Life of a nomad no more!

Kia Ora!

It's a beautiful, cool, and breezy day in San Diego, California. That's right, CALIFORNIA! After exactly 363 days, I'm back and it feels really good! Sorry for the lack of updates the past month. It flew by!

Melissa and I were always on the go traveling, except for our last week which we spent trying to sell our van in Auckland! We were successful, eventually. We have tons of stories to share with all of you, several we would have rather not happened at the time. Of course looking back, they are hilarious! ...Ones to tell the grand kids about.

I'm spending a week in SoCal visiting friends, but am flying back to NorCal on Saturday, May 29. My flight gets in at 2:50 on Southwest for those of you who want to surprise me. *hint hint* Sorry for the short notice.

I've gorged myself on In-N-Out, Mexican, and Chinese food. Oddly enough, there was plenty of Chinese food in NZ, I just never ate it. This is probably because there were other foods in abundance that is a wee bit harder to find here such as Indian and Thai. Of course, nothing compares to a home cooked meal by Mom and Pop! I can't wait to see them and all of you!

Advance Australia Fair

It's cold and raining. You guessed it! I'm back in New Zealand. But not before an amazing and warm adventure through the east coast of Australia. It's amazing how fast 17 days can pass you by! I've spent so much time on planes, buses, cars, 4x4 vehicles, ferries, yachts, and dive boats that when I was actually on solid ground, I felt like the whole world was swaying back and forth! I'm over it though!

I flew into Melbourne, Victoria on April 3 for a quick visit with a few mates, Carmen and Renee. We had lunch in the city, did some shopping and browsing before heading off the next day on The Great Ocean Road. We stopped at some amazing beaches and walked on a suspended boardwalk through the canopy of a eucalyptus rainforest, but did not see any koalas. We spent the night at Carm's parent's house who had a lamb roast in the oven and waiting for us! It had been over 10 months since I've had a true home cooked meal! The next night, I flew out to Cairns, Queensland where it was sticky and hot! I spent about a week there diving the Great Barrier Reef and hiking through Cape Tribulation, the Daintree Rainforest and Atherton Tablelands. Unfortunately, the conditions weren't the best for diving and our boat only made it out to two reefs: Briggs and Moore. However, I saw plenty I've never seen before while diving including sea turtles and a white tipped reef shark! The reef itself was full of colorful fishes and all kinds of corals and sponges. I' hoping the underwater disposable camera I brought caught some of the action. The Daintree forest is a world heritage listed area which includes Cape Tribulation and Atherton Tablelands. I went out hiking on two separate days in these areas and saw some amazing plants (lots of ferns, mangroves, and strangler figs), animals (crocs, pythons, and tree frogs), insects (green stick insects and ants that taste like vitamin c; you're supposed to either eat them or lick their butts to get the taste. I wasn't able to try them, but I wanted to!), and scenery (waterfalls so perfect, they could have only been formed by nature.).

Eight hours on a bus on April 11 and I was in Airlie Beach, gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays are the southern most point of the Barrier Reef. I spent two days on Australia's 4^th challenger for the America's Cup, The Southern Cross. (It came in second. The US took the cup that year.) We sailed to a few islands including Whitehaven Beach. Picture the whitest beach imaginable (the sand is made from silica) and then add lots of shallow turquoise water! It was spectacular! Maybe I'm just excited cause I've never seen anything like it, but it felt like heaven on Earth. We also snorkeled at a few fringing reefs where at one, there was a school of literally thousands of fish. My next stop was at Fraser Island, also world heritage listed. It's the largest sand island in the world, formed a REALLY long time ago from weathered rocks in Antarctica. I know, hard to imagine, but I've got the story if you want to hear it someday. There, I saw my first ever dingo and shipwreck. Everything about the island was unique to any other place on Earth. I could have spent weeks exploring and learning heaps and could write this whole update on Fraser Island, but I'll spare you all the details for the sake of length and time. (Ask me about it someday!)

After a boring, but relaxing day on the bus to Brisbane and wandering around the city, I flew out of Queensland and into Sydney, New South Wales. I did your typical touristy stuff here; checked out Bondi and Manly beaches, the Opera House, Botanical Gardens, Olympic Park and the zoo. I got to see a lot of native critters at the zoo that I wasn't able to see in the wild; platypus, echidna, all kinds of snakes and lizards, koalas, and a wombat. I also took a day tour to the blue mountains, which appear blue because of the oil the gum trees release into the air. (I had to teach you guys something I learned!)

So that's a short recap of my whirlwind trip to Oz. It's definitely a country I need to spend more time in and I've already promised myself I'll be back. Grad school has even crossed my mind since I've been away. There are so many creatures that need exploring in Australia, it would be a good place to earn a masters.

Off to Oz!

Month 11! It’s been awhile and the work aspect of my New Zealand working holiday is now over. For the next two months, I will be enjoying the holiday aspect. I left the beautiful and secluded Bay of Many Coves Resort yesterday. As excited as I was to reenter civilization, I was a bit sad to leave the friends I made and the sunrises and sunsets over the bays and mountains that never ceased to amaze me.

After selling the Blue Beast in early March, I spent a lot more time enjoying the great outdoors tramping in the area around the resort and along the Queen Charlotte Track.

(Pier at Ship's Cove, northern most end of Queen Charlotte Track)

On one morning, during my usual hike to work, I came across five (5!) feral pigs rummaging in the scrub. Of course, I didn’t have my camera, so I had to run back up the hill (yes, the butt firming one) to the bach, which is not an easy task. Turns out it was a mother and her four half grown piglets. I scared them into the bush running back down the hill, but three of them poked their heads out which allowed me to snap a quick picture. I never got to see any dolphins or stingrays unlike what seemed like the rest of the staff, but I’m sure I’ll see plenty of both in Australia. Speaking of which….

I say goodbye to the South Pacific of New Zealand to spend the next few weeks exploring the Tasman and Coral Seas of Oz. I fly to Melbourne tomorrow to hang out and drive the Great Ocean Road with a few Aussie mates before flying up to Cairns to travel down the east coast through Queensland and New South Wales. I end my trip in the harbor city of Sydney before flying back to Christchurch. As always, I will do my best to keep you updated with lots of pictures and stories, but it won’t be long before I’m home to show and tell firsthand.

The month since my last update has been full of highs and lows. I made it down to Christchurch once to see Ani DiFranco for the 9^th time (getting a bit embarrassing to admit now, but she’s always worth it). She jammed onto stage playing a classic as the opener, setting the mood for the rest of the concert. Despite being my first concert alone, it was brilliant! Just as everyone thought the chilling wind and rains of spring turned straight into autumn, the sunny and warm days of summer have appeared out of nowhere! For the first time since I’ve been in NZ, I was actually able to wear a shirt and skirt (not pants to be more general) and wasn’t cold! Of course, it will be freezing by the time I get back from Oz, just as I’ve broken in my summer clothes and sent home most of my winter ones. Oh well, I regret nothing since I’ve been here and even the weather can’t bring me down! Ten months down and two to go!

(Queen Charlotte Sound)

Life in Queen Charlotte Sound

It's been just over two weeks since I made the move north to Queen Charlotte Sound to take a new job at Bay of Many Coves Resort. Life has been extremely different from Christchurch. First off, not only is the resort almost completely isolated (the nearest town, Picton, pop. 3600, a 30 min. ride by water taxi assuming the resort is the last stop which it usually isn't making the ride into town anywhere from 30min-1.5hrs) but the house I live in with four other staff (also mid 20's travelers) requires hiking through the bush up a butt firming steep hill. It's actually not even a house. It's a bach (rhymes with hatch) which in American terms is a vacation home, sort of like a timeshare, but one with only the bare essentials. Yes, we have a TV with two whole channels! Luckily, one channel has "Alias" (but a season behind the US!) and "Friends" (current season material!). I share a room with Lucy from Wales and Jessica from Canada while the English couple, Chris and Sophie, have a room to themselves.

The hike up to the house is definitely worth it, although very scary at night! Don't worry Mom, only possums, ground dwelling birds, large insects, and apparently feral pigs to worry about. The views are amazing, especially at dawn to see the sun come up over the hills across the bay. There are also glow worms in the trees at night, but I tend to ignore them while walking briskly home if I close the cafe at night. My imagination runs wild with my flashlight playing with shadows in the dark.

I've gone sea kayaking once and swimming once. The weather hasn't been too cooperative on my days off. Admittedly, that part is quite similar to Christchurch. I now expect rain on days I'm not working. There's plenty of nature and animal life to keep my happy. We have a few wekas (picture a cross between a kiwi bird and a chicken) that hang out around the house, wood pigeons (pigeons of an unimaginable size that make me wonder how they even fly and are so agile in the air!) moths and beetles the size of small dogs (ok, not really, but damn near close!) jellyfish that don't sting, walking sticks (insects, not hiking poles), swarms of fish which we feed at the end of the dock with the day's leftover bread (makes me think the kitchen is fattening them up!?) sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and an array of sea stars. Among the creatures I have yet to see that have been seen by others are sting rays, Hector's and bottlenose dolphins, and orcas.

The job itself is going well. I work on average 45-50 hours per week with my longest day so far being 13.5 hours. It's ususally not too busy in the cafe. The resort only has room for 48 guests which is only ever full on the weekends. Besides the occasional boaters coming in for a bite to eat, I'm most often looking for things to keep myself busy to pass the time. I won't lie, it is often boring. But I can't think of a better place to stare out of cafe windows to the surrounding beauty and let my mind wander.

(A view of The Bay of Many Coves Resort from the bach)