Dave's family was kind enough to get him a flying lesson for his birthday with the local aero club. It was a 4 seater, so he was keen to take the boys up with him. Quite an adventure for them! There was a wee delay of about half an hour once we arrived since there had been a frost overnight and we had to wait for the frost to melt off the wings of the plane.
The boys view from their camera up in the air!
This is the boulder bank from above. See my last post for a close up view!
My view from the ground for the 20 minutes = Ducks on the local golf course next to the airport. LOVE this funny sign just over the fence meant to keep people off of the airfield.
Landing!
Good flight, everybody back safely - now Dave would like to get his private pilot's license, so there may be more of this in the future. (Bit scary when you're family is up in the air without you . . . )
Lucky Dave - since he's not working, I wanted to be sure he enjoyed chaperoning a class trip - to the mudflats of course with Xavier's class. Good thing we had gumboots (aka rainboots). This is low tide at the estuary. They were looking for creatures and shells etc.
Up at the scenic lookout in Nelson (Princes Dr.), where the wealthy people live and we visit and sit on the public bench.
Family dinner at Styx, a restaurant near Port Nelson - they had pork ribs with a jack daniels sauce.
Jackson was super happy with buffalo chicken pizza and Xavier had hot dogs and chips (aka fries).
Oh, and we managed to dress them "handsomely"
It's soon time to say our goodbyes to friends and family here in New Zealand and we are looking forward to returning to St. Catharines before the end of the month. It'll be very hard to leave though, the boys are quite settled with their friends from school and church (and rugby!); besides the scenery is outstanding. We have been up and down the country, (albeit leaving a few corners untouched - saving them for next time!) and truly haven't found a lovelier place to call home.
To quote Dave, Nelson is the best because "God lives here".
We found a local artist who painted a nautical Nelson scene on canvas that will hide itself away in our suitcases in the near future to bring a piece of the majestic home.
(argh, trying not to think about squeezing our lives back into suitcases again, it's going to take a valiant effort I think!)
