It was here that we finally got to see live kiwi, and they were so awesome. They are much bigger than we thought they would be, around the same size as a turkey, and really fast. They can live up to about 50 and they are laying eggs literally to their last day. The mate for life but don't raise their young at all. Unfortunately they are quite endangered due to the introduction of the stoat and the possum. It was really cool to see them running around in the dark.
If mom looks nervous, it was nothing compared to how George felt in the Gondola below us. Neither being very fond of heights, they didn't love getting up the Gondola or the viewing deck all that much. We all did love the luge! There were some classic pictures taken of us while racing which mom and Linda bought. Mae says the Hoffmans split the title with herself and her dad each winning a race. As for the Hortons, believe it our not, mom won both races!
These are my favorite trees in New Zealand, although these aren't the best example in the whole country. They are called cabbage trees, and they look like the Truffula trees that the Once-ler cuts down to make thneeds, in "the Lorax" by Dr. Suess.
Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of our paragliding trip on our camera, but it was a riot. Mom and George were not that excited about it, but wanted to come watch so we had to follow in the van. At one point we had to jump in with the pilots, leaving George to drive the van on the wrong side of the road to the landing point. Sure enough we couldn't jump from that site so Agnes, the boss, called George on the cell phone to tell him the plan. Our parents couldn't really understand him in person, let alone on the phone. Needless to say, mom and George were quite surprised when a car pulled over and four South Americans jumped in with them to guide them to the next landing site. George later said that the driving was fine. Mom later said that George's driving was "fine". Once we had all jumped and flown down to our landing sites, the four who rode with our parents said it was the scariest thing they had done in quite some time, and they do scary things often. We enjoyed the paragliding but couldn't help feeling like we missed out on the real adventure.
Here we are back in Christchurch at the botanical gardens. It looked to us like this tree was flexing it's muscles at us, so we flexed back. They call Christchurch "The Garden City of Britain" as it was modeled after Britain. After walking around Hagley park and the gardens it is easy to see where it gets it's name.
It was here that we finally got to see live kiwi, and they were so awesome. They are much bigger than we thought they would be, around the same size as a turkey, and really fast. They can live up to about 50 and they are laying eggs literally to their last day. The mate for life but don't raise their young at all. Unfortunately they are quite endangered due to the introduction of the stoat and the possum. It was really cool to see them running around in the dark. 
If mom looks nervous, it was nothing compared to how George felt in the Gondola below us. Neither being very fond of heights, they didn't love getting up the Gondola or the viewing deck all that much. We all did love the luge! There were some classic pictures taken of us while racing which mom and Linda bought. Mae says the Hoffmans split the title with herself and her dad each winning a race. As for the Hortons, believe it our not, mom won both races!
These are my favorite trees in New Zealand, although these aren't the best example in the whole country. They are called cabbage trees, and they look like the Truffula trees that the Once-ler cuts down to make thneeds, in "the Lorax" by Dr. Suess.
Unfortunately there aren't any pictures of our paragliding trip on our camera, but it was a riot. Mom and George were not that excited about it, but wanted to come watch so we had to follow in the van. At one point we had to jump in with the pilots, leaving George to drive the van on the wrong side of the road to the landing point. Sure enough we couldn't jump from that site so Agnes, the boss, called George on the cell phone to tell him the plan. Our parents couldn't really understand him in person, let alone on the phone. Needless to say, mom and George were quite surprised when a car pulled over and four South Americans jumped in with them to guide them to the next landing site. George later said that the driving was fine. Mom later said that George's driving was "fine". Once we had all jumped and flown down to our landing sites, the four who rode with our parents said it was the scariest thing they had done in quite some time, and they do scary things often. We enjoyed the paragliding but couldn't help feeling like we missed out on the real adventure. 
Here we are back in Christchurch at the botanical gardens. It looked to us like this tree was flexing it's muscles at us, so we flexed back. They call Christchurch "The Garden City of Britain" as it was modeled after Britain. After walking around Hagley park and the gardens it is easy to see where it gets it's name.
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