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I just wanted to send a note to all of you and let you know our plans. Our year long journey is coming to and end. We will fly into Roanoke on Dec 14th. We will be in Roanoke for about a week and then off to Chicago to spend time with the children for Christmas. After that we will travel to see our extented family. We are currently working on a job situation that will put us back in Roanoke. We are looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up. We will still have our skype phone number. We will be getting cell phones soon so I will let you know that number when I get it

. Love,

 Jill

Wellington

We took the boys on a 10 day trip to the South part of the North Island and the North part of the South Island. We did allot of driving and saw a lot of things.  We drove passed Sheep World where the pink sheep are.  USA has Disney world but New Zealand had Sheep world.  We didn't actually stop because we have seen sheep sheared but we have the question why the sheared sheep are pink. Who knows.  We traveled down the West Coast and came across a black sand beach. I have never seen black sand. It is because of all the volcanic activity. It was very beautiful.

We then went to Wellington. It is full of free museums.  One of the best is a 4 story museum about New Zealand.It was very interactive .  They also have a wildlife refuge called Zealandia. We chose to go on a night walk. One of the reasons we did was because the native kiwi bird is a night creature. We walked through the park and saw some interesting wildlife. It was a beautiful beautiful evening. We heard the kiwi but never saw one. They boys saw that the kiwi hunt is really a New Zealand Snip hunt.  Now every time they see something about a kiwi they refer to it as a snipe kiwi. We also saw the parliament buildings. One of them is called the bee hive. It was referred to by Forbes Magazine as the third ugliest building in the world.

Wellington is also know as Welly wood ,the movie center of  New Zealand. We visited the Weta Cave. This is where Peter Jackson ( famous director) and some special effects people work. They have done the special effects or worked on  many movies including Lord of the Rings, The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe, Avatar, and District 9 to name a few. They really do everything there. We were unable to see too much because every movie they work on is top secret until it comes out.                                                                

We then took the ferry to the South Island. The scenery is beautiful unfortunately we did not see much of it due to the roughness of the sea. Both Steve and Luke got sick. They had beds to lay on which should have been our first sign that things might be rough. By laying down I was able to keep from getting sick. David, however, had no issues. The South Island was cold and some of the mountains were snow capped. We took a boat tour to see wildlife . It was enjoyable but the penguins weren't out which disappointed the boys. We did see various birds, seals, and hector dolphins which are endangered.                                                   

We went back up to the north island and the ferry was fine this time thankfully.  We saw more geothermal activity because the boys hadn't seen any. They also went black water rafting. it is where you wear a wetsuit and raft through caves ,float through narrow places, and jump off waterfalls. They loved it. We then dropped them off so they could fly to Australia for 2 weeks. I'm sure they will have a blast.

West Coast

I took David and Luke to the West Coast to see the Kauri trees and the Tasman Sea. I plugged in our destination into the GPS and off we went.  Steve does not like to rely too heavily on the GPS but I do. I knew the way but the GPS  wanted to take me a different way so I decided to follow it because it knew the shorter way. What the GPS doesn't know is what is gravel in New Zealand and what is not. What started out as a short cut took 30 more minutes due to several gravel roads it took me on. I could not believe it. We did get to the information center which was off a gravel road and the lady gave me directions to the Kauri trees. I was to go back out and turn left. Sounds simple. Well it is if you go back on the same road which I did not. I went on a different  road. All gravel roads look the same. This one, however, ended up being a logging road with deep ruts.  I said I don't remember this. My son said well you are on a different road mom.  He thought I wanted a different road. He told me he knew I had some directional issues but didn't know that it was that bad. Needless to say after that he questioned every road I took.  We did see everything we wanted to see. We stopped in a little tavern for lunch and had fish and chips. A couple of the people recognized that we were foreign and visited with us. They were very nice. It was a cozy play with a fireplace to which the owner's dog came in and laid down by.  I guess in New Zealand they don't have the same health codes.  We happened to drive by a rugby game and stopped to watch. I can not believe how rough of a game it is. Several guys got injured. One guy was laying on the field holding his hamstring. We assumed he must have pulled it. The trainer came over and looked at it. He had him stand up. He took a water bottle and just started squirting water all over the injured area. Then he had him shake his leg. He then told him he was fine so off the player went. David said it must be magic Maori water.  Who knows but it did make for an interesting day,

Adventure

We went to the middle of the North Island for a few days with David and Luke. It rained frequently so we had to work around that .  We took them to Hobbiton.  They were allowed to take pictures but they can't put them on the Internet because they are working on a new set for the movie the Hobbit.  Apparently movies sets are highly secretive.  The only thing new were the  fronts back on the Hobbit holes.  Maybe after the movie comes out they will be allowed to post pictures. We also went to Gravity Canyon.  Steve, David , and Luke went on the longest zip line in New Zealand over the canyon. David also bungee jumped. I , however, was content just to take pictures. I could not believe my son did an 80 meter bungee jump.  I'm glad I was focused on taking pictures with his camera. I tried to upload the video but it just won't interface. Here are a few  pictures of our time.

getting ready

the canyon

David and Luke

David and Luke arrive safely from the states . I survived yet another trip to the Auckland airport.  We plan on leaving for the central part of the island tomorrow. We hope to show them some things that we have yet to see.  Today we took them to the glow worm caves. They were very impressed. It is an amazing site.  It has been raining here so the cave had more water in it. We had to wade in knee deep water. I never new I was such an adventurer.  We also went the Whangarie Falls for about my 6th time but it is something everyone needs to see.  David had his first driving lesson and it is fun to watch someone new to driving on the left. I like to count how many times the windshield wiper gets hit instead of the blinker. That's how the Kiwi's know who the tourists are. I will update with more adventures as they happen. I think that bungee jumping is on the agenda(not for me)so it should be fun.

Graduation

The Johnston's

David and Aunt Jean

Uncle Joe,David, Aunt Beth

My Clan

David and Luke Campbell

We are now back from graduation. We had a great time. I just wanted to put a few pictures up for everyone.  I tried to get as much in as I could but I didn't get to see everyone I wanted. We also missed church due to family and numerous people flying out on Sunday.  My body didn't like the time change and I had to resort to my first sleeping pill to get over it.  I only drove on the wrong side of the road once. I can't ,however, say how many times I hit the windshield wiper instead of the blinker. I am now back to driving over here and have to retrain my brain yet again.   We will be having  David and Luke here in a week and plan to do some more traveling.  More posts will come on our adventures.

Megan and Rachel

We had the opportunity to entertain Rachel's friend, Megan, last week. It was a fun week. We showed her some of the sights here in Whangarie that we had already seen but we also took her to a local cave that we had not been in. We read that it self guided. We were also told that you could see glow worms. It was really fun. The cave was very open and fairly easy to navigate. The only problem was we had only one flashlight so we had to work as a team to keep the light in the right place for all of us to see. There were glow worms galore. They look like white Christmas lights. We did, however, have to walk through water and it took days to get our shoes dry.

Steve had a few days off so we went to the Corumandel Peninsula. We attempted to experience the hot water beach. When the tide is out you can dig a hole in the sand and hot water will seep in. The waves were too high that day and no hot water was found. The next day we went to Cathedral Cove Beach. It was just beautiful. A few of the Narnia scenes have been filmed there. It was peaceful and beautiful. Probably the most beautiful beach here.

We then decide to go to an exotic bird sanctuary. We drove down a gravel road to a farm. The sign said that it was open but no one was there. There was another sign that said we are sometimes gone but feel free to look at our birds and if you enjoy please leave a donation. We did look and enjoy it but we never saw the owners. Only in New Zealand would you see this.

We then traveled down to see a butterfly garden. It , however, did have owners present. We were able to see lots of beautiful butterflies. We had a fun time and really enjoyed being able to share our New Zealand experience with Megan. We love having visitors. Hint, Hint.

Laura and David

I haven't updated for awhile because I wanted to focus on company. Laura and her husband, David, came to visit us for 2 weeks. Rachel is still here. We wanted to go and see as much as possible while they were all here. We spent a few days in Whangarei to let Laura and David rest before we took off to see some sights. We went to the middle of the North Island because we hadn't been there yet. Our first stop was Hobbit town. This is where all the outside scenes for the Lord of the Ring's movies were shot. They had started to tear them down when the owner of the land negotiated to keep some of the houses of as a tourist attraction. Ironically they will start filming the prequel this year so they are completely rebuilding all the sets. It was an interesting tour. We learned how much time it took to build the sets and what they imported. It wad quite extensive. They knew that people would notice incorrect details from the book.


Laura and Rachel at the party tree

Our chance to be Hobbits

The movie was filmed on a working sheep farm so as part of our tour we got to watch a sheep being sheered . We also got to feed the lambs. Rachel's one big goal while she was here was to touch a lamb so she was quite happy.


We then went on to Rotarua which is an active geothermal area. It is part of the ring of fire. There are volcanoes, geysers, thermal pools, mud baths and everything geothermal you can think of. It was very fascinating. I have never seen anything quite like it. We went to one of the main parks that had the most variety of geothermal activity. It had all types of geysers, pools, steam, rocks, etc. No picture can truly capture it.

champagne pool

devil's bath

We also just did some basic sight seeing and even played a game of mini golf. The course was similar to America except for the bunny running on to the green and wanting to be petted. There was also a dog who had caught a rat and was playing with it not to mention the parrots in their cages. It was truly relaxing and enjoyable. We then went to the glow worm caves. We were not allowed to take pictures. It was really beautiful. The glow worms looked like a web of white Christmas lights. Everyone was quiet. It was a very tranquil place. After that it was Auckland. We took a cruise on the harbor and got some history of the area. We also visited a volcanic island.

We also had an enjoyable time at the Antarctic exhibit. We got to see more penguins. They also had an aquarium there. We viewed different types of equipment and shelters that were used in Antarctica.It is hard to believe what people are willing to do in the name of exploration.

We then headed back to Whangarei. We gave them some general tours of things we do around here. I am so glad that they got to come. I miss them already.

Adventure Capital of the World

We continued on our South Island Adventure to the Southern Alps as they like to call them. This is the main skiing area in New Zealand. The mountains are gorgeous . There are also lakes all over. People come here for any sort of outdoor adventure you could want. It is very unspoiled with some roads just being gravel. They filmed many of the Lord of the Rings outdoor scenes here. You can even take a Lord of the Rings tour is you want.

Queens town and Arrow town are the two main towns we visited. Most Kiwis don't care for Queens town because it is too touristy. It is full of restaurants, hotels, souvenir shops, and travel excursion stores. Arrow town is much smaller and more like a small older town. It was one of the main places the Chinese came to pan for gold. They still have remnants of the settlement there. We were told about an opportunity to see a unique movie theater so we decided to go. It had silk walls and ceiling. The chairs were large and assigned to you. On the back of the chair there was a blanket for you. They had trays for you to put you food on. Wine and cheese were the favorite food order for many. They also had 1 intermission so that you wouldn't miss any of the movie for a bathroom break. We watched Invictus . We were surprised they showed it since the final scene of the movie is the South Africans beating the New Zealand Blacks in rugby.

The whole area is know as the adventure capital of the world. Everywhere you look you could find some sort of adventure. You could parachute, wind surf, rock climb, ..... One of the 2 most popular adventure rides is the jet boat. It take you down narrow caverns at high speeds while your head barely misses the rocks.


The second popular thing to do here is bungee jump. It is said that the bridge here is where bungee jumping first started. Knowing the Kiwis need for adventure I wouldn't be surprised

We were not feeling as adventurous as the kiwis so we passed on these two popular options. We opted instead to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain. There was a luge track up there where Rachel and Steve decided to have their adventure. I opted out. It sounded like you could go very fast and I wasn't sure I wanted that. When we got up to the top Rachel and Steve made their way over to the luge track. Here is a picture.

Oh well so much for the great adventure.

Curling

Nasby

Nasby Hotel

Rachel Curling

Me with winning stones

We went to a town called Nasby from Dunedin. Rachel had read in a book about the only indoor curling rink being there. We arrived in the evening to this small town. We could not imagine how this town could have a curling rink but we decided to stay the night anyway. There were two hotels in town. Both were built in the early 1800's when there was gold panning going on. We got a room at one of them. The local bar was in the front of the hotel. Much of the town had gathered for the local Rugby game. It was like stepping back in time. We went to our room which had a queen bed and two bunks in it. It had no television or Internet access. The bathroom was down the hall. There were no ice machines or any such amenities. We were indeed in rural New Zealand. The next day we had breakfast in the bar which at the time was the only place open for breakfast. They do make great omelets there. We then proceeded on our curling adventure. We showed up at the rink at about 10 thinking no one would be there but us. We were surprised to see a parking lot full. There was a group ahead of us that had about 15 in it. They like us had never curled . We were taken through a 10 minute video to show us the basics. One of the employees showed us how to push the stone and how to sweep. They were great about instructing us. We then pared off against each other and played a game. It was easier t the 50 pound stone down the ice that I thought. In fact we started having to push easier because we were going past the bull's eye often. It was really more fun that we thought. I especially enjoyed winning the game. My son told me it was because of my natural sweeping skills. Whatever the case, we had a great time taking a step back in time in Nasby.

Dunedin

We are back from our trip to the South Island. We saw many things and this is the first of several blogs to describe our trip. There was too much to put in one blog. We arrived in Christchurch on the 26Th but decided to drive down to Dunedin and the Otaga Peninsula. Dunedin is a lovely town of about 100,000. It is Scottish in origin and you can tell it from the buildings. It is quite a charming town




Just a half hour out from Dunedin is the Otaga Peninsula which is known for penguins, seals, and the endangered albatross. We started out in an 8 wheel drive vehicle to see the seals, yellow eyed penguins , and the blue penguins. The seals were first on the list so they took us to the bay where we saw a group lounging and playing.No one is actually able to walk on their land so they are free to just do what they want. They did not care that we were watching because they knew they were safe. It was truly hard to believe we could get as close as we did.





Next we went to see the yellow-eyed penguins. They were hidden so it was hard to get a good picture of them. We could see them with the binoculars but our lens did not do it justice. We were also able to see a blue Penguin up close. He was very small and they did not let us get a photograph of him so this is the only picture of penguins I could get.




Lastly we went to the albatross center. We got a great viewing of the albatrosses with their young on the ground. It is harder to catch them flying but it was a great day and we saw them fly. They have a 3 meter wing span. they really glide more than fly. Once they are 9 months old they take off and fly over the ocean and don't come back to land for 5 years. They eat and sleep on the ocean. They then come back and court for 5 or so years. They then pick a mate for life. They have one child every 2 years. I find them fascinating.



I found this journey to see the wildlife up close and personnel very enjoyable. I was grateful to have this experience. Stay tuned for more of our adventure of the South Island.

90 Mile Beach

We went on a three day trip to the very Northern tip of the island. We took a bus tour one day to see the end and ride on the beach. It isn't safe for cars. The land mass gets more narrow toward the tip . At the very tip the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean come together to cause whirlpools which they say represents the relationship between men and women. (very volatile) Much of Maori religion is also based on this tip where they think their soul leaves to to go to their eternity. The Eastern Europeans are all based in this area. The Kiwis call them dalmatians but I am not sure why. We saw the light house at the tip with its breathtaking views. We also went tobogganing on the sand dunes. Yes even I did it. I was glad that you could adjust you speed to fast or slow. You can guess what my speed was. We had a very outgoing Maori guide who sang us a native Maori love song. It was beautiful. We were yet again on a vehicle that delivered mail just like our boat. We actually stopped at a mailbox in the middle of the beach. It was there for the tent campers who had their camp over the hill and out of sight. I guess every year this group of men that come up and fish for 3 months and just live off the land. It is a very deserted part of the country. I couldn't believe they could actually get mail but this bus service brings it to them. It was just too funny.

Hole in a rock caused by the water

Cape Reigna

Steve on the toboggan

Mailbox on the beach

Weeds and Wellies

Rachel and our attempt at gardening

On Wednesday I went to an all day garden club meeting called " Weeds and Wellies". I met a very nice lady named Marion at the gym. We got to talking and it turned out she did a 6 week motorcycle tour in the USA last summer. One of the people she went with was originally from Richmond, VA and she had actually gone through Roanoke on her tour. We struck up a conversation and from there she invited me to her garden club. I really know very little about gardening but I wanted to meet some people. There were 27 wonderful ladies there. They meet once a month and tour gardens. Of course along the way you stop for tea and a muffin. You also stop at one of the members house for lunch. You bring your own lunch and they provide the tea and coffee. Then later in the afternoon you stop one more time for tea. It was nice to meet some women and have a day out. The gardens we toured were just peoples homes but some of their yards were amazing. One home had an amazing begonia collection. I had never seen so many varieties . They were all colors and sizes. I was sorry that I forgot my camera. We also went to one ladies house that has apple, orange, pear, and walnut trees. She also had other many amazing plants. They tell me you can even easily grow bananas around here. It isn't cold enough for a few things but not many. Rachel has started to get interested in gardening while she has been here, so we decided to add to our vegetable garden. You can plant different things year around. I learned from the ladies what I could plant so we planted lettuce , cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and celery. Time will tell if all the many gardeners will rub off on me.