The Big Race

And the winner is Andrew!

Andrew's pine wood derby car turned out to be a speedster. He was thrilled when his car won in his cub scouts division.

Our Emily

Emily joined the girl scouts this year. She has had fun meeting new people. Recently she gave a report on Madagascar and Thinking Day at the local middle school.

I think it is cute that Emily is still enjoying dressing up. She has been doing it since she could walk.

The Last Week in New Zealand

We had the amazing opportunity to go to New Zealand. Dave was attending a conference for international biological control . I was fortunate to be able to come along. It was really a wonderful experience. We have to thank Bill and Terrie Haviland for lovingly holding down the fort back in Bakersfield. They took care of the house and the kids for two weeks and we are so grateful to them.

Kayaking on a river in the jungle.
Jill trying to keep up kayaking.

This is at the base of a waterfall. On the west side of the island ferns and moss and palms grow everywhere.
This is a fern as it is sprouting and ready to unfurl.

Jade stone in its natural state.

One of the many jade stores on the island.

Watch out for penguins! We didn't actually see any but thought the sign was funny.

Sunset on the beach near Punakaiki.

Waiting for the sunset after a day of hiking. Watch out for the biting flies!

Dave exploring the caves on a hike near Punakaiki.

Entrance to the caves.

We felt like we were on a second honeymoon.

Dave hiking in the lush tropical forests. This hike was taken near a cute resort town called Hanmer Springs.

Dave, ready to hike. We just loved the dense vegetation on the wet side of the island.

The famous pancake rocks at Punakaiki.

Jill at the coast. We had to stop and take a look on our drive up the west coast.

Enjoying a relaxing evening in the rain at the hot springs in Hanmer Springs. To locals would say we were taking a plunge in the thermal pools.

This place had about a dozen different thermal pools to soak in. All were different temperatures with different mineral contents. This one was only one of the small connecting pools.

Dave taking a whack at Cricket.

Meeting in New Zealand begins...

More strolls through the botanical gardens. This is really a beautiful place.

Here is the fine art museum.

At the fine art museum, there was this white on white exhibit. This wall had a wool canvas that people could come and coomb designs into the wool.

Dave's meeting started off with a traditional Mauri welcome. We were able to meet the performers afterward.

There is a restored trolley track throught the middle of town that really adds to the charm of the city.

Touring downtown Christchurch

Look! David found a telephone box. Christchurch is like being in England. Today was Saturday. All the street vendors were out. We also enjoyed the entertainment out and about.

Here in the quadrangle there were a bunch of New Zealand bands. We also enjoyed a show in Hagley Park where these 3 guys put on a "History of Movies" performance. It was quite funny.



Here is the famous cathedral in downtown Christchurch. We spent today touring downtown again. We were able to visit many of the museums in the old Canterbury University. Most of the university has been converted to galleries. We probably visited 20 different galleries from native are to pottery to jewelery to wool knits.

New Zealand Day One

We made it to New Zealand! The 13 hour plane ride wasn't too bad considering we took it through the night and slept some of the time. Also each seat had a TV screen with on demand everything. Pretty cool. We landed in Aukland and connected to another flight which took us to Christchurch. Jet lag wasn't too bad and after a little nap, we were ready to get out and see some sights. We took a nice walk to the center of town. They have a big park in the middle which is adjacent to the old university. It is now an art center and museum.

On our walk to the park, Dave caught some cicadas. They were so noisy! On the picture you can see the leftever skeletons from the larvae on the tree. Dave put two cicadas by my ears. I felt like I was being downloaded. It sounded like the noise from an old style dial-up modem, but about ten times louder.

This is the rose garden in the botannical gardens at Hagley park. The weather here is amazing. It is summer here. Yesterday it was about 80, today they are forcasting around 65.

Some more of the beautiful flowers at the botanical gardens. These are dahlias bordering the rose garden. There must have been 100 different kinds of them. The old university of Canterbury in the heart of Christchurch.

Today we have plans to head down back to the downtown area. We only browsed yesterday. We hope to be able to see some more today. Yesterday was New Zealand's independence day called Wantangi (something like that) and most of the museums were closed.