Easter has always been a special occasion for us – filled with tradition, family and friends. It feels strange being half way around the world away from home this weekend. We associate Easter with spring time things – like tulips blooming, melting ice on the lake, and budding trees. Here in New Zealand, it’s full on Autumn – with colourful leaves falling, a crispness in the air, and snow on the peaks of the Southern Alps. Of course we’re always excited to be in the mountains and see snow in the alpine – so we’re happy to embrace a different Easter this year.
We’ve just been through seven straight days of rain and even drove through the remnants of a cyclone which gave Kari a pit in her stomach that has just started to ease. Finally on Good Friday, we saw some sunshine after arriving in Wanaka – a place which we fell in love with right away.
Wanaka is about an hour north of Queenstown in the Central Otago region of the South Island. We were not planning on staying here originally – thinking that we’d drive through and be in Queenstown for Easter. However, we ended up staying three days and loved every minute of it. This town has a unique feel and atmosphere which we’ve been trying to articulate. It’s something of a mix between Fernie and Whistler British Columbia. There’s an obvious love of outdoor living, family and enjoying the simple things in life here.
Good Friday started with our tradition of painting Easter Eggs – usually enjoyed with the Rogers kids every year (miss you guys!!). There was less to work with for our decoration supplies in the camper van – but we got creative and used what we had at hand. Crayola Crayons melted with a candle make for simplified Ukrainian Easter Eggs!
Our decorated easter eggs ended up being a great lunch as well!
On Saturday we stocked up on our Easter groceries and wine selections and were lucky to come across a local Rugby match. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing how rough and crazy this game is. Kai loved it – and Vea was shocked that the players didn’t wear any protective gear. Norrie and Kari were happy to discover that beer and cider are sold at rugby matches as a fundraiser for the teams. How civilized!
Rugby and beer – a good combination!
Easter Sunday was an incredible day from dusk to dawn. Vea awoke with squeals of joy as she saw signs that the Easter Bunny had indeed found the Bula Bus here in New Zealand. It’s amazing how ‘EB’ can place and hide those eggs in the most unique places.
After the egg hunt, we decided to fulfill one of our Easter traditions back home with a cold lake swim. The traditional Easter lake swim was started by Kari’s dad years ago in Big Hubley Lake, and has grown to an annual event for many in the neighbourhood. There’s always a friendly rivalry to see who has the courage to jump in the water first. Since we’re a day ahead of everyone back home with our time-zone, we took the prize this year by jumping in Lake Wanaka! It was great to hear about friends and family back home doing their own Easter swim too.
A warm moment before our cold Easter swim in lake Wanaka.
After warming our numb bodies, we treated ourselves to a fantastic Easter brunch in town. This is our first time eating out in New Zealand – so Kai and Vea were very excited. The restaurant we found was named ‘Kai Whaka Pai’ and every dish had the word ‘Kai’ in the name.
It was shaping up to be a gorgeous fall day with no wind, a warm sun and colours in the trees which were so bright they almost looked neon. Perfect conditions for renting mountain bikes and exploring the amazing network of trails here. Right from town the trails range from leisurely family trails to custom built mountain bike tracks and jump parks. It was a great way to spend the day, and we’re quickly realizing that renting and riding bikes in New Zealand is one of our favourite things to do. It is expensive however – so we have to pick and choose the times and places.
Vea riding on the beach by lake Wanaka with fall colours in the trees.
We ended Easter Sunday by enjoying an incredible dinner. With our limited kitchen capacity in the camper, we decided to create some gourmet ‘packets’ for the BBQ. Unni invented these BBQ packets years ago, and we’ve enjoyed them many times. They’re simple to create, and each time they turn out different depending on the added ingredients. Our packets were filled with fresh salmon, baby potatoes, peppers, black beans, garlic, basil, olive oil, ginger, fresh lime juice and balsamic glaze – with lots of ‘spice girl’ love from Vea and Kari. Everything gets folded together into a tin-foil packet and placed on the BBQ for 15 minutes to cook. The combined flavours of everything cooking and steaming together is amazing. This paired perfectly with one of our Villa Maria Sav Blancs that we purchased during wine tasting in Marlborough. Yummith Maximus!
Waiting for our Easter dinner ‘Packets’ to cook. Yumm!!!
Easter Monday started early with Vea and Norrie going fishing in the lake to try and catch a Trout for the evening’s dinner. We bought a small fishing rod in the North Island and have been enjoying casting into lakes and rivers wherever we’re camping. So far we haven’t got a bite – but we’re not experienced anglers, so haven’t got high expectations. It’s a simple joy to see Kai and Vea so excited about fishing and trying their luck to catch dinner.
Vea fishing early Easter Monday morning.
As we left Wanaka on our way to Queenstown, we decided to hike up Mount Iron – which is a 45 minute ascent to a beautiful vista over the lake and surrounding mountain ranges. There was an airshow in town for the Easter weekend – so this turned out to be a great vantage point to see some of the aerial acrobatics.
Panoramic vista from the top of Mount Iron.
One last stop was a soccer field that we had used over the weekend to play our family soccer matches. Vea bought three little plastic trophies at the grocery store last week – and we’ve been using these for our ‘Easter Cup’ soccer tournament. The teams are Kari and Kai, versus Norrie and Vea. We’ve had some great challenge games with close scores – but clearly Kari and Kai are ahead with two trophy wins over Norrie and Vea’s single trophy win. The tournament will continue during our travels until one team holds the ‘triple crown’ of all three trophies.
A tense penalty shot moment in the third game of the Easter Cup.
Happy Easter! Hope everyone back home had a fantastic weekend!! We miss you.
All 4 now.
A must do in Queenstown is to go to Fergburger! It’s a burger joint right in the middle of town. You’ll see people everywhere with this stuff, it’s the best burger I think I’ve ever had. Courtney and I went there about 3 times in 5 days. For drinks, go around the corner to the local ‘Freak Lunchbox’ and grab some $1 cans of Root Beer Kai!
Thanks for the tips on Queenstown. We loved it here! Unfortunately the Root Beer price has gone up to $2 per can – but we got one for Kai and Vea to share. The Fergburger line-up was a ridiculous 1-hour wait – so we decided to go next door and get some Ferg Pies instead – then went back to our campsite and made our own Fergburgers – which were excellent!
Great Easter!! Sounds like fun!! My niece, Debbie Cool Easton, used to live in New Zealand and now she lives in Australia…..are you going there next? She has animals…..horses, etc. Would be fun if you could meet up with her!
We are flying to Australia on the 30th of April. Would love to meet up with Debbie – where does she live? We fly into Melbourne and will take a month to travel up the east coast to Brisbane.
Well guys your Easter weekend sure beats ours hands down – nice to hear of keeping the dip in a cold lake as a part of those special traditions. I can just picture Ragnar smiling down on all of you and saying “way to go Kari, Norrie, Vea and Kai”. Belated Easter greetings to all of you. Love,
Marion and Tim
I could just see Dad grinning from ear to ear! No Aquavit to warm us up though – the splurge was on purchasing coffee’s afterwards! xo
Easter dinner sounds really yummy guys , Fishing for dinner is also so exciting . One of Zach ‘s favourite things to do . Perhaps next summer a trip to the Penisula for overnight & some fishing . Vea you & Kai will be so experienced in catching some big fish & dinner prep . Happy Easter from the Slipp Family . IMiss you guys & glad you passed the crazy weather you were experiencing . Love the soccer tournament & Kari miss you on the field . Spring season just started 2 wks ago . Brrrrr.
We’d love to do a fishing trip to the Peninsula next summer! Haven’t had much luck yet catching anything in NZ – but we’ll keep trying. Soccer continues to be one of our favourite pastimes as we travel.
Another spectacular post! You are so very close to so many hearts here in Nova Scotia; you may be distant, but never that far from any of us! Naja and I looked up your locale on Google and got a wonderful sense of your NZ experience with your detailed blog!
Sending big, tight hugs!!!
Love from the Helmer’s xoxo
We love all those tight hugs from you guys! Feeling them from half way around the world!!
Super post guys, your where missed this year for Easter dinner, very strange, not having you all and Unni with us around the table. Sad to say none of us jumped in the lake ( though I never do!). We miss you, keep up the VLOGS and KLOGS Vea and Kai.
Ted – although you never jump in the lake, you always partake in the Aquavit. Miss you guys too. Glad to hear you all got together for Easter Dinner. Look forward to next year! We’ll bring NZ wine!!
Great post guys…feel like we were right there with you!! Miss our special Easter dinner together but it will be all the more special next year! Nice to see you keeping with traditions and making new ones too!!! Love the pic of Norrie at the rugby pitch!!! Really made me smile!!! Love you all xoxo
Can’t wait to see you all back in Three Brooks next year! We’re fully enjoying the Rugby and Beer here!
Happy Easter amazing family.
Hope you had a great Easter too Sheila. Look forward to running on the rails to trails with you again next year!
What a nice feeling to see your warm smiles again,a diffrent easter you will always remember.Hugs to all of you from mamor
It was certainly different not having you with us this year. We miss you and send big hugs your way!