More!

Magda did a great job! Now I will add some more pictures.

Amy took the train from Christchurch to Greymouth (about 1.5hr drive south of us) so we collected her from Greymouth and had a beautiful drive back on Thursday. I had Friday and Monday off, so we had a great long weekend to explore! Friday we went to the girls' assembly, then went exploring beaches.

Lunch and a rest at the church pew at Carter's beach.

After school brought the girls to the park and stopped by the dahlias (of course. Who wants to bet on the number of pics of the same patch of dahlias that will make it on this blog?? :) ha.)

The girls had movie night, and Aim and I went exploring to the beaches at dusk to see if we could spot penguins. Still no. But the GIANT moon was worth it!

Birds on a beach. Just no penguins.

The next day we went south to the Pancake Rocks.

It rained on us! Van (sorry, Violet) borrowed Aim's rainjacket.

And then took a rest.

Stopped at the Punakaiki Cavern (aptly named for the nearby town of Punakaiki)-we didn't have any torches so we need to go back and explore! The girls are very excited about it.

Violet in a cave!

Lu in a cave!

Lu on big rocks!

I will never tire of these views. Since we had Amy with I got to use her as an excuse to stop at a bunch of places that I've been wanting to stop at when we drive! (thanks Aim)

Josh and a strange tumor.

The next day we went north to Karamea and the Oparara Basin.

Gorgeous day!

Lots of pretty Franks and views!

Found a little beach-lots of great rock throwing! (Just watch your head while Violet is around)

Love. So much love.

Most of the rivers that we have seen are quite blue and green-but the Oparara River apparently ranges in colors from golden-brown to red by naturally occurring tannins form certain plants that grow in the area.

Oparara Arch is the largest natural rock arch in the southern hemisphere!

Mushrooms! Turns out there are super cute blue mushrooms found in New Zealand, that is also now on my list of things to find.

FYI, didn't find one this time.

hi cuties!

The tiniest little mushroom.

Frank and her Fern!

orange mushrooms.

orangey mushrooms.

reddish mushrooms.

Moria Gate Arch!

Explorers.

More fun caverns!

Love the face.

And all of these faces.

Frank closed her eyes on PURPOSE for ALL of the pictures that Amy nicely took. What a little twerp. (twerp? what is a twerp?? perhaps the best line of the entire movie 'The Chipmunks Great Adventure.')

hi!

Karamea shoreline.

Monday morning we went to the beach to see if we could find dolphins. There were a few! But also glorious beautiful waves to watch.

It almost looks icy.

Hi Josh!

Random art on the beach.

Bye Amy! We had such fun!

One of the beaches right by the airport-so we wrote some messages!

And some body boarding.

Till next time!