Dear Reader, Wizard People,
I am catching up on the last 2 months b/c I was temporarily entrenched in the weightier matters of life. I return and now show you, dear reader, my adventures of late, that you might one day choose to join me in this enchanted land to explore the land of hobbits, wizards and animators.
Come with me and rollerblade along Oriental Bay. With the wind to your back you reach speeds of about 40kmh. Against the wind, well, you might have to hitchhike back.
Buy a cheap flight to the south island, as we did one long weekend, make the olde english towne of Christchurch your homebase, and then venture out into the open land and hopefully you won't encounter some of the most unfriendly weather this side of the equator. Really, it was freezing everyday we took to the highways. Ah, but the weather will shine down on you
in the home of the
Crusaders. Climb the churchy tower thing, but beware the slippery and narrow spirally staircase -
Jot across the square, through the old courtyard, around the corner, past the
Holy Grail and into the botanical gardens. In winter, they are less botanical and more, uhh dead. But you can still find some small entertainment if you stumble upon the Peace Bell and take it for a ride.
For a quick refresher,
punt across the Avon to the Olde Fudge Cottage. As the tale goes, 4 yrs ago a grey-haired father traveling with his family came into that very Shoppe and from the very same lady pictued below bought
96 bars of every possible flavor of fudge. That record still stands.
After you've had enough with the City, head north to Hamner Springs, home of thermal hot springs and some snow in the peak winter months. Please 4 wheel :
Journeying along the motorway direction Queenstown, the weather turned naughty nasty. It was so cold that we ended up driving around until we saw something ridiculously beautiful, 1 would run outside the car and fake a smile thorugh chattering teeth while the other took the picture from the car.
And there was a cave with water running thru it. it was cool. but much too cold and much too dark to go too far without dying.
End of Adventure.
Sincerely,
Author
I did not get to act like a 10' tall blue alien this round for the animators, that honor is reserved only for Frenzy in Transformers.
I got one. My first speeding ticket in my life, well, except for last time I was in New Zealand - but that time it was only a camera in the back of a parked civilian-looking van that caught me going 10km over, but by the time the ticket was mailed, i had fled the country and was hiding in the Wasatch Mountains.
Buy a cheap flight to the south island, as we did one long weekend, make the olde english towne of Christchurch your homebase, and then venture out into the open land and hopefully you won't encounter some of the most unfriendly weather this side of the equator. Really, it was freezing everyday we took to the highways. Ah, but the weather will shine down on you in the home of the Crusaders. Climb the churchy tower thing, but beware the slippery and narrow spirally staircase -
Jot across the square, through the old courtyard, around the corner, past the Holy Grail and into the botanical gardens. In winter, they are less botanical and more, uhh dead. But you can still find some small entertainment if you stumble upon the Peace Bell and take it for a ride.
For a quick refresher, punt across the Avon to the Olde Fudge Cottage. As the tale goes, 4 yrs ago a grey-haired father traveling with his family came into that very Shoppe and from the very same lady pictued below bought 96 bars of every possible flavor of fudge. That record still stands.
After you've had enough with the City, head north to Hamner Springs, home of thermal hot springs and some snow in the peak winter months. Please 4 wheel : 
Journeying along the motorway direction Queenstown, the weather turned naughty nasty. It was so cold that we ended up driving around until we saw something ridiculously beautiful, 1 would run outside the car and fake a smile thorugh chattering teeth while the other took the picture from the car.
And there was a cave with water running thru it. it was cool. but much too cold and much too dark to go too far without dying. 
End of Adventure.
She was going to stay 2 weeks, but ended up staying almost 6. My reaction when she told me she purposely missed her plane.
Katie at the helm.
We ended up being too tired to keep driving, so slept on the shores of Lake Taupo in the back of Shadowfax. Then we went straight to Hidden Sulphur Valley. We had to take a ferry to get to the geysers, bubbling mud and colorful mineral deposits.
Sometimes you have to let kids learn lessons for themselves. But after you touch the boiling mud pit once, you'll have learned to never touch again.
I jump
The survivors left the priest in his hut for 3 days because they believed he caused the disaster.
To break up the long dirve back, we thought we'd do a little rafting.
Katie pumping up the raft gettting ready to launch just upstream from this.
Katie a little surprised that that's what i wanted to go off and now glad that the rangers stopped us.
