Our itinerary is very full. I wish we had an extra day in every place we have been so far. But I guess it just means we need to come back!
Yesterday, still very sore, we drove from National Park Village to Wellington to catch our car ferry across to the South Island. The plan was to hopefully get to Wellington with enough time to visit the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand, but we got a late start (again, still weary and sore from the hike) and were estimated to arrive in Wellington just in time to check in for the ferry.
Long story short, John, via speakerphone, called around to the numerous help numbers to ask about changing our ferry time, while I shopped around for later ferry tickets. The outcome of these crazy logistics was me and the 3 kids taking a later ferry while John and my parents took the cars over on the original ferry. The kids and I had 4 hours (minus 20 minutes when we had to evacuate for a false fire alarm) in the museum followed by dinner, a taxi ride to the ferry terminal, and a 3.5 hour ferry ride that got us into Picton at midnight.
The kids were well behaved at the museum, which was worth the logistical craziness. Our favorite parts were the nature exhibit which had displays about all of the native animals and conservation efforts. We also loved the drawing tables and other hands on activities that we scattered around the museum. The Treaty of Waitangi display at the museum was interesting. It has the Maori translation on a huge tablet on one wall and the English version on the other. The English version had been very dramatically spray painted in graffiti style. If you look it up the news says there was a protest and the display had been defaced, but as you dig deeper it looks more and more like a staged publicity stunt. Either way it made me stop and look at the exhibit, so I guess it worked?If you get a minute you can look up some news articles and decide for yourself.
I have a ton of pictures, but am finding it not so easy to get them onto these posts in real time since they are on my phone. We have another 4 hour drive tomorrow, so I will try to update with some pictures.
The ferry ride was difficult for me as the single parent, because I had very limited entertainment resources. I only took one backpack with my wallet and water and a few other random things. All the rest of our luggage and activities stayed in the cars on the earlier ferry. The kids made up some games, I gave them my phone for a little while (but needed to keep a charge so I could coordinated with John when we docked), and explored the ship a bit. Eventually, for about the last 45 minutes, Alyssa and Preston fell asleep. Luke was still wired, but not bothering anyone.
The few people that I spoke to at the museum and the ferry thought that I was traveling across New Zealand as a single mother with my 3 children. I had to explain a few times that my husband and parents were with me, just not at the moment.
The next morning - this morning - in Picton, we visited the Kaipupu Sanctuary. This is another exclusion zone, like the one we went to last week, but on a peninsula so the only way to get to it is by boat. A water taxi took us over and returned for us 2 hours later. The walk was interesting and we finally spotted some Wetas in the wild, however, in their special weta viewing cases that are found around the grounds. They were also smaller weta than I was hoping to see, about the size of a cicada. The big ones has a body closer to the size of a mouse! We saw a dead one of those at the Te Papa museum.
We had an asian fusion lunch at a harbor side restaurant and then made our way over to Nelson.
At some point in my research for this trip I came across the Branford Park Edible Walk, which sounded really cool to me. It's a public park with fruit trees planted along the paths that you can pick as you go. Nothing was ripe. But we DID find a really awesome local swimming hole along the same path. The boys spent several hours in the river. Alyssa swam for a bit, but got cold. I wanted to visit a different park to get some pictures of me in the dress that I made, so John, Mom, Alyssa, and I headed over to that one. It was a gorgeous, well kept, city garden. I felt like I was in a prom photo shoot, but John got a few good ones. We explored the garden a bit more and the headed back to pick up the boys.
Now we are at the hotel. Another early morning tomorrow to catch a boat ride along the Abel Tasman.
Yesterday, still very sore, we drove from National Park Village to Wellington to catch our car ferry across to the South Island. The plan was to hopefully get to Wellington with enough time to visit the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand, but we got a late start (again, still weary and sore from the hike) and were estimated to arrive in Wellington just in time to check in for the ferry.
Long story short, John, via speakerphone, called around to the numerous help numbers to ask about changing our ferry time, while I shopped around for later ferry tickets. The outcome of these crazy logistics was me and the 3 kids taking a later ferry while John and my parents took the cars over on the original ferry. The kids and I had 4 hours (minus 20 minutes when we had to evacuate for a false fire alarm) in the museum followed by dinner, a taxi ride to the ferry terminal, and a 3.5 hour ferry ride that got us into Picton at midnight.
The kids were well behaved at the museum, which was worth the logistical craziness. Our favorite parts were the nature exhibit which had displays about all of the native animals and conservation efforts. We also loved the drawing tables and other hands on activities that we scattered around the museum. The Treaty of Waitangi display at the museum was interesting. It has the Maori translation on a huge tablet on one wall and the English version on the other. The English version had been very dramatically spray painted in graffiti style. If you look it up the news says there was a protest and the display had been defaced, but as you dig deeper it looks more and more like a staged publicity stunt. Either way it made me stop and look at the exhibit, so I guess it worked?If you get a minute you can look up some news articles and decide for yourself.
I have a ton of pictures, but am finding it not so easy to get them onto these posts in real time since they are on my phone. We have another 4 hour drive tomorrow, so I will try to update with some pictures.
The ferry ride was difficult for me as the single parent, because I had very limited entertainment resources. I only took one backpack with my wallet and water and a few other random things. All the rest of our luggage and activities stayed in the cars on the earlier ferry. The kids made up some games, I gave them my phone for a little while (but needed to keep a charge so I could coordinated with John when we docked), and explored the ship a bit. Eventually, for about the last 45 minutes, Alyssa and Preston fell asleep. Luke was still wired, but not bothering anyone.
The few people that I spoke to at the museum and the ferry thought that I was traveling across New Zealand as a single mother with my 3 children. I had to explain a few times that my husband and parents were with me, just not at the moment.
The next morning - this morning - in Picton, we visited the Kaipupu Sanctuary. This is another exclusion zone, like the one we went to last week, but on a peninsula so the only way to get to it is by boat. A water taxi took us over and returned for us 2 hours later. The walk was interesting and we finally spotted some Wetas in the wild, however, in their special weta viewing cases that are found around the grounds. They were also smaller weta than I was hoping to see, about the size of a cicada. The big ones has a body closer to the size of a mouse! We saw a dead one of those at the Te Papa museum.
We had an asian fusion lunch at a harbor side restaurant and then made our way over to Nelson.
At some point in my research for this trip I came across the Branford Park Edible Walk, which sounded really cool to me. It's a public park with fruit trees planted along the paths that you can pick as you go. Nothing was ripe. But we DID find a really awesome local swimming hole along the same path. The boys spent several hours in the river. Alyssa swam for a bit, but got cold. I wanted to visit a different park to get some pictures of me in the dress that I made, so John, Mom, Alyssa, and I headed over to that one. It was a gorgeous, well kept, city garden. I felt like I was in a prom photo shoot, but John got a few good ones. We explored the garden a bit more and the headed back to pick up the boys.
Now we are at the hotel. Another early morning tomorrow to catch a boat ride along the Abel Tasman.