Post by Matthijs

The petrified forest is something that you hardly get to see. It is so special. There are logs underground and the sea pounds on the ground for years and years and then uncovers petrified logs! The logs were so amazing and old! I loved jumping from log to log and from stump to stump. There was a little river with lots of seaweed and purple rocks. The seaweed is everywhere here on the south coast. We have named the seaweed Mermaid Hair because it attaches to the rocks and looks just like really long hair floating in the water. But it stinks and does not make me want to go swimming in it! There were some waves that came while we were standing by the mermaid hair and it looked like a sea monster!
We went to see penguins one evening. It was so cool to see the penguins feeding their young. They are the most rare penguins in the world! The yellow-eyed penguin. It was so amazing. The day after that we also saw some seals, there were about 17 seal’s swimming in a pool!
We have also seen the Royal Albatross. One of it’s wings is the length of my dad’s arm and shoulder together. They are about 3 meters (10 feet) total wing span. They are huge! We got to see the babies nesting. They are already really big! They spend 85% of their life flying above the water. They can fly around 1,000 kilometers a day! After they learn to fly, for at least the first 5 years, they never even touch land. They just fly and sleep on the ocean. They fly all the way around the earth between Antarctica and the tip of South America and then nest in NZ. This little spot is the ONLY place in the world where they come on land to nest! So, it was really special to see them!
We went to a beach that had huge round rocks. Nobody knows why they are like that. But they were really cool and fun to climb on!
We also went to the steepest street in the world! It is in the Guinness Book of World Records. It was so steep that we could hardly walk up it! There was a car that went up it and hardly made it, then it came back down and was going so fast that the hood was flapping up and down. Can you figure out this picture?

Good-bye New Zealand, Hello Australia!

We have seen and done a lot since our last post... the boys filled you in on quite a bit with their entries. Till now, they have been dictating to me and I have been typing for them. They have now discovered that they really enjoy pecking everything out on the computer themselves! It takes forever, but it keeps them occupied!
We left the west coast over a week ago and made our way east via the Gates of Haast. We stayed a few days close to Queenstown and had a lovely and relaxing few days exploring some very cozy villages. We then made our way to Te Anau, which would serve as our base for exploring Milford Sound by car and by boat. Te Anau is the closest town to Milford Sound and from there, it is still a two hour drive. Two hours may seem quite long, but it is an amazingly beautiful drive. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with us and there was a nice steady rain falling the entire time. It was cold and wet enough to stop us from doing any of the really nice walks that are found along the way. That was a pity, but we had been blessed with a nice heavy rain the night before, and as a result, we were able to see hundreds of waterfalls. We were in complete awe the entire time. Literally, we were gazing up at all of them with our mouths hanging open. Everywhere we looked, we were surrounded by waterfalls. No wimpy trickling streams either, they were all massively tall, gushing waterfalls. In various places, we counted all the waterfalls we could see at one time and we averaged between 25-30! I couldn’t manage to get a picture that could do it justice. It was truly amazing and exceeded all of our expectations.

After dragging ourselves away from Milford Sound, we then headed to explore the Catlins, which is along the very south of the island. Here we had beautiful beaches, bays, waterfalls, and lots of great walks through the rain forest. This is where we were able to see the very rare yellow-eyed penguins. They were coming in from the ocean, after spending the whole day fishing, to feed their young. The babies were left behind in the nests while their parents spent all day in the ocean, but they were now old enough to come out of their nests to meet their parents on the beach. We were all so excited to finally get to see penguins! Again, it was an amazing experience.
Through the Catlins and then off to Dunedin to view the Royal Albatrosses. This is the only place in the world where they nest (on the mainland), so getting to learn about them and observe them in the wild was pretty special. The boys wrote quite a lot about them, so I’ll not bore you with repeating any details.

(notice Bart standing behind this HUGE fern on one of our walks through the bush)

Our last few days in NZ were spent in Christchurch and in exploring the surrounding areas. We spent our days walking the streets of this beautiful city and visiting the various bays, beaches, and small towns around Christchurch. It’s hard to believe our 2 months in New Zealand is now over. It’s hard to say goodbye to this wonderful place, as it has definitely captured our hearts and minds. It has been a truly fantastic and amazing experience. And that seems to be the word that sums up New Zealand quite well... Amazing.

We have arrived in Cairns, Australia, and the weather is.... rainy! Somehow, my research was a bit off and we have arrived at the tail end of the rainy season (I read it would be over!) and the tail end of killer jelly fish season! (also read it would be over!) The rain is a steady light rain, but it is warm enough that it shouldn’t be too much trouble. Yesterday, we had the whole day in Cairns, feeling a bit tired after waking up at 4am to catch our flight and a 3 hour time change. The boys played at a water playground and went for a swim in the lagoon along the waterfront. Our first day in Australia has been pretty unproductive, but that always seems to go hand and hand with a lack of sleep! Even on our lazy first day, we have already managed to see the most colorful parrots imaginable and a tree full of hundreds of flying foxes! We were walking back from the grocery store when we heard what sounded like hundred of squawking birds in the huge tree over our heads. Looking up, trying to spy the birds, we saw, instead, hundreds of HUGE light brown colored bats! They call them flying foxes, but they look like bats to me! I decided I wouldn’t be there when it became dusk and they all took to the sky! So, walking under all these bats the ground was surprisingly clean. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it had just rained... maybe not. So, the boys have a question for you... (without looking up the answer on the internet!) How do bats poop? Remember, they’re hanging upside down!
Today, we are getting a car and making our way to the Atherton Tablelands, where we will spend the day exploring, hiking to some waterfalls and swimming. At least there aren’t any killer jelly fish at the waterfalls...

Post from Ash

We went to a petrified forest and we did lots of fun stuff and the logs looked like rocks. A petrified forest is made from a flood (like Noah’s flood!). It is not really a forest anymore, it is a fossilized forest. This one was at the ocean and they are really special because there are more found under the ground than above it. We had fun walking and jumping over the stumps.
Penguins are the most special ice creatures. They are so cute! I got to see them feeding their babies on the beach. They are like torpedos in the water! Now, I’m going to write about some seals, guys! Seals are amazing too! We saw some today. They were swimming in a pool (not a real swimming pool!) at the bottom of a cliff. They were also like torpedos in the water!
The Royal Albatross is an amazing bird! It goes around the globe but never touches land, only here in New Zealand! All the things that the Albatross' do are amazing! We got to see some real life babies, not in the zoo, but in the wild! Albatross' eat squid. Sometimes they eat them whole and sometimes they chop them up with their beaks. Now, time to write about biking!
We biked on an old train track that they have made into a bike path. We biked about 22 miles (35 kilometers) in one day! It was easy for me! (luckily, we had wind in our back almost the whole time!) We also biked in a long tunnel and over lots of bridges. That was really neat! I love biking!
This trip is great all the stuff we have seen is great! I love this trip! Bye, everybody, I’ll write more next time!

South Island, NZ

We’ve been on the south island for just over a week and we have done and seen so much! First of all, the ferry ride from the north to the south island must be one of the most beautiful in the world. It was 3 hours of stunning scenery. We spent the first few days in Upper Moutere, close to Nelson, at a cozy B & B called the Gingerbread House. We ended up relaxing and reading on the front porch for a few days longer than we expected, because the boys befriended two sweet girls that lived at the B & B. They were able to have a couple of days riding bikes and playing out in the yard with their new friends. It was a much needed play time and break for them.

We spent one whole day at the Golden Bay, which was one of the most breathtaking bays we have seen. We hiked along the bay in the Abel Tasman National Forest, which offered amazing views the entire time. Afterwards, we headed to a beautiful waterfall. The boys love hiking when it entails jumping over rocks, crossing streams, and swinging bridges... luckily, this had all of that, otherwise, the 3.5 hours we did in one day would have been too much for them! (It also had a group of naked women who were just finishing a swim in the falls when we arrived. They then proceeded to hike back out butt naked. Don’t we learn so much in all our travels?)

We also went to an amazing natural spring that has almost the clearest water in the world, second only to Antarctica. It was pretty amazing to be able to look at what looks like a pond and be able to see all the way through to the bottom. It had the most amazing colors, and was so clear that it was like looking through glass instead of water.

We then made our way south along the west coast and stopped at Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks, crossed the longest swinging bridge in New Zealand, and then on to Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers.

I have to say, that the glaciers, particularly, the Franz Josef, was the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. To walk along a old river bed surrounded by lush greenery, various palms, dense ferns and the odd waterfall or two.... Then to see this magnificent, huge glacier butting up to all of this. Amazing... A rainforest resting right beside this massive slab of blue ice. It didn’t even look real. We felt like we were looking at a canvas of a painting. I was in complete awe of God’s handiwork. He takes my breath away.

We really wanted to walk to the top, but there were various reasons why it didn’t work out for us. First of all, it is a minimum of a four hour hike and 7 years old for the age. Ashwin really wanted to try it, being that he’s a pretty tall 6 year old and will be 7 in a month, but if you can’t make it, they have to send a helicopter for you (at your expense). Plus, the glacier can actually be quite dangerous, as it is consistently moving and shifting. And the last reason (and really the deciding factor) would be that Bart was stung by a waspy thing and his foot has swollen up two times its normal size. He managed to make the hikes to the terminal faces of the glaciers, but to put on boots with spikes and hike for that long would have been a bit much. Poor Bart... he's already getting better though. The photo below is from about 2 weeks ago. I thought it went well with his current condition. He seems to forget how tall he is and hits his head quite often... this was after one such incident and then a day later we were all playing tag and he ran into a tree. He actually broke the branch. I'm certain that's why he's lost all his hair. His dad still has his. Bart must have scraped it all off throughout the years. ;-)

Moeraki Station

So, we've been a bit out of touch with the real world lately, as we've enjoyed living a week far from everything! We've spent the last week at Moeraki Station which is 30 minutes down curvey and partly dirt roads from the adorable little town of Martinsborough in the south east. It was FANTASTIC! Such a beautiful place. It is a new little house located on a 8,000 acre sheep and cattle farm. Yep, that's right, 8,000 acres of majestic views in every direction! We enjoyed just hanging out and relaxing together... just soaking up all of God's beauty around us! The pictures are of the house and us all jumping for joy in our new backyard!

Ash & I dancing in the backyard.