its a... BOY!! We had an ultrasound while we were in Hamilton, and it was pretty obvious. It was unreal to see him rolling around in there. He yawned, sucked his thumb and was doing summersaults while we watched. Everything looks great, all the right things are in the right places, with 10 fingers and 10 toes and a good steady heartbeat. We could not be happier, and are so excited to have this little guy out with us.

week in Hamilton

We spent the week with our old Bishops family, who recently moved back from Fountain Valley. Justin has been dying to sruf Raglan with him since they met, and he sure got his chance. They went almost everyday we were there. It was so nice to have a place to stay for a whole week. No packing and moving. It made us both a bit homesick.

While there we enjoyed the Hamilton Temple christmas lights. The whole city, members and non alike, show up everynight to see the beautiful lights. It really sprung on the Christmas spirit.

We also spent a day at the Botanical Gardens, which for a town of 300,000 was very impressive. Our favorite gardens were the Indian and Italian. And this is my new favorite flower, but I have no idea what it is. Justin wants a big pool like the Italian one, but with lane lines and about 25m long, and lots of colored flowers like the Indian garden.

india inspired garden
italy inspired garden

South Island cont.

Day 3: We got to go to Milford Sound. This is a massive fiord (a valley cut by glaciers) within the fiordland national park of NZ. It is stunning and seriously pictures don't do it justice. It is about a 4 hour drive from Qtown, so we opted for a plane flight over southern alps to a boat to cruise throught the sound. So stunning. After our flight and cruise, we drove to Mt. Cook/Aoraki just in time to see the tallest mountain in NZ by sunset.

Day 4: We hiked around to Mt. Cook base to get a closer look at the massive mountain. Then later that day we took these kayaks on a glacial lake and over to icebergs and the glaciers terminal face, or where the glacier ends. They also had this museum on Sir Edmund Hilary, who is a kiwi and was one of the first 2 people to ever climb Mt Everest.
Day 5: Today we had to drive 6 hours to the other side of the mountain (literally only 15 miles from where we were) so we could play on some of the only glaciers in the world that are still growing. On the way, we stopped in Wanaka at Puzzle World to play in a human maze. It is really amazing how the west side of the mountains is like a rainforest while the east side is more like farm land. Day 6: I think this day was everyones favorite. We took a helicopter up the Fox Glacier and hiked around it for a few hours. We found some awesome ice caves to crawl through and the glacier terrain is unreal. Day 7: We went 15 km down the road to the Franz Joseph glacier and hiked to the terminal face, well as close as we could get. These massive glaciers move so quickly. I think they said around 2 meters a day, which is like 6 ft. We got back in the car for another 6 hr drive over Arthurs pass to Christchurch. This was a really pretty drive through the northern part of the alps. Day 8: This morning we were up at 4am to be picked up and go on a hot air balloon. I have always had a fear them, like we would get blown into a crazy mountain side or go way to high and the basket would break or something totally crazy. I dont know why, but the whole time I was silently freakin out. It was really amazing and the views were incredible. We had the largest balloon in all NZ and the 5th in the world. It was massive. I dont know why but I always thought of them like slightly bigger birthday balloons. Good to know its a bit more sophisticated than that.

Day 9: We spent the day in Christchurch, which isnt as cool as Queenstown, but still a beautiful city. Our flight back to Auckland was today and my families flight home so we relaxed as much as possible.

The End...well of that leg of the trip

Queenstown

I love it here! It is so different than the north island, tons of mountains and totally different plants. Qtown is a great town set on the banks of Lake Wakatipu on the south west part of the south island. It is full of international outdoorsy people who are all really into extreme sports. They have bungy jumping, jet boating, crazy mountain biking trails, skiing, parasailing, ect. Also, a ton of the Lord of the Rings stuff was filmed down here. Day 1: We got in around lunch and drove over to Glenorchy, which sits on the other side of the lake. It was a nice hour drive along side the lake with stunning mountains in the background. We also found this waterfall on the side of the road which led to beautiful pics. And the countryside is full of these different colored lupin flowers.

Day 2: We went jetboating, well the boys did and I watched. Apparently its frowned upon for prego chicks. We also had a rock skipping contest on the lake before we took a jeep tour through some of the back country around town. They took us to a few of the LOTR sites, driving through rivers to pan for gold (TONS of gold in these mountains), and to Skippers Canyon.

Day 3: We were supposed to head over to Milford Sound, the 8th wonder of the world, to see theintense fiords, but got rained in. Hopefully tomorrow!

Paihia and Bay of Islands

When we got to NZ we headed straight up to Paihia to stay in a condo for a week. We had this place booked and were going to have fun exploring all the Northland of the North Island. Paihia was beautiful, it sat right on the bay.

Day 1: Shipwreck bay. We went in search of surf on the north west coast of the island. Unfortunately, the waves were only a few feet, but it was a beautiful area and drive. We stopped by the Haruru Falls on the way back for a quick walk out to them.

Day 2: Tutukaka coast. Again in search of surf but this time south east of where we were staying. Still no good waves, but absolutely gorgeous. Dreaming of a holiday home here one day and showing Justin my dancing skills. Day 3: My dad and brother flew into today to join us for the next 15 days. It was so good to see them and take on my brother in a game of chess. I had to play him when he was still drowsy off the flight or there would have been no way I could win. Day 4: Cape Reinga and the Giant Sand Dunes. We went to the farthest north part of the country and watched the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean come together. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive from our place, but again an great drive. On the way back we stopped and played in the sand dunes. Day 5: We took a boat out through the Bay of Islands (theres about 144 total islands) and came across a massive pod of dolphins. They guessed there were total 45 dolphins and tons of babies. They were so active and jumpy, I loved it. We then cruised out to the Hole in the Rock (big enough to drive the boat through) and back through all the privately owned islands. We also came across a baby hammerhead shark about 4 ft. long hanging out with the dolphins. Day 6: we headed back down to Auckland to catch our flight down to Queenstown on the South Island.