Random acts of kindness

I just got back from the mail box. Even though I rarely receive anything worth wild I still love checking the mail. I think this comes from my childhood; my grandmother and I were pen pals and she always included a little spending money each each letter. I couldn't wait for that extra cash to buy who knows what (candy probably). That was many, many years ago (I wish I still had all those letters, damn) and I can't remember the last time anyone sent me money so I find it odd that I still like checking the mailbox, which is almost always filled with request from others for me to send them money...hum.

Anyway, I digress. Today the mailbox was jam packed full of all kinds of catalogs, letters and one big padded envelope address to me. I don't remember ordering anything and it's not my birthday so I assume that it's something someone sent in hopes of me paying for it. Remember the CDs clubs that would randomly send you a pack of CDs and expect you to pay for them or send them back, which was a total PITA? Well, that's what I expected so I saved that envelope for last. Another strange thing came in the mail today as well...I think it's like the 3rd time I've gotten the same stupid thing...have no clue who the lady is or how she got my name and address, but it's one of those chain letters that asks you to mail a dollar to 6 people on the list then add your name and send it to all your buddies. Whatever...file 13!

Back to the big padded envelope. I open it up to find a Vegetarian Cook Book...awesome!!

After racking my brain I remembered Kyle and his wife Jen stayed with us one night during the Shamrock Showdown. Jen was noticing my cookbooks and mentioned that she had one similar to one that I already had, but hers was for Main-Courses. I told her I had a difficult time coming up with main-courses that didn't seem like side dishes. I guess she remembered and bought the book for me. How sweet! There was no card or note so I'm glad I remembered that conversation.

I like stuff! And, it's my turn to cook dinner, so great timing too!!

The long journey home

It’s Monday morning here in Sydney. I’m sitting all alone in my hotel room. I actually had a place to stay last night with one of Ian’s friends, but after the long day of driving and flying I was not feeling very sociable so I got a room. As it turns out I may have completely hosed myself. If I can’t get in touch with Mark Kirkby’s wife, Sandy, before check out time I’m going to have to stay another expensive night here in the hotel. Sandy is at George’s house today and will be my only way into the house. Since I have a ton of luggage I will either need to be stationed here in the hotel or at George’s place. I catch my flight home tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 10:50am. From here I have another layover in China (I won’t be leaving the airport this time) and then another layover in LA. I arrive bright and early (6am) into Orlando the morning of the 5th. I will be taking DOTS back to DeLand and then back to work.

Our last day in New Zealand was filled with wild life adventures. Our first stop was the Royal Albatross reserve. We were lucky enough to be there during chick season. There were two nests within view distance of the observatory. We were even luckier to see a parent feeding one of the chicks. I forget how old the chicks were, but at their age the parents only come back every couple of days to feed their young. One of the parents just happened to arrive as our group did. Ian may have some good video, but my pictures didn’t turn out that great because of the distance. This is a blurry picture of the Albatross chick and parent...


Our next stop was Bushy Beach where there are some Yellow Eyed Penguin nests. This beach is not a reserve…it’s just a place to hopefully view the endangered penguins as they come ashore after their long day of feeding out at sea. We were lucky enough to see 5 penguins…none close enough to get a good picture, but enough to say, “hey, I’ve seen the endangered yellow eyed penguin in person!!”. This is a picture of a penguin behind a plant (seriously)...


Our final encounter was with the blue penguins. This wasn’t a reserve, but also wasn’t a random place for viewing either. This is an area where the penguins come ashore about the same time every night to next. There are well over a hundred birds and they are very predicable so the country built a grand stand of sorts for viewing. The penguins have become quite accustomed to this so they are not turned off by people. Ian and I got there a tad early so we were a little anxious by time the first “raft” (this is what they call each group of birds that are traveling back to land together) of birds came ashore. There were maybe 20 birds that came ashore. They made their way up the shore, across the road and under the fence to their nesting boxes. The neighborhood chicks as well as some friendly neighborhood rabbits greeted them. We stayed long enough to see two rafts come ashore. Apparently there are nearly 300 birds that nest off the shores in this area. On our way back to the camper van we saw a stay penguin or two making their way across the parking lot…how freakin’ cute!

Oh, I just wanted to add a few animals to the livestock list. They also farm Elk, Alpaca and Ostrich. None of which I got pictures of, damn it.

Our trip to New Zealand was awesome! Did I mention that we didn’t have enough time?? I could probably spend a month there and still not have enough time.

First meal....

Today I am back in Sydney. Ian and I arrived last night. He took the first train out to Tokyo and I opted to stay at a hotel near the airport. Ian had made arrangements for me to stay with a friend of his, George, but I was feeling a tad crabby and unsociable so I stayed the night in a hotel.

This morning I made my way to George's place. Mark Kirkby and his wife Sandy have been staying here for the past week or so...so I hooked up with Sandy this morning at the apartment. When I arrived, she was on her way down to the beach. I stayed behind to check email and make arrangements for my return.

After a while I walked down to the beach for some lunch. I found this nice little placed called Tucker. I had an awesome wrap with a side of chips (french fries to us in the states) and a nice bottle of Pinot Noir. This has been my second ever meal out alone...the first being in China. This was a much nicer experience. The food was amazing (everything tasted soooo goood...it was almost as if I was high). I was also reading a book called, "eat pray love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. So far the book is awesome. Lara...as I'm reading this book I feel as if you've written it. If you haven't read it...it's a must!!

We are waiting for the boys (George and Mark) to return from the DZ so we can go grab some dinner.

I leave tomorrow morning around 11 am to head home. I'm in the process of authoring another post about our last day in NZ...hopefully I will finish before I leave tomorrow so stay tuned!

See you all when I return home!

Wrote this the other day, but just now getting it posted

This is just going to be a quick one. Internet on this side of the island has been a challenge. I’m typing this in Word and have no clue if I’ll actually get it uploaded tonight or not. It’s Friday night and we are in Dunedin. Today we drove here from Curio Bay. We spent the night there right off the beach. It was quite nice, but I haven’t had a shower today. Oh, speaking of shower. On the way here we noticed a horrible odor in our camper van. When Ian went to investigate he found that our “grey water” tank had backed up into our shower (ew). Turns out he didn’t really empty it at our last dump station so the only place for it to go when it gets full is back into the camper van. Fortunately this is not like sewage water or anything…just the water that goes down the drain in the sink and shower. Ian said that he saw a slice of carrot floating around the floor of our shower.

OK, back to today. On our journey we stopped to see some caves, but they were closed (damn it). The next on our list was some waterfall. It was a short hike (nature walk) and a decent view.


The next stop was for Jacks Blowhole. The walk was beautiful, but the blowhole wasn’t really happening. The seas today were very calm, about water ski-able.



Our final stop was Nugget Point. This turned out to be the grand finale. We had a nice walk up to a lighthouse and from the point were able to see a ton of seals and birds. It was raining on us, but totally worth the walk.



Tomorrow we have a reservation to go to an Albatross reserve and I’m hoping to go to the Penguin sanctuary as well.

Our trip is coming to an end. We fly back to Sydney on Sunday. Ian flies back to the states that night and I leave on Tuesday. There is so much to see and do here that I wish I had another month…9 days just wasn’t’ quite enough.

Today - Wednesday

Today we did the Fly By Wire and Skyline Luge...both were awesomely fun and I have pictures from neither. :o(

We really wanted to do the "hamster ball" ride, but that's only in the north island. Also, we wanted to do a Cessna flight and cruise into Milford Sound, but the weather has totally hosed us. Looks like it's not going to happen on this trip...I'm bummed but Ian is totally distraught. I think we are going to head down to Invercargill tomorrow.

The weather temp has been quite mild. I thought I'd be the totally wussy, but Ian's the one who's been whining the most...seriously!

BTW, did I mention how expensive it is here??? Holy shit...everything is insane! I almost don't want to eat and I've gone to boxed wine (it's cheap, there's lots of it and it travels well in the camper van).

Ok...I'm out...but one last pic....not sure if I've posted one of the camper van yet.


Oh, we'll have to have all of you over for a picture viewing....home movie watching night....

A couple of quick pics

Internet is iffy again so my posts are going to be few and far between.

Here are a couple of pics just for the fun of it...

First one is me driving...a big ass camper van (yes Justin, I'm avoiding the gas stations), with a stick shift on the wrong side of the road. :o)

The next one is for Lara. There is this camper van rental company called Wicked that rents these vans, each with a different paint job. Most of them are funny...some deep...some political...



The next one is for Justin...no explanation necessary....

Still driving

Currently sitting on the side of a beautiful mountain called Treble Cone. It’s a ski resort in the winter and a paragliding/ground launching site in the summer. Ian is out playing with his canopy so I figured this would be an excellent time to catch up on my blogging.

Our first night we spent in a town called Greymouth. We parked our camper van in a slot right next to the sea. That nights sleep was awesome. The winds were blowing at a good steady 35+mph with gust up to around 50 mph. The next morning we got up and took a walk out on the beach. The shore was covered with stone rather than sand. The sky was grey, but the view was amazing.



From here we drove to Franz Joseph Glacier where we did a nice afternoon hike.


So far the food here has been less than desirable, but I have high hopes for Queenstown and Invercargill. Also, the food (as well as everything else) way, way expensive! I paid $18.00 for a veggie burger!!

The night we spent in Franz Joseph it rained – heavy rain – all night, which gave us another awesome nights sleep. I’m actually getting quite used to the camper van and the motor parks. We don’t shower in the campervan…it’s totally useless, but having a toilet is great! The motor parks have everything you need, internet, amazingly clean showers and toilets, game rooms, kitchens, etc.

Last night we tried to make it to Wanaka, but ended up about an hour short. We found a remote camper park that was very private with an amazing view. It was super cold, which gave us another great nights sleep.

Today we made it to Wanaka and tried to get a flight out to Milford Sound, but got hosed by the weather. It looks like the weather out there might suck through the week. We plan to say for a day or two in Queenstown so that may (hopefully) give us another option to get out to the Sound.

New Zealand seems to be big on live stock. We’ve seen cows, goats, horses, donkeys, deer (yes, they raise deer for meat) and an ass load of sheep. I’ve never seen so many varieties of sheep…there are big ones, small ones, some with long nappy hair, some with short curly hair, snow white ones, beige ones, some with black faces and some just roaming free range road side.


So far the trip is going well. I’m having a great time, but am about over the driving part. But this should fix itself over then next day or so. Then we will be on the road again on our way to Invercargill.

I have some more pics on my camera and will upload them soon...