A Mini Vacation

We are in Golden Bay! Yesterday we left our house in Nelson and drove to Golden Bay. Erin and Matt drove their convertible, and followed us here. First we stopped at the strawberry farm and picked three tubs of strawberries. We also picked some raspberries, and bought some ice cream. The ice cream that they sell there is wonderful! They blend their fruit with vanilla ice cream to make it.

The second place we stopped at was the Ngarua caves. The caves are kind of like a miniature version of Carlsbad Caverns. A tour guide walked us through and told us about the cave's history. There are several holes in the roof of the cave that open up to the outside word, and at one point several Moa and kiwis fell in. A Moa is kind of like an emu. They are extinct now, because the Maori over-hunted them. We got to see several different skeletons of the Moa and kiwis.

At our third stop we had lunch and then went to the salmon farm. We tried using fake bait but that didn't work too well. Then we tried a lure and the salmon were all over it. Matt, Erin, and I each caught some fish. In the end, we had five fish.  Erin caught the biggest one. The grownups decided that they should have four of the fish smoked, and one cut up into sashimi. They ate the fish for dinner and Kylie and I had chicken. We also used the hot tub. Matt pointed out several different constellations and showed us a satellite. The stars are so bright and amazing! We also saw two shooting stars.