Week 48 - New Zealand
Sunday was a beautiful, crisp, sunny day. I enjoyed my morning walk down by the Opihi River.
After breakfast, we went into Pleasant Point to see a historical railway. The station is a little museum.
We got to ride in a train pulled by a wood-fired steam engine, one of two left in the world, and the only one that still works.
S was too scared to get his picture taken with the kiwi, and C was too mature, so J did it.
The train goes to Kearn's Crossing where you find another museum with a bounce house, a model train exhibit, and other train cars, engines, and antique technology.
Then we rode back.
It was good small-town, local fun, and a good history experience.
After our train fun, we went home and rested for a little, then after dinner, we drove up into the mountains for a stargazing experience. It was really well done. It was cold, but we had comfortable benches with cushions and blankets, as well as hot chocolate and marshmallows. The guide did a great job of explaining things in a way I could understand. I've always been interested in astronomy, but between my poor eyesight, poor sense of direction, and lack of basic knowledge I have always gotten confused near the beginning of the lecture and not been able to get back on track. This was perfect for someone like me to follow, and I actually had success using a telescope. S was interested as well, and I think he got a lot out of it. C has the worst coat of any of us, plus for some reason had a negative attitude from the beginning. He then ended up uncomfortable and got a headache and ended up sitting in the car. J knows something about astronomy, but not as much about the Southern sky, and I think he got something out of it as well. Sometimes you have to count three out of four people having a good experience as a win.
Since it was well after midnight when we got home we slept late Monday morning. We spent the day relaxing and doing school work.
Tuesday morning was spent with school and packing, but in the afternoon we went down to Oamaru to see the penguins come back from fishing at dusk. That was really fun. We got to see plenty of blue penguins, but weren't allowed to take pictures, because flashes confuse them. We did get some pictures lots of birds, including (we think) penguins, on a dock on the way there.
Wednesday we were up and out early to continue our journey north to our next farm stay. It was a beautiful drive and somehow felt shorter than the last one even though it was farther. We didn't need to stop as much for some reason, we were able to coordinate bathroom, lunch, and gas better. We did enjoy our picnic lunch with a seal friend and a Maori monument.
Thursday and Friday were for settling in and exploring our new farm. I took long walks each morning, the kids are enjoying the dogs and horses. There are kids here, but they're recovering from a tummy bug and their mom and I agreed to wait a few days before they play with our kids. We have a 9 hour drive/ferry ride on Wednesday of next week and I can't imagine anything worse than dealing with a tummy bug during that. It's certainly beautiful here.
