We spent our final week away from work in Wanaka- the sleepier adventure town about an hour from Queenstown (the "adrenaline capital of the world"). We spent about an hour in Queenstown- Wanaka is reminiscient of a sleepy Colorado mtn town (Crested Butte comes to mind): mtns everywhere you look, lots of outdoor activities, wonderful weather, and chickens. The rivers and lakes were cold, but impossible to stay out of for swimming.
We stayed at a house that had chickens- they laid us lots of eggs, and Ella loved them, even when they pecked her.
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| family hike along the hawea river |
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| we found free babysitters- aside from a little pecking it worked great! |
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| kite festival- Ella loved it! |
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| Gillian's kite festival |
We each took a day for adventure-
Erin went canyoning (canyoneering) on an amazingly beautiful and challenging route- lots of rappeling, abseiling, cliff jumping...she is a bad ass. They hiked/climbed up, then donned wetsuits and braved the waterfalls, water chutes, etc. The pictures are unbelievable.
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| the climb up- Erin smiling! |
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| going down the chute- Erin in the back. |
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| abseiling through waterfall- can see the rope and her helmet |
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| "Yes, I just came down that- I know,I rock." |
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| perma-grin! |
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| all this happened between the trees and the sheep.... |
I went on a bruising solo mtn bike ride (the guy at the bike store is probably still laughing for telling me to ride what amounted to about 3,000 ft elevation gain, 18 miles, a gigantic bull, but was rewarded by no people and majestic views.
suffice to say I pushed the bike up a lot, and the bike guy and I disagree on the definition of "undulating".
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| the ridgeline of the mtn bike ride |
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| looking to the southern alps |
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| very large bull- those are trees in the foreground |
Ella/Gillian and I went to the toy and transport museum (essentially one man's obsession with vehicles/machines from hot wheels to airplanes).
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| Ella said, " I will bring all these home". Tough lessons of museums. |
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| big "dumper" wheel |
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James Dean has nothin on this rebel....
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your readers are getting curious...what have you crazy kids been up to?! and more importantly, we would like to see pictures of the little ladies!! get writing!
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