Bryce and I took the most amazing trip to New Zealand and Fiji for most of this month, but before I get into that, here is an update on the rest of the family:
Megan, Mitch and Evan are doing great in Boise! We love being able to FaceTime with them pretty much every day - technology makes the distance a little easier. :) Mitch took a business trip to Logan to do some stuff for his company at Utah State, so Megan and Evan tagged along and spent some time with Devin and Levi while they were there and also got Evan his first Utah State swag to train him up to be an Aggie someday.
Devin and Levi continued work and school, went to a friend's wedding, played with Evan and Megan and Mitch when they came to town and Devin continued to work on his crocheting skills with this new shirt. Oh, and Devin took a fun trip to the ER for some suspicious chest pains that ended up (thankfully) posing no immediate danger.
Seth and Delaney are both doing well and surviving another semester of school. For Delaney, it is her final semester and she is student teaching and getting ready for graduation in May. Seth stays busy with classes, commuting from SLC to Provo for school and working on The Ballard Brief at BYU.
Autumn is doing so well in Canada! She stays so positive despite the freezing cold temperatures that are just a part of the prairies of Canada. She was thrilled when she got to fulfill a bucket list item by seeing the Northern Lights and tells us they are so much cooler in person than you could ever capture on film. She was also transferred this month back to Winnipeg, where she is serving in the Waverly ward with Sister Zobell and they are tearing it up as Sister training leaders together. She is truly so happy and learning so much.
I have wanted to go to New Zealand since I was in elementary school and did a country report on New Zealand and had my dad come and help with my oral presentation since he served his mission there. Bryce and I have been planning this trip for nearly a year and were so excited to start. We began our trip on March 4, when we flew first to LA and then on to Auckland, New Zealand and finally to the southern part of the South Island to a town called Queenstown. This area reminded me a little of Park City, if Park City had a ginormous lake in the middle of it. It was beautiful! We enjoyed exploring Queenstown, taking in an aviary where we saw kiwi birds as well as lots of other birds and plants native to New Zealand, and going on a 47 km bike ride from Arrowtown back to Queenstown, where we stopped at the bridge where bungee jumping was invented to watch a few bungee jumpers.
From Queenstown, we drove about an hour south to Manapouri (enjoying some beautiful scenery along the way) where we boarded a ferry, took a ride across the lake, then took a coach ride over the top of the mountain and back down to Doubtful sound, which is a beautifully pristine fjord. We took an overnight cruise down the entire length of the fjord and also explored some of the tributaries off of Doubtful sound. It is impossible to put into words how beautiful it is here. Deep, clear water, steep cliffs climbing thousands of feet into the sky covered in green foliage and waterfalls everywhere. Just breathtaking everywhere you look! It rained on and off while we were there, which was perfect since it only created more waterfalls. After our small ship had anchored for the evening, we went out on kayaks to explore the shoreline closer and found ourselves in a torrential rainstorm. It was still so fun!
After making our way back to Manapouri, we drove to Wanaka, a small town at the mouth of the Southern Alps. We spent one night there and then spent the next day driving to our next destination and stopping every few kilometers to hike to another waterfall or beautiful overlook or blue, blue pool of water. The subtropical forests in this area are just stunning! We started the day in the mountains, drove and hiked to a couple of beaches and ended the day at Franz Josef, a town at the base of a massive glacier. And we even stopped at Bruce Bay for a photo op. #brucebaybruce
We were supposed to take a heli glacier hike the next day, but the hike was cancelled due to bad weather forecasted in the afternoon. Bummer. We were able to take a helicopter ride to the top of the glacier and get out and walk around a bit, which was cool. Later that afternoon, we walked to a rock beach where we built a rock castle. :)
The next day, we drove north from Franz Josef to Punakaki, a small town known for the pancake rock formations nearby. We stopped at several places along the way, including an artsy town called Hokitika and a few scenic hikes and overlooks.
The next day, we drove another hour north to the small town of Charleston where we embarked on the coolest adventure ever! We donned full body wetsuits and helmets with lights, took a short train ride through the forest, grabbed an intertube and hiked up to the entrance of a cave. We spent the next hour or so hiking through the cave with only our head lamps (and guide) to light our way. We enjoyed seeing amazing cave formations. Once we were deep in the cave, our guide had us sit on our inter tubes on some rocks and then turn off our head lamps and then she clapped her hands loudly. The dark ceiling above us lit up with many little lights that looked like stars. She then told us about glow worms, a type of carnivorous larvae that sends down a single, luminescent thread to attract prey. Those luminescent threads look like stars from below. Glow worms are only found in New Zealand and in one part of Australia and Peru. After telling us all about them, she had us turn our headlamps back on and then we proceeded down a ways to an underground wide river. We put our tubes in the river, got in them, made a little human chain and then again, turned off our headlamps. Our guide went around the corner a bit, slammed her tube against the water to create noise (which makes the glow worms light up) and then pulled us around the corner where the dark ceiling was covered in so many tiny lights that it looked like the starriest sky on the darkest night and it was just sooooooo amazing! We got to enjoy looking at them for a while and then we tubed out of the cave back to daylight and tubed down this river with several rapids to return to our starting point. Easily one of the coolest things we have ever done.
We then flew to the North Island to Rotorua, where we enjoyed a Maori cultural display and dinner while also enjoying the geothermal geysers and pools in the area. We also went to Whatarewarewa forest where we took a night time tree walk among the giant redwoods, walking across suspension bridges linking the trees together high above the forest floor, all lit up with these really cool lanterns. It was like being in the Ewok village in Star Wars.
The next day, we drove north from Rotorua to Hobbiton where we took a tour of the Hobbiton set from "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" movies. Seriously so cool and much more elaborate and fun and informative than I was expecting. We loved it.
From there, we drove north to Hamilton where we got to attend a session at the Hamilton temple (so fun!) before driving to Auckland for the night.
The next morning, we flew to Fiji, where we took a 2 hour ferry ride from the main island to the tiny island of Tokoriki where we spent the final 5 days of our vacation enjoying the beautiful tropical paradise that is Fiji. We hiked to the top of the hill to watch the sunrise, kayaked and swam off of the beach right outside our private bungalow, enjoyed amazing food, visited a small Fijian village where we learned a lot about Fijian culture and tradition, went to church in a small church built by the villagers that was all in Fijian and had amazing acapella singing and enjoyed hands down the best snorkeling we have ever done in the clearest and warmest water.
It was an amazing nearly 3 weeks and we were sad to bid both New Zealand and Fiji goodbye and head home to Utah where it is still snowing and still winter cold. Sigh! But definitely one of our favorite trips ever. The world is a beautiful place - get out and explore it! Adventure is out there!!
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