The other night we went out to the beach. Its very close to the city. Its beautiful and this photo quite remarkeably catches amazing texture and light. Back there are the mountains as well. Mountains and Beach...quite a place.

At Sumner in Christchurch. You always have to include one of the arm hold out camera shots.

Here is the Birthday Mike. On Saturday we went over to the beach for a dinner out provided by the birthday money from Mom. This part of Christchurch is called Sumner. It was lovely.

'Mike's Birthday Breakfast' prepared by Liz. The Cammocks have birthday breakfasts. It was amazing...cereal, homemade museli, bacon, eggs, candy, cake, apricot balls dipped in chocolate, bagels....Amazing.

As you can see everyone is happily eating even at 7:30AM....yummy goodness. Tom, Sasah, Mack, Vylma (Mike's Grandma), and the side of Jenny's face.

These are our good friends Tom and McGregor.

Mike and Mack. Since this photo Mack has wacked off his hair.

Here they are...my lil Taiwanese genius students. Rachel, Sandy, and David. I taught them every morning for the past 7 weeks. It was a blessing of a job that just sort of happened into our laps. It was quite fun. Mike taught their parents, Angus and Ruth, several times a week as well so they have been a part of our lives but no more.

Here we are. I wonder if I will ever kick the 'Teacher Chris' thing. Mostly the called me teacher and when I wanted to trick them I would ask them what my name was and they would say "Teacher!"...no my real name. "Uhhhhhh (pause) Ka-Ree-suh" You got it!

Rachel. She is Angus' niece and very funny. She has a raspy lil voice and loves speaking english. She is hilarious.

Intensely playing with the gadgets that came from their country. I guess they don't get these because they are immediatley shipped out to every other country in the world.

Mike with Angus. Angus is a millionaire back in Taiwan and bought his family residency here in NZ. You would never know he was loaded but he is very kind man. He loves NZ but his wife isn't so enthusiastic about it. He considers Mike his 'wery good friend'.

Angus and Chris....he didn't know his name was a kind of cow.' I want change my name' he said

So this is the track at the local cart racing place in Christchurch. Mike took Jenny and I the other week and then went back for some birthday runs. The top speed on the board is 15:21 and Mike got 15:97 the other day. Pete says he is going to go into full body training so he can beat Mike's time. This could be good.

It was hard to get photos in there but Mack and Mike are there somewhere. Those lil carts are really fast. Mike loves this.

This is Mike going by. He got his fastest time the other day. 15:97. That's his new name. Hey. 15:97. 15:97 could you come here? He's very close to getting on the top 10 fast people. Too bad its 20$ for 15 minutes. If anyone wants to contribute to his quest to make the top 10 I can get you our account details...hee hee hee

Here begins the weekend to Queenstown. The reason I use this picture as the title photo is because this is how Jenny spent most of the time in the car. As you will soon see, there are magnificant sights to see. Although I was reminded in the trip that teenagers will be....this. HA! We had a great trip, fine weather and Mike and I were able to take a little drive down our "roadtrip of Love 2003". Here goes.

Before we headed out Mike had to change the oil in the car...but it was a little more diffcult than he thought. What doesn't he do? Well he tries to do as much as he can.

I was on board as photographer...see Jenny in the back? Our camera is working miracles now as you will see in the following photos.

Mike our trusty driver.

Jenny in the back...she slept through a significant amount of the trip.

This is Ben Chardome...Ben has known Mike and I (as a together entity) right from my first trip to NZ. He has seen us through it all. We have a very special something for this guy. He is fantastic. This photos was taken after he had cooked breakfast for his Branch (he is the pres). Ahhh Ben. I look forward to our trips to Q-town to see him.

====

--

Jenny's first touch of snow. This is a moment captured.

Here we are posing with fists of snow. Okay. Hope this gets better.

We had to make it look like we were really getting into it. Believe us?

Take that...word...man...snow....yeah....cool face Chris. What's up with my faces?

Here we are Mike and Chris.

I almost look really cool in this photo...except for my face. what am I doing?

Here Jenny hold the snow. Yeah, like that. Smile!

Mike sort of egged her on so that we could get a little action going on here and not just still snow playing. Remember this is her first time to snow.

She got him...

I think this is a funny shot...yep.

This is the view coming down the mountain looking towards Queenstown.

We went to this little village where the Chinese settlement was back during the Gold Rush here in Arrowtown. We thought Jenny might enjoy it. I don't know how they survived in these houses without freezing to death...Notice my little peace sign...remnants of my Taiwan days.

We went to the Arrowtown Bakery per advice of Ben...really good pies. Chicken Satay and Chicken Apricot. Jenny was quite the fan.

Mike eats a pie. Really good pies in Arrowtown and its quite a fun lil town...for the tourist but hey.

This is taken right outside of Ben's front window. Not bad huh?

Queenstown has this Lake that the city wraps around and these mountains that plunge into the lake. Maybe for people that are from here, its just like another sort of resortish town, but its incredible.

Dad, this is yet another amazing road for motorbiking. And for everyone else...its an amazing road to drive on as well but I can only imagine how much fun it would be on a bike.

I went for a little walk up behind Ben's house and this is what I found. I know I know...when does it stop? The magnificant landscapes...

These are The Remarkables. Yes, you may recognize them from some LOTR. They are what they say they are.

New Zealand (well the South Island) is the land of contrasts. Aesthetically speaking...its very very pleasing the eye.

After leaving Q-town the road takes you into these cool sort of mountain plains with huge bumping hills. The road winds right through them here.

The clouds out there in the distance are covering Mt. Cook which is the tallest mountain here in New Zealand. I have actually never seen it in all the drives to and from Queenstown. Someday but even without the Mt. this landscape is amazing.

Every time I go past this scene I take lots of photos. That water and those mountains. Although I have only been here in the winter.

This is lake Tekapo and the Mountains around Mt. Cook. It was a remarkable day.

This road takes you into so many different landscapes. It's beautiful. Great for motorcylces.....dad.

Heading back to the Canterbury Plains and to Christchurch. See the sheep? Oh the sheep!