Back to School!

Perrie headed back to school this month.  Only one more year of preschool!  She is convinced that she is ready for Kindergarten because she learned to ride her bike this summer.  Miss Perrie has spent the summer trying to learn to swim, reading books to her brother, working on art projects, and anything else she can do.  Here are "20 Questions with Perrie":

•    What is your favorite color? PINK

•     Favorite number? INFINITY

•    Favorite food?: SWEETS

•    Favorite toy?: MY NINJA TURTLE LEGOS

•    What are you most happy about this summer? GOING OUTSIDE TO PLAY IN THE HOTNESS

•    Favorite memory from the summer? WHEN MY GRANDMAS CAME TO VISIT

•    Favorite place we went this summer?: PLAYDATE SEATTLE

•    What are you really good at? RIDING MY BIKE WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS

•    What is hard for you?: JUMP ROPING (“BUT I CAN STILL DO IT KIND OF, BUT I’M JUST NOT GOOD AT IT”)

•    What is your favorite thing to do at home? PLAY

•    Who is your best friend?: OSCAR AND CANNON

•    What do you want to do when you grow up? BE A DOCTOR LIKE MY MOM

•    What do you think your brother will do? PLAY GOLF (“BECAUSE HE ALWAYS DOES THAT WITH THE BAT IN THE BACKYARD”)

•    Where do you want to live when you grow up? IN A BIG BUILDING

•    If you could have a super power what would it be? A POWER TO HAVE WINGS TO FLY

•    Where do you want to travel? SOMEWHERE WHERE IT’S VERY WARM (“LIKE NEW ZEALAND”)

•    What is your favorite pet? KITTY CAT

•    What is your favorite book? JAMBERRY

•    What is your favorite song? JESUS LOVES ME, THIS I KNOW

How would you describe your brother? HE IS SOMETIMES VERY, VERY CRANKY.

What is your favorite clothes?  DRESSES AND SKIRTS (WITH A SHIRT)

What is your favorite touch?  SOFT

The Black ABYSS!

Brandon and I left the kids with grandma and grandpa and headed into the "black abyss" (duh-duh-duh)!

We drove to the Waitomo caves where we took a 5-hour adventure tour of the glow-worm caves.

 This is our tour group.  Randomly one of the other couples (who now live in Papau New Guinea) used to live in Billings -- small world!

 First stop ... abseiling training.  We practiced a few times on this semi-steep hill and apparently that is enough to be "kiwi-certified" to rappel 115 feet into a black cave.

Here we go!!

After rappelling into the cave, we hiked a bit deeper inside and then ziplined even further down.  From the picture below, we took a tube and jumped into ice cold cave water.

I can't be sure, but I think that's my backside.

And pretty sure this is Brandon's head.

At this point, we rode around the cave streams on our tubes and the guides told us different stories.  I couldn't help but really hope that there wasn't a big earthquake during those 4 hours.  There wasn't!

The Waitomo caves are filled with these glow-worms.  I didn't get any pictures of them, but pulled these off the internet.  You lay back, look up at the top of the cave and it looks just like a starry sky.  They are actually the larvae of gnats that are trying to attract prey into their silk threads.  They glow brighter if you make a loud noise.





As we were walking around in deep, freezing cold, dark, cave water the guides kept telling us that eels live in the caves.  Brandon told me ahead of time that they just said that to scare people so I didn't worry too much about it.  Right at the end - they showed us one of the cave eels - eewww!  I'm glad I was blissfully ignorant about that for most of the tour.

Break for a snack & hot drink.

Climbing out - had to climb up two different waterfalls to get out.

We all made it!

This is how Perrie & Isaac's day went.  Isaac looks like he'd rather be black water rafting!!

TAUPO!

I know ... it has been over 4 months!  I left all of you faithful followers hanging with us mid-New Zealand tour.  Here goes my attempt to more faithfully blog.  (I need to more faithfully take pictures too -- the kids are growing like weeds.)

Our next stop on the trip to New Zealand was TAUPO.  You can see it right there in the center of the island - right on Lake Taupo (New Zealand's largest lake).

 Here is a glimpse of "car time"...

Front seat -- think my dad is wishing HE was driving!

Isaac -- USUALLY all smiles!

Sleepy Perrie.  This is about the time she caught some NZ virus so she spent some quality nap time while we were driving.

Crazy roads.

Lemon & Paeroa.  Their slogan is "World famous in New Zealand".  It is their popular soda ... lemon juice & sparkling water...

On our way there, we took a break at ROTORUA.  This is the main site of geothermal pools, which has given it the nickname "sulphur city".  We decided to skip the sulphur pools on this trip - since Rotorua has the second highest number of geothermal pools ---  second to Yellowstone Park.

Instead we headed to an animal park that included a Kiwi encounter (this is a kiwi conservation centre).  The Kiwi bird is an interesting little creature.  I wish that we would have seen one in the wild, but had to settle to seeing them here.  An American (of all things) who was VERY serious about kiwi birds gave us the tour of their birthing center.  I spent all of my energy trying to keep Isaac from screaming, running, or disturbing the baby kiwis, so my pictures here are pretty limited.  It is impressive how carefully they take care of those kiwi eggs though.  They find a nest, take the eggs, incubate them until they hatch taking tons of precise measurements every day, then grow the baby kiwi until they are big enough to survive on their own.

I wish Isaac had been as enthusiastic as this little girl...

The area we are heading to is famous for trout fishing --- look at the size of those rainbow trout!

Gma & Gpa at the Kiwi Encounter - from Perrie's point of view.

Zipline!

Logride - that is Gma, Gpa, & Brandon in the boat.  Perrie wouldn't go near it...

 We had lunch with the kids while my parents took a gondola to look over Rotorua.  Some really pretty pictures...

Finally, we make it to our new house on Lake Taupo.  We are going to stay here for 3 nights before heading on...

Coromandel Peninsula

For our second day at Waihi Beach, we decided to take a drive up the Coromandel Peninsula.  This is when we really learned the challenges of driving in New Zealand.  By "we", I mean "Brandon".  Unfortunately, he was trying to drive on the wrong side of the car, wrong side of the road, on tiny windy roads while the rest of us gawked around at the scenery.  Next time I will have to drive so he can look around a little.  Thank you, Brandon, for driving us safely from place to place!

The Coromandel Peninsula has Hot Water Beach.  This is a beach that has underground hot springs that filter up through the sand so that you can dig yourself a hot pool on the beach. Sounds cool - right? We arrived to find that we weren't the only ones that found this idea appealing ...

This is Hot water beach!

Grandma Elaine was the only one bold enough to brave the crowds.  She convinced some nice strangers to share their hot pool with her.

More photos from Hot Water Beach

When I try to squat down to take Isaac's picture, he copies.  Kind of defeats the purpose!

So that's where those furrowed eyebrows came from!

After Hot Water Beach, we kept driving north to a place called Cathedral Cove.  This is a beach/cave only accessible by boat or hiking.  This crew was not quite up to carrying 2 kids on the full-on hike to cathedral cove, so we did the short hike.  Next trip, I'm taking the full hike!

One of my favorite pictures from the trip!

Time to pack into the car and head back to our house.

On our way home - I asked Perrie what was her favorite part of the trip ... "sleeping in a bunk bed and swimming in a hot tub".  Technically, she didn't actually sleep in the bunk bed, just played on the top bunk with dad once in a while...

Pre-Bed Relaxation

Next stop ... Taupo!