We were so excited to not only go to New Zealand, but also to vacation with some family from back home! The girls finished their Term 3 of school and then we jumped on a plane 2 days later and geared up for 2 weeks of family fun on the North & South Islands of the AMAZING New Zealand!
The girls did great on the plane and were excellent helpers carrying the luggage.
While we were on the plane, Brian’s mom and his sister’s family were enjoying a day in Christchurch. Here are Quinn & Breck with some local wizards!
We landed in Christchurch and got picked up in our 12 passenger Toyota Hiace mini bus. So glad we hired this vehicle-it was perfect for our family and all of our craziness!
Starting our adventure in the South Island…our first view of snow capped mountains! We were on our way from the East Coast(Christchurch) to the West Coast (Greymouth) via Arthur’s Pass.
Stopping to photograph some of the beauty along the way
Our first major stop and one that we thought would only be about 15 minutes but ended up being closer to 2 hours, was Castle Hill. The hill was so named because the imposing limestone boulders resemble an old, run-down stone castle. This area was also where the battle scene from the movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was filmed. We had a blast walking around the boulders and even climbed to the top of the hill for some amazing views!
Beth & the 4 older kids are in the middle of this picture, climbing up to the top.
Here comes Brian and Hallie…
and me with my 4th child-my camera!
Cousins!!
We continued on our way through Arthurs’s Pass, New Zealand’s Southern Alps. The pass was full of viaducts, bridges, rock shelters, waterfalls, riverbeds, and beech forest. We stopped at the Otira Viaduct Lookout.
We saw this unique and very cheeky alpine parrot, the kea at our stop. The Kea is highly intelligent and now very rare, with only around 5000 remaining in the wild
We went through many narrow, one lane bridges throughout New Zealand.
We made it to Greymouth and had to wake this sleeping children up so that we could go out for dinner. Long first day!
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