Sheep!

I LOVE New Zealand. Two ports and the Fjordlands down, and I am more than ready to leave everything and move here. To say I like New Zealand more than Australia would be unfair since I have only seen the big cities of Australia, but what I’ve seen of New Zealand is far closer to my taste. The towns are quaint, the scenery is quite lovely, and everything is so much simpler. Each town is working hard to increase it’s tourism and bring more people in, and I’m pretty sure they’re not using MBAs in order to accomplish that. Or working as hard as possible to get a plethora of business experience in order to get to the top. I digress.

The Fiordlands were a unique experience. I learned a lot about New Zealand’s history while we sailed through the Fiordlands since that’s the first thing that Captain Cook saw and documented when he discovered New Zealand in the 1770’s. It finally clicked for me that Australia and New Zealand are far younger countries than even the USA. This was surprising since I have grown accustomed to being one of the youngest countries in the world, and for some reason I had it in my head that Australia had been discovered long before America had. I was of course wrong. The Fiordlands are water straits that have been cut by glaciers, and they are all over the north-western side of the south island. We had a local forest ranger on board that told us their history as we sailed through many of them. It was quite lovely. Captain Cook had a bit of fun naming the hundreds of islands along the waterway… I’m pretty sure he ran out of names quickly and just started naming them whatever word came to mind first.

Dunedin (pronounced Dune-eedin) was the first port we’ve stopped at. We booked a tour with a local company apart from the cruise line since the cruise is overpriced for anything additional once you’re aboard, and there are always local tours at a fraction of the cost, which are easy to find now that the internet has made the world so much smaller. We choose a wildlife tour so that we would be able to see most of the New Zealand-specific animals. We were chosen to go through customs (2% of the passengers, and somehow we were chosen!), which worked out nicely because we ended up being one of the first off the ship. We found our tour guide and discovered we were the only two booked for the tour- a private tour! Apparently they had 27 people the day before, so we lucked out that no one else had booked with them from our cruise. I thank all the old people on the ship who could not handle the walking. Although there wasn’t a whole lot of walking for the tour, New Zealand does appear to be made up purely of hills, so if you are walking, it’s either at a 45 degree angle up or down at all times, which wears on you quickly. Dunedin has the steepest road in the world according to Guinness World Records; however, I’m pretty sure almost every road we traveled on was just as steep as the steepest. Beat that San Francisco.

We traveled around the countryside, taking in the thousands of sheep in all of the pastures surrounding the town, and went to Tiger Peninsula, where the only Royal Albatross colony is located in New Zealand (the only other place in the world is a tiny island a thousand miles off the coast). They have a wingspan of 3 meters (I love you, metric system!), and we were fortunate enough to be there right after some of the hatchlings had been born, which we got to see. We also had the opportunity to go to a private beach owned by the owner of the tour company, which had a view of a fur seal breeding ground where we saw pups running around playing with their moms, as well as massive sea lions that we stood 5 feet from since they don’t have any fear of humans, yellow-eyed penguins and their young, blue penguins (the smallest penguin in the world), and more sheep. We went four-wheeling through the pastures in a small van, and all I could keep thinking was that if those brakes went out, we were at a 45 degree angle right down to the cliffs over the water. During the off-roading adventure, my dad and our tour guide discovered they both shared an interest in beer snobbery. Our guide brews his own beer, and he knew all of the microbreweries in town, so upon completing our tour early since it was just the three of us, we went over to one of the microbreweries, tried all of their beers, got the t-shirt, and then went on to a local pub. I’m pretty sure this has been the highlight to my dad’s trip thus far.

Today we went to Christchurch/Lyttelton. We had no tours scheduled for the day, so we took the shuttle into town and walked around. There were no sheep there. New Zealand has heavy European influences all through it, so it looks and feels like many of the small towns you’d find in Europe. We found another microbrewery to make my dad’s day, then walked through the botanic gardens, through a couple local markets, and watched as people punted through the park (similar to taking a gondola along the river flowing through the city). Lyttelton was a tiny town along the water that is trying very hard to bring tourists to it… however, it was scarcer than even Midland or Golden’s downtowns, so our walkthrough there did not last long to say the least. They did however, have a time ball- it’s a tower on a building with a ball similar to the ball setup for new years in Times Square… at 1 o clock every day, the ball is dropped. It was how in the old days people could set their clocks based on Greenwich time to ensure they were all set to the correct time. That would be about all that you can find in Lyttelton.

Food. Oh the food. Let me tell you about some of my meals. Today was an international dinner, so I had a Mediterranean salad with a duck appetizer followed by lamb with mint jelly and a chocolate passion fruit genache for dessert. I have found a new love in passion fruit… I’m not sure if I’ve ever had it before, but it’s a new favorite fruit. I’ve had passion fruit yogurt for breakfast every morning, yum! And kiwis, fresh kiwis! New Zealanders call themselves kiwis because of the native kiwi fruit grown here, as well as the kiwi bird, a national symbol of New Zealand. Yesterday was the Thai dinner, satay and panang curry. I had a rabbit appetizer a couple of days ago; rabbit is dry, I don’t recommend it. Lamb is amazing. Yesterday for lunch they brought us a takeaway. Here, fast food is called takeaways. We had a turkey/brie/cranberry sandwich with an apricot/poppy seed muffin and fresh New Zealand cherries. Drool. I just got back from dinner and am so stuffed I’m going to explode, and I’m still drooling.

Tomorrow, we will be in Wellington, where we have a city and Middle Earth tour. For now, I’m going to take my book and sit out on our balcony and watch the moon dancing on the waves. And dream of never having to go back to any other commitments. Cheers!

G'Day mate!

G’Day from the Tasmanian Sea on Australia Day! I am currently on Day 3 of my Australian cruise with my father. Today just happens to be Australia’s equivalent of the US Independence Day, and since it seems the majority of the ship is Australian, it is being celebrating with rigor around here. The Australian Open is also currently taking place in Melbourne and is all that we have been watching the past few days. We also have wifi on the entire cruise, so I figured while my dad naps, I could take the opportunity to write a quick update from the sea!

We successfully arrived in Sydney Saturday morning (roughly 5:30pm EST Friday!!) after a very long flight (my ankles swelled again! NOT good) and spent the day exploring the city. It was in the 90s the entire day, which is quite the shock coming from the freezing temperatures of Michigan. We walked the Botanic Gardens, which are inhabited by thousands of bats, all waiting to poop on you as they sleep during the day in the trees. Luckily, I had no such incidents. We also took a harbor cruise around the city since it is almost all along the water to see the historic districts and the Sydney Opera house and harbor bridge. We’ll be back in Sydney for the last two days of our trip and will be visiting the Aquarium and Wildlife exhibits to see the ‘roos and koalas that I otherwise won’t have the opportunity to see this trip.

Sunday was boarding day for the cruise. We hopped on a plane to Melbourne and headed for the pier. Turned out the ship was 3 hours late getting back because of bad seas during its last sea day, which meant we had 3 hours to burn at the pier before they started loading. We walked the harbor and had fresh fish and chips at a small little restaurant. We also discovered that about 90% of the people on our cruise seem to be above the ripe age of 60. I have the feeling I am the only single twenty-something (outside of staff) on this cruise… and even honeymooners are scarce! This, however, means that there are certain times of the day when the ship seems deserted… before 9am, after 8pm, and the apparent naptime from 3-5pm. It also means that they can’t judge ages and keep thinking I’m much older and that my dad and I are married. CREEPY. That mistake has only been made twice, but that’s 2 too many times for me.
The last two days has also reminded me of a conversation Kelsey and I had before I left regarding how people feel rejuvenated…whether it be alone, or by being around other people. We discussed it from the standpoint of hanging out with friends and such, but I have now been regarding it from the standpoint of strangers. Being on a ship of 2000 passengers where you get sat with random people for every meal, it is easy to determine where you stand on the issue. My dad is the type to love sitting with new people each time, make small talk, tell the same stories over and over. I, however, have already grown tired of it, and although I prefer the seated meals, I have started thinking more and more that I’d prefer to do the buffet just to have a break from trying to keep up conversation with strangers. We have table assignments for dinners, and somehow we ended up at a table of 4 with two other women. After dinner with them for one night, I feel like the conversation has already dried up and have no idea how we will possibly be able to continue coming up with new topics for 10 more nights!! Thus, I’ve once again put myself into the loner category for rejuvenation regardless of the fact that I rejuvenate better in the presence of friends.

Despite my introverted tendencies with strangers, we have still found ourselves some companions in some of our activities. We both enjoy doing the daily trivia that is offered, and on the first day we teamed up with an older couple to better our odds. And wouldn’t you know it, we won! We beat somewhere around 30 other teams. We haven’t been as fortunate in the last two rounds of trivia, but we have decided to stick together and continue to be a team throughout the cruise on sea days. We also played carpet bowling today, and our team of approximately 10 people beat out 3 other teams , and we all won gold medals. I have won a gold medal for some competition on every cruise I have been on thus far… so either my family is overly competitive, or the old people are making it too easy on us J I think it is partly due to the fact that we enjoy the activities, so we participate in everything offered that we can fit in. My dad was 1 point away from winning a golf chipping –into-the-pool contest today.

Tonight is formal night, and tomorrow is cruising through the Fjordlands of New Zealand, the first contact we’ll have with New Zealand. If I knew how to easily load up pictures, I might show them here..but as it is, I don’t, so you don’t get any… so sorry!

And as one final note….it seems almost everyone on board is either Australian/New Zealander/British. So I am surrounded by a similar accent everywhere I go… I’m not going to be surprised if I start picking it up without noticing, I’ve already repeated random phrases I’d never otherwise use. Now I must sign off, good show ole chap!

Thanksgiving in Oz

I'm off to see the wizard tomorrow....the wizard being my family of course. Although nowhere near Kansas, it will be quite the adventure. My car Oz and I will be trekking the 15 hour cross country trip together (yes, I did in fact name my car Oz, but no relation to the wizard). I've thoroughly prepared for this trip. And by thoroughly, I mean I have waited until the last minute to determine some of the things I need to shop for, decide that I want to try an audiobook for the first time without having yet procurred one, and, oh yes...do laundry. Somewhat essential when you're trying to pack clothes.

I'm also in the process of trying to borrow a GPS, because over the course of 15 hours, I'd rather not have to look down every half hour at a Google Maps printout and try to figure out where I am, I'd rather it be told to me. I'm not quite sure how people survived in the stone age 20 years ago when they had to map out routes themselves and weren't instantly told that the route they *thought* would be the quickest is in fact 2 hours longer than other routes on their 90 minute trip. I remember a cross-country road trip with my family going from Colorado out to South Carolina one summer, and my mom wasn't able to come with us, so I took my natural birthright, sat up front, and was in charge of the map. I soon found that as a preteen, this was a very mundane task, and there were far more enjoyable things to do, like sleep or melt crayons on the truck seats. The minute we hit Dallas/Ft. Worth, the road T'd in 4 directions, my dad had no idea which one he was supposed to take, and there were enough cars on the road to sink a battleship. I don't react well under pressure, so the instant my dad started stressing, I started panicking and blanked. What was this sheet in front of me? Why did it have lines with numbers? I wouldn't know. After 20 minutes of battling traffic with only ONE (that's, right, count them!) wrong turn, we made it out safely. And I made a vow 10 years later to never take a roadtrip based on a human's mapping skills alone again.

So wish me luck as I start my journey at the unreal hour of 4am. And pray that, unlike my brother's last cross-country roadtrip, my credit card isn't cancelled and my cell phone doesn't get turned off because my bill can't be paid since I have no credit card...

J&M to the C

The past few weeks have been a flurry of transition. Jon and Mandy are officially gone and Christina is officially moved in. J&M left this morning for training in Philadelphia for the next couple of days, and then off to Kenya for the Peace Corp. We spent all afternoon Friday helping them pack up their apartment into a Uhaul followed by goodbyes. It's like the end of an era; the 5 of us started together two years ago, and now with J&M gone, there's only 2 of us left. The Scoobies have been some of my closest friends here in Midland, and I think the rest of us will fall away from each other somewhat now. But it's been easier to say goodbye knowing what an exciting experience and opportunity J&M are off to. We're continuing our shelf-hanging party tradition tonight in memory of them, so at least we're making efforts to hang out still.

Outside of trying to spend as much time with J&M before they left, I've been spending the rest of my time helping Christina get moved in. We spent the last couple of weekends painting and fixing things up... for having been there a week, it looks amazingly impressive. We had a Halloween "party" Saturday.... consisting of 7 people since we did it last minute, and it was really just hanging out. But it was an opportunity for her to show off her new place a little, and an excuse for the rest of us to dress up like nerds. Jen and I were coming from chaperoning the Xtreeme costume party; I opted to be a Greek goddess this year, mostly because I somehow magically had everything I needed except the white dress, so I got a few yards of fabric from Joann's for $10 and Christina pinned it into a really cool garment. One of my favorite costumes ever.

Currently, I am working with my dad on our trip to Australia/New Zealand. I've been so busy, I haven't been able to think about it, and considering I have a Thanksgiving trip to South Carolina for a week and a Christmas trip to Colorado for likely two weeks, it seems like it's eons away... but recently my dad reminded me that it's less than 90 days away (which suddenly makes me realize that I'll be doing 5 weeks of traveling in the next 90 days!!). So I'm finally getting pumped up about New Zealand, especially looking at all of our excursion options.

It's going to be great that it is just my dad and I because we have the same personality and interests, so we don't have to compromise with anyone else. As we've been going through the excursions, we've been automatically eliminating many of the sightseeing tours and instead looking at things like blackwater rafting in caves and kayaking to remote albatross breeding grounds. Not sure how much of that we will actually get to do because my dad, despite thinking he is invincible, does not have the knees anymore to do some of those things. However, we did recently have an argument about whether we should go bungee jumping or skydiving, so I'm sure we'll find adventurous things to do regardless. I'm also pushing to go on one of the Lord of the Rings tours, purely because I think that would be one of the coolest ways to see some of the awesome nature on the interior part of New Zealand.

Also, on a final note, I'd just like to say that TV tray Thai meals need far more than the 5 minutes it tells you for the noodles to soak... Thai just does not taste very good when the noodles are rubbery and wiry! Not a good lunch...

The food incident

In a valiant effort to escape consumption later this afternoon, my pasta attempted murder/foodicide (much like the newly learned term 'bullycide') this morning by opening it's container in hopes that it would spill out all over my bag and take down the rest of the food with it.

Little did it know that despite my carelessness, I was much looking forward to it's yumminess in a few hours and was not willing to allow any such spillages to occur. So now it is taking a time-out in the refrigerator.

Maybe someday you'll get a real post again =) Until then, au revoir senorita...

Autumn

Fall is quite possibly my favorite time of year, especially in Michigan. Colorado had a beautiful fall too, but it literally pales in comparison to the colors of a Michigan autumn. I’m pretty sure that if and when I leave Michigan, one of the things I will miss the most about the area is the fall. The weather that is cool enough for a comfy sweater, but still warm enough to be able to go outside and do any summer activity as well. And as all the harvest activities start, there are hayrides and apple cider or hot chocolate around a warming bonfire. Cornmazes and pumpkin patches, leaf piles and trick or treaters. The amazing color display of leaves through the huge trees in the region; vibrant reds and oranges with splashes of yellow. I drive the long back way to my church this time of year purely so I can enjoy the beautiful painting God has laid out so perfectly. And the awe-inspiring sunrises that God gives right when I’m driving into work this time of the year. During the summer, I get to drive to work at 7am and the sun is already up, I head home and the sun doesn’t go down until late. During the winter, the sun comes up after I’m already at work and is down before I leave work…talk about depressing. But during the fall, I get a sunrise each morning with enough light in the evening to feel like I haven’t lost the entire day, followed by a warm nightfall that tends to be a lot clearer than the rest of the year so that the stars can be seen shining brightly. My favorite!

I could go on, but really I just needed to express the bursting my heart feels this time of the year, and after sitting in my car staring at the sunrise for a while this morning, it couldn’t be contained anymore!


"By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;
He puts the deep into storehouses."
Psalm 33:6-7


"The day is Yours, and Yours also the night;
You established the sun and moon.
It was You who set all the boundaries of the earth;
You made both summer and winter."
Psalm 74:16-17

Once More With Feeling

I am up at 5 in the morning in Charleston. In reality, I've been up since 4am. Although this may not be such an oddity at home, it is here. I'm back for my grandparents 50th anniversary, where my mom's side of the family is having somewhat of a reunion get-together as this side tends to be hermits and doesn't get together yearly the way my dad's side loves to do. Its been quite the hullabaloo getting everyone together, not the least of those being my sister. She has been especially unreliable lately now that she has her fiance and avoids talking or seeing the family as much as possible often. She told us weeks ago that he and she would both be gracing us with their presence out here, with no further details. She then informed us that they'd be getting their own hotel and rental car since family wasn't "ok" with them staying in the same room together. I then got to Charleston and found out that family didn't even know she was bringing him along. Then, as we tried to get details from her to know when she would be in, she started giving the go-around, telling us that he had reserved the flights and that she didn't know the details, she'd have to tell us later. After two days of calling and texting her continuously and being ignored, she finally emailed my mom today and told her that he and she would be flying into another town two hours away and would drive down with a rental car. Mind you, neither of them have credit cards or anything, so we're not sure how they expected to get a rental car. Not our problem when they're two hours away. And if that weren't fun enough, that's just about when the real fun started.

She then called me this morning at 4am in a panic to tell me that she found out he lied about the whole thing; he never got tickets, he was just telling her he did to make her happy, but they weren't actually going. I have no idea what the real story is, she has become such a pathological liar that we never know what is truth and what isn't. So I ended up getting up and scrambling to find a ticket for her so that she could still come out here. It leaves out of Denver at 7am. I might murder her and never talk to her again if she doesn't make the flight, which sounds like a distinct possibility because they keep doing other things (like stopping to put minutes on her phone or get cigarettes). And then she threw a fit at me when I told her it meant she was here until Tuesday, and that I shouldn't have booked the flight until she was on the road to the airport. I'm not quite sure why I even bothered to go out of my way to get her a ticket, I almost feel like I should have just let her stew and suffer rather than save her again when she keeps making mistakes.

Every time I'm around my family, I have a renewed realization that they make me an angrier person. They get so angry on the road, or make fun of people or handle things in not the best way, it sets me off or makes me boil. I prayed a good amount tonight for strength to handle these situations better; so it seems of course God gave me the opportunity to handle it better with a call at 4am. It's a struggle. I feel like screaming and letting out a lot of pent-up feelings right now. It's hard to have strength and patience and love when it's continually tried. I guess this is just calling for more 6am prayer now. Lots of prayer that she makes her flights and I don't take it out on her for the rest of the weekend...