Did you know that “Where’s Waldo?” Is “Where’s Wally?” everywhere in the world except the U.S.? Why???

Dear New Zealand,

What’s up with single pane windows? My windows have been covered in thick condensation in the mornings and today there was literal ICE on the inside of the windows in our house. INSIDE. 

It’s time for double-glaze windows to become standard here. Come on. 

Love,

Me

Bekah recently discovered that people in NZ often refer to dessert as pudding - regardless of what is served - and she finds this hilarious. 

Bekah and I hiked up Mt Tauhara. It was about 3 hours up and down. The view at the top was something else!

Bekah is thoroughly enjoying her “Destroy this Journal” that she got for our family Christmas in July celebration. She dragged her book a good 3 blocks and back. 

Did you know that Waldo is called Wally everywhere in the world but in the US? I always thought Waldo was the weirdest name anyway. Why isn’t he Wally in the states??
 

Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Aunt Madison and Grandma yesterday. It was so wonderful to see them and have them visit!

We decided a few weeks ago that we should have a Christmas in July. 1) Christmas is a nice thing to look forward to in the winter months in the Northern hemisphere and it’s a bit weird not to have anything to get excited about when it’s cold. 2) While we celebrated Christmas with family in December before we left, we did very little in the way of gift giving for each other because we knew we wouldn’t be able to pack it.

When we told the kids, they got pretty excited and started making Christmas decorations. One sign was misspelled -mas and -miss and thus, our celebration became known as “the Chris-we-missed” celebration. We went out with the kids a few weeks ago and they picked out a few things for one another.

Initially we had planned on cinnamon rolls and our traditional spread of tasty treats, but after Grandma’s recent visit, every kid voted to wait on cinnamon rolls and have some fruit and veggies.

So this morning we had some fruit and smoothie drinks as we unveiled gifts (they were just covered in throw blankets). Fun was had by all.

Quinn found the Christmas section of the op shop (thrift store).

The beautiful piwakawaka (NZ fantail) that Chris and the kids got me

Quinn went to the op shop (thrift store) with me this morning to pick out this beautiful plant (she asked for one for Christmas). It’s like a bonsai succulent. 

 

I have a friend whose husband is helping remodel the local Hilton hotel, so they had a bunch of free nightstands and desks to get rid of. I was able to pick up 4 of these and they have nice glass tops so we can display some of the cool art we’ve bought in town.

 Quinn drew this kiwi and I’m in love.

We went to the downtown winter festival tonight. Unfortunately, Bekah ended up with a migraine and it was pretty cold so we went home quickly. The lights were nice though.
 

 Today we drove all the way out to Maracopa falls, followed by the natural land bridge, then on to the Otorohanga Kiwi house, and lastly Spellbound glow worm caves before finally traveling home. It was a lot of driving, but honestly, a really amazing day. Maracopa falls was glorious and we happened to time it just right so we had the falls completely to ourselves. The land bridge reminds me of a cathedral and it’s said that it is a sacred place of the spirits. The kiwi house gave us a chance to see the nocturnal kiwi bird. The glow worm caves were amazing as well. We walked through a cave learning about the worms and their life cycles before heading to a second cave and seeing a giant moa skeleton - it had fallen through a ‘tomo’ - a sink hole - and into the cave approximately 12,000 years ago.

We stopped for food in a very small town, Te Kuiti, which funny enough was exactly where I had dinner with my cousin Julie almost exactly 1 year ago. I can’t believe we actually decided to come here and made it happen. It still feels unreal sometimes.

 We went to see the start of the Tongariro crossing (pictured above). We were going to go up the mountain to the ski fields and possibly ride the gondola but it turned out that the road was closed due to blizzard conditions up on the mountain. 

Aunt Madison went bungy jumping today! (Yes, it’s spelled differently here). She said it was super fun. We were in our house discussing it at 10:03 and by 10:31, she was jumping off!
 

 Mount Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro were in fine form today. The snow on the mountains was stunning from across the lake.

We went to Hobbiton with Grandma and Aunt Madison. We’d been saving it for when they came, so we hadn’t been yet. It was honestly really cool. We were worried the weather would be bad but it turned into an absolutely gorgeous day. The photos look almost unreal. We stumbled across a cat in the Green Dragon Inn and at first we thought he was fake because he was just happily drowsing in a booth. Much to our surprise, he was real AND we found a painting of him on the wall. His name is Pickle.

 

 I found this animated show on YouTube that helps teach you te reo Māori and it is hilarious!