Kaitoki Park/Rivendale

We took a day trip last Sat. To Kaitoki Park which is where they filmed Rivendale for The Lord Of The Rings movies. You can't really tell though because there are no sets and except for the sign that talks about them building the sets there etc... you wouldn't even know. It is a beautiful area though with lots of hikes to go on, a river with Eel and ducks, a rope bridge that is very cool but slightly scary and birds, trees, and vegetation galore. I was freezing up there but the rest of the family were OK in there sweaters.

This is Enoch and I climbing rocks together in the Park. Lots of fun! You can't tell here but this is actually a VERY big rock :)

Handsome guy.

The boys were tromping around and using walking sticks which I later became the keeper of and used.

Feeding the rest of Ethne's snack to the ducks. They were pretty brave but they didn't actually take it from my hand. They got close though but each time they did the boys would scare them.

Ezra throwing big big rocks into the river. I think if every little boy could have an endless supply of rocks and river it would save mother's an endless amount of heartache.

Ethne needed a walking stick since mom was using one so here she is with hers. She copies everything we do these days. If dad is standing a certain way-so is Ethne. If mom is using a walking stick-so is Ethne, if brothers are eating something-so is Ethne :)

Here is the rope bridge. The kids were so excited to go on it until they got a quarter of the way and it started bouncing and swinging and then they turned and headed back to solid ground. We had to coax and cajole them to cross and it took forever. There really isn't room to pass and you can only have 10 people on at a time and we made 5 so people were waiting for us and it was kind of embarrassing. Funny story about that: I was walking with Enoch and Ethne and we were crossing but I only had one hand. Enoch was in front of me and I was carrying Ethne. I was pushing Enoch forward with my free hand and talking him through it. I wasn't really looking forward to the end because I was so focused on Enoch. I was saying things like "It's OK, stop crying. We are almost there. Don't worry I wouldn't let you do it if it wasn't safe." Enoch yelled at me and said "You're CRAZY, It isn't at all safe!". When we were close to the end I looked up and felt my face flushing. There were 5 adults standing at the end watching us and laughing and taking pictures of the scene. I felt embarrassed and they just kept taking pictures. So when we got to the end they all told Enoch how brave he was and one lady who spoke very little English (she might have been French but she only said a few words so it was hard to tell) pointed to her face and said something about blushing. She was trying to tell me that she noticed I was blushing---Great right!

Enoch was playing his very large branch as a guitar. Have I mentioned that he keeps saying he wan'ts to play in a band?

Ethne running and laughing. She was so funny. She had so much fun running and playing but she was so tired when it was all over.

This is a very funny sign we saw on the way home. We were cracking up at the pregnant lady with suitcase crossing sign :) It was really to tell you which direction to walk to get to the part of the hospital with the maternity section. In some places they have Elderly crossing signs. Those crack me up too.

This was a tree in town in the front of someones yard. I was thinking it would look so beautiful with Christmas lights.

There are more pictures of the beautiful scenery , but I will have to add them later. I hope this satisfies you Milla May!