New Zealand 2012 - Arrival and in the trees

As I go through the photos from our trip, it still seems like a big blur. Did it really all happen?

It was so out of the ordinary for me because I didn't have school or a job to worry about at all so maybe that's why its still hard to believe that we really spent 5 weeks abroad.  We were so blessed to be able to see all of Phil's family and came home with some great memories!

We arrived in New Zealand on December 13th. We were tired from travelling for 24 hrs but happy to be reunited with Phil's parents.

After settling in we decided to go visit Rach at work. There are so many cool gadgets in her little shop!

The next day Mum B, Rachael, Phil and I visited Tree Adventures. Its a huge ropes course but in a real forest! We spent the day jumping from wood plank to wood plank, ziplining and "tarzan-ing" it into cargo nets. We were sometimes 10 meters high! 

(photos from their website)

Its especially great because in New Zealand they are more laid back so they just train you a little bit and let you go. It was a lot of fun but was definitely a workout! (Somehow we missed out on getting the photos/videos of our day in the photo sharing)

Little did we know that the rest of the fam who came later that week would want to go too, so again, we headed to Tree Adventures.  This time we had a little bit of a different adventure: watching  4 kids under the age of 3, our cute niece and nephew! This was our first dose of parenthood during this trip and the next day my arms and back were sore from holding kids, picking them up and putting them down, etc. Kudos to all you madres out there. You must be buff women! Luckily I had my buff man to help out with the job!

Phil and cute little Leo pictured above and darling Savannah below.

Pacey got in on the climbing early as Jade told her she could climb for an apple and a banana. Just put them on top of a little platform and voila!-one happy Pacey for the rest of the day!

We also kept Pacey busy by collecting pinecones, holding the extra special rope and a little climbing here and there.

She's such a cute girl!

(the rope was getting "too heaby" for her about the time of this photo)

Grandma and Grandad (Phil's parents) were also there to help babysit on the ground. It was fun to mind the kids and watch all Phil's siblings conquer the course up above.

(Dad B. "Grandad" and Savannah, Kaylee and Landie, Phil and Leo)

Me and Arlandria

Savannah was quite content to hang out in her stroller. Just check out that cute grin!

And baby Leo did so good until he decided he was hungry. Sorry buddy, couldn't help you out there!

And apparently I do have photos of the fam's tree adventure (rather than ours) so you can see some of what we did. Here's Alex and then Alyce maneuvering across the swinging logs.

  

Alyce jumping from platform to platform 

Jade in the "awful" cargo nets. Those things took some muscles! 

And this is the highest point on the courses we did. You can see Andrew at the bottom of the ladder in blue and then Dad B. up top!

My favorite part was the wipe outs while trying to make a smooth landing at the end of the ziplines. I'll have to see if I can get those videos up here soon!

Here's some group shots of the whole gang after a day on the ropes and on the ground. 

Definitely an adventure!