New Zedland Road Signs

As you've seen from my many posts journaling our trip, we spent a lot of time on the road. New Zealand must have a lot of tired drivers who cause accidents, because road signs everywhere, encouraged people to pull over if tired.

We found several of their expressions funny (or perhaps it was just me), so half way through our trip I started writing them down. Here's the collection :)

• You know when you are tired.
• Tired driving is the same as drunk driving.
• You know what causes crashes.
• Tired? Take a power nap.
• You know crashes occur on bends.
• Fatigue kills; Have a break.
  
• You know to drive sober. Kia Kaha! (Maori which means "Be Strong")
• Good drivers have knowledge - use it.
• You know the dangers of bad driving.
• Feeling Tired? Wake up to the signs.

New Zedland Quotes of the Day

Since we were spending so much time in the car, I started writing down various funny "quotes of the day" which often happened during our road trips (but not always).

What is a road trip without hilarious "you had to be there" quotes anyway, huh? :)

Here's the collection:

• "Good on ya mate" - Everyone (what every Kiwi seems to say when you leave or end a conversation)
  
• "There's prune juice in here! I am not even kidding guys!" - Eric (when seeing that the Waitomo cabin had prune juice in the fridge, which actually happened to be ours, that Jill put in there when we got in)
  
• "Stupid bitch" - Jon; "We will not road rage in New Zealand" - Eric, in response
  
• "It's just too big" - Eric (his reasoning for why he didn't think NZ was/is an island)
• "It's been awhile, but if I remember correctly, this tastes like balls" - Eric; "I just had balls like yesterday, and this does not taste like balls" - Jon (referring to a Kiwi drink they bought and tried out. Apparently "balls" is a type of sports drink that we have here in the States)
• "Man, he's got a small penis!" - Eric (seeing Logan's penis for the first time)
  

Notice all quotes were from the MEN of our travel party?

*sigh*

Day 14: Queenstown

Oct 4th

Even with the twin beds pushed together, they had slowly spread apart throughout the night, so when Logan woke up at 4am (and stayed awake until 5:30!), it was really hard for me to get him back to sleep and lay in bed myself without one of us falling off the bed. :)

When we finally got up for the day, it was POURING outside!! We couldn't see the lake nor mountains beyond, it was so super wet. So much for bungee jumping.... ;-)

We headed into town late morning to find brunch and walk around the "Queenstown Mall" (basically the downtown area with a bunch of tourist shops, cafes, restaurants and boutiquey stores). The area was very cute, even though it was cold and rainy out. It reminded me of a ski town (well, it sorta is) like Mammoth, Tahoe or Whistler. We basically spent the ENTIRE day walking all over, buying all of our last gifts for the trip.

Even with the rainy weather, it was actually a nice day - my back was pretty tired and sore from all the walking but it was still nice to get out and breathe in the fresh air instead of staying cooped up in the car for several hours. We ate at the little Lakeside Cafe where I had a "made to order" sandwich that was scrumptious. Next door was a local chocolate shop - so we stopped for hot chocolate, croissants, truffles and chocolate shake. Excellent!


After a few hours of shopping and walking, we stopped at a bar with several fireplaces, leather couches and a lounge area which we took over, propping up our feet to rest, drink beer, try their nachos and cheese board (finally!) and let Logan crawl around. :) Small world as it is, our waitress was actually from San Diego, working there so she could snowboard all winter (apparently making travel her career, since she was just in Hawaii and was headed to Japan next. Boy was I jealous!!)

Eric has been hankering for a steakhouse forever, so afterward we went to a place called Botswana Butchery for dinner. Logan was asleep for the afternoon, but literally 5 minutes before reaching the restaurant he woke up screaming.... turned out he had peed through, and onto, his pants and stroller. Since it was FREEZING out, I think the cold wet chills woke him up. :( So Jon and I stripped him naked on a park bench in the freezing cold to change him (it was faster than walking blocks with a wet baby to the nearest public restroom/changing station). But, as expected our poor little guy did NOT like that. Some drunk kids nearby yelled at us "I think your baby is cold!!" as Logan screamed and kicked at the two of us huddled over him.

NO SHIT.

When we got back inside, we had just enough time to order our food before Logan got really loud and fussy (he was actually still tired). So, Jon took him for the first shift, walking him in the stroller all over town. I scarfed down my carrot and fennel soup (yum!!) and sauteed spinach (eh.) and then went back out looking for Jon. I took over the 2nd shift so Jon could eat - walking Logan around until he finally fell back to sleep. We then finished our evening enjoying some really yummy desserts (mine was the best - a lemon tart)! :)

We crashed soon after we got home - Jill was nice enough to have us switch rooms so we got the big bed this night. Which I was so glad to have, since Logan woke up sometime in the middle of the night and stayed with us in bed until morning....

A barking problem

I'm working from home today since my back is out of sorts and I'm dealing with an(other) ugly head cold. Of course, every chance they get, Lola and Odin are up and BARKING IN MY EAR whenever the mailman comes, or the UPS guy, or the gardener, or the second mailman, or the lady who wants to sell neighborhood Christmas trees.

It is all I can do not to strangle the two of them, or drug them with a little Benadryl and a sip of Jon's scotch. (what? I would never do that. I'm just saying....)

So, of course, today's Dooce post couldn't come at a better time. Oh, how I can totally relate.

What a wonderful time

I tried to describe as best I could, how important to me electing Obama as the next President of the United States is. Though I blog almost daily, words often fail me. Clear cohesive thoughts, arguments or descriptions do not float to the top of mind. I am often teased by my digressions and lengthy ponderings. :)

Hey, I'm no journalist. No attorney. No fiction, nor non-fiction, writer.

I blog. For fun.

My dad has sent some articles to me over the last few days, all about Obama's election, of course. ;-) I just finished reading this one, and at the end, was a single message that says it all for me.

It's what I was trying to convey the other night.

Rosa Parks sat in 1955.
Martin Luther King walked in 1963.
Barack Obama ran in 2008.
That our children might fly.

Day 13: Franz Josef

Oct 3rd

We all intentionally woke up early (7am) to book our tour of the Franz Josef Glacier, but it was POURING outside, so we decided to just do the "short" walk ourselves without the guided tour (Jon was worried it'd be too wet and cold for Logan). Logan woke up later (about 8am) which was nice for a change (Logan is pictured here checking out the downpour on our front porch).

Since we skipped the guided tour we took longer and ate breakfast at the cabin and enjoyed the morning. At checkout, we spent 30 minutes online, writing quick emails to everyone (or a quick blog post). We finally set out for the glacier about 11am-ish. We took one trail that ended at a lookout point with signs warning us not to go any further since the bad weather had washed away many of the trails.




So, we did what any determined set of traveling Americans would do.

We scoffed at the signs and kept going.

The sights on our way to the face of the glacier were absolutely gorgeous! There was water running everywhere - waterfalls every where you turned, creeks to skip across, rain falling on your head, rushing rapids as we got closer and of course the creaking glacier in the distance.

Along the way, Jill stumbled across a second DANGER sign, not along our path but within eyesight from where we were walking. She pointed it out to me, a bit more nervous this time, but the boys were already far ahead of us and out of yelling reach.

So, we did what any good wives would do.

We pretended we didn't see the sign and rushed on ahead to catch up.

The walk to the glacier was a little slow going because we were stopping to take a bunch of pics and navigating across rivers, streams, and lots of rocks. But I'm so glad we made the trek. When we finally got to the face of the glacier, it was unlike anything I've seen before. It was made up of massive chunks of hard compacted ice - yet was very pretty, reflecting the water inside the ice like crystal catching a flickering sunbeam.

There were small boulders falling near us since the glacier was fairly slippery and actively melting from the sun.

But, we did what any determined set of traveling parents would do.

We ignored the tumbling rocks and changed Logan at the foot of the glacier anyway.

After an entire afternoon spent hiking and taking our fill of pictures, we hit the road again, grabbing lunch at Cook Saddle Cafe in Fox Glacier Village first. I ordered a tostada, but it was NOTHING like a tostada (more like a casserole or enchilada). And, even though I ordered it HOT, it was not spicy at all damnit.

Kiwis are such pussies.










We had another long drive ahead of us to Queenstown, our final stop before returning to the States. :( We made a pit stop in the middle of nowhere and Eric left his door open, which let a bunch of gnats inside the car. And, this is what one of our guide books said about that:

"The dreaded sand fly. Particularly common in the wetter and coastal areas of Fiordland (but present almost everywhere), these black, pinhead sized 'flying fangs' have a successful hit rate that makes laser-guided missile systems look archaic. Open your car door and within seconds a vast cloud of the little devils will descend and your entire party will look like a crowd of deranged loonies at a rave."

THAT WAS TOTALLY US.

We spent the next 30 minutes on our drive, powering the windows up and down, and up and down, "guiding" the lucky ones out of the car, or smacking the unlucky ones against the dashboard. All the time yelling with excitement the minute we caught sight of another wandering impostor.

Throughout our trip, Logan had this uncanny ability to wake up super cranky about 30 minutes before arriving at our destination. No matter how long the drive - 2 hours or 6 hours - he always fussed 30 minutes before we got there! We've noticed this ability to predict also appears when drinking his bottles, since he will always leave 2oz of milk, no matter how much was originally in it. :)

We arrived into Queenstown just after sunset. We had a really nice apartment hotel - most of the units were over looking Lake Wakatipu, but ours overlooked an inner courtyard of the property. Still, it was a very nice and "modern" pad. I think our only complaint was that one of the two bedrooms had 2 twin beds again - doh! So, Jon and I took that room for the first night.

The boys went to get dinner while Jill and I stayed at the apartment with Logan, unpacking and letting him exercise every last bit of energy left in his bones.

The boys got back and I finally got my Chinese takeout fix. Yummmmmm.

Only, watch out property management!

'cause now our place smells like Chinese food. ;-)

A Historic Win

I can't tell you how crazy my day has been today, as I numbingly went through the motions of a "normal" workday, while inside I was exploding with excitement and nervous anticipation.

I'm still in a bit of disbelief, actually, that Obama has won. Tonight, he was named the elected President of the United States.

He made it happen.

We made it happen. Yes we did.


Logan - we're doing all we can to make this world a better place for you and your generation. Tonight, I feel we're finally taking a big step in the right direction.

I have faith this movement of change will continue for many years to come. It has to.

And we won't let you down.

Love,
Mama