J and I, being the somewhat travel crazy couple that we are, decided several months ago that in order to take advantage of living on this side of the planet we needed to get busy traveling to our list of destinations, no matter how painful it may be traveling with a 3 year old and a baby. And it being our first Christmas away I had a desire to spend the holiday with friends/family. So I contacted my Australian host family (from when I was an exchange student with
AFS in high school) to find out where they would be for xmas and if they'd like to spend xmas with a family of 4. They said they would (
silly, silly people) and that they would be at their vacation home in New Zealand. So we started to plan. We researched. We talked to people. We made bookings. And then we went to Bali for 10 days in October when LC was 3+ months old and realized that we may have made a very big, expensive mistake in deciding to take this NZ trip.
Well...we didn't make a mistake. We had a marvelous time! (Now, don't get me wrong. There were some tears, some complaining, some time-outs, some vomit, but all in all it was a good trip).
The flights-Um, sucked.
-We booked with Singapore Air because we had such a good experience with them flying here from the US. The coach seats looked relatively spacious and comfy (we were fortunate to be in business class), the food was good, and the flight attendants were exceptional. Well, unfortunately this route to NZ didn't use a plane from their usual fleet and we were stuck on a plane with much smaller coach accommodation, right across from the kitchen! And this was an overnight flight. Here we are a family of 4 with 2 small kids right across from the bright, noisy kitchen from like 10 pm - 7 am. So the kids slept very fitfully and J and I slept a total of 1 hour, max. It was awful. The staff was great though, and the food was good, but we will be writing a letter of complaint, in addition to the complaining we did during the flight.
-Our route to NZ: Jakarta-Singapore-Auckland-Queenstown. About 18 hours of travel. 6 hour time difference. Remember the
craziness??
-The return flight, which was a daytime flight and where we moved seats, was much better. But it was long, especially since LC was far too interested in what was going on around him to sleep. I mean, why sleep when there were people! and movies! and activity! all around, even if his eyes were red and teary and he was obviously in great need of some rest?
Queenstown-The most beautiful and majestic area of the planet I've seen.
-Truly stunning and inspiring and gorgeous.
-Did I mention
amazing?
-The town itself is funny. It's sort of this backpackers paradise, but also oozing cheap-touristy-"come on our boat tour! or bungee jump! or plane ride! or wine tour!" signs and shops everywhere. And it's expensive - all of NZ is expensive. Especially coming from cheap Indonesia, but even compared to the US it's expensive there.
-None of us suffered too much from jet lag, thank god. Matter of fact it totally worked in our favor. Both boys slept well and late for the first week of our trip. It was glorious to be able to sleep until like 7:30/8 every morning!
-The first day it rained, and this was pretty much the only day it rained for the next 10 days. We had great weather while we were there. Sunny and in the 60s-80s - perfect! Since it was raining we went on a winery tour at
Gibbston Valley Wines, which has the largest underground wine cave in New Zealand. The wine was good and the restaurant was excellent (J made it a habit to always pick the best meal on the trip, so I was constantly salivating over his meals and stealing his food whenever possible.
But shshshsh, don't tell him).
-C is a big fan of trains, so we took him on the
Kingston Flyer steam train. It was an old train that is still powered by coal, and it was thus named by C as the "the stinky train". We all really enjoyed the ride, although driving there on the windy road didn't sit well with C. This is not where the vomit comes in, but we did have to stop a couple times.
C is saying "toot toot!"
-The night before we went on the train ride C woke up soon after going to bed feeling sick. We hung out in the bathroom thinking that he was going to be sick, and sure enough he did (vomit episode #1). He was better by the following morning though. Guess it was something he ate...
-By far one of the highlights was my horseback ride through Lord of the Rings country. It was spectacular. I signed up with
Dart Stables for the Ride of the Rings tour, which was a 1.5 hour ride through areas where they filmed the 3 movies. We rode through Lothlorian forest where Galadriel and other elves lived, past Amon Hen where Boromir was defeated by orcs, and ended at Isengard and with a majestic view of the Misty Mountains and Methedras where the fellowship was forced to turn back because of Saruman's storm. It was a truly spectacular experience. Thank you J for taking the kids so I could go on this amazing ride!
Misty Mountains and Methedras
A view from my ride - the property there is called Paradise and you can see why
-While I was on my ride J took the boys up the mountain behind Queenstown on a cable car for a gorgeous view of the area.
-We also took a couple short hikes, C played at a park, strolled around Queenstown, slept, and enjoyed the perfect temperatures and smelled the sweet air.
Christchurch-C talked a great deal about the snow he saw on the mountain tops in Queenstown. Since it's been 1 year since he saw snow and basically doesn't remember it, we thought it a good idea to take him to the
Antarctic Center so he could touch snow and feel cold again. The center is home to the New Zealand, Italian and US antarctic programs. The center has several attractions, including a polar room with snow and cold like you'd feel in Antarctica. It even has a simulated storm so you can feel how bitterly cold it must get there. C didn't want to stay long (that's my boy!) and we didn't subject LC to it. I think J had the best time in there! There were films and lots of information on living in Antarctica and about the Antarctic programs, plus several penguins.
-We walked around Christchurch and enjoyed the beautiful botanical gardens. C and I smelled the vibrant roses, C climbed trees, and C especially enjoyed their awesome kids playground.
-I lost an entire day to being sick. This is where vomit story #2 comes in. I got sick in the middle of the night and was out of commission the following day. J was once again stuck taking care of both kids while on vacation. He definitely earned a few gold stars on this trip. So, for pretty much the first time in my life I got food poisoning. In New Zealand. Not in Mali, or Ghana, or Uganda or Ethiopia or Indonesia (don't get me wrong, I got sick in all those places, just not with food poisoning). But New Zealand - go figure.
-While I was sick J took the kids to the aquarium and shopping. I think they actually had a good time (for the most part...).
-On our final day we went to Akaroa, which is a small town on the coast that at one point was settled by the French. There is still a little bit of Frenchiness in the town, although not much. We went there because that's where my uncle now lives. He officially moved there with his wife 1 year ago and is now the resident architect for the whole area. He is swamped with work. They are also building their own house and I can tell from the drawings it's going to be amazing. I had never met his wife before so that was really fun, and I hadn't seen him in 9 years. I think he really enjoyed spending time with C and LC and both J and I had a really nice time catching up. We unfortunately couldn't go on the dolphin harbor cruise like we had planned thanks to my queasy stomach, but we still had a very nice time. I wish we could have stayed longer - next time we will hang out at their house for a few days instead of spending time in Christchurch.
Kawau Island-1.5 hour drive from Auckland airport and 30 minute boat taxi ride to Hokimai Bay.
-We stayed with my Aussie host family who has owned the house for about 15 years. After I left Australia they soon moved to New Zealand for my host dad's work. They lived in Auckland for a couple years and bought the house when they left for Taiwan. My dad, mum and brother were there for the holidays and it was wonderful to spend 4 days catching up and feeling like part of the family again. I hadn't seen my host brother in about 15 years. He's 29 now! A man! It was weird, but really great to get to know him again. C right away liked him too (he liked them all, but especially him). I think he related to him as an older brother, and it was very sweet. Unfortunately my host sister couldn't be there. She lives in London now and has a very full life. I got to talk to her on the phone, but I sure wish she could have been there! I've actually seen more of her than the others though, with her visits to the US and my travels through London.
-We had a very relaxing time, ate good food, enjoyed the weather and the pretty views. We also went for boat rides around the harbor, took a nice little hike, went looking for seashells, and had lots of good chats.
View from their house
Auckland-We walked the pants off Auckland and tired the whole family out. We walked around downtown but it was pretty boring. We thought the harbor area would be more interesting then it was. We thought it would be like Harbor Place in Baltimore, but it was much more of a yacht club and less developed for tourists than that. We then walked to the space needle like tower but decided not to go up it. We then walked to Victoria Market which we thought would be really cute with restaurants and good shops but it was much more chintzy. We then walked to Ponsonby Road which is supposed to be a fun area of town. It did look like it would be fun but by that time we were getting very tired (we did go back there for dinner and had our best meal in a New Zealand restaurant at The Living Room. It was a nice New Zealand send off!). And yet we then walked back to the hotel! So, while we saw much of Auckland that day, we weren't terribly impressed. It's a nice city, but nothing much worth talking about.
All in all-We had a fabulous time and would recommend a visit. We look forward to the next time we go when the boys are older. New Zealand is most noted for its beauty and outdoor adventures, and yet with 2 small kids we were very limited in what we could do. I think it will be such a great time when the boys are pre-teen or teenagers and we can do all the exciting things there are to do there.
-The boys did really great. LC really rallied and didn't give us a hard time over missed or delayed naps and was generally very pleasant. C seemed to have a good time and also behaved well, but was ready to come home to his familiar environment and toys and nanny.
-We definitely kept busy, and tuckered the kids out!
All tuckered out
C's shirt reads Big Brother and LC's says Little Brother. Unfortunately you can't tell that in the photo...
