Australia for the next three months.

Well....we made it to Australia safe and sound, yesterday. We recovered from the lack of sleep yesterday and did the tourist thing today....touring the harbour of Sydney and walking everywhere and spending some time having some drinks in front of the famous opera house. It was nice to have to walk for once! We truely miss our campervan, it is hot as hell here and they are having a heat wave this week! 40 degrees Celcius....Out hostel doesn't have air conditioning...so it has been sweaty so far, but at least we have showers to cool off in. The hostel is otherwise great! The biggest one we have been to so far and filled with peeps from all over the world! It is in a great location too! Makes life all that much easier. Hard Rock Cafe (funny to those who don't know -I worked there for 6 years) is only 5 minutes away and we actually ate there tonight for dinner! The service was not so good, but you know after working there for so long..I am quite critical and it was shift change after all! But the best news of the day comes from the fact that I am now the pround owner of a car!!!! A 1988 Ford Fairmont Station wagon! Funny huh! We had to take care of things quite fast, being that it is a holiday here and it will take longer for things to be ready for us. We went to a place that was reccomended in Lonely planet and again only a 5 minute walk a way! It was better to buy through this place because they guarantee to buy it back...but we are going to try and sell it ourselves when we are through with it, and hopefully get all our money back. I am relieved to have that in the works, so now I can just enjoy New Years. Sydney is the place to be! They throw a huge show here. They spend 2 million dollars on fireworks and do two shows one at 9Pm and another at midnight. The mates say it is spectacular and not to be missed! So like taste of Chicago in July we are going to suffer through the masses to see what the hype is all about! I will have the last of the pictures to post from New Zealand soon.......but then get ready for Australia pics. My first impression is that this place is alot like the states...but we have not been out of the city yet. Now that we have the Wagon....we will see what adventures it takes us on! We head up the east coast first and then down through the dessert on the way back to Sydney in March! I can't wait! Hope everyone has a great New Years!

Christmas Eve!

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! This is how I spent my Christmas Eve! Not too Shabby! Got to run and enjoy the rest of the day....Love to all!


River Rafting on the Kaituna River! This was an awesome trip! It would have been greater if the ride was longer than on hour. But it made it worth it, because it was a class 5 rapids. This rating is the highest to raft where 6 is unraftable! This was my first raft on class 5 rapids!

Going over the first of the two waterfalls on the raft trip. This one was only a 4 meter drop!

Us going over the most commercially rafted waterfall in the world. That is what makes this river trip famous. There is two waterfalls on the trip. This being the biggest at 7 meters! The water was at it highest during our trip so even though it is a vertical drop, the amount of water going over the falls makes it slightly less vertical than in lower water! Can you believe, I am even smiling!

GET VERTICAL!!!!! As you can see in this shot...it was a 7 meter vertical drop! AMAZING!!!

Us and the raft completely buried from the falls! The only way to even see that we were in there was a faint hint of yellow beneath the water and the oar coming out of the white water on the far right side! AWESOME!!!!!!!

Coming out of the falls and the massive white-water. I liked this one because the guide was completely covered and looks like he almost fell out! I guess the back seat is the most dangerous!
View of the waterfall and our raft after we were safe. The boat did not tip over and noone fell off!

Us coming through a much smaller rapid, toward the end of the run! Right before this, the guides asked the guy behind me, what he did for a living. He said he was a policeman in Japan. Evidently this was the wrong thing for him to say and they made him pay for all the tickets other cops have given them! He had to sit on the front of the raft with his feet hanging over and go through another small rapid....We were all laughing so hard! They said if they found out he was a cop sooner, they would have had more fun! I guess I am not the only one in the world with a ill feelings about cops!

Jayme on the white-water sledge! He is kicking his way into the calm spot to glide in between the rapids. This was a first for him in both rafting and sledging!


River Sledging for my first time! We did a combo trip and rafted first! This was on the Kaituna just like the Rafting but we entered the river at the bottom of the falls! This picture is the 4 of us surfing the waves, it was so much fun! Me in pink, Jayme yellow, and the guides in purple. We had the river to ourselves and the guides too! It was nice to have the one on one training!

Jayme and I kicking our way down stream. If anyone has ever rafted, this is nothing like it! You are in control of your destiny. The guides tell you what to do, but sometimes mother nature has a different plan. There were times I was so out of breath, just to stay on the right side with the flow! Definately a good workout! And much more time to play in the waves!

Once we came through the rapids...we would find a calm spot and rest up and come back in to surf the waves. It was hard work to get to just the right spot in the rapids where the swell was calm. Once you are in the calm...you can just sit there and watch the water falling toward you and you are not moving. Was one of the coolest feelings in the world. Well, until mother nature rips you out of it...and right after this picture she did just that, and I swallowed loads of water and almost lost the sledge. I hung on though...the number one rule in sledging...don't let go!

Going over the falls on sledge! I am in pink and Jayme behind me in yellow...our guides are both in purple!
Just out of the big white water, and gasping from the exhileration of it all...So much fun to be in control of your trip! Well not completely...mother nature does have a hand in things!

I made it through! All smiles now! This has got to be the best X-mas eve I have ever had....beautiful day, and a river at the highest volume it could be commercially rafted and sledged!

More pictures from the South Island

Hello everyone...I finally found a internet site..that is speedy fast...It only took me an hour to do this post, which is a record compared to the last....which is also why I was able to post so many pictures! I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays. Know that I am thinking of you all and wish you the very merriest of Christmas! There are still some more picutures of the South Island to post, but I have not burned them to a disc yet. So the pictures of the rainbows and killer whales will be on the next post! We are now back on the North Island and enjoying time at my property in Rotorua. It has been nice to have a shower everyday, and to be able to just relax and not be on the go! I am hitting up some white water rafting tomorrow and river sledging. We will be going over a 7 meter waterfall on the river which is the most commercially rafted waterfall in the world I can't wait! It will be unlike any Christmas eve I have ever had! Love to everyone and I can't wait to hear what Santa brought! Leave me a comment if you get the chance!

Sky over the mountains on the Road to the Milford sound! The clouds do strange things here...unlike anything I have ever seen before!

Wonderful view of the mountain peaks in Fiordland National Park. This is the only spot you can see the peaks like this.....once inside the valleys...the Fiords are so steep..that you can only see the white caps on the top!

The beautiful Milford Road!

Spot where we camped before the rains came, called Cascade Creek on the Road to Milford. Fiordland National Park! There was fields of those flowers and they smelled so good!

Finally the waterfall Shots!

The much awaited waterfall pictures! Like I said before the pictures will not do it justice....but at least you can see the magnitude of these things! They were everywhere...barely visable through the fog and rain in this shot!

View going into the tunnel! Waterfalls falling everywhere!

This is the view we got when we came out of the the tunnel in the mountain. Like I said in my previous post, I have never seen this many waterfalls in my life! The drive in was 20 km. It was like this the entire way. This spot the Fiords were really dramatic, and the picture doesn't do it justice-imagine turning 360 degrees in all directions and seeing this on all sides!

Huge gushing waterfall off the side of the Milford Road. The next day it was sunny and this thing was not gushing like this!
Jayme and I on the Red Boat Tour of the Milford Sound. In the background is Mitre Peak. We were on the top deck of the boat and the wind was so strong that it picked up my flip flops and sent them over the edge. Made me laugh ...and we even managed to salvage one!

Waterfall inside the Milford Sound-Fiordland National Park.

Me on the Boat ride in front of the main waterfall. This waterfall is always in the Sound! Right after Jayme took this picture, I got soaked trying to take pictures of the waterfall itself! The captain brought the boat right up under it!

Mitre Peak on the Milford sound, glad when we finally got a nice day!

Our dollar store X-mas tree in the campervan! It really helped make things feel like Chritmas and was well worth the money! It also served as a smile grabber! I can't tell you how many people walked by and smiled seeing our little tree! Glad to know that I could make happy!

Sunset on the Otago Peninsula.

I put this picture here for Joy and Mike...This was in a mall in Dunedin...I couldn't believe it! They only carried four kinds of coffee and all just regular flavors.

Yellow-eyed Penguin, as seen from Sandfly Bay on the Otago Peninsula. These Penguins are the world's rarest penguins and are a threatened species numbering fewer than 3,000 breeding birds. To get to the bay you had to hike down huge dunes and this spot is one of the last free spots in New Zealand to be able to catch a glimpse of them. We lucked out to have one walking across the dunes at the time we hiked there!

Waves crashing at Sandfly Bay on the Otago Peninsula. The water was perfect!

Baldwin St. This street is in the Guiness Book of World Records and is the World's Steepest Street. We rode the campervan up it and I almost thought at that last hump we weren't going to make it...so I gunned it....and thank God we did! Had to laugh as everything in the campervan flew backward! We even got a certifcate of completion! The houses off the sides all had to be built on angles.
Another view of the street from the top looking down....It is so steep over the hump there, that you can't even see some of the road!
Me on top of the Moeraki Boulders near the town of Dunedin, on the East Coast side ! These boulders are world famous and took 4 millions years to create, and are thought to be 65 million years old!
Another one of the boulders with the inside carved out. The water around the boulders seems to be a permanent thing. The outside of the boulder is covered with mollusks. Most of them still living.

This is another view of the Moeraki Boulders. This is one that had broken apart!

Last day on the South Island

Hey everyone....Well today was another magnificent day! Before I tell you about it...you have to hear about the past few days...since I left Christchurch...we decided to head back to the west side to see if we might try and escape the rain...the weather here moves from east to west and south to north. To my good luck....the plan worked! We spent the past two days driving back and forth across the upper part of the South Island! Had sun most of the time..with a few spells of rain here and there! This was the most wonderful thing! I am certain that my prayers were answered because the past three days were absolutely perfect. After heading to the west coast for the day(yes I stopped at my new favorite brewerey), we stopped in this valley to make some dinner. Just as I picked this spot...the air was beginning to mist some rain and two of the most beautiful rainbows appeared in the valley with mountains surrounding us on all sides! I couldn't believe my luck! I could actually see the end points where the pot of gold was! If we had driven just a couple more kms down the road...they wouldn't have been visable! The sun broke through the clouds perfectly over my little valley! During the time we made dinner and cleaned up...these rainbows appeared and reappeared a number of times! By the time the day was over...I called this spot the valley of rainbows! And it was all mine.....this road was not heavily traveled through, and a couple kms in either direction...you couldn't see the rainbows. I felt as though I was in heaven and couldn't believe how amazing these rainbows were...and yes I have more great pics to show you to prove it! These will come with the pictures of the waterfalls on my next series of photos from the south island!
Now, yesterday I spent the entire day in the hot springs of Hanmer Springs...and I know I don't have to explain how wonderful it is to spend the day soaking in the mineral- rich waters? But the best of the best happened today! We were in Kaikoura, which is back on the east side of the island....and this area is a great marine sanctuary. The reason for this...is due to the shape of the shelf of the ocean off the peninsula. The ocean drops 800 meters right near the coast. This is rare to have such deep depth so close to the shore! The currents that move through the area cause huge areas of upwelling! To those who don't know what this means....it means areas of very nutrient rich water, which make it a marine paridise! The animals love the deap water that are full of krill and all sorts of fish for them to feed on! Every part of the food chain in the oceans are found in this area, including whales and dolphins! So today at the last minute...I told Jayme that the dolphin encounter looked really neat and we had just enough time to jump on the last boat out for the day. In this cruise you get the chance to see Dusky dolphins up close (they are only found in the southern hemisphere!) We decided to only do the observation from the boat and not swim because it was more money! Well--- As soon as we get out.....we spot killer whales! This is my favorite of all marine mammals and I have never seen them in the wild! I was going crazy! They were so beautiful and our guides told us this was a very unique experience and only happens maybe once every month or so! I couldn't believe my luck again! We saw a pod, of males and females with several juviniles! I almost cried they were so beautiful! Then we go to see if we can catch up with the Dusky dolphins....we finally catch some and I am shooting loads of pictures from the front of the boat when the tour lady asks if we wished we would have done the swimming? I tell her yeah, but this is nice too....well she says..since a couple people got sea-sick...she has some extra wet suits if we want to jump in! I am like hell-yeah...I throw on the top of the wet suit vest and jump in, with only that and a mask, fins, and snorkel, and my skirt....in minutes I am in the cold water not even noticing the water temperature as these Dusky dolphins are swimming right by me! What a magical day.....and yeah I have lots of great photos...and can't wait to post them! Greg...thanks for the update! I am glad that you are doing so good in Charleston...are you working on your masters now or PhD? Joy...thanks for the update on the stars..some of this I knew, but I can't beleive that Danny beat out Stephanie...she must have made some enemies...that sucks I really wanted her to win! Oh well....Laurie...I am so glad to hear that you started your own blog....after I make this post I am going to check it out! 10 days till X-mas everyone! Love to all!

New Zealand South Island Photos

Hey all...I am in Christchurch, the south islands's biggest city. And the forcast is for rain for the next week...on both islands. So a good time to do a blog update! I have many pictures to post from the south island....but for a start these are going to be it. It takes me a while to do these and I don't want to spend all day here! Anyway....we are almost done with the south island tour. We catch the ferry back to the north island on the 16th...and the funny thing...it so happens to be the day in which the red carpet opening event for King Kong, is in New Zealand....in Wellington of all spots...exactly where we will be! The funny thing is, that I met the art director, for the movie, and his family at a laundrymat of all places! Kind of cool huh? He even met Peter Jackson. Weird how cool things like these can happen. Linda if you are reading this...I hope you had a great boat trip, saw many waterfalls, and have a great time in Tahiti! Anyway, the south island has been great...and with only a few days left..we are going to head to a hot springs area and then back to the east coast side to do some whale watching and wine tasting...I hope everyone is doing good....leave me a message if you get the chance!


This is me on the beautiful Marlbough Sound! This area has many mountains and the ocean is so pretty turquoise in color! It was beautiful to drive through!


Sunset on the campervan, outside of Nelson town, on the west coast of the South Island. Right on the Tasman Sea!


This is a view from the water taxi of Abel Tasman National Park. We took a water taxi boat ride along the entire length of the park. Then had it drop us off at an area and hike a portion of the trek. This area is popular to kayak through too!

This is a view from the trek of Anchorage Bay. The bay is where the boat dropped us off. We hiked about 11.5 km(7 miles) of the trek back to the starting point. The whole trek is 56 km and takes about 3-4 days to do the whole thing!

Waterfall on the trek.

Me on the Abel Tasman Coastal Trek....this was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on! It lead through jungles, with waterfalls off to the sides and views of the Tasman Sea...through many vista points.

This is a picture of the Pancake Rocks. Deep within the crevasces, are many vents that lead out to the ocean. When the tide rises, it fills in through the vents and you can hear swashes of water as it protrudes through the vents. There are whole areas of rocks absent...and you can watch the rise and fall of the tides! It was pretty cool!

Punakaki Pancake Rocks and vents. This is a picutre of the ocean water shooting up through a vent in the rocks. This area was very unique, and at high tide the water is shoots much higher, but unfortunately I didn't visit at that time!

More pictures of the glacier...sorry I just couldn't get enough of them!!! This should make you all feel better, that you are not the only ones surrounded by ice. The only difference is, is that it is summer here, and I hiked in and out all in the same day!

Franz Josef Glacier! This was a first for me! This glacier once was much bigger, in fact on the road driving to the hiking spot, which is about 10 miles from this spot....there was a sign that said, this is where the glacier was in 1750. The glacier began receeding for a while but has been growing again in the past ten years. Every day it grows about 1 meter and on some days up to 5 meters. I couldn't believe how quickly they grow! This was a pretty unique experience, being that it is one of the few subalpine and easliy accessable glaciers in the world. It took only 1 hour to hike to the terminal point.

This is a picture of the top of the glacier...from as far as I could see, at the level I was at. The ice at the top is very blue in color.

Me in front of the terminal of the glacier. This is the endpoint of the glacier.

Me touching my first glacier! The blue color of the ice happens when all the layers of snow compact together.
Me in the sky lodge tower drinking my new favorite beer made in New Zealand...tomorrow I am going to the brewery where they make it! It is a lemon-lime lager (you know how I like those flavored ales) called Moteiths Radler! This was a great spot to view the city, and if you are up for it, they also have bungee jumping and paragliding! Maybe next time for me....a little too much money for these things and I still have 12 months left!
Jayme in the skyline gondola to the top of the mountain side. From the top, there are short hikes, views of the entire valley and Queenstown, a restaurant and bar, and the lake surrounded by mountains. This is the view with the city below.

Queenstown Lake before sunset.

The sunset from Queenstown beach.

This is the sunset my last night in Queenstown. The city is centered on this lake, in a valley surrounded by mountains.