Rugby Ellie

Another cool opportunity for Ellie is having access to Rugby. We really enjoyed watching her team play "touch" rugby every week. (Alex thinks that this is an oxi-moron)

Anyway, Ellie is really aggressive when it comes to sports, so she was particularly entertaining. I felt bad for the boys that were constantly chased down by that blond American girl.

 Great Sport! 

Mom may have to get on a women's rugby league!

Merry Christmas from New Zealand!

We love our fake stag in our NZ rental.

2010 Holidays Faves from the Bardsleys!

Fave Book for 2010

Ellie - "The Fire Series" by Chris d'Lacey

Alex - "Foundation Series" Isaac Asimov

Jen - "Open" Andre Aggasi

John - Anything by NZ poet/author, Brian Turner 

Fave Music 2010

Ellie - Katy Perry, Mother Mother, Micheal Jackson

Alex - Wolfmother, deadmau5, Chitty Bang, Vampire Weekend

Jen - The Shins, Blitzen Trapper, TV on the Radio, Death Cab for Cutie.

John - Wilco live Concert with Alex and Jen in Missoula.

Fave Food Experience 2010

 Ellie - Candy in Virgina City with Grandma Sally, Chocolate chip cookie @ Discovery Ski Area.

ALex - Chips (french fries) in New Zealand

Jen - Gilato in Rome, Italy & camp cooking on the Dearborn River, Montana

John - Italy

Fave Internet Distraction 2010

Ellie - hotmail

Alex - Pinkbike (youtube)

Jen - Facebook, This blog

John - Charlie Rose online 

Fave Expression in NZ 

Ellie - "Lollies  (candy)

Alex - "long drop"(outhouse)

Jen - "Good on ya" ;"Heaps"

"Sweet As"

John - "Good as gold!" &"All the Best" 

Fave Adventure/Travel 2010

Ellie - Any hotel or condo experience

Alex - Surfing!!!

Jen - Italy trip with John in June,  NewZealand

John - Family backpack in Salt Creek Canyon, Utah.

Italy with Jen.

NZ (a big year!)

Fave - TV , Radio, or Movie 2010

Ellie - New Zealands Next Top Model

Alex - Nitro Circus

Jen - The Office, This American Life, Harry Potter

John -  Charlee Rose, The Daily Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Northern Exposure Series,

Radio 1 (Dunedin college radio)

The Girl with the Dagon Tatoo.

Fave Accomplishment 2010

Ellie -  1st Place Girls Ski Race Discovery MT, Lowell Poetry Award, Otago Athletics Championships NZ

Alex - Learning to surf!   

Jen - National Undergraduate Art Research Award, Student at UM,

Moving the Family to NZ, 

John - Making New Zealand happen for my family.

Looking forward to  2011

Ellie - Start Middle school (DNI)

First cell phone!

Alex - Start Highschool (Logan Park)

More surfing

Jen - Travel in NZ,

Creating !new artworks (paintings and films) and going home to Montana.

John - Spending time at the Dearborn, hanging with Montana friends and family, backpacking with Dave Sumner.

We Love NZ



Blessings for Peace and Love into the New Year

CANDY!!!!!!

            Happy HO HO HO HO From Alex and Ellie!

Seasons Greetings From Down Under!

In New Zealand, Christmas is celebrated a little differently than people in the North.

No snow or hot chocolate are involved, instead a beach and a "barbie"

 (down under lingo for a BBQ).

Love from us all! Merry Christmas!

Queenstown Road Trip

Click here for our Queenstown Video

Alex goes to the Hospital

Our vacation to Queenstown was a true adventure. Queenstown is "Home of the Bungy" and literally the "extreme sport capital of the world. For Alex, a dream come true. We did a ton of biking. The choices were just endless and the tracks were all "cherry".
However on the 5th day of riding hard, Alex caught his bike shorts on his seat of his bike on a big jump which flipped his weight forward and he wrecked hard. As a result he sprained both wrists, bruised his kidney, smashed the front of his helmet (mild concussion) and acquired alot of bruises and cuts on his shoulder, face and arms.
We took him to the emergency room even though he was not knocked out and he got right up after the wreck.  He had to spend the night in the hospital while they monitored his internal injuries (mom too) We enjoyed the old man in the room next to ours yelling "Milo! Milo!" all through the night and day :-) Smile!

The jumps that Alex wrecked on...

Ouch

Not feeling too hot

Next day feeling better. Alex really enjoyed the benifit of the wheel chair

Queenstown Bike Jumps

New "Slide Show" made by Alex

Click here to watch Alex's Slide Show

 This new photo slide show was made by Alex - he put the music and photos together. Great tunes I might add....

Photo by Joel Davidson http://joeldavidsonphotography.com/ 

Last week of school (Yes - Summer Break starting in December)

Ellie's friends from school, Grace, Jorgia, Kesha, Jannie and Ellie

I have never experienced a Christmas holiday season with my kids excited for summer break. It is just strange. Very strange. This is the last week of school for both kids. Ellie is graduating from primary school !

 For Ellie, this last week of class included a "nature week" in which there were serveral outdoor field trips to various locations in Dunedin. It was fun to come along as a chaperon.

This trip was a 4 mile hike through the middle of Dunedin. There are many great paths in town that are super thick with ferns and streams.
We had lunch at this resevior

After the tramp (hike) the kids wrote in their school journals about their impressions of nature....I am looking forward to reading Ellie's thoughts on this. We will recieve a profolio of all the work she has done here for the past 3 months. It is sad to me that she is leaving elementary and onto the next phase. Although, it feels like New Zealand's middle schools keep the kids young still. There is no rush to leave childhood here....


Ellie's 6th grade teach (Mrs K) Love her!



fern closed up

super silly

Friends on the bridge................

Good times, good times.

6th grade!

Bardsley's Learn to Surf Video

Click here to watch our new surf video - Hang Ten!

Tunnel Beach, New Zealand

http://davidwallphoto.com/index.asp

Tunnel Beach is a must in all the guide books if you visit Dunedin. Access to the beach is via a track across private farmland, and is open year round excluding lambing season from August to October. The track was opened in 1983, and is a popular walking track. It descends 490 ft above sea level.
The Sea Arch is stunning and the tunnel decends through thick rock with 72 steps to the beach.

Beyond the beauty of the rugged sandstone cliffs, its claim to fame is the tunnel down to the beach that a local politician from the 1870s. He had commissioned this tunnel  for his daughters, wanting a private beach for picnics.

John at trail head

Jen above tunnel going down to beach........

Alex and John with High Tide

Alex checking out the view.....

Gorgeous!