Joyce: "I liked everything except when the policeman pulled Oak over and made him stop driving."
-Mike and I were both in the front seat with Oak and hadn't noticed any indiscretions - are we that oblivious? Another driver had called the police hotline because they had seen our van crossing the middle line. Multiple times.
Me: "You don't need to take a full bag of apples and a full bag of oranges in your pack. We'll never eat all those."
Oak: "Training."
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| Do you need that big pack for a day hike? |
Mike to Joyce: "Do you want to go back?"
Joyce: "NO!"
- I caught my breath when Mike asked Joyce this question, and could hardly believe Joyce's emphatic response. Joyce, in a rare show, was having a serious meltdown 1.5 km into our Mueller Hut hike. She got determined, however, and there weren't any more tears. We got back to our car about 9 hours later, and she was asleep before we'd even left the parking lot.
Holly: "Let's ask every hiker that we pass one of the questions from the UnGame."
-my idea didn't get any traction among the rest of the family, unfortunately.
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| Skiing on Oak's arm - Joyce's favorite part of the Mueller Hut hike |
hiker: "I got pranked so bad!!!!"
-at the treeline on the Mt. Alfred hike, there is an intimidating sign stating that the mountaintop is accessible only with guides from a certain private company. On the way down the trail, Mike pretended to be a guide from this company when he passed 2 hikers from Aussie going up. I heard the yelling and laughing from a distance, and when I passed the hikers a little later, I asked what happened.
Mike to Mercy at the top of the Routeburn trail: "You don't need to run further with Oak, it's totally up to you, we are absolutely not putting on pressure for you to go if you don't want to."
Oak: "Strava puts on pressure."
-gotta love Strava
Oak, when he saw this picture: "No wonder I am so fast."
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| "No wonder I am so fast." |
-maybe so, but New Zealand is sounding better every minute.
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| One idea from the NZ Frenzy that didn't work out so well. We found a beautiful swimming hole, though! |
Joyce: "How long more of driving?"
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| "How long more of driving?" |
Mike at dinner: "Just so you know how neurotic about fishing I am, I've thought about getting up in the middle of the night when you are all sleeping to go and fish the lake down the road because the brown trout feed at night. I won't do it, but I've thought about it."
-is this supposed to be comforting?
Oak, near the end of our vacation: "I feel like my friends are all going to be so much more fit than me when I get home from this holiday."
-Mike and I gave each other a look, since we were feeling much MORE fit than usual after our 2-week holiday. Tired and stiff, even.
Local Maori kids: "Where you from, boy?"
Oak: "New Plymouth"
Kids: "No wonder. They pop some good ones up there."
-Oak looks like a foreign tourist until he pops a manu jumping into the Pelorus gorge, last stop before getting on the ferry.
