New Zealand Part 1

 In late November Sarah set off on her own for an adventure to New Zealand. She flew to Sydney first then had a connecting flight to Christchurch. She then met up with all her Contiki tour group and off she went for 3 weeks exploring New Zealand...

Christchurch is still under repair from the devastating earthquake earlier in the year and many areas are still not open to the public... 

The CBD is still closed off and they have made a "Pop-up shopping mall"...

After a brief stay in Christchurch they travelled to Lake Ohau and visited Lake Tekapo on the way...

 Sarah loved the spectacular scenery along the roads...

 The stayed at Lake Ohau Lodge...

View from the games room

From there they travelled to Dunedin and walked up the worlds steepest street - Baldwin Street...

Group photo at the top

 And toured Speights Brewery...

 Next stop was the adventure city Queenstown for 4 nights...

Group photo

First night in Queenstown was enjoyed at the Skyline restaurant...

Bungy jumping station

Enjoying a cocktail

Views over Queenstown

Cocktails served at the World Bar in teapots

They stayed at Aspen on Queenstown and enjoyed fantastic views for breakfast...

The group were given many choices to do optional activities whilst in Queenstown - Sarah chose the shotover jet, canyon swing and a trip to Milford Sound. This is Shotover Canyon where they zoomed around  in jet boats at 90kmh... 

On the way to Milford Sound they stopped at Mirror Lake...

 The weather on the way to Milford Sound was terrible but fortunately it cleared up for part of the cruise...

Milford Sound

 After a very long day travelling to and from Milford Sound (14 hours) a nice cold (freezing) drink was called for in the Minus Five Ice Bar...

Even drink out of an ice glass at an ice table

After a big night out next was the canyon swing... 

Track into canyon swing

The canyon swing is a 60 metre freefall which then extends into a 200 metre swing - which Sarah loved...

Ready, set...

GOOOOOOOOO!!!

And there was no shortage of clubs to attend in Queenstown...

Nicole's Photography

Nicole and Daniel and mates went down to Busselton to do some fishing off the Busselton Jetty. Here's a few great shots she took on her new camera using her new lenses...

She has also been capturing some fishies in Daniel's huge fish tank... 

I am encouraging her to enter some competitions!!

Day out

Today we took a drive down to Busselton to have a look at the house Janelle will be staying in next year and visit Mum and Dad J. After a nice chat with them we headed on down to Dunsborough to find Samundra. Samundra consists of 2 yoga studios, an eco clothing store and a vegetarian cafe. It is set in bushland and offers various retreats and workshops. Today we were just going for the food!

Love all the recycled seats... 

 Looking inside the cafe which opens out to outdoor eating area...

 Our lunches - raw pizza, chickpea burger and vegetable wrap -all very nice especially the pizza...

 For dessert we indulged in raw carrot cake and raw lemon cheesecake - yummo...

Followed by Chia and hot chocolate...

One of the huge yoga studios

 They have a very large vegetable garden as well...

We then did some shopping in Dunsborough before driving home. We had a lovely day out and Nicole crossed something off her bucket list - taking a sickie when not sick :) 

My new toy

After many years of using my trusty Sunbeam juicer I have decided to upgrade. I spent many hours studying up on the different models and types available and decided to lash out and go for the Angel brand with all its parts being made of stainless steel as opposed to so much plastic in the cheaper models. So I hit the "buy" symbol on the website of their American company and couldn't believe it when my new juicer turned up just 4 working days later!...

 We were instructed to run a few carrots through it first to clean it...

 And then we made the first official juice...

 It extracts so much more juice from the vegetables and fruit resulting in a much nicer tasting juice...

Cleaning up is easy as well. I am very happy with my new toy and looking forward to trying some new juice combinations.

Upmarket

Today Janelle and I drove up to Perth for a day out at the "Upmarket" held quarterly at UWA. It was so busy when we got there we had to park on the verge and hope no rangers were wandering around. The first hall we looked in was mainly baby and toddler stuff but so beautiful to look at and marvel at the talent of some of the crafters...

Janelle couldn't resist a cupcake and we had a rest under my favourite tree in grounds of UWA and shared it... 

 We then moved into Winthrop Hall to look at all the inside stalls and had a photo booth session...

 Janelle was most excited to see the door to the upstairs balcony on Winthrop Hall open (has never seen it open in 4 years) so we had a look out there..

 We then drove down to Fremantle and met 2 of Janelles friends for afternoon tea at the Raw Kitchen, this time sharing the yummy cheesecake and buying a few Florentines to bring home..

A nice day out.

Happenings

A few things that have been happening over the last few weeks. We moved Janelle home after 4 years at Trinity. Now she has a bit of sorting out to do!...

 The fence men finally came to fix our fence from the big storm we had way back in June. They have been flat out fixing so many fences in town since June so we were grateful to finally get it done and we can plant our vegie garden again...

 It was time for a big sort out in the kitchen and part with some old junk. Its amazing how much more room I now have in the cupboards...

 Sweet tooth Janelle who has always loved to bake us cakes and muffins has had a change of heart and been studying a lot about raw food and nutrition. Inspired by this lovely book she has been experimenting with lots of different healthy recipes - raw and sugar free...

Raw brownie

Chia porridge

Egg and avacado salad with fresh tumeric

Maca nut balls

Paleo apple porridge

Janelle and Emma did their last trip to Geraldton to do 2 presentations on their studies and findings on Aboriginal Women and Menopause. With a bit of free time they were also tourists enjoying a few sights...

Chia tea at the Salt Dish cafe

 Sarah finished her first year exams and had one day home before heading off to New Zealand. She is doing a 3 week Contiki tour. Just before leaving for the airport...