Ruby Bay overview

After a month of little to no wi-fi we really couldn't do much blogging.  It was a quiet month with a few walks in the hills and along the beaches, a couple hikes, playing at playgrounds, looking for shells and rocks, a bit of actual book work, kids cooking dinners, a huge hike for Conrad and the older 2 kids and lots of napping and gestating for me (haha!).  We met some wonderful people in the congregation in Nelson who welcomed us for the month and opened their homes to us.  It's been such a neat experience for us to meet so many people who have the same purpose in life and often the time just feels too short but we thank God for the blessing they've all been to us!

The view from our "home" was just gorgeous!  So many beautiful sunrises!

 
After a few days of heavy rain we found mushrooms like this popping up.  We never knew fairy tale mushrooms were real!  Haha :)

One day we hiked up to Rawhiti Cave and also visited Te Waikoropupu Springs.  The cave was a huge open air cave which is pretty unique.  Because there's light, plants like moss and algae grow on the stalactites and when they get covered with calcite the stalactites "grow" towards the light.

Sadly we lost our camera cord so these are all phone pictures.  Either way though it's so hard to capture the immensity of the cave.  It was amazing.

Te Waikoropupu Springs was really neat too.  The largest cold water springs in New Zealand and such clear water.  Was way better in real life than these pictures.

A friendly weka greeted us by our car :)

A few pictures from around "home".

We got the kids to each do a project on 2 different birds native to New Zealand.  Here's one from each:

Lukas

Tessa

Sophie

Anneke

We also did a hike with a family from the church just outside of Nelson.  It was a great day of being outdoors and getting to know them! 

The big hike of Conrad, Anneke and Lukas will come in a different post.

And then our month was over and it was time to say goodbye!

Nelson Bay

We stayed one night in Picton before taking the ferry back to the north island.  A beautiful harbour!  We spent some time playing on the park and walking through town before catching an afternoon ferry.

And then, especially for me, the exhaustion, nausea, nervous excitement, etc. of carrying another little family member will define our time in Ruby Bay.  I was very thankful we weren't on the road every day and I could take a nap when I needed!