New Zealand Adventure Part 1 (Christchurch, Tekapo Lake, Mount Cook and Moeraki)

Easter Sunday we left bright and early for the airport. We were feeling pretty good as we were all packed the night before, our prepaid longterm parking had been updated and the airport was fairly smooth sailing all the way to the gate.  Air New Zealand yet again provided some first rate service and we landed in Christchurch ready to go at 3:00 in the afternoon with plenty of daylight left.

That's about where our luck ran out. 

Arriving at the airport, we discovered that as the motorhome we had booked was in for repairs, and our new home was going to instead look like this for the next 13 days.  It's a wee bit smaller than we had intended. 

The very helpful and ever so slightly skeezy salesman offered to come and exchange vehicles with us a few days into our journey, however when the time came we decided it just wasn't worth the hassle of transferring all of our belongings now that we were settled, and the thought of starting again and working out all the new start-up issues just seemed like too much work. So in the clown-camper we stayed.

Getting back to our arrival, we plugged in Stella (our notoriously bossy GPS) and drove away in search of a supermarket. Big roadblock...it was Easter Sunday. We managed to scrounge up a loaf of bread at a bakery, a jar of peanut butter and chicken noodle cup-a-soup at a corner store and tah-dah! Dinner is served!

I'm choosing to take it as a sign that my cooking has obviously been too good for to long, as after the kids accused us of sheltering them from cup-a-soup all their lives, they were pretty sure this was the best camping style meal they had ever seen. I reckon I'm going to have to up my game in the kitchen.

The next day we were up bright and early and on our way. It was a long day of driving, but we were rewarded with so many different landscape changes and amazing views.  

Leaving Christchurch there were endless rolling green hills of farmland and sheep.

As we turned inland towards Twizel, the landscape changed fairly quickly to include the mountains that we were headed for that night.

The best scenic stop along the way was Tekapo Lake. Actually it made for several stops. With a blue hue I've only ever seen at Lake Louise, this glacier fed lake amongst the mountains and the Tasman Glacier made was a great surprise as we came around the corner.

Our day ended on a chilly note at sunset in Mount Cook National Park with this view from our motorhome.

Before we continued on the next morning, we packed up and rugged up for a hike up towards Mount Cook for a view of the Tasman glacier terminus, New Zealands' longest glacier.

 Deep vallies flat and wide from the receding of glaciers are common here.

After the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, huge pieces of the glacier calved off of the terminus and so we were able to get a look at the few remaining icebergs. 

We continued on our way to Dunedin with a brief stop to see the prehistoric Moeraki Boulders. It was pouring rain when we pulled into the carpark, but by the time we had made our way down to the beach, the rain had cleared, the sun came out and we were treated to a rainbow!

If there was any indication that we were standing on an ocean coastline, the massive seaweed that was washed up on shore was a good clue. It was absolutely massive!

The boulders are both simple and pretty cool. Said to be 4 to 5.5 million years old they are formed out of mudstone and have eroded in the shape of large spherical boulders scattered along the beach.

The tide was just starting to come in so we were able to wade out and check them out a bit closer.

We continued on down the coast to Dunedin for the night where our holiday park had not only an indoor swimming pool, but a spa too! Woo Hoo! We'll take a break here to rejuvenate before continuing with another post of our wild adventures.

Blog updates to come...

Now that 3 out of 4 McEwens are back at school, I am working on blog updates telling you all about our 2 week adventure in New Zealand (which btw was amazing)

In the meantime we can say had a great holiday and we're happy to be home sleeping in our own beds (real beds, not the back of a motorhome), showering alone (for the most part) and cooking dinner without the company of strangers.

Details to follow :)

Ron's Great Adventure

Earlier this month we were so pleased to welcome our first visitor - Uncle Ron arrived!

We've been so busy there hasn't been anytime to blog about our adventures so I'll try to catch you up on our escapades.

After an action packed week in Sydney, Ron was eager to see as much of Melbourne and our lives here as he could in just 2 weeks.

I can't count how many days we spent in the city. There's so much to see, and eat! I swear I ate at a different sandwich vendor every day and ate almost as many doughnuts!

We did a lot of walking around the arcades and alleys giving us a chance to take in the cafés and street art that Melbourne is famous for.

Another day we did a free walking tour that took us on a 3 hour tour around the city with a huge amount of information provided by a great guide from I'm Free Tours that I would recommend to anyone. I had great fun learning a few new things while walking around the city.

The end of our tour put us on the south side of the river giving us a great view of the cityscape.

On our longest day we landed in at Flinders Station, grabbed some lunch for later in the day and caught a tram up to the Shrine of Remembrance. It's fun to see some of these landmarks again, but the real fun is showing someone else around for the first time.   We piggy-backed onto a school tour at the Shrine until one of the lovely senior citizen volunteers took us on a personal tour and finished off our morning with a picnic lunch in the park. 

Next up we went up the Eureka Tour for a view of the city from the 88th floor skydeck. This was so much fun with amazing views of the city and the bay.

One of these things is not like the other...

Scott was picking up the kids from school so we finished off the day with one last stop at the Aquarium.

We hit everything in the city we could fit in including 2 visits to the Queen Victoria Market, one by day to visit the vendors and 1 at night to experience the food and music.





One Sunday afternoon while the kids were out at other houses we made a trip out to Brighton Beach to see the beach boxes and St. Kilda, because it's just a really cool part of town with yet another great view of Melbourne.

Other days we could be found hiking Mount Dandenong, visiting the zoo, swinging through the trees up in Belgrave, barracking for the Hawks at a footy game, or just having a cuppa and something yummy to eat at the Chocolaterie in the Yarra Valley. We were on the move every single day! Seriously, I'm exhausted just recounting it all!

On our second weekend together, Uncle Ron took in one of Tyler's basketball games and then we took him on a road trip to Phillip Island.

It was too cold for swimming at the beach, but we found lots of other things to do.

First up the Koala Sanctuary. The wallabies were perky and friendly, but the koalas were sleepy and antisocial.

And then the best part. We rugged up and settled in by the ocean to wait for the little penguins to come in to burrow for the night.

We've been to see these little guys before and they never disappoint. Hundreds of them emerge from the ocean and up the beach every night to burrow for the night in the sand dunes. They are seriously cute and so funny to watch waddle up the dunes and talk to each other trying to settle down for the night.

The next day we were up bright and early to go and visit the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. We know quite a few racing fans that would love this place. But the highlight was taking the kids go-karting on a track that mimics the grand prix track with actual racing in the background all alongside the ocean.

Here's a video of the one lap that the boys let the kids drive. I'm not sure I'm letting either one of them drive my car in the future!

 A couple more stops were made on the way home,

One to feed the pelicans at San Remo

 And one to feed some Roos too.

 With only 2 days left in Australia, we helped scratch one more item off of Ron's Australian bucket list, we shipped the kids off to school and headed out of the city on one of the worlds best drives - the Great Ocean Road.

There's no end to beautiful beaches, amazing landscapes and blue ocean.

 A new view for us was the fire damage at Wye River from the bush fires in December of last year. The devastation was incredible, but we were equally amazed by the amount of green regrowth already noticeable after only a couple of months.

One intriguing stop along the way is a collection of thousands of stone stacks that look an awful like inukshuks to this Canadian. Ron was so fascinated he left his own to mark his visit.

We had an absolutely amazing 2 weeks. The kids loved having him here to show off their school, their friends and all there is to their life here. He helped with school drop-off and pick-up and even came to Friday afternoon assembly.  Scott was thrilled to have a friend here to show-off and show around our city and the life we have in it. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better houseguest, and having a buddy to roam around the city and discover new places was way more fun that being on my own.

Hopefully this much longer blog post will keep you entertained for a couple of weeks until we return from our latest adventure - New Zealand and a motorhome.

The First Visitor Arrives

 ♫ Reunited and it feels so good ♬

Finally today our first visitor of the year arrived. These 2 boys have been waiting for weeks to be reunited.

We have him for 2 weeks, and we plan to keep him moving showing him all the things we love about living here. You can expect to see him making an appearance in the next couple of entries as we join him in his adventures!

Afternoon Hike

One of the great things about where we live is all of the amazing hiking tracks just minutes from our house. 

After a morning of marketing, Hannah headed to a friends house for the afternoon and the rest of us went for an afternoon hike in Sherbrooke. 

Paths were followed...

Weird trees were found...

Bridges were crossed...

 And trees were climbed.

It's amazing that all of this lives in our backyard.