The NZ Chronicals :) ... LONG!!...

Back to normal viewing now :) Thanks for all your well wishes!! Im feeling much better now.

Before I get on to the holiday recap, it was Travs birthday on the 20th while we were in NZ. I decided to scrap him a card today (I had the day off) and have made a cake, boght some sparklers and got some pressies (we had a birthday diner on the actual day, and he is picking his pressie out cos he wants a watch so he isnt expecting anything).

Anyway I wanted a nice pic of me and the dogs together and it was a gorgeous day! This is how it came out:


Made with Lauren Griers Sophistication kit, and very soon will be turned into an actual layout cos I love it, and this kit looks wonderful with it!! The furry heart is by Kim Christensen, and the string by me.

Anyway, that ONE pic took forever to get!!! I had a chair turned into a tripod, some bikkies to bribe them with and set the camera up on auto... here are some that didnt make the cut.. this will be a 2 page LO cos I do love these pics together!! LOL


ahh the joys of hyperactive and unco-operative dogs!!!!! LOL

Anyway onto the New Zealand stuff!!!
So we flew into Auckland and worked our way around the North Island, then headed to the south island and worked our way to Christchurch where er flew out of. Lots of fun activities, dramas and adventure! LOL Will break it up into topics ;)

....ADVENTURES AND ACTIVITIES....
well, we went scuba diving in 3 locations.. poor knight islands in the North, the Lermentov (sp) wreck in the middle (Marlborough sounds to be precise) and Milford sound to the South. The wreck was a cruise liner and we got to explore and we saw the bar with the tables and chairs still bolted to the floor, the cinema, a lounge area etc. Was kinda eerie but sooooooo good!!

We also went Zorbing!! Zorbing is where you get chucked in a big plastic ball with lots of warm water and go rolling down a hill inside it!!! ROTFL It was A BLAST!!!!!

We went in together (Cheaper that way!! LOL) and both of us were yelling and screaming and carying on. At one stage I was pinning Travis down and he was choking on the water..no wonder he went quiet all of a sudden! HAHA but you just cant control where you go.. For $20 you get a CD with the pics the photographer takes of you as well as some generic pics and a generic video. Which, as a scrapper I thought was sooo worth the money cos the files are straight off the camera and very scrap worthy!! LOL

Moving on.. we went glacier trekking at Fox Glacier.. in the pouring rain! HAHA what a stupid pic of me!! I was so scared of slipping cos the ice was really slippery and its on a mountain so it would have been a nice tumble!! ROTFL. Had a great time though..the camera and the camera case were soaked by the time we got back.. but driving rain was NOT going to stop me getting scrapping pics! LOL Dont ya just love the plastic pants and the huuuge raincoat?? Compulsory clothes that we had to hire before we went out on the glacier!

NEXT.. (well, they arent in order...) we went to Rotorua and sat in some very expensive mud and sulpher baths that made us stink like giant farts for the next 24 hours. Before getting in the sulphuer ALL the jewellery had to come off... I spent ages getting my rings, earings and necklaces off.. sat in the sulpher and realised I had my belly button ring in still.. raced out to take it off, sat down for another 5 minutes and realised I left my 2 toe rings on!! LOL One went a bit funny and now looks all tarnished :( The rest of the stuff is ok.

hmm.. what else??? AH snow ball fights in Mt Ruapehu! hehehehe We had to go up 2 ski chair lift things.. I have NEVER been ski-ing before and I was soooo scared of the lift!! LOL I hung on for dear life!!!!
The other thing we did that was great fun was "blackwater rafting" in some glow worm caves (Waitomo caves). Basically its a pitch dark cave, and you slosh along in the freezing water and every now and then the water is too deep or too fast so you plonk your bum in your rubber donut thingy and float along looking at the glow worms :) Until you get to the water falls.. where you have to stand up with the floaty thing over you bum, turn away from the water fall and jump backwards over the edge and land on your bum in the donut!! LOL So much fun!!!

....MIS-HAPS....
hmm... we had 2 major ones... 1: A land slip on the way to Wanaka which delayed us for 5 hours!!!
No alternative routes and the nearest town was one hour behind us... Was annoying though cos we were planning on getting to Wanaka around 12:00 and going sight seeing as we were only staying there the one night and were driving again early the next morning. But it worked out.. we went to puzzling world (Travis's most anticipated adventure of the trip!) at 8:30am and no one else was there so we got to be stupid and take silly pics with no one around ;)

The other drama was floods!! We were meant to do a 3 hour drive on our last wednesday there, heading to Duneden and then the next day doing a biiig drive to Christchurch.. we got within 45 minutes of Duneden to find that the road was closed due to floods.. we had already taken our little rental car through lots of water over the road.. so we tried an alternative, but that was also closed... We ended up backtracking about 1.5 hours, heading inland and doing the long haul to christchurch a day earl. And by long haul i mean we were driving for 11 hours. Made the right choice though cos the road didnt open till after 7:00pm and some others that we needed didnt open at all.

....MISC PICS....

LOL LEFT: Look at Travis posing near the geyser!! This was the view from our hotel room and it just had to be done :)
RIGHT is a pretty pic I took while at Te Anau :) isnt that beeeutiful!!!

ah.. well.. its getting late, this is getting rediculously long and I need to get started on dinner!! LOL

I had intended on scrapping today but did nothing!! LOL Back to work tomorrow :(

Take care :)