too much to read!!!

We haven't updated the blog in a while, so here goes. There are 8 new entries.

1-31-10

So the entire trip Brain has been on a mission to buy one thing. A shirt from Invercargill. Invercargill is home of the world's fastest Indian Motorcycle. We find the motorcycle and all the cool shirts, except one problem, they don't have the size Brian needed. So sad. But he was excited to see the bike. The town of Invercargill looked like it would have been a cool town except EVERYHING was closed (it was a Sunday). So we cruised the town a little and then went off to see some waterfalls.

We were at this one waterfall and there were two Japanese kids there. They were probably 18 or 19. The guy wanted his picture taken in front of the waterfall...so he rock-hops out to this bigger rock and sits down, puts his knees up and feet out, tilts his head back, and looks off into the distance. Am I really seeing this? SOOO FUNNY! Then, the girlfriend who is totally serious, pulls out her cell-phone and starts clicking away! All he needed was a fan to blow his hair back and he totally could have been on a calendar!

After that laugh we headed off to Curio Bay. Curio Bay is known for its petrified forest. IT WAS SO COOL! There were tree stumps dating back the Jurassic Period that have been fossilized in the ocean floor. When it is low tide you can see a ton of stumps. We walked around there for a while and watched the blue waves crash on the rocks, we checked out the tide pools, and I was mesmerized by the kelp! The creepy creepy kelp! Watching is sway back and forth...kinda cool stuff !

We then headed off to Dunedin. Dunedin has sea lion and penguin colonies! SWEET! We were off to find the penguins. So we were driving and we see a girl walking down the road...we've been wanting to pick up a hitchhiker...meet Kia! Kia was 22 from Boulder, CO; had dreads, she loves farmers markets and smelled awful! She told us she wanted a ride to Sandfly Bay--she heard that at dusk penguins and sea lions would come to the beach. SO, she started walking to Sandfly Bay. Well this works out, we were just looking for penguins!

We arrive at Sandfly Bay. We make our way down this crazy sand dune...it was quite the hike...after the gravity educed run down the dune we saw the glorious beach! Giant rock formation acted like bookends on either side of the beach. The sun was setting with beautiful colors of orange, pinks, and blues filling the sky. It truly was beautiful. When we made our way down the dune we ran into 3 ladies at the bottom. One was a "park ranger/volunteer thing" and the others were just visitors. We asked about the penguins...the informative one said, "they come out at dusk but they wont come out with people on the beach..." as she was sharing all of her wisdom with us, I looked out over the water, with the sun turning the sky a more dominant orange...the waves were crashing down on sand that was packed hard and when the water went back into the ocean, it left just enough sand wet to give a reflection of the orange sunset...to my surprise what did I see pop out of the wave and start to waddle onto the beach? YES! A yellow-eyed penguin. They are a very rare species of penguin and normally very shy. "Is that a penguin right there?" I interrupted the intelligent volunteer. She was shocked...yes, yes it was! Totally made my night. I was so excited to see one. We watched the little guy waddle his way up some rocks and to his nest where he disappeared for the night.

We walked down the beach some more and stumbled upon some crazy huge sea lions. We took a picture of Clyde with a sea lion...that was sketchy. They were just hanging out in the sand. So surreal to see all of this. The cool part was this was not a zoo, there was not a fee to get into the park, there were not guards all over the place telling you not to go near the animals...it was just real nature at its finest! *ok so that sounds a bit cheesy, but it's true!*

Brian, Kia and I were all walking down the beach...I was totally trying to hook Kia and Brian up...I mean, he thinks dreads are hot, Kia had dreads. Brian is 22...Kia was 22...She likes to travel and so does Brian. She likes Farmers Markets and BOOM...so does Brian! In my eyes they were perfect for each other! Why would this not work? Oh Brian...he's too picky he doesn't go for girls who drop out of school and travel with NO money, nor does he want to have to plug his nose every time he sees his girlfriend. I told him there was nothing a good shower wouldn't cure...I mean he didn't smell that good himself!

Anyway, we had a good time getting to know Kia, she really was a cool girl. We drove he closer to town and let her off at a gas station and as tradition would have it...we needed to take a picture of her with Clyde. "Clyde...? Clyde? Where are you?...BRIAN WHERE'S CLYDE???" Sheer panic set in! CLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYDE!!! Ok my wallet was one thing, but Clyde...he was a whole other story! "We have to go back!" Kia took a picture without Clyde, she made a sad face for the picture, got out and wished us luck finding him.

SO back to Sandfly Bay we went. By this time it was 11:00pm, the moon was full and the wind was blowing hard. Remember that hike up and down the sand dune...yeah, we had to do that ALL OVER AGAIN! Brian was a trooper leading the way down the dune in the moonlight with our headlamps on, we were in search for poor ole' Clyde. Brian let me know several times that I owe his a beer for his hunting efforts. Sure...that's fine...whatever, you can have a 12 pack...this is no time for joking. We need to find Clyde. With the wind blowing hard, it was causing the sand to cover up everything quickly, our footprints from 45 mins ago were just about gone. Brian made it to the bottom of the dune before I, and I heard, "Nicole..come here." "Did you find him?" "yes" HOORAY! Clyde was found. As I approached the scene, I saw Clyde's body prints rolling down the hill to where he lay...helplessly, face down in the sand. It was a scary hour for us all, but I'm sure you are glad to know that he is safe and sound and back with me now. He sure is a trooper. Little guy must have fallen out of my pocket while I was huffin' it up the dune.

After our hike to the car (with Clyde), we decided to just spend the night in the car in the Sandfly Bay parking lot.

I guess we were still on a high from seeing that penguin that we set an alarm for 5AM so we could run down the dune and watch the penguins go out to sea. When else could we ever do that? What a cool experience. Alarm set...reclined the seats, and off to bed we went.

5AM came way too soon. After about 5 hits of the "snooze" button, I asked Brian if he wanted to go down...both of us in our sleep..."When will we ever see this again" Brian asked, ready to go down there...My response, "National Geographic’s." We both laughed and went back to bed. I'm still not too sure how I was that funny in my sleep. It was quite the day!

2-1-10

So come 9:30 we finally get out of Sunny (that's our sweet car) and we headed off to explor the rest of the peninsula. There

was an albatross colony and penguin colony around here somewhere and we wanted to find it. Turns out you had to pay for tours

at both places. We are not into paying for things, so...we left. (no we did not steal anything or jump a fence...we just

drove off). We drove around for a little bit and made out way into Dunedin...by the way, has been probably been my favorite

city so far. Here's one for ya...Does anyone know what Dunedin is home to? Anyone? YES! Cadbury Chocolate! Umm, we'll have two tickets to tour your factory please! What a blast. It was a great tour and we got "heaps" of free chocolate outta the deal.

Here's some Jeopardy trivia for ya:

1. Cadbury in the US is actually made by Hersey's Chocolate.

2. Kiwi's consume about 4 kilo's of chocolate a year...Americans: 22 kilos! haha

3. Cadbury's Rocky Road: MOST DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE BAR INVENTED!

4. All chocolate made by Cadbury is made to order

5. All the fancy eggs and bunnies: detailed by hand AND packaged by hand.

6. They make eggs and bunnies 6 months out of the year for one holiday

7. Cadbury chocolate in NZ and in the US will taste different b/c they are not made with the same milk.

I'm sure there's more but that's all I can think of right now. Yeah, so that was fun.

Then we had five mins to run to the Speight's Brewery tour. Speight's is a New Zealand beer and the tour guide was great. He

was a funny old man. After that tour we were able to sample some of their beers. I don't remember what happened next...JUST

KIDDING.

After the tour we went back to Sandfly Bay...Brian wanted to boogy board on the waves and I was going to nap on the beach!

GLORIOUS! Our plan was to hang out there until sunset and hope to see some more penguins.

When we got to the beach, it was SO WINDY! OUtta control windy! The sand would hurt your legs as it blasted past along the

beach. The waves were pretty big, but because the wind was so strong, the waves had an offspray heading back off to sea.

There were rainbows in the off spray; that was pretty cool to see. Brian got in his wetsuit, I got my snacks...we were off to

fight the wind. Brian lasted 15 mins in the water and in those same 15 mins I had sand in my ears, mouth, clothes, snacks,

hair...the whole 9 yards! Brian went back up to the car to dry off and watch a movie in Sunny and I hung out on the beach.

despite the blasting of the sand.

As I wondered down the beach I saw a sea lion relaxing. I stopped to talk to a guy from New York who was also intrigued by

the lazy sea lion. We chatted about sea lions, New Zealand, Florida and New York being the same place, all the typical

surface stuff...as we're chatting, he says, "Oh look here comes another sea lion..." I look over to my left and sure enough

out of the huge waves comes another sea lion. This was so crazy...I was watching a sea lion come out of the water and walk?

hop? waddle? his way over to this sea lion laying down. As the new one gets closer, the lazy one picks his head up and looks

to see who is coming to visit. The new one gets all up in this lazy guys business...they exchange some sea lion jargon. The

new sea lion must have heard something like, "umm get the heck away from me I'm tired, and I might kill you if you bother me

again" because just as fast as the new sea lion had come....he also left...back off into the beautiful blue water...Maybe one

of the coolest things I've seen.

Some time had past and I decided to make the trek back up to the car. After some lazy reading and relaxing in Sandfly Bay

parking lot...just waiting for sunset. The time had finally come. Back down the dune to see penguins make their way back to

the nest. *sunset is the best time to see them*

So we head down the dune in hopes to see 5 penguin...that was our goal. We're walking down the beach and there goes

one...just hopped out of the water and waddled across the beach...through out the night we saw a total of 4 penguins. One guy

got out of the water and hiked up this huge mountain. It took him about 30 mins....waddle, waddle, rest...waddle, waddle

rest...Pretty entertaining to watch. We saw several more sea lions and another amazing sunset. It was a great night and

again, totally free.

We took off heading for a place to stay for the night. By this time it was pretty dark. We were following the GPS to a

campsite Brain spotted. Now Brian has a gift for knowing where to go when it comes to finding us a place to sleep. He is

normally in charge of that...BUT tonight...the GPS led us astray. We went 15K up this one lane gravel road. No need to

fear...there are a lot of one-lane, gravel roads that seem as if they are leading off to nowhere and then, right when you

think you've gone the wrong way the beautiful place we were looking for pops out. SO as normal, we were thinking this was the

Strange yet, right way. As we reach what is suppose to be a camp site we come to a little wooden sign that read, "Mount Stalker" and under the name in a smaller print it read, "You are here at your own risk" AHHHH!! Brian turned the car around as fast as he could and took off! We were flying down the dirt road talking about how creepy that sign was when out of no where something popped out in front of the car DUN DUN DUN DUNNNN...a hare! GEEZ bunny! Do you mind...we're a little sketched out at the moment and the last thing we need is some bunny jumping out at us. That joker ran in front of the car for about 45 seconds maintaining a 60 KPH speed. We were both very impressed with this guy, who then chose to jump back into the bushes where smart bunnies hangoutwhen a car is driving down the road!

We made it to the camp site, that was only 2K off the main road! We got the site and as we were getting ready for bed, I got

out of the car (still a little creeped out at the whole Mount Stalker idea and all the scary thoughts that were going through my head) to go pee. Well because of my fears I didn't want to wonder off far from the car. So I shut the passenger door, and pee right there by the car...go to the trunk to throw my TP away (that’s for you Brooke Cheley-Klebe: leave no trace!) and as I walk back (barefooted) to get in the car, I step in my PEE! haha I can't believe I'm sharing this story with everyone. It was pretty funny though. Off to find the baby wipes! Oh the good times of camping in a car for 5 days and not showering!

2-2-10

So one of our favorite things to do here in New Zealand is library hop! Libraries tend to have free WiFi and we both love our Facebook and Skype! So, we spent sometime today hitting up the local library. Where we also found a book sale. Nothing beats a 50 cent book--no not the rapper, I’m talking about currency….ya know? ½ a dollar…ok. Anyway, we found some books…Skyped it up and updated our status.

We heard about a blue penguin colony and we wanted to go and check that out. Too bad, we had to pay to see them, so we left. Got a cool picture of a “Slow: Penguin Crossing” sign, it’s everyday you get to see that.

We hit up the grocery store and had the brilliant idea of buying pre-seasoned hamburger meat, some garlic and butter bread and some pasta salad. We ate like kings this night. It was pretty good. Total dinner cost: $14.00! Not too shabby!

You’ll never guess where we slept? Yup….Sunny for the 3rd night in a row!

We didn’t do a whole lot today. But lazy days are good every now and then.

2-3-10

In the middle of the night we were both startled awake to the horn blaring. In a failed attempt to get more comfortable and put my feet up on the dashboard I somehow managed to get my foot stuck on the horn. Nicole about died laughing, I guess it scared me and my face was pretty hilarious when I woke up. It took another 20 or 30 minutes to get back to sleep after that, because Nicole couldn't stop giggling.

We woke up, returned the seats to the upright positions and headed into Christchurch. We found the coolest library we have seen yet. It had a coffee cafe in it, as well as bright colors everywhere, big screen tvs with playstations connected as well as a few showing espn, and plenty of outlets for laptops. We spent some time there catching up online and figuring out what to do for the rest of the day. After the sleep in the car we were both feeling showers were a necessity and went about finding a hostel where we could pay to shower. we struck out at 3 or 4 places before a fellow traveler tipped us off about a really busy hostel in downton where you could pretty much walk in and use the shower facilities without being bothered. Worth a shot right? We found the hostel and nervously walked in, past the front check in desk, and up the stairs. Our confidence grew and shortly after we found the bathrooms and were enjoying hot showers, with free towels too!

As we were walking back to the car, feeling like a million bucks, I spotted a small sign featuring Britten designs. John Britten was a kiwi engineering genious who had designed and built a few motorcycles in his workshop, which were successful in world championship competitions as well as winning at Daytona. He died unfortunately a few years ago and development has been halted. I walked into the studio to see 2 of the original 10 motorcycles sitting there. It was great to be able to get close enough to touch them and look at them up close, as most of them are behind glass or out of arms reach.

We left the Britten gallery and headed out to a free NZ airforce museum that we had seen on the way in town. I proceeded to turn into a full on engineering geek, while Nicole enjoyed the blue skies and grassy area outside to read her book. They had many different aircraft at the exhibit, ranging from wright bros replicas to newer jets. My favorite part of the museum were the cutaway views of various engines. It's always fun to see the inner workings of different engines. We finished up at the aviation museum and headed back to downton to see an art museum. The billboards and advertisements we had seen made us excited to walk around this museum, but after spending about 5 minutes inside, we were rather bored and decided we didn't really appreciate "true" art.

Since it was still early in the afternoon, we went to the beach to relax and do some reading. I ended up renting a surf board for a couple hours and floundering around like a wounded seal, unsuccessfully trying to stand up. It felt great to be in the water though, and I got a good workout swimming back and forth along the beach. We were getting pretty hungry and came up with a craving for pizza and beer. Lucky enough, the first restaurant we stopped at had a happy hour special for free pizza with any alcohol purchase...BINGO!! We ordered our beers and started talking to the bartender, who happened to be from Wisconsin and a part owner of the bar. After making friends with him and talking for a bit, he ended up giving me another beer, both of us more free slices of pizza, and a huge discount on our overall bill. It was the best meal we have had out so far, and by far the cheapest. It was getting late, so we hit the road and found a place in Kaikoura to park the car, and for the too many'th night in a row...sleep in sunny.

2-4-10

Today we were headed to Kaikura. As routine, we wake up, make our seat come upright, look around and drive off. It’s such a lazy way of getting around. Nothing to clean up or pack up, just sit up and BOOM, you’re on your way. Brain prefers the tent….but I love the “conveniences” pf the car. After arriving at the Kaikura information center, we checked things out, chose not to spend money today (surprise surprise) and just wanted to spend some time on a beach reading.

In the parking lot, I made some oatmeal. I’m not sure if it was the new oats, the water, or my lack of domestic skills, but it was the worst oatmeal ever! I fired myself from making breakfast ever again. *strange side note: Brian and I both have those little 3-in-one utensils, (spoon on one end, and a knife and fork on the other)…and one of them broke at breakfast today and the other one broke at dinner….in the same spot. So strange*

Anyway, we stopped at some beaches and saw lots of fur seals hanging out on the rocks. It was fun to see them, as always. Brian got in at one rocky beach where there were tons of seals all over the place. He said the water was freezing and the seals didn’t come close enough to him to get a picture of one underwater.

We found another beach….it was a glorious day. Sun shining bright, not a cloud in the sky. Kinda funny, because that is the kind of weather we’ve been running into. It has only rained on us once, and at that, it wasn’t even that bad….and only lasted about 2 hours. Every time we get somewhere the locals will say, “man I hope you are enjoying the sun today, we’ve had nothing but overcast, rainy days.” Guess it’s the Florida ties we both have that are keeping it sunny…that or the Lord has truly blessed us with great weather. Places that are known for their excessive rain, have been blue skies and beautiful.

Hammocks are up, we used a tree and Sunny to hang our hammocks. Poor Sunny almost had his doors pulled off, but we were laying around like royalty! Eating cookies, drinking our favorite Passion soda, sugar, bad for you drink., and reading our books! We hung out there for pretty much the whole day. Brian went for a long swim and I ate all the snacks while he wasn’t looking. He started to threaten…if I continue to eat more than him, I’ll have to pay 2/3 of the grocery bill. I have to sneak snacks from the Keeper of the Food! He has started locking it up in the trunk and not giving me the key! Thankfully Sunny has a “pop the trunk feature.”

We left the beach and made our way towards Picton. This was our last night on the south island. We chose to sleep in Sunny yet again. We found this real special bathroom/picnic park and slept in the parking lot. There was a bright street light above us, a train track that was allowing way too many loud trains by and a strinkin’ airport all in arms reach of our parking spot. But in the morning when all we did was sit up and drive off, it made the loud night all worth it.

2-5-10

Today was another lazy day. We drove out of our nice parking lot and made way for the small town of Picton. We need to catch the ferry tonight at 7 to return to the north island. We seriously hung out in the Piction Library all day. Uploaded 250 pictures and worked on our blog entries.

We got hungry, picked up lunch at a local Fish and Chips joint and walked down to this little beach. There were sting rays in the water, mountains in the background, and sailboats drifting by. With again, perfectly blue skies above. Hung out, ate our lunch. I paid $3.80 for Diet Coke and it was the best Diet Coke ever.

We walked back to the car to see find that we got a parking ticket. OOPS. I guess the town of Picton is serious when it comes to their 60 minute parking policy. AND that turned into my bookmark. We felt bad for Share (the chipmunk we got with my Happy Meal at the beginning of the trip…Sunny and Share…) anyway, Share watches the car while we’re gone….she sits on the dash board--poor Share, had to watch the whole thing go down.

We made it to the ferry. We’re both excited for a shower (it’s been a couple of days), and the ability to do laundry. Two much need details we rarely get around to doing!

a2-6-10

Although it took us a while to get to sleep, we woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go. The beds were super comfortable and best of all, nothing like sunny's seats. Nicole relaxed around the house for a bit, while I went to the open air market with the Renee and Julie (people we were staying with). We stocked up on fresh fruits, veggies, and meat for the evenings bbq. We got back to the house and decided to go watch a cricket match and see if we could figure out how the game was played. Renee's boyfriend, Mark, plays in a cricket league on the weekends, and it was nice to watch a match in a casual atmosphere where we could ask questions and figure out the rules. The weather was once again beautiful, so we sat outside watching cricket and having a couple beers in the sun.

We went back to Mark and Renee's for a bbq that evening and wow, Renee is quite the cook. We had a meal of prawns, chicken,lamb, and veggies...most of which was cooked on the bbq. It was the first time we have had NZ lamb while we have been here, and it was as tender as a filet steak, with just the perfect amount of seasoning. After dinner we headed back into Wellington. Once a year there is a huge rugby tournament that Wellington hosts called 7's. This shortened, faster paced version of rugby has only 7 players per team and 7 minutes per half. IT is generally much more action packed and great for spectators. The games go on all day Friday and Saturday, with people dressing up and partying in the streets afterwards. We met a few of Marks cricket buddies at a house downtown to watch the rest of the games. After the finals were over, the girls headed home, and Mark and I along with his buddies headed downtown to join in the festivities. I have never seen anything like it, there were people everywhere. Dressed up like football players, men in drag, hooters girls, a few rocky balboas, top gun actors, and even a couple statues of liberty...neither of which were American but were entertaining to talk to for a while. We all walked around for a while, played a couple embarrassing games of pool, and then caught a taxi home...I got back to Mark and Renees to find poor sunny sitting in the street, with his keys locked inside...I wonder who could have done that?...to be continued

2.7.10

Today was a lazy day. We hung around the Sheehan’s, spent some time online, and went to the mall. I am missing New Orleans quite a bit. Parades have started and the Saints are playing in the Superbowl tomorrow. I could really go for some King Cake and beads! Brian and I are planning on finding a sports bar around here to watch the game. Kinda of strange to watch the Superbowl on a Monday at 1230pm. Hopefully we won’t be the only two in the bar.

We are starting to understand cricket and rugby…crazy sports they have here. All is well. GEAUX SAINTS!

OH I also found out that New Zealand has Magnum Bars! That was exciting. Magnum Bars are ice cream bars that are sold in Israel. They are delicious! I was pretty excited to see them here. I bought Brian one and we walked around a little bit.

:and now the Brians continuation:

In order for me to get to the Sheehans for that lazy day, I had a challenge ahead of me. Somehow the keys had been locked in the car the night before and unfortunately it would be $85 if we had to call the locksmith. Of course I was not going to stand for that, so with determination, and a coat hanger in hand I went outside to beak into poor Sunny. It took a while to snag the locking mechanism, but I finally got the door unlocked...the keys now stay in my pocket.

After our walk around downtown we returned to the Sheehan's for annother excellent dinner and great conversation. It has been really fun getting to know them. We sat around talking for a couple hours over wine and dessert and enjoyed one last night in proper beds for a while.

Two more photo albums up

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2976586&id=2038092&l=d96a965baf

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2976622&id=2038092&l=35fba704ec

no more sand flies!!!

1-27-10

We woke up the next morning to the same clear sky and beautiful views that we saw the night before. The weather has really been on our side this trip and we have really only had one rainy day, and even then it was just a small shower. We slept later than we planned, and drug our feet as we packed up and filled up with water. We knew the hike back was going to be a tough one. On one side, the hike was all down hill, which is good with how exhausted we were. On the other side, the steep downhill combined with our heavy packs and tiring joints made our knees and ankles scream out in pain. The hike was beautiful though, and we saw many views that we hadn't seen the day before when we had our heads down and were pushing for the end. We got back to the car in a little over 5 and a half hours, almost an hour and a half shorter than our ascent. We have never been more pleased to see Sunny!!

Since I had packed light on food, we were starving on the way back and kept talking about the great cheeseburger that would be waiting for us at the bottom. That burger came to us by way of the Fox Glacier Inn, and was a great moral booster after what we had just put our bodies through. After devouring our dinner we headed south along the coast looking for a place to camp. We pulled off the road just south of Haast in a small beach town called Haast beach. We picked a nice pull off and set the tent up on the beach, just in time to see a pretty spectacular sunset. We were both so exhausted that we fell asleep rather quickly, despite the few nagging sand flies.

1-28-10

We woke up the next morning to a thick blanket of sand flies covering the tent. Our hatred for these little pests has grown steadily over the trip...with this being the breaking point. These bugs draw blood and leave an itchy bump, just like mosquitos, but swarm like gnats. It really is unbelievable how quickly they can make you miserable. We have gotten into a pretty good routine when it comes to setting up and taking down camp, but seeing sand flies in the morning just makes things really frustrating. We both put on as much clothes as we could bear, and jumped out of the tent to take everything down as quickly as possible. In our misery we decided that no matter what we would get a hostel that night, since we would probably be in queenstown.

We packed up and hit the road...next stop queenstown. The drive was fairly boring compared to the curvy, coastal roads we had been on the past few days, but it was nice to make progress a little more quickly. We pulled into Queenstown early in the afternoon and found a nice backpackers hostel named "The Flaming Kiwi". I know what you all are thinking, but despite it's colorfol name we happened upon a nice place to relax and stay the night. The owner, Kent, informed us of places to see and things to do in Queenstown, which is known as the adventure capital of the world. In exchange, he asked us all sorts of random American questions, ranging from Miley Cyrus lyric meanings to football rules.

We were both so excited to have beds with clean sheets and hot showers. We spent a lazy afternoon napping, getting laundry done, reconnecting with people on the internet, and finding things to do for the next couple of days. We took a walk downtown that evening and got ice cream at a little coffee shop which had free internet. This coffee shop, along with a few bars and cafes, was right along the lake in town and was a center for nightlife in the area. I found Queenstown to be almost identical to Whistler. During the winter it is one of the larger ski towns in the area, while in the summer it is home to mt bike, bungee jumping, skydiving, and numerous other adrenaline seeking tours. Also, compared to most of the places we have been so far it's rather trendy.

We headed back to the hostel to get some sleep, but were met with the realization that with 8 people sleeping in one room, you are bound to get a few snorers. I went down to the common area to read, while Nicole stuck it out with her ipod and got some rest. I headed up around 2:30am to go to sleep, and accidentally almost nailed my bunkmate in the head with a nalgene bottle as I stumbled my way to the top bunk. Hello Kitty was not pleased.

1-29-10

Thankfully the snoring stopped during the night, and we were able to get some good rest. We lounged around the hostel until our 10am checkout time (TOOOOO EARLY!) and then headed back to our favorite new coffee shop with free wifi. After looking through the brochures and seeing various commercials fromt the company, I decided on doing an excurision with Mad Dog River Boarding. This was my favorite part of the trip so far.

After we ate take-away lunch while listening to a band playing a concert in the park for funding for Haiti, I left Nicole in town to shop and continue to catch up on the internet for a few hours, while I headed out towards the river on a shuttle with 5 other adrenaline seeking tourists, and our crazy tour guides Arnold and Dave. River boarding is basically white water rafting but instead of using a raft to navigate the rapids, you have a bodyboard, thick wetsuit, lifejacket, helmet, and fins. We suited up and were dropped in a calm area of the river to get training and make sure we were adaquate swimmers. We then reached our next stop where we scrambled down the river bank, finished gearing up, and jumped straight into some pretty heavy whitewater. I was thinking all of the waivers, warnings, and questioning of the staff was all a bunch of legal shenanigans, but when we hit the first rapids I could completely understand why they wanted to make sure we were prepared. We spent 40 mins or so going from rapids to rapids, with most of them class III's. The following guide was pretty cool with me, and showed me several places where currents met together forming a vaccuum and you could duckdive underwater, returning to the surface fairly far from where you started.

Once the rapids were over, a guy met us on a jetski where he towed us in pairs riding on a sled which was drug right behind the ski. We were completely at his mercy, and pretty much at will he could send us skipping across the water and off of the sled. Once we all arrived at the end of the fun section of river, they had a slide, rope swing, and various levels of cliffs for us to play on. I was stoked to get to jump off of a 60ish foot cliff and the guides taught us how to do backflips on the rope swing....what a fun day!

I met up with Nicole back at the hostel where we had kept the car for the day. She had a nice relaxing day and spent some time on the lakefront beach as well. We got the rest of our clothes off of the clothesline, checked internet for the last time for who knows how long, and hit the road. Right outside of Queenstown we found a nice little campsite along the lake. This was one of the best places so far, with a great sunset and best of all...no sandflies!

1-30-10

So after a night in the noisy hostel (men snoring, people coming in and out, toilet tank running...) we went back to the good ole tent! We found this little spot right on a beautiful lake, surrounded by mountains. It was a clear night so Brian chose not to put on the rainfly...well come 800am we woke up to rain drops on our heads...I think to myself, "ugh, well guess it's time to get up". Nope, Brian was not going to have any of that 800am crap...he sprung out of his sleeping bag, put the rainfly on and went back to bed...we both slept till 1230pm!!! Who does that? Especially in a darn tent! We laughed about that for a while. It really was a good sleep. Well, off to enjoy the remaining hours of the day--we were off to Milford Sound.

We were driving down the road eatting out Recees Peanut Butter sandwiches (Nutella and crunchy peanut butter...you should try it...devine!) and then we had an apple after that...we finished our lunch about the same time and then simultaneously, we both burped the most epic burp ever!!! WE DIED LAUGHING! It's the small things that keep us laughing out here.

Milford Sound was by far one of the most beautiful places I had ever been. There were blue skys (thanks Lord). One thing Milford Sound is known for is it's beauty and RAIN! lots of rain. We, however, got to experience it with beautiful blue skys! It is said that Milford makes poets run out of words and photographers run out of film! Pretty good way of putting it. We saw snow covered mountains, rainforest, and ice-clifs.

While we were there, there was a film crew set up just outside of a tunnel that runs under this mountain. We found out that it was a Kia commercial. The funny thing was there were no Kias in sight. Little strange.

After exploring Milford, we found Gemstone Beach. Such a great beach! The whole beach was little pebbles pieces and then very cool stones on top of the "sand". And BOOM! Everyone has a souvenir! haha :) We strolled the beach collecting stones and then set up camp. For dinner we chose to just pop a can of New Zealand "Spaghetti Oh's"...they can't be THAT different can they? HOLY COW! Never take Spaghetti Oh's for granted! They are so amazing in the States. The NZ canned spaghetti was so nasty. So we then popped a can of frank and beans to wash down the crappy noodles. UGH! They were even worse. The beans were ok but the frank...good grief! I ended up seeing how far I could flick my franks from my fork! They were far better to launch!

OFF TO BED!

last photo album for a bit...

here's the link, just copy and paste it into the address bar.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2972517&id=2038092&l=bb76ad81a6

2 more picture albums and another to come in a bit

Again, even though they are facebook albums, anyone can view them. Just copy and paste the link into the address bar.

Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2972336&id=2038092&l=70b4c6f42e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2972334&id=2038092&l=03be54fba4

Sand flies...EVERYWHERE!!!!

1-24-10

After staying at the campground at Bark Bay, we headed back on the kayak. Since we explored the islands the previous day we decided to stay along the coast and stop at a few beaches on the way back. We had taken along the ipod dock and speakers which ended up being so awesome. We would just kayak down the coast, listening to music and singing along. We were making really good time which allowed us to relax, take a nap on the beach, and I got to do a little snorkeling. We took our little break, met another random German traveler (lots of Germans over here!) and headed towards the kayak pickup spot. The tide was really high when we landed, making things much easier. We got our stuff back to the kayak company and headed back to their base camp for complimentary showers and free internet. It was nice to check in and say hi since we had been out of communication for a couple of days. Nicole had developed the most awesome raccoon eyes tan, which I think will take quite a while to go away...and...I'm about to throw her shoes into the nearest rubbish bin. The smell coming from those Chaco's is nothing short of extraordinary.

We left the kayak company and decided to pay for a legit meal in town. Both of us were craving pizza and we found a great little pizza joint in town. Pizza with bbq sauce, bacon, pepperoni, and cheese really hit the spot. We finally got on the road to head south, where we found New Zealands largest swingbridge. We pulled into the parking lot to check it out and I guess they don't lock the place up after hours because the gate was wide open, and of course we couldn't understand the signs reading "do not enter without paid ticket". We got some great pictures on the bridge, it was super high off of the water and bouncing all over the place.

As it was getting dark, we did our usual search of the closest DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites. We stayed at the Lyell campsite with views up the valley that looked like it came straight out of a king kong jungle movie. We woke up in the morning to our first bad experience with sandflies...if only we would have known how much worse they could get.

1-25-10

Today was a drive day. We made our way to Pancake Rock. It was so beautiful. It is this place where the waves will come up and hit these rocks (that look like pancakes all stacked ontop of one another...thus the name) and there will be a huge blow hole effect. Unfortunately, we hit pankcake rock at low tide...wamp wamp! But it was still very pretty. We also hiked out to a seal conony. I love those darn little guys, they are just so cute! We watched the seals for a while and then made our way back to the car. All the while I am having a REAL hard time enjoying myself in New Zealand knowing that the Saints are playing the Vicking for the Superbowl and I am not near a TV! Eventually, we drive through this little town and there is a bar, so I run in and what do you know? The game is already on! HOORAY! It was the 4th quarter, 28 all! NAIL BITER! ha I am the ONLY Saints fan in the room. Fair enough, I cheer my boys on and...oh yes, sweet victory! Made my day! Brian was REAL glad they won because he knew that I'd made a read bad traveling budding if they didn't!

We arrive to Franz Josef Glacier and took a little hike, enjoyed the city and bit and off we went agian to find a place to sleep...and we did. We found this sweet beach. Pitched a tent and made a fire on the beach. It was so great. We took some picture and listened to Bob Marly around the fire. Not too bad of a night.

1-26-10

So we have this great night on the beach with waves and what not, and we're totally psyched to hit the trail! We've heard nothing but great things about this trail. WAIT...and by "we" I mean Brian. I know NOTHING about this trail or the fact that it's TWELVE FREAKIN' MILES ONE WAY!!!!! But I'm game. Let's do this! First things first. Get there. BOOM! Accomplished. Next thing...find where the trail starts...hmmm a bit more challenging. This joker was not laid out quite as obvious as good ol' Rocky Mountain National Park. There are no signs as to where we are to start this trail. Brain takes a picture of the map (that is in the parking lot and says, "looks like we're just suppose to follow the river." Good grief. We followed the river. jumping from rock to rock. It was a little bit frusturating not knowing where we were going and knowing. BUT we pressed on until we found the trail. The trail was a butt-busting 12 miles long, with our packs (mine: 20ish lbs, Brians: 27ish lbs), in the sun, and in sandles (yes, in sandles, I did the whole trail in my Chacos and Brians did the tail in his Reefs). As hard as the trail got and as tired as we were, we kept in mind the hot-tub. Up at the top there was a great "natural hot tub" so we were pretty excitd to make it to camp.

After crossing some of the sketchiest bridges...(with signs that say, "max load: 1 peron"); having hardly any food and maybe a melt down or 12 by Nicole we made it to the top!!! YAY! go us. OH and that 76 year old and her 98 year old husband YAY for them flippin' too!!! Nothing like feeling great about yourself after hitting the peak only to meet old people up there too!

SO the HOT SPINGS! Here we come. Well, we change and head off to find just the right pool...I put one foot in and sink about 3-4 inches in this gross green very fine mud. I needed to have a little pep-talk with myself "Whatever, just get over it, you've made it to the top now just forget about your mud in your pants petpeev and enjoy the day." SO I SIT down in the mud-tub, I mean, hot pool. Sinking into the mud was one thing--even worse than sinking into the stinkin' mud was the sand-flys. They are little Satans, put on this earth to eat flesh and make all of man kind miserable. SO now any part of your body that was not under the water (by the way, the spring was only about 2 feet deep), was being feasted on by the millions of swarming sand-flys. I HAD ENOUGH! I'm getting out. I was a little ticked. I don't know if it was being so tired, my body hurting so badly, the mud ALL OVER ME, or the sand-flys that would not stop eatting me--or maybe just a combo of it all, but all I wanted was a shower and and bed. So I get out in search of the hose and rise off with my clothes on in the freezing cold water, I put the hose all over me and get as much of the mud off as I can. I rinse my hair. I'm feeling a little bit better, freezing, but better. I head back to the changing room place and pull off my pants to discover that my panties are FULL OF GREEN MUD! 2nd pep-talk to myself "Nicole, don't freak out! This is ok. All you have to do is get BACK under the freezing water and rise off again, don't kill Brian, don't cry, don't hate New Zealand...it's ok!" So I head back to the hose for cold shower #2. I am laughing about it now...and just remember those very panties are wadded up in my backpack...hummm...I better take them out and let them get some fresh air.

Anyway, it was a heck of a day, but we pitched tent in this great meddow surrounded by mountains. It was beautiful. It was such a nice night we didn't even put the rain-fly on. The stars were brillant and it was a nice night's sleep. Good times had by all. :)

Pupu!!! the springs I mean

1-20-10

So we're off to take a hike. We have our bread and Nutella ready to go for when we hit the summit. DEAR GOD! What a hike. There is no such thing as switch-backs here...just straight up the mountain! So after we realize we are so out of shape we make it to the top. We're sitting there just hanging out, when a mom and daughter walk up. YAY they made it. SO we start chatting with them about New Zealand and about us..yadda yadda yadda....well Nicole starts to get hungry. "humm" she thinks to herself..."some Nutella sounds good right about now." so as she is going for the stuff to make the sandwich, Brian looks at her and says, "there is no knife"....Well now that presented a problem: she was hungry and wanted a sandwich. So, what does she do? Yes, she sticks her finger into the Nutella and starts to spread it all over the bread...by this point she is getting it all over her hand. *classy* When a voice comes outta the blue: "I have a knife if you'd like to use it?" So, yes, we both used the knife. It was pretty funny.

On our way back we were sweaty and needed to shower up before we arrived at Brian's friend's house. SO...naturally we brought the soap down to the river...it was freezing! But, we put soap all over us and our clothes and hopped in and out of the water. Called it a shower. It was refreshing and we were now presentable.

We hung our wet clothes out the window and drove off to Wellington. The GPS took us through some beautiful twisty road, driving through the country is just stunning! The sights are so beautiful. About an hour later we arrived at the Sheehan's beautiful home. When we got there no one was home. Brian got close enough to the house to pick up some open wifi--why not surf the web while we wait right? So, he decides to Skype his dad. "HI DAD...." Brian sits on the concrete decorative bench outside in the front yard...BOOM! Brians falls to the floor throwing the laptop up into the air, causing it to land in the bushes...Nicole: BUSTS OUT LAUGHING! "What happened?" while STILL LAUGHING! Brian gets up, "OH NO! OH NO! OH NO!" while rubbing his butt...THE BENCH CRUMBLED INTO PIECES!!! Seriously, not even 2 mins later, the lady who we are staying with pulls up. Brians now has to introduce himself AND appoligize for busting their bench.

The family was so great. They were cool with what happened. Invited us in, gave us a bed for the night and cooked us an amazing meal. After dinner they had a great dessert. It was some pie thing and icecream....so good! Brian, being the nice guy that he is, decided to clean out his bowl...he puts the bowl under the sink faucet, turns the water on FULL BLAST and it was like a freakin' rocket blast. Water flies everywhere...wets the mom, wets the floor, wets the countertop. Nicole: BUSTS OUT LAUGHING!! Poor Brian. They had to get the mop out to clean it up. At this point we were friends enough to laugh at it and they didn't make Brian go sit in the car...they just asked him not to touch the cat! just kidding. haha

It was a great night, we were able to get on the internet, make some calls via Skype, sleep in a bed and take a real shower.

1-21-10

1-21-10

Today was a lazy day. We hung out at the Sheehans, watched TV, Skyped, and took it easy. It was a much needed lazy day. The days are so long here (b/c of daylight savings it does not get dark until 945pm), so we are on the go until its dark and by that time we've done so much and are exhausted.

We left the house about 5:30 and set out to go see teh Te Papa Museum. It is a science museum and contained a lot of New Zealand history as well. We hung out in there for a while, it was a cool place to be and it was FREE!

After the museum, we ventured off to shop around and see what Wellington had to offer. NOTHING was opened! It is the strangest thing...everything closes at 5:00 around here. Brian and I were so frusterated. We eventually found this place to eat, it was a middle eastern restuant. We split some garlic bread and this awesome lamb/chicken Turkish pizza. It was $14.00 NZD. we are so good at being cheap! After that we watched some American street performer. He was kinda lame. But it was a free entertainment. After the the show we walked around some more. You see the one thing I fotgot to mention was that we were waiting to board the ferry this night. We didn't leave Wellingtion until 3AM though. So we had to fill our night with something to do. And we did. We found a hostel wondered in. Watched a movie that some German backpacker paid for (The Simpson's Movie--such a lame choice, but it was free!). So lame in fact we both feel asleep. I woke up as the movie was ending and realized that Brian was alseep too. OH NO! WHAT TIME IS IT!? shew it was only 1130PM. Brian and I took off and went to the car, got to the ferry line and boarded when we could. We had a nice little nap on the ferry and woke up on the beautiful south island.

SO: in a nut shell, we:

surfed the internet

went to a sweet museum (it was a pay to park lot to-$6.00)

had a great dinner

saw some street entertainer

watched a free movie

hung out in a hostel

got our car --parking ended up being free :)

boarded the ferry and slept for free

Pretty much the whole night cost us 14.00 New Zealand bucks! Not too bad!

1-22-10

1-22-10

We got off the ferry around 6:15 AM and started heading towards Tasman. About 40 minutes into the drive, Nicole fell asleep and I was feeling super tired from the short nap we got on the ferry. I decided to pull off in this park along a river, and we ended up waking up almost 4 hours later, I guess we needed the sleep. We got back on the road and continued on into Motueka where we found a pretty awesome deal on a double kayak for 2 days, with no guide, and a night stay in the Abel Tasman National forest. Since it was already around 1pm, we would have to wait until the next day to pick up the kayak and leave, so we decided to check out the end of the road (and the south island). We stopped at a place called Pupu springs (we still think this needs renaming). Pupu springs is the largest spring in Australia and New Zealand and has the clearest freshwater in the entire world. Unfortunately, because of the dangers of bacteria and pest intrusion, you aren't allowed to touch or come in contact with the springs in any way. It was raining so we hiked quickly, but it was beautiful to look into the crystal clear water and see where the water exited the spring. Back on the road, we headed north to Farewell Spit. Farewell spit is this huge sand area that stretches east from the northernmost point of the South Island. It continues to grow every year as sand is carried towards it by the wind and water currents that flow in the area. We hiked out about 2 miles on the inside coast and then hiked up a sand dune and crossed to the unprotected outer side. It was really cool to see the sand dunes and birds that were out there, and there really weren't any other people. I had carried the bodyboard out there in hopes of finding some decent waves, but the current was moving too fast for my comfort. We hiked back to the car as a nasty storm was heading towards us, and ended up walking in the rain for 45 minutes. After the spit, we headed back towards where we would have to catch the kayaks the next day, and found a great little spot to camp for the night. Nicole made her famous lasagna (noodles, 3 slices of kraft singlesish cheese, spaghetti sauce, and all-purpose seasoning) which ended up being pretty good! After being attacked by the largest flying insect either one of us had ever seen, we decided to call it an early night and get to the safety of the tent.

1-23-10

1-23-10

YAY! Kayaking in Abel Tasman was a BLAST! We kayaked about 10 miles to our campsite. It was amazing. The water was this crystal clear green and absolutly beautiful. There were seal colonies that intregued me TONS! Brian was kinda board with the seals (he says they are annoying in WA), but he was a good sport about me loving them! :) The water was so clear and there were these great little islands we'd paddle by and the islands were full of think, green rainforest trees--truely on of the most beutiful places I think I've ever been. We were kayaking along and then we'd see a seal in the water by the huge rocks that covered the coast.

There was this cool river that we could kayaked to. With it being high tide, we were able to able to kayak up the river. brian go word that there was a bridge that we could jump off. SO...we were off to find the bridge. BBOM! we found it. HOLY MOLY! it was soooo high. We stuck the paddle in as far as we could and it did not touch the bottom, gues it's deep enough?! Yeah right! I was not going to jump...but Brian...well, I dropped him off on the shore and wished him good luck and kindly requiested that he would wear his life jacket. That joker trecked up the mountain/rainforest bush stuff, and walked out to the middle of the bridge (with people watching--I think they thought he was CRAZY!), he JUMPED! I got one lousy action shot. And then the best part...HE CAME BACK UP! I'm not kidding this bridge was probaby 45 feet up and he jumped into FREEZING river water. Good job Brian!

After that we make it to Bark Bay (our campsite) and we pulled the Kayak up and set up camp. It was perfect. We found this great little spot to set up our tent AND it just so happened to have 3 perfect trees to set up two hammocks. :)

So we took it! It was mid-afternoon and we had our tent up and the hammocks up--took a little nap and relaxed the rest of the day.

Later that night we tried to start a fire (failed). BUT, we started talking with this family from Christchurch. They were totally cool. The next morning they gave us their contact informaion for while we're in That night we decided to sleep in the hammocks. Popped two Tynol PM's and hit the hommock! It was a chilly night, but a rather glorious nights sleep for me...not so much for Brian. The best part was we stayed dry the entire night. The tent was up with the rain fly on...just in case we had to hop to the tent in the middle of the night.

uploaded pictures

we were able to upload some pictures from our trip so far, here is the link. (you can still view it even if you aren't on facebook)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2968092&id=2038092&l=4db354c72b

baaaaahhhh....so many sheep!

1-17-10 continued

Well, the hike to the Pinnacles ended up not working out. We didn't realize that the only enterance to the trailhead was on the west coast of the peninsula. Instead, we decided to cover some ground and make it down to Rotorua. The drive was nice, and once we got into Rotorua we checked out the information center of the city. We found a hostel fairly close and were able to get internet for a short time. At the hostel they had a board of free things to do locally. We decided to check out the local thermal hot pools just outside of town. The whole town smelled like sulfur from all of the thermal activity going on, and there were several steam plumes coming from random places. Once outside of the city we found the park with a small stream running through it, and a cove where the stream hit the hot springs. This was nice because the water from the springs was at least 100 or 105 degrees, but where the two mixed it was very comfortable to relax. Also, the mud from the sides of the spring is supposed to be good for your skin, unfortunately it left me smelling of sulfur for the next couple of days. We ended up talking to a few Maori natives there who were carving pieces of rock. They explained some of their heritage and culture, in exchange for some insight on where they should visit if they come to the USA.

After the sulfur bath, we headed back into Rotorua so Nicole could have a shower at the hostel. After paying $5, she had a shower and we left town. It was just getting dark and we were having a tough time trying to find a place to camp for the night. Several journeys on smaller roads up toward lakes ended in dead ends, both literally and figuratively. We were pretty sketched out at staying in a place completely alone and in the middle of nowhere. We ended up finding a place to sleep, about 1.5 hrs outside of Rotorua where we decided we should take some tylenol pm and go to sleep in the car. Me:"Nicole, pass the tylenol pm....nicole?....nicole??" nicole: "@#$^@^." Me: "Oh great...what?" Nicole: "Brian, I THINK I may have left my wallet in the shower"

So we searched the car, high and low, but no luck. We tried finding the hostel's phone number on the gps, but no luck. So back to Rotorua we charged, into the rain, and darkness...it was a silent ride. I think we both prayed the whole time we were driving that the wallet would be there, safe and sound. Thank God, when we got to the hostel, Nicole found her wallet, on the same hook in the bathroom where she had left it. Someone had even used the shower after she did, and either didn't see it or was nice enough to leave it alone. Whew! Nicole paid for gas, and we ended up making it further than we had before towards Gisborne. We "camped" in the car on the side of the road, it was sketchy.

Disclaimer from Nicole: It was not just as simple as leaving my wallet, it was a complicated matter with many other things going on, I'm sure you would have all done the same. Plus, this is my signature move, I had to lose something significant, this is an international trip right?

1-18-10

So why Gisborne you ask? Well b/c there is this AWESOME all natural rock slide gig. Thanks to our trusty GPS we took the road less traveled...FOR TWO HOURS! It was a one lane dirt road with more sheep and cows than people at Mardi Gras. That actually made the drive so much more entertaining. One beep of the horn and they were scared to death. It was so funny. They'd run so fast b/c they were so scared of us. Nicole was maybe even singing out the window to them...? That scared them too. So we're cruisin down the one laner, when out of no where a semitruck comes blasting into sight. AHHHHHHHHH! Brian swerved off into some shouldery, grassy, not suppose to be driven on side of the road. Good grief...it scared us both pretty bad. BUT...we pressed on.

HOORAY we made it to our final destination! Brian was psyched and ready to charge the chilly water--I mean this is on the 101 things you must do in NZ...cold water was not going to stop him...(Nicole on the other hand was going to take pictures). BUT, when we got to the top of the rockslide we looked down into the pool in which you'd be sliding into...GROSS! There was this white foam on the surface and it just looked like was breeding bacteria! So...we took a picture of the rockslide, talked about how fun it would be, took a picture of Clyde with some cow (yes, there were more cows), and got back in the car and headed off to our next stop.

We made it to the actual town of Gisborne (it's such a lame town)! We found a little spot on the beach and put up our tent, took a little nap and then headed into town to discover just how lame of a town it is. We were chatting with a lady who ran a book store and she told us of this neat cove and the longest wharf in the southern hemisphere at Talago Bay, about 45 mins away. BOOM! we're on it. So we took off to go see Captains Cook's Cove.

The wharf was pretty neat to see. We took some pics and headed off to find the cove. It was 5.8K hike roundtrip. It was about dusk-ish and we set off. So the craziest thing...we're hiking and there are cows and sheep ALL over the trail. It was unbelievablely funny!! There was no one to collect money, there was no one there to tell us to sign off saying we would not sue them, there was nothing there except this trail and cows and sheep. Good thing they are scared of us. It was a little scary at first until we realized they were willing to jump off cliffs to get away from us. WE HAD THE POWER!!! and we might have taken advantage of it. We were chasing them up the hill, off cliffs and everywhere inbetween. SO after chasing cows, scaring sheep off cliffs, and hopping over 3 barbwired fences (at this point we thought the bookstore lady was back at home, laughing about the tourists she just sent to slaughter) ,we made it to the top of the mountain overlooking the wharf and Captain Cook's Cove. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! We made some Nutella sandwiches and called it dinner--hiked back down, scared more animals...maybe even did the Chicken Dance for them and made it back to the car.

Needed showers badly, we saw a campsite across the way. Nicole's way of thinking: if we act like we know what we're doing...we can do just about anything. Let's go shower at that campsite. All it takes is confidence! HA! So we drive thru the campsite and everyone is looking at us. No biggy, just park and walk to the showers, act cool, stay calm! As we are sitting there, some man on a bike rides up and taps on the window. Pretty much told us we had to leave, he didn't like us and that we were not wanted there!" Ok ok ok so maybe we needed a little more than confidence for that shower. Needless to say, we went to bed nasty! BUT we were on the beach and it was an awesome sleep!

1-19-10

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and decided to make some breakfast on the beach. Being American, we had to make a healthy breakfast fattier, more sugary, and much more awesome. We discovered that Nutella can pretty much be added to any food item, just like bacon...or ranch dressing. Nutella goes pretty awesomely in oatmeal, with a bit of brown sugar also. After packing up camp, we headed back into Gisborne to once again realize how lame the town was and stock our food supplies with more bread, eggs, and you guessed it...Nutella. We checked out a couple sweet thrift stores and found some nice beach chairs for only $5 each! Also found a bag of diapers called crawler nappies over here...strange.

Fully loaded and ready to leave, we headed towards the beach town of Napier. A couple hours later we pulled into town, and I was dying to find some fish and chips. Pretty much every beach town we have been to has had seemingly hundreds of take-away (take out as us Amuuuricans like to call it) fish and chips joints. I was craving a hot lunch, and guess what, no fish and chips to be found. We drove up and down the beach, through town, and eventually found a nasty looking place called "Continental Chinese food - And fish and chips too". I figured it was worth a shot and went inside. Right before ordering, a spitfire of a woman walked in to pick up a call-in order. After finding out they had forgotten to cook her food, the f-bombs started flying, and Nicole and I got out of there as quickly as possible. The gps took us to two other fish and chips places...closed, my luck was running out, but I finally found an open take-away place. I ordered the $10 pack, which strangely enough was pretty standard for the places I checked, and contained 2 pieces of fish, french fries, a corn dog (called a hot dog here), and 2 fried pieces of crabmeat. We headed back towards the beach and Nicole hit the library for some internet while I devoured my food. We went to the beach after and found that instead of sand, the beach consisted of really smooth black rocks. Nicole being the world class gymnast that she is did a few handstands in the surf.

We left Napier and headed towards a small Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite a couple hours south. New Zealand has a bunch of these government run spots that range from fully staffed and serviced pay sites to ones like where we are staying now, which are a small clearing near a lake or stream that have a fire pit and room for 10 tents. Most of these basic sites have an outhouse and source of water, and are 100% free. The site we are at now has a clearing for tents and a parking lot for a trail to a backcountry hut, some 5-6 hrs hike away. We noted a truck in the lot, and figured they were off to the huts for the night. Since we arrived around 8 pm, we quickly cooked dinner and headed to the stream to clean the dishes before it got dark. As we are bent over the stream cleaning, I catch some movement out of the corner of my eye and am startled to see a rather large man, in full camo gear and a pretty large caliber rifle over his shoulder. This may have startled us, just a bit. He emerges, from the woods and nonchalantly comments, "just out for a walk mate"...(Nicole and I are thinking "Sure you are, where'd your buddy go?") He ended up being friendly, and left in the truck fairly quickly. We were the only ones here at the site, but as it got dark several other cars of French tourists showed up and set up camp. We spent a lot of time in the car today, and are looking forward to a nice long hike or something outdoors tomorrow.

Can we get some ice for our chilly bin?

Well, we have had a tough time finding internet over here. It seems wifi isn't as popular, and if they have it, it's 8-10$/hr. We have written a few blog entries during the travels so far, so they will just be uploaded as one. We are having a blast though, and can't wait to find more reliable internet so we can upload some pictures. It's GORGEOUS here!

btw, these are from both Nicole and I

1-15-10

Well, we've made it to The Land Down Under! We had a 12 hour lay over in Australia which made us decide to wander around Brisbane! After some research,we found out that it was going to cost us about $30.00 round-trip from the airport into the city and back. So...first mode of transpertation: a landy named Val and her friend Larry. ha. Val sat next to us on the way to Aus. She was a Brandy drinkin' kind of-a-granny!after her Brandy and Diet Coke, she talked about about The Hangover, and her New Year's Eve party. She and Larry dropped us off downtown Brisbane.

It's a bit hot here...but for the most part the weather has been really nice.

They dropped us off right outside the gates to the Brisbane botanical gardens. The gardens were right along the Brisbane river and made for a nice walk through some well manicured flower gardens. From there we headed into the city towards the Queen Street mall. The mall is pretty nice, with all the stores being accessible from a pedestrian only street that runs through the middle. We have found that pretty much every girl here wears ugly gladiator sandels, with equally as hideous high waisted skirts and monstrous belts. After dodging the gladiators for a couple hours in the mall we decided to cross the Brisbane river and walk aroudn the center of performing arts. That's where we are now, writing as we watch boats go up and down the river, and yes...more gadiators.

We will take the train back to the airport soon to catch our 6:30pm flight to Auckland, where we will wait for another 6 hours or so until we can pick up our rental car on Saturday morning at 8am. I can't wait to get to NZ and start exploring the beautiful scenery!

1-16-10

Well, we just arrived in Auckland. I was an idiot and had to mention that the tent wasn't brand new. New Zealand has some strict rules on soil and biological contamination so this resulted in the tent being further inspected. Luckily, it passed their standards and we were free to go. Nicole was a little worried about us being kicked out of the airport for sleeping overnight here, but our worries were put to rest rather quickly when we turned the corner and found at least 15-20 other backpackers in the same type of situation as us. Pretty much every couch, bench, and floor space with any darkness around was taken; most occupied by people in mummy sleeping bags, awaiting their next adventure. We found a place to camp out in here and are assessing our shower prospects. Who would have thought the airport would have shower facilities?

It has been a long couple days of traveling, but we are stoked to get our car in the morning and start touring the islands.

We got our car this morning, a 1997 Nissan Sunny. It's not pretty or luxurious, but it's going to get us around great. Driving on the opposite side of the road has been entertaining a few times already, hopefully there will be no issues.

1-17-10

1.17.10

WOW! TOday was amamzing. We drove to the Coromandel Peninsula. The drive was a twisty road full of cliffs overlooking beaches with lush, deep forest.

The drive was so beautiful!

After we reached Hahei we needed

a place to stay. Wilderness camping on the North Island is not as easy as we thought, so we stopped in at a camp site...they wanted 65 bucks for us to stay there. If you know anything about Brian and I--it's that we're CHEAP! Thanks but no thanks. We figured out that each campsite charges per person! so...after a few people told us "no, we could not camp in their yard" we went to the next campsite Hot Beach Holiday Park. We wanted to only pay for one of us. I mean, why did we have to pay 40 to put our tent there for a night? $20 seemed so much nicer. Well the plan was for me to walk away and Brian was going to get a "one man site". A few moments later...Brian comes out to where I was, "I can't do it! I get all figity." SO...plan B. I went in and got a site for one! Typical! I also jacked the salt and pepper, zip-lock bags from security in the Auk airport,and ketchup from McDonalds! I've got to live up to the Ruggiano name!!

We set up camp. Hung out with our neighbors (Justine and Marious--from Norway and Michigan!), went to a near by beach and made it to bed by 1020pm.

This morning we went to Cathedral Cove. So amazing! We got soaked and Brian almost lost his skater shoes and sunglasses. We are driving down the raod again and we have Brian's shoes tied to the side mirror and some clothes hanging out of the window drying! haha. We are so awesome!

We are going to go hike the Pinnacles now. Hopefully Brian's shoes will be a little bit Things are going excellent. We are having a great time. Still so surreal. Keep praying for us. :)

I'm dying to see the SAINTS score!!!

GEAUX SAINTS!!!!