We're still in New Zealand!

Hi Everyone!

We're still alive. We are now on our way back North. We went skiing in Queenstown, which was an absolute thrill since the scenery was incredible and the snow was awesome. Trevor actually boarded so that he could stay with me awww! We've seen the ocean and the mountains. We've frozen a bit and had some fun in a bit of warmer weather (maybe 15 degrees). We've been driving lots, but the scenery is so awesome. We went down to Milford Sound and went on a cruise that took us out to the ocean and back to the little cove ish area. We saw seals in the wild (they were so cute). We actually saw one on a rock when we were still on land. We camped in the awesomest areas with beautiful rainforest and mountains as our surroundings. I know I'm just rambling off a bunch of places, but believe me, it's been awesome. It is definitely a beautiful country. We're right now in Hokitika, jade country. It is a little town where the ocean meets mountains. We went swimming in the pool (mainly to take a shower since we've been sleeping in the van for the last few days. Yesterday we did a couple of walks leading us to the glaciers (Fox and Franz Josef) on the west coast. We'll be heading Kaikoura next and then up to the North Island after. We're having a great time and we hope everyone is doing well back home!

Talk to you eventually!

SMILE:)
Amanda + Trevor

We're in New Zealand!

August 17, 2008

Hello there from the land down under (Kiwi land),

We’ve made it, not without some rough times to start us off though. We got to Edmonton airport only to realize that our tickets were apparently suppose to be paper tickets vs electronic tickets and obviously we didn’t have any paper tickets. When we got in contact with our travel agent, he said that on his computer it showed that the tickets were electronic and we figured that Air Canada was the one at fault. In some split second decision making, Trevor REpurchased our own seats (that’s right, we bought our own seats back) to Vancouver with 6 minutes to cut off time for check-in. Once we flew into Vancouver we actually had smooth sailing (thank God for Air New Zealand). Our flight to New Zealand was not welcomed with a seat upgrade, but rather a glass of champagne for each of us and eventually a card signed by the pilot and stewards on board to start the honeymoon (we had a very nice concierge on board). The plane was awesome. We had individual TVs, very comfy seats and some awesome food (I love plane food). Trevor slept better than usual (plane wise), I did my best, and 15 hours later, we landed in Auckland. It took a few hours to find a place to spend the night, but we got a hotel, rented a car and off we went to explore. We walked around the harbour and went into the Minus 5 bar, a bar made entirely (well, almost) of ice. We had drinks in ice glasses. It was cool (literally). We got caught in rainstorm on the way back to the hotel. We then decided to visit Mission Bay (Stephen’s suggestion) and I found TONS of shells on the beach there. We had some fish and chips and then called it a night (we fell asleep around 8pm!) We got over jet lag by sleeping until 8 the next morning. We did a walk around Auckland Domain, a beautiful park area in the middle of Auckland. Our walk was appropriately named “Lover’s walk”. We then headed to the airport for our domestic flight to Christchurch (south island). It was delayed by an hour, but that’s okay. With all the technology Trevor brought along, we were able to watch Fear Itself while we waited. We’re now in Christchurch, after a very scenic flight. It’s cool (probably around 10 degrees), but livable. We have a fabulous hotel and we’ll be picking up the Wicked campervan tomorrow to start our southward driving adventures. We are having a great time so far, enjoying married life! We’ll update you again soon.

SMILE ☺
The Honeymooners!

August 18, 2008

So the continuation of the above is from yesterday. We went to an awesome arts market and pretty much walked all of down town Christchurch. We went to the Botanical Gardens and saw a black swan sitting on her nest. It was quite a beautiful day spent in relaxation. We then headed home to watch the wedding and to enjoy some left over spaghetti we had made the day before. It has been a wonderful couple days so far.

Hope it’s warmer back home than it is over here!