe in New Zealand if I need to check mail. Today is the first day we have accomodation with WIFI so I can update.

Fiji was incredible – Octopus Resort lived up to it’s promise of a peaceful paradise. The food was great, thanks to a fantastic Scottish Chef and the Bures (thatched huts) were fairly spacious and clean (we had a few unwanted visitors but that’s to be expected in the tropics). There isn’t much I can say about Fiji without sounding cheesy but it proved to be the rest we seriously deserved after the mammoth USA Roadtrip. The kids were so well behaved – the flight from LA to Fiji was long and the 19 hour time difference wrecked me. I just couldn’t believe how well they handled it. We got to spend our evenings with fellow travellers and met up with a great bunch of people.

We left Fiji with heavy hearts onto New Zealand. We knew it would be cold – a batch of Kiwi arrived at Octopus the day before we left and spared no mercy in telling us exactly how very, very freezing it was in NZ.

We were pleasantly surprised when we reached Auckland – it was sweater weather. We stayed in the FABULOUS Oaks Smartstay Apartments. Dishwasher, own washing machine – heavenly. After a rest of four days and a blitz on the cold weather gear shops we felt able to brave driving long-distance again and we left Auckland for Rotorua. Spent a few days looking at Geysers and stayed in the miserable YHA there. The nastiest beds thus far and a few bed-bugs for our dollars too (sad).

Yesterday and the day before we spent at Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. We hiked in the pouring rain to the Fox Glacier face yesterday – breathtaking in the extreme and just the experience I needed to rejuvenate my excitement for sightseeing.

Today we moved onto Wanaka for Skiing. We are staying in an apartment (very happy emoticon required) with all modcons. Tomorrow we will have a rest day and then the next day our eldest will realise his lifes’ dream of snowboarding lessons at Cartrona Peak.

Are we tired? Yes some days I feel knackered to the core. Are we ready to come home? – HELL NO. Are we having a wonderful time? Yes. Are the kids coping? Better than we could ever have hoped? Most importantly are we finding our place in the world? Not yet (the USA is not for us and New Zealand is too remote). We are thinking Brisbane might be the ticket.

Australia awaits on 25th July. I’ll update from there.

Missing everybody at home.
Love
Stella