We went for a drive over the Crown Range to Queenstown, then headed up to Glenorchy (see photo below)
Me & the children at Glenorchy ...
Grandad taking Brandi for a walk down the wharf ... not that Brandi will 'walk' - she'll lean, she'll skip, she'll trip over (or would if we weren't holding her hand!) ... Grandad decided having a swivel arm would be helpful when it comes to Brandi. Anywhere near water we need to have a good hold of her hand as she is quite happy to lean over and look at the water. On one of the days when Gran was with Brandi and they were on the wharf, Courtney asked me if Gran was a good swimmer as she was a bit worried that Brandi was going to lean over too far (or trip over) and take Gran into the water with her!! Don't worry, they did both manage to stay on dry ground.
On the way back from Glenorchy we called into Arrowtown and discovered a 'Gold' shop - a jewellers, with gold nuggets on display. The owner kindly let the children hold the nugget (see photo below), worth $21,000!! We did have to give it back through ... oh well.
Also in Arrowtown there are some remaining houses from the Chinese were they lived in Arrowtown during the gold rush from about 1865. Below is one of the houses ...
We watched a kiteboarder in Wanaka who was enthralling - he had quite an audience watching him in the end & gave us plenty of action!
Lake Tekapo (below)
Over the Crown Range, between Wanaka & Queenstown (below)
Our beautiful Mount Cook (highest mountain in NZ) (below)
On the way back from Glenorchy we called into Arrowtown and discovered a 'Gold' shop - a jewellers, with gold nuggets on display. The owner kindly let the children hold the nugget (see photo below), worth $21,000!! We did have to give it back through ... oh well.
Also in Arrowtown there are some remaining houses from the Chinese were they lived in Arrowtown during the gold rush from about 1865. Below is one of the houses ...
When we stopped to have a look at the lake Courtney kindly pushed Josh off 'her' rock, and he got rather wet in the lake. So Josh asked if he could jump off the rock again ... I figured well he was totally wet already, so hey whats another swim in his clothes!
Renee, Courtney, Brandi & Josh with Mount Cook (NZ's highest mountain) way way in the distance. Josh now gets to wear his swimming stuff - his only 'easily accessible' (and dry) clothing in our 'well-packed' van.
