Earthquake

On Friday, we had an earthquake! The girl and I were the only ones home. It was about 10:45pm and we had just gone to our beds. We each heard a loud rumbling like an explosion and then the house shook for 20 or 30 seconds. We both thought the new car had blown up in the garage. I fully expected to see flames and smoke when I opened the door to the garage, but all was quiet. On my way back up the stairs, there was a smaller aftershock and  then we knew for sure it was an earthquake. We looked it up on the computer the next day and saw that it was a 3.6 and we were at the epicenter. Now we're thinking we should finally get that earthquake kit put together!!

Wellington

We left Kaikoura and headed back to Wellington. The weather wasn't so great. We took a tour of parliment, went to a museum, did lots of shopping and eating. Celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. Too soon we had to go back to Japan.

Kaikoura activities

Thoroughly enjoyed Kaikoura. Went on a whale watch tour and saw dolphins,whales and albatross. Also took various hikes around the area. Had a great Christmas.

Seal Colony

The first photo is the view from our balcony. There was a seal colony within walking distance.

Travel to Kaikoura

Left Blenheim and headed to Kaikoura. Surrounded by beautiful scenery all the way down.

Marlborough Wineries

Took the bikes out one day to tour the local wineries. Great fun!

New Zealand part 2

While staying at the Woolshed in Marlborough we went on various hikes and rode bikes to the wineries in the area. On one hike, the boy got a thorn in his thumb and his dad had to pull it out for him.

New Zealand part 1

After a gruelling 12 hr flight to Auckland (economy all the way) we had another 1 hr flight to Wellington, where we had a 3 hr. boat ride on the Inter-Islander ferry to Picton, where we picked up the rental car and drove about 40 minutes to the Woolshed at St Leonard's cottages in Blenheim. The cottage was in the middle of a beautiful vineyard. There were also deer, sheep and chickens on the grounds. The cottage was lovely and we were so happy to finally get there and relax.