On The Road Again...

We re-packed the car and said farewell to the grandparents on Sunday 27 December as we set off on the next leg of our South Island Tour. We headed west toward Queenstown with a pit stop to pick cherries before arriving in Arrowtown to meet up with Lynne’s daughter Nicci and her husband Michael’s family. It was a brief family reunion, but it was nice to see them.

 Once they left we headed to the Queenstown Holiday Park to set up camp for three nights in what I termed “The Dormitory”.  This was the tightest camping set up we’ve ever experienced and our massive family tent was a bit out of place amongst the campers, wagons and pup-tents we were surrounded by. Thankfully the first day the kids befriended the neighbour’s kids so we could easily set up camp.

We managed to get everything sorted with enough time for an evening bike ride along the river. The kids did so well on their new bikes and both seemed to enjoy this new recreational hobby, though I prefer it when we’re on trails rather than traffic. On our way back we stopped to watch a busker – which somehow resulted in Helena and Hunter joining the show! They are so cute… they love getting involved.

We’d finally gotten the kids in bed, dishes washed and ourselves in bed by about 11pm, and shortly after our heads hit the pillows all sorts of excitement began. Mostly the kind of excitement that involves noisy neighbours and stereos getting turned on and people coming home from other night life venues which kept us wide-eyed for a while until we fell back to some form of sleep and I somehow shivered the night away too sleepy to solve my dilemma, but too cold to reach REM. Needless to say, we were pretty grumpy and tired the next day.

Monday 28 December was a historical moment for me. Grandma’s memorial service was happening in California, so Amber worked it out for Phyllis to hold her phone on a muted Skype call so I could see and hear the service but nobody could hear me. Tony graciously played with the kids so I could concentrate knowing that he could watch the video of it at another time. It was a lovely service and I was touched by the tributes made by my aunts& uncles, but when it was over, I felt so relieved! We’d been waiting for this for twenty days – which meant everyone's interactions still revolved around logistics and event planning. I always miss my family, but I will miss Grandma in a new deep way.

After our egg salad and Pringles for lunch, we headed over to Arrowtown to take in the historic sites. We took a walk through the Chinese Settlement and imagined what it must’ve been like mining in a strange place like this. Then we headed to the river for a real panning for gold experience – which meant that for the hour we were out there all we really managed to find was a bit of fool’s gold and took home more mud than anything. At least we gave it a go and had a blast doing it. Next we fuelled up and got on our bikes for the Arrowtown Bridges Ride. This was great fun – we crossed a bunch of bridges ranging from rickety, bricky and our favourite – a suspension bridge… all by bike. We would’ve done the full 12km one way ride, but we kinda got off the track then decided we’d seen the coolest bridges so we may as well head back together. The kids did really well – so did I.  We got back tired and hungry, but happy.

On Tuesday we decided to do something locally fun and we hustled out to the Gondola and Luge. Thankfully our campsite was within 5 minutes’ walk from this hot tourist attraction so we got there before the crowds! The kids LOVED the Luge… we totally should have bought more rides, but we weren’t 100% sure if the kids would like it… next time we’ll go bigger!

The kids and I hung around the camp for a bit just chillin’ while Tony went out for a mountain bike adventure. On his ride he’d discovered a fun lake area, so we packed up some lunch stuff and all our swimming gear for some fun in the sun! He met us there post-ride and was more than happy to get in the icy lake with the kids. Of course the kids made friends, not just any friends, friends with inflatable toys! Four kids played together brilliantly til Helena fell off the raft upside down and was seemingly trapped underneath. Thankfully she’s a smart cookie who didn’t panic and realised she could go underwater and come up the other side – meanwhile both dads were in the water ready to rescue her. Phew… that was exciting.

There were some other exciting toys in the lake – a wake board with a handle (no boat) which looked like fun, a floating sofa, and the best – water propelled shoes that allowed the user to “walk on water”. This guy looked a lot like Ironman hovering over the water… it was actually really impressive.

It was a great day balancing household chores and fun. We even got to get a bit of time in town before retiring for our last night in the Dorm, then we were off for stop #3!