Cage Diving with Great White Sharks, Neptune Islands, South Australia (September, 2014)

We went with our good friends, Joe and Tori Bollard and Rick Kemp (Alex Kemp stayed back and watched all 8 of the Whipperman and Kemp kids), to Port Lincoln, South Australia and then took a 3 hour boat ride out to the Neptune Islands with Calypso Charters to swim with the great white sharks. Our tour including the cage dive with the sharks was $495/person.

We redeemed 20,000 American Airlines miles and ~$41 in taxes for the round trip economy class tickets on Qantas that took us from Perth to Port Lincoln (with a quick connection through Adelaide). It was a great use of AA miles as the tickets were going for $1,138 each when we booked them.

We stayed 2 nights at the YHA Backpackers Lodge in Port Lincoln for $65.00 ($16.25/night per person…it's normally $32.50/night per person, but YHA gives you a 2 for 1 if you book a cage dive with Calypso Charters).  The girls were nervous and highly skeptical of us staying in this place (mostly worried about cleanliness and bed bugs), but all fears were laid to rest and we were in for a positive surprise upon arrival.  The hostel is immaculate and spacious. We only shared our community room with 1 other person on the first night and with 6 people the 2nd night. We hung out in the community rooms both nights and Rick was able to catch the Aussie Rules football semifinal one night while we played games. You can't really beat the price and it's good value for money.

We had some time to kill when we arrived in Port Lincoln, so we took our rental car out to some of the local beaches and sand dunes and explored a bit before heading to dinner.  We learned that Port Lincoln has the highest number of millionaires per capita in Australia due to the lucrative tuna (pronounced "choo-nah") industry.

The YHA even gave us a deal on dinner at The Pier ($12.00 for a giant chicken or beef schnitzel with pepper gravy, steak fries, a salad, and a drink…which is more than half off the menu price). That may not sound like a good deal, but, in Australia, it's hard to beat.

Calypso Charters picked us up from the hostel at 6:20 am and returned us back at about 6:30 pm.  They took care all the meals (breakfast, morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea) and we could buy cold Diet Coke's all day long for $1.00/can (we had about 30 between the 5 of us). Soft drinks are usually $3-4/can in this type of setting here in Australia, so we felt pretty good about getting them for a buck a piece.  The food was plentiful and much better than expected.  We brought along some card games (mostly played Monopoly Deal) and spent the majority of the 3 hour boat ride out to the Neptune Islands playing cards and having a good time.  There were 30 people on our boat and there was only one cage that holds 6 people at a time.  We signed up to be the group after lunch, so we watched the first 4 groups of 6 go before us and could see the great white sharks from the surface. We did get some great pictures and video from the surface as well as from the cage.

All in all, I think we saw 11 different great whites during the course of the day (3-4 while we were in the cage).  The crew would tie tuna guts to a rope and throw it out in front of the cage to lure the sharks to a point where the people in the cage could get a good view.  It was a pretty good system because the sharks kept swirling around the boat all day long and all of the 5 groups of 6 saw plenty of sharks while they were in the cage.

Cody's Spartan Mud Race (July, 2014)

Our friend Adam Glossop convinced Cody to run the 7 kilometer Spartan mud and obstacle course race with his team while Eliza and the kids were in the USA on vacation.  Cody hurt his ankle pretty bad trying to show off for the kids in the trampoline arena.  He struggled pretty bad on the ankle on the rocky, uneven terrain, and having to run through all of the cold rivers with wet feet.  At the end of the race, his ankle was pretty swollen.

Cody successfully completed all but 2 of the obstacles in the race on the first try (couldn't do the spear throw and the horizontal climbing wall), so he only had to do 60 burpees (if you don't complete any obstacle on the first try, you are required to do 30 burpees).

It was 40 degrees Farenheit (5 degrees Celsius) when they begun the race at about 8 am.  The first obstacle was to jump into a cold, muddy lake and swim across to the other side and then do a 50 yard military crawl under barbed wire through the cold, muddy ground. It was a windy, cold winter morning an hour south of Perth and jumping in a cold lake would be the last thing anyone would want to do in that weather, but the Spartan Race organizers were proud of themselves for organizing what they were calling the most challenging Spartan Race they had ever done on any continent (much more akin to the Beast races that they were doing in Europe) and that this race had more hills and ups and downs and more running through rivers than they had ever done.

Some of the other obstacles include: carrying a 50 pound bag of sand to the top of a steep hill and back down, climbing over multiple man made wooden walls of varying sizes ranging from 4-10 feet high (some of them you had to have help from your teammates to get over), hiking up to the top of a steep hill, balancing on wobbly 2x4's standing up on edge, climbing along horizontal ropes, crawling through muddy tunnels, climbing to the top of ropes (about 15-20 feet high), hoisting 65 pound kettle balls up 20 feet using ropes, climbing rope ladders, jumping over a campfire, climbing through freezing muddy water and sliding down mud hills, spear throwing, and climbing on walls horizontally, and many others.

Cody was glad to have it over, but felt good to accomplish it.

Ryder's Baptism (May, 2014)

Ryder's been so excited to get baptized.  He's been reminding us for weeks that it's only so many more days until he gets baptized.  He is very prepared.  Of his own initiative, and without any real push from us, he has taken it upon himself to start reading the Book of Mormon.  We tell scripture stories with the kids every night and they know the stories very well, but we really haven't done a good job of reading directly from the scriptures with our kids.  Ryder has been amazing this year.  He has made it halfway through Mosiah (we let him skip the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi) and he tells us about the little subtleties that he picks up related to many of the stories that he already knows.  He is a very special boy and in many ways a leader and example for our family.  He is full of light, passion, and happiness.  He has a lot of resolve and dedication and loves new challenges.  We are blessed to have a front row seat to the growth and development of this strong, righteous, son of God.  We are lucky to have him in our family.  One of the things he wanted to do was invite everyone in his class, including his teachers, to attend his baptism.  His testimony is strong and he is fearless when it comes to missionary work and speaking about the truth.  We hope this amazing quality never wears off.

Ryder's baptism invitation.

His baptism was a very special event.  He was beaming the whole time.  He personally handed out invitations before church to members of the ward and was so excited to do so.  Sawyer gave a talk on baptism and prepared most of it herself.  She did an amazing job.  After Ryder was baptized, he told Cody that he felt really good inside and knew Heavenly Father was proud of him.  Ryder and his friends (Kemp, Bollard, and Glossop kids) sang the Armies of Helaman and Eliza gave a talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost where she used a wind up flashlight as an object lesson to illustrate how the gift of the Holy Ghost works in our life.  Eliza made a bunch of food and desserts for everyone to have after the baptism.

Family picture before the baptism.

 Nash was so excited for Ryder.

 Sawyer was such a good big sister and gave a wonderful talk.

 Mommy with Ryder.

Daddy with Ryder.

Ryder with mom and dad.

Auckland, North Island, New Zealand (May, 2014)

Cody had to head back to Perth to get back to work, but Eliza and the kids continued back to Auckland for a few days and stayed with Kip and Emily.  Kip and Emily were awesome and showed them around Auckland and a couple surrounding areas.  They were able to get to some glow worm caves and some short hikes.

 Hiking to the glow worm caves.

 Hiking to the glow worm caves.

 A view of the Harbour and Auckland in the background.

 Auckland skyline.

 Inside the glow worm caves...the glow worms look like stars in the night sky.

Haast, Fox Glacier, and Franz Josef Glacier, South Island, New Zealand (April, 2014)

We left Wanaka in the late afternoon and stopped to stay at a Motorhome Park in Makarora just before going up the Southern Alps.  We awoke early and began the drive to Haast and the West Coast on our way to Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers.  We stopped a few times to take small walks/hikes to waterfalls, crystal pools, and through the rainforest.  One of our favorites was the "Blue Pools" which had a stream and pools with some of the clearest, bluest water we had ever seen.

 The rocks along the riverbed were full of color and variety.

 Short rainforest walks to waterfalls.

 One of the many waterfalls we walked to.

 Nash, leading the pack through the rainforest.

 Daddy, carrying Zander on one of the trails.

 Sawyer and Zander running along the trail.

 The "Blue Pools" between Wanaka and Haast.

Our version of the pancake rocks.

We arrived early afternoon to Fox Glacier.  The weather was overcast and it was fairly chilly outside.  Cody decided to take a plunge in the icy glacier waters of Fox Glacier.

 A mixture of rocks and ice running off from Fox Glacier.

 Cody, getting swept away by the rapids at Fox Glacier.

 An amazing blend of blue glacier water with green moss from the rainforest makes for amazing colors in the lakes at the bottom of the glacier.

We left Fox Glacier after Cody had his plunge in the icy water and we were off to Franz Josef Glacier, which we had heard was the better of the two glaciers.  We decided to take a hike up to the base of the glacier, and we enjoyed amazing scenery, dozens of waterfalls, and a blend of rainforest and glacial ice.  It was amazing.

 Some of the scenery along the 2 hour hike we took to the base of Franz Josef Glacier.

 Our destination, Franz Josef Glacier.

 Ryder and Nash were hiking buddies.

 Daddy, with Zander and Nash on the mossy green rocks along the path.

 Family picture at the base of Franz Josef Glacier.

 Ryder, playing in the rocks.

 Nash, playing in the rocks.

Some of the scenery around Haast, after leaving the Southern Alps and beginning the drive along the West Coast.