New Zealand Southern Island (Part 2)

March 5, 2025

Dear Friends, Family, and Fellow Travelers,

Welcome to the second half of our trip to New Zealand’s South Island. We continue to love it here and are so glad we decided to spend 5.5 weeks exploring this country from bottom to top. I’m continuing with the day by day replay for this newsletter, since this feels like a consistent vibe for a road trip, but will likely move away from it once we hit the North Island since some days are more exciting than others and I fear that I may start to bore all of you.

Sara’s Thoughts and Recap

 February 18^th: Wanaka —> Queenstown

As Queenstown is only an hour away from Wanaka, we had plenty of time for stops along the way. First, I insisted on visiting “That Wanaka Tree,” a willow tree that stands alone in Lake Wanaka and is apparently NZ’s most famous tree. Jonah came with me while the others stayed in the car, continuing to insist, “It’s just a tree,” To mess with him, I decided to make a huge fuss about it, heading back to the car with several photos and telling everyone it was the coolest thing I’d seen in all of NZ. But since Jonah refused to back me up, the fanfare petered out pretty quickly. You can decide for yourselves:

We made a quick pit stop at the local lavender farm for some tea, cookies, and a lavender-infused cheddar scone, and then headed to Arrowtown. Arrowtown is a historic gold-mining town, with a legacy dating back to the 1860’s Otago gold rush. To learn more about the town, we visited the Lakes District Museum & Art Gallery. We were very impressed – there were “treasure hunts” for the kids (for Simon: find 10 objects that are out of place, such as a My Little Pony next to an old timey shoe display; for Calla, find 10 cartoon kiwis on vacation). The exhibits were interactive and engaging; we learned about early Maori life, the European settlers, and the history of gold mining. After visiting the museum, we continued to explore the small town, stopping at a local candy store where we gave each of the kids $5 and told them to go wild before driving to Queenstown.

We arrived at our condo in Queenstown around 3pm, and after some unpacking and rest, we headed out to Minus 5 ice bar, an experience that promised “family fun” that was neither family-friendly nor fun. Basically, they give you warm jackets and glove, and send you into a small bar made entirely of ice. Drinks come in glasses made of ice, and you get to smash them when you’re done. We had an hour-long reservation beginning at 5pm. By 5:12, Simon had finished his drink and was complaining he wanted to leave; I hadn’t even gotten my drink yet. Then, Jonah couldn’t feel his appendages, and Calla’s lips started turning purple (“I’m freeeeezing.”) We took lots of photos. People took various breaks, and we called it at 5:23pm.

More fun was Fergburger, a Queenstown “institution” according to multiple people on the Internet. This lived up to the hype. Burgers were so filling that Jonah proclaimed that he wouldn’t be ready for another burger “for at least a week.” To read more about the Fergburger, please see Justin’s love letter below. As we were walking back to our accommodations, we noticed that “Cookie Time” had a daily BOGO happy hour from 6pm – 7pm. Thus, it would have been borderline illegal to not get cookies, so we did (both that night and the next).

February 19^th: Queenstown

Queenstown is known as the “Adventure Capital” of New Zealand, and given that there is so much to do here, we decided to spend 5 full days exploring this vibrant town. Unfortunately, the forecast for our first full day here predicted rain. We’d planned to do a Milford Sound cruise, but we bumped it to later in the week and instead did a little shopping since both Calla and Simon were in need of new clothes. We then visited The Winery, a shop that stocks over 1,000 bottles of NZ wines from various small producers and selected 15 bottles to ship home while the kids waited very patiently with their respective books. The shop was able to delay shipment until we arrive home, and I know that future us will be really excited to receive our curated bottles this summer. It was getting late, so Justin and the boys went to the market for ingredients to make dinner while Calla and I continued to explore the town. Suddenly, I saw a woman who looked exactly like a colleague of mine go into a store. “Lucene!” I called out, and the woman turned around. So…. in the middle of Queenstown, New Zealand, I bumped into a fellow DBT-er who lives in Cleveland. We were both shocked – (even though I was later reminded that I had been told by NZ DBT-er Shelly that Lucene was also going to be NZ, but I’d completely forgotten. Sorry, Shelly! There w). But still…. NZ is not small. Queenstown itself is not small. Sometimes life is very random. We chatted for several minutes, marveling at the coincidence, and trading stories about traveling through NZ.

February 20^th: Queenstown

I continue to be blown away by the scenery in New Zealand, and Queenstown is no exception. Sometimes, at home we can see Mount Rainier way off in the distance, but this is on another level entirely. Everywhere – everywhere! – is surrounded by the most glorious mountains. It’s like the mountains are the walls and Queenstown exists within them.

Today, we hiked the Queenstown Hill Walkway, which promised amazing views of the town and Lake Wakatipu. There is also a sculpture called Basket of Dreams towards the top of the trail. It’s a steel and schist stone basket that you can lie or sit in and make a wish. 

After dragging Calla out of the basket, we only needed to hike another 10-15 minutes to reach the summit, where we marveled at still more scenery before turning around.

In the afternoon, I got a little shopping done and then met the rest of the family for mini golf. One of the holes featured sculptures of beheaded bunny rabbits, and we pondered aloud what sorts of horrible things must have happened to them on the course. We finished our night at a place called Winnie’s, where we ate eclectic varieties of pizza like hoisin chicken and mixed seafood.

February 21^st: Queenstown

People say that the Milford Sound – which is nestled within the Fjordland National Park and is technically a fjord and not a sound - is New Zealand’s most stunning natural attraction, and that it cannot be missed on a trip to the South Island. We were hesitant, since the coach ride to the Sound is upwards of five hours each way from Queenstown, but we figured it would be doable if we treated it like a regular travel day and let the kids use their tablets. We also decided to do a coach —> cruise—> fly tour, which meant we’d get to return to Queenstown on a small plane rather than on a coach bus. Unfortunately, the day was a bit of a mess. After rescheduling due to weather a couple days earlier – (since bad weather would make it nearly impossible to fly back) – the company gave us the incorrect pick up time. So, even though we theoretically arrived at the bus stop all bundled up 15-minutes early, we were apparently already late and had missed our bus. This was, of course, the very last bus of the day. To the company’s credit, they quickly scrambled and got us booked with another coach and boat company, so we were still able to visit the sound, but it definitely made for a stressful morning! The coach ride was long, but our driver/guide entertained us with stories about the Sound, plus the long ride allowed me to finish my book, and we made several scenic stops. Upon arrival at the boat terminal, we quickly scrambled onto our cruise boat to enjoy the scenery. As we traveled, we were treated to narration about what we were seeing, and we spent much of the cruise on the top deck. It was extremely windy, but so beautiful that nobody wanted to head back inside. When our cruise was over, the weather was still clear, so we were able to fly back with Air Milford as originally planned. I got to be the co-pilot, which basically just meant that I sat up front wearing aviator sunglasses and a giant headset. I typically don’t love flying in small planes, but something about sitting up front with a view of the Sound below me loosened my nerves and made for a spectacular cap to our long day out.

We arrived back at our condo around 5:30. Everyone was pretty beat, but I still had some energy to burn and met Lucene and her husband for a drink downtown. I thanked them for allowing me to third wheel and enjoy a few kid-free moments, and tried not to antagonize her spouse with too much DBT talk.

February 22^nd: Queenstown

Somehow, post-skydiving, I convinced myself that the Nevis Swing would be a good idea because now I am a bona fide bad ass. (Though as I told one of my friends, only travel Sara does cool stuff. At home Sara is boring af.) For the uninitiated, the Nevis Swing is marketed as the “world’s biggest swing,” which means they can charge an obscene amount of money for the privilege of going on it. Attached to a harness, you are sent down a 300 meter arc through a canyon. (As an aside, after 8+ months of travel, I speak in metric system now.) We piled the kids in the car and checked in, where our bus numbers and weights were written in large, permanent marker on our hands. The bus brought us to another center, where we were fitted into harnesses. We all walked down a narrow, high bridge to a small launch area. The kids were allowed to remain behind as spectators, and I was thrilled that the staff allowed Justin and me to do a tandem swing since we weren’t sure they’d be okay with being responsible for unattended children, even for just the 4-5 minutes we were swinging. We walked over to the ledge, where we were told to sit on the swing and were strapped in. Then, they extended the swing forward so that we dangled over the canyon. It was so terrifying I could hear my heart beating. Then I heard, “3-2-1. Bye!” and suddenly I was dropping down, down, down. I squeezed my eyes shut until I felt some semblance of stability and then wow…. What a view. Disoriented, I searched for the little launch area where the kids were still standing, but I couldn’t find it. I held Justin’s hand and we swung for a few minutes until we were pulled back up to the safety of the launch pad and our kids’ embraces. They offered to let us swing again for a fraction of the price, but Jonah put his foot down. I don’t think my body stopped shaking for several hours. Zero regrets.

In the afternoon, we took the Skyline Gondola to the luge. Our plan was to do three rides across the two tracks. After the first ride, Jonah and I waited at the base for ten minutes, growing concerned about where the rest of our family went. Without a phone (and with my phone locked in a locker to which Justin held the key) eventually, we decided to take the chair lift back up to the top and see if perhaps the others were still waiting there. Finally - after what felt like an eternity - we saw Justin, Calla, and Simon exit the chairlift, and learned that the hold up was that Simon was having trouble steering, and got so stuck that it took an extra 15 minutes for them to come down. If you know Simon, this will be an entirely predictable outcome. Just two more rides to go!! The subsequent rides were more successful, and as everyone was getting hungry we went for an early dinner at a local, highly rated Tex Mex restaurant called Margo’s. All in all, a really good day.

February 23^rd: Queenstown

Achievement unlocked: All three of our kids were able to participate in ZipTrek’s ziplining adventure!! While there was no minimum weight limit, there was a minimum age of 6, which we successfully talked down to “5 years and 1 month” after swearing up and down that Calla could follow safety instructions. There is something to be said for being able to accurately assess your children’s capabilities, because we knew once Calla was clipped in, she’d have a blast. We took the gondola for a second day in a row, and arrived with plenty of time to get fitted into our harnesses. While we’d been told that both Calla and Simon would be zipping in tandem with one of us, it turns out that was not the case, and both of them could zip alone (with the exception of the very last line, where Calla wasn’t heavy enough and needed to be tethered to a guide). Simon was anxious, since this plan deviated from what we’d been telling him, but Calla was non-plussed. Both of them had many questions for our guides, and when it was time for Calla to go, we watched her tiny little body zoom across the trees while she cried, “Wheeeee this is SO FUN!!”

We headed back down the mountain, and in the afternoon, we joined Appellation Tours for a whirlwind visit to three wineries. As this was a group tour, we understood the assignment, bringing along 2 Kindles, 1 coloring book, 1 pencil case, and 3 tablets. We visited three wineries: Ayrburn, Gibbiston, and Mt. Rosa. We learned about the difference between Otago Sauvignon Blancs and Sauv Blancs from the Marlborough region, and also tried several Pinot Noirs. Pinots are neither of our favorite’s, but the ones made in Otago tend to be fuller bodied because of – according to our first sommelier – climate change. Because of the hole in the ozone over the Otago Valley, there is a higher intensity of UV rays, which thickens the skin of the grapes. Disturbing and also… I think I had the first Pinot I’ve enjoyed from Ayrburn. The sommelier there also expressed concerns about the sauvignon blancs from Marlborough that you can buy at places like Safeway. Because NZ is a small country, any vineyard that is able to process and ship at such a high rate to the US may engage in problematic harvesting practices. This made a lot of sense to us, and as much as I’d prefer to bury my head in the sand, I think we’ll follow her advice upon our return. At Mt. Rosa, there was a beautiful outdoors space for the kids to explore while we sipped wine and ate from delicious cheese platters. A truly excellent day as we headed back to our condo to start packing.

I enjoyed having some extra time in Queenstown to really get to known the area. While there, I finally caved and bought the two items I’d been hoping to avoid purchasing: hiking shoes and hiking poles. I’ve been wearing tried and true Salomon trail runners for the duration of the trip, and even had my mom bring out a new pair. But after two days of steeper hikes, my 41-year old ankles were begging for something more supportive. As the remainder of our itinerary includes some pretty big hikes – including the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, Cotopaxi, and Machu Picchu, I realized that the trail runners just weren’t going to cut it. Same goes with the hiking poles – I used them in Bhutan (loaned to me by our wonderful guide) and find that they really help stabilize me during climbs (up and down). Despite sending a ton of stuff back with my family, we continuously find ourselves with too much luggage, and I’m not thrilled to try to stuff an extra pair of shoes and some hiking poles into our bags for the next 4.5 months, but it is what it is.

Feb 24^th: Queenstown —> Lake Tekapo

We stopped for brunch in Queenstown before making the 3-hour drive to Lake Tekapo. Among many things that I’ve learned while traveling, is that sometimes, past me was overly optimistic about the capabilities of her family members as well as overly confident in her powers of persuasion. For example, last July I booked a 10pm Chameleon Stargazing tour in Lake Tekapo for February 24^th, 2025. “It’ll be fine” the me who had been traveling for just four days at that point thought. “We’ll just make sure the kids nap first.” As of this writing, it is 4:28pm on the aforementioned date and zero people are napping. Will the promise of hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows be enough to sustain 2/3’s of my kids long past their bedtimes? Time will tell.

<post-script>

After coaxing everyone to stay up despite lack of naps, we arrived at the appointed stargazing site at ten to ten, only to learn that it was likely too cloudy to see anything. We were given a 10 minute “trial,” after which the astronomer canceled the tour and offered us a refund. Calla promptly burst into tears, as this meant neither hot chocolate nor marshmallows. Simon was so tired that he curled up on the ground and refused to move. Eventually, we were able to pile everyone back into the van, and after Calla went to sleep, I re-booked us with a different company for a couple of nights later (since Chameleon was sold out for all times except 1:30am and hell no) but alas, they offered neither hot chocolate nor toasted marshmallows. You almost have to ask yourself – is seeing stars in the most well-known stargazing area of NZ even worth it if someone hasn’t mixed chocolate power and hot water together and handed it to you? Again… time will tell.

February 25^th: Lake Tekapo

After more than two weeks of fast travel, we were in dire need of a more low-key day. We had a leisurely morning, and then we drove to the Lake Tekapo Peninsular Walkway for a “this is a walk, not a hike; the big hike is tomorrow.” The kids were suspicious of our pronouncement, but went along with the plan, anyways. We were treated to views of the lake and scenery, on a very sparsely populated (and not very well marked) trail. Afterwords, we drove to the Tekapo Springs, where we spent a couple of hours in the hot pools relaxing. Back at the condo, we rested, read, and played an epic game of Monopoly that lasted through the remainder of our time in Tekapo. I don’t want to brag, but I went big buying the Blue properties and eventually took everyone down.

February 26^th: Lake Tekapo —> Mount Cook —> Lake Tekapo

When planning our road trip itinerary, I vacillated over whether to stay one night by Mount Cook before driving to Lake Tekapo. Ultimately, I decided against it because its typically easier for us to drive a bit farther than it is for us to change accommodations. However, this meant a bit of backtracking this morning, when we dragged the kids out of the condo at 7am for the 1 hour and 20-minute drive to the Hooker Valley Track. The Hooker Valley Track is one of the most well-known shorter hikes in NZ due to the epic scenery – views of Mueller Glacier and Aoraki/Mount Cook, which is NZ’s highest mountains. While the trail is not short (6.5 miles – 7, if you count some of our detours) it is relatively easy, as the trail is well maintained and mostly flat. There are three suspension bridges, and at the end of the hike, we were treated to a small beach area, where we spotted two glaciers in the water. Everyone really enjoyed this hike, which felt much less strenuous than some of the others we’ve gone on with the kids, and the scenery was unreal. (I am running out of adjectives to describe the beauty of this area. The scenery was astonishing. Marvelous. Outstanding. Now I just sound like a thesaurus. It’s really incredible here. You get it.) While no one was thrilled about the early wake up, we were able to readily find a parking spot in the lot, and the trail wasn’t too crowded. On our way back, however, we had to stay to the left the entire time because so many people were walking in the opposite direction, and as we drove off, we noticed a line of cars parked at least a mile back, if not more. Yikes.

During the long drive home, I began to feel sleepy, so Justin and I tag teamed taking naps. For those of you keeping track, this was also the night to which I’d rescheduled our stargazing. Despite begging, cajoling, and bribing, no children took naps. At 9:20pm, the night sky was clear and resplendent with stars. We drove into town, where we were then driven five minutes to a secluded, wide open area for stargazing. Simon was both tired and wired, and - inexplicably – hungry despite having a burger and several cookies for dinner. (We’d stopped by a local market earlier in the evening.) Calla was just plain tired and fell asleep about 15 minutes into the talk. The night sky was incredible – we saw Jupiter and Mars, and several constellations, including Orion (along with his belt, which is nearly impossible to see for us). We also learned about how the Maori teach their children to use the stars to find directions. At the end, we took a family picture under the stars, which resulted in a sort of “Weekend at Bernie’s” vibe. Sorry, Calla. We tried.

February 27^th: Lake Tekapo —> Christchurch

Road trip time! We left Lake Tekapo mid-morning, making several stops along the way, including a bakery for breakfast, Straight 8 Estate Winery, and Fuse for real fruit ice cream. You can find real fruit ice cream all over NZ, but this was our first time sampling it. Essentially, they blend a variety of fresh fruits into an ice cream or yogurt base, which results in a creamy and smooth texture. I ordered vanilla yogurt mixed with peanut butter and raspberry, while the rest of my family enjoyed various combinations of fruit and Nutella. We arrived at our motel, and Justin took the kids to a local park while I rested. We enjoyed a low key evening, ordering in Indian food and playing a new card game we’d bought earlier in the day called Seven that was developed in Christchurch and described as “Go Fish on steroids.” It was. Highly recommend.

February 28^th: Christchurch

We began our brief trip to Christchurch with a visit to the International Antarctic Centre, which is a family-friendly science center with a storm room, 4D theater, and penguins. I loved our visit much more than I was expecting to. We arrived in time for the blue penguin feeding, and then Calla and I watched an hour-long talk about the unsung role of huskies in the discovery and exploration of Antarctica while the boys went on a Hagglund field trip (an all-terrain Antarctic vehicle; Calla was too small for it). The 4D movie took us up close and personal with Antarctica, complete with falling snow and wind blowing directly in our faces.

In the afternoon, we visited a food court, and then finally found new sandals for Calla. Per usual, we spent a million years in a bookstore before heading back to the motel for the night. En route, I managed to trip and fall in the street – (note to self: you are too short for long, flowy pants) - and was once again blown away by how kind and helpful people here are. I was walking solo with Simon, and two women nearby helped me up, got me water, and offered to contact someone for me. I walked away with an injured wrist, several bruises and nasty cuts, but fortunately, nothing worse. We opted for another quiet evening.

March 1^st: Christchurch

We started our morning with some errands, followed by a visit to the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. The kids took part in a free eco workshop where they took apart various electronic devices. Calla was given an old DVD player, and I asked her if she knew what it was, and Jonah said, “Of course not, because she’s not a thousand years old.” Rude. She guessed it was for playing CDs, which wasn’t too far off.

I was very excited because I’d scheduled a family escape room for the afternoon. I reminded my kids, “It’s not about winning, it’s about working together and having fun. Some people may need to be reminded that escaping is not more important than family relationships.” “You!” Jonah cried. Indeed. I am truly unmatched at becoming incredible competitive over things that don’t actually matter. Just ask the friends with whom I’ve played pub trivia. These are my father’s genes at work. I think Jonah has also inherited this tendency, but if you ask him he’ll deny it up and down. At any rate, our task was to escape the big top, whereby we had to navigate puzzles and games at a carnival in order to locate our ticket to the circus. After orienting Calla that she might need to mostly watch, she kept interfering with our progress, so she was relegated to the wall to watch Doc McStuffins. Again… sorry, Calla. We escaped in just over 72 minutes and went out for ice cream before heading back to our motel to pack up and prepare for our 9am departure the following morning.

That’s a wrap on the South Island for us. Next up are visits to Rotorua, Tongariro, and Auckland. We can’t wait, and we’ll see you in a couple of weeks!

Justin’s Soapbox

The Soapboxing returns! And so we'll kick it off with a topic that I'm sure we'll all find to be thrilling and important: the availability of decent cheap sunglasses. Sara and I have very different views on sunglasses; she believes in buying one good pair you take care of, and I believe that there's no chance I won't lose or break my sunglasses in any given month, so I buy cheap. Those of you with a keen eye will note I'm partial to the wayfarer style (basic, I know, but the only other style that works with my face shape is aviators, and I went through an embarrassing enough phase with those back in the college days, enough said about that). The point is, it is here in New Zealand where I have found the most consistently available, low-cost, reasonably durable sunglass options on this trip so far. And that bears honorable mention. 

If there's one word I'd sum up the overall presentation of New Zealand with thus far, it's "Boutique." From the towns to the countryside, so much of the country appears to be finely crafted, neat and picturesque. The hiking trails have been very well-maintained, the roads and buildings all look new, and even the mountains and rivers that make up the natural scenery seem arranged in the most convenient presentation to be admired as you gaze upon them. And of course, the well designed easily available low-cost sunglasses. There's a lot of convenience to be enjoyed here, to the extent that sometimes it feels a bit like we're in one of those Disney World mall areas that are basically prefabricated town squares. 

Admittedly, it's a bit challenging to get a sense for what should count as authentic New Zealand. I think I may save opinions on that for the next Soapbox. But one aspect that is undoubtedly authentic is the natural beauty. Check out the pictures of Milford Sound and Mount Cook, they were really spectacular. We've had some great wildlife experiences as well which the kids have enjoyed. For example, here's us coming across a pair of seals basking on the shoreline:

I'd like to offer a belated thank-you to Ellen and Amy for coming out to spend the first leg of our NZ excursion with us. Thank you for the good company, and for your help taking care of the kids and generally putting up with our shenanigans for the duration of your stay. It was great to see you!

A few thoughts on food so far. Truth be told, I haven't really had much of a reaction either way to food here. Some has been ok, some has been less than that. I’m not sure I’d yet recommend New Zealand as a culinary destination. The Marlborough Wind and Food Festival was excellent, but it was the wine that led the charge. The country has had some tough competition on this trip; Italy and Thailand are hard to beat when it comes to all things food.

That said, one New Zealand morsel stood head-and-shoulders above the rest: The Fergburger. If you like burgers at all then stop what you're doing, check on flight prices to Queenstown, NZ, and book your trip to buy yourself the best burger I've had outside of the US, on three continents so far and counting. This thing doesn't mess around. The beef was perfectly cooked and spiced, the sauce was great, perfect amount of lettuce and onion, the bun - while somewhat untraditional - blended it all together well... there's a reason this place is a local institution and the line was almost around the block. For the record I ordered the double beef & cheese. Come to NZ and eat more Fergburgers.

I’ll leave you with one final video which is definitely a memory I’ll always keep, the flight out from Milford Sound back to Queenstown in a small prop plane. The runway was surrounded by 5 close mountain peaks on all sides, and while I wasn’t exactly worried on our way out, the takeoff had a bit of a Hollywood narrow escape feeling to it. Not quite as exhilarating as the Nevis swing (which was awesome!) but I did get a few butterflies in the stomach as we cruised up close to some of these amazing cliffs.

Jonah’s Musings [as told to Mom]

[Ed note: Jonah’s computer broke all the way back in Vietnam and we are still trying to get it fixed]

I’ve always wanted to go to Antarctica, and in Christchurch, we did something sort of like that. The Antarctic Centre had a lot of fun activities that we did. One of them was going on this buggy tour, just Simon, Dad, and me because Calla was not tall enough. It was very fun. It was a vehicle similar to what they drive on the ice in Antarctica. It was pretty much a simulation of what that would be like, and I was pretty scared at first. But it turned out to be alright. We’d go down big hills really quickly and get flung around a lot. There were two cabins and we were in the back one; it felt like we were on a rollercoaster. We also saw these adorable little blue penguins, which live in Southern New Zealand. They were super cute. We saw them eating fish, and they explained how some of the penguins were at the center because of attacks from invasive species like cats, dogs, and weasels. The penguins there were rescues. We also went in this room that was -10 degrees or something like that. It was super cold; it was supposed to be as cold as Antarctica. I was wearing short sleeves and shorts, and even though I put on a jacket, it didn’t really help that much because I needed long pants. Finally, we saw a show about huskies would help on Antarctic tours.

When we were in Queenstown, we went on the luge. The luge was on the top of a mountain, and you go down a track in little cars. There were two tracks. One was easier and one was harder and bumpier. We each got three turns, and first we all did the easier one. It was fun, but I wanted to do the hard one. The hard one was a lot more fun! When I was holding the handles of the car, it was vibrating. Simon kept getting stuck, and ended up hitting a few people, but that’s just Simon. I never got stuck and was able to steer well enough. Ha! The luge was really fun. I was feeling pretty scared at first because I thought I might crash, but once you get the hang of it, you are able to go down pretty quickly and safely. It’s easier than it looks.

I loved the South Island. We did so many fun activities, and I really am excited to see what the North Island brings!

Simon’s Reflection [As told to Mom]

My blog is about what we did in Queenstown, Lake Tekapo, and Christchurch. In Queenstown, my Mom and Dad went on this really weird swing. I thought they were going to just swing back and forth but they actually dropped them instead. I was very scared that they were going to get lost there! In Lake Tekapo, we went stargazing. It was really nice. Calla fell asleep, and I got to see Jupiter through a telescope! I also saw a nebula, which was blue-ish. It was also nice because they had a good laser pointer so we could see what they were talking about. We saw something that most people don’t see at night – Orion’s bow! Now I will talk about Christchurch. The city was really nice because there were good bookstores with the books I like. Next to the best bookstore there was an escape room. Our family did it and we completed it in about one hour, twelve minutes and thirty-two seconds. My experience here is really nice!

Calla’s Corner

Mommy: Calla, tell me about visiting New Zealand!

Calla: So, we went to a pool a few days ago and I also liked going ziplining; that was before that. What I liked about ziplining…because I got to go very fast and it was fun. I did one of them with a grown up and all the rest by myself. And, being alone was just fun on the zipline!

Mommy: We’ve also gone for several hikes. Did you enjoy those?

Calla: First, can I talk about the very short hike? On this very short hike we saw a waterfall and then went to our new hotel. And then we went to a very, very long hike that we went super long that I was tired so much I could never walk back. So, that’s pretty much it, but I’ll tell you a little bit more about the world. So, I just like the world because I love my family.

Until next time.

xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla