The Rest of the Webers Take New Zealand

Lance here. My parents came to visit us over Easter (yes, this post is a little behind) to see their grandson along with the country that their son and daughter-in-law decided to move to. And they thought Colorado was a long way from home.  I sat and waited for them at the airport for quite a while (Rumor has it that Customs didn’t believe their story that they were only visiting for 1.5 weeks because of the number of suitcases they had with them.  I wouldn’t find it hard to believe as we just barely got everything in the car and Maggie and James weren’t able to be there because there wasn’t enough room).  Their total flight (layover in Sydney) took them about 30 hours.  That’s dedication; "Gramps and Mimi" really wanted to see their grandson.  They hadn’t seen us in person in about 9 months at that time, so it was great to have the family together.

DAY 1

Maggie here.  The first full day the in-laws were in town Lance had to work, so I played tour guide for the day while we waited to join Lance for downtown drinks in the evening.  I decided that the pretty neighborhood of Devonport was right up Mimi's alley.  We've been to Devonport before since it is right down the street on the North Shore and a very pretty place to enjoy some sunshine and kill a couple hours on a weekend.  It has historic buildings/guns from WWII along with some fantastic downtown and bay views on top of Mount Victoria.

We were able to explore the hilltop after our lunch at one of the cafes.  This was Gramps and Mimi's first time eating out in NZ and the menu perusal went something like this:

Mimi: Oh, they have a pie of the day!
Me: That would be mince meat pie.  It will always be meat pies here unless they specify 'fruit pie'.
Mimi: Ah, ok.  They have sides of chips.
Me: Those would be fries, like Fish n' Chips, but they're actually fries.
Mimi: Ah, ok.  Tom, they have a burger.  You said you wanted to try a burger.
Me: Just so you know, Kiwis always put beets on their burgers.  In case you don't want that part.
Gramps: Yep, I'll have the burger without the beets.
Mimi: I'll have the chicken burger with nothing on it but green bell peppers.
Me: When you order, call them green capsicums.  They don't call them bell peppers here.
Mimi: I'd like a black coffee, too.
Me:  They don't have just black coffee, like drip style. You can get an 'Americano' which is the closest thing to black coffee.

Needless to say the ordering process was pretty funny, watching them go through the learning curve that I myself had gone through less than a year ago.  Ah, when I was young and naive and chips were chips and fries were fries.

When Lance was through with work we headed up to the Skytower (the space needle look-alike in the skyline) for a 360 view of Auckland and the bay.

Another drive up to the North Shore to Shakespear Regional Park so Mimi could walk with the sheep.  She was thrilled that you could just walk through fields of sheep willy nilly.

DAY 2

Lance here. The next morning I made Gramps and Mimi get up early to take the family to Cathedral Cove.  For those who have read previous blog posts, this was a favorite spot for Maggie and me during our early adventures out here.  We were met with a beautiful day for the family to take in the beach.  After Gramps and Mimi surviving the windy roads out through the Coromandel (still getting used to driving on the left side of the road), we hiked down the trail to Cathedral Cove.

Once we made it to the beach we had some fun in the sun, with Maggie and me taking advantage of a couple of designated sitters to watch James.  Mimi volunteered whereas Gramps was forced to volunteer as Mimi forgot to pack his bathing suite for the trip.

Maggie and I took to jumping off ‘Seagull Rock’.  It’s called that because the top of the rock is not exactly as clean as the rest of the rock looks when you’re standing on the beach.

After that we explored a few sea caves that we had to swim to in order to make it inside.

James stayed back at the beach and had fun playing with his bucket and shovel, enjoyed his heated-up-via-shower-curtain-pool, and made a new friend on the beach.  Gramps and Mimi entertained him and got to see how many times he would go back for a delicious handful of sand.

After some relaxation on the beach Gramps and Mimi caught the water taxi home while Maggie, James, and I hiked back, stopping at Stingray Bay for Maggie to do some snorkeling while James and I hung out for awhile.

We headed home to rest up for our trip to the South Island the next day.

DAY 3

I’m a pretty harsh tour director and I never really let my parents sleep in too much on their trip out here.  To be fair they only had about 8 days to spend in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, so time was of the essence.  We took the morning flight down to Queenstown and had a beautiful view of the mountains in the south island as we made our approach into Queenstown.  After checking into our hotel, the girls took James and went shopping while the guys took in a ride on the Shotover Jetboat.   This jetboat experience was truly great as it manuevered its way through the canyons on the Shotover River, going over sometimes 3 inches or less of water.  Incredible.  It’s a fun ride for all those involved.

Kiwi bird statue

After the jetboat we met the girls back at the hotel and decided to enjoy some cocktails at the hotel before heading up to the Skyline to enjoy some luge racing and beautiful views of Lake Wakatipu.  It was an absolute cracker (beautiful day) so we really lucked out.  We then classed it up for the evening with a trip on the TSS Earnslaw.

DAY 4

The next morning we awoke early (yet again) to get ready for our 11 hour trip to Milford Sound.  At the first stop we noticed a beautiful red sky; however, this was the signal of a pretty rainy day (red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning).  We took a bus out to the Sound and cruised about for a relatively dry day.  We were able to see a lot of waterfalls along with some seals and a group of dolphins skipping about the Sound (Fiord).  After a long bus ride home we were ready to crash.

DAY 5

The next morning I woke up early to hike up the Queenstown track, which takes you up the mountains above the city.  I had the enjoyment of watching the sun rise over the Remarkables and Lake Wakatipu.  It was a beautiful scene and a very peaceful change from James crawling all over me.  I came back to the hotel and a not-too-happy wife.  She asked me to do one thing if I went running in the dark using a headlamp to guide my way, and that was to take a phone so she could know I was safe.  One guess as to what I forgot to bring.

We flew back from Queenstown later that morning and visited my office at PwC where James got a kick out of chairs that roll and spin around in a circle .  For dinner we were down to the Wynward Quarter of the CBD, which includes several restaurants on the warf.  James flirted with the Italian waitress, who brought him some crayons.  He proceeded to color (*cough* = eat the crayons) and bob his head to the music of the guitarist on the corner.

DAY 6

Maggie again.  The next morning we decided to take Gramps and Mimi over to the west coast to see the black sand beaches.  We've done previous posts about Piha, and it's one of my favorite places.  We had a nice day of relaxing, swimming, crawling, and tossing around the ol' pigskin.  (That's a football for those of you that aren't as sports savvy as moi.)  At one point the grandparents went off in search of a restroom, and an hour later Lance and I were preparing how to tell Lindsey that her parents were lost in New Zealand.  Turns out they got distracted by a garage sale and other friendly tourists.  We're from the Midwest, what can we say?  Spontaneous friendships will happen!  We were relieved when we finally saw them strolling back along the beach.

James ate it hard in the sand a couple times and he, no joke, looked exactly like Braveheart.  I would have taken a picture, but I took way too long as it was to wipe off his face from laughing so hard, let alone taking the time to get the camera.  I would have been a bad parent.  That black sand is exceptionally sticky; it really gets in there.



Gramps said he really wanted to swim in the Pacific Ocean.  He got his wish, but definitely wasn't prepared for how cold it would be.  Aren't you from Michigan?  They have some pretty cold lakes there, Gramps!

Gramps and I caught up on an old past time of throwing the pig skin around.  Not a whole lot of people here to throw the football around with, so it was a lot of fun to run a few "skinny post" patterns again.  Bet Gramps never thought he'd be catching a pass on a black sand beach in New Zealand all those years ago when he was playing for the Frankenmuth Eagles.

The grandparents let us have a date night that evening so Lance and I could get some adult time.  We went out on the town and had a total RAGER!!  Aaaand we were back by 8:30 pm.  But we really did find a neat little place called Orleans that served tasty drinks and creole food.  The fried chicken was fantastic!  Believe it or not, chicken is kind of a hot commodity here.  It's very expensive so we take it when we can get it.

DAY 7

We were blessed that the Webers were here on Easter Sunday, which was the day James was being baptized.  His baptism was really important to us and I've shed a couple tears at the idea that we would be completely alone with no family or Godparents.  When the woman at Saint Mary's Church told me over the phone that they could fit us in on Easter when my in-laws were here I almost cried again.  Ok, I did cry again.

James looked like a little angel in his knit baptism jumper.  Our sweet boy.

DAY 8

Mimi and I enjoy a good glass of wine, but our husbands don't indulge in a glass with us.  Now that we were together with another wine-lover we could do up Kumeu Wine Country in style.  First we went to Muriwai Beach to see the nesting gannets.  The baby birds had been born recently and half could fly and half still had pin feathers.

From there we headed to wineries.  Many of the vineyards were having Easter celebrations, so we stopped by Cooper's Creek for some outdoor music and wine.  James hovered under the table like a little puppy dog looking for scraps.  We would drop in food to his mouth like a little baby bird.  We call him our little 'baby bird' all the time.  

Over at Soljans Estate they had grape crushing.  I grew up watching I Love Lucy, and who doesn't love the grape-crushing scene in the Italy episode?

Lance and Maggie: We had a great time with Gramps and Mimi, and James really misses all of the action and commotion around the house.  He’s going to love his trip home to the USA in three weeks!

lunch downtown before we left for the airport