Sunrise in NZ and sunset at 42,000 feet !

Well guys the sun has gone down on our amazing trip to NZ. It was such a great trip , with so many fabulous memories. As we write this we are sitting on a Singapore airlines 747 at 42,000 feet, watching the sunrise over Eastern Europe ! The wonder of technology. We will miss you all in NZ and it was so great to see you again/ or meet you. We hope to see you all again really soon. Gill and Geoff ; see you in the Plaza in 2007 ! John and Judy ; see you on your OE- The silage runs are waiting ! To all in St Pauls ; thanks again for a really blessed time. Rob and Eleanor ; thanks for the KFC – we owe you a fast food meal. To J ; sorry we missed you in Singapore. And finally to all the many other people we met - thanks for the laughs, memories and fun. To all in Ireland ; see you really soon...... We will continue to keep the blog updated, so watch this space.

Penguin Dilys !

Today was our last day in Christchurch and we went to the International Antarctic Centre. Dilys did her best impression of a Penguin for the camera !We had a great few days in Christchurch and did loads. We also hooked up with Rob and Eleanor Napier from who we know form CORE. They send there love to you all. We are flying home tomorrow ; only 27 hours in the air and 7 hours waiting in airports.We will post tomorrow for the last time from NZ......

Ba Ba BIG sheep !

We spent a really great couple of days with the Surridge family in Ashburton. They manage a large farm and are also the proud owners of 2 very large sheep ; Mickey and Minnie ! ( Ethan wasn't sure about them !) We enjoyed our time with them and especially the amazing bar b que lamb and beef we had. You can see a photo of them in Flickr. We are now in Christchurch for the last 4 days of our trip..... but we are enjoying our little city break ! We will post again soon.

Back on Air

We had an amazing few days at Mt. Cook. We had a great dump of snow and then it cleared up nicely, so we could see Mt. Cook and the adjacent mountains in all their glory. Check out our photos on the right, they will show how beautiful it is. We left Mount Cook on Saturday and had an inspiring drive through the Mountains. WE passed through Tekapo and stopped at the church of the Good Shepard (photo above ). This place is gorgeous and one to be remembered. We are now staying with John, Judy and family for a couple for days before we head to Christchurch on Monday. Hope all is well at home ?

Dump !

Well we arrived yesterday (Tuesday) at the Hermitage hotel at Mount Cook. The weather was ok and we even caught a quick glimpse of Mount Cook. This morning we woke to a large amount of snow ! The view in the photo above is from the hotel ; beautiful.( Mount Cook is the one in the middle)There is nearly a foot of snow at this stage and still going ! Ethan is loving it and has done loads of snow-crawling! We are here for 3 more days and internet usage is very expensive at 2000ft, so the posts may be thin on the ground. But watch this space.....

Caught in the act...

This is just for you Eoghan ! We are in Queenstown at the moment and will be going to Mount Cook tomorrow. We have added all our photos to Flickr, so you can check them out. We only have 10 days to go.....More very soon

Avalanche !

Well we did try ! We had wanted to get to Milford Sound but the last 13km of the road was closed due to avalanches! We made it to just before the Homer tunnel, which was an amazing journey. We left Te Anau today and are now in Queenstown for 3 days. This place is amazing, with loads to do and see. We will post soon with an update. We have updated flickr so you can see more of our photos.

Skiing at Cordrona

We have added most of our photos to Flicker, so you can check them out. They are all titled so you can make sense of them. The photo to the left was taken at 7500 ft at the top of Cordrona Ski field, which looks out over the Southern Alps. Amazing ! Tomorrow we head to Te anau over the alps. It has been snowing today very heavily, so that should be fun !!!Then on Friday we go to Milford sound. Cant wait. Hope all is well at home ? Eoghan could you mail me your new home number, so we can give you a call ? Thanks for doing the car Wilson. Sulu, how’s Scotty ?

Wanaka

Hello from beautiful Wanaka ! We have been here for the last 2 days and will stay until Thursday, when we will then travel to Milford Sound for 2 days. Rob went skiing today which was great. He only face-planted once and it wasnt even on a black run ! As you can see from the picture the scenery is amazing. The view in this picture is the one you can see from Cardrona where rob skied today. The village in the foreground is Wanaka where we are staying. Rob is going skiing again tomorrow, so lets hope for no more face plants...... ! Ethan is great and growing by the day. We will put a photo of him on the blog soon, so you can see his progress. More to follow within the next 24 hours.....

Dunedin

Hi Guys.It was weird to leave all the guys at St. Pauls, it was great to be with them. We have spent the last week in Dunedin in the south island with Dily's sister and Family. (The photo is taken on the local beech in Dunedin) It's been great to catch up and for me to meet Geoff , Rodney, Shona and Naomi. We spent the first couple of days just hanging out , which was great. Yesterday ( Thursday 6th ) we went out to one of the local peninsulas and saw the wild albatrosses and penguins. To see an albatross is quite rare, but we had one fly right over our head ! I was standing on the cliff looking out and jokingly said " Look Albatross" to the crowd who were hoping to see one. Next thing the guide said your right, here comes one ! It was massive ; wingspan of 3 meters and a body about the size of Ethan. Great to see. On Sunday we travel to Wanaka for a few days, so we will post form there. Hope all is well with you guys ?

Going South....

Well the month in St. Pauls has flown by and what a month it has been. We have met great people and been a part of a great church. There is such a great sense of community there and God is doing so much and will do even more in the future. So I will meet up with Dilys and Ethan today in Dunedin and then it’s onto the second half of our adventure. Yesterday myself and Rich went to Phia ( photo) and what a great place that is. I think we will be back here ! We will be waiting for Rich and Kat to get there Batch ( Beach hut in Kiwi ) Hope all you guys are well ? Eoghan and Becky - Hope all is going well in UK ; will be in touch soon. See you all in the next post.... R