Lots of photos of the last two weeks of hanging out in Canterbury and our tiki tour of the lower South Island

New Brighton Beach, just 15 min from the house and big fun for Zoe

and of course I had to put mom and dad to work...

they took a train trip over to the West Coast, had to pick a day that it was raining in Christchurch and sunny on the other side of the divide.

Trip to Mt Hutt for big day of skiing and fun on the access road...

You just never know what the weather is going to do, one minute it was sunny and beautiful, the next minute we couldn't see the tips of our skis and boards, it got so socked in you couldn't tell which way was down the hill, made for an uneasy feeling when your board started sliding the opposite direction than you thought it should be going

Lake Tekapo, on our way south to Queenstown, that is a famous stone chapel with a magnificent view of Mt Cook, New Zealand's tallest mountain and the training ground for Sir Edmund Hillary. We waited to the last minute to decide to go up to the Mt Cook village and the Alpine Centre and museum, it was well worth the extra time in the car, I had no idea how magnificent the view from the village would be and we didn't even see Mt Cook, it was hidden by clouds

The view from our apartment in Queenstown, that is a paraglider enjoying the morning sunshine!

Dad made sure we had a good lunch for our trip to the Remarkables ski field

and another fun access road, which was a bit sketchy on the way down, it was snowing by the end of the day

The road to Milford Sound, pictures do not do it justice...

The Milford Sound is on the West Coast of the South Island, we learned heaps about this magnificent place on our trip down to check it out. The region is a tropical rainforest, getting as much as 7 metres of rain per year. Th sound is actually a fiord, because it was carved by glaciation and not by rain and erosion. Mitre peak is a mile high from it's peak down to the water, it is the highest point in this region and greets you at the entrance to fiord. We took a boat trip to check out the fiord.

Milford Sound is a very unique place, the freshwater that flows of the mountains picks up tannins from the matt of tree roots and leaves that cling vicariously to the steep rocks without soil. The tannins darken the fresh water layer that sits on top of the salt water in the sound, this creates an environment just 10 metres deep that can support deep sea life like black coral and horse mussels, to check it out you visit the deep sea observatory, which is all totally floating, and walk down a spiral staircase to a viewing platform.

In the afternoon we took a hike through the rainforest...

tree ferns, so cool

From Milford, we drove up to Wanaka and spent two nights, it was rainy in the village, but snowing on the peaks. The best day of skiing yet, Treble Cone is fabulous, heaps of fresh snow and steep chutes, I think dad and I were in heaven- mom probably could have done without her trip down the blue square trail called "Cloud Nine", which would have been considered a black diamond in Vermont, but she made it down and found some great runs to finish off the day.

We were thinking of you Uncle Peter!

We all had a great time. Sadly Darrel will be going back to work tomorrow, but mom, dad and I will be heading up North to Wellington and New Plymouth tomorrow.