Week 10

Thanx for buying those new bar chairs! The boxes were perfect to turn into cars... They each painted their own (had to give Grace a hand with the tires 'cause she got bored, but other than that, good job!) and after a little bit of drying and assembling, they could try them.. Because of the heavy winds, we were captured in the house (Grace would fly away otherwise), so we decided to turn the living room into a drive-in.. What better movie to watch then 'Cars' =D

Since we will go traveling in two weeks with a tent, I decided to see if everything was alright with the one we had in the back garage.. Two little watchers and after that, they could see for themselves if I did a good job.. Both of them felt the urge to sleep, so 'tent approved'!

My mum sent me my 'meetje's recipe for waffels. Perfect! One downside.. My grandmother used to make waffels for the entire town and I only had one small iron to make them.. Result: 2 hours of baking (while the kids were out with Harry to ride their bikes at the park) and all my postcards written in the mean time =P
After all the playing and baking, it's also time for some serious household work. Folding all the washing. Luckily I have some really good helpers *hum* and after all the helping, they turn into washing themselves.. Folding and putting them in the basket =P
And then the grand finale, bath-time and getting ready for bed. Usually without screaming although Grace doesn't like to go in the bath anymore.. Time to get those bubbels out again.. ;)

Weekend = Travel time!
Kira and I were longing for some hike and decided to go to the West Coast. With my experience for the first part, I played guide (sort off) at Rakaia Gorge, Castle Hill, the Limestone Cave and Devil's Punch Bowl (no rain this time!). After that we got to our lodge at Bealey where we got our room.. Or should I say beds (no more room except for the beds..) and common area where we prepared our delicious dinner. By 10 it was time to hit the sack because we planned to do a few hours walk the next morning. Rise and shine with an amazing view, healthy breakfast and time to ask the information center which one was the best to do that day. Bealey Spur Track was the chosen one.. 4 hours with a hight difference of 600m and an awesome lookout halfway.. What more could we have hoped for? Maybe a half-naked guy at the top? O wait, we got that too! I really did my best not to stare.. Didn't work, those mountains in the back were just locking my eyes ;)

After that we gave the legs some rest, hit the road and let our eyes do a lot of work.. Rainforest and lovely beaches were next on the track. We went for a piece of road to enjoy the bright blue water at the Hokitika gorge and regretted bringing the little annoying sandflies into our car! Little stop at Hokitika beach to have our first West Coast ocean look and after a refuel (both petrol and food/drinks) we hit the road again. Realizing that we were on the right side to see the sun set, we took a turn in the middle of nowhere (apparently some other youngsters in a campervan did the same) and waited for the sun to go down with a glass of wine (little one for me) and some snacks. Downside of that gorgeous sunset: darkness... Driving 1,5 hours on the dark and windy roads is not something I would suggest.. It can be done, but not a recommandation..

We got to the Montrose Backpackers around 9.30 and had our tea (free soup and yummy salade) before we went for a nice long sleep. This time we could sleep in, because the first thing on our plan was a guided valley walk with a view at Franz Josef Glacier. Thanks Beck for the info (female tree wears a skirt, will never forget), thanks French guy for letting us borrow your flag and thanks guy in white (!) pants for slowing us down. Pretty good view (not as good as with a heli, but a lot less expensive :P ) and some cool pictures later, we decided to go and take a look further down the road at his brother.. No luck there.. The reflection at Lake Matheson could only show us some clouds..

Time to head back and enjoy our free hot pools (36°, 38° and 40°) and continue our (rather long) drive in the direction of Ashburton...

Okarito Lagoon was nice to see and the part we did in the dark the night before was really pretty (apparently we passed a few giant lakes..) Quick stop at Hokitika for some petrol and after that it was rolling, rolling, singing, rolling, eating, rolling and rolling.. A little bit of miscalculating (or just wanting to see everything) made us drive in the dark again, but even that didn't stop us from having a break to watch the stars and make some pictures... I do must say, I was glad to be back, but I had a rewarding and very enjoyable weekend behind me. Thank you Kira for being my partner in crime and having good taste about music and what you want to do! It was nice getting to know you (a lot) better!