My sister inlaw Marthah gave birth to my first niece, Brianna Hellyer, last weekend.
Marthah and Scott have their own baby blog if you would like to know more:
Tired Mum
Photos of Brianna Hellyer
Introducing Brianna Hellyer
Here are some photos from Central Otago in autumn the trip home after Sarah and I visited Queenstown.
Panorama of the hillside beside the Shotover river. High resolution version.
View from Arrowtown
View from the top of the zigzag on the Crown Range. High resolution version.
Closeup of the trees beside the Shotover river
Lake Wanaka
The mighty Honda Civic at the top of the zigzag on the Crown Range
Sarah and I went jetboating on the Shotover river near Queenstown.
Such an idyllic setting ...
... but throw in a jetboat and things become less idyllic and more action packed!
I took my camera onboard
My camera quickly got wet (but it still works fine)
Sarah got even wetter than my camera
Sarah and I went luging in Queenstown. It was lots of fun 
Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos of myself but here are some of Sarah’s steller driving skills.
The 'stop taking photos of me' look
The 'if I look serious I might go faster' look
The 'damnit, Ryan beat me by such a margin he has time to take photos of me' look :p
Sarah and I headed to Queenstown for the weekend. Here are some photos of us at the top of the Gondola.
View from inside the gondola
Some photos from my trip to Wellington. I’d travelled through/over the city a few times before, but this was the first time I’d had an opportunity to stop and look around. It’s a nice place, not somewhere I’d go as a tourist, but it definitely looks like a nice place to live.
During a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem, we got taken to the Western Wall (aka Wailing Wall) and the surrounding area.
I visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It is built on the site where Jesus Christ was supposedly buried.
The Stone of the Anointing
A tomb
The supposed tomb of Jesus Christ
The Greek Orthodox Catholicon
The imovable ladder.
The ladder hasn't been moved in over a hundred years
During our stopover in Japan, Vicki and I headed to the Shingon Buddhist temple in Narita city.
According to Wikipedia:
This temple is one of the most well known in the Kant region of Japan and is only surpassed in visitors during the O-shogatsu period (lit: New year period) by the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. The temple grounds are composed of a main gate, a steep stairwell and the main buildings (including a couple of five-story pagodas), and a garden area with large pond. A very small zoo is also within the temple grounds.
One of the many temples at the Shingon Buddhist temple.
Cute turtle. There were hundreds of these all over the place.
Garden area at the Shingon Buddhist temple
Statues at the Shingon Buddhist temple
Nice view from behind one of the temples
Some photos from when Sarah I visited McLean falls in the Catlins.
Taken from directly below McLean falls
Shot of McLean falls from the track
Another small waterfall near McLeans falls
Sarah Wells at McLean falls
