We arrived back from our Doubtful Sound journey to quite possibly the NICEST farmstead we could have imagined. Try to picture an interior designer/farmer who added a 2 bedroom chalet onto her garage, decorated it beautifully, and provided fresh baked bread and brownies and cookies (daily). Not to mention a fully stocked fridge and farm animals that we got to play with.

We got a tour of the farm and even got to bottle feed some baby sheep. There were Alpaca’s, sheep, goats, baby chicks and deer…it was really incredible:

Leo’s take: One of the farm animals that I thought was crazy was the alpaca because what it did, he/she went on the ground and rolled around and then came up and jumped like 3 ft in the air. At first I was scared because once we brought the food into their field they all come running at us to get the food. I hid behind my dad and every time an animal came up to me I would just throw up my hands and say – I don’t have anything!!

Then we somehow co-erced the kids to do another hike…a part of the famous Kepler Track (we went from Rainbow to Reach to Maturau Hut). Guess how long we walked….14KM!!!! Yup..our kids actually, without complaining on a 14K hike through the woods and it took us just over 3 hours.

The Kepler track itself is a 60KM circular hike in this region with various huts along the way. Tramping is a thing here (Tramping = long hikes with rudimentary huts along the way where you can bunk out with strangers in the woods). Again, another experience I would have thought not possible with kids (particularly my kids who often complain if we ask to go on a walk around the city but they were troopers). Traveling seems to bring out the best in them.

A great day. Tomorrow we are off to Queenstown for 4 nights!

WOW. Where to begin? This post will mostly be pictures since these last 48 hours was one of those ‘bucket list’ type things people do for the photo opps. Before you scroll, go on google maps and check out where Doubtful Sound is…it is in one of the MOST remote places on earth. Untouched, very hard to get to, and insanely gorgeous.

I’ll admit I was very worried booking this overnight simply because it’s the kind of thing you do WITHOUT kids…because it’s for naturalists and it’s only enjoyed by those who love to be out in nature and enjoy views…which let’s face it…is NOT kids.

First we took a 50 minute boat ride on Lake Manapouri:

Followed by a 50 minute coach ride through a rainforest…this is what our kids did:

Stella did get out for one stop simply because the waterfalls behind her are named ‘Stella Falls’.

Side note: it rains 210 days out of the year here..which apparently you want because these waterfalls only show up when it’s been raining so our trip was well-timed.

Then, it was on the Fiordland Navigator boat with 35 other people

…and this was our cabin:

This is where we ate our meals:

And by some stroke of luck…we got a pretty amazingly clear afternoon.

We were given 2 options: Go in a tender with a naturalist for 45 minutes…or go for a solo kayak ride. Adam and Leo went for the tender, I put on my headphones and went for a kayak ride.

And…Stella stayed on the boat BY HERSELF doing this:

The Fjords are magical and actually best in the rain since everywhere you look there are HUNDREDS of waterfalls.

And some seals and penguins (I just got a pic of the seals):

And during the 24 hours, both Leo and I took a bunch of pictures…Leo then edited them..and asked that I post them, so here goes…hopefully it gives you a good sense of what we saw:

After the water activities…some crazy people decided to jump into the FREEZING cold water…

The next morning was the clearest day they had seen in weeks:

And then it was back the way we came but now in full sunshine.

I have to say…the best part of this trip was how blown away I was by the behaviour of our kids. I kept marvelling at how this was exactly the type of trip Adam and I would have taken without kids..I would have said (and often have said) that we can NEVER do this type of things with kids (even teenagers) because we wouldn’t get the time or the space we would want to enjoy it.

So on my many, MANY, moments of pure solitude on this boat, I felt enormous gratitude to my kids who simply stayed inside playing cards, or reading while Adam and I went to a naturalist talk, or went out on the decks to enjoy the views. Even the fact that I got to kayak by myself for 45 minutes listening to cheesy music on my headphones while my 7 year old sat in her bunk on a boat 1000 ft away blew my mind.

So as someone who is often found complaining about things I can’t do because of kids…this was a special treat for me. It was breathtaking, and awe inspiring and I am so happy we were able to do it.

This place is the best. Truly. I woke up at 6:15am to go for a run – mostly for some alone time..but also because I finally saw the sun!

The kids slept in beautifully (we’ve started a tradition of them going to bed together at 10pm and then they sleep in till 7:30 which has been working well) and Adam went to one of the many pop-up food trucks around town for some coffee and a healthy Açai bowl with granola for me (we’ve had way too much fried food since we’ve been here).

We then started off with a 1 hr hike up Mt. Iron (30 minutes up, 30 minutes down with beautiful views of Otago all around us). The kids were great (partly because of the candy necklace they got as bribery for no complaining on the hike 🙂

Then we came back to town…had lunch at a burrito stand and considered a quad tour in the mountains but, due to the ominous looking clouds in the distance, we decided to go to a local movie theatre in town (complete with comfy old couches in the theatre instead of chairs) to see the Adams Family. I promptly fell asleep on the couch and was awakened during intermission (is this a Kiwi thing??) where they stop the movie halfway so the kids can get even more popcorn and cookies??

We used the movie as a ploy to get another afternoon hike in. Despite the closures of most of the local hikes due to flooding…we found one that was open and walked around Lake Wanaka. (In truth it was actually closed off with yellow caution tape and it took quite a bit of convincing the kids that we wouldn’t put them in harm’s way to get them to even go around the caution tape). Who made these rule followers???

While the kids sang along to their MP3 players full of explicit songs that Adam had downloaded – cue Leo asking Adam was ‘Buddha’ was slang for (apparently it’s weed…who knew?), I pondered the first week of this trip. While I have spent many hours scouring not only the weather network but also local weather sites including windy.com, and metservice.com…my husband has taken a totally different tack. He just looks at the sky and makes a decision in the moment.

This is something that I both love and hate about his ‘go with the flow’ness’. He just BELIEVES that everything will work out (and somehow he’s generally not wrong which I find infuriating as someone who was raised planning for EVERY eventuality under the sun). My need to control everything is helpless when weather intervenes and while it drives me crazy…for him it’s just “part of the journey.”. Except that he’s right! Argh.

Anyway – while I pondered our marriage and our opposing ways of approaching life, we did another beautiful hike followed by more swimming time. Stella implored me to take a ‘responsible risk’ and get in the water despite how cold it was…so….carpe diem, I did. (for like 10 seconds).

While the kids swam I did my second load of laundry in 2 days…I feel like only a mom can relate to the absolute, unbridled joy I felt upon finding in-room laundry in our 2 bedroom apartment here. I liken it to how I feel with a Toblerone bar and a cheesy Rom Com movie. There’s just something about being able to do laundry on vacation that feels so good you know?

So that’s it for us. Tomorrow we leave this heavenly place and embark on an overnight in Doubtful sound. It’s meant to be a crazy trip with waterfalls, seals, penguins and maybe whales…but also rains 200 days out of 365 and we’re sleeping in a tiny room all 4 of us in 2 bunk beds and I think we will be cold and wet . But maybe…if I channel Adam….it will work out beautifully? (Has this blog felt like a weather report…ok I’m stopping. No more weather details).

It’s been an incredible first week. The kids have been AWESOME and being in the mountains is my happy place. Can’t wait to see one of the most remote Fjords in the world! Bye Wanaka!!!

Leo’s Blog: Breaking news….Flood in Wanaka!

Today was our first day in Wanaka. Once we got on the road, it was a 2.5 hour drive to Wanaka. Before we checked into our apartment, we went to Puzzling World. Puzzling world is a place with optical illusions and lots of mazes (and puzzles obviously). To start we tried the 30-60 minute maze. It only took approximately 20 minutes to get through 3 towers (we had to get up 4 towers and it was really tricky because we always thought we found the tower but then it said “NOT THIS CORNER”) and then it started to thunder and rain and I freaked out because I thought we were gonna get hit by lightning because we were on a tower. So we got out and went into all the rooms with the illusions.

Back inside, we went into the tilted house. The tilted house is a house that is tilted and it is super hard to walk up.

Erica here for a second – there were so many optical illusions in puzzling world that I felt sick/dizzy. We left and checked into beautiful Lakeside apartments (with Laundry – YAY!!!!!!) and the kids went swimming in the rain while I set up shop.

Leo’s back: After the pool we took a little walk into the town and we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. After dinner we went back out for a walk and we saw all the fire trucks to control the flooding in Wanaka. It was a crazy sight to see how a boat gas station was under water and the parking spots were under water. People were wading through the water in boots when the water was knee high. Overall I found this fascinating since all these beautiful lakes and mountains and beautiful scenery were all around me everywhere I went.

Erica here to finish it off – The clouds cleared at 7:30pm so we dragged the kids around town just to enjoy clear skies until sunset. Of course it’s meant to rain again all day tomorrow and I have to say that this town is by far the most beautiful I have seen. A lake surrounded by snow capped mountains and TONS of amazing restaurants and shops. Adam and I spent much of dinner trying to figure out if we could somehow change our plans later in the week to come back here while it’s sunny and beautiful but due to high season and non-cancelation policies it is not meant to be.

So…. I have been hinting to the kids that a university exchange in either Australia or NZ is a great idea so perhaps we can come back here?

So it appears we got very unlucky with 100% chance of rain hitting almost every place we are going in the next week. And because we have our kids with us – the whole – sit in a pub and drink your sorrows away doesn’t really fly. We spent the morning in a theatre watching a documentary of Hilary Edmund’s climb to Everest and the history of Mt. Cook (Stella listened to music on her MP3 as well as her podcasts)

We did get one lucky break though….the glacier boat tour that we had booked (that has been cancelled for the last 3 days)…was re-instated since there was a clearing around the glacier. It was the only clear sky we are likely to see for the next few days and it shows you how insanely beautiful this area is (if you manage to get clear skies)

Stella’s take on the glacier boat tour: We were just at the hotel next door and then we saw the bus we were going on and we went on the bus (me and mommy sat at the back together and told jokes) and then we came to a stop and when we got off the bus and then we went for a (20) min walk. We went on the boat, the boat went super fast and it splashed Daddy like a lot and he had an icicle dripping from his nose and it was hilarious. One of the glaciers looked like the movie frozen (even though I don’t like Frozen). The real glacier had a storm near it so we couldn’t go there, so we had to cut through our trip. it was really sad…then it was another 20 min walk and it was so fun cuz me and Leo were going ahead and mommy and daddy took lots of pictures.

Leo’s Take: On the boat trip, we went to 2 different glaciers because sadly the big glacier had a storm. The first iceberg we went to, the guide told us an interesting fact – only 10% of the iceberg is above the water and the other 90% is below. At the first iceberg, because it hadn’t been in the sun a lot, the ice was denser and that made the color more blue. At the second iceberg, it had been in the sun more often and it was white – and also icebergs/glacier’s pick up rocks while they are moving so it was really dirty to look at. On the walk there and back to the glacier it was really fun because I kept on running ahead from everyone.

Erica – so many of you have requested Adam’s input here….why is he not blogging? Here is Adam: (he is laughing awkwardly as I type his narration) – So it’s been a week away with the family now, and I keep wondering whether the kids realize whether we are on the other side of the world. I don’t know what to write…I hate writing..I don’t want to do this.

So that’s Adam’s take…riveting I know. I’m pretty bitter about this weather but we are trying to chase the sun even if means driving hours out of our way…we’ll see if it’s possible. So much of the next week involves boat tours, hikes and even a helicopter tour so we’ll see what happens. The kids are still having a great time though 🙂

I woke up this morning to this:

I got up at 5:45am because I found out that my last surviving grandparent died yesterday. I knew that if someone was sick or dying (someone not directly in my immediate family) I would not to be told because that’s the way my family rolls…but since I work with both my parents and happened upon an email from my mom saying that she was out of the office for the week not checking email (suspicious) I knew it had to be my grandmother. So all night I woke up to check texts and finally before 6am I saw my mom’s response to my txt asking ‘IS NANA OK???’ with ‘I’m so sorry honey, we really didn’t want to tell you yet but she died last night. She’s finally at peace’.

And it’s weird because I haven’t seen my grandmother in years (she had progressive dementia and didn’t recognize me), but still being so far away and not being able to be there for the funeral, or for my mom to help clear out her apartment was really painful. So after snuggling both my kids, I took off on a mountain hike on our final morning at the B&B Farmstead in Akaroa…and while singing at the top of my lungs to sheep who ran away from me…this is the moment I will remember from the day she died:

So I said goodbye to my Nana on this walk and I know that she is in a happy place.

Off to Mt. Cook now on a 5 hr journey that took us from sun and sea to clouds and rain.

Leo Experience in his words: Today we started off in the beautiful Paua Bay. It was really beautiful and I was really sad that we had to leave, once we got in the car it took us 5 hours to get to Mt. Cook. In Mt. Cook it is raining and I don’t really like that.

We stopped at a really funky restaurant in Geraldine (that’s a funny name) and I had a hamburger and fries. We were supposed to go on a hike today at Lake Tekapo but it was really rainy and we didn’t get to go – I was really sad we didn’t get to go because I didn’t get my candy.

(Erica’s input here – the candy purchased predicated on the children hiking without complaints…they are not hard done by…Leo has had French fries at practically every meal since we’ve been here and neglected to mention the vanilla milkshake at ‘said funky restaurant’)

Leo again: We are staying at motel with a really nice view of the snow capped mountains and I find it crazy that while my friends are at school I get to be 20 ft away from a snowcapped mountain.

Erica’s portion: it’s rainy, freezing and super cloudy. And will stay this way all week…so the glacier boat tour, the 3 hr hike…definitely not gonna happen. I am bummed but I guess it’s better to be stuck in a storm front at the base of a mountain, than being stuck in a beach town when it’s sunny. caveat…with kids. personally I’d trade better weather for the hiking portion of the trip compared to the beach portion but I’m working on the whole – this trip isn’t about me thing….3 days in I’m doing pretty well. Let’s see if it can keep it up.

If it’s still raining tomorrow we’ll back track to Lake Tekapo and maybe pet some alpacas? It’s supposed to be sunny only an hour away but we’ll see!

So as much as I love the intimacy in staying in a bed and breakfast farm…and it’s certainly beautiful and away from the touristy vibe of the town…staying with an older couple who are more of the ‘children should be seen not heard’ variety..makes it tough when you have 2 kids who are jet lagged and want attention.

We did the farm tour in the morning but I only took Leo along since we were informed that other people from a nearby cruise ship were spending a lot of $$ on this tour and they were concerned about children interrupting the speech. Truthfully Stella would have been bored to tears (it was super interesting for me though to hear about the history of Akaroa and farming…and Leo was quiet and somewhat interested). The sheep shearing part was only 2 minutes but was awesome, followed by shepherding dogs who shepherded at least 30 sheep up and down a mountain – super impressive! (Stella played on a wooden swing from a tree and climbed said mountain with Adam.

After the farm tour, Stella and I walked the mountains…and then afternoon was more ‘child’ friendly with a boat tour where we saw a ton of Hector dolphins (the smallest and most unique dolphins in the world) as well as seals and penguins. Just being on the water and riding along the coast (it actually looked a LOT like Mallorca) was refreshing and relaxing.

And now we are all going to sleep at 8pm once we realized that the kids hit a wall of jet lag on day 2 and started an epic battle in the car as Adam wound his way around the mountain (in the wrong direction cuz of me). Tomorrow – a 5 hr journey into what I am told is snow capped mountains, 0 degrees and full snow! (for perspective, today was 18 degrees and sunny).

Everyone was worried about the flights. One 5 hr flight to Vancouver, followed by a 14 hr flight to Auckland, followed lastly by a 1 hr flight to Christchurch. Luckily, the flights were a breeze. Everyone slept for about 8 hours.

From Stella: I was on a plane for 20 hours total. The plane went up and down. I was kind of scared and on one plane there was a ‘seat chat’ – it’s where you type a word and the person in another seat can text you back. I loved it and I watched Secret Life of Pets and Marley and Me. I also liked that there were games too, even though I didn’t understand them.

From Leo: On the first plane to Vancouver I did some math homework. The first few hours on the second plane to Aukland I watched the movie, Dumb and Dumber. After that I slept for 6 hours on the plane, while I was sleeping there were these warm socks and a good pillow to lie down on and the seat went back. We took a 2 hr car ride here and I got us lost in the mountains because I screamed in the car so Daddy missed the turn off. Once we got here it was so beautiful, all the scenery and after that Stella met these 2 girls and they took us up a mountain and it was so crazy to look down and see that we were like 40 meters in the air. I am going to say this to my friends but it’s kind of embarasing that a 5 year old knew how to get up a mountain and I was so scared. Almost right away when my head hit the pillow I fell asleep and it was a nice sleep.

When we landed we got our car and drove an hour and a half to Akaroa – a small town on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand (only 640 people with a school of only 40 kids). We are staying at the Paua Farm – a working farm with 11 herding dogs, too many sheep to count and a few cats and chickens. Stella became fast friends with the couple’s grand-daughters (Bella – 5, and Taylor, 3). Leo thought it was pretty cool that a 5 year old was running around a mountain with her Vishla, and showing a bunch of strangers how the dogs herd the sheep.

Welcome to our travel blog. The kids will be (hopefully) posting/journaling our travel adventures daily so please visit to check out new pictures and details on our travel adventures.