A Visit from the Eareharts

Amy's parents dropped by in February for a two week visit. We spent a few days showing them around Wellington and catching up as it had been over 6 months since we had last seen them.

First stop: the botanical gardens and the playground.


Quinn tries the big slides for the first time.

Mr. Earehart tries the zipline for the first time.

Feeding the ducks.

Enjoying the rose garden, which bloomed like mad all summer long.

Near the rose garden is one of my favorite spots in the gardens; a greenhouse chock full of exotic plants. There's a section of carnivorous plants as well as a pool with several varieties of water lilly. Sounds a bit dull, but these aren't your everyday water lillies, and there are some neat fish in the pond. Here, Pap and Amelia check them out:


After a few days in Wellington, we boarded the ferry to head down South for a week's vacation. It's hard to get tired of the views from the ferry.

Granny checks out the scenery and tries to avoid being blown overboard by the wind.

Pap, cliffs.

We then headed down the east coast to a place called Kaikoura. This is an interesting spot because it's really close to a continental shelf. Currents bring tons of nutrients near the shore and the result is some spectacular marine life in the area. We headed there primarily to do some whale watching.

Granny and Pap enjoy some time on the beach with Quinn.

The whale watching trip was successful, and Amy shot this great pic (zoom in for the full effect):



My favorite wildlife photographer.

From Kaikoura, we headed through the Queen Charlotte Sound to the city of Nelson. The drive through the Sound is incredibly tortuous and we've ended up with puking kids on several occasions because of it. Hopefully they'll be able to appreciate the pictures one day...

Carol and Harold in front of the Queen Charlotte Sound

You can take pictures like this...

....all...

...day...

...long.

We had a great time in Nelson, though I neglected to take many pictures. After a few days there we headed back to Picton for another ferry ride home. It was really wonderful seeing our family after being away from home for so long.

A Brief Update

Well, we made it. I've been saying that a lot lately. First was the long haul from NZ, then a few days of R&R at Amy's parent's house in WV to recover a bit. Next was a 5 hour road trip to Portsmouth to stay with our friends Sarah and Danny while we recovered some more. We moved to an apartment with my parents for a week while we searched for houses, and we've finally settled (at least for the moment) in yet another apartment while we continue our search for a home. I failed to mention that I had to make one road trip back to Charlottesville to euthanize Nelson (our Rhodesian Ridgeback) and another to move our furniture down here.

So, after almost a month we finally have a place to call our own. It hasn't been the easiest transition but everyone's holding up well and we're in good spirits. There have actually been a lot of fun times in the past month and we're getting to spend a lot of time with friends these days.

We're starting to get re-acclimated to life in the states, too. I remembered to tip at dinner tonight and I'm having fewer instances of turning on my windshield wipers when I go for my turn signal. And no, I haven't been driving on the wrong side of the road (though I probably would have gone the wrong way on our city's only roundabout if I hadn't seen someone else do it first).

More posts to follow in the near future. Thanks to everyone who helped us with the move!