Mr. Barbecue himself - Ken!

 

Tyler enjoyed doing the ring toss!

 

Jackson enjoyed drinking Mommy's Sprite, with a good bit running down his face - cute!

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the barbecue ribs, as you can see - yum!

 

Tyler getting into his ribs...

 

And Jack-Jack doing the same... Yum!

 

Jump! Jump!

 

And some more jumping!

 

Tyler asked for a Christmas tree to be painted on his face (of course - a boy after my own heart)! :)

 

Jackson got a sheep painted on his cheek though it wasn't all that recognizable! Both boys are wearing the shirts and hats we got for them from NZ, with the hat being VERY fitting for Jackson! It says, "Baa!" with the picture of a sheep below - that's still Jack-Jack's favorite phrase for all the words he doesn't know how to say yet! :)

 

Jackson thoroughly enjoyed the balloon man's abilities, asking for a dog each time (his first one popped)!

Day 1: Scott and Rochelle Go to New Zealand!

Scott and I celebrated our 9-year anniversary in New Zealand - wow! Scott had business in Australia; so, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and have a vacation of a lifetime! We had a GREAT time, even after the LONG trip to get to the other side of the world (about 30 hours if the layovers are included)! I arrived in Queenstown and waited for Scott to fly in from Melbourne 2 hours later.

Yaaa! Reunited finally! :)

We ate a yummy brick oven-baked pizza from Bella Cucina (though bread is shown above).

Kind of neat atmosphere!

Day 2: Lord of the Rings Tour on Easter!

Easter morning, we ate breakfast at the restaurant at Rydges Resort, where we were staying, which had this beautiful view. We went on a Lord of the Rings tour around the Queenstown area, seeing several spots they did the filming of the movie. It was a fun way for our NZ vacation to begin!

We had some beautiful views of Lake Wakatipu from our hotel, as you can see.

This was the first picture on our tour. I believe something or other was filmed on the hill on the right, but I'm not sure what... Sorry! Regardless, it's really gorgeous scenery!

Here are the scenes showing when the elephants and warriors come on the scene, with Frodo and Sam looking down from above.

Scott or Frodo? Hmmm...

Check out Scott's raw strength! :)

This is the river used in the scene where Arwen is carrying the wounded Frodo back to her home on her horse. The water level was higher at the time they shot this scene than what you're seeing pictured.

This is my all-time favorite scene in the movie - where Frodo and the others are going down the river while the "bad guys" are lurking in the forest.

This is where the real footage happened - very cool, not to mention beautiful!

Check out the scenery around this river - wow!

We are posing like those huge king statues that they saw from their boats.

This pose looks a little bit more like, "Stop in the Name of Love" or something! :)

Bungy jumping actually began in NZ - and, no, that wasn't enough for us to take the plunge ourselves! Our tour guide was telling us that this place was offering free jumps to those who would go nude... So many were doing it, they had to end that offer! :)

This pic doesn't do this bungy jump justice... It's much farther down than it appears - yikes! We saw one person just dive off gracefully while another one had everything kicking and screaming as they went! (And, by the way, this is the same river as they used in the film, just a different section that we could see from the same point that we were at.)

Here's the scene where the soldiers are carrying Frodo and Sam away, tied up.

Please tell me I don't look like those horrid creatures!! Perhaps my scarf will save me! :)

There was a fighting scene here, but I don't know the movie well enough to tell you more. Perhaps some LOTR fans out there readily recognize it!

What a beautiful spot here in the woods... I love nature!

This is the area they used to show the history of the ring, when the man (don't know his name) fell into the water, with the ring dropping to the bottom.