New Zealand

We are going to spare you our play-by-play account of the trip. Instead, here are the Cliffs notes with pictures.

Highlights of our trip:

1. Actually enjoying the 12 hour flight over there. The kids LOVED it, especially their personally movie screens with 30 different kids’ movies to choose from. The noise canceling headphones were a big bonus too. We actually had to BEG the kids to turn off the movies and go to sleep. Elsie slept the whole time. She’s angelic.

2. Meeting my sister Sonna’s beautiful, strong, smart and smiley baby Ruth Simone. She was only six weeks old and we especially love her hair.

3. Seeing all of our dear, dear friends at their homes and at a few dinner parties. It was seriously SO great to be with these friends that we love and have missed so much. Our kids reacquainted themselves with old buddies and made new best friends—Aniston with Aniva, Elsie with Page (she’s 15, but Elsie LOVES her) and Camden has three other “winga totos” (Ninja Turtles) he idolizes: Riley, Elijah, and Manasseh.

4. Visiting our old neighbors and seeing our old house. Nothing much has changed, except that they sold my cows and put shutters in the kitchen windows (weird… best view ever from that window). The house is back up for sale. Tempting… but no.

That's our old house to the left of the boy in red.

5. Camping in a real “New Zealander” camper for the first time (the kids LOVED it), and camping a couple times in our tent at the awesome down under-style holiday parks. The grass is soft and lush, there are super clean bathrooms, showers, playgrounds, and kitchens to use, and the holiday parks are always within walking distance to the beach, mountains, or whatever choice attraction you are trying to visit. The kids loved how we slept in a new location almost every night.

Inside the camper.

Sonna amazed at Aniston's jumping prowess.

6. Doing some really touristy stuff. We went to the popular tourist beaches, drove around the kiwi-growing center of the country, and even visited Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. But, we’d tried to be non-touristy by calling a random farmer and picking his kiwis instead of going to a tourist-centered farm. We also did a big hike at the Caves to counterbalance the tour. And the beaches, well… at least we didn’t get sunburned.

Muriwai Beach on our last day in NZ.

Waitomo Caves south of Hamilton.

Some random guy's kiwi orchard in Te Puke.

Muriwai Beach with surfer.

7. Buying a van and having the owners deliver it to us at the airport when we got in. We were able to resell it the day before we left at a $200 loss. Good deal for 16 days and 2000 kms. Unfortunately, it had no “sounds” though and we didn’t get to plug the iPod in for driving accompaniment.

8. Finally getting Camden 100% potty-trained!!! Nothing like a road trip to potty train your kid. You are with the 24/7 and they catch on real quick to the fact that dad will pull the car over and let them get out if they say they need to go. It was worth the whole trip!

9. Good, great, delicious New Zealand food. We literally lived off of NZ Rose Apples, kiwi fruit, pbjs, Tim Tams, Australian Red Licorice, roast dinners, skippy corn flakes, milk, Fresh-up Apple Nectarine juice, goody-goody gum drop Tip Top Ice Cream (and other flavors), kumera, and Fish and chips (takeaways). (This is a picture of the back of Pak-N-Save, our favorite grocery store in NZ).

10. The constantly breathtaking scenery of that amazing country. Every turn in the road, look out a window, or walk on our hike afforded another vibrant, beautiful, poetic view. We especially loved the following: the Awhitu peninsula with its “As you wish” steep green pastures with views to the sea and/or the Auckland skyline beyond; Piha beach and Muriwai beach with their black sand, jarring cliffs and misty waves; our tramps through Hunua regional park (even though it was 14kms and 7 hours long… we got lost… but the kids did great and didn’t even complain) and to our lookout over the coast (Te Puke and Papamoa beach); and, our hike outside of Waitomo which in ten minutes showed us caves, waterfalls, suspension bridges, caverns, and a creek with eels.

Muriwai beach gannet (sea birds) colony.

Mt. Manganui beach.

Awhitu penninsula.

Awhitu penninsula.

Hunua falls near our old house.

Awhitu penninsula.

Muriwai beach sea cave.

Piha beach.

11. Playgrounds to beat any and all playgrounds: We rode the octorocker, super long crazy slide, scary and fast zipline, and tons of other fun and crazy equipment, all at playgrounds in amazing locations, like on beaches, at lakefronts, and in the center of cute towns. Probably the kids’ favorite part.

The zipline by the sea.

The hot salt water pools at Mt. Manganui beach.

The octorocker.

12. Having a great, one-of-the-best family vacation. We had a great time together, got to know each other better, and got to show the kids our favorite place on earth. All the drama of getting ready to go quickly melted away and we had an easy, no troubles trip. The kids were REAL troopers, and even put up with us visiting all of our friends, taking them on super long and hard hikes, and eating mostly apples and pbjs. There were so many times that Jonah and I just looked at each other and said, “I’m SO happy!” “This is the greatest ever!” And “Man, we have great kids!” We were really feeling the love and getting a much needed and anticipated break. What a country!!!

That's Auckland behind us.

Sayings and accidents from the trip:

Aniston running on the black sparkly sand of Muriwai beach, “When you run on this sand, its like you’re dancing in the stars!”

Jonah trying to scare Camden with a big kelp octopus-looking thing. Camden instead was delighted by it and carried around the beach with him all day and holding it like it was his new little pet.

Camden, “Winga Totos!” (he picked up a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fascination)

Aniston as she fell of the zipline platform, holding on to the zipline seat with only her hands, “Oh no. Mommy!” Then after she held on for the shole thing and Jonah frantically ran over to her, she said in a shakey voice, “But Dad… it was kind of fun!”

Elsie, “gooooo gooooooooooooooooooo”. She started babbling. My other kids didn’t ever baby babble, and I love it!

Aniston, “Elsie! You are so CUTE! We don’t even know what to do! How about we just keep you till you’re big?” Then we all crowd around the baby and talk baby talk to her. Sick.

Jonah holding our friends’ baby. It was a big baby and Jonah thought he was about a year old, so he just put the kid down. The kid fell straight on his face. He was only five months old. He couldn’t stand up by himself.

Jonah pulling up Cam’s pants and putting him on the floor. Cam didn’t walk away so Jonah gave him a little shove. Cam just shuffled. Jonah, confused, looked down and both Cam’s legs were in one side of his pants. They both laughed.

Jonah helping Cam out of the bathroom and Cam saying, “Hey. I have both legs in one side again, Daddy!”

Making a mistake of staying in a holiday park that had a train track and four freight yards adjacent to it. We picked it in the middle of the night. Its happened before. Whoo whoo!!!

Aniston saying after we got ice cream, “Close the car window! Its blowing ice cream in my hair!”

Aniston was saying the poem, “Little Girls are Made Of…” over and over again. Camden was finally fed up and said, “No, boys are made up of snakes, winga totos, and things I like.” Then a few moments later he pointed at Jonah and said, “Big boys are just made of snakes.”

Jonah putting the two week old calves in head locks to try and get a picture of them with the kids. Needless to say, we were all covered in cow poo after that.

Aja asking Aniston in the back seat of the van, “Aniston, how’s Elsie?” Aniston said, “Good. She has chubby, chubby cheeks and a hairbrush on her head”.

Aniston, “Dad, can I ask you just one question? I’m kind of confused…. Are we going to stay in a bus house or a tent?”

Barefoot Aniston running after sheep and barking on a green ridge overlooking the sea.

Camden, whenever the baby made a peep, “baby EH-see… you okay!!!”

A little incident outside the patriarch’s house.

Camden worried on our way there. Aja, “Camden, why are you scared to go to New Zealand?” “Because the plane has LOTS of people on it.” Later, “Camden, are you still scared to go to New Zealand?” Camden, “Yes. They put you in big red bags when you go there.” I guess he had heard how Luvy had jumped out of her red suitcase to surprise Aniston for Christmas, and he thought they did that to everybody. Needless to say, he now loves airplanes and NZ. He warmed right up to his NZ heritage and refused to wear shoes in NZ unless they were gumboots.