Sept. 10 - Basketball in New Zealand!

I am still finding things to do while I am here in New Zealand without Brian.  I think my bosses take pity on my being alone so I get invited to a bunch of extra stuff!  On Tuesday, 10 September I went to a basketball game at CBS Canterbury Arena with several of our clients and their children.  It was a great event!

The NZ Breakers are the only New Zealand based basketball team in the Australian National Basketball League.They normally play in Auckland, but play a few other locations throughout the year such as the game in Christchurch that we went to.  The Breakers played the Melbourne Tigers.

The arena is pretty small compared to NBA arenas in the US - but it was packed full.

For those that know me well, you know that I LOVE SOUVENIRS. So I bought myself a program for the night's game. I literally laughed out loud when I opened the program and in addition to the rosters for the two teams, there was also a summary of the rules for basketball included. Do they do that in the NBA? I don't recall ever seeing one.  Maybe they did it because basketball is relatively new in popularity in New Zealand. Who knows - but I thought it was hilarious.

We had some extreme fun at the end of the game.  There was a severe weather watch at the end of the night.  Never would have guessed it before the game, but as we left a north westerly wind really started to pick up.  I'm really glad my boss, Malcolm Hudson, was driving because I was scared! As the wind continued getting faster and faster, we started seeing branches, garbage, and even trash cans get picked up and carried by the wind.  Debris was flying all around us! It was like an obstacle course getting home.

As I was trying to sleep that night (with no luck because the wind was blowing trees against the house so hard) I looked up on MetService that winds were at 72km/h with gusts reaching 100km/h (or 62 mph in terms we all understand)!!!  It was nuts.  I tried to take some video on the ipad, but it was just too dark so I took a picture of a huge tree that was completely uprooted in the park near our house. It was very sad to see.

Sept. 7 - Skiing @ Mount Hutt

Yes, I went skiing! I was a bit nervous to accept the invitation from my work buddies because I am pretty sure I was about 17 the last time I went skiing. Considering that's almost half my lifetime ago, I wasn't sure if the adage "it's like riding a bike" would apply.  However, I am in New Zealand and am committed to experiencing new things so I took the plunge! (literally, in a few instances)

As we started driving, it was hard to believe we were going to ski.  The grass is green, flowers are blooming, and it's officially spring in New Zealand.  But you can see some snow-capped mountains off in the distance.

Getting closer...

There was a lot more snow as we got higher into the mountains.

Looking out across the valley from the mountains. The plains were so beautiful! Kinda hard to tell in the picture though how green and fertile everything looked in the valley.

And then there was snow!!!

Putting on all our gear...

Don't I look pro?

Kelly Murphy

Ryan Pengelly

 And we're ready to rock'n'roll

Too bad there is no evidence of my truly fantastic spills.  I didn't fall too often, but when I did, I did it with flare.  We had a great day!  I am glad my work buddies are at the same beginner level as me.  Can't wait to go again next winter.

Yellowstone Part V: Family Pictures

We took a lot of pictures of ourselves in addition to all the animals.  Here are a few!

My Fellow photographer - PARKER

Miss Averie. I stopped to take a picture of her at Gibbon Falls and she started posing like a model. I kept clicking and she kept posing. I took about 20 consecutive shots of her - it was hilarious.  Here are a few:

And now to the family pics at the various sites we visited:

Family pic! Thanks Ash for taking the picture -
Dad, Lisa, Benson, Mom, Austin, Adry, Averie, Parker & Kristynn

Mammoth Hot Springs - Upper Terrace

Mammoth Hot Springs - Lower Terrace

Mammoth Hot Springs

Cute baby Benson @ Mammoth Hot Springs

Lisa, Parker & Averie @ Gibbon Falls

Lisa, Kristynn & Adry @ Gibbon Falls

Mom & Dad @ Gibbon Falls

Dad, Austin, Adry & Parke @ Fountain Paint Pots

Parker, Averie & Benson @ Fountain Paint Pots -
Averie was so helpful! Not sure what Parker was doing haha.

Parker & Averie @ Grand Prismatic Spring in Midway Geyser Basin

Austin & Adry @ Old Faithful

Kristynn, Ashlee & Benson with the Black Bear

Austin & Adry with bison & swans

Yellowstone Part IV: Yellowstone Sites

And the fun continues! While most of the animals we saw were with our small little group of early risers, we did see some of the other sites with most of the family.

Fountain Paint Pots

Gibbon Falls

Mammoth Hot Springs

Midway Geyser Basin - Grand Prismatic Spring

Unfortunately it was so cold that there was an extraordinary amount of steam coming off the geyser.  Usually the Grand Prismatic Spring looks incredible with the copper color of the clay contrasting with the turquoise water. 

Old Faithful - Going...Going...Gone!

Other Landscapes Along the Way

Yellowstone Part III: Yellowstone Wildlife

Yes, we actually entered the national park!  I am so glad we were here this week because the awesome government shutdown began two days after we returned home.  Talk about good timing!

Can I just take one second to say I love our new camera!  I had a blast taking as many pictures as I could. Although I think Parker still beat me on overall number of pictures taken inside the park.

Anyway...Ashlee, Lisa, Parker and I got up at 5:30 am to head into the park. Unfortunately it was snowing so it took twice as long to get there, effectively negating our early rise.  Many of the animals are out only early in the morning so we were concerned that we would miss out on some of the more rare sights, but we were lucky this year!  We saw not one, not two, but three bears!!!

Bears

Bear #1 - A cute little cub.  Others around us thought it was a black bear. No sign of mama bear anywhere.

We were pretty close to this guy - you can sort of tell from this pic of Parker.

 

Bear #2 - An adult black bear.  This guy was pretty far away, but he looked cool against the snow that had fallen.

This next picture is zoomed all the way in on my big lens. Pretty decent compared to the one above!

Bear #3 - Grizzly bear!  Even though this grizzly wasn't full grown, we were still a little nervous to get out of the car for this picture!

Okay, we did see a whole bunch of other animals in addition to the bear.  

Bison

Firstly, there were a ton of bison as usual. I say bison and not buffalo because if you have ever spoken to Brian you will know that he cares deeply about calling them by the correct name. Apparently, buffalo are only in Africa and the bison has just been incorrectly called buffalo for hundreds of years. So we saw bison.

I always find it interesting that the animals wander so closely to geysers. I guess they can tell if they are getting too hot. Here is an example.

The next picture is part of a funny story.  While we were driving into the area where bears and wolves can usually be seen, we came across a small herd of bison off the side of the road.  We stopped for a second so that we could take some close up pictures.  While we were stopped, the herd decided it should cross the road in front of us.  We decided to wait it out because those horns can do some serious damage to a car.

Just as the herd was about across, they changed their minds and went back again.  It took forever! I think the guy in front knew exactly what he was doing...

Elk

There were a few different elk herds near the West Yellowstone entrance.  The female pictured below was close enough to touch.  I think Parker would have if we would have let him!  We also saw quite a few bull elk. I think we decided the first one pictured below was a 5-point and the second was a 4-point.

Moose

Okay, the moose we technically saw outside the cabin and not in Yellowstone.  But hey, this is where I am putting all of the animal pictures so it works for me.  I think it would be an incomplete year at the cabin if we didn't see moose outside at some point.  On this particular evening, we saw a mother and its baby.  By the time I got the right lens on the camera, I could only get a good pic of the baby.

Here is where I got into a little trouble with Brian. As I was chasing after the mother and her baby, suddenly a Bull Moose appeared out of nowhere.  We don't see too many of the bulls and they are not very nice.  Of course I stopped to take a picture before skedaddling out of there before it could charge after me!

Pronghorn Deer

We stopped several times in the hopes that we were sighting some wolves or coyotes from a far distance, but it usually turned out to be pronghorn deer.  These three were running all over the place.

Swans

We had fun watching these two swans floating down the river.  After they would get about 100-200 yards from where they wanted to be, they would take flight and start all over again.