The Last of the NZ Blogs ... For Now ...

Here is a great video of Maddie early on in the trip. I don't know why I did not load it up! She is so smart. Nana Mavis taught her how to bang on pots (I am sure we will be thanking her for that soon enough). Maddie tried the wooden spoon, but it was a bit big, so she used the wooden spools (like what thread used to come on). After a while she tried other things. In this video, she did not like the sound her hand was making, so she goes back and gets the spool! Brilliant!





Here is a hodgepodge photos:

Maddie loves green beans. She would ask to go out every day and pick them off the vine. Can't get more whole foods and organic that this, huh?!


I tried out my new, awesome (celebrity approved) backpack. It is awesome!
While we were fishing, Nana Pat took some photos of Maddie in a very old dress. It was either Mommy's or Aunty Katie's (we probably both wore it!)




Nothing like being naked at the beach. Maddie loved wandering around naked!


Beautiful sunset at Waiheke

Well, it turns out that if a baby is naked, they can made a mess. Luckily we were outside on the deck. It looks like we were both surprised by this addition to our morning.

Maddie and Daddy had some fun on the trampoline. I just love her giggle.

Playing with Nana Mavis.



Enjoying her juice under a tree at the beach ... that's the life I want!

Then Nana showed her a trick - she rolled a cylinder shape along her hand ...

... holy cow! Look at that! She made it roll!! (I love it when she gets surprised!)

Bird on the a light. I just like this photo.

Hanging out with Nan. (we did a lot of that ... it was a lot of fun! I am sure Nan's arms are tired now!)

Cute girl!



She is such a lady. She may not have pants on, but she has her little legs crossed. So cute!


Back at Nana May's house, Maddie got right back to work playing with the washing line pegs. They were the most fun! (Especially for Aunt Summer - she loved the pink pegs the best!)




Then we went for a walk. Does she look comfortable or what? This turned out to be the last walk in this stroller. The back wheel fell off ...

... so Mommy got her wish ... a new, fancy, Phil and Teds (celebrity approved) stroller!!!! Yeah!!! It is just what I wanted. PS: No, I did not ruin the stroller two days before we left ... that is just crazy talk ... just crazy! :) Daddy was happy because it was half price! (the exchange rate is 2 to 1 and it is a New Zealand product!!). Maddie helped Daddy put the new stroller together. What a good helper!

The next day, Daddy and I decided to climb a mountain. Yes, that's right ... climb a mountain. I know what you are thinking, because we were thinking it to. In case you think I am exaggerating when I say mountain, here is a photo. This is Rangitoto. The name means something to do with blood ... and yes, we now know why. We decided to climb that thing ... seriously!


Well, although it was a little painful, there was a lot of nice stuff to look at.


We finally made it to the top in about 40 minutes (the brochure said it was an hour at an easy pace ... and we did stop a little ... so really, we did wonderfully well ... especially given our current physical state ... that was basically a sprint!)

This is the view from the top! Wow!



See ... we are still smiling! Now how do we get back down?

We then started back down and I convinced Nick to go to the lava caves with me.
Kind of Lord of the Rings-esk, isn't it? We found no hobbits, though. It was totally dark and so much fun! The flash lit it up, but we could not see anything! Fun fun!

We sat and waited for our ferry (we were not going to miss the boat off the island ... oh, did I mention this mountain is a volcano in the middle of the ocean!? Yeah ... we climbed a volcano!) We saw this bird and I thought he was cute.


That night, we went to Jan and Terry's for our last dinner in NZ. Maddie had lots of fun with her cousies petting the cats and being oooohed over.

Natalie got a great shot of 4 generations of women! What a great photo!


The next day, we packed up and left. Maddie and Daddy settled in for a long ride home ... ready to watch movies.


Maddie did a great job on the flight. She slept for 5 hours straight on the NZ-LA flight and then another 1 1/2 hours after breakfast. We had to wake her for landing! She then slept the whole way from LA to St. Louis, waking only to eat. What a great world traveler!!!

Well ... this is the end of our trip to NZ. We had a wonderful time and miss everyone a lot. We will be back!