New Zealand

Well... we got back from our vacation last night and since I couldn't sleep and didn't go to bed until 3am, I loaded all 1300 of my pictures on the computer. I've been having a hard time trying to figure out which ones to post on my blog!! We had such a seriously GREAT time on our vacation, it's hard to try to remember all the details to get written down. Australia was so super and it was great meeting all our family over there. We've always gone to New Zealand and haven't ever taking the time/money to head over to Aussie, but our trip there has forever spoiled us for just taking NZ trips.. from now on we will always want to include Australia in our plans. But.. I already blogged about Australia, so now I need to go on to New Zealand.

The trip over was WAY better because it was only 7 hours and we had a short layover in Auckland before taking our commuter plane to Napier- the small town where Clinton grew up. Emily and Rachel had been there staying with Clint's parents while we were in Australia and they were happy to see us and us to see them as well.

The first day, we went driving around seeing all of Clint's old haunts and the memories he has of Napier. We saw the house he grew up in- it's been converted to a daycare, but he lived here for the first 21 years of his life.



After sightseeing, eating fish and chips for the ten thousandth time and driving around, we headed back to his mum and dad's house. They are the sweetest, warmest people. They are always welcoming and so kind. His dad loves to play crossword puzzles, sudoku or any brain teasing game, but his mum loves to play cards- so that's what we did almost every night. Here's a photo of his parents.

So, we took it easy in Napier and ate lots of junk food. The donughts in New Zealand are amazing! We went to the outdoor hot pools and swam and visited the sheepskin store that we go to every time we are in New Zealand. The last two times we went, we came home with a beautiful sheepskin for our house. This time, we said we WEREN'T buying one since we don't have a spot for one.. but we ended up splitting the cost of one with other family members to buy one for Kris and Mitch, the couple who got married. I think when we head back in 4 years or so, they'll remember us in that store... They kind of remembered us this time!

We got to see my Dad and step-mom Colleen while we were in Napier. They came up from Christchurch where they are living now. Dad retired about 4 months ago and they took the opportunity of us being in New Zealand to have a short visit. It was great to see them, even though it was short and we were so busy with Clint's family.

So... here's some of the random and fun things we did while we were in New Zealand. One of the days, we went with Clinton's sister Valerie and her family... and Clint's sister Karen and her family to Rotorua. There's a really fun tourist spot there called the "luge". You ride a cable car up a hill, and ride these little plastic sleds down a cement track. I was going nice and slow... but the boys were going crazy and hitting each other all the way down the track. It was pretty overcast and rainy that day, but we had a great time. Here's me... nice and slow baby!!

This is Zach and his 22 year old cousin Steven. They were two of the crazies!!

Me and Valerie.. Clint's sister. She's exactly my age... well- about 2 weeks older than me :)



Here's the boys knocking each other all over!

A group photo in the designer helmets!

Another one of Zach and Steven... they sure had a great time together.

And this pic is in the cable car... left to right is Greg, Maui, Valerie and Clinton.

And a group photo getting ready to go in and get started.

One of the things that Clint loves, loves, loves when he goes back to New Zealand is the fish and chips. We literally eat them EVERYDAY, except for Sunday. He also loves his NZ"hot dog" which is nothing like an American hot dog, and nothing like a corn dog. It's a big sausage on a stick that's been deep fried in batter and dipped in ketchup. I think it's the nastiest looking thing EVER, but Clint can each a couple of them every day. Yuck!


Here's the family eating fish and chippies

And the beautiful scenery of New Zealand.

While we were there, we were able to see all of Clint's brothers and sisters. He saw Alistar, Diane and David in Australia and while we were in New Zealand, he saw Karen, Val and Peter. This is Zach, Peter, Rachel and Clinton.

And this is Emily, Rachel and Orwiwia, Peters daughter who turned 13 while we were there.

And a group photo...

And another beautiful shot of the NZ countryside... I was taking random shots out the window while driving around everywhere. We got lost a bit, but more about that later....

Here's some shots from the wedding. Clint's niece got married there and I was the official photographer... part of the reason for the 1300 photos I downloaded last night. A good 550 of them were wedding pics.

This is Greg (father of the bride and Clint's bro-in-law), Mitch (groom!) and Steven (Greg's son and Clint's nephew)

This is Krissy and her brother, Steven.

This is Karen... Clint's sister who lives in Utah and Kristine. Don't they look alike???

And yet again... another group photos- this time the family at the wedding. Everyone in the picture is family, except the woman who is holding the crutches. She was popped into the photo for some reason and no one wanted to ask her to leave. Maybe photoshop will work :)

And this is Kristine with her cousins who were at the wedding.

This cute family is Val, Maui and their kids. Val is Clint's sister for those of you who can't scroll back and don't have good memories!

Another photo with Clint and his brother Peter...

And the beautiful New Zealand temple.

Now... one of the highlights of the trip was the bungy jumping. I happened to pick up a brochure advertising bungy jumping and showed it to Zach. I didn't think he'd do it in a million years! Well, he was so excited about it! So, on the way to the temple, we stopped by to have him do it. Once he saw how far it was, he started getting cold feet, but Clint and Zach decided to do it together in a tandem jump. It was so fun to watch them, but a little scary too! The video of the jump is on my blog in the right hand sidebar. This is a picture of Zach and Clint after they jumped and were hanging upside down ready for the boat to get them.

And this is a good shot of how far it was... and how beautiful the canyon was. So gorgeous!! A few days later, Zach went back on the way home and solo jumped. He wasn't scared at all that time- I'm proud of him!

And another photo of Clint and his dad. His dad is the patriarch of his stake and gave Emily and Rachel their patriarcal blessings while we were there, and he also performed the temple sealing for Kris and Mitch.

And a pic of my dad and me while he was in Napier visiting. It was so nice to be able to visit with them. I drove from Napier to Hamilton where the temple is with my Dad and Colleen. He was using a GPS system in the car which was great, but at the end of the trip, it took us on some back, windy New Zealand farmland roads. It was actually so pretty and it was fun to visit with them on the drive.

And Clint with his mum... if anyone's a match for Clint- it's his mom. She could knock his block off if she wanted to!!


These photos are just fun ones I took back in Napier. It's a beautiful coastal city that's known for it's winemaking. The first place to see the sun- the East coast of New Zealand.

Up on the bluff overlooking Napier.

And shopping around Napier...

So- we had an absolutely fabulous time and were sad to leave, although it was also good because I was missing Allison and Mackenzie and was ready to get back to my own home. I also have to tell a funny story because I saw how afraid everyone is of my "blog". On the day of the wedding, it was pretty much a comedy of errors. As we pulled up to the temple, Greg was running back to the hotel to get the rings because Mitch had forgotten them. While he was gone, they needed the marriage license which just happened to be in the car... that was headed back to the hotel. Once Greg returned, Steven remembered that he had forgotten his temple recommend, so they went BACK to the hotel to get it. Finally, Kris and Mitch were married, we had our luncheon and then got ready to head to the beach to take photos. The next morning as we were preparing to leave, we were missing a couple of hotel keys. Steven was looking all over for his key, picking up couches, looking under cushions and finally, Karen just paid for the key. As we got in the cars, Steven put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the key- it had been there all along! After we all had a good laugh, I mentioned that I would probably include all these details in my blog.

We took off to Rotorua and the luge... but Greg had the GPS system in his car. As we drove out, we started taking back roads again and it reminded me of the trip with my Dad and his GPS. So, I thought nothing of it until about 75 minutes later when Greg and Karen pulled over and the first thing out of her mouth was "Please don't put this on your blog!!!" LOL- Greg had typed in Rotorua wrong (with one letter different) and it started taking us to a small town on the South Island of NZ!! So we had gone the wrong way, and had to backtrack about 90 minutes to get to the REAL Rotorua. Sorry Karen... that story was too good to pass up! :)

Now we're home and looking forward to the next big event, a family reunion in 3 years. Thanks for all the good times and great memories Armitage family!