We decided to celebrate Aiden’s 4rth birthday in Aperture which is where we’re residing during our tour in Washington. Aperture has a social room which we reserved for two hours. We were quoted $100/hour but afterwards, our super leasing agent decided to waive the fee! We got a Paw Patrol birthday cake and Mom brought balloons and banners to decorate the place a little. Guests included friends from the building and Denise and her son. We ordered pizza for the kids/adults and I also picked up some Subway sandwiches as appetizers. It turned out well and Aiden had a great time! Afterwards, Mom-Dad-Arti and Sona’s friend Sujata went to our place to open up all the presents! Aiden liked all of his gifts and it turned out to be a memorable birthday experience for all of us!

Probably the most beautiful photo we took was the reflection of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman off of Lake Matheson.  We drove about an hour from Fox Glacier and first had breakfast at a fantastic café overlooking the mountains.  After bundling up, we started our hike through the woods to get to Reflection Island where the money shot was.  Aiden was cooperative for a while but then I had to carry him on my shoulders and Sona also carried him part of the time.  We walked almost an hour around the lake before finally finding the spot.  The view was spectacular and the reflection of the mountains was quite clear as well as the surrounding trees.  I should’ve waited a little bit longer to take the picture since there were ripples from a duck family going across but still absolutely worth it.

After we rented our RAV 4 (nice ride by the way) in Greymouth, we drove straight to Franz Josef area to check in to our hotel.  The drive down there was rainy and we were hoping to get there with no road closings.  Fortunately, we made it and checked into a cozy hotel with an electric fireplace and short drive to the town center.  That evening we ordered room service and unpacked our clothes.

The next day was sunny and after debating during breakfast, we decided to do a helicopter ride over the glaciers.  Aiden even enjoyed it and we landed on top of Fox Glacier where we had a snowball fight and took in some breathtaking views.  The chopper ride was for 30 minutes and it was a memorable experience.  After lunch, we did the hike to Franz Josef holding Aiden most of the time on my shoulders.  The hike took almost 2 hours round trip and the views were okay.  The glacier is receding so it doesn’t look as great as let’s say 10 years ago.

We found a café to eat afterwards and then took it easy at the hotel.  The next leg of our journey was the drive to Te Anau!

We started this journey in Christchurch.  Flew in from Wellington the night before to get some rest before the early morning train ride to Greymouth.  Enjoyed the amazing breakfast at the Rydges that morning and then took a taxi to the train station.  It wasn’t that crowded and our seats were at a table.  Windows all around so amazing views throughout of the Southern Alps and surrounding countryside.  An hour into our trip, we all got coffees and bought Aiden a fluffy.  He came with me to the café area to help carry the beverages.  I went outside a few times in the open carriage to take pictures of the Alps.  It was definitely a great experience and highly recommend to anyone wanting to see breathtaking scenery.

In March 2018, I scheduled Windows 10 training in Manila for one week.  We decided to go to Angeles and Cebu for a week vacation afterwards.  The hotel in Manila (Pan Pacific) was amazing!  Fantastic food and excellent customer service.  Aiden got sick but the onsite doctor prescribed antibiotics which resolved the issue after several days.  The training was informative and I met my TDYer (Joy) who will be covering Wellington until my successor arrives in August.  Sightseeing wise, we went to a couple of malls (Greenbelt and Greenfields) and saw city of dreams complex where he had dinner with Joy at the Hyatt.  Pan Pacific had 6 PM cocktails every evening with food which we took advantage of and saved money by not eating out.

After Manila, we went to Angeles City.  We hired a car/driver to take us there which took around 2 hours.  The hotel was Prime City Resort which was respectable and they offered shuttle service to Walking Street (the sleazy red light district of Angeles). The next day, we took Aiden to Dinosaur Island where he was quite scared of the “robotic” dinosaurs.  They did a good job with making them move and audio sound effects.  The highlight was the dinosaur dancing show at the end where they get really close and chomp at us.  Aiden was petrified during this part.  Afterwards, we took it easy at the hotel and relaxed.  We did see our land and decided to keep it for now.  Met with Susan who is trying to convince to build a house there.  We’ll see.  Angeles is a nice city and the Clark base seems to be growing year by year.

Our final stop was Cebu where we spend 4 nights at the Crimson Resort which was amazing as well.  Swam with Aiden several times, played pool with him, and enjoyed the awesome breakfast.  There was a kidzone for him which he enjoyed and a bunch of Easter activities like finding easter eggs and obstacle course.  They gave us a free bottle of wine and let us eat at Enya restaurant for breakfast which was a lot nicer then the buffet place.  A great relaxing 4 days.  Even hit the gym a couple of times.

Enjoyed our Phillipine adventure and hoping to come back sometime in the future and try another resort!

For Aiden’s third birthday, we decided to celebrate at Junglerama!  I designed a special invitation card and we sent out to all our friends (even mailed one out to Mom-Pop in the States).  We decided to have a batman theme so went with a batman cake and a batman tshirt for both me and Aiden.  The birthday party was from 1 PM to 3 PM and we had a great turnout!

Aiden seemed to enjoy it and was playing on all the Junglerama rides.  The staff served snacks for the kids and adults at 1:30 which consisted of fries, chicken nuggets, and mini pizzas.  The adults had sandwiches.  We brought the cake out at 2:30 and everyone sang Happy Birthday to Aiden!  Cake was delicious and all of us had a lot of fun but it was definitely exhausting.  After collecting all the presents, all of us returned home and started opening them.  I’m glad Mom and Pop were here to celebrate with us and they were a great help cutting the cake and taking pictures and videos.  A birthday we will never forget!

What a memorable trip!  We decided to take off to Kaikoura from Thursday to Saturday a week before Thanksgiving.  First leg was flight to Christchurch which took 40 minutes and then the drive to Kaikoura which took exactly three hours.  Their still working on highway 1 after the major earthquake last year so we took a detour through 7 and 70.  We arrived to our motel around 1 and after feeding Aiden, decided to check out the seals and do a little hike.  The views were amazing!  I didn’t realize Kaikoura was surrounded by snow capped mountains and the ocean was crystal clear blue.  Luckily, we spotted one seal sunbathing on top of a rock and then we walked a little bit up the peninsula walkway and took some great pics.  For dinner, we had a fish barbeque and had a smorgasbord or crayfish, scallops, salmon, mussels, and whitebait.  Yum!!

The next day was our whale watching trip and we had a 1030 meeting time.  After the 5 minute safety brief at 11, we all took a bus to the boat.  Very cozy inside and great commentary and video of the Kaikoura marine life and a nice facts about whales.  After half hour or so, we spotted our first sperm whale and it was unreal!  I caught a shot of him diving into the ocean and we saw the whale again half hour later.  They stay up on the surface for 10 minutes or so before diving again for food and staying underwater for 30-40 minutes.  On the way back to shore, we were fortunate to see a group of dolphins surrounding a humpback whale and took some great videos and pictures of that as well.  Well worth it and an experience I will never forget!

Afterwards, we had pizza and ice cream and headed back to motel.  Aiden was tired but seemed to enjoy the area.  He was riding his luggage scooter everywhere and people commented how cool it was.  All in all, a great trip and we made it back on Saturday a day before Mom/Dad arrive.

The Embassy hosted a Halloween event on October 26th and we all decided to go.  Sona decided to become a zombie, Aiden was a mini-vampire, and I was a big vampire.  We met at Mojos for coffee before heading to the party.  It was a lot of fun.  Everyone got into the spirit and employees/kids were dressed up as transformers, farmers, vampires, and prisoners.  All the doors were creatively done with our office being turned into a haunted house prison complete with an upside down mummy hanging from the ceiling.  Aiden walked around with us trick or treating and picked up a lot of candy.  He didn’t seem to be scared of anything and seemed to enjoy it.  The Ambassador and his wife dressed up as Dracula and his bride and really got into the act.  Very memorable day!

We decided to take a trip before Sona’s cousin (Hari) left for Nepal.  After some discussion, we settled on a trip to Nelson via the ferry.  The first leg of our trip was actually a town called Takaka near the Abel Tasman Park.  We left on a Wednesday and took the 3 hour ferry ride across which was peaceful and weather was fantastic.  We ate lunch in Picton and than proceeded to drive almost 3 hours to Takaka.  The drive was up and down several mountains including Takaka Hill and I was getting restless with all the windy roads.  We finally made it down and found out chalet for the night.  Great location close to downtown even though it was a little chilly at night.  We went to the Fresh Choice to get some meats since our place had a grill and proceeded to have a nice barbeque that night with some wine.  Aiden enjoyed walking around the chalet area and got some nice pictures.  The next morning we had breakfast at a nice place called Wholemeal Café and then took a drive to see Wanui Falls.   The walk to Wanui Falls was supposedly 30 minutes but 20 minutes into the hike, the bridge that led to the falls collapsed and the trail was closed.  We had to turn around but did manage to walk down to the river and take some pictures of the rapids.

Our next destination was Golden Bay kayaking but right before we got there, an angry Kiwi pulled us over and scolded us about throwing away Aiden’s diaper on the grass.  We only did it because there was no trash can anywhere.  We ended up going back and picking it up and disposing of it properly.  The kayaking was also closed for the day so we ended up going back into town and had lunch at a burger place.

Next stop was Nelson and we got there around 5 PM and the studio apartment was nice and walking distance to all the attractions.  We found an Indian café that night and did takeaway.  Next morning, we went on a hike to the Center of New Zealand which took around 20 minutes.  Got some great shots of the city.  After the hike, we walked around town and that evening, Sona and I went alone to see a movie called Logan Lucky.  It was okay but I thought it would be better.

Our last day in Nelson we went to Church Hill where Aiden planted some pinwheels which was part of a Guinness world record event.  Then we went to Founders Park and had some local brew and coffee.  Afterwards, we went to Japanese gardens and walked around.  That evening, we found a fantastic sushi place called Masa’s and had a good meal.

All in all, it was a great trip and we covered a lot of things in only 4 days.  Loved Nelson and plan to come back at some point before we leave.

For 2017, my birthday fell on a  Saturday and after an initial thunderstorm, the weather turned out great.  Sona and I first went to the vegetable market to pick up food and we shared a Chinese crepe which is our tradition there after shopping.  We all took an hour to get ready at home and than proceeded on our road trip.  The plan was to first go to Martinborough to hang out at a Vineyard and then in late afternoon drive to Cape Palliser to hopefully see some seals.  The vineyard we went to (Margain Vineyards) was also celebrating it’s 25th birthday anniversary and I decided to have some lasagna along with a glass of Pinot. Sona and Hari had pizza and a salad.  Aiden was sleeping the entire time during lunch but woke up after we finished.  We drove to downtown Martinborough and had a smoothie and bought brownie and chicken dippers for Aiden.  Around 3:00, we made the drive to Cape Palliser which took almost an hour and a half.  It was quite spectacular though and the payoff were some seals!  Not just one or two but around 15!  The lighthouse was amazing too even though we didn’t climb the steps going to the top.  We drove back around 4:30 and arrived back home two hours later.  All in all, it was a memorable trip and fortunately no work related calls since I was on duty!