New Zealand Here We Come!

THE FINAL BLOG!

2010-05-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

Heading to the airport in a few mintues! The time has gone by faster than expected.Farewell New Zealand. Thanks for the unforgettable memories and the trip of a life time. We will be back, and thats a promise.

The NewZealand Book Club

2010-05-07T16:19:00.000-07:00

The countryside is a wonderful setting for a book...here are the titles that have kept my mind busy:
There's a Cow in my Garden- Diana Lancaster
The Happy Hooker- Xaviera Hollander
A Million Little Pieces- James Frey
Into the Wild- Jon Krakauer
Tuesdays with Morrie- Mitch Albom
Pyramids of the Mind- Malcolm Southwood
Persian Love- Omar Khayam
Jonathan Livingston Seagull- Richard Bach
The Prophet- Kahlil Gibran
Lunch with the Generals- Derek Hansen
The Evolution Man- Roy Lewis
What Dreams May Come- Richard Matheson

And going in order::::
Living a sustainable lifestyle...I want chickens when I get my own place.

The title says it all, but it's an amazing insight into the life of a madam.

Not my favorite, but oprah liked it. Would be sad to think James was my age when the story took place..too bad he fibbed the bulk of it.

Can't go a few months without rereading this favorite of mine...go Alexander.

Everyone has read it so I don't need to touch on Tuesdays.

Not recommended, its a bit out there, mentions rebirths way too much for my liking.

Translated by Len Bracken, a wonderful series of poems dealing with none other than wine.

I stole both Jonathan and Prophet from Patch...Thanks, they are two of my favorite short reads.

Lunch with the Generals- I am saving for the lay over in Fiji, SIX HOURS.

My favorite new book, hilarious look at ape-men and their discovery of fire.

Haven't seen the movie yet but can't wait.

2010-04-30T14:42:00.000-07:00

Man oh man. What an amazing Birthday! I must say Garrett went above and beyond to make my birthday great! My favorite part of the day was my hand made birthday card. A creative cluster cuss of birthday love. Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes. We have one week left on the farm until we depart for Auckland in hopes of selling Lady Bird. Wish us LUCK, it seems like it will be more difficult than we expected. Tonight should be a very interesting night to say the least. George and all his kids including some neighbors are going on a wild turkey hunt. Without hesitation Garrett and I asked if we could join in on the festivities. Around 50 or so turkeys were caught on their last hunt! 50!!!!!!!!! What am I getting myself into? Nah.... It should be good fun!
Have a great weekend y'all! Cheers... Much Much Love

2010-04-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!...

How stressful to be the only one around to celebrate a birthday. Pressure was on but thankfully we pulled through. Breakfast was a success thanks to Alton Brown and his French Toast (I can't wait to watch the food network back at home, they only show rachelray out here...blah). Mimosas were simple enough. Adair wanted to go to TE MATA CHEESERY for some lunch. It was a beautiful day and the cheese plate Adair ordered was AMAZING. Heaps of cheese and some yummy chutneys. The cheese was all local and real smelly. We came back to the farm and started making pizzas. I made some dough earlier in the day and it was ready to start knocking back. Adair made the tastier of the two pizzas. Hers was as follows: Lamb sausage with apricot, topped with roasted capsicums, onions, and two cheeses (gouda and havarti ?? i think). Instead of a red sauce she made a her own garlic spread using goodies from the garden. IT was sooooo good. Since it was her birthday she got to boss me around and tell me how to make my pizza. The ingredients weren't my first choice, but the pizza turned out to be delicious, unreal how good. Mine was as follows: home made pesto, though not fully a basil pesto, more so heaps of spinach and sarrow and mint. It was topped with wild smoked salmon and pear, some roasted garlic and a small sprinkle of cheese. We barbequed the pizzas and enjoyed them with a salad over a candle lit setting. WOW>where did I learn all this?? Who would of thought I could be so romantic. We finished with banana splits with sparkler candles. Her Birthday was special, and I hope she had fun.

Before her birthday we set out on our last roadie...It didn't last long. Apparently they take a little planning, which to our surprise, neither of us did any. Our first clue was when we stepped into the car and both asked WHERE TO, followed by a JINX. After some unassuring laughter, we decided to just head north. We made it half the distance we wanted and stayed in Rotorua. This was our third visit to the town. We had every intention of heading to Auckland, then further north to Paihia. Then we remembered that petrol doesn't come cheap and it would be some $400 worth of it to get anywhere near where we wanted. We were spoiled by sharing the price of petrol with our friends Tom and Jeremy. After a long night in Rotorua discussing the logistics of our trip to come, we woke up and headed to Auckland. We had the intention of handing out flyers to hostels and other postboards (anybody want to buy a car?). We made heaps of copies, and only passed out three. Auckland is a dirty place, nothing fun to offer the two of us, and we scurried out. Instead of continuing on to Paihia, we went back to Rotorua. Rotorua is along the THERMAL HIGHWAY...aka HOTPooLS. It is a serious tourist trap. The hotpools are mainly owned by the local maori, and they are a rip off. But, if you are keen enough on finding one, a short bush walk leads you to some amazing secrets. We found two amazing hotsprings, one with a hot waterfall, the other with two streams, one hot one cold. We spent the next two days at the pools. We met some crazy and some fun people. We gave ourselves facials using the mud (in which the local shops sell at about $50 per application). I think Adair had five facials in five hours. Our skin has never been so nice.

We came back to the farm earlier than expected. The weather in Hawkes Bay is something like San Clemente..always perfect. While the rest of the country is either in a drought (Auckland and north) or being flooded (the whole South Island), Hawkes Bay offers slight breezes, and a perfect temperature of 24 degrees C. It wasn't a hard choice for us to forget about the roadie and come back to paradise. We now see why people don't get out of Southern California much.

Since we have been back.....
Ken left for Europe. He is on a two month holiday and left his farm to a friend. So now we are working for George, from Scotland. He has four kids, all teenagers. The oldest is out of the country, the second is keen on horses. She breaks them, trains them, sells them, buys another. The third is a runner. He breaks all the local records and has all the flash coaches looking after him. The youngest is a mountain biker. Such a lively group, it has been only a few days but heaps of fun. George really doesn't make us work at all, so we pittle around doing whatever odd job we can find.
Our time here is short and we are taking in all the experiences we can
See yall sooner than I want
Much love

Eat.... Drink.... and Be Merry!!!!!!

2010-04-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

Road Trippin

2010-04-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

Welp, we are off on our final road trip! Heading to the Bay of Islands then back to Hawkes Bay in time for my Birthday! We will update some pictures when we get back!
Cheers!

Our Apologies

2010-04-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

From where we left off...

We are still living on the farm. Poor old guy can't get rid of us. We made ourselves comfortable in our loft, practically moved in, and are pretending to be proper kiwi farmers. We wake up, drink tea and have toast or eggs. We work till 1045ish, have more tea, then continue working till lunch, where we have another cup. Our work is more of the same, some painting,cleaning, move this, do that, pick this, plant that. blahblah. We spend our afternoons relaxing, taking advantage of the wineries. Some of the workers even recognize us. Dinners have been amazing, fresh veggies, fresh lamb, lots of pumpkin and potatoes. During the week, I spend some time at the dojo. DAD, we were taught the arm bar and triangle backwards (both from closed guard). I have learned a new technique, it will blow you away. During the time I am gone,Adair winds down and gets her first free seconds away from everything/body. No big deal, she just relaxes with a glass of wine out in the country with beautiful views all around her...don't be jealous.

Things we have kept busy with..
Day as a winemaker. Clearview vineyards, Hawkes Bay. We spent the morning with the owner and two winemakers learning about the business and process. We picked our own chardonnay grapes, pressed them in an old school press. We compared this juice with the same grape picked the day before. We learned about BRIX tests, along with how to use refractors and other instruments to test sugar levels. After, we enjoyed an amazing lunch with everybody. The meal was amazing, I had eggplant, Adair fish, and they provided the wine. We were the youngest by at least twenty years. OH well.
Backpack. We hiked from Ocean Beach north towards Cape Kidnappers. We followed the beach and having to chase the tides, made our way up to an old whaling station. IT was heaps of fun and we didn't see a soul while we were out. Adair did amazing for her first backpack.
Easter. Nothing.
Things to come...
We are staying here until the 18th, then headed on a roadie. We plan to head north to Pahia, Bay of Islands. That was the first place we explored outside of Auckland. We think it's appropriate to have our final destination the same as our first. We come back to Ken's farm on the 26th, in time for ADAIR'S BIRTHDAY > I love this time of year, for a solid month plus some, I can tell everyone I am dating an older woman...how sexy. We come back to the farm for only a week or so, then we are off for good.
This trip has been shorter than we anticipated. It went by so fast, we return in a months time. CRAZY. Good thing our visas are good for a year if we have any last minute change of heart.
Miss everyone.
Happy Birthday Hilary.
Congrats KIMI, hope everything went perfect.
If anyone gets the chance, we highly recommend the movies BOY and THIS WAY OF LIFE

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2010-03-17T23:06:00.000-07:00

JUST WANTED TO SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PAPA BROWN! WISH WE COULD BE THERE TO GIVE YOU A BIG BIRTHDAY HUG! WE LOVE YOU AND WE WILL SEE YOU IN MAY! XOXOXO

kiwi farm life

2010-03-12T13:18:00.000-08:00

Gooday y'all. Since we last left off. Coromandle was beautiful, perfect weather. Oh and there was a tsunami. We were staying a hundred meters from the beach, someone woke us up and warned us of the doom to come. We packed up our tent real quick like and went to the shore to watch.... but nothing came. We took off southbound and ended up in Gisborne for the night. Once again, ANOTHER tsunami. Once again, we went to the shore to watch...and again nothing. Instead of the supposed monster wave, the tide came up three extra meters real fast and went back out to leave a really low tide. BORING. We left Gisborne and headed further south along the coast. There, we encountered the monster waves. But let me backtrack...We left Gisborne and headed to Napier. We had a semi-promised job waiting for us picking fruit. Apparently, everyone goes to Napier to pick apples. We decided that instead of getting paid the minimum fourteen NZD per hour, we chose to work for free in return for some food and a roof. We signed up for FHiNZ (Farm helpers in New Zealand) and started making calls to see if any farms could use two useless helpers. We lucked out and met Ken, a sub sixty something year old outside Napier by forty some kilometers. He farms cattle and sheep. We help out with simple chores, he provides food for three meals a day, sometimes beer. OH, and we have our own house. No big deal. Two bedroom, kitchenette/living room and deck. We work from eight thirty to one, with one tea break. Our work tends to be gardening, weeding, mowing, house, cooking. We make our own jams and Adair made a bomb quince jelly (awesome with stinky blue cheese). In our afternoons we go wine and cheese tasting (tastings are free, have I mentioned that yet?). I recently found a juijitsu club. It has been a while since I got on a mat but its really fun. The instructor, third degree black belt in the Gracie BJJ system, is extremely nice, gave me a gi to work out in, and let me teach one class. At home, we are exploring with new foods, including lamb liver and kidney. Fresh liver and kidney, extremely fresh, though we will spare the details. Adair is spending a ton of hours in the kitchen, cooking Ken and I amazing dinners. Corn chowder has been my favorite.

We recently went up to Ken's other farm, much larger and a few hours away up in Taihape. We helped weigh sheep and seperate them into different paddocks. Threehundred plus sheep were the right weight to be sold, the other lambs were left to get fatter. Taihape was a step back in time, true kiwi farmers, no more than twelve street lights in town. It was beautiful, but we did have some adventure dealing with clustercuss flies (swarm flies). They had got into the rooms, hundreds and hundreds of them, Big Horse flies. Other bugs attacked us through the night, but we survived to bear the wounds. We are back on the other farm (near Napier) and Ken has left to Auckland. He left us a list of chores and trusts us to take care of the farm, all thousand sheep and some eighthundred heads of cattle. RIGHT. We will report later, oh and ps, We are going to fly a plane.

P.S.

2010-02-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

Nick T-good luck with the poker, hope to see you soon
Ali/Hil-the New Zealand accent is nothing like the one yall practiced, nice try though
Curtis-how's school?
Nick-how's it being the only child/Explorers
Janelle/Scott (but mainly scott)- You oughta be jealous of the mntbiking. THanks for everything
Shaun-IT IS like the Land Before Time
Daniela-the beard is on its way, and beautiful..and youll like it
Surprise C.F.-(you know who you are)-we collected better sea shells than you
El Jefe-camow from g -miss you from a
all others- cheers
Mom/Dad (Both sets)- we are safe, filled with good food,good wine, bad beer and great memories. Love you

2010-02-26T19:54:00.000-08:00

summary in short...

-from Queenstown we headed to the West Coast to Fox Glacier.
-Hiked up the Fox Glacier
-Drove Fox Glacier to Picton, ferry from Picton to Wellington, Wellington to Rotorua. STRAIGHT...(blagh)
-Went to some hot springs while the boys went Luging
-Rotorua to Hot Water Beach/Cathedral Cove
-Cathedral Cove to Auckland, dropped off boys at midnight, then drove to Beachlands
-Slept in car for first time in Beachlands
-Went to Duders beach and wine tasting at Twilight
-Twilight manager offered her shower and laundry, we chose to only use shower...we then shared a glass of wine with her and her husband. Joy (the manager) opened a bottle of Pinot Gris. Earlier that day while tasting, Adair mentioned it was her favorite-How nice of her to remember and open a whole bottle for us.
-Second night in car
-Drove back to Coromandel (Cathedral cove etc), met Kiri and Ross
-Stayed with Kiri Ross and son Cory on farm
-Milked cows
-Ate fresh lamb (slaughtered that day, on site, which Kiri and Ross raised themselves)
-Stayed two nights on farm
-More wine tasting (Its free out here)
-Went up to Coromandel Peninsula, all dirt roads, Ladybird didn't see pavement for three days
-Back to Whitianga (that's where Kiri's farm is)
-Kayak
-Off to Napier sooner or later
much love

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pictures say enough, words later

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pictures finally

2010-02-17T19:08:00.001-08:00

photos take so long to upload

queenstown

2010-02-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

We left Christchurch...in my opinion the town was not very exciting. Except for the (and I correct myself) Adrenaline Forest. It was a ropes course with six different stages, each progressively higher and more difficult. Only Jeremy and I made it to the last one. Our challenges were 20 meters up in the trees, and the zip-lines were fast. After that, we celebrated our achievements with a few ((??)) beers and hit the road again. We are now in Queenstown. On the drive I must have forgot to gas up because we coasted down the mountain on fumes and barely got away without having to push the darn wagon. The town is beautiful, others say it reminds them of Tahoe. We are staying with some friends on a house that overlooks the lake. We might be here a while because of all the activities. Thomas and Jeremy are going skydiving soon (Adair and I will pass, once is enough). Then they have bungy-jumping and the shotover swing (much like a bungy but a swing, not a straight drop). The four of us are going luging again and then later we are headed to the river for some white water rafting...It will be Adair's first time. Then we have a threeday tramp, cliff diving, wakeboarding, mountain biking for myself, as well as relaxing and sleeping lake-side. After all that, we are thinking of heading to Milford Sound.

on the road

2010-02-05T11:50:00.000-08:00

Where did we leave off...Waitomo Caves?? Home of the ever so romantic 'shiny shit.' The four of us thoroughly enjoyed visiting the caves. The glow worms are incredible to see. But as any business runs, we were unable to use our own cameras to take photos so yall will have to wait to see the cave shots. Our tour guide was hilarious (as well as the other couple that joined us). We got in our wetsuits, helmets, and gumboots and headed into the bush. We climbed down a slender hole into a pitch black cave. It was romantic for the two of us to lay in the rafts and float under the glow worms. The mood was then interrupted by a biology lesson about the worms. Here is a short version....They are not worms, they are maggots. They do not glow themselves, it is their sh*t. As youngens, they only eat, then they blossom into beautiful 'mosquitos on steriods' and 'shag' until they are eaten by their young...It was still an amazing sight. After the caves we booked it to New Plymouth, endured a wind storm, and headed further south. We skipped Wellington-it was a city, and who wants to stay in a city-and took the 2:30am ferry to Picton. Once on the South Island, we slept outside a gas station (we were out of petrol and the stations were closed), only to wake up and find out we were less than a kilometre from the 24hour stations (we blame thomas for that one). We then proceeded to skip Blunheim where we wanted to go wine tasting because of the poor weather. We headed to Abel Tasman. It was the right choice. It was beautiful, warm, and we had the beaches all to ourselves. We went on four hour hike up in A.T.Nat'l Forest to a little beach. We paddled back on kayaks making stops at other small coves and enjoying the likes of seals and birds back to our starting point. We have since left Abel Tasman (much to my dismay) and are now in Christchurch. We plan on heading into the bush today to experience something called "the Adventure Forest." ......

hope all is well.
We will upload pictures soon.
With love.

Sorry for the Delay!!!!

2010-01-30T11:43:00.001-08:00

Hi guys!!!!!So much has happened in the last few days. This past week has been so busy! well.... we got our car, a Subaru station wagon. She is a beauty :) We named her lady bird and so far she has been great. We decided on going for a station wagon over a van because we felt it was more economical and suited us a bit better. The first day we bought her we hit the road. We couldn't wait any longer to get out of the city. We headed north for a 4 day camping road trip. Our first stop was in the Bay of Islands. Simply amazing is all i can really say. White sand beaches and crystal clear water with little islands surrounding us. We set up camp at Haruru Falls and went kayaking down the river through lush forests. The next day we continued north to make it to Cape Reigna, which is the northern most part of the north island. We went hiking down this jungle mountain to an awesome beach were the two of us played in the water and we happened to be the only 2 on the beach. I cant really put into words how beautiful everything is, its surreal. After our day of hiking we set up camp right on the beach got a good night sleep and headed out in the morning. On our way back south we drove down 90 mile beach which here is a legal highway. We were told by some locals that when driving down 90 mile beach we can pull of the side and go shell fish hunting, so we did and caught ourselves about 50 or so. We ended up cooking them for dinner that night. Continuing our drive south we hit up the sand dunes to go sand boarding which was unbelievable. We hiked up these dunes to go 60 mph back down them. We did one more night of camping, drove back down to Auckland the next day to pick up Thomas and Jeremy at the airport. WE are now in Rotarua, where we went zorbing, luging, and a sky swing. The for of us stayed in a hostel last night and today we are on our way to go rafting through the glow worm caves. BUSY BUSY BUSY! But so much fun. Miss y'all and wish you could be doing these adventures with us!

Home Sweet Home

2010-01-24T19:30:00.000-08:00

WE BOUGHT OUR NEW HOME. whoopwhoop. details later

Days Gone By

2010-01-22T21:15:00.000-08:00

The past few days have been a bit overwhelming to say the least. We have been still exploring Auckland and becoming some what settled in.The two guys we share our room with are nice and to themselves for the most part. One from Germany and one from Japan( Simon and Kinti). We have quickly realized that eating and drinking out may be more expensive than we like, so we made our way to a market a few blocks from our hostel and stocked up on some food for the week. Our search for a car is ongoing but we think we found a winner. We will post pictures when it's final. I wish I could rub in how perfect the weather is, but after the first two beautiful days, we have been experiencing down pours and gusty wind. The locals say that it will be gone as fast as it came seeing as though it has been perfect weather all month up until two or three days ago. Even though the weather has been bad, it didnt stop us from going out and exploring more. Today we found ourselves at Mission Bay, a 5k walk along the water just south of our hostel. It was an amazing sight...... The city is beautiful and all, but we are itching to get out on the road and venture to the country side!
p.s. Thanks Trish and Larry for the rain jackets. They came in handy sooner than we thought they would.
pss. Aunt Kim, we got in touch with Christine and should be meeting up with her soon.

flight and arrival

2010-01-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

WE made it! What a flight, and an amazing first two days. Here is a brief overview of all events. LAX was a breeze, except for the thirteen dollar two bites of quesadilla. Literally, two bites, ridiculous (thank adair for that one). But the drinks were good, and cheaper than the food. Flight was easy, no turbulance and seemingly short. The layover in Fiji was hot, humid, and a long wait. The flight from Fiji to Auckland was short and beautiful. We took a shuttle to downtown Auckland, put ourselves up in a hostel (QSB) and took off into town. We took the ferry to Devonport and walked around the area. We searched underground tunnels and scaled barnicle-filled seawalls...and found ourselves on at a beautiful bay. The tide happened to be out, a few hundred yards out. We could walk seemingly forever in ankle deep water filled with star fish. We ate dinner in downtown Devonport. Drank a bottle of wine and fell asleep. Today we walked and walked and walked and sat down on a bench overlooking all of town. It was surreal, wish yall could see what we see. Miss everyone
ps.. thanks tom and carlotta for the packs, They are kickass
ps.. thanks patch for the day pack, its also kickass
ps.. thanks to our parents and family. love yall

2010-01-12T14:47:00.000-08:00

So...... after much debate and discussion, Garrett and I think it is only appropriate that he starts our trip clean cut and fresh and then let nature take its course for the remainder of the four months! This could be a great idea or a complete disaster! Lets hope customs allows him back in the US!
*This is what we predict he will look like. Compliments of Danny!

The Countdown has Begun!

2010-01-11T14:28:00.000-08:00

6 days left until we leave on a jet plane. Hard to believe that it is finaly here! Garrett and I semi started to pack today. I must say that I think its going to be alot easier for him to pack than me. It hasn't yet hit me that im not allowed to pack lavishly. Thank goodness he is around to tell me what to and what not to bring! Every little ounce counts when backpacking, but, I dont see the harm in a few extra shirts. Right? Anywho, this week is going to fly by.....we have alot to do before departure! So excited! Can't wait!