Gisbourne, day at the beach, we met up with the twin brother of a missionary who served in our ward in Adelaide who is serving in Gisbourne. 
Justin had a 6 hour kite boarding lesson. 
We stopped in Napier, but kept going on to Taupo. My Aunt and Uncle did a jet boat ride, while Justin and I hung out because Im not allowed to go... something about dangerous for the baby or something, I wasnt really listening... 
Hike to a hot spring, a swim for justin in lake Taupo, and bunkbeds for our accomidations! 
Our last day, we ended in Raglan for one last surf day for Justin. It turned out to be really great, and he caught the longest wave I think I have ever seen! he was riding for like 30 sec and we could tell he was exhusted by the time it was done. But it was the best send off to a great trip!unfortunately, the flight home was so turbulant. Other than singing to myself to keep from freakin out that the plane would soon be headed downward for a real life "Lost". We made it back, had a whirlwind three days with my family in CA, and are finally back in Oregon. Now back to reality.
Boat and Catamaran to one of the islands in Bay of Islands. We hiked up to the lookout of the island, and sailed back to the harbour.
Standup paddle boarding in Whatawhiwhi (pronounced fata-fee-fee). We found a beautiful cove, and met a great couple from England who was going to give Justin a kite boarding lesson, but the winds weren't right, so we paddle boarded instead. And enjoyed the best blueberry cake ever from the Reef Inn! 
Whiritoa
He finally got to play with a full sized kite in Gisborne. It took a few days of waiting for the right conditions, but isnt he too cute when hes so happy! 
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. 
italy inspired garden
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. 
