Road Trip: Rocks & Water

 

We drove down to Lake Brunner to meet up with my parents and Aunt Val & Uncle Wayne who had just made it to NZ after a cruise around Australia in recent weeks.  We rented a holiday home and enjoyed the view!  This post has some lovely scenery shots, primarily of rocks and water with a few trees and birds thrown in.  Water of all kinds: lakes, the sea, waterfalls, rivers etc and rocks: flat ones, tall ones, pink ones . . . you get the picture!  

 

 

 The mist over the lake in the morning

 

The sunset at night

 

And the white herons on the shore before we left.

 

We headed inland for the day through Arthur`s Pass, which is the highest of the three mountain passes that cross the Southern  Alps in NZ.  This is one of Dave`s favourite places on earth.  His family often went hiking here together, especially around Easter time. 

 This road is a viaduct, a marvel of engineering because of the length of it, the S curve shape as well as the unstable ground surrounding it.  There`s a wonderful viewing spot at the top so everyone can stop and marvel at it.  :-) 

 

I think this part of the road is very cool though, when you drive underneath two different tunnels, one is to protect the road from rock slides and the other from a waterfall.  

 

 

There are also friendly reminders for hikers not to feed the Kea.  They are very curious and friendly mountain parrots, but are easily killed when they hang out on the roadway after being overfed by tourists, too heavy and slow. 

All of the waterways are very low throughout the country, it`s been a very dry summer here.  The waterfalls in the area are much more spectacular after some rain.

We headed up on a one hour return hike to the Devil`s Punchbowl Falls. 

 On our return journey we drove out to the west coast to take the scenic route (big surprise!) and something called the pancake rocks.  A little bit of farmland to cross through first . . .

Then you`re right on the coast! 

 There are so many campervans on the road in NZ, heaps of people come here on vacation and rent a motorhome or campers to travel around it.  There are some places  you can freedom camp (no charge for a campsite and no faciilities) or you can use department of conservation sites for about $6 per adult or holiday parks for about $40 - 60 per night.  The roads are challenging to drive though!

 Especially when you are distracted by views like this!

 These are Nikau palm trees.  Plentiful in this area and in a few other places around NZ, they are Dave`s favourite tree.  Unique! 

Time for a picnic lunch while the boys chase the weka.

 And these are the PANCAKE rocks, so cool!  The Punakaiki Rocks are limestone columns worn away by the pounding surf and there are several blowholes where the water splashes up violently at high tide.  No one knows why the rocks are in layers though.   But, yes, there is a little shop that opened here that serves pancakes, amongst the tourist displays, if you get into the spirit.  
 

( Don`t worry, we didn`t see any penguins, nor did we run over any - good driving Dave!) 

Turning inland once again near Westport, we followed the Buller River back towards Nelson.  Note how green the water is compared to the sea. 

 Pit stop at the longest swingbridge in the country, right across the Buller Gorge.  Cool little jetboat happening but at $90 per adult and $50 per child, we just took our chances crossing on foot. 

Yes, my mother was a little hesitant about the  bridge, but she made it across both times with relative ease, the second time though we had the kids go BEHIND her instead of in front of her . . . that made for a few less ``Be careful Xavier!`` and ``Hang on tight Jackson`` comments, but we still had the  ``Don`t jump Dave!`` comments!  Love you MOM, we had to get you to do one daring thing in NZ!  The day ended with ice cream:  Raspberry Lemonade Fizz, Caramel Fudge Swirl, Goody Goody Gumdrops and Boysenberry flavours! 

Growing up in NZ

 

The boys began school one month ago and I promised a friend a post about some of the similarities or differences in the education system here.  It's mostly surface stuff and first impressions, though.  This blog will also have some of the other stuff the boys have been involved in lately.  

1.  Students begin grade school on their 5th birthday.  Kindies are separate and run more like a preschool / daycare.  They are placed in a New Entrants class  (yr. 0) that grows as the year progresses and more children turn 5.   Many classes here are combined grades however (splits), not because the school is small (almost 300 kids), but because most teaching is done in small groups and individualized as much as possible.  

So, Xavier's class is a year 1/2 and works as part of a pair of classrooms that are team-taught, where the teachers plan and teach together, splitting children into small groups in reading, writing and maths.  Yes, they say "Maths" with an "s".  (And with the kiwi accent, I was puzzled for the first part of the parent / teacher night because I kept hearing "Mass"!) 

Xavier's teacher also likes for the children to address her by first name.  

Jackson is in a year 3/4 with a very strict teacher who makes them draw a red line frame around their page with a ruler and red biro (aka ball point pen).  And they must take their shoes off outside the classroom.  So the kids wear socks (Jackson) or bare feet (all the rest of the kids!).  Funniest thing so far was his individualized spelling list . . . after being assessed, one of his first spelling words was "Mum" NOT Mom.  Hmmm, he was so confused!!  LOL  

2.  The kids eat lunch outside every day.  There are benches and sun shades.  Hats are mandatory.  Sunscreen is provided in each classroom.

3.  School policy is that all children are expected to bring water to drink.  I haven't really seen juice boxes here at all, and they do have shelf-stable milk in the same size box that doesn't need to be refrigerated, but it's $2 per container, so that's NOT happening.  Oh, and they request garbage-FREE lunches.  Seriously.  Even the yogourt container and wrappers all get sent back home.  There is no garbage can to put it in.  Even at the school fundraiser, you were expected to bring plates and cutlery from home to reduce the garbage for the event.  Keeping NZ clean and green.

4.  Kids are allowed to bring scooters to ride around on during their morning tea and lunch break.  (I haven't had the guts to let the boys bring them yet . . . especially since they go on the bus).  I haven't been at school yet during recess, but from what I've seen other places, it's not really a "hands to yourself" kind of policy.  The kids seem to be able to play wrestle etc with each other as well.  I'm still a bit unclear about what's OK here and what's not, but it's less strict than Canada.  That's why Dave has been rolling his eyes for years, about my uptight, rule abiding behaviour.  LOL   (It's ironic here though as Dave got a speeding ticket for doing 56 km in a 50 km zone the other week so obviously the police are picky about some rules)

5.  The school has a pool.  Each class has swimming lessons 3 times per week for the first 2 months of school.  The second week of school there was a triathlon.  Xavier's class ran a couple of laps of the field and then ran to the pool, jumped in and swam (or hopped) two widths and then jumped out and ran back to the finish line (Yes, in bare feet the whole time!)  Can you spot him in the goggles?  He ran the whole way with them on, see the middle of the first photo!

Jackson's grade and up brought their bikes (all 200 of them!) and ran, then biked, then swam.  They just increase the distances for the older kids.  Yes, Jackson was serious about his start.

 6.  Kids can sign up to participate in Saturday morning sports on a school team in a league organized by clubs.  Really, the system is kind of confusing to me, but Xavier is playing t-ball and Jackson is playing cricket!  After playing some cricket in the park with Dad, now Xavier wants to switch to cricket too...

 OTHER STUFF ABOUT GROWING UP HERE:

The boys are still nearly inseparable.  Yes, this is a photo of Xavier sitting on Jackson, who is not complaining at all. 

 

The boys have been sharing a room for so long now, that I'm sure Xavier will not want his own room when we get back home . . . only time will tell

There's a model train club here that runs on Sunday afternoons for a $1 a ride.  Whoo Whoo! 

 

Lovely babysitters, this was their night out for a nice dinner with Dave's parents for their anniversary.  We were treated a lovely Valentine's dinner out the week before.  Thanks!

He actually has pretty good technique . . . mini-putt and 10 pin bowling family fun.  I have to watch Xavier every second with those bowling balls, so no time for photos! 

A short ferry trip from the wharf to Haulashore Island for Auntie Kim's birthday with the whanau (minus me, who was hard at work trying to sell cots, carseats and pushchairs . . .)

 Picnic lunch and Dave's boy scout skills (engineering?) put to the test.  He had the kids (and eventually adults too!) fetch him the wood for the shelter. 

You know your boys are growing up when . . .

 They hit the BMX track!

Yes, there were band-aids, "sticky plasters" involved . . .

 The boys want to know of course if there is a BMX track in Niagara??

And then the pit stop on a 5 hour drive was the skatepark in a little place called Reefton.  Very small town.  Very large skatepark.  Scooters in tow, the boys tried it out for the first time.  See how I carefully put them in long sleeves and long pants??  Still, one band-aid was involved.  Problem is that our knee pads / elbow pads are all in our garage in Canada . . . may still have to invest in some here.  (Ironically I've never seen any kids wear pads here, maybe they just sell band-aids instead?...Dave)  Argh!  I thought the scooters were for the nice smooth bike path that runs by the seashore. 

We went for a couple of short hikes in Arthur's Pass for the day with my parents and Jackson kept asking to go on a long 4 hour hike - straight up the mountain.  Yeah, right.  So, I suggested if the hour long hike wasn't enough for him, he could carry our pack!  

 So he did! 

They are growing up . . . in NZ!