I Feel Like I'm On the Bachelor

Alright, so hopefully everyone reading this blog has watched or at least heard of the hit tv show, The Bachelor. I know that I am not on a reality show competing for the one hot bachelor; however, I feel like I'm swimming in a sea of estrogen where everyone is trying to establish their territory. I can tell already that I will be spending a lot of time jamming to my music and taking a break from mindless female chatter. Don't get me wrong, I love all the girls that I am living with but a ratio of 22 girls to 5 boys leads to a lot of senseless talk. I am starting to realize how much more I love hanging out with my guy friends, so if you're one of them, I love and miss you dearly!

On a MUCH brighter note, I am now safe and sound in my new home in Fremantle (Freo), a town located in Western Australia. I will be living here for the rest of my time in Australia, and I am staying at the P&O Hotel right next to the University of Notre Dame campus (literally it's around the block.) I don't know who was assigning the rooms, but my roommate, Kaylee, and I lucked out and have the biggest room with a balcony! It is the biggest room that I have ever gotten to call mine. It's so big that today Kaylee and I did a Jillian Michael's workout DVD in here and both had enough room to move! (Yeah, that's right everyone I am still working out so I don't get fat here in Australia...not that I'll have money to eat anyway haha.)

Since we arrived here in Freo we have been working on settling in and gaining our bearings. Still fighting off some jet lag I think. I realized now that I am here in Freo that I definitely did not pack enough tank tops. It's been sitting at a very "comfortable" 90 degrees Farenheit....yeah and did I mention that our rooms don't have air conditioning? Thankfully the common room and study room have it though. We've had a few meetings so far with our Resident Supervisor, Anna, and have just been chilling the rest of the day. Mom and Dad, you'll be happy to know that I found my way to the grocery store, Coles, and have bought some delightful food to consume. Tonight I had pasta with an alfredo and tuna sauce with carrots and tomatoes in it. It was really really tasty and I even have enough for leftovers tomorrow.

Tomorrow marks the start of our busy orientation time here at UNDA. We have a packed schedule and will probably be beat by the time we reach the weekend. I have yet to have a chance to check out the beach here, but my skin is probably appreciating the break from the sun for a bit. Remember when I said it was 90 today? Yeah, I've been taking a lot of COLD showers and they don't even feel that cold.

I know I didn't say much about the remainder of my time in Sydney, but let's just say it was really chill and fun. We almost got locked in the Botanical Gardens because they closed at 8 PM and we tried to get through them in 10 minutes...it took us 11 minutes. Thank goodness there was still a guard there to let us out! We were going to go to Luna Park but it ended up raining so we got to experience yet another train adventure to get home.

I really enjoyed our time in Sydney, and even made a few more international friends. I met a few people from England, Dane and Will. Dane is an aspiring musician and is actually quite amazing. He was on the "X Factor" and actually made it to the fifth round! He played and sang for us and I can't wait until he finally gets his big break because the world will truly be impacted by his talent. Will was also quite hilarious. He told me he had never spoken candidly with a real American, and I was his first encounter. I actually laughed out loud at that one. Needless to say, my last few days in Sydney were quite enjoyable and I was a little sad to say goodbye to our hostel and my roommates.

I'm excited to see what Freo will have to offer this semester! I am a little homesick but getting to talk to the family and so many people back home really helped today. Eventually I'll get used to sweating profusely while doing ANYTHING, it actually reminds me a lot of my summer in Arkansas. Who knew that heat would be experienced ever again in my life? haha Also, the lights have been flickering as I've been writing this...hopefully not a bad sign about what's to come! Ha!

Much love!
~Christine

Have Faith and Jump!

Friday, Feb. 17

I’m sure you’ve gathered this from this blog post’s title, but today I went skydiving! I have contemplated doing it for almost a year no, and after being back and forth on it for many reasons (fear, cost, etc.) I decided to do it! When in Australia I suppose? I figured this was a once in a lifetime chance to Skydive on Australia’s coast, and since two other girls in my group (Amanda and Kaylee) were going as well, it would be the perfect opportunity!

We had to get up this morning at around 5 AM, which if you remember me posting last night, I didn’t get to bed until 1 AM. Yep, that’s only 4 hours of sleep. I suppose being delirious is all part of the experience?!! Ha!

We walked to the train station in King’s Cross, and surprisingly there were still people in the bars from the night before. Yeah, they were still getting their drink on at 6 AM! Apparently it is pretty typical for people to stay out until near 7 AM, but I don’t think that will be happening for me. I need my beauty sleep. Kaylee and Amanda headed up figuring out the bus system and we caught a bus to Central Station. Mom and Dad, you’d be so proud of me because we mastered the Sydney bus system and arrived at our free shuttle with lots of time to spare.

Our driver was such an interesting character. He had a shaved head, a goatee and the bottom of the goatee was braided and dyed blonde. Then he had tons of tattoos and a lip ring in the middle of his bottom lip. Mom probably wouldn’t have approved of his life choices. J We had an hour and a half drive to Wangaloo, a coastal town where we would be doing the actual jump.

After lots of paperwork and waiting, we were placed in jump group #4 and we got suited up. We had to wear these highly fashionable blue pants with a yellow stripe down the side; you can see them in my video! We had to get harnessed in and sat to learn our jumping and landing positions. I hardly remembered them when we actually jumped.

Then it was time to meet our instructors! I felt like I was getting set up on a blind date and you were hoping that a tall handsome man arrived to hold you in his arms as you plummeted to your death. Us girls sat by the door waiting for our “knight in shining armor” to appear. When Greg appeared, he wasn’t quite what I expected but he looked like a well seasoned jumper, in other words, he’d been with the company for awhile and I felt very safe with him. We got the chance to do the first part to our videos and then we were off in the van for the 20 minute drive to the airport. Around this time it was approximately 10 AM and we had been awake for far too long and were all extremely antsy and ready to jump.

When we arrived at the airport and boarded our little plane my nerves started to kick into high gear. We were shuffled into two seated lines inside the plane pretty much butt to crotch with our instructors and the instructor/jumper pair in front of us. There were around 10 jumpers in our flight. As we started climbing altitude I got even more nervous. The view was absolutely amazing but I started to realize that in a few minutes I would be jumping out of this lovely aircraft into the vast blue sky. Yes, I forgot to mention we had an absolutely perfect day for jumping. God was definitely on our side with the weather. The nearly cloudless sky paired with the insanely blue oceanic coast was breathtaking. At one point I had convinced myself that I was not nervous anymore and I could easily jump out…and then my instructor told me we were only at 4,000 ft, and we were jumping from 14,000 ft. Needless to say I began to sweat a bit.

When we reached our final altitude of 14,000 ft. we were told to put our goggles on and prepare to jump. We had to shuffle down the seat and then swing our legs out over the edge of the plane (there was a clear door that got opened before we jumped.) We were strapped to our instructor and as I swung my legs over the edge of the plane I didn’t even have time to think twice before I was free falling all over the sky. The first 60 seconds of the jump we freefall and my stomach was in my throat. I was in such shock I hardly even remember the first few seconds of it! Thank goodness I have the video and pics to remind me of the chaotic and crazy decision I made to skydive. Seriously, the photos and video are priceless (well they cost around $125, but to me they are priceless.)

Before you knew it, the cord was pulled and we shot back up with our open parachute. At this point I was able to relax a bit more and take in the amazing scenery that was beneath me. We could see the coastal view of Australia meeting the ocean with the waves splashing against the shore. I felt like a bird! I had written a note on my hands “Have Faith” and I got a view shots with me and my hands while skydiving!

As we came in for the landing I had to pull my feet up and then we skidded in and had a nice smooth landing. I had an amazing instructor who even got us girls chest bumping on film! I could not have asked for a better experience and I would totally do it again!

I said when I have kids I think I will take them skydiving for their 18^th birthdays. It was that amazing and life changing. Now we are back at the hostel notifying our families that we are still alive and well. We’re planning on going out tonight for a night on the Harbor to celebrate our amazing accomplishment! Can’t wait for you all to see the pictures! You’ll laugh at some of my faces, I’m sure. Oh! My hair came undone partway down the fall and I’m pretty sure my instructor got a nice mouthful!! Haha Have to love the long hair.

Cheers Mates!

At Long Last...

I know it’s been awhile, but DON’T WORRY, I am still alive and well. However, instead of writing to you from my Nomads, my hostel in Queenstown, I am writing to you all from my highly unstable bunked in my room at our hostel in Sydney. That’s right, I am now in Australia!!!

Since the last time I wrote, I have been on many adventures, including a one week road trip around the South Island of New Zealand. My group rented a JUCY RV Condo to drive around for the week. I will try to include a picture if I can. Just picture it for a moment. Five young adults crammed into one van with two beds and a kitchenette in the back. Oh, and did I mention that we were driving on the other side of the road? Let’s just say, the side of the van said: Perfect for 2, Great for 3, a Party for 4….it said nothing about 5. We decided that 5 were, well, too many. The Jucy condo, that we named BOSS, actually turned out to be one of the greatest learning experiences for my group and me. It challenged us in many ways, including scavenging for free camping (freedom camping), preparing gourmet meals on a stove in the back of the van (e.g. Ramen with OR without frozen veggies, Mac n Cheese with OR without frozen veggies, cold sandwiches, and even some hot chocolate.) Over our week together we definitely learned many things about each other and I think of these people more as family than a group of friends.

So I’m going to try my best to give an overview of what happened over this amazing time, but I am sure I will forget something amazing that happened, so for those moments we will just go with our road trip motto: What happens in the Boss, stays in the Boss. (Once again, Boss is the name of our Jucy van.)

Here it goes!!

Monday, Feb. 6

Laundry and Lasts: Our Final Night in Queenstown

We share our balcony with another room and today we got new neighbors in our hostel. We have now named them Pompous Ass and Shark Bite. Now don’t get judgmental, but there is a very good reason for naming them this. The one guy had his knee wrapped and tried to convince us girls that he had gotten bit by a shark (which I seemed skeptical of) and then we realized he was totally pulling our leg. It was really frustrating actually for them to be so rude. The other nickname came when we were all on the beach and the other guy walked right by us and set up his towel at the other end of the beach and then continued to walk past us like we were supposed to be impressed by him or something. Such a strange series of events.

Kaylee, Amanda, and I went on a late afternoon walk to the peninsula to soak up some Reggae tunes, and we realized that the area was literally littered with people, blankets, and tons of booze. Everyone was just sitting around soaking up the sun and drinking beer. We walked around for a bit and took in the sights, taking lots of goofy pictures. We soaked up a little more time in the sun and got yet again some more delicious ice cream from Patagonia’s ice cream and coffee shop. After we put in a few loads of laundry, we decided to head out on the town for a bit.

It was the night before we were given keys and a roadmap, and all was quiet in Queenstown. A group of young naïve Americans was frolicking about the town, taking in the gardens and beach at night. They were about to head around the town when they were greeted by their lovely Australian friends.

Alright, we had been looking for them all day. Not in a creepy stalkers kind of way, but more in a “Queenstown can’t possibly be that large that we wouldn’t run in to them at least once more before our road trip.”

We ended up hanging out with them again that night and realized that we both were leaving Queenstown the next day to embark upon some South Island traveling. Trying our hardest not to seem annoying, we decided to meet up once again when we reached our next day destination of Te Anau.

Tuesday, Feb. 7

Time to Meet Our JUCY…Off to Te Anau

After 5 amazing days in Queenstown, we headed for the airport to rent our new home for the next week. I’m sure some of you have seen the pictures, but our new “home” was a bright green and purple van that we rented from a company called Jucy. Amanda was our fearless first driver, and with a bit of guidance we got on the road without too many problems. (Minus the rental lady from JUCY who came running after us to explain that she had given us the wrong directions for getting out of town- such service.)

We had briefly planned out our trip, but only got as far as figuring out where we would be for each day. Our end point for the day was going to be Te Anau, a small town on the way to Milford Sound, a popular tourist destination as it has guided boat tours that lead out to the ocean.

After many “scenic” stops along the way, we ended up in Te Anau. Some things to note: driving on the other side of the road when driving on very “tourist” driven roads is not as difficult because they have arrows painted on the roads to tell you which direction you should be going. Also, a giant JUCY van handles in a different manner than a small car does….you learn to love your breaks.

Te Anau proved to be a quaint little town. We booked our boat tour for the next day and embarked upon one of many journeys to find “free” camping. We quickly realized that free camping doesn’t exactly exist in New Zealand. However, we were determined to save ourselves some money and find an abandoned parking lot to inhabit for the evening. We found a really great looking spot on the other side of a building out of town next to a footy field and we decided to roam about the premise to look for free entertainment until evening. We found this amazingly beautiful lake which had a rock shore that we decided to lay down on for a spell. We also quickly realized how powerful the sun in New Zealand is because after only an hour on the rocks, we were a beautiful shade of red. Yay for sunburn. Eek. Sunscreen (or sun cream as the natives call it) quickly became our best friend.

We had previously planned on meeting our Australian friends at their hostel so that we could go out to eat that night. (If you haven’t realized it already, these friends we made while canyoning quickly became some of our greatest friends and weaved their way into our travels…just wait they keep appearing!)

We met the guys at a park and went out for a very expensive, yet tasty burger and chips (or fries.) My burger had this beat root sauce on it, but it was SO delicious, just a little bit spendy. Since Te Anau was such a small town we walked to this theater that was built specifically to show a film about Milford Sound that was filmed from a helicopter. The movie was so amazing with some majorly breathtaking views.

Now for some interesting times…after saying our goodbyes we decided that we were going to have to find a different “campsite” from the parking lot we had found earlier because we heard that if you got caught there you would have an instant fine of $250…not exactly something we budgeted for. We started driving out of town to a campsite. But, as we were driving it started to rain, and I was in the backseat of the van where you can’t really see or hear what is going on in the front. Then, on top of the rain and major unknowns, we start driving into the woods. Just picture me sitting in the back of a dark van driving in the rain to the middle of nowhere to stay for the first night in the campervan. Yikes.

We pulled into the campsite which twisted and turned down a very narrow road and began to convert our van into our bed for the night. Picture this again; we had two beds and five people. Yep, three of us shared the bottom bed and let’s just say; apparently I snore…who knew. Haha

After a very restless night, we awoke the next morning to see that our campsite was next to this gorgeous lake. We used it to clean ourselves up a bit and to wash our cereal dishes. It’s amazing how daylight can change your perception of something.

Wednesday, Feb. 8

Milford Sound

Seriously one of the most amazing places ever. I’ve been to a few different areas with mountains but this definitely takes the cake. Despite the twisting and winding roads, the drive and views were so amazing that I don’t even think a camera could quite capture the amazingness.

We stopped many times to take in the breathtaking views, and I took lots of pictures. At one point we stopped at this lookout and had to walk down to this rolling river where the water was an unimaginable shade of blue and the rocks were so perfect! We spent some quality time there and then moved on to this spot where we passed over a bride, then parked the car and literally ran back to see this waterfall that was tucked into the side of the mountain. I felt so close to God’s creation. Wow. We got to Homer’s Tunnel where there is an avalanche zone. Sometimes the area gets so covered with snow that the road has to be shut down. Since it’s summer there wasn’t much snow left, but I did get a glimpse of some snow next to the mountainside. We had to pass through Homer’s Tunnel and then traverse down an incredibly steep and winding road to get to Milford Sound which is found in the Fijordland National Park area. As we were going down the winding road we were questioning whether our sad little RV would ever be able to make it back up the hill. Seriously, it was a fear in the back of all our minds. The van had a little trouble staying consistent in speeds as it was climbing hills, so it was a legitimate fear.

When we finally reached Milford Sound we had a boat tour that went throughout the sound showing us the amazing rock cliffs, mountains, and waterfalls. We even got to see some Sea Lions basking in the little sun that was shining through. No one had really warned us what to wear, so us being silly Minnesotans were dressed in shorts and sweatshirts, where everyone else looked like they were ready to travel into the tundra. Needless to say our boat ride was a tad chilly, but nothing a MN girl couldn’t handle. It lasted around 2 hours and we even got to go right up next to under a waterfall. It was literally splashing onto us!

After our boat ride we took a potty break and then headed back on our way to the campsite from the night before. Along the way we stopped at this thing called a Chasm, which is pretty much the coolest rock formation waterfall thing ever. It’s hard to explain but just google it and see how cool it looks. We returned to our campsite and bunkered in for the night. We were all really exhausted but we put on a movie and hit the hay.

Thursday, Feb. 9

Off to Dunedin

Today we woke up and decided to take a quick bath in the lake. Joe had told us all that it was something that needed to be experienced, and he even reckoned that it was his favorite thing thus far. However, Joe is a boy and it takes him a lot less time to bathe in a freezing cold lake than it does for girls, we have longer hair than he does and ours needs to be shampooed and conditioned. However, it was an amazing experience, despite being near hypothermic by the time we were done. Afterward, we packed up camp and began our journey toward Dunedin.

Dunedin made its way to the bottom of our “favorite places” list very quickly. Maybe it was the down pouring rain, maybe it was us driving directly to the heart of the city when we really had no idea what we were doing, or maybe it was the fact that we didn’t want to pay $90 for a campsite so instead we drove around for hours looking for a place, only to decide to stay in an abandoned parking lot on the top of a hill by a some-what sketchy neighborhood. I felt borderline homeless.

But, I can’t be too mean to Dunedin because despite our having to relieve ourselves in the woods or bargain so you wouldn’t have to sleep by the door; our parking lot had this really neat hidden access way to the ocean. There was an amazing beach located there where we ran about and took some pretty neat pictures. The next day in Dunedin proved to be even better than the first.

Friday, Feb. 10

Dunedin: Take 2

With a fresh outlook we took our second day in Dunedin with a new outlook. We decided to drive about the Otago Peninsula and search for some sea lions and penguins. We had many great adventures out on the open road but I have to thank the amazing driving skills of my fellow travel buddies. There were some dangerously narrow roads and we managed to stay on them nearly the entire time!! Haha, there may have been a few close calls but overall it was amazing!

We had to learn the hard way that many things in life are not free. Along with our camping situations we drove for nearly an hour to see this rare penguin colony, only to arrive to find that the beach they were on was apparently privately owned and the fee to tour was nearly $60. Not worth it. We didn’t want our trip up the mountain to be wasted so we did what any group of poor electronically deprived college students would do….we began to look for outlets. We ended up making a few small purchases so we could steal a little electricity to recharge our camera and laptop batteries. I decided to buy a thick shake. Thick shakes are apparently supposed to be similar to our milk shakes; however, I’d like to think of them more as frothy milk with lots of air. It gave me a tummy ache. AND this trip up the mountain frustrated me almost to tears because one of the guides was in the café with us and relentlessly bothered me about taking the tour, even after I had told him we were just going to pass this time around.

The remainder of the day was spent driving about just taking in the view, but we did drive out to Allan’s beach for a bit. To get to Allan’s beach you have to drive down another very narrow road and then park and climb a fence and walk through a pasture to access the beach.  There were some really neat sea lions simply roaming about, well they were mostly lying around but it was still so neat to see these creatures just there in the wild. We came across a sea lion that was injured and it looked like it had been bit by some large animal. It was really sadL. We said a little prayer for him.

We realized that Dunedin was home to the world’s steepest street, Baldwin Street. Legitimately this thing was SO steep. We found it and climbed it, then came back down to receive our certificate of achievement for climbing it! Yeah, they really have certificates for it. It was so steep that when a van drove up it, it puffed out so much smoke that I think the whole in the ozone doubled in size.

Before we left Dunedin we wanted to have a nice meal so we went to this cute little Pizza place called Filadelphio’s. I got this great tasting calzone and a drink called the Pink Panther, it was super creamy and delightful after a long drizzly day. We spent another night in our abandoned lot but this time around we felt much better about the area. It’s amazing what a little familiarity can do for one’s sense of safety.

Saturday, Feb. 11

Christ Church/Sumner

Christ Church was such a different experience for our group. The once booming city underwent a massive earthquake nearly a year ago and it is still undergoing major repairs. We parked our Jucy right next to the Red Zone, the area that is blocked off by fences because of its major damage from the quake, and we decided to walk about for a bit. The damage was really sad. So many businesses were forced to evacuate, and the area of town has been left to be repaired. It was almost eerie because we arrived so late in the afternoon and the part of town that still was open to the public was all closed.

We needed to figure out if there were any free camping areas so we trucked it to the Visitor Center only to discover that they closed at 6 pm. Hey, guess what time it was? Yeah it was 6:03. We knocked and they gave us a map of the city, but that was the only thing they were able to do for us that day. Left alone and lost, we went back to the van to figure out a camping location for the evening. After some driving we found this section on the edge of town called Sumner. Sumner is another small district within Christ Church that was also damaged a little from the earthquake, but it is located closer to the beach and the ocean. It had a boho surfer vibe about it. As we were driving we found this competition that was finishing on the beach that had kayaking, running, biking and swimming I think. It was a very sweet looking thing. When we were driving we also noticed some of the damage because they had these big train cars stacked along the side of the road by the mountainside. There are still some rocks that fall from above and when we looked up we saw that there were a few houses that had literally been cut in half by the quake. I asked a local how often they feel tremors and he said not that often anymore, probably once a month but when the quake first happened they felt them much more often.

We found a really nice park with a neighborhood by it that even had a spicket and bathrooms! Running water has been a HUGE deal for our group so we were excited to set up camp for the night there. It was even free! Feeling safe and ready for sleep we parked our Jucy for the night and enjoyed yet another great meal of Ramen.

Sunday, Feb. 12

Time to Rebuild: Christ Church/Sumner/Lake Tekapo

Today we got up bright and early to beat the soccer kids from inhabiting our “campground” (aka, the park where we decided to set up camp.) We were going to go on a hike but quickly discovered that it had been blocked off after the quake had hit prior in the year. We wanted to go to the beach so we relocated our Jucy van and headed for the beach. It was so amazing. Each beach we have visited has had its own uniqueness and I never get tired of watching the ocean’s waves. They are so different each time. This beach had this unique rock cove/cave thing that we walked through and it was so beautiful with the water reflecting. The beach was also plagued with amazing surfers. We sat for nearly an hour just watching them tackle the waves. Some were highly skilled and some were just learning, taking lessons from their dads who were once the greatest surfers in “their day.”

After some more walking and a delicious coffee stop we drove back into the city to take a walk around the quake remains and sneak a peak of the amazing cathedral that was crushed during the disaster. You’ll never guess who we ran into in the city.  Nope, not Oprah, it was our Australian friends! Like seriously, this town is the size of Minneapolis and we just so happened to run into them right before their flight left that afternoon. I’m sure they were sick of seeing us AGAIN but they are such great friends now that it never even seemed like we left them. (Don’t worry we continued running into them during our walking that morning but eventually we parted ways…maybe I’ll visit Melbourne to see them all again soon, maybe.)

Due to all of the damage to local businesses in the red zone, new businesses have been formed out of old boxcar train cars and the stores are literally inside of them. It was a really neat site to see. We also stopped by this little market where this was this beekeeper. I got to try some of her honey from hives that had been in their family since the 50s. It was crazy to chat about such a unique thing (thank you John for being a beekeeper. Haha)

We also decided to stop at the museum in town both because it was free and it looked super interesting. It proved to have lots of great exhibits including this “craziest bra” section that had these designer bras made of really intense things including two taxidermist birds…so funny. I wasn’t supposed to take pictures but I may have sneaked a few shots anyway!

Our group decided that we really wanted to go see Mt. Cook since we were so close and it is such an iconic part of NZ, so we left the city that afternoon to embark on our journey. As we neared our destination of Mt. Cook it was getting late and we wanted to set up camp for the night. We found a cute little town called Lake Tekapo where we thought we saw a free camping sign. Only to discover that we had actually hallucinated the sign, but since it had gotten pretty dark already we decided to cave in and pay $15/person for our final night of camping, just so we could have one legitimate camping night in a real campground. The place was really quite nice and we could have showered if we wanted but we would have had to pay, and we also would have had to break our “no shower” streak…we just couldn’t do it haha.

We parked our jucy next to three other jucy vans and I think it felt very at home. After enduring one final night of agonizingly squished sleeping conditions we were ready to head back to Queenstown to return our beloved Jucy van.

Sidenote: The town was nicknamed by me, Lake Take-a-Poo...not a very fitting name for this gorgeous place, but we were having disputes over how the name was pronounced. We found out it is pronounced like Lake TEE-KAH-POE. 

Monday, Feb. 13

Taking Flight…Again

Mt. Cook and last night in Queenstown

Well I wish I had something amazing to tell you about how beautiful the iconic Mt. Cook was or how it was snow capped and breathtaking; however, the truth is we got there only to discover that there was too much cloud cover and that we wouldn’t be able to see the mountain. Seriously, we were all so bummed. However, we knew that now we could get back on the road and travel to Queenstown, our favorite place in NZ. As Kaylee hopped in the driver’s seat, we sped back going 100+ (KPH) the whole way, and let’s just say for the record, there was even a “DANGER: HIGH ACCIDENT AREA” sign that I snapped a pic of just in case we died so I would have proof that we were living on the edge.

*Random thing I haven’t mentioned yet: I sat in the front a lot during this trip, particularly in the middle seat in the front which made my butt go numb on numerous occasions. Since I didn’t do any driving I felt that it was a great trade off but I may very well need a massage after all that cramped riding along.

It was so sad to see our friend Jucy leave. I actually almost shed a tear. BUT, we were extremely happy to be back at our hostel called Nomads. We got all cleaned up and each spent about a ½ hour in the shower simply scrubbing the dirt and grime off our bodies. We fancied up and went out to Fergburger, this really popular and extremely delicious burger place. We took our burgers to the park and devoured them before the storm rolled in. The locals probably got some free entertainment out of watching us devour our burgers because they were about the size of our heads and a mess to eat. However, they were totally worth it!

We did a few loads of laundry and then headed off to bed before our crazy day of flying to Sydney.

Tuesday, Feb. 14

Croikee!: Sydney, Day 1

It’s seems surreal but today we made it to Sydney! The title of my blog comes from our journey to the Queenstown airport when this very helpful man was helping us get our luggage off the bus. As soon as he took Kaylee’s bag off the bus he yelled Croikee! That is when I knew I was in for an amazing time in Sydney. I didn’t know people actually said that.

After our flight from Queenstown to Aukland, we boarded our lovely Qantas plane for our flight from Aukland to Sydney. I love flying with Qantas, especially on Valentine’s Day. We got so much free food and it was delicious too. Plus we each had our own TVs again and it was so nice to have a movie to watch. I watched Crazy, Stupid, Love…it seemed like an appropriate Valentine’s Day movie.

After arriving in Sydney we had to wait for 45 min for our free shuttle to arrive. We were told to look for a guy in a bright yellow vest, and once we finally found him we got a bit concerned. He took us outside to the van, but when you are in a whole new city and are told to get in a strange person’s van, it just never feels safe. Plus he was clocking 92 in a 70 zone and I’m pretty sure I saw my life flash before my eyes numerous times. No worries though because we made it to our hostel in King’s Cross district of Sydney.

Our room is now home to the five of us, as well as three other guys. One from Germany, one from England, and they guy sleeping in the bunk below me we are not quite sure where he’s from. He’s kind of shy. There is no AC in this place and we sleep with our windows open but it’s still quite lovely. It feels like more of a family than our Nomads hostel did and I like that. We have a communal kitchen and living room area and I think it’ll be a great place!

Wednesday, Feb. 15

Lather on the Sun Cream: Sydney, Day 2

Today we planned our adventures for the coming days and decided to do the bridge climb and a few of us are going to go skydiving. Sydney is known for its amazing beaches so we figured we’d start the day off right by lathering on the sun cream (sunscreen for you Americans haha) and head to the beach. We went to a lesser known beach called RedLeaf which we were told was about a ½ hour walk from the hostel. The thing is though, when it is sunny and super warm and there are hills involved, a ½ hour walk to the beach gets to be a bit long. Plus tack on the fact that you eventually have to walk back and you start to understand how I’m going to be very in shape very soon.

The beach was very nice, but the sand was so fine it stuck to us and got in every possible crack and crevice. Also, I have noticed that apparently in Australia, swimsuit tops are only a suggestion for women when they are lying in the sun. I have seen a few more chests than I reckoned for. No worries Mom and Dad, my top has stayed on at the beach!

We met these two guys that are here from Italy. One is studying here and the other is working. They were really friendly and even invited us to go out with them that night but we ended up doing some stuff with the people from our hostel instead.

After an exhausting day at the beach we were all sun kissed and ready for a nap but we had to first stop at the local grocery store, Coles, to buy some food. Picture this, five hungry college kids ON A BUDGET with different food preferences trying to find relatively inexpensive food options that did not include Ramen or Mac n Cheese. Yeah, I’m excited to be in Fremantle and do my own grocery shopping. We settled on buying stuff to make Tacos, Spaghetti, Pizza, Egg Bake, and BLTs. Pretty good variety. We loaded up on some snack foods and headed back the rest of the way to our hostel. It was quite the journey when we were loaded down with grocery bags.

Exhausted, we quick made lunch then chilled out for the afternoon until the sun went down a bit. We decided to take another ½ hour walk to the Sydney Harbor, home to the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Bridge. It was such a great walk with the sun setting and all the lights starting to shine. We walked by the St. Mary’s Cathedral which is by this Aquatic Center where you can watch the swimmers below from up on the side walk. Such a neat architectural idea. Speakin of which, the Sydney Opera House was such an amazing sight to see. It’s the iconic image of Sydney and to see it in person was breathtaking. Hopefully we’ll squeeze some time in to take a tour of the inside. We walked about the boardwalk and then headed back for the night.

Thursday, Feb. 16

Bridge Climb!

Today we spent our morning at the beach again. I could get used to the beach life, just lying in the sun and soaking in the atmosphere. We came back early this afternoon to get all showered up and all of us surprisingly ended up skyping and getting to talk with our families! It’s so nice to see everyone’s faces again! We got ready for the afternoon and then took another long walk back to the Harbor for our Bridge Climb at 5:25.

We got a little lost on our walk and had to really book it at the end. With only 3 minutes to spare we made it to the Bridge Climb place and got all settled. It was so cool. We went through many different steps in preparation for our climb. After signing some waivers (gotta love those), we got fitted for our suits and then were told to go into a changing room, undress and put the suit on over our under garments. We then went through step by step layering on the safety gear and other helpful tools. Amanda referenced Willy Wonka and how we felt like Oompa Loompas and I’d agree with that. Everything had such organization to it that I felt like I was in his factory making something crazy.

Ok so earlier today, Dad asked me why I wanted to do the bridge climb, and I never really thought about it much. I wasn’t really that scared or anything but once we started going, my nerves started to kick into high gear. As we started walking we were attached to this relatively thin wire, and then were in a line behind our guide. There were a bunch of us, but our little group of 5 was in the front right behind the guide. The first few sections were pretty scary because we didn’t really know what to expect but I could see through the floor boards and it was a very thin path. I had to force myself to walk beyond my fears and just enjoy the experience.

As we kept climbing the path widened out and then there were structures on either side of us. I mean, it was still super high up and scary but not as bad as the first few sections. Our climb was timed so we got to see the sun set from on top the bridge and we got to overlook the Opera House as well. We even got to see this crazy huge cruise ship leaving the harbor. We were at the top of the bridge and were waving like crazy and cheering and the people from the ship were doing it back at us.

We got to have our pics taken up on the bridge which was really nice and they even gave us a free group shot at the end. Despite my fears, I kept telling myself; If Oprah did this, so can I. (They had pictures of all these celebs that have done the climb and their signatures inside the Bridge Climb building.) I was almost in tears at the top of the bridge because the view was so breathtaking. I mean picture it, being at the top of the Sydney Bridge that you see in all the pictures looking out over the harbor with the Opera House on one side, the ocean in view, Luna Park in view on the other side, as well as the overlook of the Sydney skyline just at dusk—simply breathtaking. I also couldn’t have asked to experience it with a much better group, my friends are fantastic.

We finished up the bridge climb feeling extremely exhausted, hungry, and ready for some ice cream. We de-geared ourselves and headed straight for the harbor to a Gelato shop. I got some delicious chocolate gelato (Italian ice cream) and then we embarked upon our great journey home. Seriously, I am walking so much that my feet feel like they should be amputated. (Okay maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but traveling is seriously exhausting.) We got closer to our hostel and decided that we really needed something more than ice cream for supper, so we used our coupons to go to McDonald’s. Let’s just say the walk there was like walking down Bourbon St. in Louisiana, strip clubs, drunks, and many more of the like were everywhere. We got to Mc Donald’s to find a homeless man sleeping with his head down on the table, but too hungry to care much more we got our $5 deal which included a Big Mac, fries, a drink and a sundae….it was SO GOOD!

We came back to the hostel where I have been typing relentlessly for the past hour to get caught up on this silly blog, so I hope you have all enjoyed reading this litany about my trip thus far.

Tomorrow morning I jump out of a perfectly good airplane, but I will be strapped to a professional (tandem skydive) so I’m not THAT worried. But I might be freaking out a little. Hopefully my posts will be coming at y’all more regularly now that I have relatively reliable wireless.

Well folks, that’s all for now. Thanks for skimming or sticking with it and reading the whole darn thing.

Cheers. We’re all mates here. Love you all!! Word.

When Even a Picture Isn't Enough, That is When It's Called God's Country

Sunday, Feb. 5

Speechless. Today has surpassed any other day for the views and experiences I have had thus far in Queenstown. We woke up bright and early at 7:15 to make our 8 AM kayaking appointment. Hey, guess what we had for breakfast? No, not PB&Js, they were TOASTED PB&Js. Such variety! (Don’t worry Mom and Dad, I get nutritional variety later in the day.)

We were the only people on our kayaking this morning and our guide picked us up in this funky hippie van outside our hostel. He had dreads and was a super chill guy. As we got in the van he said, “let’s listen to some Kiwi music to get in the real New Zealand mood.” (Kiwi’s are this weird semi-extinct bird of New Zealand, and the Kiwi music was a great variety of hippie/chill tunage.) It was about a half our drive to our kayaking location and he stopped to tell a few stories along the way. We stopped at this thing called 12 mile delta (actually, the location of where we had gone canyoning a few days ago), and it was the location of a huge gold rush that had happened a number of years ago. Our kayaking location was on this beautiful lake surrounded by SNOW CAPPED mountains! I kid you not, the water was crystal clear and we were pretty much the only people on the water. We were all in two person kayaks, and I got to paddle with our guide steering in the back. I actually loved it because he told me lots of stories and started giving me advice for when we take our RV adventure toward Milford Sound.

The lake is home to a few islands, one of which is called Pig Island. We actually stopped at Pig Island for a snack of delicious home-made chocolate raisin bread amazingness as well as some Hot Orange (aka hot orange juice, but better and with lots of sugar.) He even made the bread himself. When we were stopped we got out to take a few pics and noticed that the rocks were really flat. So flat that we were able to skip them around 15-35 times (Joe got an insane rock that skipped like 40 times, no joke.) We also noticed that there was another kayak already on the island when we arrived, and as we were enjoying our snack, our guide stopped and started laughing. I was sitting right next to him and all of a sudden I heard a woman shrieking and making, well let’s just say some very interesting sounds. Ahem. Cough. Clear throat. Cough again. Awkward silence……..

Needless to say the guide and I started cracking up and he starting to clap to let the two love birds know we were there. The others in our group didn’t catch on until I explained later but it was so incredibly funny. We got back in and started kayaking again around the island and as we passed the other kayak we saw the two people—they were actually friends of our guide from college that had borrowed a kayak and had spent the night camping out on the island. They just didn’t realize that we were going to be there so soon that morning. Haha!

We got to take some incredible pictures of our red kayaks against the clear blue water with the snow capped mountains in the background. Just think about that for a moment. It was incredible. Oh, and did I mention that while we were all enjoying the simple beauty of the area, our guide began to say how some of the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) movie scenes were filmed where we were. Yeah. One of the mountains had been removed using filming technology and it was replaced with the two towers, and then another few scenes had been shot there as well. Oh, and did I also mention that as he’s casually telling us this he explains how he helped to be in the movie. Yeah, he was an extra but you can actually see him in a few different scenes. Nbd.

Our guide was such a great guy, and he was also an amazing story teller. He told us this folk tale of how the lake came to be. There is this strange tide that happens where the lake rises and falls but it is not in sync with the moon. It apparently is linked to the heart (island) island of this man still beating. Really crazy but also very interesting. There is also this island that is forbidden to touch because the ancient people that used to rule the area placed the bodies of their dead leaders there, so no one travels to that particular island.

On our way back to Queenstown our guide pipes up to ask if we wanted to check out a waterfall, to which we all, without hesitation, said yes. He literally pulled off to the side of the road right hten and there and we got out, crossed the road and started hiking into the brush. We went in a little ways and sure enough, tucked away off the road there was this beautiful waterfall. We all got to climb behind it and take lots of pictures. I even washed my face in it and took a sip! It was so fresh. Our guide said that one time his little sister and him were driving down that road and their car broke down so they decided to do a little exploring, and they ended up finding it. I seriously could not have asked for a more perfect morning.

We came back and finally made ourselves a hearty meal. We cooked up some tubular spaghetti, meat and cheese spaghetti sauce, and some good ol’ frozen veggie blend. It was so good and I finally felt stuffed, a feeling I haven’t felt in awhile. Oh, and I met some great guys in the kitchen today while we were cleaning up because I wanted to get rid of our extra veggies. They were from Britain. Then, we grabbed our towels then headed to the beach where we got lots of sun. It was such a beautiful day at the beach. We even went to get some gelato at Patagonia’s, a local gelato shop that has *drum roll please* FREE WIFI!!!! Ahhh such an amazing find.

I’m not sure what the evening will bring, but we heard that tomorrow is a big New Zealand holiday, similar to the U.S.’s 4^th of July. Everyone has work off, so I’m sure the town will be hoppin’. We’re hoping to go to Ferberger tonight for supper, as well as hang out with our Aussie mates some more. Also, we finally got some cool neighbors that we share our balcony with, they’re from the Netherlands.
 

Taking the Strange out of Stranger

Saturday, Feb 4

We hiked a mountain today!!!  As the poor college students that we are, we decided to take the scenic route and climb the mountain in Queenstown instead of paying the money to take the Skyline to the top. A little unsure of what we were getting ourselves into, we embarked on our journey right after another lunch of PB&J and apples. (We seriously need a diet change.) The man inside the Skyline place estimated that it would take us about an hour to hike. After our first few steps up the rough terrain, we realized that this hike might be a bit more challenging than we first had anticipated. Needless to say, after a few, (ok, so maybe a LOT), of breaks to “take in the view” (or breathe and drink water) we began to see the top of the mountain. It ended up taking us around an hour and a half but it was well worth it. Words cannot describe, and pictures do not do the view that we got justice. Seriously, it was breath taking. I hope to have pictures posted sometime soon to help explain how gorgeous it was, but just imagine this. Getting to the top of a mountain and getting to overlook the peninsula and land of Queenstown with parasailers literally jumping off the mountain in front of you. IN-SANE!

When we were at the top we enjoyed a snack and then Kaylee and I took on the challenge of luging! We went two different times, first on the scenic route and then on the fast track. It was so much fun. We were flying down the track and I even passed an older women while we were on the fast track…I just can’t be controlled while on the raceway! (Also pictures to prove that, so no laughing John.)

After a good while of picture taking and memory making we began the journey back down the mountain. Let’s just say that it took us about half the time to get back down as it did to get up the mountain. We were actually running down at one point because it was the easier option. On our way down we had more time to look up and enjoy the scenery, probably because we weren’t so focused on remembering to breathe. Ha! We noticed that throughout the woods there were ziplines hung in the trees as well as mountain bike trails. *Note on the mountain bike trails: Joe found one that literally had a 90 degree drop off. These things are meant for professionals only! Or at least amateurs willing to break a few bones. They looked so dangerous.

Kaylee had made dinner plans with our Australian friends the night before, so we knew we had to be back and showered by 6 pm. When we got to the bottom of the hill we had a series of vicotory dances and then sceddadled back to our hostel to fly through the showers. We all got fancied up and met the guys at the World Bar for dinner. Not gonna lie, I was a little worried we were gonna get stood up, but sure enough, when we arrived we saw the guys and we headed off to the beach for some Fish and Chips (aka French fries.) The place we got the food from was such a neat little place with only one guy working. But he was amazing at making the food and it was well worth the wait in line. Brenna and Joe decided to take the night to go on a date, which made plenty of sense. Goodness knows we’ll all be spending more than enough time together while taking our Jucy van out on the open road, so they deserved a little break from the group. We all enjoyed our fish and chips on the beach and the evening could not have been more perfect.

One of the Australian guys, Chris, explained to us how when we are in Australia we cannot sit under trees to eat our food because Drop Bears will come out of the tree and maul us and take our food. Needless to say, I quickly found out how much Australians like to mess with our minds. I’m a bit gullible. After dinner we sat around and chatted about the many similartities and differences of Australia and America, and continued to poke fun at their Australian accents (that sound VERY British…but that’s not typical of the Australian accent.) The guys invited us to come hang out at their flat for the evening, so in typical New Zealand fashion, we lived spontaneously and took them up on the offer. (I know what you’re thinking Mom and Dad. Never go off with strangers, don’t get in a vehicle with people you don’t know, yadda yadda yadda.) Here’s the thing: Dad, you said if I did anything crazy I just shouldn’t tell you until afterward, so here it is, we did it! AND, it was totally fine. The guys drove Amanda, Kaylee and I to their flat which had an amazing view of the city at night. We just hung out and listened to very old American music, but it was seriously the most awesome time ever! If we’re ever in Melbourne (aka Mel-ben, they made me practice saying it “correctly”) we have a place to stay and eat for free J. We also have now been invited to James’ 21^st birthday party on April 28^th…not quite sure we’ll make it to that one. It got to be around midnight and we decided to take a taxi back because it was getting late, and we had kayaking the next morning at 8.

Our taxi driver was this cute old man who clearly loved his job. He drove us back to our hostel and chatted with us the whole way there. He told us to get straight away to bed so that we did not oversleep for our kayaking adventure.

Needless to say, Queenstown has proven to amazing so far and I cannot wait to tell of our kayaking adventures.

Hardcore Parkour-New Zealand Style

Friday, Feb. 3 2012

Yesterday was such an amazing day! We went canyoning deep in the heart of the Queenstown wilderness. We had to wear some extremely heavy gear including a wetsuit, booties, helmet and a buoyancy aid (aka, a life jacket.) The gear when wet added around an extra 30 pounds to us. Each of our helmets had a name on them so our guides would know what to call us. I was called “FOX” for the day. Seemed pretty fitting to me. Ha!

On our journey to this adventure we had a 15 minute drive to the location. Our group was paired with a group of four young Australian guys, James, Stewey, Cam, and Chris, as well as one Welsch man around his sixties named Dave. Oh how funny the car ride was. First of all, we learned pretty quick that New Zealand drivers have no fear. Actually, they not only have no fear while driving, they seriously have no fear at all. Our driver, also our guide, was explaining our he has bungy jumped off of a parasailing thing into the water in the bay at Queenstown. He was kind of ridiculous. Along with the insanity of driving, where I was convinced we were in for one heck of a scary time, we started fighting with the Australians in the van. They started calling us Yanks, and we got into some pretty heated discussions about how to pronounce various common phrases. James was the most vocal of the group, and he even brought Dave into the chaos. However, Dave claimed to be Welsch and had nothing to do with our chaos.

For those of you that may not know, canyoning is an adventure sport which includes hiking, repelling into canyons and off of waterfalls, ziplining, cliff jumping, rock climbing, sliding and swimming through rocky ravines and a few other dangerous bits. For those of you that know me well, this sounds like a culmination of my greatest fears: heights, water, and the unknown.

I tried my best to conquer all of my fears; however, there were a few things that I just could not overcome. I was unable to make myself jump off two of the cliffs, but I got to repel down them instead. A pretty fair trade off I’d have to say. Mom and Dad, you should be proud of me. I escaped without a single injury!

The day was well spent and we were also well spent by the evening. But the Australians had invited us to go on the Kiwi Crawl, a bar crawl put on nightly for the local travelers. We met them at the World Bar where we began our night with a teapot. Something everyone should try at some point in New Zealand. It was such a different night life experience because the music here is an assortment of old school rap and music I remember dancing to my the 9^th grade dance. Last night we even busted it out to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song. Let me tell you, the Australian guys knew every single word. Priceless. We went to six different places including the Minus 5 Ice Bar (Minus 5 degrees Celcius that is), where we were given a parka to wear and Uggs if we wanted them. Everything was made of ice, including the cups. To be honest, it wasn’t even that cold.

We discovered that the Australian guys like to take lots of pictures and videos. I’m sure there are close to 500 just from last night. No joke. But it was such a great night and time to meet the locals. The guys said if we were ever in the Melbourne, Australia area we’d always have friends to call now. We’re actually having dinner with them tonight as well.

We spent the rest of the evening running around Queenstown and hitting up the beach where a citation for public urination was almost given out to a crazy local. So funny. Needless to say after such a long and exhausting day and night, we crashed in our room and didn’t get up until 11 the next day!

Good Morning...?

Well, we missed free breakfast. Hopefully that's not any indication of how the day is going to go. Free breakfast is served at our hostel from 7-9 AM and we definitely did NOT get up in time today. Whoops...looks like we'll be living on PB&Js today. No home cooking for us till later.

On a positive note, today we get to go CANYONING!! Mixture of excitement and nerves are present right now but I hope all goes well. We're wearing life jackets so it can't be too bad, right?

My internet time is going to run out sometime today, so unless I purchase more it might be a few days before you hear from me. However, look forward to MANY great stories and interesting side notes. Hopefully I will be no longer a pasty white problem by then too!

Love to all.

Minnesotans Are Not Meant for Sun

I think that as Minnesotans we are genetically programmed to spontaneously combust when exposed to sunlight. At least that's how I feel after today. We all thought it would be a grand idea to put on the suits and trek to the beach to catch some rays (trying to do as the New Zealanders do.) Well, despite our best efforts with the sunscreen (ahem, Mom and Dad), we still ended up a tad sunkissed (aka fried like cherry red tomatoes.) I think we learned our lesson; however, we shall see in the coming days.

Tonight I think we legitimately met the first angry New Zealander. We got on the bus to just cruise about and learn a little about New Zealand driving before we begin our road trip journey (which by the way, I don't think there are ANY stop lights here, just roundabouts.) We had every intention of just cruising about and getting off at the interesting stops; however, we ended up at the last stop of the bus and had no intention of getting off. The driver came back to talk to us, and with our American charm we convinced him to let us stay on the bus for the return trip. I guess he wasn't exactly angry, but I wouldn't call him "friendly."

Today at the beach Brenna got pooped on by a seagull. *Sometimes I go off on random sidenotes...just bare with me.* Although Joe tried to kill the birds with rocks, one still marked Brenna's foot with it's poo. Nothing like a little souvenir, eh? When we were at the beach we also got to watch this Swedish man (dressed entirely in LAKERS gear..don't ask) try ever so desperately to pick up an Austrian woman. He was attempting to play frisbee, despite his clear lack of frisbee knowledge, and it continuously went into the water or came crashing towards Joe. Super random, but we also realized that it is extremely difficult to read or concentrate on anything when at the beach. The reason? Too many amazing people watching moments. I love traveling.

We met this really great kid tonight at supper in our hostel. His name is Jonah and is from Vegas. It was so refreshing to hear another United States accent. Not that we are not exposed to a lot of them, but there are so many other people from other countries at our hostel.

I'm sure you've noticed this by now, but my blog posts are extremely random and sporatic. If you don't like it, don't read it. Otherwise, enjoy the updates because this is awesome!!!

I'm Here!!! and some other grand stuff

Monday, 1/30 – Thursday, 2/2

First of all, YES! I am indeed here, in New Zealand, safe and sound on the beginning to what is going to most definitely be a life changing experience. I am traveling with Joe Pekarna, Brenna Miland, Amanda Gay, and Kaylee Batcha, all of which are some of my fellow Bennie and Johnnie friends. We are currently in Queenstown, New Zealand, an extremely beautiful city tucked inside some of New Zealand’s most beautiful mountains. God’s creation is truly remarkable. I have already been left speechless many times in the short while I have been here in New Zealand.

Now on to the part you’ve all been waiting for…*cue drum roll please* stories of my travels!! Since I am finally starting to blog (I know, I know, you all want daily updates of my life) I am going to give brief updates from the first few days of the trip.

Monday, 1/30

Departure Day!

We left Minneapolis Monday afternoon and headed out for L.A. While we were flying over the Rockies, the pilot gets on the intercom to say, ““You’re probably wondering what is causing all of the turbulence…*awkward silence*….so are we.” Aren’t pilots supposed to provide ENCOURAGING words? Well besides the slight bit of turbulence, we landed in L.A. where we had to wait for our 7 hour layover. We feasted on some highly overpriced tasty treats from Burger King where I first began to realize we were not around the Minnesota nice anymore. After waiting 15 minutes for my sandwhcih, I politely asked the manager if I could get free fries for waiting; to which she rudely said no. That incident was the beginning of what would be known as “having to wait for Christine.” (We’re playing a game like HORSE, and I think I am now at the count of H-O-R. Oh boy.)

After we dined we had to wait another 5 hours before we could embark upon our 14 hour flight to Aukland, New Zealand. After saying a few last goodbyes to the family and enjoying my texting while it lasted we prepared for our red eye flight.

Tuesday, 1/31

While we were on our 14 hour flight we crossed over the International Date Line so we never really got to experience Tuesday, Jan. 31. Anyone want to comment on how it was?

Wednesday, 2/1

14 hours later and a zillion times zones away (19 hours ahead), we arrived in Aukland, New Zealand where we took a connecting flight to Queenstown, New Zealand. Which is where we are now!!!

We are staying in this really great hostel in downtown Queenstown called Nomads. Our room has a balcony and a great view of the mountains. It is pretty much the coolest place ever because there are just a bunch of college-aged kids walking around all the time and we even get free breakfast and supper.

Point of interest (further referred to as POIs), EVERYONE HERE IS SO FREAKING TAN. SERIOUSLY. When we walked into our hostel I wanted to crawl inside a box because I was a dirty, smelly, jet lagged, pasty-white mess.

We spent the afternoon and evening walking around Queenstown trying to hunt down some free wireless internet. Did you know that FREE wireless internet seriously does not exist in Queenstown?? Well, it doesn’t. We decided to head back for a short nap after dinner and then head out on the town to listen to some live music at a local place. Turns out, I woke up to discover that it is was 1 AM, and the jet lag had gotten the best of the group. I peeled my contacts off my eyes and curled up to enjoy some sleep where I was not sitting upright in a cramped airplane seat.

Thursday, 2/2

Today we woke up at 6 AM. Needless to say, we are still fighting jet lag, but we’re trying to make the most of this very long day in Queenstown. We began the day by caving and buying some wireless at the local Starbucks. However, turns out when you Skype with people, you’re 24 hour wireless pass expires in a matter of 1 hour. Needless to say, it took me $21 to figure that out. Yikes. However, if I got the chance to say hello, feel special. J

We went to the front desk to book some super awesome adventures for our remaining time in Queenstown. In the coming days you’ll get to hear about my experiences with canyoning, kayaking the lake, hiking a mountain and then luging down part of it. I know, be jelly. Some serious dough was spent today. But as everyone says, you only go here once.

We spent the afternoon buying some groceries and exploring Queenstown. Kaylee and I (probably mostly me) got super excited when we saw an elementary school. Their little uniforms and hats were so cute, not to mention their little New Zealand accents!! Such a beautiful experience, I cannot wait to see what a school is like in Freo.

After a dreary forecast this morning, the afternoon was quite sunny and pleasant. We hit up the beach and watched the funniest Swedish man try ever so desperately to pick up this Austrian girl. He was “trying” so hard to play Frisbee with her, but while she was a champ, he was more like a chimpanzee. He was horrible. We’re all a little sun-kissed now, and hopefully not too sun burned (we wore some sun screen, I promise.) But the sun is a lot stronger down here. We shall see what the night has to bring but so far I am very excited to see what adventures are yet to come.

We have taken our journey step by step and I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

Cheers!