Remember when Sydney went to Chengdu back in the fall? Well, now it's Alex's turn. The Middle Schoolers get a trip called Peak. The High Schoolers get a trip called Interim. Same thing but the big kids get to go a whole lot further. In our case, to New Zealand!
This Friday, Alex catches a 7:15 pm flight to Auckland and then connects on a flight to The Adventure Capital of the World, that would be Queenstown, and arrives there on Saturday at 4:15 pm. About 10 hours from here to Auckland and then only about 2 hours to Queenstown. Not really a 24 hour trip since they cross the date line, which is a confusing entity in and of itself (wiki about date line), and gain a day.
On this trip, the main event will be a visit to the Shotover Canyon Swing. Kind of a bungee / swing thingy. Check out the videos on their website by clicking the link. In short, it's a thrill seekers dream. Standing above a raging river, you can leap, be pushed or launch yourself into the massive abyss below. Once you reach the length of your rope, your momentum swings you back into a long, arcing flight. 109M high, a 60M free fall and a 200M swing. By the way, they sell extra panties if you can't handle it.
Also on tap is a service project in one of the National Parks, lots of rock climbing, mountain biking, horse back riding, a night on a charter yacht on Milford Sound, and even a trip into Middle Earth. They get to hike and then camp in the wilderness area where they filmed Lord of the Rings. Best I can tell, they head up the southern route to Rivendell and then spend the night in the Misty Mountains. At least that's what it looks like on the map in my crumpled copy of The Hobbit.
They are also supposed to spend a night in Christchurch but that may be cancelled due to the earthquake that devastated that town about a week ago. My vote would be to see if there is some type of service they can perform there. Heaven knows, they need all the help they can get right now.
Here's a free plug for the company that organizes these trips, Little Brown Kiwi.
He's not much of a photographer but hopefully, I can bribe him into taking some photos. Maybe he'll even write a few lines about his adventures here (yeah right, kind of like Sydney did).
In other news, Sydney finally had her 13th Birthday party last weekend. A bit late but it's never too late to have more than ten 13 year old girls over for a sleepover! I never realized but these girls can eat as much as the boys!
Julie is as busy as ever but fortunately for us has been staying local recently. Although a couple of trips are on the near horizon.
The helper search is on but not progressing very quickly. Hopefully we can find someone soon. The bathrooms are really getting dirty!
