Horse Trekking on Cape Farewell Spit

All Amanda has been talking about from the beginning of the trip to New Zealand was the horseback riding.    How many more days?  How many more hours?  How long will we be riding?  Do I have to ride with Daddy?  Can I pick the color of my horse?  Fortunately, we rode horses only three days into the trip so the only questions remaining…Are we doing this again?  When? 

The horse trekking has been the highlight so far for both Amanda and Jade.  Jade has never ridden a horse and Amanda has never ridden one on her own.  Both got their chance and took it. 

We rode for 2.5 hours across a variety of terrain, including beach during low tide and the New Zealand bush. 

The weather was good until we hit the beach and then high winds made that portion of the trip cooler than expected.  Amanda was ecstatic throughout and even after such a long ride was ready for more.  Jade started out a bit nervous but very quickly settled in and also enjoyed every minute and was ready to come back for more.  Our guides were excellent and the girls had a guide that led their horses to ensure a smooth and safe ride.    

The rest of us were not as lucky as our horses had their own personality’s which makes horseback riding a unique experience.  Justin had an especially feisty horse , even getting his dad’s horse to buck on the beach - Ron managed to stay on without dropping the camera he was holding. 

Unlike the girls, mom and dad were not as eager to jump back on the horses, feeling quite sore and stiff after the long ride.  Bye, Bye Horses!!!

Seals, Seals, and More Seals

So far we have been in New Zealand for 6 days.  4 of those days we saw seals.  Seals on the east coast, on the north coast, on the west coast, and in the sea.  Many times you can smell them before you can see them…stinky!  It a good time of the year for seal watching since there are many pups.  Here is one of the cuter sets of pups that we saw near Taranga Bay at Cape Foulwind.

We saw seals fighting/playing with each other and seals sparring with birds as well. 

Of course much of the time they just enjoyed sleeping.

The singing was the best…

There She Blows!…I mean…There He Blows!

After a restful nights sleep and a little souvenir shopping in Kairoura we went on a whale watch tour.  The weather was not as cooperative as we would have liked but the rain held off & the seas, so we were told, were relatively calm.  I was curious how Jade would do on  the boat as the other 3 kids are seasoned boaters.  The sign at the desk said for the earlier tours, “Seasickness Alert”.  Great!!!  Combined with some herbal seasickness tablets and calmer seas than expected, we had no problems in this area…whew!   Overall Jade ended up loving the boat & we were fortunate to see two sperms whales, hundreds of dolphins, and a few seals.  The sperm whales were impressive and the guide was sure to tell us that only the males swim this far south due to the cooler water.    How amazing to be so close to such a large animal.  The guide was very informative & we all learned a ton about whales!  After watching each whale take its last breath before heading deep down into the water, we got to see the classic tail shot seen in so many pictures.  Here is one of our own from the first sperm whale…

Whale #2

Between whale sightings, we got to see lots of dolphins.  They were so playful!  They were swimming all around the boat & doing an acrobatic show for us.  Almost like they were trying out for Sea World.  They loved to race the boat and often were just a few feet away from our spot near the bow of the boat.  Even though everyone goes on the tour for the whales, the kid’s favorite part were the dolphins.    We finished the day off with some great fish and chips at the local hangout, a walk along the beach, a spectacular New Zealand sunset, and feeding a hungry family of ducks at our campsite.

Holidays in New Zealand

For the third year in a row, we are spending the holidays away in a very non-traditional way. However this time we will get to see some snow, maybe even touch it, to make for a “white” Christmas. For what is most likely our last winter living outside the US, we decided to give New Zealand a try. As of this note, we have three days under our belts…finally finding a little time to blog…and so far we are far from disappointed. We arrived on Sunday morning in Christchurch, after connecting through Auckland on an 11 hour flight from Shanghai. Weather was low seventies and lightly raining. Not a good start weather wise, but as we have found out weather changes often and quickly, this time for the better. We have rented a campervan (for 6 of us!! – crazy) and Ron has finally gotten used to driving on the wrong side of the road. Not to say he hasn’t driven on the right side a couple of times…wrongly…and took awhile to get used to shifting with his left hand. Here are a couple quick pics from the first day near Kaikoura…hopefully we will find more time to get some blogs out soon.

There is water in the desert...Dubai, part II

Besides shopping and eating all the western food we good handle...we also spent some time in the water.  Dubai has a nice beach (Jumeirah Beach) and a medium sized water park.  Both spots were interesting sets of contrasts between the extremely conservative bathing suits of the Muslim women, covering even arms and legs, and the not so conservative suits of the mostly European women.  In particular the beach had a very explicit set of instructions on attire, including the fines if not followed (most tourists were not following).  Cameras were also forbidden on the beach, so any shots you may think were taken at the beach, most certainly were not.

   

The Burj Dubai in distance...and the closest Amanda will get to riding a horse this vacation.

  

The Burj Al Arab (most expensive hotel in Dubai) from the top of a waterslide and from the wave pool.

Tanner tries out knee boarding and Justin takes a ride on the giant water slide.

We ended our trip in Dubai by bringing in the new year and watching the fireworks from the top of our hotel and missed the opening of the world's tallest building by a few days, but we had a great stay and were not quite ready to head back to Shanghai.

Between China and Egypt…Dubai…

On our way back to China we decided to spend some several days in Dubai, including New Year’s Eve.  What a great choice that was.  China has its third world moments and Egypt only had a few non-third world moments, so we were ready for a modern and as it turns out very Western location.

We did not know what to expect with Dubai, only hearing about the expensive hotels and desert tours.  Because the hotels were so expensive we stayed at a fairly reasonably priced “4-star” hotel.  Being used to having to stay in “5-star” traveling in third world countries, we were a little nervous, especially since we were going to arrive at the hotel around 1 am.  Well, “4-star” in Dubai was excellent.  Our “room” ended up being a two bedroom luxury apartment that was huge.  The service was fantastic and the price was more than reasonable…a good start to the trip. 

As it turns out Dubai felt very much like staying in California.  It was warm, but dry and a night it was very comfortable.  We were nearby two huge malls (one with a indoor Ski resort, the other an aquarium in the middle) and lots of Western restaurants…our first meal was at Chilis and it was the real deal!

  View from our hotel.  Farthest in view is the Burj (world’s tallest building).

As it turns out, Dubai is mostly shopping and desert.  We skipped the desert part, having gotten enough of that in Egypt.  In terms of shopping we did some of that, including visiting the Gold Suk.   Lets just say we were window shopping there, after checking out a couple of the more reasonable looking pieces, which turned out not to be so reasonable.  It was amazing to see how many people were buying bags full of extremely expensive jewelry.

The kids favorite store at the mall...

Wrapping up Egypt

Well it has been awhile since we posted anything…life got too busy…internet access to social internet sites a constant struggle, but going to try and catch back up…

We spent the last part of our trip in Luxor (back in December!), home to the Valley of the Kings and the Karnak Temple.  By the way, if you are going to visit Egypt I would strongly suggest December or January.  Even in December these places were still very warm, cannot imagine what they would be like during the hotter months. 

In the Valley of the KIngs we went into several of the tombs, they started to look the same after a while, but certainly a worthwhile site to visit.  No cameras were allowed so we only have pics of the entrance. 

Amanda at the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut.

Justin trying his best to hold a Colossus of Memnon.

The boys releasing some energy on the Nile. 

Most impressive in Luxor was the Karnak temple.  Huge obelisks and columns were everywhere and a several kilometer pathway of Sphinx statues led the way to the temple.  Amazing what the Egyptians accomplished thousands of years ago.

The two days in Luxor pretty much wrapped up our trip to Egypt.  We took a flight the next day back to Cairo and then got a connecting flight to Dubai.  Egypt was a fantastic journey and we had a great guide, which helped tremendously.