Christchurch, New Zealand

I'm pretty sure the boys think our hotel is the coolest ever. It's like a small apartment with plenty of space to play. I love that they are easily pleased (read: it's actually a bit dodgy). Last night we dealt with airlines and hotels trying to figure out what next. We decided to fly out of here early Christmas morning and go directly to the Gold Coast. So that means two full days to explore Christchurch and see some of the scenic beauty of NZ that people always talk about!

And it didn't take long to find some! A gondola ride to the top of a mountain gave us some breathtaking views...









The water was the most gorgeous turquoise color I've ever seen.




















The shuttle bus driver gave us some history on this town. While we knew they had a massive earthquake in 2011, it's hard to believe the damage until it's right in front of you. The city itself feels like a ghost town. Many people left following the earthquake and there is still much work/repair to be done. He said that until a month ago, he couldn't drive past many areas of town because it was too painful.

Any road you take, you'll see something like this...


This temporary memorial was very moving, and emotional. The baby chair in the front row did me in. 185 chairs for each life lost in the earthquake.








Luke has asked a lot of questions as we walk around town and sat right in front with the bus driver asking all about the earthquake. There's a tribute book in front of the chairs and without prompting, he picked up the pen and wrote "soree you did" (sorry you died). These moments can't be taught through pictures.

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I'm trying to find the words to sum up our day. I awoke (in Sydney) to Adam making a phone call at 5:30am. He was calling the RV rental company in Christchurch, NZ because HE FORGOT HIS DRIVERS LICENSE!!

Needless to say, we opted to still catch our flight to Christchurch (as we flew into the gate at final boarding call, not our best airport arrivals so far this trip), and now find ourselves in a hotel room trying to figure out what the rest of our trip will look like. We can't rent anything here which means we won't be seeing the South Island as we had planned. Total bummer.

BUT, being the eternal optimist I am (okay, sarcasm is getting me through right now) we have two choices to make. We can be mad, irritated, and frustrated (we have been all of those for a bit today), or we can be thankful that life has brought us to New Zealand and we do whatever we can to make the most of it. That's the direction we are headed, which is ironic because at this moment we are frantically trying TO FIND A DIRECTION!!

It was laughable to tell the flight attendants that we were NZ bound with NO plan. Normal and thrilling at 20, stressful at 32 with two kids in tow. A wrench in our plans for sure, but oh well. We are together, visiting two new countries and seeing new sights.

When we get home, I'm going to glue Adam's drivers license to his face.

Here are a few pics from our first day/night...

Making a fort while we frantically tried to book a hotel once we landed :)


We found the Botannical Gardens in Christchurch tonight, where we spent a few hours playing.


Look at how big this field is!


Drew was so happy. And frozen. It was chilly here today, which we knew was coming. Slightly different than our Sydney weather.


Tomorrow we will get out and see some of this beautiful place!

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Goodbye Sydney

Our last two days in Sydney were spent at the beach, walking around the city (a ton of walking), and riding an "Australia Bus" that the boys so badly wanted to go on.

On Friday we spent the day at Bondi. The weather was perfect and the beach wasn't too crowded. The water, however, was freezing!














For dinner we walked down to Darling Harbour...another fantastic part of the city!








Thanks to the bus stops, we were able to spend time walking around Potts Pointe (with a great farmers market), Darling Harbour (they have a huge playground there), The Rocks (more market shopping) and back to Circular Quay for dinner. We were all exhausted after today's fun!











Farmers Market- I was in heaven!


A freshly cooked lunch...


Making friends everywhere they go :)











Finally...a local beer and glass of Australian wine with dinner!





And of course we had to find the shirts! This marks their 7th country visited. :)


Sydney has far exceeded my expectations. We've had a wonderful time here and I'll be sad to leave tomorrow. That said, we are excited for part 2 of our vacation...New Zealand!

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Sydney, Day 2

Have I mentioned that I love this city?? Because I do. The weather has been PERFECT. Cool mornings and evenings with nice warm days. And most importantly, no humidity!

Today we all slept until 9:30 (An early Christmas miracle!), enjoyed cereal WITH milk (only pointing out because Singapore's milk is disgusting) and headed out to catch the ferry to Manly Beach. Manly Beach was great, but it was quite windy there so we spent most of our time playing at Manly Cove.















Swings! We don't see many of those in Singapore.


Loved the shops and cafés along the walk...


Manly Beach





There were some gorgeous views from our ferry on the way back...












Luke got to pick our dinner location- Hyde park for some pizza and football. The perfect end to another great day in Sydney!





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