Settling in...

Just in time to take off again. The last few days have been a little less action packed, but fun nonetheless.

I got to have lunch with a local, thanks to a friend in LA. (thanks Peggy) Vicki and I met at an adorable cottage cafe near Arrowtown, the gardens are lovely and they have a children's play area to keep kids occupied. Elle came along and made friends from Hong Kong and England. Vicki has helped us to set up the babysitting we have had, and made some great suggestions of local places to eat and things to do. Her husband also owns/runs the largest helicopter tour company in the area, and Justin and I are hoping to go up with him before we leave Queenstown. She's also made me a much needed hair appointment in town, and even assisted in finding us a babysitter in Australia! Just another example of how friendly the Kiwi's are and how they go out of their way to assist.

Justin got a fly-rod and has been equally successful with his fly-fishing as he has been with his reel. He has brought home beautiful brown and rainbow trout. I'm sure he only wishes he had it earlier in our trip!

Elle has been back to the local aquatic center several times, where there are hot pools, a huge swimming area, a lazy river and two slides. She loves the slides! There is a "slow" slide and a fast slide. The slow slide is incredibly fast itself and a bit scary. When I commented on it, the lifegaurd told me that the fast slide has actually been closed due to the number of injuries it has caused. Sure enough, our babysitter told us that she went down it and came out with cuts and bruises!

Justin hiked up the mountain we can see from our kitchen window, he's been threatening to do so since we arrived. He made it, and the picture of the lake was taken at the summit.

Elle and I went into town to the bead shop and made some great jewelry, I think we both equally enjoyed this outing.

Liam is growing so much, and changing every day. He's become dangerous at the dinner table, swiping food away and knocking things over. He's also become very interested in our food, often dive bombing our plates. His favorite seems to be avocado and he squeals if we don't keep it coming fast enough.

Despite all my early attempts to have Elle become vegetarian, she has proven a mighty opponent. I knew this of course, for years ago when I told her that bacon came from a pig she looked me in the eye and said, "mmmm yum, I LOVE pig". Still, I got a little shocked to watch her savor New Zealand's famous lamb and venison, along with her dad, and still not show any revulsion when told what she was eating!

We've watched our share of the Olympics, from New Zealand's perspective. We watch an entertaining show each night that details highlights of the day, and focuses on the few NZ athletes in the Olympics. They are quite self-deprecating and the show is often hilarious.

Elle is keeping up with her schoolwork, in fact, she's completed everything the school provided us and now we are creating our own work. We've been doing a lot of research online. Her current fascinations are Pompeii, tasmanian devils and geisha girls.

We are finally becoming adept at driving on the left side of the road, after more than once finding ourselves driving on the right side with a none too happy Kiwi heading straight for us, surely admonishing us American tourists. Although knowing the Kiwi's, it was probably in a good natured way.

Today we are driving to Glenorchy, the site of many scenes from Lord of the Rings.