Abel Tasman: Rock Beds and Moldy Pasta

Our Kayaking trip turned out to be quite the adventure, as does everything that Montana and I set out to do. We left on a beautiful day and had a great start, although regretting not doing some push ups in the weeks before to prepare. I can't even explain how beautiful the national park is, hopefully the photo above will does it some justice.

Over three days (which turned out to be basically 2, as you will see) we saw not only beautiful landscapes but a seal colony, including the cutest baby seals hopping around and playing in the water, and a blue penguin swimming near our kayaks. So cool! Apparently there were orcas the second day we were there but they were north of us and we didn't find out until the day we left... huge bummer, that would have been awesome.

When we arrived at the kayak company base early in the morning, we felt pretty prepared and good about ourselves when the German/Swedish couple we were getting a ride with showed up with an esky (cooler) and... get this... A ROLLY SUITCASE, to try to cram into the kayak's cubby holes. Oh by the way, they were not only kayaking but taking a two day hike, which apparently a rolly suitcase is good for.? While they scrambled to put their things into bags, we exchanged glances with the guide and tried not to laugh. Americans aren't as dumb as we are made out to be, that's all I have to say. The first day was great, with calm weather, great beach time, and a (mostly) successful go at setting up the tent.

The second day was... interesting. Montana was having a bit of seasickness and we both were ill-rested because we thought we were hardcore enough to camp without sleeping pads. Mistake #1. Mistake #2: I viewed this trip as a mind/body cleansing, and underestimated the energy exerted by kayaking, and brought probably not even half the amount of food I should have. So Montana, generous as always, offers me some of her bags and bags of pre-made pasta when I had gone through everything except a handful of nuts, an apple, and a granola bar. Of course we open the pasta and it has gone bad. Moldy, all of it. Naturally.

But wait, mistake #3 was before this I think, and really wasn't a mistake on our part (we blame the national park's lack of warning signs). We were pulling up to a beach, Frenchman's Beach to be exact (you can always count on the French to play a mean trick at your expense), when we realize there is a rock in front of us, very close to the surface. And one to our left. And one to our right. Oh, wait, we are SURROUNDED. Luckily some guy had just drove by on his stupid boat telling us he would confiscate our kayak if we did not put our life jackets on, I protested that I was trying to get my Australian tan back but he was not buying it. So when our kayak inevitably got wedged between rocks we sent a silent thank you to the mean man on the boat for yelling at us as we flailed around trying to get out of our spray skirts and avoid the rocks. When we finally did get out and onto the beach and begin to get the water out of the kayak, a man paddles over and says "oh hey, there are rocks there, you are supposed to get out on the other side of the beach." REALLY? we hadn't noticed at all. Would have been helpful 20 minutes ago dude. While we watched the tide go out that afternoon from the safety of the beach we saw more and more rocks emerge from where we had attempted to land. In total, it was a giant bed of about 30-40 rocks. And no sign??? I'm sure we weren't the first and won't be the last to capsize in the rocks.

The last day we had to be back by 3:30 pm, but awoke to angry growling stomachs and decided to get the heck out of there. Left camp by 9:00 am and did a 3-4 hour trip in 2 hours. There is nothing like the motivation of food to get your somewhere in a hurry. Thoughts of bacon (by the way, many of you will be happy to know I am now a full-fledged meat eater) and eggs and toast danced in our heads and the two hours was mostly silent except for grunts of exertion. As we happily chowed down on burgers and fries--sadly, breakfast was over--we watched tired kayakers roll in all afternoon and laughed at ourselves and our ridiculous experience. Another adventure turned... well, I don't know, more intense adventure than we bargained for I suppose... and we wouldn't have had it any other way.

Ode to NZ

New Zealand, how I love thee. With your ever-changing landscape, each place more beautiful than the next. I feel spoiled with how lovely everything is, it's getting harder and harder to take it all in!

We have been driving up the East coast and it's been great fun. We stopped back in Christchurch for a few days to stay with my friend Britt and a house she was house-sitting, and although getting there was quite the struggle (more on that later), it was so worth it to see her and hang out for a while in one place. I helped out in the garden since they are WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms, look it up if you have not heard about it, it's a pretty cool global program), and went on a bike ride into town with her and her boyfriend, panting behind them in their hardcore biking outfits on their tandem bike they will be travelling the South Island on. Pretty awesome.

On the way up we went on a drive out to the Albatros center on the Otago peninsula near Dunedin, and saw the Larnach castle, the only castle in the country. It was pretty cool, although I'm sorry to all you bird lovers but Albatross look exactly like giant Seagulls. Anyway, we were getting tea in the castle and this middle aged NZ tour guide sat down with us for about 40 minutes and made us write down everything, and I mean everything, he said we should do on the South Island. Like 3 months worth of stuff. He didn't care if we wanted to hear it or not, he was going to tell us anyway and not leave us alone til he was done.

This is why I love New Zealanders... I don't know if it is the adventurous and non-touristy crowd the Island (especially the South) attracts who are super friendly and not, for lack of better term, Ugly Americans." But we have had every local tell us all the advice they know, and they sincerely want us to have the best time possible here. National pride runs in their blood.

Teaching ourselves to drive has been... Well, interesting. Literally no one tought us into about a week of us struggling on our own. Actually stalling at every light. We would spend extra hours to get all the way around big cities and avoid every single light and stop sign. We are getting the hang of it, though it still causes a bit (a lot) of anxiety. Luckily, 5 months in Australia has gotten us used to being on the left side of the road so that's not so much of an issue.

Yesterday--yes, Valentines day-- Montana and I went wine tasting in Marlbourough, which you may have heard of from it's famous sav blancs. It was so much fun. Great wine, great company, great weather. It was us and 6 older couples from the UK who were so friendly and nice. Love the English.

Tomorrow we are heading off for a 3 day/2 day kayaking trip in Abel Tasman national park on the northern point of the South Island. It should be an adventure! Wish us luck. Will put pictures up when my jurassic computer decides to upload them.

Miss everyone!
xoxo

To the van!

Greetings from Dunedin! Above is the lovely Dunedin train station, a very nice place to arrive in this beautiful city.

Plans changed and we found out that Montana's aunts van is not in Queenstown, but in a little town on the Southeast coast, so that's where we have been headed. We took a 6 hour bus trip down here a couple days ago and got to see some scenery, it actually looks a lot like Ireland with the little towns and the sheep and green hills. Beautiful!

Dunedin is such a cute town, it's actually named after Edinbourough (don't ask me how the two names are connected but apparently they are..) and has a lot of Scottish heritage. We arrived to bagpipes playing in the central square, which made the haul to our hostel a little bit better. Yesterday we went on a bike ride, followed by a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory--nothing like chocolate samples to make you feel better about how out of shape you are... or wait, is that counterproductive? whatever...

It's pretty cold here, which is nice, and the clouds and mist make everything pretty. However, I am ill equipped to deal with cold weather. When unloading things to send home with my family in the gold coast heat and humidity, keeping jackets, sweatpants, long sleeved shirts, etc. was the last thing on my mind. Oops. Good thing New Zealand is home to some of the best wool in the world, I can get myself some hats and scarves, and who knows, if I have some free time in the wildreness maybe I will try my hand at knitting again!

Alas, I am off to get the van, learn to drive a manual, and begin roughing it hard core for the rest of the month. Wish me luck! I couldn't be more excited :)

The adventure begins... again!

Hello from New Zealand! We arrived in Christchurch, which is on the eastern side of the south island, late last night after two days in Manly visiting friends after leaving Brisbane.

Christchurch is a lovely city; it is not to big and not too small, has beautiful weather and amazing people. It also has a bit of a European feel from it, which is a nice change from Australia, where you don't really feel the colonial history of most places I have been so far.

Today I took a stroll around town, enjoying the sunshine and a break from the scorching temperatures we had lately in Australia. I walked down the bustling pedestrian malls and through a small market, past the arts center (this is a very artsy city) and through the botanical gardens. We are leaving Christchurch tomorrow to take a long busride to Queenstown on the west coast to collect our van we will be living out of for the next month, but we will come back here in a few days to explore some more and see one of my best friends, Britt, who will be housesitting here!

We are staying on the south island for the entire month of February, and I could not be more excited. I have loved everything in Australia but I can only take so much of big cities--I have been craving adventures and the outdoors, and that is exactly what we are going to find in New Zealand! Though we don't have a definite itinerary yet, which is actually kind of nice, we know some things we want to do for sure.... a 3-4 day kayaking/camping trip in the amazing Abel Tasman national park, whale watching on the east coast, hiking through the Caitlins in the south, trekking the Franz Josef glacier, and black water rafting through glowworm-filled caves, to begin with.... Jealous?? :)

So I will be updating a lot since I will have a lot to talk about, haven't been so good in the past but will be now that I am adventuring a lot more!!!

Cheers from the land of the Kiwis,
Maggie

again, overdue...

It's been a while! These last few weeks have been a whirlwind. My fam came to sydney for new years, then we took off to go to cairnes, snorkeled in the great barrier reef, and saw where the rainforest meets the sea! It was gorgeous. Then we flew down to the gold coast, where the weather was pretty bad but we had a blast anyway. The east coast is so beautiful, so many beaches, surfers, warm water, national parks, crazy animals.... love it. We got a surf lesson also which was very fun! Pat can now say he is a surfer :)

Montana and I are in surfer's paradise right now on the gold coast and managing to stay away from the massive flooding in most of queensland. It's so sad, they are calling the floods the biggest natural disaster in Australian history. Nuts! Our plans originally, based on the fact that it is SUMMER here and supposed to be NICE weather, was to go up the coast to fraser island, which has a bunch of adventure stuff to do, and to Brisbane... but the roads anywhere north of here are closed and Brisbane is basically underwater so we are trying to figure out what to do for the next 2 and a half weeks before we go to new zealand. Hopefully will be able to come back to Queensland at some point when the weather is better!

Here are some pictures of family adventures:

A very Coogee Christmas

I am having deja vu of studying abroad in Denmark...

The first few months in Copenhagen were hectic and I just couldn't wrap my mind around the idea that I was actually LIVING, however temporarily, in a completely different corner of the world.

Then, with about a month left to go, my homesickness evaporated, I developed some deep friendships, and I thought "WAIT! I just got used to life here! I don't wanna gooo!"

And while I am not going back to the states anytime soon, it is a little weird to think that I have less than a month left in Sydney. I will admit (and have made obvious in certain blog posts), I have struggled with adjusting to life halfway around the globe. Living frugally is something I have always been good at, but cramming into an apartment with very little personal space and living paycheck-to-paycheck are not things that I am used to. Maybe I needed the shock of getting used to being out of my comfort zone. I have come to appreciate little, stupid things... for example, Montana and I freaked out when we saw the DISH DRYING RACK, of all things, when we moved into our new apartment. No more sopping dishes left on the counter to be covered in ants! Now they can actually be properly dried and neatly put away!

Anyway, ramblings aside, I have gotten used to the way of life here, living without luxuries, and am quite fond of the little Coogee Beach bubble that I live in. I love my coastal walks, interactions with tourists in which I am actually able to give them the information they are after, and the friendly Australian lingo that is permanently ingrained into my vocabulary ("no worries" is not only my favorite phrase, but also a reminder of how to best life a happy life). While I love Sydney, the little beach towns of Coogee and Clovelly, where I work and play, are where my heart really belongs. And while I am SO excited to have my family visit in a month and then move on with the rest of my grand Australian adventure, part of me is freaking out to leave Sydney when I have gotten myself a nice little comfortable routine going on here.

But if I have learned anything this far, it is that life's greatest experiences come from pushing yourself to take a leap of faith. And because of that, I cannot wait to see what lies ahead for me in the upcoming months.