Back to reality, whoops there goes gravity....

It is 4:22 in the AM and I have to get up for class in 3 hours. I can't sleep. What the crap?
Might as well blog...

Well, its that time of year again. The thirst for knowledge is in the air once again in Logan, UT. Perhaps not for everyone, but it is for me. Honestly, I never thought I would actually crave to be in school in my entire life. But I guess being out of a formal education for 4 years can do that for a person. If I stop and think about it, a part of me does feel a little lame for being a 23 year old freshman. Especially when most of my friends have been done with their undergrad for a few years and are off to bigger and better things. Some might say that I have been off doing bigger and better things and now I'm back to reality and slowing down a bit. I suppose I have always done things a little backwards. Ah well... It works for me. And luckily I married someone who is the same way so we are in this backwards boat together.

Even though I have loved the wanna be vagabond life, it does feel good to have a little structure. Chris and I finally got jobs, if you can believe it. Chris is working at an at risk youth center for boys in Brigham City (which he loves) and I got hired as the massage therapist at a local holistic health center called Divine Health and Home. I am also have massage clients separate from the health center. I even have business cards! I am so profesh. So if any of you out there needs a massage.....you know who to call.....(its me, in case didn't catch on to my subtle plea for business). And we started school today. Both of us full time students. Hazzah!

So, life is good. Busy. A little overwhelming, but in a good way. And now I shall try to fit some sleepies in before its too late.
Peace

Once you go Black.....

It is a bitter sweet feeling I suppose.
I am back in the rockin Logan City. It feels oh so good to be back but I will admit that I do miss New Zealand.

Coromandel Town was amazing. So pretty. But it was too bad that we spent most of our time indoors due to the stormage. And the rain didn't let up really until we left the country. Ah well.

We ended up taking a bus to Auckland. There we met up with an awesome couple, Debbie and Trevor. We met them about 2 months ago when we were hitchhiking on the South Island. They picked us up around the Pancake Rocks and said that if we were ever back in Auckland that we would have a place to stay. So, we called them up and ended up staying there for almost a week. They are way chill. Trevor is a life coach and Debbie is a fashion designer. They took good care of us. And Trever offered to do a life coaching session with me and it totally rocked my socks. Who knew?

After kickin it with them we stayed with some members that knew the Chattertons we stayed with in Hamilton. The Shwankies are one of the coolest families around. They serious hippies. They used to live in a big school bus and travel around the South Island, playing guitar and singing together for money. We had some good sing alongs when we were staying with them.

We also when to an All Blacks game. For those of you that don't know, rugby is like a religion in New Zealand. And the whole country has one team. The All Blacks. Their big rivalries are with South Africa and Austrailia. We got to see them play Austrailia and we totally whooped 'em!


So went to church with the Shwankies and then the next day we were off! I am not even going to go into details of our travels back because everyone knows that airlines are lame...but we made it eventually. And we were warmly welcomed home with the Orm of Enwelcoment!!



Thank you Deh, Jer, Kelly, and Orm.

In closing. Chris and I had a freakin' blast on our trip. And even though we will be paying it off for the rest of forever, it was totally worth it. I advise all to partake in the goodness off New Zealand. I also advise for all couples and future couples out there to take a trip like this. It will bring you together and help you get to know eachother like nothing else.

And thats that for now. For those of you that have started reading this blog just for New Zealand updates, please know that this is also the place for Chris and Randi updates in general. So feel free to check back every so often.

Peace and loves.

Snakes on a Plane

We leave to come home tomorrow!!! I can't beleive it!

Well, here is the latest update.

So, our stay in Hamilton was wonderful. We had alot of fun with the older couple we stayed with. The LDS temple is in Hamilton, so we got to do a session and also see the church school that is closing down soon. It was a really nice experience.

After Hamilton we decided to explore the Coromandel Penninsula.Oh man. It is freaking amazing. So beautiful. We stayed in a town called Tairua and went fishing. We didnt catch much but enough to have some dinner. And the fisherman that took us liked us so much that he had us over afterwards to his home, and I gave his wife a massage so we didnt have to pay for the fishing. Not too bad.

The next town we stayed at was in Coromandel town. Its a cute little town by the sea but we barely got to experience it. There was a huge wind and rain storm that came in and lasted about 3 days. It was nasty and the streets were flooded. There was no going outside. Luckily we were staying at a nice hostel where there was a tv in our room with 2 movie channels. The down side was that it cycled the same movies over and over and one channel was right behind the other. But on the plus side we got to watch Snakes on a Plane as much as we wanted. Now if you havent heard, Snakes on a Plane is a brilliant movie with Samuel L Jackson. I am not going to tell what it is about though because I will give it away....But I'm sure you can figure it out.

We got a nice little day in at Coromandel Town but then the storm was back, so we ended up taking a bus to Auckland so we didnt have to stand out and hitch in the rain.

Dang, I am running out of time to update but we have spent this past week in Auckland and I will write about that later.


Much love.

Hello, again, my faithful readers!

Let me fill you in.

So, when I last left you we were in Nelson. Awesome city. And the weather is great. Nelson is right next to a national park called Abel Tasman. I must say the Abel Tasman could be my favorite place in New Zealand. It is so beautiful. It is right on the coast of the Tasman Sea with white sandy beaches and then it goes up into lush green rainforest. So amazing. The only downfall is that it is called a rain forest for a reason. Especially in the winter. (it is winter here, lest we forget) So we hitchhiked in the pouring rain to a hostel right outside the park. Now this is a magical place. They have this art gallery outside where people carve things into trees and make jewelry and all sorts of cool artwork. We bought some cool necklaces from a french woman who is a reiki master. Of course i had to do a reiki session with her. It was awesome.

Then next morning we got up and headed for the hills. They have huts along the trails where you can stay. On the coastal track you have to pay but we did the inland trail which isnt as popular and so they don't charge. We met these two boys from northern california who we ended up hiking with the whole time. They were way funny. One was 18 and the other was almost 17. We started on the inland track and we were more out of shape than we thought so we didnt make it to the first hut. We did make it to a possum infested shelter though. It is not as nice as a hut but it gets the job done. We kicked the possum out and set up camp on this kindof bunkbed with ghetto foam pads that had all sorts of mystery stains. There were dirt floors and a tiny fireplace where we magically started a fire with wet wood. It was a fun night. We had to build a possum proof door. It worked but we could hear them try to get in all night. And one of the americans eased the situation by reading us to sleep with Lord of the Rings. He did all of the voices.

We woke up the next morning and decided to hike down to the coastal track so we could experience both. That was a cool hike but it rained like non other and we got totally drenched. We made it to a hut that was pretty nice. There was a gas fire that kept us warm and dried out clothes. By the end of the day there were 11 of us in this hut. There is a room in the middle which is a kitchen and where the fire place is and then there are two rooms on the side that have beds with matresses. Well we were all too cold to sleep in the rooms without fire so we crammed 11 matresses in this little kitchen and all slept on the floor. Good times.

Then the next day was clear and beautiful and so we had a nice hike back and headed back to Nelson where we stayed with the Hippolite family again. We love them. Such a great family. We stayed with them another few days and we got welcomed onto a morai (not sure on the spelling).
It is a moari meeting house and you can only enter onto it if you are welcomed. They have a whole ceremony where they sing and stuff. It was pretty cool.

We finally said goodbye to the Hippolite and the south island and headed north. We took the ferry and i got sea sick! I have never gotten sea sick or had motion sickness. Crazy... Then we took a bus up to a town called Rotorua. Here we have been staying for the past week with Yoga Master Paul Barton. He is an intense yoga instructor that runs retreats from his home in the forest farmland. So pretty. So we have been studying meditation and Iyengar Yoga (which is the yoga that makes you hurt). I will say that it changed my life. My body kills but wow. I cant even tell you what I have learned about myself and the mind and all that jazz. I never knew that yoga could work so much on the inner self.
Also while in rotoura we went zorbing which is rolling yourself down a hill in a giant rubber ball filled with water. So fun!!! Kiwis are crazy people.

Now we are right outside of a town called Hamilton. We are staying with another member couple. They are the parents of a family we met in Nelson. They are a pretty funny old couple whose kids are all grown up so they just go on service missions for the church. They just got back from serving all over the cook islands. Here we will go to the new zealand temple, which will be really nice.

So ya. Thats the new update. Oh yea, and we are coming home August 4th!!! I am loving this crazy journey, but i must admitt....it will be really nice to be home.

Peace and love!!

Milli Vanilli

Well friends,

A good amount of adventure has happend since last post. Allow me to share...

So we stayed a few more days in Dunedin. Turns out we got to stay at the hostel for free because we got along really well with the owners and they let us stay for free if I gave them massages. Its was cool.
So our plan was to hitch about 4 hours from dunedin to Christchurch. Our first ride was our friend Alex that we met in Wanaka. He was the swiss guy that gave us a ride to Queenstown. He just happend to be passing by when we were hitching. It was cool. He gave us a ride about half way. After Alex we just kept going from little town to little town until we got picked up be a Semi carrying like 2oo+ sheep. That was fun. He took us to our friends in Southbridge right outside of Christchurch that we stayed with at the beginning of our journey. We were there for a few days and then headed north up to a cute beach town called Kaikora.

We were there for 2 nights. Then we hitched back down south about half way to christchurch to try and take a road to the west coast. Well it is a tiny road and not many pass on it. One of the only cars to pass us was our friend Ralph! He was one of our German friends we met in Franz Josef and then again in Dunedin. So random. He was going to blenheim, which is a few hours north of Kaikora. We were so excited to see him and didn't know if we would get picked up again on that road so we just went back up north with him.

We went to church in Blenheim. That was really nice. A member had us over for lunch and had a good chat. We also met some members who were visiting from Nelson which is 2 hours northwest of blenheim. They said if we needed a place to stay we could call them if we were in Nelson. Little did they know how much we would take them up on their offer.

We were on our way out of Blenheim getting ready to hitch and we passed a little lot with a bunch of old used cars for sale. And they were way cheap. We hadn't had they best hitching luck the past few days so a car looked pretty good. We found a red 1988 toyota camry wagon. It was pretty ghetto but it had alot of charm. We fell in love with it and just bought it on a whim from some chinese guy that barely spoke english for 650.00 nz dollars, which is about 500 american dollars. And we figured we could just sell it when we left because people do that all of the time.

Since we now had a car we decided to go to Nelson instead of to the west coast for reasons that are not important enough to explain. The car got us to Nelson just fine. We called up some our member friends the Chattertons and they took us out to dinner and then to the Hippolites to sleep. Two very awesome families. Well, the hippolites had us take our car to a mechanic because our muffler was so loud and we could get a ticket for it. Long story short, to make our car safe for the road we would need to replace all four tires, get a new muffler, fix the speedometer, and who knows what else.....

With much contemplation we have decided to junk the car. It would cost too much for us for it to be worth driving for 2 months and it guzzles gas like none other. We lovingly named it Milli Vanilli because it was not as good as it seemed and didn't last very long. We took it around town to junk yards and no one even wanted it!!

So we decided to just leave it somewhere and take the plates as souvineirs. That was the plan until the wonderful Roma Hippolite talked to a mechanic at church. He said that he would take it and fix it up and then give it to someone in the branch that could use it! See, now it wasn't such a waste of money after all!

So we have been staying in Nelson at the hippolites for almost a week now. They are such a fun couple. Their kids are away at school so they love having us around to entertain them. A few kids just got in today because they are on a school break. We are havin a grand ol time. Now since this post is way too long I will post later about our magical trip to abel tasman national park where we slept with possums!!

Ok, until next time!! much love!

quick lil update

Hello, friends!

Wow, I have so much to write its kindof overwhelming. I guess all I can do is give you some highlights.

We have almost made it all the way around the south island. Right now we are in Dunedin. Its a cute city that "they" say that it is comparable to endinburgh in scotland. To me it kinda looks like san fran. Which is neat.

Since the last post we have done quite a bit. We left graymouth and headed south on the west coast. We got picked up by a magical man named oli. He is from the north island. He used to be a forest ranger and now is just bummin around, living out of his van. His van is sweet. He has got stones and feathers and artifacts from all of his adventures for decorations. He carries a martin travel guitar and we had some good times with that. We traveled with him for two days. We hiked around some glaciers and chris and him went skinnydipping in the most beautiful lake i have ever been to.
oh and in graymouth we explored a cave. we got wetsuits and all that and jumped down waterfalls inside the cave, and tubed down a river while looking up and seeing glow worms. So cool.

He dropped us off in a little ski town called Wanaka and then we were off again. We met a swiss guy and traveled with him to queenstown.
In queenstown we bungy jumped off of the very first offical bungy jumping site. It was unreal. We got to jump together. Which was awesome. One of the coolest kisses i have ever had. And its in a gorge over a river so you get dipped in the water. Seriously, unreal.

We went to the Milford Sound. Wow. So beautiful. And dolphins swam next to our boat. Again, unreal.
Then we traveled down to invercargill then to the catlin forest and went to the beaches and waterfalls there. We chilled with some sea lions which were so cute.

They we made our way up to dunedin. Tonight there is a winter festival with lights and bands and all sorts of cool things. So that should be fun. Tomorrow we head back up to christchurch and chill there for a bit and then tour the upper half of the south island.

So yea. We are having the time of our lives. and ive never felt this way before. yeah i swear, its the truth, and i owe it all to you................(there is my shout out to footloose)
peace.

A storm is a-brewin

So we made it! I am in love with this place. I dont know if I am coming back.

We had an early flight from Utah to LA. 6am.... but it was alright. I don't even remember it now that i think about it. Our dear friend, Michael, picked us up from the LA airport and showed us around town. We went to the chinese theatre and I got my pick with Gene Kelly's hand print, drove around downtown, went to the beach, and all that good stuff. And then at 9pm we were off to NZ!

We got into Aukland at about 6am. We were so tired and disoriented we didnt really know what to do. We wandered around town until we found a hostel and it was too early to check in so we just crashed on the couch in the lobby. The front desk lady was so sweet that she put a blanket on us when we were sleeping.

We were in Aukland for about 2 days. We walked around town, went to the top of the highest tower in the southern hemisphere and hiked a volcano. Not too bad for our first days in town.

Turns out it is cheaper to fly to the south island than take abus or train, so we flew to christchurch and were greeted by the lovely Andrew Winchester. He is a friend of my old roommate and dear friend, Kristin. His family was so sweet and took us in for a few days while we mainly slept and overcame our jet lag.

After a few days there we were getting antsy to see the sights, so we got dropped off on a street corner and hitched hiked into the souther alps of the south island. Known to some lord of the ring fans as the misty mountains. The landscape is amazing. we stayed a night in the mountains at athurs pass, hiked up to a water fall and were off.

we hitched to a town on the west coast called greymouth and here i sit. there is a huge rainstorm going on so its kind of a bummer. but what can ya do? we will be here for a few days to go to church and explore a wee bit and then who knows where else.

so that is the latest update. chris and i are loving it so far, even though we haven't done too much. its enough just to sit here and say "what the crap? i am in new zealand!!!"

love you all!
until next time!

and as they say in new zealand,
Bye! haha....get it.... cause they speak the same language as us.....