New Zealand Roadtrip: The South Island.

The road trip has commenced.


So far in our journey, we’ve pounded 2,068 kilometers of pavement in the car in New Zealand alone. We left Queenstown and journeyed up the entire west coast of the south island. It’s on the west side we saw lush mountains, the coast of the Tasman Sea, both Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers and cool attractions such as an incredible natural mystery known as the pancake rocks.




Then we cut east en route to Abel Tasman National Park and in one of those traveling moments of magic, we were able to turn a day hike in the park into an overnight backpacking trip. Abel Tasman is a National Park different than any I've seen in that its on the coast and very beachy. Finally, we were north enough that a beach meant a little warmth and sunshine as New Zealand closes in on Autumn and starts to get cold.





From there we shed our backpacks and traded them for wine glasses and real beds in Nelson and I have to say, it felt great. We stayed in the loveliest hostel I’ve ever seen in the heart of town and I found Nelson to be a less touristy version of Queenstown. There we also met up and had dinner with one of Tyson’s friends from Aspen who was there picking fruit for work. Ahh dinner not prepared on a teeny backpacking stove. Glory.



Finally, we spent an afternoon in Picton before boarding our ferry to Wellington and the north island. Teeny Picton was beautiful, but I don’t think we needed more than a few hours of loafing around the streets and the waterfront so this worked out perfectly. This particular afternoon in Picton though did mark our last moments on the south island of New Zealand. As the days ticked away we saw new towns and cities and Australia and Seattle loomed in the distance.
I feel as though I’m abbreviating so much of this piece of the trip…but alas, we are already through Cairns and another 1,300 kilometers into Australia in the car, so I am just anxious and excited to post on everything.

Traveling...

Gosh, this is nutty. I’m sitting here at an immaculately clean hostel in Sydney, AUS (notably different from many of the hostels I stayed in while backpacking Europe TEN years ago. TEN in all caps because I can’t believe its been that long and I am yet again, feeling like a grandma. No offense, Grandma P, because YOU RULE). All caps.

It’s been such a whirlwind. Going from living abroad somewhere and all that comes and goes with that – still very unique, and also some sort of structure and relaxation – to traveling, which is a constant flurry of movement and forward-thinking to the next destination. I had forgotten these characteristics of traveling from that stint ten years ago. And traveling in this way is both amazing but also has the recipe for total disaster. We’ve had incredible days driving up New Zealand’s west coast for the past week plus, and eating like a King and Queen in Wellington. I will get to that portion in a later post with pictures. Yesterday was one of those disaster moments.

We were up at 4am, which for anyone who doesn’t have kids is a brutal hour of the day, especially when its coupled with the intensity and flash thinking of getting out the door and getting to the airport on-time for a 6:30am flight. The day went something like this: Out the door five minutes late. Got lost on the way to the airport = Stressful in the car. But we found it! Yay! Happy again in the car. Get to the airport on-time, however a giant line brings the anxiety back to my stomach. We finally make it to the check-in counter cutting it close and the gal behind the counter isn’t in haste. She lets us know that we are WELL OVER the 20kilo/per person limit for our bags. Um, news to us that there is a limit on an INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT. (insert me marveling at how backpackers can actually travel these days – again there’s Gramdma talking about “these days” – because its just so insanely expensive to travel and get around in this day and age). The excess charge? Yep, that will be $300. The moment she decides to drop this bomb on us is also the moment that her boss comes over to freak out that we are not yet through security. “Open the gate!” She shouts. “We need an escort to get them through!” She shouts again. Meanwhile, gal behind the counter continues to fumble through charging us for the excess. This might have been a moment where she could’ve said, “You know what, its too late and there isn’t enough time. I’m not going to charge you.” But she didn’t. And this went on for like five more minutes of fumbling while her boss freaked out about us needing to get to the gate. Seriously. Insert rage and panic starting to boil up from within me.

After the $300 mess, we begin running through the airport with our escort who is getting us to the front of every line possible, including customs and security. At security we are rushed, rushed, rushed – “Leave your shoes on!” Needless to say we are both flagged to have a bag searched. I’m baffled, as I have no idea what could possibly be liquid in my things. …Except the really expensive bottle of wine I bought to bring back as a souvenir! EFF. How could I have not known it was in my carry-on? And the snotty woman asked me the same thing, which incidentally started the tears. And the tears came down with a furry. Bawling. It was all I needed to tip the scales of sadness and exhaustion. Again we begin to run. I’m crying the entire time I’m running while Tyson is carrying nearly all of my things and trying to tell me its going to be okay. Patience of a saint is all I have to say. We go down escalators and we board a small bus that drives for seemingly ten minutes across the tarmac. When we finally get to the staircase to board our plane I notice that I do not have the laptop I took out of my bag at security. Amid the rushing and wine-taking and tears, I have totally forgotten about my laptop. A piece of my world containing so many things that are important to me i.e. all of my New Zealand photos, the book I’m writing, important renter and work documents etcetera etcetera. And as if we needed any more bludgeoning, Tyson realizes he too has left his identical laptop at security. This time I do not cry and instead I go into preservation mode. We flag down a ground crew man and tell him of our crisis. He sort of shakes his head knowing we need to board the plane and that we are so far away from security having had to take the bus to get there in the first place. Reluctantly he gets on his radio asking if someone has found two laptops. All I can think is that I do not care if we have to board a later flight, I’m not leaving without my macbook. Not today. Not after the baggage charge and the wine and my tears.

Someone has them.

Someone is rushing them to the plane.

We board. I’ve started bawling again. I don’t know why. I’m an emotional mess. A flight attendant is shocked by this and gives me a hug meanwhile another flight attendant is politely asking Tyson if I’m ok.

Ten minutes later that same ground crew man boards the plane with our laptops in-hand and gives them to us saying “Merry Christmas”.

All before 6:30am.

Ahhh traveling. Happy stories and photos to come. I think I just needed to purge this experience from my brain to start new again here in AUS.

Posts coming

So, we're traveling. And I forgot how A) exhausting it is. And B) that it costs money to spend time on the WWW. Which kills me inside a little. Just a little.

So yeah, I'd love to post and write and gush and vent about my experiences...but alas, you'll have to wait just as I have to wait.

Hope everyone is well!

Currently in Sydney...heading to Cairns tomorrow to snorkel and dive the Great Barrier Reef!

the final adrenaline rush.

Today was our last day in Queenstown. For months we've talked about which activity we should do in the long list of "adventure tourism" this town has to offer. Today was the day to lay our cards on the table. I'd been talking about either paragliding or skydiving and Tyson was pretty keen on Bungy jumping. So, in a whimsical decision, we did it.

Luckily, I was able to bounce along on the bus out to watch Tyson swan dive 43 meters down to a river off of the Kawarau Bridge. He absolutely loved it. I was terrified just watching him.






Then we hopped into a little van and wound our way up to the top of Coronet Peak so I could run and fly off of the mountain paragliding. It was so great.














We leave tomorrow at 8am. I can't believe this part of the experience is already over. Its been great and I have so many memories to show for it. Today included. Goodbye, Queenstown.

Routeburn Rain.

We started out with smiles on our faces. Our vacation had officially started! With an attempt at keeping the adventure going, we decided to bypass taking the bus to Glenorchy and the Routeburn Track trail head, and hitchhike instead.

FOUR rides and a few kilometers walk in what started as a sprinkle and we made it to the trail head.


The Routeburn Track was cool and I'm sure it would've been a lot cooler had it not been raining nearly the entire time we were on it. With a thick layer of clouds and fog, visibility wasn't great and often times we found ourselves looking out at nothing and wondering what that nothing would look like under a sky of blue. Probably some of the most spectacular views one could ever see, but ah well. It wasn't all bad and there were still some incredible waterfalls, suspension bridges and landscape, and it felt good to just be out and know the final leg of our adventure had begun. The first night we stayed in a hut and the second night we camped. We intended to camp a third night but all the rain our final leg was becoming dangerous and two different rangers told us we'd have to ford swollen rivers with the possibility of water up to our waists. Um, I wasn't sure that was a good idea. So we aborted the mission a day early and caught a ride back to Queenstown with a lovely woman.

Wet and cold we tramped along and snapped some photos when possible. Here's a sampling:












Here's me, grumpy and cold, in a shelter along the way. There were low points and some great high points too! This just may have been a low point. Ha! Looking forward to the beaches of the north and also Australia!

teeny delights.

There are small ways to tell each other I Love You. Sometimes its in a gesture like putting toothpaste on your partner's brush, so that when they decide to retire for the evening, coupled with the typical nightly hygiene ritual, they are met with a brush piled high with thoughtfulness. Or other times its when the universe decides that its absolutely necessary I see a spider - any size will do - and I know I can call upon Mr. Goep to happily scoop up endless spiders, never to kill them EVER, but to release them back into the wild. Heaven forbid he actually squash it. ...or think I'm totally insane for having to call upon him. Every time.

Its these and hundreds more that I wish to say thank you and I love you to my darling, Tyson, today.

Today is marked not by a passionate evening or a blind date, but rather a light and memorable telephone conversation between two people who were surprised to find someone interesting on the other end worth speaking to. And worth it every day for months afterward, until we decided it might make some sense to actually get together in-person, in the same city. The rest is history. Happy three-year anniversary from nearly that first telephone conversation. April Fool's Day 2007 was anything but a prank.

I look back on the last three years and I can't believe how much FUN we've had together. If the next three years and the next three after that and the next squared are even a sliver of the fun we've had so far, I'll be the happiest of clams. Just remember: I need a hug every morning, and keep playing your practical jokes. They make me laugh. And laughing rules.

I love you, Tyson. Happy Day.