The month my family came to NZ : PART 1

I won’t even apologise for taking a much needed break from blogging. My posts were getting a bit stale and it was becoming a bit of a chore for that last wee while. I also just wanted to relax and not have to type up my days,  even every other day. I also won’t apologise for this super long posts as they are just going to be a summary of the past month, they are also mostly photos so I’ll forgive you if you can’t be bothered reading it all ;) hehe

So what have I been up to?! 

Well... the biggest thing was that my family arrived for their month holiday on the 19th of December. That was very exciting, and Frances and I were both excited and preparing all of the week before they arrived with some gardening and some housework and just some general mental chilling out; the calm before the storm. 

They arrived on the Tuesday night and we spent some chill time in Springfield with Frances and Graeme for the first few days. Lots of laughter and silliness and stories; everyone was having a ball!! We visited Castle hill, and did the Washpen Falls Walk, and had a few BBQs and just generally had some fun :) 

   

  
BBQ with Frances and Graeme.

   

The washpan falls walk.

On Thursday we packed up the car and headed for Twizel where we’d booked a hostel for one  night,  just as a half way point to Te Anau since it would have been a 6.5 hour drive otherwise and none of us fancied that. The motel in Twizel was basic but we were all on a high being together and being on the road at the start of our holiday. And it was LOVELY having the three of them there with me, and driving on roads I’d been doing alone till then. 

  

Navigating to find someplace to eat in Twiel.

There isn’t much to see/do in Twizel so we headed off first thing in the mornin as there a few things I wanted them to see en-route. 

The first stop was the Clay Cliffs which Dad (being the stone Dr {Aka Geologist}) thought was really cool! Haha we then stopped at Arrowtown for mid morning coffee and had a wander round there, quickly, but I think we could all have spent more time exploring there. 

 

 

We stopped in Wanaka for lunch and had a wee meander around the shops, before finally heading for Te Anau where we were going to spend Christmas week in a house we’d booked on Book-a-bach (a website similar to Airbnb). 

The house was really fantastic! It had two great bedrooms and a massive open plan kitchen/dining/living space and a decent garden space with a BBQ and table. We were all very chuffed with it even though we probably wouldn’t spend much time in the house other than sleeping and breakfast/dinner. 

On Christmas Eve day we did part of the Kepler Track, which was a fab 5 hour walk. We usually do a walk together as a family on Christmas Day but this was a particularly different and special walk and it was much warmer than our usual one! 😂 

   

On Christmas Day we had a slow morning and  took a walk into town and along the lake before heading back to the house to cook up steaks on ththe BBQ for Christmas dinner in the sun. A lovely day and I was so thankful to have my family with me, it would have been totally weird without them.

Christmas dinner in Te Anau with the Mum, Dad and Catriona.

On Boxing Day we had booked to go out on a bus/boat tour to the Milford sound. Just wow. Words and photos will not do this justice as it was totally epic! I’ve never seen anything like it; we took the bus from outside our house to the ferry terminal at the Milford. The boat then took us out the Fjord to the Tasman sea where we looped back. The whole trip took all day but it was totally worth it and anyone considering it should definitely go for it, even though it’s a bit pricey it’s totally worth the money! 

All together it was a fabulous way to spend Christmas and in so glad my family were here to create and share these memories with me!