Ocean View House and Brighton Beach

The last night of our trip we stayed at a beach house along the East Coast of NZ just before the city of Dunedin.  We knew we would be tired from our long travels and would want a place to relax.  What better place to relax than on the beach.  It was amazing!  Up until this point we had little expectations for the houses we rented or the hotels we had booked.  We were very excited at how great the house was and how amazing the view was for this last house.  I could not have been better.  Our biggest regret was that we were only there for one night.  When we got there, we decided to just stay and play and not drive on into Dunedin to see what that city had to offer.  We were content to stay and play on the beach and we were especially excited that we didn't have to be out of the house until noon the next day.

A screen shot of where we were on the map...

Our Beach house was called "Ocean View" and boy was that a good name for it.

When we got there we quickly went down to the beach to check it out.  It was a beautiful beach with lots of flat sand and a good surf.  We were so excited. We were trying to decide whether to stay at the beach or go into the city.  They quickly decided to stay at the beach and chill.  They were tired of the car.  

Link to Ocean View Brighton Beach first glance video

The girls quickly got changed into their suits and headed for the surf.  It's amazing what they that they are so resilient and don't care at all what the temperature of the water is and if the wind is blowing.  Brady and I were cold and there was no way we were swimming.  We were just along for the beach view and ocean sounds.

Link to Brighton Beach first day 1 video

Link to Brighton Beach first day 2 video

Link to Brighton Beach first day 3 video

Kayla's drawing... surprise, it's a MERMAID!!

Dad and the girls did footprints in the sand... I didn't even know they took this cool picture until I started downloading pic to this blog.  I love it!!  Too bad, I'm not even in this picture.  Somehow, mom's don't get in most pics.

The next morning we got up and went down to the beach again.  The girls didn't wear their suits because we didn't want them getting all in and totally wet and sandy.  We had to leave by noon and didn't have time for showers again, which is essential after a beach visit with all the hair at our house. 

On the little sand trail down to the beach we met up with this friendly guy who had his very hairy dog and two kittens out for a walk.  He was very nice and let us pet his dog.  He even asked Kayla if she wanted to walk his dog the rest of the way down.  

The weather was beautiful that morning and we were in love with the sunshine and the surf.  We walked a long way down the beach in the surf looking for shells and things.  It was warmer and a lot less windy than the day before.

Kayla was very intrigued by the kelp stuff that had washed up on the beach.  I was surprised she would handle it because it was very slimy.  It was very thick and rubber like.  Interesting plant.

love this shot of Ava jumping the wave

19 1/2 years...  that's a long time honey!

HA!!  he'll kill me for putting this one in.  Oh well, he isn't reading my blog so he doesn't know.

love their silhouettes 

Alyssa was getting a large collection of seashells.  She had a plan to make a castle and us the shells to decorate it.  We had no sand toys so we were going to have to compromise.

Alyssa's Sand Castle video

Queens Park and Southland Museum, Invercargill

February 22, 2017

After sleeping in Te Anau a second night, the next morning we got up and headed for Invercargill.  

Invercargill is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial center of the Southland region.

We were ready for lunch when we got into town and Ava was about to head up a revolt for chicken nuggets, so we found a McDonalds.  Proudly, it was the first McDonalds meal we had eaten in since leaving the US.

But this was no American McDonalds.... America, get with the program!!  Apparently, according to Brady, companies (like McDonalds) use New Zealand's markets as sort of a "test kitchen" because NZ is a small, yet very developed country where is can test the waters for certain items and ways of doing things before rolling it out to the rest of the world.  Not just in food items either.  Brady says the Credit Card chip reader was in New Zealand MANY years before they were introduced in the US.  Not even all retailers have the chip readers in the US so some places there are VERY behind according to NZ.  

Anyways, back to McDonalds....  this is a common way to order in a McDonalds here.  On this GIANT touch screen and it's AWESOME!!!  You can clearly see what they offer and find what you want, how much it is, what your total will be.  Then it prints off a slip and you take it to a register... they fill your order and BAM...  It's not always faster, but it's way easier.  Then there's the food.  I had this sandwich off the "Create your own Taste" menu that was AMAZING!!( I just said that.... Amazing at McDonalds).  It came in a longer box and when you opened it, the sandwich was not all put together.  It as two open-faced sides... Veggies and one side of bun, and meat and cheese and these amazing grilled onions on the other side of the bun.  And the bun... it was heaven!!  Everyone ate there nuggets and I indulged without saying a word in my heavenly sandwich. I ate it so intensely that I didn't even get a picture of it.  I didn't even eat any fries.  I didn't want to contaminate my taste buds because I loved my sandwich and wanted that to be my taste memory.  HA!!

We took our order to go and went to a local park that is the city's pride... Queen's Park.  It was a beautiful park.  We have come to know that New Zealand and parks are a class of their own.  They are the most beautiful parks we've ever seen.  They are all so well laid out and planted and taken care off.

We didn't stay long at the park this day because we wanted to drive down into the Catlins before it got dark and then drive all the way back to Invercargill to sleep in an Airbnb house we rented so we had to be on our way only seeing a small sliver of the park.

We returned the next day to see more of the park and get some more pictures and visit the Southland Museum. 

I wanted to take a picture of these signs below to show the year that this park was commissioned. My great-great-great-great Grandfather on my mother's side was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.  He was called on a mission in his early 30's in 1906.  He had a wife and 4 small children.  His name was George W. Stevens and his oldest daughter was my Grandfather's mother.  Unfortunately, he died on his mission after only a few months.  He was found in a river in the winter, not dead yet, after an altercation with a local tribe.  It was in those early years in the 1900's that New Zealand was trying to come to an agreement with early Pacific Islander settler's and there were pockets of tribes that were getting violent with any that looked "European". He was taken to a local hospital in Invercargill were after a few days he died of pneumonia.  The water is so cold in the summer, I can't imagine being in it for a long period of time in the winter.  Especially this far south.  Because I know that parks were a common place for missionaries to preach in those days, and the fact that this park was commissioned in the late 1800's, I'm sure that he was in this park preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Savannah by the rose garden.

Ava, the duck whisperer...

Ava by a statue of Peter Pan.  Somebody had put some roses in Peter Pan's hand.  You can even see Tinker Bell on his shoulder.

The Castle Play place.  Funny, but they were totally not impressed by this.  We we said we were going to find the "castle" that was on the park map,, they were expecting something very different.  When we got to it they were disappointed and we didn't stay long.

We didn't stay long at the castle and headed into the Southland Museum.

This museum is famous in New Zealand for its "Dinosaur lizard" named Henry.  He is a Tuatara Lizard and this one was said to be over a 100 years old.  They had his "wife" and some teenagers in there too.

I wasn't aware of the below story/exhibit but was excited that it had ties to Utah!!

Kayla standing next to a Moa leg bone.  They were GIANT birds that used to live in New Zealand.  They are extinct now because they were all hunted by the Moari's.

Alyssa with some stuffed Kiwi Birds.  They are nocturnal birds and are shy so it's nearly impossible to see them in the wild.

Some primitive fish hooks for Dad

This is so funny!  I found this picture on Brady's camera.  I never even saw this thing in the museum.  They must have!  They look so funny

After exploring the museum on Feb 23, we headed towards our next house we were staying in on Brighton Beach.  We were going to check it out and then see what we wanted to do next.  We were nearing the end of our southern tour trip and we are all getting worn out.  We may just want to relax because our next house is ON THE BEACH!!