Bay of Islands - last stop!

Morning coffee in Paihai - last port of call...

The view from the mountain that Randy climbed - that's our ship in the harbor................

Another view of the bay in Tauraunga.....................

Formal night.........................

The black sand beach in Auckland with Doug and Lori...............................

Good morning to all!

For some reason I can't cut and paste the pictures so they're all at the top with titles.

It's 11:30 Saturday morning (which is 2:30 Fri. afternoon for you) and we are in the Bay of Islands in the town of Paihai! It's a beautiful little town on the beach, but then almost every town is on a beach in New Zealand!!

We just had our morning coffee and we will peruse the town and then hop in a tender boat and head back to the ship.

Yesterday we were in Auckland and Doug and Lori's daughter is dating a young man from here, so he and his beautiful mom were our escorts for the day. Again, it was such a treat to be taken around by locals.

We had awesome coffee in an outdoor courtyard, dined in an open patio restauraunt at a honey factory.

Auckland was beautiful and they say that 1 in every 4 New Zealanders (which they actually call Kiwis), own a boat. No wonder we love this place!!

The next two days are spent at sea. Then we arrive back in port to Sydney on Tues. morning and will spend the day/night with Doug and Lori's friend's house overlooking Bondi beach.

Randy just reminded me that we hadn't posted about our favorite spot - Tauranga!! It was absolutely gorgeous little town with water on both sides. Randy headed out first thing and climbed up this hill - surprise, surprise, I stayed back and dutifully held down a lounger on the sundeck!!

We had another formal night, and were able to get some pics out on the deck with the sunset!

We will be leaving Sydney about noon on Wed. and will arrive home to Vancouver, BC about 7 am on Wednesday - quite a concept!

Kathi - we don't have to go to the boat show - Jeff just mentioned that he could get tickets. Our kids have a party at church all day so we're free - but by all means please let Jeff watch the Superbowl - maybe we'll show up with some chocolate if you decide to stay home!!! :-)

Nathan, Brandon, Emily and mom, we'll call you call from Sydney on Tues. We are excited to come home and see you all - we miss you so much!

A day in Wellington.

Today we are in Wellington,NZ. The morning started out cloudy (remember "the land of the long white cloud"), and now the sun is breaking through. We caught the shuttle into town and had a coffee at Gloria Jeans - this is the coffee house that is making it difficult for Starbucks to take over NZ and Austrailia. I must say that the coffee is better than Starbucks - less bitter - but still not as good as Woods :-)!

It is noon on Tuesday here, which makes it 3pm on Monday for you. We are going to walk around the city a bit, and then get another latte' and head back to the ship for some nappin' in the sun!

Amy - I've taken pictures of the hillsides - just imagine a horse riding across the ridge........


We'll have to get together for coffee and picture viewing when we get home. We bought you and Rob a chocolate bar at the Cadbury factory yesterday. It's called Energy, and Cadbury only sells it in New Zealand. It tends to be a more bitter dark chocolate rather than a milk chocolate. We thought you'd get a kick out of it!!

Tomorrow we spend the day cruising around a volcanic island that a french family owns. It's uninhabitible - they just own it because they can!! :-). So we'll basically have a day at sea. Then on Thursday we are in Taraunga, Friday in Auckland, and then some more sea days, so we will update the blog on Thur. or Fri.

Keep those comments coming, it's nice to be in touch with people at home, especially since it seems the password that I have set for my email is obviously not the one I thought it was and we can't access our email :-(!!

We love you all!!

The owner of the internet cafe just loaned us a device so we can download some pictures, so here they are - in no certain order at all....................

Our hike in the blue mountains.....

Our first beach in Austrailia, the afternoon we landed...........

More New Zealand countryside - can you say Lord of the rings, or Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?.......................

Guess where we are here - okay - it's the Sydney Opera house....................

Coffee in a streetside cafe' in Dunedin................

Our ship parked next the the Harbour Bridge (this is where you see the pictures of fireworks going off on New years eve.............the opera house is the the right of the picture..................

Yes, okay, I have a problem, but when these huge candy bars were only about $1.50 USD, I just had to get at least one of every kind.................Cadbury from New Zealand is so creamy..........remind me to give you all a sample....................:-) (Don't worry Emmy - mom has lots of chocolate just for you - maybe enough to get you through high school :-)


This is the wonderful family that we stayed with. We stayed with Sally (the mom) far left, and the Rene, John, Noah, and Elijah, drove us everywhere and were awesome hosts!! We now have friends for life in Austrailia!!

Love to you all - we'll post again soon!!

Christchurch, New Zealand

Good morning all!!

For us it's 11:30am Monday morning, and for all of you it's 2:30pm Sunday afternoon. We are 21 hours ahead of you - almost 1 full day - WIERD!!

After we left Sydney, we spent 3 days at sea, the weather was beautiful and the seas were calm. The 3rd day we were cruising through the fiords and it was a rainy day, great day to sit inside and see the sights!

Yesterday (our Sun.) we were in Dunedin, NZ. We had latte's at an outdoor cafe' (love the ambience) and then we toured the CADBURY CHOCOLATE FACTORY!! Sorry Emmy - you would of loved it. We purchased a few large candy bars (20 or more I think! the price was only about $1.50 each) , so we will be sharing lots of wonderful chocolate when we get home. Mom - I got you a fruit and nut bar - it brought back memories of Harrison Hot Springs. Nathan we got you a Dream bar and a Caramello, Brandon, we got you a Caramello and Dairy Milk bar, and Emmy, we got you a fudge brownie choc. bar and a Dairy Milk bar. For our "DG" we got Creme' Brulee, and Tiramasu, choc. bars!! I'll bring dessert to the next group!!!

Today, we are in Christchurch, NZ. The day started out very rainy and cloudy, but now that we are in town (in our jeans of course) ,the sun has come out and it is hot! We are going to do a little touring of the city, and then we'll head back to a lounger on the ship.

Tomorrow, is Wellington, and then we have 2 more stops before 3 more days at sea. The weather should keep getting better as we go North - which is the opposite of our country. We have learned that the weather in New Zealand is much like our summer at home - unpredictible. New Zealand's nickname is "The land of the long white cloud" !!

Well, we love you all and miss you, can't believe we have another week before we head home.

Oh yes, and Marla, we haven't seen a toilet flush in the opposite direction, because their toilets flush wierd and they have the 1&2 flushes. Check in my kids ok?

We will try to update the blog again in the next day or two, so leave questions or comments for us to check.....

Hi to Amy, Gracelyn, Marla,Tanya Lynn, The Scheibs (especially Brenna, Alyssa, and Ethan), thanks for leaving comments!

We're in Austrailia!

Hello Mate!

We arrived here in Sydney, Sunday morning at 10am. The flight was over 15 hours long and wasn't as torturing as I had imagined. We were able to sleep almost the first 7 hours, and our seats had their own individual tv with movies, music and tv shows.

We are here with our friends Doug and Lori and are staying at their friends house here in Sydney. The weather is beautiful and we have experienced much already. The first day we went down by the beaches, and yesterday there were shark attacks there! WOW! We hadn't actually gone in the water, but we had been where it happened.

Yesterday we went up to the Blue Mountains - incredible (or brilliant as they say here)! We had just seen Blue Mountains in a book as one of the 1,000 places you should see before you die! The San Juan islands were also on the list, so we figure 2 down.............998 to go!

Today, we go down to the harbor to get on Rhapsody of the Seas with Royal Carribbean. The ship doesn't actually leave port until Wed. pm so we will be sightseeing in Sydney today and tomorrow.

Keep checking back for updates and I will see if I can get pictures downloaded on this site while I'm on the ship.

I will use this instead of trying to email everyone, so there might be some personal notes in this, like...........Nathan, Brandon, and Emily, we love you and miss you! Raskes, and Jansens, we had lamb on the barbeque last night at a news reporters house - it was awesome! Mom - I miss you too! You can all leave comments on the blog if you want to get a note to me!!!

Later mate......................

I actually did it...................

Today was my haircut - right on schedule, every 7 weeks! After looking at pictures of myself through the holidays, and LOTS of opinion asking of my weary friends :-}, I decided to take the plunge and cut the mane!

Melissa my stylist estimated we cut about 6 inches off (sadly, not enough to donate to locks of love). Where in the world did that extra chin come from?!?!?!

Here's the back. Mind you these pics were taken by my daughter who was sitting and I was standing, and after a day full of errands in B'ham in the POURING RAIN!! I told Randy we should pull out the boat and sleep on it so we're prepared like Noah:-}

Randy and I are leaving for a couple weeks - I will post on Fri. before we leave and tell you where! Consequently today was spent in B'ham stocking up the ol' fridge, freezer, and pantry. I hit the Hostess outlet (the kids love it when I go there - good thing I won't be here to eat any of it - well maybe one raspberry filled donut tomorrow) :-{!!!



I pray that all of you are safe and dry, and that no one has severe damage from the floods! Watch for the rainbow................I'm sure it's coming!!!!!

Rock on.....................

We spent the last couple days in Ocean Shores with our DG (Dinner Group). We took the kids and the Wii Rockband. Here's what it looks like when old people try to play it.............

Here's Randy rockin' out on the drums..................

Kathi giving extreme concentration to her drumline.........................

Dan looks like he knows what he's doing................................?


Jeff actually found a song he knew on the playlist (the songs were way past our generation :-)


We had a blast, and decided that some things should be left to the younger generation!! You notice there are no pics of me drumming! I'm sure it's because they were all in awe at my skill!!

At Ocean Shores you can drive on the beach so we went down and hopped out for a picture before it started raining sideways!

Hope you all had fun on New Years! 2008 brought changes I didn't anticipate, as I'm sure will 2009! (Although I do anticipate Brandon graduating, and Emily starting High School). I just rest in the fact that I serve the same God in 2009 that I did in 2008 and that is enough for me!