What a perfect ski weekend! We spent 4 days at the Top 10 Holiday Resort near Lake Wanaka. Weatherwise, we could not have timed this trip more perfectly. We left Timaru on a sunny Thursday afternoon and arrived in Wanaka with a good 3 hours of daylight left. After checking into our room, and checking out the resort, we headed into Wanaka to take a walk by the lake and have dinner. We are always in awe of the wonderful playgrounds in New Zealand - even older kids and adults can have fun. After a great deal of wandering around and [View Full Entry]

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Several people have asked to see what our house looks like. There are many things about New Zealand homes that I really love. Mainly, everyone has lots of windows! The downside to that is that only newer homes (not ours) have insulated windows. So, it is very cold and very moist. Our wooden window sills have lost their varnish and some of the walls (all of which are wall papered) have mold. We are fortunate in our house to have an open kitchen/eating area/living room. We have a heat pump in this room, but try to keep a fire going as [View Full Entry]

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The Shivers Family tour of New Zealand Ski Fields - Part 2 Arrived in Queenstown on Wed night in the dark. I know it must have been a beautiful drive, but we had to wait until the ride home to see it. We stayed at a Top 10 Holiday Park - nice room, but small. Top 10's are a mixture of camping sites, cabins and motel rooms. They tend to be clean, well managed and affordable. We needed to get out and do something. Syd wanted to go into Queenstown, the rest of us wanted to stay close to home and [View Full Entry]

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Part I of our Tour of New Zealand ski fields -Mt. Dobson, Roundhill and Ohau! What a remarkable trip this was with so many interesting and diverse skiing options - and none like those in the US! It was an amazing opportunity to be able to ski at five different locations. You can't call them "ski resorts" like we would in the US, because resorts they are not. They are called "ski fields' in New Zealand, but fields they are not either. This is serious stuff - no lounges with hot chocolate and schnapps. or long expensive lunches in a heated [View Full Entry]

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Our first visit to Christchurch! What a pretty city and less than 2 hours from Timaru! We left Timaru on Saturday after the boys' soccer and rugby games. We had a long stopover at Dunsandle Store for a delicious birthday lunch. Timaru was socked in with fog but it was clear in Christchurch (people told us that two years ago there was a rugby match in Christchurch where the fog was so thick you couldn't see the field fom the side lines). We had just an hour to chill out, have a beer, eat some sushi before heading out to the [View Full Entry]

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All three kids are very involved in team sports. I know we have posted the blog of the cross country, but I wanted to also show you some team sports. Basketball ended a few weeks ago for Graham, but at the last game he got "player of the week". It starts up for Avery's age group right after winter break at the end of July. Graham's soccer team won their first game this past week. Gregg and I had to divide and conquer - rugby and soccer were at the same time at different ends of town. Gregg watched Graham play [View Full Entry]

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Fitness is quite important in New Zealand. Each of the schools - primary and secondary schools - have an annual cross country day event. Everyone in the school is expected to participate even if you walk and the majority of them do at some point. Teachers also participate either as runners or marshals on the course. Generally, the courses are 5-6 K for the older kids and an abbreviated course for the younger ones. Sydney had the opportunity to go to a regional cross country meet the day before her school event. This was quite a run for a girl who [View Full Entry]

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Wow, what a winter wonderland we awoke to see! Gregg got up and took pictures of the sun rising over Mount Cook and the beautiful snow. The boys spent the morning playing with Harry and having snowball fights. We made a big breakfast at the Alpine Lodge before heading up to the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre and out hiking. At the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre we viewed a 3D movie on Mount Cook from the Maori perspective and saw a planetarium show of the Southern Hemisphere sky. Which is very different than the Northern Hemisphere! After that we were [View Full Entry]

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Wow, the majestic beauty of mountains - Mount Cook, the tallest in New Zealand. And what dramatic weather we had! Spent Saturday morning in Fairlie watching Avery play rugby. He made his first try (that's similar to a touchdown in US football)! The weather had been quite warm on Friday and the barometic pressure was dropping. All our Kiwi friends said this meant snow. It was really windy on Friday night, at home we surely would have lost power, and Sat morning the same. After the game we drove to Lake Tekapo, but by this time is was a down pour. [View Full Entry]

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I wanted to share some pictures of the kids in their school uniforms and tell you a bit about their schools. Highfield - ages 5-13 - School starts at 8:50 and ends at 2:50. Uniforms are blue sport pants, their green and blue tops either long or short sleeve, and they can wear a fleece or sweatshirt. They are allowed to wear tennis shoes of thier choosing. The boys are lucky enough to walk through the back gate to the school yard. This is handy for having kids over afterschool and occasionly coming home for lunch. After three weeks, both boys [View Full Entry]

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