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.