2009

Yet again, time has gotten away from us and we have not updated with all of the exciting things that have been going on in our hemisphere...
The biggest news is, of course, that we had visitors! Holly's parents arrived just before Christmas and we were able to show them around our little corner of the world. We had a Kiwi Christmas barbecue with our friend, Cynthia, and her family, which consisted of steak and sausages, bread and a couple different salads. On Christmas day, we took a driving tour of the Port Hills, by all the fancy houses then out to Taylor's Mistake, a small bay with a black, volcanic sand beach filled with Christmas-celebratin' Kiwis where we also saw Pohutukawa trees, aka the "Kiwi Christmas tree."

On Boxing Day, we went to the Boxing Day sales and scoped out all our purchasing options. I think mom and dad even ended up with a nativity set from down unda! That evening we watched a movie, Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet in a true-story that took place in Christchurch in the 50s. It was filmed right here in town and we were able to visit some of the places from the movie...Like the house that Kate's character lived in, which is also located on Andy's campus, the University of Canterbury:


We also took a long "tramp" to see this interesting site...


On my birthday, we took a drive over to Lyttelton, the main port in the area and visited the weekend markets. Then we took a walk through the bush and had a picnic in Mona Vale's gardens.









We went to dinner at Pescatore,


and celebrated afterward with a traditional Kiwi Pavlova topped with local fruits (bought from the market earlier!) and "Pomosas," pomegranate and bubbles!


We all enjoyed what Christchurch has to offer, including the beautiful gardens, and a trip on the Gondola that gave us a view of both Christchurch and Lyttelton harbour.


And we even "punt-ed" on the Avon river.




Did I mention I made Dad buy a hat on my birthday that was oh-so-styley? In case you missed it, here's another pic:


On the last day of their visit, we took the TranzAlpine train across the South Island and crossed the Southern Alps to arrive on the West Coast overlooking the Tasman Sea. It was such a perfect opportunity to see how beautiful New Zealand truly is.