27

Cheers to me on 27 years.

One Week

One week of New Zealand is under the belt and what do I have to say for it --> NZ is beautiful, people are great and the sun is powerful. Since we arrived we have been doing more vacation type things, tourist activities. We kinda wanted the quick track to know the town and surrounding area. What better way to do this than watching some rugby in town, visit a local winery to sample the local eats and wines, drive a few kilometers out of town and go on a hike around Moke Lake, white water rafting on the Shotover River and have a few walks around town. All of these things were guided by our gracious local hosts Caitlin and Loren. We have also been eating well. Combined efforts to make amazing meals (mostly Caitlin) have been outstanding. What better to go along with dinner than local brews... Speights, Tui, Monteiths, Steinlager. Although they are tasty, I am missing out on a few tasty selections from the west coast.


Our Seattle friends Rob and Claudia have also been traveling abroad and stayed in Queenstown for 5 days. It was great to discover NZ with them and start our big adventure. From the moment we first landed up until now I am still in awe at the beauty of this landscape. Queenstown is nestled right up against Lake Wakatipu and the backdrop in every direction is towering mountains. Population 13,333, first settled in 1860, 310 meters above sea level. After discussing a few facts, it was brought to my attention that Queenstown is the sister city of Aspen! Funny how some things work out.

It has also been stressful getting settled. We are staying 4 km out of town and without a car it is a bit of a problem. Despite our hurdle, we have made the best of what we can the first week. We have caught rides with our hosts into town and walked back as it is a beautiful walk. I purchased a used road bike to get to and from the city center and Andrea is still looking for a bike. I have taken temporary ownership of one of our hosts old local cell phone to use while in town. I have also set up my Skype account so that I can call home. We have set up bank accounts, with ambitions to fill them with NZ dollars. We have spent a few hours walking town handing out CV's to potential employers. We purchased groceries. We are now looking at moving closer to town to make things much easier on ourselves. There are plenty of options available for people looking for 'flatmates.' We are going to see a few of them today and hopefully make a decision within the next few days. We have also discussed the option of purchasing a van to live out of and travel around the south island, considering it would cost the same to buy a van as it would to pay rent. Thoughts of it being an investment and having a vehicle to see the country and then hopefully sell the van before we depart makes sense. Just a fun thought for now. Well, our friends just left to travel back to Seattle and that is about all I have for this past week. An amazing expensive week full of great times --> the highlight was definitely finally having nice weather and rafting the Shotover (we rafted 170 meters through a tunnel!).

Wish us luck with jobs!

Welcome New Zealand

The whole travel experience was new for me as I have never traveled abroad, other than Canada, eh. Learned a few lessons, played some games, met some nice people, watched some movies and caught some Zzz's. Everything was going smoothly at first, despite the amount of luggage and bike in tow. When we arrived in LA, we found our airline and learned that when we were to arrive in Sydney we were to go through customs, pick up luggage then go back through ticketing & security. What fun we thought, but had no choice.

Flight to Sydney was 15 hours. We watched The Hangover together then a few other things on the personal TV screens provided. Ate a dinner and breakfast, and were provided with snacks in between if necessary. Slept quite a bit, not exactly sure but on and off for about 6 hours we think. Arrived in Sydney at 6 am and missed an entire day. It felt great to be across the world; it was sunny and beautiful. My first overseas flight complete!

Then on through customs to pick up our luggage, or so we thought. They would not let us through because we did not obtain Australia visas. We kindly explained we were told to pick up our bags by the airline and transfer them to the next flight ourselves. The customs girl, who was very nice and helpful, explained that our bags should be transferred automatically and that we could not make it through to pick them up regardless. Roadbump. I was simply thinking we had no choice so no sense in worrying whether our bags were going to make it to New Zealand. We turned around and started walking where directed while thinking about many things: where are our bags going to end up? what gate are we headed to? how do we get our boarding passes? WHEN IS OUR FLIGHT? (that's right, we did not know anything about our flight). We started to be a tiny bit frantic as those are all very important questions. Why didn't we print out the information? Just forgot, ooops. Once we found our gate, we then had a few more snafus with regards to our visas and boarding pass. We showed our necessary paperwork to the agent and after about 10 minutes and a large line building up behind us we were told everything was ok, other than the bag situation which was still an unsolved mystery. Boarded the plant to NZ thinking it was a 4 hour flight and turned out it was only 2.5 hours over the Tasman Sea. Landed and it was beautiful. We were nervous to go through customs knowing we did not have 2 items we needed: my bank statement showing current earnings and our return ticket. As the line became shorter and shorter, more and more nervous. Finally we were next and a gentleman was pre-checking our passports and arrival cards with declaration information. He calmed our nerves saying that if we had working visas we were fine and dandy. Made it through! Victory! Now onto the luggage situation...

Waiting, waiting and waiting. Andreas large bag came through and I pumped my fist in the air. If one had arrived then the rest should be behind. The bike showed up immediately after, 2/5. Well 2/5 is the best the airlines could do for us apparently. We waited until there was only one lonely black bag circling the baggage carousel before we headed to the counter for file our claim. The gal there was very helpful during the process. We gave all the necessary information about the missing bags and headed through NZ customs where they proceeded to check a few of our items for possible unwanted travelers to the country. It was a process that Andrea and I had never experienced but were impressed with the precision as the two gentlemen began removing every single bit and piece of dirt or plant matter from the bike and then vacuuming it up with a dust buster. It was quite the scene, and the two gentlemen were to chat with as we patiently waited.

Finally, everything was cleaned (well everything we had in our possession) and we proceeded through the doors to wonder if our friends were still there as we were making our way through customs for nearly an hour. Tried and true, our friends were patiently waiting.

The New Zealand Chapter begins.

Adventure

Well, New Zealand is on the dashboard for the next 4 months. Andrea and I will be living/working/traveling in the country for the next 3.5 months. Then 2 weeks in Australia, not bad eh? 2010 will start with a new adventure. It has been a lot of planning and logistics, but the time has finally arrived. Check back for updates, see you in the Southern Hemisphere!

Also, check www.andreafranzen.blogspot.com

John West Salmon

one of my favorite ads out here.

Ski Resorts Across WA Open!

The early ski/snowboard season opens, and its a good thing b.c Andrea and I are headed to New Zealand for the winter. Yes, yes I know they have opposite seasons, and yes that means I will be missing a winter full of snowboarding in WA. I will also be basking in the sun of the Southern Hemisphere, a place I have never been! Let the adventure soon begin. I have spent some time making this video of a Mt. Baker ski/snowboard trip that happened earlier this year with a handful of friends.

Let the adventure continue.

final beard. fun. beardless

final beard ~5 mos.

some fun

beardless