WHY?!?! You ask March 30, 2008

Yes, yes I know that it seems a bit extravagent for me to be whinging about having a pool when I live on a sailboat on a river. But, let me just go into that a bit further.

Even though I am not a “strong” swimmer – or really a swimmer at all – I do enjoy on hot days while perfecting my glowing tan to get into the water and cool off. Now – first of all, WD is not really conducive to tanning – the deck is just too small and cluttered with a kayak, surf ski and surfboard. Also, our boat faces the botanic gardens. The busy botanic gardens. I do not need to have 500 people running by have the chance to glimpse me in a swimsuit – weight loss or no weight loss. My last argument is the state of the Brisbane river. There are not only sharks and three-eyed fish in the water, there is poop. That’s right – people poop in their boat toilets and pump it into the river. Dan pulled a diaper out of the water in front of our dinghy two days ago – fortunately there was no baby attached – but still – someone threw a diaper in the water. There was a kid that used to work at P9 that swam from one side of the river to the other on a dare a few years ago and was sick for two weeks. Like – pneumonia sick.

 So…. yeah. I need a pool. I would go swim downtown at streets beach, but a news station tested the water for a “breaking story” and found like, 27 different types of urine in the water. I’m thinking I’ll just break into the lobby pool and swim away.

So, enough of that. Work is good – the boat is coming along…. (more like limping along) and I can’t post photos yet. It’s just not ready. I can’t believe Ken used to live like that. Quick side note – I am in this computer lab and right behind me I hear this guy yelling on the phone “Don’t be smart with me and don’t tell me what to do” – I turn around and its KEN! The crusty old sailer of a landlord packrat. I am cowering in the corner. I CANNOT talk to him. I can’t wait until he leaves for Columbia to visit his girlfriend next week. This morning when we went out to the dinghy to go to shore there was a roach trap and a fan in the boat – like, Ken had paddled over in the middle of the night and put it there. Creeps me out.

Ok – I’ve got to run out. Literally.

LOVE

Back in Brisbane March 27, 2008

Hey!

 I know – its been a long time – and I also know that no one must be checking the site anymore because I’ve gotten one comment in three weeks. Not even my mother has chosen to comment regarding my lovely trip to NZ so it appears I’ve got to kick up the writing a notch or two. My apologies if I’m not holding your attention as much as I used to…. boo hoo for me, right?

So – yeah, we are back in Brisbane and have been for about a week and a half – Dan and I are back at work and Jess is somewhere in Asia – be it Cambodia, Vietnam or Thailand – I’m really not quite sure. Things are good and it is really good to be back in hot weather, let me tell you. I have to be honest, my tan is fading and its really sad – I don’t know what I will do when it completely goes away, considering we don’t live in the Lobby anymore and there isn’t a pool in sight. (I can really bitch about the most trivial things, eh?)

Speaking of living situations, Dan and I are just getting settled in to our new “apartment” – Wave Dancer. No, no its not the name of the building – it is the name of our place because friends – Dan and I have rented a sailboat! Sure, its a bit claustrophobic, but it cuts rent in half. The gentleman we are renting from is a 60(+) year old bachelor who is going to visit his Columbian girlfriend for three months… He is a pack rat and left the boat a total and complete mess – he has a stack of old magazines about two feet high and has the place McGuyver rigged in terms of electricity – I’m a bit scared I could get shocked by something considering our close proximity to water. So….. yeah – everything is good – we are getting WD all spruced up and stuff – I’ll post pictures as soon as its done – the “before” pics are a little rough.

I’m back on email and stuff – so seriously if anyone is reading this anymore write some damn comments and send me a damn email. All I have to do during the days I’m not working is play on the computer or clean the boat – guess which one I want to do more.

LOVE

We Climbed a Mountain, Ya’ll March 14, 2008

Another Lake… Tangariro

Yep. Mount Doom actually. Climbed that sucker yesterday and let me tell you I am sooooorrreee today. It was a six hour hike and it was really, really, really hard. For me anyway – and I do think it was even hard for Jess and Dan although Dan won’t really admit it.

I hope everyone is doing well – Oh – before I forget, to view all my photos - of which not all are posted btw- you just click on the photo above and it should lead you to my flickr page…. let me know if there are still problemos. Now, back to me me me -

Things are winding down here, we cleaned out and turned in the car today – it was a little sad, but I think all of us are really getting excited to get back to Brisbane. Dan and I found out yesterday that our visas were approved (!!) so that’s all good and we are getting set to get back into the groove of things there for a while. I am so excited to get out of the same four outfits I have been wearing for the entire trip and actually wear something different, eat something different and talk about something different than “Where are we driving today?” Also I am coming down with a cold and so I am REALLY excited to have something that resembles a real bed instead of sleeping bags in a tent. And I thought I was hardcore…. meh, I guess not so much.

Things we have been doing these past few days:

1- Dan and Jess bungy jumped in Queenstown! They jumped off a bridge that was actually the first commercial bungy site in the world (did you know that Bungy was invented by the kiwi’s?) It was a 43 meter jump and you could choose if you went in the water or not – Dan got soaked and Jess was supposed to get wet, but apparently you have to weigh something to have your weight pull you down into the water…. Regardless – it was awesome. I was just a spectator – me and 4,000 Asians snapping pictures – the only difference was that I knew the people I was taking pictures of. After they jumped they got sucked into the marketing scheme and ended up paying for photos – thank god they didn’t fall for the personalized DVD’s – a half hour video showing the history of bungy and then 30 seconds at the end showing you jumping – all for the low, low price of $98….. Say it with me now, “What a joke” Besides the bungy we just kind of hung out in Queenstown and did a little hiking – not too much though. The place is overrun with frat boys high on adrenaline – everyone is wearing their bungy shirts and jabbering about which overpriced extreme activity they did earlier in the day. We stayed in a hostel with these Irish boys who must have been made of money – in the past few days they had been in Q town they had flown stunt planes, gone skydiving, bungy jumped, ridden the luge and gone white water rafting. Sick. They were fun and nice though.

2: We left Queenstown and drove on to Dunedin – we had heard a lot about it and heard it was supposed to be warmer there, so we were a bit excited. I mean – the whole point was to skip winter, right? Well…. it wasn’t warmer and it wasn’t fun. We arrived too late to go to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory (something that high on my list) and so we only got to stand in the lobby and buy a cheap bar of chocolate (banana-toffee flavored, not awesome) and then we checked into a hostel. After a nice quiet dinner of noodles and beans, we had all retired to the room – and turned out the lights at about midnight or so. Probably 3.5 minutes later three drunken British kids bounced into the room and started screaming at the top of their lungs about lost jumpers and going out and being drunk- you name it, they talked about it. This went on for about 10 minutes and finally we all got up. Pissed. One of these kids is just bangin’ on in this whiney little voice about his misplaced jumper and won’t shut up about it. It was late, they were loud and we were getting nervous – you see, this was one of the nights we snuck Dan into the hostel to save a little ching and we were super afraid that someone in the hostel would complain about all the noise – the fuzz would come and we would get the boot. Luckily – the drunken fools decided to go to the bar to hit on some chicks and left – we all got to go to sleep and I am not ashamed to say that a sweatshirt or two might’ve wandered into our backpacks over the course of the night. I am making amends for it now and am sure that karma will get me back later but in the meantime, that sweatshirt has really helped out in the freezing temps that are in the South Island.

3: Left Dunedin one sweatshirt richer and drove on to Methven. Weather wasn’t so good there either, we hiked to a waterfall and then checked into the best hostel ever – The Alpenhorn Chalet – its run by this woman and her son – she basically turned the first floor of her house into a hostel. Sounds a bit creepy – but it wasn’t at all. It was really the best place we stayed – it felt like staying at an Aunt’s house or something – probably the best night of sleep we all got. Additionally in Methven there was a grocery store selling 99 cent beer – another reason why we probably all had the best night of sleep ever.

4: Wild Foods Festival in Hokitika. Crazy, crazy food. We stayed on the football field of the high school with 800 other people – Jess was sleeping in the car and got accosted by drunken fools every morning. The town this festival is held in is super small - except for this weekend when the size of the town is almost 10 times bigger than it usually is. Food there consisted of anything from stag heart to chicken. They had sheep testicles and grubs - a rundown of what we all ate includes: lamb’s tail, grub, stag heart, cricket,(all Dan) ostrich pie, worms, kangaroo (all Jess), veggie balls, bbq chicken, escargot, goats milk ice cream and cheese and beer (me).  I know, I know, I am the most adventurous of them all – I mean, stag heart – pshaw, who doesn’t eat that all the time?? Now go to the Flickr page and check out the lamb tail – it is the sickest thing I have ever seen. Dan ate two. If you are interested in how they get these lamb’s tails – let me know and I’ll fill you in on the gory details.

Ok – I probably have more, but internet time is money and I am runnin’ out. I love you all and am sorry I haven’t been writing personal emails – I promise I’ll get to those come next week when I have my sweet little laptop back in my grubby little paws. Keep emailing me, though – I love it. And I love comments. Love em.

Love

South side is the best March 3, 2008

BeautifulOriginally uploaded by jacquelinebv

Hello!!

Yes, we are on the South Island now – and its been ages since I’ve written. Dan is now a whole year older!!! Let me give you all a run down of what’s been happening since I last checked in….. The days seem to run together, thank god I keep a journal.

After we left Rotorua and the sweet Maori village we drove South the Lake Taupo. Before we left we did visit the Polynesian Springs and soaked in mineral pools and hot springs – it was so relaxing. About halfway through our soak a bus load of German Septegenarians stormed in and I thought I was in the real-life version of “Cocoon” once they invaded the pool. No worries though – I can hold a special place in my heart for anyone over 60 who can still wear a bikini, dang.

- Weather sucked hard in Taupo but we found a free campsite – not too shabby. I have failed to mention before that while Dan and I are sleeping in a tent, Jess has been truly roughing it and sleeping in the car. Now that’s hardcore – paying $10 – $17 to sleep in a Ford Focus. God love her. Speaking of Taupo – Jess and Dan pulled hard to do the famed Tangariro Crossing – an eight hour hike over a dormant volcano but yours truly vetoed it because I am a wimp and thankfully it was raining so I have convinced them its something we are saving for when we come back up to the North Island. Whew.

From Taupo we drove to Napier in the Hawkes Bay region – wine country. My kind of town. Unfortunately we only visited two wineries – and didn’t get as much tasting in as we had hoped. It was ridiculously windy so there were no opportunities for swimming or anything fun, boo hooo……. The next day we drove to Palmerston North – we did a hike here and looked at some windfarms or something – all I know is that I was winded. What else is new. We also stayed in the world’s worst campground. No amenities and the only other residents were people in permanent campers – with cobwebs on the wheels. They were all quite old and you would think that this would just be a version of a summer home or something but there is NOTHING in Palmerston North. Nothing. I don’t know what these people were vacationing from, but watching paint dry in that town would be more exciting.

We blew out of Snoozeville and wailed on down to Wellington – by far the coolest city we have been in – it has a real retro, coffee house vibe – Jess and I scored some super cheap deals on delicious Indian (and then I scored a super fast trip to the bathroom, apparently I am developing IBS in my old age – either that or lactose intolerance – as another aside we have all become Dr.’s on this trip – my diseases have been mentioned but I also need to tell you that Dan has diabetes – Jess must have OCD or something considering she’ll wake up at 7 am when its 10 degrees C and go running in a tank top. Maybe she’s just dedicated who knows) We walked around town – hung out in some cool shops and Dan FINALLY picked up his Lonely Planet NZ book – right when we are halfway through the trip. But hey, whatever makes him happy. Oh – while in Welly we actually stayed in a hostel and we had the WORST roomie ever. Worse than elderly asian woman – worse than Dreddie – worse than your worst enemy. He was this Canadian who was high on a meditation course – he basically came here to find a medetation group – yeah. thats it. Apparently there aren’t any in Canada. He slept in the tightest pair of underwear I have ever seen in my life and decided to walk around the room in them – when Jess got up to run he was lying in the middle of the floor with his legs stretched straight out and his arms straight out – I’m thinking Christ pose we could call it – just laying there his his eyes open. After she got back from running and was about to get in the shower (we had a classy en suite that night) he jumped up and said something along the lines of other people wanting to shower (ok, it was like, 8:00 am) he then woke a girl up to ask if she wanted to shower before Jess got in – the question was met with a few grunts, Jess told him to relax and hopped in. While I was in the shower he knocked on the door and asked if I was almost finished in there. My reply was almost “NOpe – actually, could you give me 20 more minutes??” But being the wimp I am I just threw out a very annoyed “Yeah…. I guess”. I’m sure I really wounded him with my tone. Then he decided to lecture everyone on their life choices and told us to all stop drinking and start eating more vegetables. Yeah, that’s the dream life buddy.

After hellish roomie we went around town and then hopped on the Interislander for our three hour trip to Southie. WHICH IS BEAUTIFUL by the way. I’ve got too much to type about it and we’ve only been here for six days. Crap. Six days seems like a lot. Dan has turned 23 (finally), we’ve seen three glaciers, slept in the rain numerous times and froze our asses off – went on a bewery tour that was sub par, eaten six dollar all you can eat dinner that consisted of sausages, bread and by far the worst potato salad I’ve ever ingested (Grandma Jean where were you on this day), I’ve huffed and puffed up several ‘mountains’ and some other stuff that isn’t as funny as it was when it really happened. Check out the photos on Flickr – I’ve got more – I can just only upload so many at a time before internet time runs out. Everyone better be writing me emails and telling me how much they miss me – who knows, I could be convinced to come home early – 30 days in a car with the same people is really making me miss the good ol’ USA… God bless it from the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee….. or however that song goes. Also its amazing how bad a car can smell when  you are basically living in it. Its only day 18……

Love, love, love to everyone. Imiss you all and think of you guys while I’m hiking. That is when I can breathe. Today on the hike that was all uphill may I mention – I turned a corner and actually said out loud “Oh Jesus give me a break” and then heard the trekkies with their cross country ski poles behind me snickering. Tolerance, Jackie…. tolerance.

Serenity Now…..

LOVE