New Zealand

So.... I finally had time to upload some photos. We had thousands. Literally. For the first time our new Olympus camera internal memory reached it's limit. We were on our way back to Christchurch (one day before flying back home) when it got full, so we pulled over on the side of the road and downloaded the photos to my little laptop. Procedure that normally takes 2-3 minutes... this time it took half an hour to download, that's how many photos we had taken. Can you believe it? So you can imagine, it wasn't an easy task to pick the best few to upload to the blog. First time around I picked out about 40. This was still too many, so I had to go through them again and cull some more.



Our holiday started in the beautiful Christchurch. (At this point, I feel the need to warn you that I'm going to use the word "beautiful" a lot in this article.)


The town is so pretty with gardens and parks everywhere full of flowers and colour. Oh, and the Botanical Gardens... whow...


Next stop - Kaikoura. The place where sperm whales live. Apparently the ocean is so deep off the coast of Kaikoura, it's like an underwater great canyon.


Unfortunately we didn't get to see the whales, they were too far off the coast that day.

We stayed at B&B on Kaikoura peninsula. That was my first Bed and Breakfast experience and it was fantastic. The house was tastefully renovated small mansion, surrounded by perfectly manicured garden - full of flowers. And the views.... whow, you should have seen it! You step out of the house to look at the mighty mountains with the snowy white caps. What a way to retire for those B&B owners - lovely couple who's kids have grown up, decided to buy a property there, renovated the house and opened up a B&B. We had a lovely breakfast with the family upstairs in their dining room with the million dollar view.

Next day we headed towards Hanmer Springs. We had heard about the thermal mineral water pools & spas and decided to check it out. The winding road through the mountains was an experience on it's own. One thing that we really noticed was traffic or I should say - lack of traffic. We drove for miles without seeing another car passing. It's OK to pull over at any time for a photo opportunity without having to worry about traffic behind you. Another surprising thing about New Zealand roads were one-lane bridges. Basically, when approaching the bridge, you have to give way to oncoming traffic and only when they have passed, can you cross.

After 3 hours drive at Hanmer Springs we had a swim in the mineral water thermal pools, the hottest which was 42C. Air temperature was quite cold there, as you can see, I'm wearing a warm jacket but it doesn't matter when you're sitting in the hot water.
Mineral water smells like boiled egg.

After a swim and a lunch, we were on the road again. For another couple of hours until we reached place called Greymouth. The plan was to take a helicopter or a small plane scenic tour over the mountains and the glaciers but closest point where to catch a plane was Hokitika, so we only spent one night at Greymouth and headed to Hokitika the next day. Hokitika was gorgeous little town on the beach. Lots of art and craft, glass blowing studio and jewelers.

Our scenic flight though, was cancelled because of cloudy weather. We could have still gone but what's the point of spending all this money if you know you're not going to see the amazing Mount Cook and glaciers. It's not cheap either. We were disappointed but decided that we have to go back one day for that.

There's another fantastic picture I took from the moving car. It had just stopped raining and the mist was raising from the forest on the side of the mountains... it looked amazing.

Never mind the scenic flight, Hokitika had so much more to offer - it turned out to be the best place we visited.

First of all - The Hokitika Gorge! What a mystical place! I have never seen water the color of ... well look at the photos, can you believe the color of this river?!? We spent half an hour walking around, taking pictures and admiring this place and believe it or not there were no other tourist. We were completely alone, just the sound of water, few birds and mosquitoes. I couldn't help but imagining Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee walking through the forest, stepping on rocks and tree stumps covered in green soft moss carrying The Ring. Truly magical experience.

On the way back from the Gorge, we decided to take the route around Lake Kaniere which was another breathtaking experience. We had rain and sun and rainbows...

When we got back to town it was late and we were hungry but there was only 4 or 5 restaurants in Hokitika, most of which were closed at 8pm. Lucky for us, a French cafe/restaurant was open and we had a beautiful meal after a long day. This photo in the mirror was taken in the restaurant and is pretty much the only "family photo" of this trip. There just weren't many people around when good photo opportunity presented itself, so we took photos of each other but not many with all three of us together.

This is it. From Hokitika we drove back to Christchurch and next morning flew back to Sydney. I wish we had more time... there's too much to see and to do in NZ! I would definitely love to go back one day.

Jacob didn't share our excitement though. After 3 days he started to ask when are we going home already, because he wanted to play with his toys and watch TV! He got bored looking at the mountains and it's understandable, we spent quite a bit of time in the car and he just wasn't amused. So yes, in that sense, one week was enough.

Crocodile

Sorry, Sev I almost forgot - here it is - The Mighty Crocodile!

28th Feb-1st March week-end in St Malo with Vince

So..... I haven't published for a very long time and I know I am supposed to put our pictures from Australia and tell all about my holiday downunder.... however it's gonna take me long time and the objective of this blog was to update you with my life in France so I thought a lot about it and decided not write anything about my trip in Oz.... what do you want to know anyway.... you were with me most of the time ;-) you have all my pictures on your computer.....

Anyway here is a video of a weekend in Saint Malo, north of Brittany with Vince.

Inxule - Ja"rlepa pildid

Sorry Sev, this one is in estonian. These are photos of the village where I grew up, my childhood playground...


Pildid tulid siia nyyd kyll vales ja"rjekorras, aga noh, pole hullu, kyll sa a"ra tunned tuttavad kohad :-)

Ja"rve a"a"rde enam mo"o"da vana teed ei pa"a"se, sest mo'isale on aed ymber ehitatud ja see on eravaldus ning ja"rve juurde tuleb minna tiiruga. Sinu ema aiamaa juurest viib kruusatee tiigi tagant la'bi ja yle po'llu ja"rveni. nii imelik oli minu jaoks, nii vo'o'ras...

aga nagu sa na"ed, paadid on veel alles, ma oleks ka tahtnud paadiga ja"rvele minna, aga ei teadnud, kelle paadid need on ja polnud selleks aega ka.

siin ma jalutan oma vana maja poole, Kauri Helgi maja ja"a"b minust paremale.

Sild oli ka kadunud :-(








Laste-aia hoov. Sealt on palju helgeid ma"lestusi. Eriti kuurist, kus meil nukumaja oli, ma"letad? kas me seda mitte nuku-kuuriks ei kutsunud?

karuselli peal. see ajas endiselt sydame pahaks ja pea ringi ka"ima.

Ja"rlepa laste-aed.

Sinu ema aiamaalt nopitud tikrid. Phil nt ei olnud tikrit elus kunagi maitsnud ega ka na"inud, ta ei teadnud yldse, mis mari see selline on. See oli talle heaks o'ppetunniks botaanikas.

Tiigi juures muruplatsil. eemalt na'ha vana to"o"koda.

ja"llegi sinu ema aiamaa punased so'strad. Ohh, kuidas igatsen!

Raksus.

Aiamaad.

Tiigi juures oleval muruplatsil on nyyd suur kiik yles pandud ja paar turnimispuud lastele. seal vist peetakse jaanituld iga aasta nagu ma aru saan.

Kodu. kas tuleb tuttav ette?

Rist-teel.

Miiliste ma"elt tulles ja"id paremale kollased rapsipo'llud, ilus oli.

Happy Birthday, Jacob!

Finally! I know it's been over a month since Jacob's birthday but

better late than never.
It was a nice party. We were lucky with the weather - it was warm but not too hot, it was breezy but not too windy - just perfect!

A lot of food was prepared and consumed, as usual.

Jacob and his friends loved the jumping castle I borrowed from my work colleague.

Micaela is helping to blow out the candle.

Opening the presents was fun too.
X-box zombies.

New neighbours

This is the building across the road from our house. 28 new flats! Super! We will get plenty of exercise once all these people move in there, because we will have to park our cars miles away and walk home. It's hard now to find parking on the street...

And this is the view from the top floor. Photo doesn't really do justice but gives you an idea how breath-taking the view is.

If you have spare 650 thousand dollars, then the penthouse could be yours - 3 bedrooms, study, open plan lounge+kitchen with big balcony on the other side as well as balcony (facing the water) from the living room and bedrooms.

It would be nice. But then again... I do like my little back yard... besides, we have Sophie... and if I had to choose between the dog and the 650-thousand-dollar views - it would be hard but I would choose Sophie :-)

New Fence

Our fence had been on it's last leg for quite some time and we started thinking about getting it replaced with Colorbond for over a year ago. It's as they say... even Rome wasn't build over night!

This photo was taken in the morning when we took the supporting ropes off. It almost fell over :-D


And then the fence people got to work.

By the time I got back from work - voila! - new fence!!! :-) Brilliant! All we had to do was write the cheque and tick it off our "To Do" list.

Clean-Up-Nonna's-House Day

Council clean up day is always a good enough reason to get your working gloves out, put on some sunscreen and go to Nonna's house in hope to throw some rubbish out. We found lots of weird and wonderful stuff there... ant nest in the old wardrobe for one...

...and other creepy crawlies, like this huge red-back spider for example. It was the biggest mother of a red-back I've ever seen! This is the one to stay away from!!! An adult would probably survive if taken to the hospital straight away but small child like Jacob would stand a little chance if bitten.
Nonna's beautiful bundles of joy :-)

Nonna wasn't happy to part with her precious "treasures"... but we managed to get some of it out. Not that it made much of a difference but we have to take this one little baby step at the time.

Men - hard at work!

Happy Halloween!!!

Although American holiday - the Halloween is becoming more and more popular every year in Australia. It's fun for kids to dress up and to go from door to door trick-or-treat'ing.
Last year Jacob was a batman, this year he loved dressing up as a pirate for a day.