Queenstown

Queenstown, NZ in winter is kind of sort of amazing. On the flight there you are flown right over the snow covered southern alps.



Once in the city you have views of more beautiful mountains.



Then if you want, you can take a gondola to the top of one of the mountains to get an amazing view of the city. Yes, the water of Lake Wakatipu is that blue.



By the way, if you're young, or young at heart, and looking for the time of your life, this is most definitely the city for you. Adrenaline junky activities galore by day, the most awesome party atmosphere by night. :)

shattered

Along Milford Highway

On the way to Milford Sound our tour bus stopped at a few places:


In a town called Te Anau we stopped for a break and I walked alone past the closed stores and down the empty main street to the lake, Lake Te Anau. I was the only person around. It was early morning, and the clouds were really low over the lake and there was a lone boat moored near the shore. The scene felt very eerie and desolate, yet beautiful at the same time.



Further down the road was the Mirror Lake of New Zealand.



Then flat land surrounded by mountains that I think is named Knob's Flat.

Sheeeeeeeeeep!!!

Did you know that there are upwards of 40 million sheep in New Zealand? That's 12 sheep for every ONE person. Wild! We saw muddy sheep, baby sheep, fat sheep, pink sheep, blue sheep, (serious, they spray paint them for fun), and only a very few clean white sheep. FYI, the baby sheep are A-dorable. Also in New Zealand are tons of dairy cows, and a few goats. Farm animals galore!

Big Blue.

One of the things I love about New Zealand is that the water in and around it is SO pure. That's the word that comes to mind instantly. It is so turquoise, so blue, crystal clear, and seemingly untouched by pollution. The rivers are not dirty brown, but rage and flow with ice-blue water that makes you want to jump in and play for hours, if not for the whole hypothermia thing. The ocean water at all the beaches is so clear you can see the reefs and tide pools teeming with life.

From the coast near Waipu...






To Mount Manganui...


See me? Those boulders were fun to climb on...


I love the turquoise water, I hope it stays this pure forever!
Behold the power of a fisheye lens:

Ray Ban Reflect.

Somewhere on the Great Ocean Road we pulled the car over and stopped at a look out point. Joy and I weren't so interested in the view to feel the need to get out of the car and take pictures, but Brian did, so we remained in the front seats while he did his thing. Joy and I were just chatting, when I happened to glance at my sunglasses that were laying on the dashboard.
The lenses reflected us all perfectly!
There's Brian on the outside taking his pictures and me with the camera and Joy in the car.
Magic!

Wild things.

Somewhere along the Great Ocean Road there's a little town called Kennett River, and if you turn off onto Grey River Road be ready for some Australian wildlife run-ins. It's a gravelly, bumpy dirt road that goes through a forest largely made up of Eucalyptus trees. I remember we were driving along the road waiting to see some wildlife and we rounded a curve and there on the side of the road were two kangaroos! I was so shocked to see some, (hey, it was my first kanga sighting!), that I shrieked, "Marsupials!!!!" right into Joy's ear. They must have heard me because they bounded into the woods out of sight before I could get my camera out. We saw a few more groups of them in the distance after that, though too far away for good pictures.

We also managed to find a koala! Koalas are known to be very lethargic, brainless creatures, and I found this to be very true. He only cared for his leaves and the one time he looked up mid-munch to notice the tourists gawking at him, he looked vacant and a little bit confused. After he gave up trying to figure us out, he went back to eating the leaf that was hanging out of his mouth.



On our way back to the main road, some tourist buses had parked at the beginning of the road and some idiot tourists were actually shaking, violently, a tree limb that a koala was resting on. The koala was hanging on for dear life and I'm sure he had to be thinking, "Flipping tourists!!! Go bother a kangaroo!!!" I don't know if they were just hoping to get any response out of the poor thing, or if they were hoping it would flop to the ground and come play with them? I don't know, but it was ridiculous. There was also a group of bright red parrots and one managed to land on a lady's head. Quite funny, and the lady had this, "Soooo, now what?" look on her face. Her friend was taking pictures and laughing.

These kangaroo pictures are from a different day on a different beach, Pebbly Beach close to Sydney. A local hyped it up, so we were expecting to see a lot of kangaroos on this beach, but only ended up seeing two. This kangaroo was real friendly, though I was nervous to be so close because I kept expecting his switch to flip and for him to drop kick me and claw my guts out - never happened. Yes, my imagination ran wild, that's how I roll. He actually let me pet him (very soft and wooly), which annoyed him, as he flinched when I touched him, and he was wondering why I wasn't giving him food, as he kept looking at me expectantly.
The pictures of me with the kanga are courtesy of Brian Barker.

The 12 Apostles

We made the LONG drive from Sydney to Melbourne (11 hours) so that we could drive The Great Ocean Road. I liken it to the Pacific Coast One from Santa Barbara to Monterrey. I can't decide which is prettier. After about 4 hours down the road (going East to West) we came upon the 12 Apostles, limestone rock formations that are separated from the cliffs. It started to rain while looking at the Apostles, but it went away when we went to the bottom of the Gibson steps, 87 steps down a cliff face that take you to the beach below and give you a view of the biggest Apostle.







One of a few "jump" pictures to come...

Milford Sound

Milford Sound is a fjord in the south island of New Zealand.

We took a boat cruise of the Sound - a freezing cold cruise, I might add - and saw absolutely beautiful scenery: Mountains, waterfalls, seals, dolphins that wanted to race the boat...

Sydney

On the Australia leg of our journey we spent the majority of our time in Sydney.

Here's the harbor at night.


Here's some waves on the rocks at Botany Bay, the Bay that Captain Cook (serious) sailed into when he discovered and claimed Australia for Britain in 1770.


Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

Aaahhhhpera House

So we went to Sydney and, of course, got pictures with the opera house. But not only did we do that, we actually went to an opera! We saw The Marriage of Figaro. Lovely music, comical plot, but I still almost fell asleep during the second act. It was almost 4 hours long, give me a break.

I thought my friend was getting pictures of the seagull...not me with the seagull.

All three...

From the other side...

4-3-2-1, bye-bye.

I went to New Zealand! One of the coolest things I did there was do the Nevis 134 Meter (or 440 feet) bungy jump courtesy of AJ Hackett Bungy in Queenstown.

Yep, that's me!

Here's how it went down:
The people who signed up for that bungy all got on a bus and they drive us to a canyon 45 minutes out of town. The bus turns off the highway onto this gravelly dirt road that winds up the side of a small mountain. We got to the building up top and they put each of us in a harness and then they take each of our weights. We go out to the viewing platform where we waited for a cable car to take us to the jump car. I wasn't nervous at all looking at the canyon and looking at where I was going to be jumping, I was even excited. It wasn't until I stepped off of the cable car into the jump car that I started getting nervous. We were suspended very high over this canyon and I couldn't even look down because if I did, my nervousness would have multiplied. It didn't help that part of the floor was glass so we could see what was below us. A few people before I jumped they put my ankle straps on, and then once it was my turn the crew let me through the gated off section and I sat down in the dentist chair. That's where they attach the bungy cord and I got to be closer to the jump platform and I got to get more nervous. Then the crew guy told me to get up and I waddled over to the platform (bound ankle straps, remember) and realized how really freaking high it was, I stood there for a few seconds while the crew guy took a picture, he counted "4-3-2-1, bye-bye" and I jumped right then because if I took any longer to think about it the fear would have compounded by the second. I had my eyes open for the first second or two, then I had to shut them because the speed and, you know, falling sensation was just too much, but I opened them again in time to watch myself come closer and closer to the ground. It was SUCH a rush! I'd definitely do it again.

Watch me jump!

Next stop, the highest bungy in the world? Macau Sky tower. 233 meters, baby. 764 feet. I'd die.

Mud.

6 days to New Zealand!

I fear my luggage bag is not big enough. Did I tell y'all that my last bag ripped a one foot seam on the trans-Pacific flight to Japan? Serious. Luckily my clothes were in those giant Ziploc bags (so that if the bag were to get rained on, the clothes wouldn't get wet. Also so the chances would go down of a security agent fondling my garments with his grubby hands.) and nothing fell out. So I bought a new one, though I'm not sure it's big enough. But the ones that are big enough are huge and I don't want a huge bag. Ugh. Whatever. I'm leaving the country! Woo-hoo!

Anyway.

This is a picture from when the fam was down here for the fourth. My uncle took my nephew for a four-wheeler ride and apparently went through the muddy creek bed. And mud got all over the nephew. He loved it.

Back!

Yes, yes, I know. It's almost been two months. An excuse, you say? Um. Just been blah about the blog world lately. But I have some new material for you. I'll start with the pictures here, and then perhaps later on down the road I'll fill you in on:
the time I almost got hit by lightning
the week I acquired 7 bruises
why I hate chlorine
why sunscreen is bad for you
and
my trip to New Zealand....AND Australia. Be jealous. :)

Sunset.

God rays.

Momma and newborn. No name for him yet...

Always waiting...

Oh, Babe. The poor dog's day is spent waiting for Mom to get home. Staring out the window...waiting.

dead tree

Bob-catting skills...

So, it's been awhile since I've reported on my dad doing something completely ridiculous. Usually there's an everyday display of his outstanding mental capabilities, but this one, ladies and gents, takes the cake.

He called me out of a deep sleep to come take a picture of something.
"Bring your camera!"
Knowing his track record I asked, "Did you find a snake?"
In a bashful little voice he goes,
"Quit asking questions and get out here!"
As I walked out my eyes were still trying to focus, so I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but when they finally did focus, I found this:

We're building a new shed out back for which we needed to rent a bobcat. Dad figured while the builders weren't using it he might as well get some long awaited work done, aka, pulling fence posts that have been in the ground 30 years. Only, the fence post didn't want to budge for the bobcat, so as he was trying to pull up, the wheels slid back and he came within a few feet of being on his face...Excellent!

Look, even Sophie's like, "Really? Really?"

Excellent bob-catting skills, right? Right?!

Squirrely Things.

Just in case you were wondering, the squirrels at Pfluger Park are very friendly. They let you get super close. But not close enough to pet.
Aw, nuts.