New Zealand: Episode 2 - The Hobbit Strikes Back!

May was a busy month for Blair. In addition to his visit to the States, he was also sent to New Zealand to work for 2 weeks.  Since he had a weekend to spare between his two work weeks, he decided to fly up to Auckland so that he could visit Hobbiton (a few hours away by car).

Although the weather wasn't great, he certainly enjoyed his trip to the Shire. Hobbiton is nestled in the middle of a pasture in little valley not far from Rotorua. It was built by/for Peter Jackson for the Lord of the Rings on what was (and still is) the Alexander Family Farm. The area is heavily maintained by staff (100's of man hours each week) to keep it looking just like it did in the movies, fresh flowers and all!

While there, Blair was able drink some SobeRing beer (the same beer drank on the set of LOTR). What made this even cooler was the fact that he drank that beer in the Green Dragon Pub (which was also used on set).  In addition to this, he was able to see Bilbo's house - one of the 37 hobbit holes on site. Although visitors were not actually allowed to visit inside Bilbo's house (as it's still being used for filming), they were allowed to tour around one of the other hobbit holes.

All in all, it was a fun visit and Blair intends to bring Stacy back there when we visit NZ again this coming February.  Check out some of the pics Blair took while there!

Bilbo's Hole

Australia Kangaroos vs New Zealand Kiwis

On April 19th, Blair and Stacy went to the Canberra Stadium to see the Australia Kangaroos take on the New Zealand Kiwis. This was the first time Canberra hosted a Rugby League Test featuring Australia, and it was done to help celebrate Canberra's 100th birthday.

It was a chilly night in Canberra, but fun nonetheless (15 degrees feels so much colder here, we swear). So as a bonus for sitting out in the cold, Stacy walked away with a cool Kangaroo's scarf to commemorate the occasion. ;)

Opening Ceremony

The Boys!

Some keen NZ fans!

It was a cold 15 degrees!

 

Trip to the US

In May, Blair headed to the U.S. for a work conference. He has been quite fortunate to be able to get back to Canada/the U.S. several times since our move to Australia. During his visit, he was able to visit with friends and do some shopping.  If these goods indicate anything, our little guy is going to be uber spoiled!  Blair picked up all of these things just for him!

And well, Stacy also did some shopping for our little guy while Blair was away...you know...to help pass the time! ;-)

New house!

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog! Life has been a bit hectic lately. ;)

In April, we moved from our downtown apartment to a two-storey home in the suburbs. It became apparent to us (due to having a little one on the way) that we had outgrown our lovely 2-bedroom + office apartment. Although we hated the thought of moving away from the city center, we did think it would be nice to be situated in a quiet neighbourhood again.

We began house hunting in January and stumbled upon this little gem the day before Stacy headed to New Zealand for work. The pictures on the realtor's site seemed too good to be true, so Blair scheduled a viewing when Stacy was away. It turned out that it was the perfect home for us, so Blair submitted a rental application the day before joining Stacy in NZ for a mini-vacation. This meant that we had a bit of paperwork to do before our vacation began, but it was well worth it in the end as the realtor selected us as tenants!

Our new home has 4 bedrooms, a loft with built-in office space, and a living/dining area plus separate family room. The biggest selling features for this home, however, were outdoors - a kitchen, fireplace, and swimming pool!

Here are a few pictures of our new place.

Cairns

Following Mel and Pete's visit to Canberra, they headed up to Cairns to visit more of Australia. Blair decided to join them for a quick getaway.

While in Cairns, the gang decided to take a day trip on the Kuranda Rainforest and Skyrail Tour. This included a ride on the Kuranda Scenic Railway which offered some pretty incredible photo opportunities.

One of the many bridges the train needed to cross

Barren Gorge

After the rail trip, the tour eventually led us to Hartleys Crocodile Adventures. Here they offered close up displays of crocodiles, snakes, spiders, koalas, and several species of birds including cassowaries!

Lots of Crocs!

Cassowary feeding. Possibly more dangerous than feeding Crocs!

The tour was extremely fun and allowed us to see a lot of the wildlife that can be found in Australia. Thanks to Mel and Pete for letting Blair tag along!