New Zealand is the first country to see the sunrise

We're finally back up and running with internet, which we are so grateful for, it has taken us almost two weeks to get it going. So, some backtracking.

We headed to New Zealand early early Saturday morning on the 5th. Our flight was at 6:45am, and we traveled for most of the day. First on to Sydney. To understand what I had to deal with between Kate and Andrew we were given a muffin on the plane and they both proceeded to stick their fingers into mine and Andrew even licked it. Bunch of jerks. Our second flight was better, I threatened them both with my knife to stay away from my food so it was an uneventful flight.

The jerks and my breakfast

Andrew's parents and Uncle Dennis met us at the airport and drove us over a mountain to the harbor on the other side of Christchurch. Dennis has an amazing place on the hillside near the water looking onto the water. It's mostly holiday houses so his neighbors weren't there so they let us use their place, which was real nice, it gave us all a bit more space. Before dinner Kate, Andrew and I went for a walk out to a point with a small hill to get more of a view of the harbor and area around where we were staying.

The driveway up to Dennis' house, the whole area is covered in beautiful flowers
Dennis' house is the one with the red arrow pointed to it and we stayed in the one on the left

They're going to build houses on the point we were out on so of course before building anything, or selling any of the land, they decided to build fences with locked gates at some parts so we had to climb over them to get out if we didn't want to walk all the way back around the hill

The stairs to the top of the hill

Dennis is an amazing cook and we were treated to a three course meal beginning with eggplant stuffed with cheese, garlic and I don't know what else, followed by braised pork loin and salad and finished off with delicious pavlova topped with whipped cream and strawberries. For those who don't know, Pavlova is similar to snow pudding except baked, so it has a crunchy outside and soft inside. It really can't be described through, it's best to just try it.

The view from Dennis' couch

The view from our bedroom

The neighbors house we got to stay in

Andrew likes to look creepy

Crazy flowers growing in New Zealand

Sunday we got up and headed on a drive to one of Andrew's aunts houses for the annual Walker family Christmas party. Luckily Kate and Andrew didn't know most of the people there either so we made friends with one of his cousins and sat around drinking and chatting for the afternoon. At the end of the day someone pulled out some family video footage they had found recently and we were treated to some very old school pictures of the family, including Andrew's dad at probably only a year old after his confirmation playing in the yard, it was really pretty neat to see and made me want to see some of our old family videos.

Monday we drove down to Wiamate, which is about 3 hours down from Christchurch. This is the town Andrew's mom is from and his grandmother still lives in. She was sick when I first arrived in Australia and has been moved into a nursing home which she is still adjusting to. Wiamate is a small town, a cross between East Andover, NH and Franklin (for those who have been). There is one main street with a few shops including a cafe or two and about three bars. The first day we just bummed around and met Andrew's uncle Les and one of Judy's (Andrew's moms) friends for drinks.

There is a famous racehorse name Phar Lap, and he was from the area where Andrew's grandmother lives

This is the main street of the town

The house that Andrew's grandparents bought after the war and Judy grew up in

Tuesday we wandered around the town a while, popping into the second hand shops, including one where I bought an old brownie camera that seems to be in working condition. We went to see Andrew's grandmother in the afternoon, she was either waiting for us at one of the non-exit doors or waiting to make a break for it. It turns out that she has made a few breakouts before, although she doesn't remember doing it. She showed us around the home and her room and we had some tea before we headed out to meet Les for dinner and drinks.

Wednesday Kate, Andrew and I were heading out so we said our goodbyes to Andrew's grandmother and Les before beginning our long journey home. We took a bus for over 2 hours, a plane for 3 and another plane for half an hour before driving another half hour home to crash for a while before all three of us had to get up for our public service jobs. (I'm a public servant now).

We made a quite beach stop before our bus trip up the coast

Following up tomorrow will be the new job and catching up on the past week.

And we end with a video about New Zealanders that cracks us up.
Beached Az