Zurich

There are lots of things you can't do on a tram in Zurich.
You can't smoke a giant stoogie or sit with your head in a cloud, you mustn't bring your saw and cut the seats up, you mustn't put your ice-climbing boots on the seats, you mustn't play your guitar and sing and you may not be a povo (I guess that in a banking center that makes sense).

Switzerland

We got lost and ended up in Switzerland.
Then a week or so later we went there on purpose.

The border pass at Morgins.

WARNING!!! BOOBS AHEAD!!!!

Lake Geneva.

The Big Banana!! Coffs Harbour eat your heart out.


The awesome and slightly odd clockwork cow at a Swiss roadhouse.

Morzine

The road home.

The view from our balcony.

Annecy

In Annecy I3 decided that when he's grumpy he won't pose for photos. Luckily he wasn't grumpy often.

Bee would prefer it if I didn't call this structure his erection..

mmmmm sugary....., luckily the boys didn't realise they were edible.

Versailles.

Y5 was rather disappointed the King and Queen didn't come and greet him.
He was a bit more cheerful when he found out that it wasn't personal because they're dead.
"Did the electric kill them?"
"No, the guillotine did"
"Was the guillotine electric?"


Y5 in the garden at the Triannon.

Cite de sciences et de l'industrie

Cite de sciences et de l'industrie

The most awesome museum for children ever. The boys went crazy until it was time to go. When he had to leave I3 chucked a massive tanty, then went to sleep within about 5 seconds of his bum hitting the sofa.

Passion

Yasin (looking at an ad) - "What does that say?"

Me - "To sart a business you need passion"

Yasin (after a moments thought) - "Well, passion is dangerous stuff"

Were you naughty?

Y - Mum, were you ever naughty when you were little?
Me - Yes.
Y - Well then, I'm going to take your book away!!

Doh!!!

After Halloween

Y- Mummy, after Halloween I'm going to let you go.
Me- Where?
Y- I don't care, you can just go!

I love this photo

My little man giving his best smile for the camera!

Some pics of us in NZ

Im playing on a Tractor in Twizel.


















Me and the boys in the Cadrona carpark


















Me and Im waiting for Y to finish his lesson.
























B and the boys in Cathedral Square, Christchurch.























B and the boys on the tram in Christchurch. Im has his little kiwi beanie on.

Wanaka

Wanaka is lovely. It's a friendly little ski resort town in a rural area with an international population (in winter probably not so much in summer). It has posh little coffee shops jostling up against huntin' fishin and shootin stores. The bakery sells great coffee and there are some wonderful little restaurants.
The park by the lake has a dinosaur slide and lots of swings, slides and so on so it gets the boy's vote too. Ya went a little crazy on the slide. He perfected sliding down backwards on his back - luckily there was no drop at the end so he just whizzed across the plastic mat onto the wood chips.



















































































On our last day we visited Puzzling World. We got hopelessly lost in the maze. We found all the corners but the exit defeated us so eventually we just used one of the cheat's exits.
























Y shows the way.


















The Leaning Tower of Wanaka. The clock is going backwards.

Bridges and Roads

The roads in NZ are crazy and the bridges are the craziest part. Many of them are one way. There is no system to the one-way-ness. On one bridge you'll have way and on the next the oncoming car will have right of way. You just have to look out for the tiny sign with a red and white arrow as you approach. If you have the red arrow you wait if you have the white arrow you go. On the very long bridges they have stopping bays so you can drive part way then pull into the bay, let the oncoming car go past and then drive on.
We saw lots more of the roads than we intended because we made the classic mistake of taking the scenic route; "it will only add an extra hour or two". When we found ourselves high in the mountains, in an avalanche prone area, on a narrow slippery road, at night in the middle of a torrential downpour we questioned the wisdom of that choice.


















Bridge 8153 over Fish river - our right of way.























































Did I mention that lots of the bridges were really narrow?























This bridge is called The Gates of Haast. It's a shame that a photo can't convey just how noisy and powerful the waterfalls here are.



















B's favourite sign. Unfortunately it did not indicate a hazard from pert breasts by the road :(

The boys skied

Oh yes they did and here is the proof!!




Ya rode the chairlift and skied back down the bunny slope.




Ya nearly fell over the edge. B is very proud that he is already gearing up to jump off cliffs. Did I mention that B jumped off a little cliff? Now he's an extreme sportsman!! Oh yes he is.




Im rode the magic carpet!




And then he skied down! His report card that day said he needed to listen to his teacher.... sound familiar? Poor little guy - he's only 3 and already he's getting the 'should try harder/could do better' spiel.

Cardrona Pictures

We skied at Cardrona. I was too busy skiing to remember to take many photos but I managed to take a few.




















The road up was an eye opener. Muddy and slippery and icy with huge drops and no guard rails.



















Here's the car park. Does a blog get any more exciting than this? I don't think so.



































Mountains views, blah. Seen one seen 'em all....

Photos From The NZ Trip.

Some photos of the scenery taken as we drove through New Zealand.





































All the photos above were taken on the highway between Christchurch and Wanaka via Mt Cook.










There are lots of lakes cluttering up the landscape.















More lake action.













Another lake *yawn*










On the coast of The South Island. It wasn't windy when we drove through. The trees grow like this because of the winds.