Well Hello Again Loyal Blog-Readers,

I hope you haven't forgotten us after our long absence. It has been almost a month since we finished apple picking and in the meantime we have been visiting with our parents and traveling around the North Island. We certainly had a hard time saying goodbye to the South, but the cold weather helped motivate us as we figured the North would be warmer. This however was not the case. Nevertheless, we are still enjoying ourselves and have re-adapted to living in the car.

In quick summary...We toured the South Island with my parents and their friends Andy and Mary starting in Queenstown and working back to Christchurch. There we met Gareths parents and had a big family dinner. Not surprisingly, our parents got along swell. From there we went south with Gareths parents to visit friends Marcus and Jan. Then to Akaroa penninsula where wind and hail kept us up all night. The next morning Gareths parents went south while we went north. The ferry crossing to the North Island was brutally rough, and Gareth and I were of the lucky few who did not get sick. We stayed in Wellington a night ate at a few delicious restaurants and visited the awesome museum. Finally we went to the Taranaki region where we visited an awesome park and went hiking.

Seal cubs on Wharariki Beach.

On a bluff above Wharariki Beach.



Ashley and Roshel on Wharariki Beach.

jumping on sand dunes still on Wharariki

Perfectly timed. Ashley, Roshel and Sara


And Gareth...

Dunes.

The Canadians and Sara with Simon (the world's finest advice giver and problem solver)

Boydy with two bins full of apples

The bins.

Gareth with Urgent the goat.

Some of the empties at the work BBQ.

Ross (our boss and apple-grower extraordinaire) racing his son Dale on the go-carts. We all had a go and I beat Gareth (almost).


The only picture of my parents visit. Andy and my dad with a seal in Kaikora. Refer to my mother's blog for a detailed account of their lovely visit. She makes our blogging efforts look sad.

Gareths mom and I on Sumner Beach in Christchurch. We will have more pictures or their visit after we meet with them again in a few days!

A car rolled on its side on a ridiculous road near Wellington. No one was hurt luckily and the car hardly had a scratch.

Havenview Campground with Taranaki (a volcano also known as mt Egmont) in the background. We highly recommend this place!

A goat standing on his house at the aforementioned campground.

Taranaki.

Hiking on Taranaki (but not to the top because of the snow).

The peak looks so close, but do not be deceived.