Random Catch Up

Yeah yeah...I know it's been over a month.  What can I say?  Mostly just didn't want to bore anyone with the day to day which is pleasant as all get out to experience but rather dull to document :-)

Suffice it to say that things are going well - we had a lovely trip to New Zealand in mid November, touring the South Island - Christchurch, Queenstown, Te Anau, Lake Wanaka, Franz Joseph, and the Tranz-Alpine train ride from Greymouth to Christchurch.  We had a trusty Subaru Outback to drive and by the time the trip was done were both ready to start shopping for one of our own.

Highlights included a 4.9 earthquake at 3AM our first night - we each woke up and thought the other was having a seizure until I reached out and touched his arm, realized he wasn't shaking and said "huh - it's an earthquake".  Fun to experience a mild one though I'm pretty sure it'd get old very quickly as the poor folks in Christchurch can attest.  The drive to Queenstown past Mt Cook was gorgeous with blue skies, fluffy white clouds, and lupines in bloom everywhere.  This made me very happy, and we were lucky enough to catch a perfect view of the mountains as we made the trip.

Lupines at the Church of the Good Shepherd

Mt Cook

Queenstown is always fun to visit (but I wouldn't want to live there!).  We found ourselves awake at 4AM which resulted in a lovely dawn walk around the shore front, watching the sun rise over the lake.  Te Anau was a favorite for both of us - a fantastic b&b with a full view of the lake and mountains from our bed didn't hurt.  The weather was rather damp which discouraged the hiking we'd hoped to do, but made for fantastic waterfalls pouring off mountains all along the drive to Milford Sound for a morning cruise.  I believe it really was Mike's favorite part of the trip....cloud rimmed peaks with cascades gushing from every side.

Milford Sound

Road to Wanaka from Queenstown

The drive to Wanaka over the highest paved road was excellent with the view back down over Queenstown a highlight...surreal almost.  We enjoyed another great b&b there which had a fun happy hour and enjoyed a lovely meal on the foreshore.  I had the venison - managed to eat venison all but one of the days we were in NZ and would cheerfully go back and eat venison every day.

Deer Snacks - take that as you will

Franz Joseph glacier was pretty...a lovely evening in outdoor cafes looking up at the snow covered peaks and glaciers, then a warming dip in a private outdoor hot tub under the stars.  Glaciers do however leave me cold...I appreciate natural wonders more than most but for some reason glaciers...meh.  Must be my natural aversion to cold at work.

Greymouth was a nice stopping point (I won a free beer in the brewery by balancing a coin on a floating lemon - best beer ever!) and the train across back to Christchurch was very fun.  Nice to take a break from the driving at that point.

I won!

Scenery from the train

We had a lovely uneventful trip back to Perth and immediately googled residency requirements for NZ - discovering to our chagrin that Mike is over the age cut off.  This means we are about to embark on a not so subtle campaign to get one of the kids to move there so we can slip in under a family visa deal :-)

Lately we've been enjoying having my daughter and her friend here.  We had an Aussie Christmas (swimming, heat, and flies) and now have sent them on a road trip to Shark Bay for the next several days.  True geology students that they are, they actually packed a rock hammer!

And I got a Kindle for Christmas :-)