second post from NZ

A Few Days Ago

Sitting in our unit in Dunedin, something seemed strange. I kept noticing that the shadows from the lights were moving a lot. Seems as though we were having an earthquake. Annette noticed a funny feeling, while Jeremy wondered why I was making the bed shake. Riley probably slept through the whole thing.

Next morning we hopped in the car and headed for Te Anau, which was some direction that I have no idea of. I get told when to drive and where to drive, except of course when everybody in the car falls asleep and leaves it up to me.

The first task of the day was to divide up all the chocolate from yesterday’s haul. Arguments ensued but in the end, it didn’t really matter as Jeremy had eaten most of his by the time we had made it to lunch time. Not much of a drive past the sheep, cows and deer. Riley continued his endless sleep whether in car or bed.

On arrival we checked out the local shopping centre, purchased some beef flavoured sausages (no idea what they were actually made of) and proceeded to set the smoke alarm off for the second night in a row when we were cooking. With the promise of an early morning wake up call we all got to sleep close to midnight.

A Few Days Ago Minus One

Our estimated departure of 7.45am was not quite met, but we headed out into the darkness not long after 8am. With the threat of frozen roads, the going was steady but we were making good time and at 9.30am and with only around 30 km to travel, our boat cruise time of 11am from Milford Sound was looking good. Then, we hit an AC/DC problem. Black Ice has closed the road ahead. Work crews passed us with loads of grit to do whatever they do with the roads. After around a one hour wait we got underway again. We kept waiting for the roads to be the terrifying ones everybody had told us about. Come on guys. I used to drive from Revesby to Sutherland through Menai before there were wussy bridges.

We arrived at the Milford Sound carpark around 11.10am, got out of the car to hear the two horns of a reversing boat go off. Yes it turns out it was our boat. They told us we could catch the next one at 1pm or go with another company at 1250pm. We decided the 1pm would be ok. Then my eagle eye noticed that some others who had missed our boat were getting onto another boat straight away. After some quick talking we departed on that boat straight away.

I don’t want to get too technical but apparently Milford Sound isn’t a Sound it’s a Fjord. We spent a lot of time upstairs checking out the nature (Riley loves nature) and got a bit of drizzle on us, which was nice as it hadn’t rained up until that point. We were lucky enough to have 3 dolphins join us on the way and I think that the kids actually enjoyed it. They even enjoyed the seal colony on the way back to the jetty. Damn, we must be slipping. We are supposed to be punishing them, not letting them enjoy themselves.

Back to the car and another solo drive home while the other 3 slept. Back into town and the kids had a lie down while the grown ups checked out the town. Back to the accommodation and then back to town to the local restaurant. As with just about every other decision made, Jeremy had to disagree and stated that the food would taste like crap.
So in we went. While 3 of us ate somewhat sensibly, as we realised that our bulging waistlines couldn’t take it anymore, Riley was in the mood for meat. Around 3 pigs later, he finally finished his dinner, but as he always says “the only reason for eating dinner is to get dessert”. Back home to watch the footy and the cricket and get the news that we were allowed a sleep in until 8am.

Today

We made a special trip into town to check out a gift shop we saw yesterday that had some stuff Jeremy would be interested in. Over $100 later we left with a big bag of stuff, and nothing for Jeremy.

We hit the car for around a 2 hour drive to Queenstown, which was mainly uneventful. I was expecting cold weather and snow, when what we got was warm weather with snow covered mountains surrounding us.

Anyway I should now share last night’s dream. We were at the Soccer Trivia night and the prizes were BBQ chickens. Somebody got a question right and they won some chewing gum. Sounds like a good night so far. Then I came up with a great idea for a trivia night – ABBA lotto. After waking up and telling the family, they all thought I was strange. We finally get to Queenstown and our unit is called the ABBA Garden Motel. Now all I have to do is buy a lotto ticket and write my resignation.

We had a bit of a look around town with its ski shops and ski shops and ski shops and then went up a gondola (by now we knew it wasn’t a boat) to the big mountain. This was a lot better than the gondola at Christchurch and we got magnificent views. On the way, we went past the bungy jumping platform. It was right at this precise moment that Riley’s plans to make a jump were suddenly cancelled, by Riley. We had purchased a ticket that gave us 6 luge rides on the track at the top of the mountain. Jeremy spent the whole time sledging that old men couldn’t luge. We hit the track. First corner, Jeremy starting at the front, comes to grief and the old man goes past him. Mum passed him, but Riley, after having trouble getting going at the starting line didn’t quite make it.

We had 2 more rides available so Mark and Jeremy head up on the chairlift again to do the advanced track. Getting on the chairlift, Jeremy pulls down the handle bar right into the middle of my thigh. He will do anything to win. So now in addition to my right knee that has been feeling bad since the Chocolate factory gift shop (yes that’s right, she trampled me on the way to chocolate as well) my right thigh is stuffed.

Jeremy got the head start, as was just travelling too slow, taking the wrong lines through the corners and generally getting in the way of the smarter and better driver. I waited until the right moment and then “whoooosh”. I was gone. At least he came second. Four hours later he is still complaining about his luge being faulty.

To the indoor putt putt and after a surprisingly close contest, Mark won again. I won’t tell you the other places but Jeremy is also complaining about a faulty putter.

We found a pizza place (because we think that healthy eating is really important) and ordered our stuff after much complaining with guess who. He who claimed his pizza would be crap, was the first to finish. Yay, he finally won something today. Back to the unit, with a night of watching tv and preparation for getting back into our jeans for tomorrow’s jet boat ride.

What have I forgotten? The chocolate factory and they made Riley wear both a hair net and a beard net. He looked absolutely stupid.

The earthquake wasn’t a result of excessive wind caused by the family.

All we do is drive and eat. I reckon I am looking at about 5 kilos by the end of the holiday. Hopefully the skiing will get rid of the kilos.

Riley says it is not his fault that the team didn’t score last week. That is about all he has said all week apart from crying because he did something stupid with his fantasy football team. Now he is saying “no no” as the Sharks have just come onto tv and Paul Gallen isn’t playing.

Ps. Mark’s achilles is stuffed.