Singapore Roses: November 2015

Santa visit 2015

Oliver wrote his letter to Santa. So we visited Sylvia Park shopping mall to meet Santa and hand in his special letter.

Santa read Oliver's letter and asked him a couple of questions. Oliver took it very seriously.

Santa gave each kid some workbooks. We also took a picture with Santa but it was a mission as Ashley was very scared of him...

The following morning, after we said good bye to the Komine family Kylie drove us around the Christchurch city centre. It was very depressing to see so much of the damage still there since the earthquake.

She also drove us to the top of the hill to see the city from high up. Again it was totally different from what we remembered. I really hope Christchurch gets its beauty and the vibe back sometime soon.

Hanmer Springs Farm Park

We woke up to another fabulous clear blue sky. The air was so crisp and fresh.

After a nice cooked breakfast at the camping site, we visited Hanmer Springs Animal Park. We bought some farm animal food and fed the animals. The kids really enjoyed it. They had sheep, lambs, goats, pigs, pony, donkeys, llamas, alpacas, cow, texas longhorn, tibetan yak, emu, wallaby, water buffalo, deer, ducks, geese, chickens and guinea pigs, chinchillas and giant Flemish rabbits!!!

Here is Luca with a baby water buffalo:

And with other animals (I am not sure why I don't have any pictures of Oliver in this park...)

It was such a beautiful day:

Our last ride in the campervan driving back to Christchurch:

We made sure we stopped at a famous winery - Waipara Hills - Such lovely buildings. It was nice and Christmasy inside with a warm cosy feeling.

Some yummy wines! We bought some bottles to take back home too :)

Once we arrived in Christchurch, we visited a park, returned our campervans and had dinner at one of our old favourite places in Christchurch. We stayed the night at Kylie's mum's place and spent the night packing and drinking some more yummy New Zealand wines.

Such a great feeling to be back in Christchurch!

Hanmer Springs

It was so nice to meet up with Kylie and her dad in Christchurch. Somehow we had trouble communicating prior to arriving in NZ but in the end managed to got hold of each other. Lucky she was free for the next two days so she was able to join us for our last little trip to Hanmer Springs, one of the most visited places for a short holiday during my NZ time.

As soon as we arrived we visited the Hanmer Springs thermal pools and spa. The facility has expanded since I visited there last. They have built water slides and swimming pools.

The water temprature was a bit too chilly, but for some crazy kiwis and the kids, no problem!

I stayed away from the cold pools and enjoyed being in the hot spa admiring the amazing alpine surroundings. We stayed at a camping site nearby for the night.

Milford Sound

We were up by 5 am and got ready for our BIG day out in Milford, NZ's most famous tourist destination. Having lived in NZ for more than 7 years I had not yet visited this amazing place. I was so hoping for a picture perfect sunny day but it looked clouded over while we were driving into the Sounds.

Then it got even mistier... and started to rain :( by the time we got there.

Our boat was leaving not too long after we arrived so we made sure we were at the dock with our rain gears on.

As you can see at the back of this picture, it was very cloudy and got very windy as soon as we left. But still all was fun for the kids!

Holding hands to make sure they didn't get blown away!

The boat was much better than I expected. Not too crowded with people and lots of places for the kids to see and get different views.

There are two permanent waterfalls in Milford Sound. Lady Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls. We saw them very clearly. Having visited on a rainy day the amount of water was increased and we did see a number of temporary waterfalls running down the rock faces too. All so beautiful!

According to the tourist information, you can expect to see seals, penguins and bottlenose dolphins frequently. Also whales especially humpback whales and southern right whales can be observed occasionally.

We were lucky enough to spot a seal mummy and a baby - can you see?

Towards the end of the tour the most exciting thing happened. The boat got very very close to this waterfall. Well... We didn't expect it to get that close. The sound and the water splash got crazy close and suddenly these kids were covered in so much cold water. Ayaka was in super shock and couldn't even talk.

When we were almost reaching the shore we started to see some of the blue sky. We might have picked the wrong timing? Maybe later in the day we could expect much better weather? Who knows? Well this is a place with rainy days for most of the year around.