Down Under!

On December 26, our 18 day adventure Down Under began! We started out with an 18 hour flight to Cairns, Australia where we explored beautiful rain forests, slid down 20 foot rocks below waterfalls and spent a day out on the Great Barrier Reefs. It was surprising to find it so tropical, walking along the beach finding coconuts and shells and plumeria and bird of paradise in full bloom!




We had quite the adventure camping in the outback. There were so many kangaroo hopping all over, kookaburra birds laughing in the trees and so many other unknown sounds in the night, it sounded like a soundtrack playing! We had some great hikes, campfires, eating outdoors and cooling off in the swimming pool. The kids were disappointed when they ran out of kangaroo steaks!
These darling koalas were fun to see in the many varieties of eucalyptus trees.

Kristy didn't mind all the wildlife in Australia but I was ready to move on to New Zealand where they don't have any creepy crawly animals or preditors.
Kangaroo skins and an Aussie hat!
Our local guide showed us some amazing scenery and then pulled off down a backroad and found this water hole for the kids to jump in. They loved swimming behind the waterfall although it was very cold.
One of our favorite places was the University grounds in
Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand.
Several of the guys purchased All Black Rugby shirts.

We didn't know what we were getting into when we signed up to go blackwater rafting.
We were outfitted in full body wetsuits, including booties and gloves and helmets with lights. After hiking through a rainforest, we picked up inner tubes and carried on another hike through beautiful caves. Finally we came to the river in the caves where we got on our innertubes, turned off our lights and manipulated our way, lighted by green glow worms on the cave walls. Unbelievable!

If that wasn't enough adventure, we drove over a beautiful mountain pass and came to Franz Joseph Glaciers. We were outfitted with boots, outerware and spikes to put on our boots when we finally hiked to the base of the glacier, the background of this photo.
Yep, those are cut out ice stairs - straight up! The ice caves were blue! What an amazing view.
Speaking of views, Queenstown is situated on a beautiful lake. We took a gondola to the top and then chair lifts to get to this luge run which was SO much fun!


Wild hydrangeas and agapanthus were in abundance all along the roadsides.
Our last days were spent with Ema, our exchange student 10 years ago and her family. They graciously hosted our group in their Moari sacred meeting house, a marae.
We all slept on mats here, played rugby and football with the Moari children and learned about their culture. We went to Ema's dad's sheep and cattle ranch, played at the beach and feasted on freshly gathered mussels and the best leg of lamb ever! This was an experience that tourists would never see and we felt blessed to experience New Zealand to the fullest!