Chirstmas/Jumps/Missing

Oh yeah, wanted to request that if possible that the friends Christmas gathering happen after we get back. Since we are buying all our Christmas presents on the road, we would love to be able to give them to the peoples at the official gathering. We get back Dec 12th. I dont know if its possible, but we just wanted to throw that out there.

And Jamie survived the bungi jump and is blogging about it on his blog at http://greatsandini.blogspot.com.

And man, do we really miss all of you. I was just thinking the other day that while this is so beautiful, and the world is so amazing and interesting, but it doesnt compare to laughing with D, hearing Mikey sing, watching H with the muchacho, being with G at her cabin, 'going to the store' with Pat, an ICC meal, overthinking something with Lazlo, hanging with Rochelle at the Salon, etc. I think you get the picture. There is something about being with each of you that beats any of this. And while each has its time and we are certainly glad we are here, I just thought I would pass on how much all of you are missed and loved.

Queenstown update

Hello and other salutations!

Well, here we are in Queenstown, the birthplace of the bungy jump (I know natives did it, but I think Queenstown is responsible for bringing it to the public.) And Jamie is doing just that right now! From 135 meters. I will let him give the update on that when he gets back!

Well, since we left the north island we flew to Christchurch, which bizarrely was the cheapest way to get there. Once there, we picked up our wheels, an EZY Cruiza. Its been a ton of fun to drive, and a source of some travel preference differences. We thought if we got it, then we wouldnt have to pay fees to stop for the night. That wasnt true. So, we could pull to the side of the road and risk it, but if there is one thing I dont like, its risk. So I prefer to pay $20 for access to a toilet, and to be around folks. Of course, its ok with Jamie, but he likes to keep a look out for all things cheap. Along those lines though, we are doing a stellar job of cooking all our own meals. We eat out maybe one meal a week. That of course saves us a ton of money.

Well, we promptly left Christchurch and decided that we would go north to south, and avoid all the north wine country due to time constraints. We headed to Hanmer Springs for our first landing space. Hanmer Springs is this gorgeous town in the mountains (Ok, how did I not know that NZ is almost entirely mountains? Southern Alps to be exact). The Springs part refers to the natural hot springs. Jamie and I splurged and spent a morning hanging out in the hot springs, getting a little sun, and smelling some fine sulfer. It was a perfect morning.

From there we headed to Hokitika, making a quick stop in Greymouth for some DVDs. One of the great things about the Cruiza is that it has a DVD player which can be plugged in if you are staying at a site with power. Of course, since we are trying not to spend money, we bought collections of 4 movies for $9.99. And the quality matches. Actually, they arent too bad and certainly watchable. We have been hitting a good bit of rain so its nice to set up in the van and watch a movie while waiting for it to pass. Between Greymouth and Hokitika, we got our first glimpse of the Tasman Sea. Most fantastic. Jamie gets really jazzed when he sees water. We got a cup of coffee in Hokitika and enjoyed the view. We also found a bulldog on the beach that would fetch rocks. For hours. Hysterical. Occasionally he would get too much sand in his mouth and on his body so he would run to the ocean, plop down and wash the rock and his mouth out. Too cute. As with all the other locations we have been to, we are buying a ton of presents. Hokitika has a ton of local artist shops so it was a field day for that. I am going to buy a new bag today because we cant fit everything in our packs anymore. (For the record, it was Mikeys present that put us over the top.) We knew we would have to increase our bags at some point, so this isnt a surprise.

From Hokitika, we headed to Fox Glacier, the less popular of the glaciers. The one people usually go to is Franz Josef. We heard that Fox was less congested and from other folks we talked to we were right. Again we splurged and decided to take a hike on the glacier itself. Totally worth it. I have never had crampons on boots or walked up an ice staircase before. Really groovy. Saw crevices that just formed so the pure ice was visible. And since it rains over 200 days a year there, we got downpoured on. And it was still amazing, and tiring. It was a serious workout. Our guide reminded us of Pat. Then he said that in the off season he does project management work for ING. And we nodded our heads, yep, Pat would do something so bizarre like that - give glacier guides in the summer, go into investments in the winter.

From Fox, we headed to our current location, Queenstown. Holy crap. The drive was just unreal. So. Beautiful. We thought the north island was gorgeous, but they arent kidding about the South Island. We have taken over 500 pictures so far, I think I took 100 yesterday just on the drive. We really wish one of us knew how to use a really good camera, and that we had a really good camera. And Queenstown is a fabulous town, although part of us feels like we are Breckinridge. We leave today as soon as Jamie gets back from his Bungy jump to head out to Te Anau which is near Milford and Doubtful Sound. We are likely to go to Doubtful sound as it is the less touristy of the two and I hear its just as lovely.

While we are having an amazing time, we cant believe that only a month has passed since we got married. And we are really glad we arent on a year trip. There was too much running around before we left which I am still dealing with the stress of, or the release of that stress. Oh, and the pyrogenic granuloma I have on my finger is still just so gross. And its on my middle finger of my right hand so it makes doing most anything harder. We really hope it falls off soon. Also, I have been good about keeping only wheat out of my diet and so far, so good. Still crossing our fingers that its a wheat intolerance.

About to run out of time here. If you are reading this, drop us a line and let us know. We would love to hear how folks are!

Birthday thanks!

Bunches of thanks to everyone who sent a long a birthday card with Jamie! It was the highlight of my birthday. We also went horseback riding and are staying at a B&B overlooking the Bay of Islands. Perfect. Today we head out to Rotorua for some thermal mud baths, then back to Auckland to fly to Christchurch to pick up the Cruiza. Sad note there, we arent getting the asterix van. We found one that was leaps better for just a bit more money. We are sad about the lack of grooviness, but the Asterix van looked like folks had been using it since the 70s. And not in a good way.

Another update, the thing on my finger is not a wart. Its an infected Pyogenic Granuloma. Ugh. I will have to get it surgically removed when I get home. They did liquid nitrogen here, but I dont think that will be enough. I never thought it was a wart, it was too weird. Oh weirdness.

Time for breakfast! More later! Thanks to everyone who sent a card or good thoughts!!

Random LOST post

I know we are way behind, but just thought I would share that in the ep where there was the shark with Sawyer and Michael, according to those with Pause capability and Tivo, the shark had the logo on it that the guy in the hatch was wearing. Interesting indeed.

I thought everday was Halloween...

Greetings from the land of OZ. We arrived here in Auckland on Nov 1st due to dateline issues (Happy Birthday Petey!!!), entirely missing Halloween (which isnt a big deal to me as most of you know.)

Lets see, how to update quickly... So far we have been to LA, Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahiti, Rarotonga, Honeymoon Island, One Foot Island, Aitutaki, and now New Zealand.

Highlights from each island:

Bora Bora: we had an amazing room over the water. Fed the fishes through the floor of the bungelow. The lagoon there is brilliant. The water is so clear that when we were swimming with the sharks in the ocean, we could see the scuba divers at the bottom. Thats pretty freaking clear.

Moorea: The resort sucked and we cant say enough bad things about it. However, the island is so beautiful. French Polynesia is the only place I have been where the postcards dont do it justice. Not even close. Did lots of shopping for pearls there, amidst complaining to the hotel. Swam with dolpins there, and then Jamie jumped in to swim with some humpback whales. I was way too seasick to move. During this whole portion of the trip I wasnt feeling well. Both having a major freak out about all the change in my life, as well as not feeling well. Have since calmed down and been stricter about what I am eating.

Tahiti: We were only here for a day while waiting for our 4am flight. What we really loved about all these places is that you are always greeted with music at the airports. So beautiful. we spent most of our time in the main square watching the food vendors set up, then watching the band play. We walked around a bit, but frankly all the traveling really gets us tired.

Aitutaki: Met a fantastic Australian here, and some wonderful Italians. Meeting up with the Australian in Sydney. Aitutaki is an atoll, which a group of tiny islands. THe main island is home to 2k people. Really really small. It boasts being the best lagoon in the South Pacific. It certainly must be one of the largest. We were only here for 2 nights, but long enough to fall in love with the really kind people. everyone knows everyone. We also took a trip to Honeymoon Island and One Foot Island, which says it has the worlds smallest post office. Tropical paradise indeed. Cant wait to see those pictures.

Rarotonga: we only stopped here because the plane was stopping here and I heard that the singing at the church services was really good. And I did a terrible job of planning it because we were only there while all the stores were closed. However, the church services were out of this world. No freaking kidding. I might go back there just to see it again. The entire church singing in 6 part harmony, men and women, men calling out to the women and the women responding. I cried almost the whole time. It was so beautiful. Each week a village is featured (they sit together in their villages) and sing a lengthy song in the middle of the service. Wow. Cant say enough about it. We also voted in the Raro Idol competition, which is the Cooks version of American Idol. Some really really good singers, although most of them have never sang solo like that and were really camara shy (it was being televised.) Met some wonderful med students at the contest who we might meet up with in Christchurch. Speaking of which, the nasty thing on my finger that kept bleeding is now really gross. I am heading out to the doctors after this to get it taken care of. Its probably a wart, but it weeps all the time, and is really painful. The med students highly recommended getting it taken care of.
Here we also saw a 65 year old man climb a coconut tree in his bare feet in 8 seconds. Amazing. We also made an entire traditional meal over hot rocks by wrapping chickens in banana leaves, as well as lamb, and bananas. It was really interesting. Met a great Australian and Italian couple who insist they take us and ICC out in Melbourne. We will definitely give them a call as they were really nice. They live half the time in Italy and the other half in Melbourne. Rarotonga was really nice and we wished we'd had more time.

Auckland: Well, we are frankly being really lazy here. Watching some movies, just wandering around, and I had a Starbucks! Mainly we are planning the rest of NZ. We realized that neither of us noticed that there was no transportation in our budget so we are in some serious sticker shock. But we are renting a camper van on the South Island and going to just cruise around and suck it up. We think its what Pamber would do. The van is spray painted with Asterix, the cartoon character. Hysterical.

Well, I am running out of time on the computer as I got to IM D for a bit and hear about Peteys birthday which Eagle and I are both kicking ourselves for not emailing him. We really miss everyone, but are having a fabulous honeymoon. Sorry there is so little detail here, but so much has happened. Hope to get more detailed shortly.

Lots of love and kiwis!