NZ Part 1

Well finally we get back to the blog. Sorry for how long this has taken but with the move home the blog was not our top priority. What?!! You may say. In the days of facebooking, tweeting, blogging and buzzing... Social networking was not your priority. Shame on you MacPurdys... Shame!

Yes us shameful MacPurdys have crawled out from under our stone of social disconnect to enlighten you in the beauty of New Zealand (not that these pictures do it justice). I must say NZ is quite simply breathtaking. Because of our limited time we only explored the south island. It had more than enough to offer. Below is the first few days of our trip. Hope you enjoy!

This is the little seaside town on the peninsula east of Christchurch called Akaroa. It was settled by the French and has maintained a french influence up to today.
A windy day out on the pier.

For those of you who don't know. That white building is what the New Zealanders call a light house. It has a large light at the top that spins around in a circular fashion in order to warn approaching ships that land is close. This invention is quite ingenious. If only we had something similar in Nova Scotia. You know... because we have a lot of ocean around us.
And this... this is a small boy throwing rocks under a "light house" I tell you. New Zealand is amazing. The things you see there are wondrous.
Moving on from Akaroa we drove inland to Mount Cook. There really isn't much in the area other than a campsite, a hotel and some phenomenal hiking. This was one of the hikes towards the base of Mt. Cook. I swear I saw Frodo and Sam just ahead of us.
The kids did really well on this trek. The suspension bridges were pretty fun. I thought we may get blown off the second one. It felt like we were in a wind tunnel.
The little explorers
Taking a little break. I told Shamus that real men do this trek in there hairy bare feet.
The second of the suspension bridges with the face of Mt. Cook in the back.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

From Mt. Cook we continued on to Queenstown. Queenstown was easily one of our favorite spots. This town is beautiful. It is surrounded by lake Wanaka with the Remarkables (the local mountain range) as the back drop.

Soooo lovely.

This was the view from our apartment in Queenstown. Not to bad. I could have stayed here for the entire 15 days. No offense family but I was trying to think of a way to live here forever :P

Next post ... more of Queenstown and onward up the west coast.

Oh Canada

Well after 27 hours of flying, 2 "random" searches, 1 yelling match at baggage claim in LA we have stepped onto Canadian soil for the first time in almost two and a half years.

Oh Canada... How cold you are to me. After a wonderful March, Nova Scotia is receiving a bit of a cold snap. It was eight degrees Celsius yesterday. A bit of a change from Brisbane temperatures. Thank god for the warm welcome. Stacey's parents (Sandy and Rosie) were at the airport with a giant welcome home sign and some balloons and smarties for the kids. Thanks Grammy Rosie and Grampy Sandy!

We already miss all our wonderful friends in Australia. Thank you all for a wonderful send off. It truly was bitter sweet.

That is it for now. We will do some catching up in the next few days on the blog and post our New Zealand trip.

Take Care

We'rrrrrre Baaaaack!

Oh, what a great time we had! We LOVE New Zealand. Darryl and I kept thinking about what Nick and Mariana said when they got back - we moved to the wrong country! :) We do love Australia but, wow. New Zealand is amazing. There's just no disappointment. It felt like we were driving the Cabot Trail around Banff most of the time. Yeap. That is the best way I can describe it.

We arrived back in Brissie this morning and back to work tomorrow. Only 7 working days to go. The time has really flown by. It's hard to believe that we will be in Canada on April 27 (to our family - I got the date wrong...we're back on April 27!)

We do plan to be in Antigonish that weekend so let us know if you'll be around!

Ok, I really don't want to ramble on here for too long. I'm pretty beat and want to get a good night's sleep. We will definite post some trip pics soon...Nick/Mariana - I did think about stealing some of yours. heehee :)

Updates to come soon!