Exploring Glenorchy

Well, another weekend, another adventure! This weekend we headed to Queenstown, where quickly got tired of the mass of tourists-so we only stayed long enough for Keith to buy a used kayak before getting the heck out of town to the Glenorchy area at the northern tip of Lake Wakatipu. The drive out there was nothing short of spectacular!

From New Zealand

Once we finally set up camp, we did a short walk to Lake Sylvan, where Keith had to go swimming. And just a note on how long our days are-it was about 6:30 in the evening when we got to the lake-but we have daylight until 10 pm-yeah it's awesome!

From New Zealand

The next day we did a little harder tramp called Glacier Burn and it took us to Bryant glacier in the Humboldt Mountain range. We climbed up a ways to make it to the basin and while I was content to take pictures and read once we got there, Keith went and climbed up the mountain as far as he could and he got pretty far! Can you find Keith in this picture?

From New Zealand

While I was hanging out in the basin I tried to take pictures of the stream that was fed by the glacier-but I'm not going to post anything in there (but I'll put one in the photo gallery on the side-they're terrible!) because the water was so incredibly, impossibly clear that it just looks like rocks-it was kind of amazing! There were also great views of the little town of Glenorchy and the surrounding mountains.

From New Zealand

Who knows what this week is going to have in store!

Alexandra, Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand, the World!

I would put our address too, but I honestly don't know what it is-we're staying in a small guest house/apartment behind a very lovely house on Old Golf Course Rd...if you come visit we'll give you better directions! :)

I took a walk up to the Alexandra Clock-the book described the walk a 2-3 hours and pretty difficult-which is fine, I've got nothing but time! Unfortunately I'm apparently pretty terrible at following directions (or maybe it was the book!)-I did not got the right way at all, but I did finally end up getting to the clock and a great view of the city-and the walk was still lovely. It was along the Manuherikia River-which is less impressive than the Clutha but still very pretty to wander along (yes that is a winery right in town and yes their wine is great!).

From New Zealand

From New Zealand

I finally climbed up to the clock-which is really just a giant clock on the side of a hill. I could hear its motor running while walking up the hill and the minutes ticking away was incredibly loud! But it comes with a great view of town-and a great view of the way I could have gone if I hadn't paid attention to the directions in the book and that would have only taken about a half hour total instead of almost 2 hours!

From New Zealand

So, here is Alex. We live on the other side of the bridge where an old golf couse used to be. All the houses have in our neighborhood have incredible views-but it seems their guest houses don't!

From New Zealand

More adventures to come this weekend!

Central Otago: home

We are now in Alexandra (or Alex as it is known by and how Alexandra will be referred to from now-so I don't miss spell it a thousand times) in the Central Otago district of New Zealand. When you mention Alex to people here it seems to bring two things to mind-it's hot and it's SO far in-land! They seem to forget that it's not humid at all-which means the heat really isn't bad, that it's crossed with rivers and lakes-including the Clutha River that is the highest volume river in the country and that the closest beach is about 2 hours away-oh and it's beautiful (I swear at some point I will use a thesaurus and stop using that word every sentence!)

Before we got to Alex, we stopped at Lake Wanaka and even though it's a touristy town and it was the weekend, it really wasn't crowded and the views were stunning! It's only a little over an hour from Alex, so we will defiantly be going back-if only to do the hike that our South Island guide book suggested-but then gave us wrong directions too, so we unknowingly did a different hike-still with great views!

From New Zealand

From New Zealand

We are getting settled in our new home-a small one bedroom apartment about as far from town as possible-but it's inexpensive and will be good enough for 6 months!! Hopefully we'll get the internet at some point in the apartment-but probably not for a while...

A Three Hour Tour

After a ferry across the Cook Strait, we are officially on the our new home the South Island-even though we won't be in Alexandra for another day or so.

We had a beautiful morning for the three hour ferry ride and it was smooth sailing for the whole trip!

From Wellington

From New Zealand

We are in Christchurch right now-about a 5 hours drive from where the ferry landed. We had an amazing drive-that I slept through-but at least Keith woke me up for the seals!

From New Zealand

From New Zealand

They look so much smaller in pictures than they actually are! I hope it's just the beginning of getting to see all different kinds of wildlife!

The smelly and beautiful city of Rotorua

After a rough couple days at the beach, it was time to move on-to Rotorua-a very volcanic (smells like sulfur) and beautiful part of New Zealand. The best part of staying in Rotorua was staying with our friend Laura's folks-Ginie and Bob, in their B&B right on Lake Rotorua.

Another great thing about Rotorua is that all the volcanic activity has created thermal areas all over the place-which means that a walk through the city park means walking through geothermal activity like boiling mud. It also means lots of spas and thermal soaking pools to chose from-Ginie suggested the Waikite Valley Thermal Pools Springs-which couldn't have been better! Walking down a little trail where you could see where the water for the pools comes from.

From New Zealand

From New Zealand

After a ridiculously relaxing morning we checked out the Rotorua Museum that is housed in the original spa that was built in Rotorua in the early 1900's by the British-it has a very proper British feel about it.

From New Zealand

From New Zealand

We happened to get there just a tour was starting so we jumped in-it was given by an older local gentleman whose knowledge of everything Rotorua was very impressive! We learned interesting bits, like people paid extra in the thermal pools for electric shock treatment-while they were in the water! I feel very fortunate that I did not frequent spas 100 years ago!

Talk about a room with a view!

We were at Hahei beach on the North Island in New Zealand-and it's beautiful! We happened upon a 'motel' and all they had left was a small studio-would we like to see it to see if we would like to stay there-you've got to be kidding me! The 'small studio' is not only the size of a full sized one bedroom apartment (it would be the perfect size apartment for us in Alexandra!), has a full separate kitchen where Keith can make me dinner, oh-and a view to die for!

From New Zealand

Here we're just walking around and laying around the beach-well I am-Keith has been out sea kayaking.

From New Zealand

There is a Hot Water beach here where you can dig your own hot tub in the sand to soak in the natural hot springs-in theory...we Keith dug a number of holes in the sand and never got to anything but cold water, but it was worth a try! Just a note-this beach is by far the most crowded place we have been to in NZ (including being in their capital city of Wellington!)

From New Zealand

The couple nights we were here Keith took advantage of the kitchen and did make me wonderful dinners and each night we were here we had the same dinner companion-Dolly, an adorable kitten begging for food.

From New Zealand

I'm tan for the first time in years-and it's January!! On to Rotorua!

From New Zealand

The Waitomo Caving Adventure

Keith had booked us for the 5 hour Black Abyss Adventure in the one of the caves in the Waitomo Caves area through the Black Water Rafting Co. This is how it is described: Descend spider-like into the black depths of Ruakuri Cave and enjoy the best caving adventure tour on a five hour expedition that combines abseiling (rappelling) the breathtaking tomo, climbing, tight rock squeezes and cave tubing down the river into one unforgettable journey. OK-so I was nervous! Keith was reassuring stating that it would probably be like other 'adventures' we'd been on and that it would probably be full of over-weight middle aged people and that I would be fine...Keith was right-I did do fine-but I was also the only girl!

From New Zealand

We have been rappelling before and rafting and even done a little rock climbing-but not all during the same outing-oh and they forgot to mention the bit of zip lining you do as well! The bit I was most nervous about was the tight rock squeezes-but being small had it's advantages there and I was surprised that neither Keith or I felt claustrophobic at all!

From New Zealand

As we were sitting on this ledge (having tea and biscuits-how civilized!) I told Keith that I bet we have to jump off this ledge into the complete blackness below to get into the water-and guess who was right!! It was pretty amazing though! We tubbed down this river in the blackness of a cave with glowworms emitting the only light.

From New Zealand

This is what glowworms look like-only they were much brighter in the cave we were in. It's like a starry night-but with green glowing lights-it was so beautiful!

From New Zealand

We made it out in one piece! Actually we finished a little early, so we got to do a little more climbing through the cave and up waterfalls. Our guides Neil and Dougie were awesome, it was a pretty amazing adventure and I highly recommend it to anyone who makes it out here!

From New Zealand

On the road on the North Island!

Keith's orientation was officially over as of yesterday afternoon so today we left Wellington and are off to explore some of the North Island. Tonight we are crashing at a little motel (with surprisingly fast wifi) about 5 hours north of Wellington in the small town of Tauminurai.

From New Zealand

It was a very warm sunny day for our beautiful drive and we took our time stopping along the way.

From New Zealand

We stopped at an overlook for Raukawa Falls when Keith noticed at little trail that looked like it went down to the river and the falls-I did not want to go. I was hot and sweaty already and my annoyingly worried self couldn't help but think that we were leaving all our stuff for the next six months in the rental car in the random middle of no where place...then I thought-what's the point of even coming here if we don't do stuff like this, stop being so whiny and go already! so we did!

From New Zealand

The water was really cold but refreshing and even though I didn't go in as far as Keith I was really happy we stopped!

There really are an amazing amount of sheep here-every time we stopped we may not have been able to see more than a few but you could hear them! We couldn't help but wonder how long it took to photoshop all the sheep out of the sweeping landscape shots in Lord of the Rings!

From New Zealand

Tomorrow caving and rafting in the glow worm caves in Waitomo!

Occupation: Housewife

We are finally here in Wellington! Actually we've been here for about 2 days but we've been too busy (and too cheap) to get on-line! I will spare you the annoying and chaotic details of our flight-all that matters is that we're here, our luggage is actually here (I was truly shocked about that!) and that so far all is well!

I've been bumming around the city, which is really beautiful but it's also been mostly chilly and rainy. There is so much to do here, I feel really guilty checking it out without Keith! This is the Civic Square in Wellington-Keith hasn't been here yet!

From Wellington

Yesterday we took a walk around the botanical garden, which can only be described as magical and beautiful! We were on a hill overlooking Wellington-so I took the first picture of us in New Zealand!

From Wellington

Keith is at his second day of orientation right now. I joined him this morning to finalize our bank account here. We had a few papers to sign and upon checking to see if the information was correct I noticed that my occupation was listed (in all caps!) as Housewife...what! how can I get this corrected?? Keith pointed out that is pretty much what I'm going to be while we're here (minus all that cooking and cleaning nonsense!)-I just like to think of myself on an extended vacation.

Generally I love it here! I love having tea all day and how nice everyone is and how easy it is to just wander around the city all day with no destination in mind-I think I should just always be on vacation-maybe I should keep my occupation as housewife ;)

Finally, a little Holga!

So, I have been shooting with a regular Holga for a while now-but I had the grand idea that it would be easier to get 35mm film developed than 120mm film while we were being nomadic-so I got a 35mm Holga. As it turns out it is in fact not easy to get regular old 35mm film developed in the rural places that we've been and I have just now gotten my film back from Blue Moon Camera in Portland-perfect timing before we leave for New Zealand!! I have to say that the actual prints look better than the ones on the CD (maybe next time I won't be cheap and pay extra for getting the pics scanned in at high resolution-you live and learn!)

These are the first pictures I have taken with this camera, so I really wasn't sure what to expect-but I was actually pretty happy with the results! There were a few happy accidents of some pretty cool double exposures and the colors came out just as I'd hoped! The black and whites look quite a bit better in person than on the computer but still I'm happy with them!

Horses at Craig, Rene and Morgan's in Enterprise

From 35mm Holga

Farm cat that got very used to me petting her every morning!

From 35mm Holga

Evil cows

From 35mm Holga

Wallowa Lake and a bronze in Joseph (double exposure)

From 35mm Holga

Homolovi ruins state park in Arizona-both the view and the ruins (double exposure)

From 35mm Holga

Abandoned building in Jerome, AZ

From 35mm Holga

Ghostly trees at the Grand Canyon

From 35mm Holga

I plan on taking all my cameras with me to New Zealand (3 Holgas and my awesome Nikon D80), hopefully I won't have to wait until we get back to get film developed!

BJ: The best dog in the whole world

Tomorrow we are leaving BJ in the capable hands of Susan, Randy and Gil, who will be taking care of him while we're in New Zealand. This is by far the most difficult part of going to New Zealand for 6 months.

I've written this blog post in my head a million times, talking about what a great dog BJ is, how he's the best friend anyone could ever ask for, how's he's been there for me whenever I needed him, how we've had tons of great adventures together and how I'm going to miss him more than anything in the whole world. I started going through pictures of BJ though the past few years and I feel like they say more about how much fun we've had together than my words will.

BJ saying good morning to Josie on Christmas morning a few years ago

From BJ

BJ, full of hope on election day!

From BJ

BJ and the infamous deer

From BJ

Keith and BJ in Hell's Canyon-in one of my favorite pictures of all time!

From BJ

BJ after being tossed into the Snake River-those big brown eyes tell us he's clearly not happy about it-but he's still so cute!!

From BJ

Keith and I will miss the BeeJeers so much but know that with Susan, Randy and Gil we have nothing to worry about-besides them loving him so much they don't want to give him back!