Monday, March 31, 2008
Wild turkeys
Thursday, March 27, 2008
AKL to SFO
Our UAL SYD SFO flight was canceled....so after much hassle and much smaller seats we traveled Air n
New Zealand to SFO...entertainment system and food is better on NZ.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Seals
Monday, March 24, 2008
Holden
Eric inside a Holden a yet another car museum.
NZ has a lot of old cars...you see them driving down the road all the time.
Lord of the rings
Ducks
Bet
Beautiful day
We went white water rafting and then to the lake...the water is cold!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Nelson Lakes
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Marlbrough Sound
Ferry to south island
Easter Bunny
Latitude 41
We were at latitude 55 north restaurant a few months ago.
Now we are latitude 41 south restaurant.
We are missing our Suttons Bay latitude 45 restaurant.
All's well in Wellington
In Wellington with the grandparents and our friends Paul and Ruth.
Friday, March 21, 2008
More car museum
Car museum
Battle
Thursday, March 20, 2008
More NZ playgrounds
Sunset
Sunset with Kapiti Island in the background. We are on south west side of the north island.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Playground
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
River
There are 1000s of rivers like this in NZ...extemely nice, but even colder than lake Michigan :)
Mt Paritutu
Steeper than it looks! Eric said he would rather do school than climb it. Rebeca said it was cool and she is glad that we didn't die. Alex did "cannon balls" on the steps on the way down. So mom is glad he stopped before the steepest part.
Climb every mountain
Peggy Gordon Celtic bar
Monday, March 17, 2008
Houses in samoa
Houses in Samoa are open air. It is weird to drive at night and be able to see people watching TVs, taking naps, etc. The islands are still very undeveloped.
They also just bury their deceased right in front of their house.
Samoan struck us as honest and genuinely nice and friendly (no tipping). It was also nice that the faucet water was potable.
As you can see by the late posts, blackberry does not work here this these messages did not go out until we landed back in Auckland.
Swimming with the turtles
We went swimming with turtles. The kids had a lot of fun.
Eric 'petted' 7 of them.
Ferry
We had to take a 1.5 hr ferry between the mail island of Samoa and Savii.
American Samoa
We took a 1 night trip to American Samoa.
Weird to see the US post office, plus a whole bunch of other uses of American tax money so far from home. They just had their democratic primary a few weeks ago...I think Clinton won.
The island seems to be stuck between the old world and the new having the worse of both. Outside ownership of property is not allowed leading towards not very good properties and bad customer service.
The USA sends a lot money to American Somoa. There are billboards everywhere from govt organizations telling you to do this or do not do that. American Somoan's are substantially heavier than Somoan's to the point everyone needs to be weighed before boarding the flight.
McDonald's also had products we have not seen before like a breakfast that basically has everything in the menu. On that note it was nice to eat at McDonald's... twice :)
Waterfall
Coconuts
We stayed at coconuts resort on the main island of Samoa.
It was started by a celebrity lawyer that was tired of Beverly Hills life.
Interesting comments from kids
We left Tonga at 9pm on Tuesday and landed at 1030pm on Monday. Alex was ready for his 6 day flight. Really, he was. Seriously. We just told him it was a time warp and it would not hurt much.
As we go swimming with the turtles Rebeca asks 'what do turtles eat?'
Eric finally realized there is not internet everywhere. Eric was very confused why the USA sends money to American Sompa...as am I.
Tonga scenes
Fafa Island
We stayed at a private island in Tonga. The huts had no nails, etc and were built a la Robinson Crusoe style.
The bathroom and shower was all outdoor.
There were a lot of lizards....something Rebeca did not like.
We had landed at 1 am so taking a little boat to the island in the middle of the night was intersting
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Cathy
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
As we walked we came across this nuclear sensor. It was in the middle of a dense forest.
Since Chatham is so far west this sensor is supposed to sense any nuclear tests in the south pacific.
The sensor had special locks that informs someone in Vienna is someone tampers with it.
Today I was the first in the world to see March 4th sunrise.
Easy to do when you are 15 mintues away from the dateline (only teeitory I have been with such a strange time zone) and when then is not much competition for the honor.
In another week we will try to be the last to see the sunset from the other side of the dateline in Samoa. Probably harder from the competition of more tourists.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Air Chathams
Boarding flight from Wellington to Chatham island.
No intenet nor cell phone for a few days ....
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