So much to catch up on......

I knew keeping a blog was going to be a challenge but didn't realize how much of a challenge. I really don't like writing! Or maybe it's the getting started to write that I don't like - hmmmmm - have to think about that.

My last posting was our Fiji trip in November. Since then we have celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine's Day. So, here goes.

Thanksgiving was fun. Of course we had the traditional turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Since the turkey was a wild turkey and we were concerned about it being tough, we brined it overnight. It was super!!!!! Since Thanksgiving is not celebrate in New Zealand, except by Americans, and life went on as usual on Thursday, we had our dinner on Friday. Not a problem, it was good regardless of the day. Actually it made sense, since our Friday was actually Thursday in the U.S. You got to love the time difference!

One of the good things about the time difference is that we get to celebrate our birthdays on 2 days - the New Zealand date and the U.S. date. Speaking of birthdays, we celebrated mine in Wellington. We were there to see Jean's art exhibit (Jean is Trevor's mother). She is an amazing artist and it was really great to see her work and spend some time with her.

Christmas was really different this year. This was our first 'summer' Christmas. While it was great being with Joelle and her family, we also missed the rest of the family in Texas. Since it was summer here, it was actually too warm to have our traditional Polish celebration so we had the Loomis traditional celebration - beef tenderloin on the grill. Joelle's friend Katrina, her 2 girls and her dad joined us and we had a fantastic meal our in the yard. After much food and wine, good-byes were said to Katrina and family and got down to the business of opening presents. Again, since it was summer here, it didn't get dark until well after 9 pm so we got a late start to the gift giving. What fun! I got 2 CDs of New Zealand songs, framed photos of Ernie & I at the Marlborough Wine Festival that actually were in the Blenheim paper, Kiwi Christmas tree ornaments and lots of other great gifts & memories. In keeping with the Loomis family traditions, we went to the beach on Christmas day for a picnic and swimming. Since that was so much fun, we decided to do it again the day after Christmas. The second time, we went to Aussie Bay in the Sound and really enjoyed the water. We had been in the water about an hour or so when we suddenly realized that there were starfish all over the bay and we had probably been walking on them for the last hour and a half. Check out the photos that I took with my new camera - an underwater camera.

Jasmin was on summer vacation from school and we don't work so we decided to go to the Golden Bay area for a few days. We went to Pohara Beach and Tata Beach and spent 5 days playing in the water and sand. Ernie and I had been to this area back in November when we went on the Farewell Spit tour and thought how beautiful it was. Over Christmas, this region was inundated with rain and had very serious flooding. We couldn't believe that damage to this area. In fact, one of the beaches we were going to go to was not open because of the resulting silt in the bay. The flooding and the slips were so bad that it closed the road beyond Tata beach going into the Abel Tasman park. I don't know if that road has even reopened yet. See the photos below.

All the dirt areas are slips (landslides) that came down the hills and went across the road and into the bays.

This house happened to be between the hills and the bay. The people that lived here were able to get out before the mud went through their home.














Mid-January found us all going to Wainui Beach north of Gisborne on the north island. This was our family vacation. We were at a great resort and about 4 houses from the beach. The ferry trip to the north island was a little iffy as far as my stomach was concerned. We drove through the Rumataki's outside of Wellington going to Gisborne. What an absolutely beautiful drive! Of course, we did have to stop for a few road obstacles - repairs and other like you'll see in the photo below.

We spent the next 9 days enjoying a great beach, cold water and super waves. We also had a very successful fishing trip where we brought home 2 albacore tuna, a skipjack tuna, a kowhai (NZ fish), and 2 New Zealand crayfish.

Joelle spent the better part of an afternoon building this great sandcastle.

New Zealand crayfish - we know them as spiny lobsters. Needless to say, our dinner that night was fantastic!















OK, it's time for dinner so I'll sign off for now and continue tomorrow with our travels to the southern part of the south island. Have a great night!