VAN VOORHIS FAMILY BLOG

We’re in Christchurch now – drove here yesterday from Queenstown and did the Trans Scenic Railway today. Pretty scenery, but it was rainy for the portion closer to the west coast – so not as scenic. Train was quite bouncy, not quite Euro rail, but still a nice day. Tomorrow a.m. we pick up our camper van (which the kids have named “Homer”, since they named our road warrior Land Cruiser here “Marge”). Not sure how often we’ll be accessing the internet as we’re camper vanning around the south island, but we’ll try to stay in touch and upload pictures as often as we can. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers as Sam learns to navigate a RV. J

Ethan’s top 10 list of activities:

1. Sutherland Falls (on the Milford Track)
2. Zorbing (Rotorua)
3. Jet Boat (Shotover)
4. Swimming with Dolphins in Kaikora
5. Quad Biking (Queenstown)
6. Doubtful Sound Cruise/Kayaking
7. Te Papa Museum (Wellington)
8. Luge (Queenstown)
9. Sky Tower (Auckland)
10. Puzzling World (Wanaka)

ETHAN’S TOP 10 HIKES

1. Banks Peninsula
2. Grand Traverse (Greenstone & Routeburn tracks)
3. Milford Track
4. Hump Ridge Track
5. Tongariro Crossing
6. Lake Hayes Track
7. Hooker Glacier Walk
8. Sawpit Gully
9. Otway Fly (in Australia)
10. Sutherland Falls Walk (on the Milford)

The kids and I sat around this morning and came up with our top 10 lists of our favorite things in New Zealand so far. Here’s Anna’s:
1. Bungy
2. Zorbing
3. Shotover Jet
4. Quad bikes (even though she flipped hers)
5. Sky Tower
6. Swimming with the dolphins
7. Indoor putt-putt
8. Borland Lodge (church camp)
9. Go-carts
10. Te Papa Museum in Wellington

Sitting here on Thursday morning, drinking airborne to try to keep from getting Ethan’s cold. I’m afraid that we’re all going to get it most likely, since we were all drinking from the same water bladders on our hike last week. Ethan’s a trooper, hanging in there and not complaining about being sick. We’ve been very blessed to not have any major sicknesses or injuries since we’ve been here.

Our time here in Queenstown is winding down. We actually have only 6 more nights that we will be sleeping in the house here before we totally pack up and head for home. We’re here through Sunday – then we head to Christchurch to do the Trans Alpine Railway on Monday. We will pick up our camper on Tuesday of next week and have that through Wednesday of the following week. I’m sure we’ll have some bloggable moments from that journey. We’ll bring our computers with us, but our internet access will be intermittent.

Once we return from our camper trek, we’ll only have 4 nights at the house until we leave on May 10. We’ll have 2 weeks to make our way up to Auckland where we fly out on the 23rd of May and will arrive home in Fla late Sunday night the 24th. We’ve really enjoyed our time here – it’s been a great mix of hikes, activities, trips away and low key time at the house. We are looking forward to summer in Florida with friends and family.

Appreciate everyone who has been checking in on us during this trip. New Zealand is definitely a beautiful country with wonderful people and we would enthusiastically encourage anyone to vacation here.

Well, off to check on the kids to make sure they’re actually doing their school work. J

We completed another fantastic walk last week…30 miles steeply up and then back down the Hump Ridge to the sea.

Our walk began at the southern tip of the South Island… And while I am not sure if it is technically the Pacific Ocean or the Tasman Sea, the only thing between us and Antarctica was a whole lot of blue.

While the Hump Ridge Track isn’t technically a “Great Walk” as defined by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, it is every bit as beautiful as the other hills we have climbed.

It was muddy and hard and steep…and fabulous. I have pictures to prove it.

Once again my kids thrived…ascending 1000 meters in less than 5 hours of climbing. Ethan took Julie’s pack half way up the hill and refused to let her have it back — an impressive and selfless act for an 11 year old.

And after walking over 10 miles on the second day, Anna decided she wanted to see if we could catch the adults that had gone on ahead of us. We had 40 minutes left to our next lodge but it took less than half of that to track them down.

The walk was diverse.

We scrambled up the mountain – literally climbing with both hands at times. We tramped over miles of boardwalk constructed across the ridge. We descended down through forest, negotiating roots and mud. We walked an old railway bed across wooden viaducts built 80 years ago. We finished on beaches and crossed headlands to get back to the parking lot.

It was exhausting. And today my calves are screaming at me, asking me to acknowledge my age.

Some tracks like Milford have mileposts to help you monitor your progress, pace yourself and take appropriate rest breaks.

But the HumpRidge track is a new track across private land. The track is not maintained as well as the Great Walks and you have to find other ways to figure out how you are going.

As we climbed the final steep hill towards completion of the track, we were tired and looking forward to the finish line.

Anna noticed that the Department of Conservation had placed rodent traps at regularly intervals along the edge of the track. These traps had numbers on them and Anna had found a way to encourage her old man, who was nearly completely “buggered,” as they say.

“Only 5 more possum traps to the car park,” Anna said.

Kids say the sweetest things sometimes.