Cave Rafting

I nearly forgot to upload some photos of us Cave Rafting in the Paparoa National Park on the West Coast! Wow it was awesome fun! We took a train ride into the forest, walked with our tubes across a river and up into some limestone caves for about an hour, then rode our tubes down rapids back down the river to our starting point :)

Katrina's 6th Birthday Party

Yesterday I went to Butterfly Creek for my God-daugther Katrina's 6th birthday party. Everyone had great fun visiting the farm animals, walking through the butterfly house, eating chocolate cake, riding the train and playing on the playground :)

Drag Masters

We travelled directly from Northland to the Bombay Hills for an incredible show case of fast and noisy cars at Drag Masters 2007!

Whananaki

In the new year we headed north to Whananaki for a few nights with other newly-wed friends from St Pauls. Thank you for such a restful time swimming, reading, watching DVDs and eating delicious food!

Maruia Thermal Resort

We spend New Years Eve with wonderful friends at Maruia Thermal Resort nestled in the stunning Lewis Pass. As the Resort is owned and managed by a Japanese couple, we were able to enjoy nabe for dinner in our yukata, then a count down to 2008 soaking in rock pools. What a fantastic start to the new year xx

Gold Panning

After a great night at Global Village Backpackers in Greymouth we jumped on some bikes to find a cache on a local bush track, went to Holy Trinity, and then headed to Shantytown for some gold panning. Yes, we came away with some gold flakes to treasure :)

Geocaching

We've had lots of fun geocaching this summer! Geocaching is a world-wide high tech treasure hunting game, started in 2000, where you use a GPS to hide and seek containers. We found our first cache under a cabbage tree at Cape Fowlwind after viewing a seal colony. Since then we've found them in Greymouth, Hanmer Springs, and up north in Whanananki. When we find a cache we log our find into the notebook inside the cache and also online. Depending on the size of the cache we exchange a "swap", e.g. a soap for some Japanese tissues, a peg for a Ninja Turtle. Geocaching has been great at getting us off the beaten track in places we wouldn't have gone otherwise :) Definitely worth a try!

The Longest Swing Bridge in NZ!

Between Christmas and New Years we had a marvellous adventure in the South Island staying at a vineyard in Marlborough, visiting natural hot springs, taking in incredible moutain views through the Lewis Pass, riding a flying fox over the longest swing-bridge in New Zealand, geocaching, black water rafting, gold panning and much more!

Merry Christmas!

On Christmas morning Mum, Dad, Patrick, Wayne and I had a delicious brunch on the front deck. Later in the afternoon Fleur, James, Grandma, Nana, Pa and some other special friends without family in New Zealand joined us for Christmas Dinner. We had roast turkey and lamb :)

Christmas Illumination

During December Franklin Road in Ponsonby is lit up and people travel from all around Auckland to see the illumination. Living just around the corner Wayne and I drove up Franklin Road most nights and also walked with the many families and couples who came out each night to enjoy the lead up to Christmas.

"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." (John 12:46)