our ridiculous life

Final New Zealand Blog

2009-04-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

As our time in New Zealand has wound down, Ash and I have had ample time to reflect on the last 6months. For our final post of this adventure, here is a list of the things we have learned throughout our experience in New Zealand. This list is in no particular order.

1. Toilets are obsolete; sticks and leaves are just as good as TP.

2. One can live on Beer, Wedges, Gummy Bears, and Gelato.

3. Why would anyone ever pay for accommodation?

4. All food worth eating can be prepared with boiling water.

5. It’s completely acceptable to get ready for the day in parking lots, (even with old men peering through the window).

6. It’s not abnormal for a stranger to take our picture (with their camera).

7. Why build a two-lane bridge when one lane will do?

8. We really do have best friends we hardly know.

9. Israeli guys are hot.

10. We always have money for beer and coffee. ALWAYS.

11.We’re really good at doing nothing (we knew this before though).

12. The Southern Night Sky is amazing.

13. Everything is Sababa.

14. Always say thankfuls.

15. After 10days, a shower is warranted.

16. Deodorant is only necessary when in a strangers company.

17. “No camping” signs suck

18. When we grow up we will have “Please Camp” signs on our lawn.

19. People don’t tend to sing as much as we do.

20. Shadflies are everywhere we want to be (they are the bane of my existence).

21. When presented with a “2-4-1” voucher always share the first, and decide later if the second is a good decision.

22. Not only does New Zealand make exceptional wine it brews quality beer.

23. Kiwi birds are a ploy to recruit tourists (Hello, they’re nocturnal).

24. When you go on a 10day tramp you should bring 13days worth of food and fuel.

25. Bringing 40 Cliff Bars apiece across the Pacific Ocean was clearly the right decision, Thanks Gary.

26. Now is clearly a good time to not be in the United States (good thing we’re simply home for the summer).

27. We love Pirates, Ninjas, Sharks, and Dinosaurs.

28. The Colossal Squid… definitely not disappointing.

29. You don’t need shoes to go into the grocery store or restaurants…actually you don’t need shoes anywhere.

30. A queen size air mattress does not fit in a 2person tent (learned that one the hard way)

31. A tent isn’t suitable for permanent residence? Huh.

32. Cattle are much less hostile than moose and bears.

33. All I can say is our lives are pretty plain; we like watching the puddles gather rain.

2009-04-11T00:38:00.000-07:00

2009-04-11T00:33:00.000-07:00

Camping W wild Cattle

View from our beds
Regular Dinner Feast
View on One lane road
First shower in a week

2009-04-11T00:26:00.000-07:00

The volcano we scurried up

Psychos running down

F*
Oh Yeah!
What's Up Crater?

Sheep and Volcanoes

2009-04-10T23:40:00.000-07:00

After taking the ferry from the South Island to the North we were able to spend about 4days in our favorite NZ city, Wellington. Luckily, Dana had been in Wellington a couple of times and had met a really great guy named Derick. He was amazing and let us crash at his house for our time. This turned out super well because his house is literally on the edge of down town. We were able to stay up later than the sun, and cruise around the house until we were ready to leave for the day. It was just really nice to be stationary for a few days. The highlight of Wellington (other than sleeping inside) was between having our hair-cut and seeing the colossal squid. I know this doesn’t sound super exciting, but Wellington rocks!

After Wellington, Dana decided to hop on a cheap ticket and head to Fiji for her last week before home. So, it has been Ash and I exploring the North Island solo, well duo. We started our voyage on the Surf highway, camping with the wild cattle on the sand dunes, and from there we headed interior toward the North Island’s volcanoes. Generally when we head to a new spot we use the “Let’s GO Book” Kort gave for directions. This has been very reliable and definitely gets us from point A to point B. On our journey to the volcanoes Ash saw on the map a more direct road. Once we were on this road we realized why we hadn’t heard much about it. It was a one lane, winding, dirt road, with many bumps and potholes. My prayer driving this was for our tires to hold out and for no other drivers to come in the opposite direction. We decided about half way down the road to take a break at a scenic waterfall. This turned out to be a great stop because we ended up camping there. We decided it would be fine, because we didn’t see a no camping sign and there was a picnic table. We were slightly worried though, because we were obviously camping in a pasture with sheep. If you remember we have had some issues with shepherds and sheep in the past. No worries this time though. We arose quite early the next morning to head to the North Island’s coolest walk, volcanoes.

Ash and I decided to take a day hike to “Emerald Lakes” but soon got distracted by a volcano peak. Instead of hiking to the lakes we hiked up the volcano peak. This was by far the most ill thought out plan, but neither of us were prepared to admit this to each other and just headed up. About ¼ the way up the mountain we realized what we were in for. For every step taken up we would slide about ½ backward. ½ way up the mountain Ash and I were quite aggressive and began swearing at the rocks. One of the most impressing things was as we were going up people were running down. Now I don’t really care if they run, but as they were running huge boulders were following and preceding their paths. A few times we had to will rocks to stop before they hit us, quite scary actually. Once again we were fine and not injured don’t worry Mom. When we summited we quickly forgot how scary the last couple hours were as we stared into the crater of the volcano. Seriously cool.

We arrived in Auckland a couple of days ago to sell our car before we fly home. We opted to splurge and stay at a hostel for our time in the city. Now don’t think too crazy, we have rented a space for a tent cite only (we’re still sleeping under the stars). Since being in Auckland we have realized a couple of things about camping for months at a time. We are allowed to use the hostel facilities including showers, couches, internet, and kitchen; but we have not yet utilized all of these comforts. We seem to be more comfortable staying outside bundled up instead of being cozy inside. We eat outside, change outside, pack our bags outside, sleep outside, and last night we even watched a movie on my laptop outside. Funny how things change.

"Today We Sail!"

2009-04-02T02:23:00.000-07:00

It’s our last week on the south island so we decided to splurge and not go for another walk. Don’t get me wrong we absolutely loved all of our hikes, but it has been nice to not have 10hour walking days. Instead we chose to kayak the Able Tasman, “Today we Sail”. This basically turned out to be a vacation… from our vacation. Most nights we tend to go to bed around 8 or 8:15pm, because when you are sleeping in a tent you are not able to stay up later then the sun. The thing that we can’t figure out is why we don’t sleep very well at night. Clearly we have packed days; we should be completely tuckered out. Seriously, we wake up with the sun (around 10am) take our time getting ready by sipping coffee and eating our oatmeal on the beach, head out around noon, paddle for about an hour (half of which we would just sit on the water being pushed by the tail wind), and then we would head in for the day. Once we would get to our campsite we would lay out in the sun. I mean come on a good night sleep would be really nice for a change.

Needless to say we had a great time kayaking. The highlights for sure were visiting a couple of seal colonies. We would just sit and watch them play and sleep. As we were watching the seals we had a drawn out conversation about how it would be nice to be a seal. All they do is swim around and play, and when they get tired they just go to shore dry off with the sun and take naps. At the end of this conversation we turned up our chins and pondered. “Wait, that sounds a lot like my life.” I am a seal! One of the neatest parts was pups had just been born a couple of months before. When we had seen them, they were really playful and showing off for us. They seemed to be just as curious about us as we were about them. They would come right up and watch us, so cute.

Since we have been gone our main diet is pita, noodles, tuna, clif bars, and the occasional greens. Luckily New Zealand has some pretty drastic changes in tide, and when we were there the tide is quite low at dinner time. On our last not camping we noticed mussels on the rocks next to our site. Dana had the brilliant idea to change up our diet by cooking up fresh seafood for dinner. We collected as many as we could eat boiled them in our primus stove and had a great change of taste from the 2months prior. I must admit I did feel a little bad the mussels, but they tasted so good I wasn’t upset for too long.

Because we are so used to going at our own pace not really living by a clock the last day we were in a bit of a time crunch to return our kayaks. We were meant to be back to return our kayaks at 330pm. Well we underestimated the time it would take for a side trip and to get back to camp….sound familiar? We headed out for the day just after 1pm, and at 245pm we realized we had to get moving. Keep in mind we were about 3hours away from our final destination. We seriously need to get better about time estimation. We had a mad paddle for about 1.5hours, and finally made it back to the beach at 440pm. Only 1.5hours after we were meant to be back. We were all pretty nervous they would make us pay for another day, but luckily Kiwi’s are not as money hungry as Americans. They told us everything was “sweet as” and we needent worry. They were just glad we were back safely. After taking a long deserved shower we headed east to Blenheim.

There really isn’t much in Blenheim other than vineyards. Luckily we like wine, and by we I mean Ash and Dana (I think it’s ok, beer is better). Well, we were given the tip to rent bicycles in Blenheim and go on a wine tour through the vineyards. Have you ever ridden a bike in a dress? Well I have; I guess I should have considered the fact that wind might be an issue, but I wasn’t concerned because it was a warm day and I liked my dress. We were just all happy as boiled mussels, and I am sure that the cars going in the opposite direction were quite happy as well. We had gorgeous weather so we braved the 22*C day and headed out. We ended up hitting 4 or 5 wine tasting vineyards and bought a few bottles. At one of the vineyards we bought bottles the woman seemed concerned and asked, “You girls aren’t riding bikes are you?” “Well as a matter of fact we are; we’ll just put the bottles in our baskets.” We were meant to return our car by 5pm. Once again we were not very on top of watching our watches and ended up returning our bikes at 540pm. Also, pretty cruisy Kiwis and they were sweet with us being a little late in returning. We seriously need to get better with being on time.

The South Island

2009-04-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

A lot of you have wondered the proximity of where we were and where we were headed. I have posted this map of the south island so it will make it easier to understand what we have done. We were living in Queenstown for three months then headed to Stewart Island. From Stewart Island to the Catlins (between Invercargill and Dunedin). From Dunedin to Mount Cook, to Te Anau, to the west coast (Haast to Westport. From there we headed to see our friend Robin in Nelson. We kayaked the Able Tasman for a week outside of Nelson. Then we headed to Blenheim for the night and rode the ferry to Wellington. We are now on the North Island. I am working on writing about our Able Tasman experience so please be patient- it'll be up as soon as I get my act together.

Kayaking the Abel Tasmen... a vacation from our vacation.

2009-03-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

2009-03-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

Hanging out on the Pirate Ship

Went on a 5minute nature walk and needed to break halfway up the hill
Sunset on the Tasman Sea
Waving to Tatty in Oz across the sea
On our trip being eaten by sandflies

2009-03-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

Since being on the Dusky we have had a full on road trip. We have had a bit of luck on our trip, some bad and some good. We camped on the Tasman Sea a couple of nights ago. After waiving to Tatty Oz we watched a beautiful sunset and saw so many stars. As we walked onto the Beach Dana spotted a Right Flip Flop. This is great news because now I have 2shoes. Mind you they don’t match and the new one is about 2sizes too big, but I now have flip-flops again. We have also had mainly really beautiful weather. This is really a treat because we have been camping in the rainforest, and sleeping in a wet tent is not really that fun. Basically we spend each day pulling off the road at interesting sites and setting up camp in a wide spot on the road or on the beach.

Within the first hour of leaving for this road trip we ran into a bit of car trouble. Not surprising to anyone in our car (as this type of thing tends to happen to us) but still worrisome. Like a professional bus driver I scan my mirrors and dash every 7seconds. On one of my scans I noticed the check engine light flash then the temperature gauge rise rapidly. I fought our first response to just continue driving, so I pulled over to figure out the problem. It turns out that our engine was overheating because we have acquired a hole in the bottom corner of our radiator. Luckily, Ash and I had dealt with this a couple of summers ago with my car “Tugs”. As we were waiting for the car to cool down, (you can’t open the radiator hot otherwise it will scald you with hot coolant) two very well dressed Kiwi guys pulled over to see if we needed help. I attribute this to the fact that Kiwis are very kind and help wherever needed, but it could be because we were three girls in skirts standing next to car with the hood-up. Whatever it was they were still very helpful. Come to find out, these two guys were actually golf professionals in town for the New Zealand Open. Their names were Gary and Philip if you want to google them (the Open was in Queenstown). Since then we have been keeping a close watch on the temperature gauge and filling the radiator with water whenever it is needed. Keep our safety and our car in your prayers, we need to make it to Auckland.

We have tackled the west coast by sleeping on beautiful beaches and lakefronts while being attacked by sand-flies. Luckily we have built up a bit of immunity to these nasties and they don’t itch nearly as bad as they used to. We have hit up numerous small towns on the coast, and have overnighted in the intriguing ones. We meant to pass through a town called Hokatika, but fortunately for us Hokatika has tons things to offer including a kiwi exhibit, a sock factory, and a pirate ship. Well needless to say we ended up staying 3days. We ran into some friends from camping a couple weeks prior, and set up camp on the pirate ship replica. It was awesome. We were able to watch the sunset over the ocean, have a bon fire, drink local beer, sail around the lake, and spend St Patty’s day with our new Israeli friends. On the last day in Hokatika the weather was less than optimum. It was pouring down rain so much that we couldn’t see any of the natural beauty. Luckily New Zealand has tons of activities to do indoors… oh wait New Zealand doesn’t have anything to do inside. This day we definitely felt homeless and we were longing for a comfy sweater, a fireplace, and a book. We settled on going to the cinema. Because this town was so small they only have one screen so we were at the mercy of the box office. We walked into a documentary called “Man on Wire” it was pretty strange, but definitely a close second to a cozy living room…. Well maybe 10^th place… oh well.

2009-03-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

Three Wire Cables
Got stuck Thigh deep in the mud Dana Picked the only place to sink in and got stuck thigh deep
On top of the Saddle, you can see all the way to the sound!
Finished the Dusky Unscathed and with tons of energy

NZ"s Hardest Track

2009-03-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

To get another perspective that includes things I may have forgotten remember to check out Dana and Tatty's Blog at http://dandtdonz.blogspot.com

Well, after finishing our post Stewart Island Adventures we headed out to tackle New Zealand’s most difficult hike, The Dusky. This hike is notorious for flooding, mud, and emergency rescues. Before each hike we are very good about heading into DOC (Department of Conservation) and give our intentions in case anything happens to us on trail. Dana, Ash and I marched into DOC wide eyed and excited announcing we would be heading out to do the Dusky. The DOC worker we began talking to ,Ralph, looked us up and down, rolled his eyes, and exclaimed, “It’s not a walk in the park ladies.” Dana quickly thought back, “Ralph, we are a frequenters of parks; if we had wanted to go to the park we would have visited the Botanical Gardens.” Too bad we know how to hold our tounges, or we just can never think of comebacks until 10minutes later … oh well, we smiled at Ralph’s statement and asked for the paper work to complete. After DOC basically telling us we were going to be rescued from the hike, we scheduled ourselves to head out Monday morning.

We had a day to kill before our adventure, so we decided to head out on a spelunking voyage. We had a couple barely lit flashlights and headed down into the caves. We saw tons of glowworms, limestone crevasses, and pools of really cold water. From this excursion we started to realize things that we talk about on a daily basis: Dinosaurs, Sharks, Pirates, Ninja’s, and Space. It’s been brought to our attention that we may be 8year old boys. We understand why one might think this, but it is counter balanced by the fact that we are also obsessed with Disney movies. We might just be 8year old children… not sure yet.

The morning after our cave experience we woke up bright and early, 530am, drove an hour to our hikes pickup spot, packed our bags, caught a bus, and jumped on a water taxi across Lake Huroku (NZ’s deepest lake). From here we began the Dusky. When we reached the first hut at 330pm we decided to carry on and go to the next hut. This worked out great because we didn’t have to share a hut with 6 other people, instead we had a hut to ourselves plus one, Steve a Chiropractor from Melbourne. We learned that when Steve went into DOC he was not told he was going to be rescued, but instead he was told where all the sweet side trips were. Lucky for us he shared information about this sweet peak just a few hour walk from where we were. We had amazing weather and when we reached the summit we saw rows and rows of spectacular mountains all the way to the Dusky Sound.

We finished this side trip mid-afternoon (330pm-ish) and decided once again to carry on to the next hut. Our thought was the next hut was only 5hour walk away so we should make it there with plenty of time before the sun goes down, 830pm. We just forgot to consider the fact that we had just finished summiting 800meters and our muscles were quite tired. With nearly every step down I wasn’t quite sure my legs would hold up. Well needless to say we didn’t make it down the mountain before the sun went down. Luckily our new friend Steve had an awesome headlamp, which saved us from hiking in complete darkness, (which is super helpful since you might remember we don’t have “sonar vision”). My favorite part of this “night walking” was the fact that we still needed to cross a cable bridge over a river to our hut. A cable bridge is a lot like tight rope walking in the circus. Instead of making a bridge, there are 3 cables in a “V” configuration pulled tight over the river- the lowest cable for your feet, and one cable on either side for balancing. This is tricky in the best of conditions, so imagine it in the dark with wet boots. Steve went first lighting the way for each of us to cross one at a time. We finally made it to our hut around 1030pm, unscathed and in one piece.

After each day of walking I am pretty good about stretching to avoid the next day’s soreness. Apparently I looked as if my back was in a bit of pain, and Steve offered to take a look at it. From there he adjusted my back, hips, shoulders, and ankles. In return he received a Chocolate Chip Cliff Bar. He commented later, “This is the cheapest adjustment I’ve ever done.” I love being adjusted.

When we woke up the next morning we were talked into doing a 2day side trip to Supper Cove. We knew one was able to walk though the sound on low tide. On the way back we chose this option because the shortest distance between two points is a straight line (even if it means walking through water). About 100ft into the sound the water was higher than our hips and Ash exclaimed, “I’m SWIMMING, I’m SWIMMING!” So we decided to give up on walking and float our packs and swim. This just lead to bursts of giggling and high spirits. Dana and I stated, “Luckily, we are good swimmers, otherwise this would be a bit tricky.” Ash, “I suck at swimming; I don’t know what you guys are talking about.” Obviously we made it to the other side safely. Unfortunately, the plastic bag covering my pack had a hole in it, so all my stuff was wet for a few days, but we had really nice weather so it wasn’t too big of a deal. When we reached our next hut we heard many voices coming from inside. Turns out the NZ army was on the track doing “field exercises”, really they were just getting paid to go on an awesome hike for 9days. The biggest bummer about the NZ army sleeping the night in our hut was the no sleep due to excessive snoring, causing the walls to shake. At least it was only for one night.

Because the army was there we were able to get the weather forecast and we were warned heavy rain expected for the next 2days.

We headed out fairly early in the morning to avoid the weather as much as possible. A couple hours after arriving at the hut the rain came, and kept us hut bound for the next 2days. We decided not to brave the track because we knew we were meant to go up and over mountains that had fresh rivers and waterfalls which weren’t present 24hours prior. Luckily Dana and Ash brought embroidery thread and we spent the days making friendship bracelets. Definitely a better options then walking in torrential rain.

On the day we were able to leave the hut we reached the saddle of the mountain pass and were walking through snow. It was so beautiful to see, but we began to lose sensation in our extremities and decided to not linger and move on. We tried our best to ignor our frozen hands and toes continuing to lower, warmer elevation. When we reached the hut we collectively decided we had enough energy to carry on to the next hut. I know what you are thinking, “Haven’t you learned your lesson to not walk 2days in 1day?” The answer is definitely, “NO.” We became slightly nervous when we met a couple walking the other direction and the informed us they had been walking for 7hours from the hut we were headed to. No worries, we made it in just over 4hours with sunlight to spare. From there we wondered why it had taken the couple so long to walk this stretch and decided that they were either walking backwards or blindfolded; or had a broken leg or were playing lep-frog the entire way.

Because we walked out a day early we were able to make the first shuttle across the lake back to town. Being awesome at time management we almost missed the boat, and started running down the road to the terminal. As we were running all of the sudden a large tour bus pulled up and offered us a ride. As we were standing in the isle of the tour bus surrounded by clean, sweet smelling tourists, so we began apologizing as much as possible for our aroma and cleanliness. The bus driver explained to the group we were known as “trampers” and had been without a shower for 10days. From this explanation we were a bit more accepted.

We made it back to town and are showered, safe, and rested. The Dusky is definitely our favorite treck. Needless to say we have been Shitting all over Ralph’s predictions by kicking the Dusky’s ass.

Vagabond Lifestyle

2009-02-28T19:28:00.001-08:00

On Valentines Day Ash, Dana, and I moved from Queenstown to live the “Vagabond Lifestyle”. Our new address is ’91 Blue Subaru. We have been camping as much as possible to cut down on costs and have seriously been checking things of our list by heaps. To start off our homelessness we decided to go hiking/camping for 9 days. We braved a walk called the Northwest circuit. This walk goes around the perimeter of Stewart Island (South of NZ’s South Island). The walk is about 130km, so it did take a bit of effort, especially with our packs carrying 10days worth of food. When we left for the track we were warned about flooding rain that causes knee high mud. God definitely wanted us to enjoy this trip because we had awesome weather for the first 6days. The last 3days were a wee bit rainy, but as we love puddles we made the best of getting wet. We walked on gorgeous beaches occupied by no one, and saw landscapes that reminded us of the Pacific Islands. Half way through our trip we all noticed our pleasing aroma, and decided it was time for a swim in the very South Pacific, about 55*-60* water. Because we were the only occupants, and none of us had our swim gear we had a definite mermaid time. Seconds after we were clean and nearly dressed a couple of helicopters flew overhead dropping deer hunters, PERFECT timing on our parts, for sure. Stewart Island allegedly has Kiwi’s, Penguins, Seals, and Prehistoric Lizards. I can only attest to penguins, as I did not see any of the other animals. I’m pretty sure there is a conspiracy going on lying about what animals are “native” to New Zealand. I’ve seen heaps of “non-native” animals (cows, sheep, and deer), but few famous native animals.

On our next to last day walking I noticed that my pack was missing an attachment. Quickly I realized I had lost an essential traveling possession, my Right Foot Chaco. This may not seem like the end of the world to most of you, but believe me it is close; I no longer have the perfect walking sandals. I left a message in the Visitor logbook to contact me if found, but I haven’t had any punters yet (it’s probably stuck in the infamous mud). I am still in denial, and wear my Left Foot Chaco without a mate (yes, this does cause my neighbors obvious confusion). I’m even considering writing Chaco to see if they will have sympathy and replace my beloved shoe. Our biggest frustration (beside my lost shoe) was on the first day our only camera quit working. I know what you are thinking, “How can we be sure you even went to Stewart Island without proof of photos?” Well have faith, we made a German Friend named Frank, and he is uploading his photos onto a CD for us. Let’s hope is good at keeping promises and can help us prove our journey.

After we had finished our walk we jumped on the ferry seconds before it was meant to leave the port, and headed back to the South Island. As we had been carrying our packs for 8+ days we knew how pleasant they smelled, so on the ferry we made a point to set them down away from where we were sitting. Unfortunately the people who chose the seats directly behind our packs did not have this same inside knowledge, and were trying to the best of their ability to cover the noses… highly unsuccessful.

For the last few days we have been stopping wherever our hearts desire and have been seeing some awesome things (we have photos of these). We have seen Penguins, Sea lions, Aquariums, Museums, Botanical Gardens, Prehistoric Boulders, Dinosaur Fossils, Baby Wallabies, Billions of Stars, and Mt Cook.

We ventured off the beaten path a bit, walked down and the beach and quite literally ran into Seal Lions…. well not literally, but nearly ran into…. they were about 2meters away and were looking super adorable. On another side trip we ventured to see the wallaby lady. Wallabies are basically little kangaroos. Wallabies are not native to New Zealand, but have been introduced for gaming purposes (I think) and are in a specific area of the South Island that has natural boundaries so they cannot venture out. We paid $10 to “cuddle” a 6month old and to feed numerous others, seriously cool. As we entered town we were given the option to partake in “wallaby-pie” but fortunately the restaurant was closed, as they are so adorable.

We have been “freedom” camping where we are able, and paying for hostels otherwise. Last night we ventured to Mt Cook, New Zealand’s tallest peak. We decided we would do a quick 3hour hike and camp at one of the DOC’s huts for free. Keep in mind the sun sets at 830pm; we started our treck around 630pm last night, Brilliant. At about 904pm last night we realized that we were not going to make it to our hut without breaking an ankle due to lack of “sonar senses” and made the executive decision to sleep under the stars. We walked 10minutes back down the track and set up our sleeping bag site. Luckily each of us had packed extra warm clothing, hats, and mittens. We were pretty much set for our unsheltered night. From here just prayed for clear skies and no rain. We all agreed we could see billions of stars, and the Milky Way was spectacular. Both Dana and Ash saw numerous shooting stars, but I was less fortunate and only saw one (I was distracted by my story telling skills). Finally I asked, “Are you looking up? or down?” Ash responded, “Um, I’m pretty sure I’m looking up!” Dana added, “Oh you mean I’m not supposed to be lying on my stomach?” Luckily we were the only people around sleeping under the stars, because we definitely did not try to stifle our uproar.

This morning we were awoken by a Kea (Large Bird) thumping around our sleeping bags and picking up our things. Despite our best efforts to scare off our feathered companion with rhetoric (we were armless in our sleeping bags) he still managed to steal my Right Reef Flip-Flop. Now I have two non-matching sandals for my one left foot, awesome. Cheeky bird.

I love Complimentary Rafting

2009-02-09T18:33:00.000-08:00

In Queenstown there are two types of bars, backpackers/travelers bars and the locals bar. I am the bartender at a local’s bar called Red Rock. Basically what this means is tend to see the same customers everyday or just about everyday. Some of our regulars have been coming to Red Rock for years, which is why we call them “seniors”. Our other regulars are the local adventure guides. We have the AJ Hacket Crew (bungy jumpers), the Mad Dog River Surfers, and more commonly we have the Queenstown Rafters. Well last week we were sitting in the famous beer garden (my day off work) at Red Rock and a couple of Rafters made their way to where we were sitting. After a bit of discussion I decided to brave the question, “so, when are we going rafting with you?” Dean-o happened to be the leader of the trip the next day and said if there was room he would love to take us. Keep in mind the idea of space available. There were three of us that wanted to get on space available, so we didn’t get our hopes us just in case of disappointment. We woke up on Monday super early, 7:15am, and then drove to the rafting site. When we first arrived Dean-o called me aside and told me there wasn’t enough room, and we wouldn’t be able to go. I asked if it would be all right if we stuck around until all the guests showed up just in case someone didn’t show. This turned out to be a great idea, because at the last minute Dean-o called Ash, Dana, and I down to go rafting. The girls and I were so excited that Dana did a bit of a happy dances, and I waved my arms with glee. This was by far my favorite thing that I’ve done in Queenstown. We basically just coasted through an amazing valley for a couple of hours with some really fun guys. The serious upside of serving at a locals bar is definitely free the easy target for jokes and river throw ins. It was all worth it, so fun. When I asked the Rafters about payment their answer was simple, “You take care of us daily, so we want to take care of you today”. Fair enough I think.

Circus Anyone?

2009-01-31T19:07:00.000-08:00

This morning Ash and I awoke at the crack of oh 1pm. I turned to her and asked, “So do you still want to go the circus?” Last night a couple of customers asked me if I had ever been to the circus, basic, standard question not really anything out of the ordinary. The circus doesn’t really make its way to Alaska very often, so obviously I have never been to the circus. The next thing I know I am being invited to the circus in Queenstown. This afternoon Ashley and I ventured on gifted tickets to the traveling New Zealand Circus, “Out of Africa” showcasing the spectacular 6yr old hoola hoop extraordinar. As I was watching the acrobatics of the day I realized that I have a pretty cruisy job considering I literally do not have to perform back flips for my paycheck. Usually I complain about having to carry heavy boxes and breaking glasses, but my life isn’t in danger from fire limbo and ring. These guys were either amazing or insane. I asked my new friend Erik from Kenya what makes one decide to join the circus. His answer was simple and reasonable, “It was work.” Then my next thought was how does one advertise themselves to be apart of the circus? I’m still waiting for an explaniation to this question.

3 weeks left in Queenstown

2009-01-28T19:41:00.001-08:00

One of our roommates just moved to Sydney, which is so sad considering she is amazing and our life in Queenstown seems somewhat void without her here. Since Tatty has moved we have acquired 3 more roommates. Keep in mind we live in a two-bedroom apartment with 3 beds. Basically we just keep our philosophy “sharing is caring”, so we share the floor, beds, food, and clothing. The upside of close living quarters is we have much cheaper rent. Downside is definitely never a clean apartment, and personal space is quite tough to find. All involved it’s still pretty great. As of now our plan is to leave Queenstown by February 13 and head out on a massive road trip. Basically we are planning on hiking, camping, and exploring the country. Because we are planning to leave in less than a month we have been utilizing our last bit of time in Queenstown to the best of our advantage.

We only have another 3 months before we head home. So we have decided to leave Queenstown and explore the rest of the country with our remaining time. During our last few weeks of being in Queenstown we have been trying to take advantage of all there is to do in the vicinity. We have spent the days swimming, hiking, and camping. We live about 5 minutes away from a place to go swimming and cliff jumping. We have been warned against swimming in Lake Wakitipu because apparently it is frigidly cold. Obviously we did not take this suggestion seriously (come on how cold could it actually be?) Well the cliff to jump from is about 15 meters high, so there is no way of testing the water before jumping. As usual I was the first to go, I guess to prove it’s safe (which isn’t logical now thinking about it… oh well). So Ash followed soon after my jump, and surprisingly the lake is fairly chilly. After about 2 or 3 minutes of swimming around the water started to feel warm, and we began to mock those that told us it was to cold to swim (it could have been that our bodies were in shock on no longer had and sensation- just a theory). We braved this excursion to “Little Thailand” with two of our friends Dana and Katrina (they didn’t jump).

We have taken two camping trips one to the Greenstone Caples track all I can say about is my feet were completely blistered afterward (I hate walking on roots), the sand flies were horrific, and my legs still itch. Even though this walk wasn’t optimum we still had a blast being gone from Queenstown for a short bit. Basically our plan for the next 3 months is to walk the country, so I should start get used to soar feet. We are very excited to start our trip.

The second trip we took was to a neighboring town called Wanaka. We went to try out their infamous movie theater. It was pretty cool considering we watched the film on couches eating our snacks of chocolate cake and cookies. But really we still think Bear’s Tooth is much cruisier. After the movie we had planned to pull of to a wide spot in the road and set up our tents. This is especially tricky in New Zealand considering livestock are in all of the fields. We found a place right off the road and set up camp for the night, only to be woken up numerously throughout the night by bah, bah, bah. Ash had a nightmare that there were dinosaurs in the field and we were in danger (I think this might be to our recent viewing of Jurassic Park). Well we meant to wake up and leave before anyone found out we had even been in the field. This didn’t work out for as well as planned. At 8am we were woken up by the shepherd’s dog. We quickly packed the car, but unfortunately not quick enough to escape the harsh rhetoric of the angry shepherd. I nodded at her annoyance and agreed to leave with all our rubbish. I remember a story Lang had about sleeping in a field in Europe only to find out it was a livestock field. Well I have also been apart of this scenario, but our escape seemed to be a little less covert.

Christmas

2009-01-24T17:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was very interesting especially since this is the first year either of us have been away from family for the holidays. Although we missed you greatly, we had a surprisingly fantastic day. We had played around with the idea to move Christmas to another day and go camping instead but alas we couldn’t get the time off work so we were stuck in Queenstown. For me the holiday started on Christmas Eve. I actually had to work, but luckily there is a law stating that alcohol isn’t to be served on Christmas day, so it was a short shift. After work I headed home around 2am; Ash and our two other roommates had made a fantastic Christmas Eve feast. We had pasta and red sauce, homemade hummus, and red wine (it is New Zealand). We all headed to bed after dinner to wake up late to pancakes and the viewing of one of my Christmas favorites “National Lampoons’ Christmas Vacation”. It was a perfectly leisure day! Because of so much activity on the day we each took a well-deserved nap.

Because we don’t have an oven in our little apartment we weren’t able to make any kind of meal for the day, so we headed out for Chinese. Nothing says Merry Christmas like Chinese food. Well actually it was the only restaurant in our prince range that was open on the day. It turned out to be a great decision, seeing as we hadn’t left the flat all day. We dressed in our best clothes (well really it was whatever we had with red, white, and green) and headed out of our apartment.

While living with Dana and Tatty we have been reminded to say our “thankfulls” daily. We have been so thankful that our time in New Zealand has not been in vain, and we have met people that we have genuinely connected with. I am thankful that I could spend Christmas with people that know and love me; especially when those that know and love me most are so far away.

Fun in the Sun

2009-01-19T16:46:00.000-08:00

We jumped off that cliff into Lake Wakatipu.

Rugby and beer... a productive afternoon.

Lake Hayes.

On TOP of the Remarkables. It was windy.

The Catlins

2009-01-19T16:34:00.000-08:00

Alrighty. This is my (ash's) attempt to blog. The girls and I had a few days off and journeyed down to the south of the south island on a little adventure. Poor mel was working viscously and vigorously so she unfortunately was not able to embark on this 3 day excursion. So, in order to fill the beloved followers of our blog in on the most recent significant occurrences in my life I would like to direct you to Dana and Tatty's blog. They have uploaded pictures and comments of the trip.

http://dandtdonz.blogspot.com/

THe most wonderful time of the year...

2009-01-19T16:04:00.001-08:00

New Years.

Christmas and Chinese Food... good combo.

Ginger Bread Houses!

Our beautifully decorated apt. on Christmas Eve.

Rees-Dart Track

2008-12-23T20:59:00.000-08:00

2008-12-23T20:52:00.000-08:00

2 Days until Christmas!

Skydiving

Moving into our new flat.

Thanksgiving

Adventure Sports

2008-12-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

So we got back to Queenstown the other day after 5 days of being gone, and realized the summer crowd has infiltrated the city. Seriously over the time span of a few days, thousands of people made it into the city. As we were sitting in town eating delicious protein in burger form (we just got back from hiking and all we wanted to eat was hamburgers) we realized how uninformed we are living in our bubble. We don’t watch the news or have internet readily available so we are able to check world events. What we do keep up on is the Lakes Weekly Bulletin. This is basically a Queenstown area classified with coupons for restaurants and bars in the neighborhood. We love reading the bulletin so much it was to the point that Ash, our Roommates, and I were all sitting in a coffee shop reading our individual bulletin catching up on the sales and coupons as soon as it was delivered to the shop.

Well during one of these regular pow-wow’s in the coffee shop we decided to make a list of things that we want to get accomplished before leaving. The list includes but is not limited to:

*Blowing Bubbles in the Park *Selling Rice Crispies *Camping *River Surfing *Skydiving *Finger Painting

In order for Ash and I to get a working visa here in New Zealand we were required to

buy insurance. Basically it just covers incidentals, but all in all it seemed like fairly good coverage. Well after we purchased the insurance we were reading what was not covered. Basically it does not cover any injury related to adventure sports including hiking, bungy jumping, skydiving, mountain biking, etc. After reading these clauses we were a little depressed, because those were all of the things we were planning on doing while we were in the adventure capital of the world. We decided we were just going to be careful, but mainly we found a loophole in the insurance policy. When skydiving, the participant does not get injured…. they die. So, we won’t need insurance for that anyway. Serious loophole.

The other day Ash, Dana, Tatty, and I all jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 15,000ft. You may think this sounds like an act of insanity, but it was seriously one of the most amazing experiences. I was so excited and there really wasn’t enough time to second guess jumping. First of all you are strapped to the front of a huge man, and basically he leans into you and you fall out of an airplane. There isn’t enough time to turn back. Tatty reminded me “It is exactly like all of the dreams I have had about flying”. I am now considering a profession in skydiving, but that maybe expensive and time consuming. But hey it’s worth looking into. Mom, I know this freaks you out, but that’s why I didn’t tell you I was going before hand. I just told you now so you would know I lived.

The Reese-Dart Track

2008-12-23T00:59:00.001-08:00

We just go back from our first major “tramp” in New Zealand, the Reese-Dart Track. This is considered a high level class, but since we are so keen on hiking it wasn’t too difficult. In addition to the 75 kilometers of the main walk we did a side trip of about 15 kilometers. It took us four days of strenuous walking. The first two days we walked about ten hours, and the second two days we walked about five hours. My three companions (also my roommates in Queenstown) on this trip are all taller than 5’8”. I on the other hand am barely 5’4”. I have accepted my height and generally I don’t wish to be taller (although I still think 5’6” is the perfect height). For this trip I was definitely working quite hard to keep up with the girls. They weren’t necessarily moving ultra fast, but typically 1 of their strides is 1.5 to 2 strides for me. Tatty made the observation that my legs take lots of tiny baby steps. I was quick to say, “These are GIANT steps for me; your leg span is just 12 inches longer than my own.” For some reason I move quite a bit faster down mountains than they do. Basically I have realized unless I am nearly running I am left alone on the way up the mountain, and if I don’t consciously go slower on the way down I am alone in front of the pack. Either way I am hiking at my own pace for a bit of each walk.

We were blessed with gorgeous weather on the first day, but it didn’t stay that way for the rest of the trip. The last two days we hiked in complete down pour. Luckily New Zealand caters to tramping and they have handy huts to sleep in. Every night after our hike we had a warm, dry place to sleep and refresh. It is funny when you take off your rain jacket and it is just as wet on the inside as on the outside. We were light hearted about the situation even though Ash and I have a phobia of rain since a near death experience in Alaska’s rain this summer. We were fairly good about remembering the nostalgia of rain when we were children, so we turned being cold into jumping through puddles on purpose. Wet feet just became the norm, and coldness reminded us of playing in the rain as children (mostly). I don’t even have that many blisters (well less than ten). On our side trip we walked near a glacier in canyon saddle. This was definitely a highlight of our trip. As we were walking we heard a loud crashing sound, and when we turned we realized the glacier was caving on the mountain. The breakage then created a small avalanche, which is probably one of the coolest things I have every witnessed.

We made a few acquaintances on the trip and they were all sure to try and help us out as much as possible. I don’t think that they knew how much of the terrain we were used to, and how competent in the outdoors we actually are. Ash and I tend to go hiking/camping quite often in much tougher conditions, and the girls (Dana & Tatty) lead wilderness trips during the summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Our “new friends” soon realized we would be fine when we would tramp passed them during the day and rush to do side trips. I think that we just don’t fit the stereotype of outdoor, but it is pretty fun to play that role as well. I am pretty sure they were just ultra confused. Especially because we would wake up late (around 10am) and brew coffee in our French presses in the morning. We just operate on a very different level than most of the population.

We seem to do best when we are surrounded by nature. It really just allows us to refocus, and realize how good living is. Ash pretty much summed it up as she was walking a very strenuous, nearly vertical track. At the top- done with the climb she leaned over the view of rows of mountains and exclaimed, “I am the luckiest duck! I love life!”

Our Apartment

2008-12-16T16:44:00.000-08:00

I guess sometimes I need to be reminded that you actually don’t know what is going on in Ash and my life… even though to us it may seem like mundane day-to-day stuff, you still don’t have much of an idea of what’s going on. Thanks for the reminder of your daily checking the blog Char.

For the first month Ash and I lived in Queenstown we were living at a backpackers hostel called Hippo Lodge. Because of work and other obligations we decided to move out of the Hippo into an apartment just down the road. We are living with two other girls that we met at the Hippo, Dana and Tatty. They are childhood friends from Maine. We are really grateful to have met them because we have truly clicked. Our roles so far seem to be the girls are like our younger sisters, and for some reason we were meant to meet and be together for this period of time. Our mutual friend Tom was concerned and asked, “Is this a good decision to live together?” So far it has been great, but I completely understand his concern because we don’t tend to get much accomplished other than “living in the now”. The new joke is “I wish Tom could see us right now.” This is especially said when we are productive, but is also asked when we are especially not productive.
It all started on Thanksgiving. We planned a pretty great feast, but first we decided Mimosa’s were merited. Well Mimosa’s lasted longer than anticipated, and our Thanksgiving feast was pushed back a few hours. Tom (a true English Bloke) witnessed the whole day first hand. I am fairly certain he thinks we are ridiculous, but I am sure that he loved every minute. He definitely only saw one side of our friendship with Dana and Tatty. All in all Thanksgiving was a great day--- sun, friends, mimosas, and “thankfuls”. The only way it could have been better is if you all were here with us.

It is funny to think that it is almost Christmas because it is about 70* to 80* most days. It really feels like it should be mid June, I guess this is what we signed up for when we wanted an endless summer... that and the whole Southern Hemisphere thing. Oh, PS I forgot that there are different stars here. Yes, I remember we learned about the stars in the Northern Hemisphere vs the Southern in elementary, but sometimes I forget.

Back to my original train of thought, despite how the weather feels we splurged and bought Christmas decorations. By splurged I mean we spent 13bucks at Salvation Army and spruced up the apartment. I think it looks pretty chic, maybe shabby chic, but still chic. We have the essentials a tree, lights, and tons of purple garland. I know purple might not be the first color you think of when you think Christmas, but hey we were at Salvo and the choices were semi-limited. It looks extraordinary, I promise. We even made popcorn strands, but the microwaves here are tricky and we burned some of the popcorn. I say it adds color, which is great since we can’t afford to buy cranberries for strand. Once again, “Eh, it’s good enough.”

We live about a seven-minute walk to town, which is great for work and late nights. It is in a nice area instead of our usual shady apartment in Anchorage. Yesterday as we were all at work, Ash was home taking a nap after her shift, and had heard running water and thought, “Is someone taking a shower?” A few minutes later when she actually woke up she realized that no one was home, but the water was actually coming from the wall and ceiling. Within the first week of us living in our new apartment we were flooded with 2 inches of standing water. This would seriously only happen to us… which is why I think we were not surprised. Our landlord is great, because he came over immediately and is fixing the problem. As of now we are staying in an hotel (courtesy of Berry (Land lord) until the floor dries allowing us to move back in. But at least we already decorated for Christmas.

2008-12-04T00:13:00.000-08:00

This is where Ash works.

Sunrise.

The Mt. range behind us is called The Remarkables.

Fun times looping to Fernhill.

This is where we live...

2008-12-03T23:36:00.000-08:00

This is the view from our deck.

View of Queenstown from the top of the gondola trail.

This is our deck.

Moss, the laziest hungriest cat ever.

In Queenstown

2008-11-21T22:15:00.000-08:00

It is funny to think that we have been here just under two weeks, because it seems like forever. Ashley has a job as wait staff at a local restaurant/bar in town called Winnies, if you want to check out the site http://www.winnies.co.nz/ . I am still waiting to hear back if I have the bartender position at the same restaurant, but things tend to work out so hopefully it will work out soon. With our new jobs we have started our more permanent residence here, and I definitely feel at home in Queenstown. We have done a bit of hiking around our town, and we are started planning overnight trips. We will probably start taking these trips within a few weeks, and then I think our idea of New Zealand will be more mentally solidified.

I have just been talking with one of my housemates, Henry, and I was reminded how fortunate I am. We are sitting of the deck of our home listening to music, drinking tea, and watching the clouds. I am more accustomed to the scenery than he is (Brazilian) but still I feel so blessed to be apart of this town. The clouds are high, with patches of blue, and the birds are chirping. In this cloudy day there is so much hope. The view from our house is nearly unbeatable. We have the mountains, the city, and the lake. I am sitting listening to my new friends speak Portuguese. Usually if I can’t understand a language I assume that I am the topic of discussion. Vain I know, but it is still the game I play. This theory is usually thwarted because I pick up proper nouns like “work holiday”, “visa”, “Christchurch”, etc. Anyway, I have recently realized sometimes I am more comfortable being around other world citizens than being around Americans. It is really fun to be able to learn the secrets of another culture. How they view work, fun, friendships, and relationships. I am often stunned on how black and white issues to me are not black and white in every culture. Even though I may be a bit concerned of what I have learned, I am grateful to be apart of the knowledge/beliefs shared.

Ben Lomond

2008-11-19T23:59:00.000-08:00

Blue Mountains Camping Trip!

2008-11-11T22:58:00.000-08:00

Queenstown, New Zealand

2008-11-10T03:29:00.000-08:00

November 11, 2008

We flew from Sydney last week to Queenstown, New Zealand. We have been busy (well sort of) looking for jobs and places to live. We started our trip by staying at a local hostel. In this stay we realized that there are loopholes to paying rent. If we were fortunate enough we would be able clean for accommodation. We had ruled this out because the manager basically told us no. We found out that she had changed her mind (typical female I guess) when we were abruptly woken up at 8am asking if we were still interested. Long story short we are living at the Hippo Lodge in Queenstown. We have 5 roommates, four boys and one other girl. They are all really great and easy going. Mostly they all enjoy hiking, camping, and biking. I think we’ll all get along fine. It feels a lot like being in college, other than we don’t have to feel bad about not doing our homework. We sit around most of the day talking, drinking tea, reading, and sleeping. We work at a minimum 3 days a week, and that covers 3 days of accommodation. This is great because basically our biggest expense is paid for, by a couple hours of work. So right now all I need is a part time job to keep busy. This will hopefully take up a bit of my free time and will pay for all of the things one is meant to do in the adventure capital of the world.

The job Ash and I want most is to work at an outdoor company called Outdoor Sports. This seems to be the best option because this will be a great way to find out where to go in these great outdoors. I think that we might be easy ins though, because we played up the Alaska card. Also to our advantage we were wearing our Arcteryx clothing and this was definitely noticed by the in store manager; the main reason is the store is looking to hire females (luckily we are correct gender). If you remember please keep us in your prayers, because we would really like to work there.

We have basically just been playing up the fact that we don’t have jobs, so we have been “tramping” about (hiking) and seeing as much of the mountains as we can. It is funny how similar to home it is, but I have random moments when I have the realization “Sh*t I’m in New Zealand”. It is just amazing!

Day in Manley

2008-11-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

Sydney

2008-11-03T23:04:00.001-08:00

2008-11-03T22:41:00.000-08:00

November 1, 2008

During the last few days of our cruise we were quite sad, but really ready to be on to our next adventure. If we would have had enough money I am sure that we would have extended our stay on the Dawn Princess and sailed around Australia for the next 28 days. During the last two days of our cruise we truly felt at home on the ship. I don’t necessarily think we were so comfortable because of the duration of our cruise; I think we were comfortable because we lived what we like to call “Alaska Days”. On our Second to last day sailing, we did a bit of scenic cruising through Fjord Land in New Zealand. This was so much like being in Alaska, very majestic. The mountains and waterfalls towered over our ship and really put into perspective how small we are. Ash and I got up early- 9ish, and we bundled up- sweatshirts, hats, and mittens. From the deck we just sat on the lounge chairs sipping our coffee watching the mountains drift by. We didn’t appreciate how funny this might seem to non-Alaskans, until we looked around and noticed our fellow passengers were taking snap shots of us with our coffee and mittens.

On our last day we packed and took our time saying good-bye to our temporary home and ship friends. After packing we decided we needed to break, so we traveled up seven flights of stairs to the open deck and sipped Alaskan Summer Ale. Three beers is always a great idea. We revealed our quirkiness to a new bartender beginning up our last night with loads of giggles. Our friends informed us of some things they observed of us. The three that stick out most to me are the following.

Impression of Ash , “Hahaha, my name is Ashley, and in five minutes I will be Yelling.” (He was our bartender.)

About our dancing and overall demeanor, “It is refreshing to see people having fun, and not being concerned with what others are thinking.”

Our role on the ship, “You are the queens of the Ship.”

All are funny to think about, because all these things we knew, but it is interesting that others observe this as well. I forget that in my people watching we are probably being watched as well.

It’s strange to think that we have been in Sydney for a week. We have walked about and seen the Opera House, the Botanical Gardens, the Red Light District, China Town, Paddington and the Beach. We have three more days here to finish up all of our sightseeing, but I am certain we have seen Sydney to best of our ability and to the best of our budget. So far the highlight of our trip has been a three-day camping/hiking trip to the Blue Mountains. Luckily we have our camping gear with us because we love to be outside. We only ran into minimal people on the trail, and minimal difficulties camping.

We walked from Mount Victoria, through the Blue Gum Forrest, Down Govetts Leap Brook, to Bridal Veil Falls (said like Buddy the Elf). We both climbed under one of the waterfalls and Ash braved the second on her own; it is an awesome thing to bathe under a waterfall. After our first day hiking we camped near a river so we decided to bathe and wash/rinse our clothes out. This was great because the water is much warmer than Alaska’s 34* water. Basically we were in a canyon for 2 days and had to hike out. It is so different hiking out of a canyon, because the hike up is seriously 90*. Luckily someone had been there before us and had etched out these handy-dandy stairs (the stair-master’s got nothing on us, but my quads are a bit soar). The canyon at its highest is probably 2500’ but it is so impressive we you look straight up and only see a wall of rock. We had great weather and very little rain during the night. The only slight scare we had was we ran out of water. Don’t worry it ends well. At the end of the summer we bought a Steripen, so eventually we found some relatively clean water and sterilized it. So far we haven’t had any digestion problems, so I think the water was clean. It couldn’t have been planned better, so thank you for your prayers we are safe.

Fjord Land, NZ Cruise

2008-11-03T22:25:00.000-08:00

Dunedin, NZ Cruise

2008-11-03T22:13:00.000-08:00

2008-10-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

October 26, 2008

The other day our ship docked in Auckland, so we are semi-officially here! We have been sailing around New Zealand for the last few days and we very much feel at home. It is going to be great to start our adventure for real. Basically in each port we walk off the ship and explore on our own. In Auckland we walked around and by the end of the day we made our own pub-crawl. This was great because we haven’t had beer since Alaska. We were convinced to start this journey because there was a sign on the pub’s door that commanded, “Screw the economy, have a beer”. Immediately we were sold and with that invitation, we actually helped support the economy (two birds with one stone, win-win).

We have been to Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. We have decided that we chose right to live in the south island because it is much more scenic and easy going (more our pace).

Once again like good Alaskans we chose to go hiking while we were in Christchurch. Only this time Ash actually researched where we needed to go to get to the trailhead. Christchurch is more hilly than mountainous, but still beautiful. Basically we knew that it would be a fairly easy day. We had invited a couple of our crew friends along with us, but I think they forgot to consider they would be hiking with true advocates. Ash and I realized that our friends probably weren’t in the best of shape when we started on the road to the trailhead and complaints were already heard. Needless to say Ash and I reached the top a bit before our friends did. The mountain we climbed is maybe 2000’, nothing to Alaska 4200’ hills. It was a really great day and the view was nearly spectacular. When we later saw our friends back on the ship we found out that they were very soar and we having a tough time working. Our friend Amilton announced to us as he was walking through the atrium between shifts, “I am screwed”. I guess he was truly soar. Maybe next time I should consider how much hiking an individual does before such an invitation is given.

While we have been in New Zealand for just these few brief days we have realized how unfriendly Americans are. I know this because I judge us against the kiwis I have met. They are continually quick to help with directions and information. Ash and I walked into a t-shirt store and the attendant asked if we were American. Our answer was “Yes, but were from Alaska”. He quickly responded “That’s not America, that’s Alaska! Well Welcome to New Zealand!!”. He was very friendly and gave us sound advice to place a Canada patch on our packs so people think we’re Canadian. This is helpful, but then people would think we’re Canadian. I think we are just going to continue to say we’re from Alaska; it’s a good loophole.

We reached Sydney today. I think we are both to be off the ship, because we are anxious about beginning our new life/adventure. I truly am going to miss being on the ship, but I know that I will be on again very soon, so it is a good consolation.

2008-10-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

2008-10-21T16:32:00.000-07:00

2008-10-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

2008-10-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

2008-10-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

October 12,2008

So, we have recently realized what the meaning of “free range chickens” actually means. In the pacific islands, chickens tend to be everywhere. Unattended, just roaming and constantly crowing. We normally get off the ship and walk around ending up at a beach. Ash and I decided the other day to take a break from our usual port routine by renting bicycles. This was a steal of a deal because we got a two for one rate, fifteen bucks for the day. Roratonga, Cook Islands has 2 roads that run parallel to the coastline. Instead of numbering the buses they just say “clockwise” and “counter-clockwise”. We rode the 18 miles around the island in about 2.5 hours. We planned to stop at one of the beaches along the way for a break from riding and an escape from our fellow passengers. Our stop was pushed forward quicker than we had intended because Ash’s bike had a flat tire. Apparently Roratonga does not believe in free phone calls, and they wanted to charge us 50c to use their phone. Being the planners that we are neither of us had any local currency, so Ash went off to find a free phone and quickly found out there wasn’t one available, but she did find a few chickens.

Ash: “So many chickens over there!”

Mel: “Oh, are they in a pen?”

Ash: “No, it’s just a field of chickens. Chickens galore… Did you see the

chickens cross the road?”

Uproar of laughter.

Yes, I understand this might not be the funniest story told, but there are just seriously a ton of chickens about.

We have decided that it is good that we started our trip in Hawaii because every island after has gotten better and better. So far we have been to the obscure places that I really didn’t believe existed, because you hear of them and never meet anyone who has actually visited. After Hawaii we went to three French Polynesian islands, Bora Bora, Tahiti, Morea, Samoa, and Fiji. They were all beautiful, all similar, but all very different. We have visited the Cook Island, Roratonga, and then today we were in Samoa. We didn’t know that such beautiful places existed. We understand Alaska’s beauty in its mountains and vastness, but the beauty here is seclusion and tranquility. Today we sat on the Samoan beach listening to the water lap up on the shore, just to turn around and see what can only be described as a jungle. The mixture of the green foliage and the sound of silence were breathtaking. Basically now all we can say is, “Yeah, Hawaii’s alright, but Bora_Bora’s better.”

We have made our usual cruise friends, bartenders and cabin stewards. But this trip is different to us because we have really grown to know a number of the crew and I do believe it is going to be really tough on both of us to leave our new friends. Thirty-one days does allow a fair bit of time to learn people stories. In addition to the bar staff we have become friends with people in the boutiques, dining room, security, and cruise staff. One of our favorite crew members was actually on our spring break trip this last year. He didn’t much care for us then, but I think we have won him over now. (Girls you remember the bartender that worked with Lex? You know, the one who usually seemed discussed we were in his bar? Yeah, that’s him) We have even made friends with a few of the guests. Our favorite is a couple from Australia. They are hilarious and they don’t question why we are here. We usually sit with them in the evening and pick their brains on life and relationships (by relationships I mean friendships, mostly). It is just really refreshing to see a couple (outside our families) that really enjoy the company of their partner. We have also made friends with four ladies traveling together. I was watching them, and I realized they are the same as me, just about 60 years older. I have taken an interest in them and talk to them as much as I can. They really are the cutest ladies ever (Dottie and Betty have been best friends for 50 years).

We have realized that we are something different to each of the people that we have met. All of their accounts may be different but all of them fairly accurate. To the number 2, we are the crazy girls who are moving to New Zealand without a plan. To the Bar steward in the club we are the hilarious, dancing girls. To the bartender in the club we are the girls who have fun without caring what others think. To the bartender in the atrium we are the girls who only talk about friendships and relationships. To the headwaiter we are the “Ciao Bella” girls (he’s Italian). To our waiters we are the girls who order five desserts with three cups of coffee. To the deck hands we are the sun girls. Basically what I am trying to say is this is the best vacation I have ever had. Instead of a whirlwind trip like our usual vacations (which are always amazing and tons of fun) this trip we have time to play hard and recover from the evening before. My only complaint is that thirty-one days just doesn’t seem to be long enough for vacation.

Last US day :(

2008-10-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

October 2, 2008

The other day was our last day in the United States. We ported in Kona, Hawaii, and once again neither Ash nor I had really done any research on the port before he headed off the ship. We tend to do things the cheapest way possible so we just figured we would get off the ship and walk to the nearest beach. After about an hour or two of wandering around trying to find a beach we realized Kona doesn’t have sandy beaches (at least where we were). It all turned out well because we tend to get distracted very easily. We had seen a sign for $2 Mai-Tai’s. Quickly we forgot about our original days plan and we sat in the sun with our liquid treasure. As we were sitting here enjoying we thought, “I haven’t had Mai Tai’s since the Pirate Ship”. I know that doesn’t make sense to most of you…

Please don’t think that we are completely lazy and only sit around pondering and wasting time (even though we are really good at pondering and wasting time). We actually accomplished a ton while sipping our many Mai-Tai’s. Kona was the last place we had cell service, so we had to make the essential phone calls to our mothers (We love you!). Basically it was a couple of hours of passing our phones back and forth talking to everyone. Thanks for calling us back.

We tend to discuss events and conversations immediately after they happen which might seem monotonous, but is actually surprisingly fulfilling. We are able to recall later much of what has occurred because of these “instant repeaters”. The other day we were discussing and laughing about how ridiculous we really are. Technically we are homeless, jobless, broke, and we don’t really own anything of value. Our address is actually Dawn Princess, Pacific Ocean. In all honesty we really shouldn’t be here, and should be seriously concerned about having no finances. The people that travel these excursions have retired from their million dollar jobs and have really put a lot of effort in life to be here. In our reality, we are completely comfortable and completely at home. We are traveling in leisure and we are 23 years old, ridiculous. I am pretty sure when we tell the story of our life to people on the ship they don’t believe us or take us seriously. In reality this shouldn’t be surprising, because there really is no rhyme or reason to this lifestyle, vagabonds shouldn’t travel lavishly. When we say our plan out loud we usually begin to laugh and start to understand their point of view to our ridiculousness. Essentially, we don’t have a plan. As of now we know we are going to be in Sydney for 10 days, and we are going to be-bop around. And from there we know we are going to be in New Zealand until next spring. We don’t know what we will be doing, but we’ll figure that out when we get there. People ask, “Do you have a job?” We just answer, “No, but we’re really not concerned because things tend to work out.” The next question usually, “Well do you at least know anyone in New Zealand?” “No, but we make friends fast, so fairly soon we will know a lot of people in New Zealand.” I am pretty impressed with us though, because we did book a hostel for the first three days we are in each country, so that’s a step in the right direction.

I think the reality is, we have figured out how to make our life work. We live dirt-cheap and stand in the grocery story debating 25c items. This allows us to cruise and see the world. Moma always said, “ The world is out there, go get it!” We live and we are blessed.

Per Charity “My name is Melody, and I do whatever the F*ck I want”.

Hawaii!!!

2008-10-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

September 30, 2008

So, you know the statement “Oh, a paper cut that’s the worst”? Ash and I have recently recognized something worse than a paper cut. This morning when I woke up I realize my eyes were really sore. Well apparently when you don’t put sunscreen on your eyelids they get burned. Today has been interesting trying to put aloe on my eyelids without actually getting aloe in my eyeball… a ton of fun actually. Ashley is having trouble with wearing her backpack because she failed to apply sunscreen on the fold of her arm and chest. I blame the “no sun” Alaskan summer… Well that and the fact that we are two of the whitest people ever (Sandra and Erika not included). And by we I mean me.

Think of a night in Vegas with really great entertainers, costumes, sound, and effects. Well princess is about 150 times worse than that. One of the guests was bragging about the entertainers and stated, “They even do their own hair and makeup”. Our response was “Have you seen their hair and makeup?” of course they do their own hair and makeup. Well last night was the best entertainment we have ever experienced on Princess. Ash and I seemed to be the only two people dancing and singing along to the Motown entertainment. We even admitted to being native Jamaicans. I mean obviously have you seen my skin. This could be due to the fact we had each consumed three Beverly Hills Iced Teas. At the end of the show we had a picture opportunity with the guys, and they stated they saw us from the stage, oops. Three Iced Teas sounded like a good idea until this morning when we both woke up at 3:30am completely parched and completely unable to go back to sleep, (I NEED WATER!!!)

Finally we had had enough of tossing and turning and decided to try our luck on land. Today was our first port day, Honolulu. Well you probably know us well enough to know we really don’t plan too far in advance, so this morning we left the ship without much of an idea of how the port works. We wandered outside and were corralled into a line for a “free shuttle” to downtown. Well it turns out this shuttle is only free when we have been held hostage and forced to go through a jewelry factory and museum. Don’t worry we did not give in to buying anything. Despite my best efforts I learned how jewelry casting works and that black coral is the official Hawaiian gem.

After we had spent the morning running errands we decided we would just walk and a hike. From our ship we could see Oahu’s most famous hike, Diamond Head. Well like good Alaskans we headed out with no idea of a direction on how to get to the trailhead. I think we just thought, “Well there’s the mountain we have to go up”. After going the wrong way for about an hour we finally got to where needed to be, and found out that the trail had been closed for the night five minutes prior. SHIT! We figured that the ship was about 7 miles away from where we were on this mountain, and we now had to turn around and head back.

Just as we were weighing our options for transport a woman in a trolley drove up and asked, “Do you need a ride?” Our first thought was, “Of course we need a ride, we’re on top of a mountain.” Keeping in mind that we are the cheapest people in history, we asked, “How much does it cost?” She was amazing and didn’t charge us for the ride back to the ship. The free trolley ride was greatly appreciated considering a cab ride would have been thirty bucks. So here we are riding on a trolley through Honolulu, Ash looks over here shoulder and all of the sudden spot giraffes in Waikiki. Yes, I had that thought too, “Aren’t giraffes indigenous to Africa?” Well apparently they also live in Waikiki Beach.

Sandra told me this evening, “Mel I don’t understand how your life works!” I say this “Seriously, that’s why we have entitled this blog ‘Our Ridiculous Life’”.

Our Journey Begins

2008-09-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

On past cruises that I have traveled the average age of the guest has been 65 years old. Ashley and I knew this before we booked our trans-pacific cruise. When we arrived we quickly realized that we were still the youngest guests, but this time the average guest age is now 85 years old. The commodity of our youth was affirmed as Ashley and I were walking up the stairs the other day. I was first to round the corner and one of the guests exclaimed, “LOOK, A YOUNG PERSON!” Ashley then followed me and he added to his previous statement, “ANOTHER ONE!” I feel like I’m an act in the circus. We haven’t yet been able to get around subtly. Despite the attention of being young traveling with these people it's tons of fun, because relatively speaking we don’t get hit on (with the exception of “grandpa” and the crew members). I don’t mind the crew members so much because we do have the perks of free daiquiris and peer conversation.

When we were talking about our trip this summer the things we were excited about were sleeping, eating, and working out. These things might seem mundane to most people, but to use these three things are the epitome of leisure. We just finished a really hard, stressful summer. Work averaged 65 hours a week, and our boss hated us… and by us I mean Ashley (I am just guilty by association). With that in mind eating, sleeping, and working out is a great change of pace.

So far found our groove for sea days. We have been getting up each morning around 9 and we head directly to the workout room. Surprisingly, we haven’t been fighting for machines; I have attributed this to the demographic on our ship. After our work out we go the bar and schmooze the bar tender by just ordering water and chatting for a bit (This is what results in free daiquiris). For the rest of the day we do whatever, but mostly lie out and sleep. We are still recovering from not sleeping for 6 months (Ashley for 4 years, she just graduated). I think that a month’s vacation is merited.

We have tried our hardest to not mingle with the guests, but somehow they seem to seek us out. They always start the conversation by “Oh yeah we’ve seen you around”… NO SHIT! We stick out like soar thumbs. Our first encounter with a guest was we were obviously in line and this woman totally stepped in front of us. I think she thought she was entitled to go first because she witnessed creation, or maybe she just figured we were crewmembers and we didn’t need to eat that day.

Last night I think was the fun-est with guests. Understandably they were curious on how we could afford our lifestyle. We quickly explained that we work very hard and usually treat ourselves with a cruise after our summer job. They weren’t impressed; obviously we don’t understand hard work because we have never worked on a farm. I jumped in with a quick joke to break the tension. The next conclusion was that we were trust fund babies; at this I had to laugh without censer; if only they new how cheap I am and how much my parents actually saved for me (nothing).

Oh well, I understand that I shouldn’t be here on this ridiculous trip, but I am here and I am loving it. I know that I am blessed to see this amazing beauty and eat amazing food (who knows when I will be able to eat again…seriously). It is an incredible feeling to know that I am in the middle of the ocean with nothing around me or below me but water (and two-thousand 85 year old people.)