Getting out to the park really makes me realize what an amazing place this really is....I just can't believe that I haven't camped out before this! Ugh!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Stony Dome
Getting out to the park really makes me realize what an amazing place this really is....I just can't believe that I haven't camped out before this! Ugh!
Friday, July 23, 2010
I'm really doing it this time...
Okay, so I haven't been the best blogger since I started over a year ago. I have always had the best intentions on blogging my adventures but never have gotten around to actually doing it. I guess that means that I have been enjoying myself too much and can't get to a computer enough.....shit, who are we kidding. I am on the computer all the time. No excuses this time, its for real. Promise.
Let me get you up to speed on how my life has been the past year. My first, and only entry, was about my trip to New Zealand to visit my cousin (Sarah Lowell) in Twizel, reconnect with friends in Franz Josef, and tackle a three day hike with two very good friends of mine (Amy Reese and Kimberly Harris). This trip was taken after spending my first three months out of twelve, in Australia. Living in Australia was a decision I made after taking advantage of the one year working holiday visa in New Zealand, hence the visit February 2009. November 2008 Amy Reese and I embarked on our year adventure to the South Pacific. On our way to Australia we stopped through Thailand for 12 days. It was an interesting first visit to Asia as we were robbed on an overnight bus, familiarized ourselves with the corrupt justice system, Amy incurred travelers diarrhea, and we both experienced a level of "sweaty" we had never thought possible. Overall it was a exciting trip seeing great temples, enjoying FANTASTIC (and cheap) food from the street vendors, went snorkeling near Phi Phi Island in the aqua marine blue water, met great locals, shopped, etc. We arrived in Sydney, NSW November 23, 2008 which activated our one year holiday working visa.
Arriving in Sydney we didn't have jobs or a place to live, other than the hostel we booked for a week and a half. Within 48 hours of arriving in the country we had jobs working for a new cocktail lounge in Kings Cross, NSW called Goldfish Bar (no, it wasn't a strip club or brothel). After seven days we found a great apartment in Potts Point with a rooftop view overlooking the Sydney harbor. Our flatmate was named Sandra (aka Sasha) Sachs who was juggling more than one lady lover during our time living with her. She also showed Amy and I a thing or two about partying! In the six months that we lived in Sydney I tried exploring every nook and cranny that I possibly could! Hiked in the Blue Mountains, completed the coastal track in the Royal National Park in one day with my good friend Sam Hargreaves, Surfed Bondi beach and the Northern beaches of Sydney, searched for the military tunnels on the headlands into Sydney harbor, expanded my knowledge in worldly alcoholic beverages, and met some amazing people in the process. After six months in the city I wanted to call it quits and try some place new, so we did. In May of 2009 I went home for three weeks to surprise my mom for mothers day and her birthday (best surprise ever!!). It was a quick trip home to reboot and then it was back to the land of Oz.
When I got back to Sydney Amy picked me up in a camper van and we named her Matilda!!! It was so exciting to have our ride all ready to go for our road trip. Three friends whom Amy worked with at Fitness First; James Kelly, Rob Weaver, Ross Anderson joined us on a road trip up the coast. When we finally left Sydney at the beginning of June, it was a bitter sweet feeling. I was ready for something new...different than a city but sad to say goodbye to a place where many memories were formed. We spent two and a half weeks camping up the East coast of Australia. We made it to the Hunter Valley, Myall Lakes National Park, Cresent Heads, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, and finally Caloundra (where Matilda decided to break down).
Matilda was old and overheated blowing a head gasket leaving us stranded. We were out a lot of money which put me into a place where I had to make a rash decision. As Amy and I tried to sell the van we spent about a week all together in Caloundra brainstorming what our next move would be. I the midst of my brainstorming process I could not let go of Byron Bay. When we stopped through a couple of days prior to breaking down. I felt connected to the laid back surfer hippie vibe. I had fallen in love! After selling our van for 650.00 Aussie dollars to a man that looked like he was a car junkie I told the group that I was headed back to the Bay to find a job and maybe even a free place to live.
Ross, Amy's boyfriend, had to head back to the US due to his visa expiring. James, Rob, Amy and I headed south back to Byron Bay. I got there first as the rest of the group stopped through Surfers Paradise first for a little party sesh. In a couple of days I was able to find a job working for accommodation at the hostel I was staying at, Aquarius Backpackers. It was great, even if I was folding laundry. I was SUPER low on cash since I had been out of work for about five weeks. Living at a backpackers was craziness. There was always a reason to party and no reason to sleep. Living in a room with nine other people including a huge family of dust bunnies and cockroaches was different than anything I had been accustom to. I was able to suggest Amy as a possible candidate for a "work for accommodation" job and it all worked out! After about three weeks of scouring for jobs around town I was finally offered a position at the hostel cleaning rooms as a housekeeper (Nancy would be proud), I was stoked! I didn't have to go home, Yipeee!
Byron Bay was a great place to lay low. Work was a roll out of bed away and the beach...well that was only a half block from our humble abode. If you ask any of my friends growing up if they ever thought I would be cleaning rooms at a hostel they would have just laugh in your face. Nancy taught me well and I can now laugh in their face :). It was not my first choice but something that was meant to happen. Linnie, Tash, Jono, James, were some amazing people that made that job very enjoyable. A special place will always remain in my heart for that crew at Aquarius. My fellow traveling friends working at the hostel were from all walks of life and from all around the world. Canada, Norway, England, Netherlands, and USA. Goon, fancy foot races, birthdays, dance parties, frantic dashes for the leftover sandwiches at the deli down the street at five, psychedelic stories of Nimbin shared on the patio are all good memories. Beyond the eccentric friends I had made at the hostel I met some really great locals as well. Joe, Ash, Rod were some boys that worked out at the local gym. They were like an intimidating wolf pack when they worked out together. They grunted, sweat heavily, and pushed each other to the limits and was sometime a little over the top. It was hard to miss them as they always did the exact same exercises together. It was intimidating to say the least. Joe caught my eye. A handsome man from the Cook Islands he seemed to be the ring leader of the group. We hung out for about a month and it was great. My first crush since breaking up with my boyfriend Dave, I was excited yet nervous at the same time. I am a fairly conservative/shy girl but thought his proposal to see a movie was perfect. Harry Potter was his choice. He claimed to not know much about the story line but blew me straight out of the water knowing all the characters and current plot. The strong exterior was softened by a movie date and a few hours of chatting. I knew I was leaving for Hawaii in a month but it was great to spend time with him and his buddies. Friends will remain as our title and hope to always stay in contact with that wolf pack of men. As for my crazies at the hostel I am lucky enough to have the majority of them here in North America, somewhere. Close enough to drive a few hours to see their cute faces.
After spending nearly two months in Byron I was leaving my beloved bay. My family was meeting in Kauai, a small island west of Oahu in the Hawaiian chain of islands, for my dad's 60th birthday. It was a two week celebration with the fam-dam. I love my family and I feel like we make valiant efforts to see each other as much as possible during the year. Which I love! I did test my sisters on this trip. I am a hiker, the outdoorsy one, and I convinced my sisters to come on a 8 hour hike with me on the Nepali Coast. It was great but very tiring and as much as my sisters probably hated me I think they ended up having a good time. By the end of the two weeks I was ready to reunite with my travel buddy, Amy.
When I returned to Australia we met in Brisbane. In the next couple of days we organized our thoughts to devise a plan on what to do next. North to Cairns, Queensland was the consensus. We got a greyhound bus ticket and planned a few stops along the way. We headed to Rainbow beach, Great Sandy National Park; Fraser Island (the largest sand island in the world), Airlie Beach; Sailing trip around Whitsunday Islands National Park where we went snorkeling/diving, and to Cairns where we stayed for about three months.
I was pretty excited to get to Cairns to meet up with my Finnish friend Kira Salonan whom I had worked with at Goldfish Bar in Kings Cross. Not only was it spectacular to see her and catch up but she also offered me her job on the dive boat she had been working with, Ocean Spirit, since she was leaving soon to continue her travels. HELL YEAH! I was pretty stoked, a dive boat doing out to the GREAT BARRIER REEF! I couldn't have asked for a better experience. The crew was from all around the world; Argentina, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, France, Japan, England, Finland, Brazil...needless to say it was an awesome crew! We all got a long and it was such a great place to come to everyday even if I had to get up at 5:30am to get on board with puking passengers, warnings for Gail force winds, tsunamis, and birds shitting on my face. It was great! I was also able to get my PADI open water certification for half the price :). To be honest with you Cairns as a town/city sucks. I wouldn't go back there for any reason but for the people I met there. Plain and simple. Our living situation in Cairns was nothing to brag about either. It was far away from town and kind of expensive. We lived with a crazy Swedish lady that, on my birthday, had a fit...fought with Amy and threw honey all over the counters in the kitchen. Weird, I know. Its too hard to describe that place other than it was a safe place to sleep. Oh yeah, Amy and I had our own room where we DIDN'T have to share a bed. Finally! When mid-November rolled around I had made enough money to finally to go to one spot I wasn't going to leave without seeing, the bush. Okay, get your head out of the gutter...I'm talking about the Australian Outback. This trip to Alice Springs, Uluru, Darwin, and Kakadu National Park was not cheap by any means but something I wanted to do. It was hot...real hot. Like standing in front of an open oven set to 450 degrees. The flies were terrible as well but I had finally made it, right. Well I was missing a very important ingredient to the mix, Amy. She decided to stay back in Cairns for an extra week and I was pretty bummed about it. I remember feeling pretty sad not having her with me to experience the spectacular culture, history and features of the Outback. She did meet me in Darwin to see Kakadu National Park which was awesome! We saw this great land that the aboriginal people had been living off of for thousands of years. Layers of paintings on rock caves were overwhelming to comprehend. It was magical. Returning to Darwin after our tour of Kakadu we had a date night to reflect on our time in Australia and how many different experiences we had together.
We had spent a full year traveling and living together. November 23rd, 2009 was coming up fast and it was scary to think back at how quick the year had passed and how much fun we had, even through we had some hard times as travel buddies/friends. For me the year had its ups and downs and its potpourri of events. Non stop travel, homesickness, great friendships, money problems, breakups, makeups, drunken blurs, good jobs and shitty ones. I walk away from the experience loving every second of it and I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else other than Amy Reese, one of my best buddies in the world! As we flashed back over a couple drinks and some pump kicks on the swing sets we looked forward to exsperience our last adventure before stepping onto US soil together. BALI, Indonesia!
Our trip to Bali was cut short from the get go. As we arrived to the Darwin airport we stood in line waiting to check our baggage. I remember looking up at the reader board and saw that our flight had been canceled!
"Your kidding right," Amy said. "Nope" was my response as we slowly became frustrated. We ended up staying another night in Darwin at a fancy hotel. The next evening we were able to finally board our flight to the hustle and bustle of Bali. We were swept away by a note worthy cab driver to blared the music and danced with us all the way the our first of three locations we stayed at in Bali. We got to our hotel, the Ashton, and our jaws dropped. We were royalty! Ashton was located in Nusa Dua on the SE side of the island. Since we were booted from our flight in Australia we only stayed there on night. The next day we soaked up the sun, I got my first facial, worked out, and explored a bit of the town. Our next stop was Ubud which was located inland about an hour and a half. It is known for the monkey forest and the rice paddy fields. We stayed two nights which gave us a good amount of time to explore the small town, check out the monkey forest and got on a "30min" walk through the rice paddy fields which turned out to be a three hour adventure. Phew, it was long. We also ventured out of town for a bit and went to the Bali Zoo. The last stop on our short trip to was just north of Kuta, the bustling tourist town. One of the two full days we had here I decided to go diving at the USS Liberty. I was a great dive that my friend had suggested to me before leaving Cairns. It was a full day event and well worth it. I was lucky enough to see a sunfish which was apparently pretty rare at the location we were diving. Besides great diving we also had our big night out on the town which was, in simple words...EPIC! I had been warned of Kuta and how the nightlife was off the radar. It lived up to its reputation. It was a very short trip in paradise and before we knew it we were on our plane headed back to the good ol' US of A, with our hangovers in tow.
Back to reality I decided to stay with my parents for winter before heading up to Denali National Park, Alaska to work for Era Helicopters. It was weird to be back in Olympia as it was the first time I had spent more than two month in my home town in over six years! I was able to reconnect with friends more intensely than I ever had been able to with my usual two week visits. I love being home for a certain amount of time but in all honesty, I am not meant to live there full time.
Living out of a backpack is not for everyone, but everyone I have met along the way that chooses the dip into the world of backpacking doesn't regret it. All in all I have been on the go since I graduated from CalState-LA in 2007. It might not be normal but, hell, who really doesn't feel the want/need to throw that conventional book of happiness out the window once or twice in their life? I did when I graduated and I haven't regretted one second of it! I am glad I finished school and have the freedom to travel and break out of the "norm." I support either lifestyle but after reading this NOVEL of my past year I am pretty sure you understand which path I have chosen. So I hope to stick by my promise to involve you and whomever is interested in my travels and daily life events.
Cheers!
Let me get you up to speed on how my life has been the past year. My first, and only entry, was about my trip to New Zealand to visit my cousin (Sarah Lowell) in Twizel, reconnect with friends in Franz Josef, and tackle a three day hike with two very good friends of mine (Amy Reese and Kimberly Harris). This trip was taken after spending my first three months out of twelve, in Australia. Living in Australia was a decision I made after taking advantage of the one year working holiday visa in New Zealand, hence the visit February 2009. November 2008 Amy Reese and I embarked on our year adventure to the South Pacific. On our way to Australia we stopped through Thailand for 12 days. It was an interesting first visit to Asia as we were robbed on an overnight bus, familiarized ourselves with the corrupt justice system, Amy incurred travelers diarrhea, and we both experienced a level of "sweaty" we had never thought possible. Overall it was a exciting trip seeing great temples, enjoying FANTASTIC (and cheap) food from the street vendors, went snorkeling near Phi Phi Island in the aqua marine blue water, met great locals, shopped, etc. We arrived in Sydney, NSW November 23, 2008 which activated our one year holiday working visa.
Arriving in Sydney we didn't have jobs or a place to live, other than the hostel we booked for a week and a half. Within 48 hours of arriving in the country we had jobs working for a new cocktail lounge in Kings Cross, NSW called Goldfish Bar (no, it wasn't a strip club or brothel). After seven days we found a great apartment in Potts Point with a rooftop view overlooking the Sydney harbor. Our flatmate was named Sandra (aka Sasha) Sachs who was juggling more than one lady lover during our time living with her. She also showed Amy and I a thing or two about partying! In the six months that we lived in Sydney I tried exploring every nook and cranny that I possibly could! Hiked in the Blue Mountains, completed the coastal track in the Royal National Park in one day with my good friend Sam Hargreaves, Surfed Bondi beach and the Northern beaches of Sydney, searched for the military tunnels on the headlands into Sydney harbor, expanded my knowledge in worldly alcoholic beverages, and met some amazing people in the process. After six months in the city I wanted to call it quits and try some place new, so we did. In May of 2009 I went home for three weeks to surprise my mom for mothers day and her birthday (best surprise ever!!). It was a quick trip home to reboot and then it was back to the land of Oz.
When I got back to Sydney Amy picked me up in a camper van and we named her Matilda!!! It was so exciting to have our ride all ready to go for our road trip. Three friends whom Amy worked with at Fitness First; James Kelly, Rob Weaver, Ross Anderson joined us on a road trip up the coast. When we finally left Sydney at the beginning of June, it was a bitter sweet feeling. I was ready for something new...different than a city but sad to say goodbye to a place where many memories were formed. We spent two and a half weeks camping up the East coast of Australia. We made it to the Hunter Valley, Myall Lakes National Park, Cresent Heads, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, and finally Caloundra (where Matilda decided to break down).
Matilda was old and overheated blowing a head gasket leaving us stranded. We were out a lot of money which put me into a place where I had to make a rash decision. As Amy and I tried to sell the van we spent about a week all together in Caloundra brainstorming what our next move would be. I the midst of my brainstorming process I could not let go of Byron Bay. When we stopped through a couple of days prior to breaking down. I felt connected to the laid back surfer hippie vibe. I had fallen in love! After selling our van for 650.00 Aussie dollars to a man that looked like he was a car junkie I told the group that I was headed back to the Bay to find a job and maybe even a free place to live.
Ross, Amy's boyfriend, had to head back to the US due to his visa expiring. James, Rob, Amy and I headed south back to Byron Bay. I got there first as the rest of the group stopped through Surfers Paradise first for a little party sesh. In a couple of days I was able to find a job working for accommodation at the hostel I was staying at, Aquarius Backpackers. It was great, even if I was folding laundry. I was SUPER low on cash since I had been out of work for about five weeks. Living at a backpackers was craziness. There was always a reason to party and no reason to sleep. Living in a room with nine other people including a huge family of dust bunnies and cockroaches was different than anything I had been accustom to. I was able to suggest Amy as a possible candidate for a "work for accommodation" job and it all worked out! After about three weeks of scouring for jobs around town I was finally offered a position at the hostel cleaning rooms as a housekeeper (Nancy would be proud), I was stoked! I didn't have to go home, Yipeee!
Byron Bay was a great place to lay low. Work was a roll out of bed away and the beach...well that was only a half block from our humble abode. If you ask any of my friends growing up if they ever thought I would be cleaning rooms at a hostel they would have just laugh in your face. Nancy taught me well and I can now laugh in their face :). It was not my first choice but something that was meant to happen. Linnie, Tash, Jono, James, were some amazing people that made that job very enjoyable. A special place will always remain in my heart for that crew at Aquarius. My fellow traveling friends working at the hostel were from all walks of life and from all around the world. Canada, Norway, England, Netherlands, and USA. Goon, fancy foot races, birthdays, dance parties, frantic dashes for the leftover sandwiches at the deli down the street at five, psychedelic stories of Nimbin shared on the patio are all good memories. Beyond the eccentric friends I had made at the hostel I met some really great locals as well. Joe, Ash, Rod were some boys that worked out at the local gym. They were like an intimidating wolf pack when they worked out together. They grunted, sweat heavily, and pushed each other to the limits and was sometime a little over the top. It was hard to miss them as they always did the exact same exercises together. It was intimidating to say the least. Joe caught my eye. A handsome man from the Cook Islands he seemed to be the ring leader of the group. We hung out for about a month and it was great. My first crush since breaking up with my boyfriend Dave, I was excited yet nervous at the same time. I am a fairly conservative/shy girl but thought his proposal to see a movie was perfect. Harry Potter was his choice. He claimed to not know much about the story line but blew me straight out of the water knowing all the characters and current plot. The strong exterior was softened by a movie date and a few hours of chatting. I knew I was leaving for Hawaii in a month but it was great to spend time with him and his buddies. Friends will remain as our title and hope to always stay in contact with that wolf pack of men. As for my crazies at the hostel I am lucky enough to have the majority of them here in North America, somewhere. Close enough to drive a few hours to see their cute faces.
After spending nearly two months in Byron I was leaving my beloved bay. My family was meeting in Kauai, a small island west of Oahu in the Hawaiian chain of islands, for my dad's 60th birthday. It was a two week celebration with the fam-dam. I love my family and I feel like we make valiant efforts to see each other as much as possible during the year. Which I love! I did test my sisters on this trip. I am a hiker, the outdoorsy one, and I convinced my sisters to come on a 8 hour hike with me on the Nepali Coast. It was great but very tiring and as much as my sisters probably hated me I think they ended up having a good time. By the end of the two weeks I was ready to reunite with my travel buddy, Amy.
When I returned to Australia we met in Brisbane. In the next couple of days we organized our thoughts to devise a plan on what to do next. North to Cairns, Queensland was the consensus. We got a greyhound bus ticket and planned a few stops along the way. We headed to Rainbow beach, Great Sandy National Park; Fraser Island (the largest sand island in the world), Airlie Beach; Sailing trip around Whitsunday Islands National Park where we went snorkeling/diving, and to Cairns where we stayed for about three months.
I was pretty excited to get to Cairns to meet up with my Finnish friend Kira Salonan whom I had worked with at Goldfish Bar in Kings Cross. Not only was it spectacular to see her and catch up but she also offered me her job on the dive boat she had been working with, Ocean Spirit, since she was leaving soon to continue her travels. HELL YEAH! I was pretty stoked, a dive boat doing out to the GREAT BARRIER REEF! I couldn't have asked for a better experience. The crew was from all around the world; Argentina, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, France, Japan, England, Finland, Brazil...needless to say it was an awesome crew! We all got a long and it was such a great place to come to everyday even if I had to get up at 5:30am to get on board with puking passengers, warnings for Gail force winds, tsunamis, and birds shitting on my face. It was great! I was also able to get my PADI open water certification for half the price :). To be honest with you Cairns as a town/city sucks. I wouldn't go back there for any reason but for the people I met there. Plain and simple. Our living situation in Cairns was nothing to brag about either. It was far away from town and kind of expensive. We lived with a crazy Swedish lady that, on my birthday, had a fit...fought with Amy and threw honey all over the counters in the kitchen. Weird, I know. Its too hard to describe that place other than it was a safe place to sleep. Oh yeah, Amy and I had our own room where we DIDN'T have to share a bed. Finally! When mid-November rolled around I had made enough money to finally to go to one spot I wasn't going to leave without seeing, the bush. Okay, get your head out of the gutter...I'm talking about the Australian Outback. This trip to Alice Springs, Uluru, Darwin, and Kakadu National Park was not cheap by any means but something I wanted to do. It was hot...real hot. Like standing in front of an open oven set to 450 degrees. The flies were terrible as well but I had finally made it, right. Well I was missing a very important ingredient to the mix, Amy. She decided to stay back in Cairns for an extra week and I was pretty bummed about it. I remember feeling pretty sad not having her with me to experience the spectacular culture, history and features of the Outback. She did meet me in Darwin to see Kakadu National Park which was awesome! We saw this great land that the aboriginal people had been living off of for thousands of years. Layers of paintings on rock caves were overwhelming to comprehend. It was magical. Returning to Darwin after our tour of Kakadu we had a date night to reflect on our time in Australia and how many different experiences we had together.
We had spent a full year traveling and living together. November 23rd, 2009 was coming up fast and it was scary to think back at how quick the year had passed and how much fun we had, even through we had some hard times as travel buddies/friends. For me the year had its ups and downs and its potpourri of events. Non stop travel, homesickness, great friendships, money problems, breakups, makeups, drunken blurs, good jobs and shitty ones. I walk away from the experience loving every second of it and I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else other than Amy Reese, one of my best buddies in the world! As we flashed back over a couple drinks and some pump kicks on the swing sets we looked forward to exsperience our last adventure before stepping onto US soil together. BALI, Indonesia!
Our trip to Bali was cut short from the get go. As we arrived to the Darwin airport we stood in line waiting to check our baggage. I remember looking up at the reader board and saw that our flight had been canceled!
"Your kidding right," Amy said. "Nope" was my response as we slowly became frustrated. We ended up staying another night in Darwin at a fancy hotel. The next evening we were able to finally board our flight to the hustle and bustle of Bali. We were swept away by a note worthy cab driver to blared the music and danced with us all the way the our first of three locations we stayed at in Bali. We got to our hotel, the Ashton, and our jaws dropped. We were royalty! Ashton was located in Nusa Dua on the SE side of the island. Since we were booted from our flight in Australia we only stayed there on night. The next day we soaked up the sun, I got my first facial, worked out, and explored a bit of the town. Our next stop was Ubud which was located inland about an hour and a half. It is known for the monkey forest and the rice paddy fields. We stayed two nights which gave us a good amount of time to explore the small town, check out the monkey forest and got on a "30min" walk through the rice paddy fields which turned out to be a three hour adventure. Phew, it was long. We also ventured out of town for a bit and went to the Bali Zoo. The last stop on our short trip to was just north of Kuta, the bustling tourist town. One of the two full days we had here I decided to go diving at the USS Liberty. I was a great dive that my friend had suggested to me before leaving Cairns. It was a full day event and well worth it. I was lucky enough to see a sunfish which was apparently pretty rare at the location we were diving. Besides great diving we also had our big night out on the town which was, in simple words...EPIC! I had been warned of Kuta and how the nightlife was off the radar. It lived up to its reputation. It was a very short trip in paradise and before we knew it we were on our plane headed back to the good ol' US of A, with our hangovers in tow.
Back to reality I decided to stay with my parents for winter before heading up to Denali National Park, Alaska to work for Era Helicopters. It was weird to be back in Olympia as it was the first time I had spent more than two month in my home town in over six years! I was able to reconnect with friends more intensely than I ever had been able to with my usual two week visits. I love being home for a certain amount of time but in all honesty, I am not meant to live there full time.
Living out of a backpack is not for everyone, but everyone I have met along the way that chooses the dip into the world of backpacking doesn't regret it. All in all I have been on the go since I graduated from CalState-LA in 2007. It might not be normal but, hell, who really doesn't feel the want/need to throw that conventional book of happiness out the window once or twice in their life? I did when I graduated and I haven't regretted one second of it! I am glad I finished school and have the freedom to travel and break out of the "norm." I support either lifestyle but after reading this NOVEL of my past year I am pretty sure you understand which path I have chosen. So I hope to stick by my promise to involve you and whomever is interested in my travels and daily life events.
Cheers!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
New Zealand
I recently returned back to Australia from a 10 day trip to New Zealand. It was great being back to Kiwi Land! I was able to catch up with my cousin, Sarah, along with some good friends. I started my trip off being picked up by Sarah and our friend Kimmie at Christchurch airport heading straight out to Akaroa. I never made it out to this former volcano but it was beautiful. A cute small town located about and hour and a half outside Christchurch. The girls and I had a great time drinking some wine, catching up on what was new and laughing about what was old.
The next morning we headed Southwest to Twizel, near Mt. Cook, where Sarah has been working since September. I was greeted by her new kitten, Jerry Can, who was more anxious to play outside than to meet me but, hey...it's cool. Cooking dinner and an intense game of Scrabble was on the agenda. I am not a big fan of the game as it became very apparent as I gave up when I was about 60 points behind everyone. Never-the-less it was fun watching all the funny words going down on the board. After spending three and a half days with Sarah and Greg in Twizel, Kimmie and I made our way over to Franz Josef to see some old friends. It was an adventure getting up there but well worth it ;). Being back in Franz was an assortment of emotions. I miss Franz and all the great times that I had there as it will always have a special place in my heart. Walking into the Helicopter Line/Glacier Guides building I was greeted by my good friend Zoe. After dropping our bags off at the office Kimmie, Sharyn and I went to Cheeky Kea for some lunch and a coffee. Sitting at this Cafe on the main street of Franz Josef is a place where I knew I would see a lot of friends. As friends stopped by plans were formed for the evening festivities. The plan: the Landing for dinner and then the rest of the night was up for "whatever." After about three hours at the Cafe visiting with people Kimmie and I went to the Heli-line house, my old place, to drop off our stuff and freshen up for the night. It was weird being back in the house as a flood of great memories came back to me and put a HUGE smile on my face.
Note:I could go on for ages telling you about all the craziness that happened at that house but I would just take up a whole lot of your time, ha.
Dinner at the Landing was the same as always, social! Lots of people came out for dinner and some drinks. Once 11pm rolled around a smaller group of us, Zoe, Pip, Kimmie, Johnny, Greg, Katherine, Heath, and myself headed down to the Rain forest for some dancing and what ended up being a "foliage" photo shoot, thanks Pip. The night ended late, around 3am. The next morning was pretty scrambled as Kimmie and I gathered our belongings, said our goodbyes, had some breakfast, and quickly e-mailed my friend Amy (who was meeting us in Nelson that evening) we caught our ride to Nelson and again said goodbye to Franz Josef. *tear*
Arriving in Nelson around 8:30pm we ended up on a search for Amy. It wasn't as hard finding Amy as it was trying to find a place to stay. As Kimmie and I were on "no plan, plan" we didn't book any accommodation for which almost bit us in the bum. After briefly reuniting with Amy at her hostel and updating her on the next days events, Kimmie and I headed to ours about 15minutes out of town. The whole reason why we were meeting in Nelson was to do one of the many "Great Walks" in New Zealand, The Abel Tasman Coastal Walk....
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