from CHRISTCHURCH: off to the Banks‏

cheers from Christchurch, the biggest city on the
south island and sadly, our point of departure for
this grand adventure. But we still have four days
left, so no need to start grieving. But how freaky is
it that I will leave NZ at 11:00pm Sunday night and be
at work at 7:30am Monday morning? crazy!

Leaving Motueka, we headed southwest to Westport where
we hoped to spend the day on the beach as there was
supposed to be good surfing for Kelli. However, what
we discovered were deserted, windy beaches at low tide
with no place to rent boards. We did however manage
to visit a seal colony at one beach, but as we spent
15 minutes laying on beach trying to salvage
something, all we got was a layer of sand covering us.
We packed up and fled Westport early, continuing
south to Greymouth.

The road along the coast between these two towns is
spectacular – very rugged and rocky with great
pounding waves, similar to the OR & WA coasts. Midway
down we stopped at Punakaiki, the Pancake rocks
(http://www.punakaiki.co.nz/about_punakaiki.htm) Very
cool to walk around – Scientists have yet to figure
out how the layering effect really happened. We also
did another great hike near there,the Truman Track,
which took us through the forest, down to the beach,
and near some caverns.

Arriving in Greymouth, we found a dead industrial
town. Seriously, there was hardly anyone around and
almost everything was closed. And this is the biggest
town on the west coast. We spent our evening walking
along the fortified wall to the local Warehouse
(Kmart) and grocery store, passing teh Drill bit
sculpture, then getting dinner at 1 of two places we
saw that were open. It was good though – I had crab
cakes. I’m glad we were able to combine these two
stops into one day since they weren’t very exciting -
now we get an extra day in Christchurch.

In the morning we got out as quick as we could,
heading across Arthur’s Pass to the big city. The
scenery was great going across the mountains, and we
stopped halfway to hike to the Devil’s Punchbowl
(http://www.apinfo.co.nz/index.php?page=17), a nearby
waterfall. Along with the devils punchbowl, we also
passed Death’s Corner and Lake Misery – someone was
apparently not having a good day when they were naming
spots.

It was cloudy in Christchurch when we arrived
yesterday, but it is glorious today. We have just
been wandering around, and we head out to the Banks
Peninsula to hike for a couple days this afternoon.
When we get back her Saturday evening, the World’s
Buskers Festival
(http://www.worldbuskersfestival.com/) will be just
starting which should be interesting – I saw Silver
Elvis walking down the street yesterday…

This is probably it until I get home. Stay warm all
of you in the cold. See you soon!

from MOTUEKA: ferries, kayaks & hiking – oh my!‏

let’s see, I last logged in from Wellington. Very
cute city, highly recommended. We spent Friday
walking around the city and visiting the National
Museum, Te Papa, which is awesome. very interactive,
it’s a mix of a natural History museum and a science
center. Sadly, Friday night was Eleni’s last night
with us, so we had a big night out of dinner, drinks
and dancing. We had a slow morning getting up, but
managed to get packed, have breakfast and walk around
a bit more before splitting up.

Kelli & I headed for the ferry dock, to catch a ride
to the South Island. It’s a 3-hour journey, about two
hours across the Coo Strait, and then an hour winding
through Queen Charlotte Harbor to Picton. Most of the
ride was foggy and rainy, but at one point it cleared
up and some dolphins were leaping around our boat – so
cool!

In Picton we picked up our new car (rental cars don’t
travel island to island), and set off to Nelson for
the night via the scenic route. In Nelson, the hostel
we planned to stay at had double-booked us, so we
continued onto Motueka, our jumping off point to Abel
Tasman National Park
(http://nationalpark.abeltasman.co.nz/stories/storyReader$127)
, where we are currently staying at the Happy Apple.

Abel Tasman park is at the north end of the south
island and is renowned for it’s coastal walkway and
sea kayaking. We booked ourselves on a two-trip that
encompassed both. So, Sunday morning we driven to the
park where we loaded up a water taxi with our group
and kayaks to take us north up the park coastline.
Because the tide changes so dramatically in this area.
The water taxis get loaded up near the shore, and
then are driven out into the water, across the sand
bar, buy big tractors, which then launched us into the
deeper water – crazy! Coming into Nelson the night
before, the weather sucked and we worried our trip
would be a wet one, but luckily we had woken to sunny
skies. It was windy though, so our water taxi ride
was a bumpy one – no need to be sad I missed out on
jet-boating in Queenstown after all!

I have only kayaked in lakes, so open-water kayaking
was a whole new experience. The first part of the
trip took us north into the headwind which was not fun
at all. But it got easier after that. We kayaked
through the marine reserve, where we saw the protected
New Zealand fur seals, including a pup – cute! From
there we went out to Tonga Island and down along the
coast for the rest of the day, along through little
bays & inlets. The contrast of golden sand beaches
against evergreen forest and teal water is pretty
striking. The kayaking was hard but fun. We were a
group of 7 plus a guide, so it was nice to be in a
small group.

For the night, we stayed on a backpacker houseboat in
one of the bays with 4 others from our group. The six
of us did a short hike near the beach in the early
evening before the boat cooked a big BBQ onboard for
everyone (about 20 total). It was beautiful night
out, and we all just hung out on the top deck talking
and watching the sun slowly set before we all crashed
around 10:00pm. Special thanks to Eleni for leaving
us her flashlight b/c otherwise we would not have been
able to see a thing (or have a lightshow!) trying to
get into our bunks.

This morning we woke around 7:30am, and after
breakfast on the boat, we spent the day hiking on the
Coastal walkway back to where we had originally caught
the water taxi. It was a great walk, and we ducked in
and out of 4 different beaches through the day – and
it was a perfect day for it (apologies to the Seattle
folks who are suffering through the 20 degree days and
snow!) We arrived back at Marahau (or Mar’s-a-Ho as
we affectionately call it, hee hee), met back up with
the rest of our group, and got driven back to Motueka,
where we have just finished dinner.

Only a few days left – Tomorrow we head down the west
coast to Westport and Greymouth, before crossing
Arthur’s Pass over towards Christchurch on the East.
Friday & Saturday we will hike the Banks Peninsula (as
suggested by Cindy O!), and then have Saturday night &
Sunday in Christchurch before flying home Sunday
night.

from WELLINGTON: life underground‏

Greetings from Wellington, the capital of New Zealand!

Tuesday morning was rainy in Rotorua, so we just
walked around town a bit before our spa appointments.
The Polynesian Spa has been rated one of the top spas
since 2004 by Conde Nast Traveler magazine, so it was
nice to finally be able to afford an indulgence
written about by my favorite magazine – usually
everything they recommend is way out of my price
range. After soaking in some mineral pools, I had a
hydro-therapy massage and exfoliation, before soaking
again. Yay for mid-vacation spa break!

From Rotorua we headed west to Waitomo, where we
planned to go spelunking the next day. First though,
we had a great dinner in town which further confirmed
my current theory that honey makes everything better
(remember the honey-basil bread in Sydney?) Alongside
my chicken this evening was honey-kumara mash. Kumara
are like sweet potatoes. Mashed with honey. MMMM!!!

Wednesday was spent spelunking and looking for
gloworms. This was a big trip that would take way to
long to detail, so here is the abbreviated version:
9-story rappel down to a shallow river, Hiking up
river to view blue glowworms in a cave, inner-tubing
back down river in the dark looking at gloworms.
Hiking through caves and squeezing through small
crevices, rock climbing back up 6-stories. Crazy!!
You can check it out a bit here:
http://www.caveraft.com/waitomo-blackwater-rafting.html

You would think that would be enough adventure fo rteh
day, but it was just beginning. For the drive to Lake
Taupo, I took over the wheel. To this point Eleni had
done all the drive, but after sitting back and
watching, I felt ready, and it was actually much
easier than I expected. Sitting in the passenger seat
for s few days first definitely helped I think.

We were just in Taupo for the night, visiting Huka
Falls, and spent all day today driving down to
Wellington via Napier. Napier is a cool little city
that was leveled by an earthqauke & fire in 1931.
When they re-built, Art Deco was all the rage, so
thats what they have. Rolling into Wellington
tonight, We went to the top of Mount Victoria fo rteh
views, and grabbed dinner at an Irish Pub. We’ll be
here for two days, then Eleni sadly leaves us, and
Kelli & I head for the South Island.

from ROTORUA: life on the North Island‏

Greetings from Rotorua, in the middle of the North
Island. There are currently 2 hours left Seattle time
for Grandpa Homer’s 99th birthday, so everyone raise a
glass to him! Here, it’s almost dinner time on the
8th, so we’ve been celebrating for awhile…

Anyway, we landed in NZ Saturday afternoon and
immediately jumped into our rental car, after first
going to the wrong side to get in. Eleni is our hero,
taking the first driving shifts. It is weird to be
both sitting and driving on the opposite side, but I
must say that by this afternoon she seems a total
natural. Our first trip out was stressful though. We
decided to skip Auckland altogether and just head
straight for the Coromandel Peninsula (aka beaches).
We went straight for Hot Water Beach
(http://www.hotwaterbeach.co.nz/) to look for
accommodations. We decided to try a spot from Lonely
Planet, Auntie Dawn’s place. As we drove up, the sign
said no vacancy, but we got out to ask just in case.
Good thing we did, as she had a couple “backpacker”
beds available which we snapped up. Our beds were in
an adjoining trailer/shed lower in her yard, just a
short walk from the beach. It was perfect for our
first night of driving around with no itinerary. With
beds set, we went up the road to Hahei beach for
dinner before coming home to crash early so we could
wake at sunrise.

Wake at sunrise? yes, crazy idea – but we had missed
the low tide the evening before, and you can only dig
your thermal mud pools at low tide. The next one was
at 5:30am. We woke at 5:45, threw on our suits and
headed to the beach with our shovel. It was chilly
and we didn’t really know what to do, so we picked a
spot and started digging. Our hole grew bigger, but
not really warmer. Eventually a local woman came by
and and pointed us down the beach to a better spot.
But by now the tide was rolling back in, so we didn’t
have time to dig a new hole. At the new spot though,
we could see the sand bubbling up to the surface and
dug our feet in. In some spots it was actually
scorching. Very bizarre! After our fun, we went to
back our shed for a quick nap before checking out.

Auntie Dawn & Joe, the proprietors, are hilarious.
They have been living there for 15 years, married for
49. Joe was actually just back from Bellingham where
he had been hanging with a rugby buddy. They have a
huge garden from which Joe gave us lemons and plums,
and showed us his home-brewed beer. A very good start
to our NZ adventure.

From Hot Water Beach, we headed south to Mt. Manganui,
where we spent the afternoon on the beach, and then
further south to Rotorua, where we are now. Our hotel
room here comes with a hot tub filled with local
thermal water. This whole area is a big geo-thermal
center, which reeks of sulfur but provides lots of
healing. This morning we visited a local Maori
village where we learned how they use the steam vents
for cooking, an the thermal pools for cooking &
bathing. One of the pools is so hot it can cook a
whole chicken in 10 minutes!

After such an educational morning, we played all
afternoon, first at something purely NZ: Zorb
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorb) Fans of the
Amazing Race or Road Rules may have seen this
previously. It was so much fun, and over way too
quick. All three of us got to go together in one.
First, you dive into the middle of a big plastic ball,
and water is sloshing about in the bottom. Then you
roll down a big hill. I took my underwater camera in
with us, so we’ll see how the pics turn out. Crazy!

Tomorrow, we’ll be at the Polynesian Spa
(http://www.polynesianspa.co.nz/) and then off to the
Waitomo Caves to see the glow worms.

First impression: It is so green here.

Most surprising: I have sen way more cows than sheep.
Apparently all the sheep live on the south island.

Have a good week! More from Wellington most likely!

from SYDNEY: Off to NZ!

Living in the future as we are, it’s already Saturday and we are off to New Zealand this morning – most of us anyway. Special guest star Minda heads home to NYC, leaving the Seattleites to their own devices. We ‘ll see what happens!

Last I left you there was a slight hail storm outside.  I wish I could tell you that the weather improved,
but it was pretty hit or miss all week. On New years day, the rain storm changed our plans and we hit the aquarium first, which is great. I love aquariums in general, but this one is extra impressive with reef fish, sharks, sting rays and those cool things that live down here. The sun then emerged, so we hit a couple new parts of town, Newtown and Chinatown for the afternoon/evening. While the aquarium may have turned some people off of eating fish for the rest of the day, it only excited me & Eleni, so dinner was at a Chinese restaurant full of fresh fish tanks. Eleni & I had prawns & scallops – Minda & Kelli had pork

On Tuesday Kelli & Minda left us for a couple days to go to the reef. Eleni & I spent that day out on the
eastern part of town, taking a ferry to Watson’s Bay, wandering through the Gap where the ocean comes into the harbor, and walking back towards our house to Rose Bay, where we eventually had to catch a bus home b/c it started raining.

Wednesday we hit the zoo, which is huge and full of all the crazy animals that live down here. Right off the bat a kangaroo jumped right in front of us and then we saw koalas, wombats, platypus, crocodiles and even a Tasmanian devil, which just looks as mean and ugly as you think it would. The sun had been out all afternoon, so leaving the zoo we were gonna hit the beach at Balmoral for awhile. But as usual this week, the late shower moved in as we were waiting for the bus. It slowed down and stopped as we arrived at Balmoral, so we stayed dry as we ate fish & chips on the beach. Bellies full, we laid out and just as we got comfy, the familiar plink, plink, plink of raindrops began. We grabbed shelter under the roof of a wishing well, wishing very hard that it would stop. Perhaps because we didn’t actually throw a coin into the fountain while wishing, it began to rain harder & harder. So we caught the bus up to Mosman to look around for a bit, before returning home.

That night we headed down the hill from our house to Stanley street in East Sydney where we had a great meal. I finally had some potato wedges with sour cream & sweet chili sauce which I had been craving.  And, I found my new favorite appy/side dish: wood-fired ciabatta with honey & basil. YUM! so good. Anyone coming to my house in the near future will get to sample…

On Thursday Eleni & I split up for the day, so I did a lot of neighborhood wandering. First down to Surry Hills to check out Cafe Sopra, but sadly it was closed. Like the rain, this was an all too familiar
sight this week: stores and restaurants opening & closing whenever they wanted with no warning or
reason. From there I hit downtown for a bit, then Glebe, the Sydney Fish Market, Rozelle and Balmain.
It was finally a nice day out, so it was fun to just wander about and see new places. At the Sydney Fish
Market I had a snack that would make my Minnesota riends proud: Fried Octupus on a stick! (While in
Minnesota this summer I learned that they put everything on a stick and fry it!) mmm…

I met back-up with Eleni at home where we had happy hour on our sunny deck, looking out over the harbor.  So nice! We ordered dinner from an Indian spot up the street and shared adventures with Minda & Kelli who returned home from the reef.

Today was our last day in Sydney and it was a great one. Clear blue skies and nothing but sun! In the
morning, Eleni & Kelli went to climb the bridge, while Minda & I went to the top of the AMP Sydney Tower (like the Space Needle). The views were clear and spectacular, and the visit also included a little
Disneyland-like adventure, OzTrek. OzTrek featured old school dioramas with Obi-won Kenobi like
projections telling us all about the land of Oz, until we then got on a virtual ride across the country. It
was very entertaining.

We all met up at Circular Quay then and caught the ferry to Manly to spend the afternoon at the beach. It was an awesome afternoon – beach was packed, and it was a great finish to the week. Group dinner near home capped off a good time.

Alrighty, gotta go finish laundry, packing, and sleeping before waking up in six hours to head to New
Zealand. Have a great weekend!

from Sydney: Happy New Year!

It’s already 2007 down under, so Happy New Year to all of you!

Left Seattle Thursday night, where I met up with Eleni at Sea-Tac. She was scheduled on the flight before me to LA, but both of our flights were delayed due to the big storm in Colorado. So, I worked my way onto her flight to ensure I wouldn’t miss my Sydney connection if my original flight kept being delayed.

LAX is in major need of an upgrade – It is ugly, boring and a very sad place to be. We wandered as far
and wide as we could before sitting at our gate to board. Arriving on the plane, we played a long game
of musical chairs with various folks in our area and eventually came out on top with three seats to share between the two of us. Those extra inches really count on a 14 hour flight. United economy is still living in the dark ages, with an old school screen for the whole area, instead of individual entertainment centers in each seat. None the less, we were still amused by Talladega Nights before catching some zzz’s. The flight was pretty smooth and over surprisingly fast. And in case anyone is headed to trivia night anytime soon, it takes approx 8.5 hours to fly from LA to the international date line

Arriving in Sydney, we found Kelli all alone at her baggage carousel, looking for her bag. Sadly, two
days later, it has yet to be seen. Hopefully it will arrive today! With our bags in tow, we exited customs, found our other friend, Minda, and caught a cab to our apartment.

I found our apartment on Craigslist, and it couldn’t be a better spot for our vacation. Great location
with a view of the bridge and top of the Opera House.  Near a train station and bus routes, we are accessible to all the things we wanna do!

Since we arrived on a Saturday, my planned first stop (whether the rest of the group liked it or not) was the Paddington Market, where lots of Sydney Designers have gotten their start. We ate lunch at the food booths there and each wandered off to find some treasures. I bought a skirt, Kelli bought a bag, Eleni got some earrings and Minda got a couple tops.  Successful shopping for all!

From there we headed to Circular Quay, the heart of Sydney, and hopped on a ferry to enjoy the harbor.  Later we walked through the Rocks (the Pioneer Square of Sydney), and headed back towards our neighborhood for dinner. (Julie C, remember the Paper Box Thai Noodle House by Kings Cross? That’s where we ate!  Our apartment is right there!) For the rest of the night we just camped out at home, unpacking, doing our first load of laundry (smelly plane clothes) and plotting the rest of our week before crashing into bed.

One distraction I forgot to mention about our landing was the weather. It was raining when we landed. It cleared up the last couple days, but it is currently raining again – not especially helpful when we planned to spend the day at the beach.

But like I said, yesterday was pretty good, so we headed out to Bondi, one of the big surfing beaches.
Apparently Paris Hilton had been there the day before, promoting some new beer called Bondi Blonde, and she would be around later that evening to host a big party for New Years Eve. We hopped off the bus near the Bondi Market where I bought a cute little case for my MP3 player, and then we grabbed lunch before hitting the beach. Minda, Eleni & I set ourselves up for sunbaking while Kelli took off in search of a surfboard. It was very odd to be on a sunny beach on New Years Eve – odd in an enjoyable way of course. Gradually during our time there, the wind continued to pick up a little at a time, and around 3:30pm it was quite breezy. Kelli even had to stop surfing because the wind was too much, and the life guards were busy getting folks out of rip tides. With the temperatures dropping, we packed up and hit the Bondi Junction mall for a bit owned by local outfit, Westfield, which owns
Southcenter Mall in Seattle.  (A little more trivia for you all!) Then it was time to head home for New Years Eve.

New Years Eve in Sydney is obviously a big deal, with not one, but two fireworks shows. The first, at
9:00pm, is smaller and for families. The second, at midnight, is the big one. Figuring that restaurants
would be closed or super-pricey, we had bought food to cook for dinner at apartment while watching the 9:00pm fireworks from the deck. Then Eleni & I were gonna walk down to the harbor for the midnight show. This all went according to plan until about 10:45pm, when we arrived at the Botanical gardens and they weren’tletting anyone else in towards the harbor. Sad, but luckily we had our deck to return to. Our apartment building is kind of a big tall eyesore in the middle of the area, so with it’s views, the residents have lots of parties. This meant extra security for the evening, and special passes to get in/out of the building. We enjoyed the big show from our deck, along with all of our neighbors on accompanying balconies. While the show was great, with fireworks coming off the bridge, off the top of buildings, and up & down the harbor, it was only about 15 minutes long, much shorter than I expected it to be, given our 4th of July ones are usually 20 minutes. Still exciting though.

Side Note – I believe it might be hailing a little at the moment. We will definitely need a new plan for
the day.

The excitement did not stop with the fireworks though.  Shortly before 1:00am, the fire alarms started going off in or building, so we had to evacuate. Luckily we are only on the 8th floor (out of 43), so it was quick, and by the time we got to the bottom, we could go back up, because it was a false alarm. A little more revelry in our house, and then off to bed.

So, again, happy new years to you all – it’s now 10:30am. I made pancakes and eggs for the girls this
morning, and now we need to come up with a new plan for the day. Talk to you soon!