Sunny Christchurch
We are having a lovely time in Christchurch staying with Angus and Janet. This morning Isla, Paul and I enjoyed another walk on the beach by their house. Here is Isla showing off her good sitting in the tussocks and walking with her Dad. 
Later on in the morning we went to the Arts Center in Christchurch with Stewart and Kathy to have a look around. We all enjoyed some souvilaki in the sun and wandering around all the stores and stalls. Kathy was not impressed by the blurry photo of her I put up last time so I have carefully chosen one where Kathy looks great, unfortuntely the boys not so much!
Isla Socializing
Isla has been busy socializing since she has been home. Last night we had a great time having a meal with Stewart and Kathy at their new house. Isla initially enjoyed her time with Uncle Stewart, as you can see in the first photo. 
She quite quickly decided that she would prefer to be held by Mum or Dad and just admire Stewart from a distance… 
Isla also had a fun day today when we went out to visit two of my good friends, Cindy and Melz. Isla got the chance to play with Melz’s very cute two year old daughter Mikayla. They both kept us very busy (Mikayla especially who managed to pack a lot of activity into a couple of hours!).
Finally here is Isla showing off her newest trick- she has just discovered her feet and is enjoying sucking on her toes!!
I hope everyone is well and we are very excited about heading further South on Sunday!
First few days in New Zealand
Isla has been taking a few days to recover from her long flight and has been keeping us fairly busy with a bit of crotchety behavior. Hopefully she will settle back into her routine quite quickly. The first photo is the night we arrived, talking on the phone with Mum and Dad. As you can see Isla was feeling in need of some Mum snuggles and was feeling a bit tender. We went for a nice walk on the beach yesterday, Angus and Janet’s new house is right on the beach. We spent quite a lot of time last night admiring the two little cousins together. Very cute, Isla did look a little giant like next to her tiny cousin though! 
New NZ phone
Hello folks. We have a new NZ sim card for while we are over. Our cell number here is 021 023 47339. Please send us a txt with yours! April will have this number for the next five weeks. Paul.
We Made It!!
We made it to New Zealand and were very glad to get to Christchurch and be met at the airport by Angus. Isla was a wonderful little girl and except for some very loud unhappiness when we descended into Christchurch, behaved very well. She slept beautifully on the flight from San Francisco to Auckland and we were lucky enough to get one of the baby basinetts. We were very glad we made her little bed and she slept in it on the floor under the seats on some of our shorter flights as well as slept under chairs in the various airports enroute. Angus, Janet and Isabel are away to a funeral this afternoon, so we are enjoying a quiet afternoon getting settled in. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon! Love April, Paul and Isla
First Swing
Today was a day of firsts for Isla since she joined us on our school field trip and also had her first go on a swing! Paul brought her down so that she could have lunch with my class and I, and afterwards stayed to have a play with us in the park. She had her first little swing which she seemed to enjoy fairly well (more so than me- I was hovering anxiously making sure she didn’t fall out!). Time we got her a real sun hat with all this sun we are having in Seward. Only three more sleeps till we leave Alaska to begin our trip to New Zealand, we are in the midst of packing and organizing. It was the last day of school with children for me today and we have a staff work day tomorrow then it is all over for the year.
Love April, Paul and Isla 
Isla Cooing
Isla Cooing from AlaskaNewZealand.com on Vimeo.
Isla’s New Beds
Hello Folks,
We are getting to travel and the summer is here. Isla was getting moskito bites in the night so we have set up a moskio net over her bed. April calls it her ‘Princess Bed’ The other bed is one that we made for her for the trip. Something to keep a bit of familiarity through the trip. We are hoping that it will make her sleep better. We though about this project for weeks and were able to knock it out in about two hours.
Isla and Howie Time
Grandpa Howie and Isla Time from AlaskaNewZealand.com on Vimeo.
Best Field Trip Ever!!!
Today I was lucky enough to take my class out on a Renown Whale Watching Tour, courtesy of Tom. It was awesome! We had a fantastic time and got to see a bunch of wildlife. The highlights were definitely the Dahl’s porpoise who played in the bow wake and Orca whales. The porpoise were too fast to get any really good photos but the Orca swam right behind the boat and we got a great look. They were also doing some spy hopping which was cool to see, again I was too slow with my camera. The children were very excited and all declared it the best field trip ever!
