Jumping off a Perfectly Good Bridge

While we were in Nepal we had the opportunity to bungee jump and passed it up without much additional thought (mainly because Adam was not the least bit interested) but while looking for things to do in New Zealand we somehow came to the agreement that we would do it there.

With only two days remaining before we caught a flight out we found ourselves pulling into the parking lot at Gravity Canyon to make good on our agreement.  They have the tallest bungee on the North Island of New Zealand at 80 meters high, and also boast a canyon swing and a 150 km/h zip line they call The Flying Fox.  When we were selecting an activity to accompany the bungee jump the helpful guy behind the counter said the swing was much better than the fox and we were sold.  

Please enjoy the video montage we created from the pictures and GoPro footage of this madness.

Bula from Fiji

While we were in New Zealand people would ask us where our next stop was and we would reply Fiji, not thinking much of it. The last few days people started responding “are you sure?”. Um...yes that is where my plane is going. Turns out Fiji was getting hit by a major cyclone. Luckily, when we got a chance to check on our resort and flight they were both fine. Our resort is south of the main island, and the storm reeked the most havoc on the north west islands. We headed to Nadi as planned and checked into our cheap overnight hotel, awaiting our 7 AM pick up the next morning. 7 AM came and went, then 7:30 and we were thinking it was just Fiji time. At 8 I asked to use the phone, only to learn that they weren't working due to the cyclone. There also wasn't any internet, and the cell phone towers were all offline. At 8:45 we decided to head back to the airport in hopes of being able to contact Beqa Lagoon and figure out how we were supposed to get there. We got a hold of them by phone once, and then the phones all went dead again. About 30 mins later an airport staff member came and asked if we were Julie and Andrew going to Beqa Lagoon (we said sure, sounds close enough and we were ready to get out of the airport). We ended up having to take a taxi for 2.5 hrs and then luckily found the boat to take us across to Beqa island. With all the destruction in Fiji we were just happy to make it to the resort on the day we had intended.

Photo by Paul

 Once we arrived we were pleasantly surprised at what we found, I mean we saw a turtle swimming before we even got off the boat! Our bure was HUGE with AC and a comfy bed. The beach at the resort lead out onto a beautiful reef. We got settled in, ate a great lunch and got our dive gear rented. That afternoon we snorkeled on the reef. It was a great start to our 7 day stay. For dinner we found our assigned seats and quickly made a tableful of new friends. Paul and Ruth, Del and Lee, and Josh and Ashley welcomed us with open arms and tons of dive stories/pictures. Adam and I laughed that real life diving might just be like the PADI video which is full of crazy friends (if you've ever seen it you understand).

Photo by Paul 

At 8 AM the next day we loaded up onto the dive boats and headed for our first dive trip. We motored over to a giant coral filled wall and spent the next 50 minutes amazed at the fish and other colorful creatures living underwater. We were both glad to get the first dive out of the way, making sure we still remembered most things from out certifications. By 2 PM we were back at the resort where lunch was waiting, then it was a nice relaxing afternoon looking at pictures and reading.....I could get use to this!

Day 2 of diving took us out to our first ship wreck. We were just swimming along and then Adam points over and there is a huge sunken ship next to us! It was a totally different feel than the reefs we had seen to date. In the back of the ship there were 2 lion fish in a little cubby. Once we left the wreck we encountered a huge current and struggled to make any forward progress. We used up all of our air in 30 mins, instead of the normal 60 and were glad to be back safely in the boat. The second dive was alright, less current but the people in our dive group kept running into us and kicking us. We tried yelling, but its tough underwater. That afternoon it poured rain as we relaxed in our room.

Christmas Day we awoke to bright blue sky. The dive boat headed in the opposite direction we had gone and we got 2 new dive sites. There was a mild current all day, but nothing compared to yesterday. The first dive site had another wreck, but this one was deeper, the top being close to 90 feet deep. We didn't stay at the wreck too long, and the coral viewing was a bit rushed, before we knew it we were back on the boat. Dive two was much better with less current and tons of fish and coral. We saw an amazing purple jelly fish and a bright blue eel. We were diving with Ruth and Paul, who are very experienced divers and they were very helpful in pointing out new things. Paul has a huge camera and takes amazing photos. Hopefully we will get some of them before leaving Beqa. After lunch we opted to do a shore dive on the house reef and take our 10 ft waterproof camera to 20 feet to see if we could take some photos of our own. It was a nice relaxing dive filled with fish, and crabs, and coral. Our camera survived like a champ. That night Paul taught me how to edit the photos to make them look about 1000 times better then the originals. White balance may just be my new best friend.

Our 4^th day of diving found us on a different boat from all of our new found “friends”. We joked that we were voted off the island. Having learned from previous days, we quickly made some new friends (Linda and Jim) and created our own diving group. Linda and Jim both have point and shoot cameras and also take amazing photos. They were nice enough to point out tons of different creatures on our 2 dives.

Day 5 of diving brought us to the Golden Arches and Fantasy dive sites. This was some of the best diving of the trip. The sites were filled with huge coral fans, tons of colorful fish and lots of little creatures. We got to experience our first swim-through, a beautiful arch covered in coral fans.

When we booked this resort, it included 5 days of diving over 7 days so we had a choice of adding another day of diving or just lounging. Dive conditions seemed to be improving every day so we opted to dive for a 6^th day in a row. We came to Fiji with 6 dives, we will leave with 19! For our sixth day we dove Side Street and Coral Garden, which were in the same area as Golden Arches and Fantasy. Side Street had an awesome 15 m tunnel swim-through. I was a little freaked out at first because I couldn't see the other side, it kind of looked like a cave, but once I was started it was a blast. The corals and variety of fish here are amazing. Hopefully we are able to steal some pictures from people to share some of what we saw, words just don't do it justice.

From Fiji we are headed to Melbourne, Australia. Paul and Ruth have graciously welcomed us to their home for New Years and some diving, so that will be our first stop! We have had an amazing time in Fiji. I think we could get the hang of this diving thing!!

Tongariro Crossing

After our exciting bungee experience (awesome video coming when we find good internet) it was back into the van, headed further north. About two hours north we ended in Tongariro National Park. There is a famous day walk there called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Unfortunately, the crossing was partially closed due to volcanic activity. I guess frying tourists in frowned upon. We stayed at a campground with great views of the volcanos, and they convinced us that the part of the crossing that was open was worth it, so we signed up to do it the next day. Our bus left bright and early at 6:15 AM. The campground suggested going early to avoid walking with all the other people who show up at about 8. We were able to walk out to Emerald Lakes and then turn around and head back. The scenery was different than anything we have ever seen, very desolate, in the shadows of volcanos. It took us about 2.5 hrs to hike. At the high point of the hike we hung out for about 45 minutes waiting for the clouds to clear. They seemed to constantly blow in and out, so we got several great views of the surrounding areas. We were glad to have hiked so early because it was much cooler, and we passed about a million people on our way down who were just starting their hikes. By 1 PM we were back to our camper van and headed towards Auckland. This would have been a stunning hike if we could have done the whole thing, but half of it was still fun and very different from what we had seen thus far in New Zealand.

6 months and counting...New Zealand Cont.

Six months into our “fun-employement” journey, you'd think I'd be a little better at blogging. So far we are lucky to get a blog posted every couple weeks, so I'm going to try and stay a little more on top of things. With any luck we will have more posts for the next 6 months of our journey.

Right now (aka 2 days ago when I wrote this) we are on the ferry, headed back to Wellington and the North Island. It's hard to believe we only have 3 nights left in New Zealand. I believe the last blog left off with the amazing Fiordland National Park. It truly was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. After our cruise in Milford Sound we headed north to Queenstown. It was weird being back in a bigger city, and we had plans of getting out and exploring. By the time we finished laundry and got all settled in we both opted just to hang out, and try to get a little bit of Australia planned.

The next morning we headed up to Mt Cook. We lucked out and the clouds parted on our drive in, affording us amazing views of Mt Cook. The wind was gusting like crazy the entire day. Despite being blown all over the road we safely made it to the visitors center and found a short 3 hr walk to stretch our legs. At the first swing bridge we were almost blown off the bridge, I thought about turning back but after about 30 secs the wind died down and we ran across the bridge! We made our way through occasional gusts until we reached the lake and “view” of the glacier. From there the gusts turned into a hurricane, with water blowing off the lake and no lapse in wind speed. We snapped a few quick pics and then ran back towards shelter...while running back I felt like mario with star power, I would jump and get pushed forwards, moving faster than I ever have on my own. It was fun, but a little scary. Once back at the car we decided not to camp there and headed on down the road. We found a campsite on a lake and got the last powered site. We can tell it is getting closer to peak season, there are a ton more people out and about.

Next we headed to Akaroa, a small French town on the Banks Peninsula. We walked around town and just relaxed in the sunshine. It was by far the warmest day yet in New Zealand. Our campsite was on a hill overlooking the harbor. The next morning we watched a cruise ship unload its passenger for 4 hrs...I can't believe how many people fit on that ship! Akaroa is home to the worlds smallest and rarest dolphin, so we boarded a sailboat in search of them. There were only 8 people on the boat and it was so relaxing. The dolphins swam on the bow of the boat, and at times there were 10 up there. We even saw a baby that was less than 3 months old. You could've reached over the side and touched them. Another great experience on our trip. After our boat tour we headed north the Christchurch.

We opted to take the Tranzalpine train tour from Christchurch to Greymouth over Arthurs Pass and back. The scenery was great and it was nice not to have to drive for a day. We enjoyed looking out the window, and catching a nap on the return journey. We started driving north and managed to find a great campground with power, showers and only a $20 price tag. Typically those campgrounds have been $40-50/night. That wraps up our time on the South Island. Tomorrow we are supposed to go bungee jumping, if I don't chicken out! We've been searching for a GoPro, but they are really hard to come by in New Zealand, so no luck yet. Guess we will have to film the bungee jumps the old fashioned way (except that camera is basically broken with spots all over the lens), so I guess you will get no photos of bungee unless we can find a new camera in Wellington tomorrow!

New Zealand 2/3 finished, where does the time go?

It's hard to believe that we have been in New Zealand for two weeks now and still haven't made a blog post yet.  We only have a week left here before heading off to Fiji for Christmas and I find myself in awe at all we have already seen and done in this spectacular country.  The remaining week will be just as busy and I think Julie would agree that it would be easy to spend another month exploring.  Here is a brief rundown of what we have accomplished so far.

We landed in Auckland on the north island and immediately picked up our camper van.  After a trip to the grocery store and the New Zealand equivalent to a wal mart we had the supplies needed to start our 21 day camping adventure.  It was already late though, so the first night was spent in a commercial campsite near the airport.  The views weren't anything to write home about but it gave us the opportunity to check out the van and read all the brochures we had picked up at the airport to help plan the trip.

Ferry to the South Island

Our plan was to get to the South Island as quickly as possible and we headed south the next morning, stopping for lunch near a lake along the way.  We stopped at the visitor center in Rotorua and picked up a few more pamphlets before stopping at the giant redwood forest and eventually camping on the shore of a beautiful lake.  The next day was spent exploring some of the geothermal areas of the north island and taking a hike up Rainbow Mountain.  We were going to go see their "mini-yellowstone" attraction and a geyser, but when we learned it was $50/person we headed towards the free mud pools.  A couple days later we learned that they pour soap in the geyser to get it to erupt....so glad we saved the $100.  Our plan was to hike the Tangariro Alpine Crossing the next day, but part of the trail was closed due to a recent volcanic eruption so we decided to head further south and hope it was open on our way back to Auckland. The next morning we caught a ferry to the South Island and upon arrival made arrangements to walk part of the Queen Charolette track the following day.  We camped along the coast in the Marlborough Sounds and found mussels and clams alongside the shore just steps from our campervan.  

Our day of hiking began with a boat ride and the realization that the weather forecasters had actually gotten it right, windy and wet!  The windy part was realized immediately with the very rough boat ride, and we ended up hiking for 4.5 hours with a continuous rainfall.  We were soaked at the end of it but even with the bad weather we had some amazing views of the sounds.  While we were waiting for our boat ride back we ran into a couple that we met at Thailand cooking class....CRAZY!   

We had also learned that this part of New Zealand was world renowned for making Sauvignon Blanc and that there a bunch of wineries close together that offered tastings, so we booked a campervan sight for two nights and set off one morning on bicycles hoping to taste as much wine as possible.  We had a blast, making it to the first winery just before it started pouring and then trying to time it right with the rain each time we pedaled further.  Luckily we managed to stay almost completely dry and got to try (and buy) several outstanding wines.  

The next few days saw us head to the west coast and explore the beautiful landscape as we drove along what Lonely Planet called one of the top 10 coastal drives in the world.  What Lonely Planet forgot to mention was the 1,00,000 sandflies that would also be enjoying the ride.  We've gotten rather good at at mushing them.  We got to see a seal colony, experience blowholes, view pancake rocks, see several caves, and look at two natural limestone arches.  We also managed to get a lot of hiking in (non of these spectacular sites were immediately next to the highway)!  

After spending a few days along the coast we headed inland to Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers.  When we arrived it was forecasted to rain the entire next day, so we opted out of the heli-hiking trip and planned to do day hikes.  We awoke to blue skies and enjoyed our morning hikes and views of the glaciers.  After lunch it started to rain, so we hopped in the van and headed south towards Fiordlands.

Doubtful Sound

Reflection in Doubtful Sound

Further down the coast we found what might be one of the most beautiful places on earth with Fiordlands National Park.  We toured a glow worm cave, spent a day kayaking in Doubtful Sound, and took a cruise in Milford Sound.  The weather while we were kayaking couldn't have been any better and we had a private tour because they had to pick up an overnight trip from the day before (they usually have groups of 10 but we were the only people booked that day).  It was truly awe inspiring to be surrounded by such enormous mountains that were long ago carved by glaciers over 2000 meters thick while sitting in a small boat on the water.

You can see all of our New Zealand pictures here and our Fiordlands pictures here

Beaches, Scuba and Rain

DISCLAIMER: this was supposed to be posted 2 weeks ago, sometime around December 1, but technical difficulties have delayed it somewhat....please enjoy any ways 

Sorry, there will be no pictures with this blog.  The internet is much to slow to upload any, but I thought we should finish up our Thailand adventure blog before we got too far behind. 

After leaving Chiang Mai we flew south

to Phuket and then hired a car to drive us to Koh Lak. We spent 3

nights there laying on the beach and by the pool. We stayed at Ayara

Resort, and it was probably nice a couple years ago, but seemed to be

struggling a bit now. During our three nights we managed to break 2

AC units, a tv and a telephone (well technically we didn't break

them, but they all went out). But the beach and the pool were both

really nice. The sunsets were absolutely stunning and we enjoyed our

relaxing days.

Next we headed to the island of Koh
Phra Thong for our scuba certification (in the POURING rain). After
a long boat ride and pick-up truck ride we arrived at our bungalow
completely soaked (along with all of our stuff). We spent the next 4
nights in a very “rustic” bungalow, which was open to the
outside, and had electricity for a couple hrs a day when the
generator was running. We were the only ones staying there, so we
basically had our own private chef! The guy running the place
cooked all of our meals and they were amazing! Some of the best food
we've had the entire trip. We would just tell him what time we
wanted to eat and presto, our meal would be ready. I loved being
disconnected from everything and not having to plan the next thing.

I was worried about being able to pop
my ears while diving, what I should have been worried about was lack
of visibility and strong currents during our “confined” water
dives. Since there was no pool to practice our skills we got to
learn everything in open water, just a little shallower. The
currents off the island were tough and visibility was terrible
wherever there was sand to kneel on. When we first went below the
water I had a minor freak out and immediately went back to the
surface. Fortunately, that was my only major problem and I made it
through the course while actually enjoying myself. After suffering
through a couple days with 1-2 meter vis we were both glad to head to
Tachai National Park to finish our course. There we found no current
and 15-30 meter vis. We enjoyed our first couple “real” dives
and were sad to have to leave the island. From Koh Phra Thong we
headed to Koh Samui via taxi/bus/boat.

Arriving in Koh Samui we were greeted
with rain....did you know that Thailand has TWO monsoon seasons!? If
you did, why didn't you warn us! We thought that the Thailand
monsoon ended at the beginning of Nov, and for the Andaman Sea it did.
Unfortunately in Koh Samui the monsoon starts in November. Luckily
we had booked a nice room, with the thought of laying by the pool and
the beach. We spent most of the next 5 days hanging out it our room,
or anywhere else we could find that was covered. It probably rained for 20+
hrs/day. Oh well, it was still fun and we got a dive trip in to Koh
Tao. The diving there was spectacular and we only had to deal with
the rain on the surface. The 2 hr speedboat ride there and back
wasn't so fun, but the driver was good and I only thought we were
gonna flip a couple time in the 8-10 ft swells. Our last day in Koh
Samui we met up with Julia, a college friend currently working in
Brunei. It also happened to be the Loy Krathong Festival, so we made
floats (Krathongs) out of banana leaves and flowers. Ours won first
place...who knew engineers had an artistic side (or maybe it was the
free drink they were offering to the winners that motivated us).
Either way we enjoyed our prize – a bottle of sparkling wine! That
evening the rains held off and we launched our Krathong into the
pool. That night was also the full moon party, but we decided that
was one life experience we were ok with missing, and we confirmed our
decision the next day at the airport when we saw numerous hungover
people strewn about waiting for their flights.

Back in Bangkok we enjoyed our last
night in Thailand by walking through the cheapest market we had seen
(we were also the only white people there). By the time we got to the airport we were both Asia'd out
and excited to move onto New Zealand....unfortunately Thai Air wanted
to make that difficult. We hadn't yet booked a ticket out of New
Zealand, because I had read that all we needed was enough money to
buy one. Thai Air didn't like that and refused us our boarding pass
until we had a ticket. So we looked for wi-fi, nope, that's not
available until you are in the terminal. So we went to the Thai
ticket purchase center. They said they couldn't sell us a ticket
from Auckland to Fiji...sooooo....we were directed to an internet
cafe. By this time I was “hangry” (hungry and angry) so we
picked up some snacks and started looking for cheap flights. We
found one on Expedia and booked it, and they declined our card. So
we tried another card, it wouldn't give us a confirmation so we
bought more internet time and found a ticket on cheapOair. Luckily
that went through and after 2 hrs were were able to print
confirmation and get our boarding passes. Luckily we had gotten to the
airport with 5 hrs to spare! Once inside the terminal Adam received
an email about fraud on his card....awesome. We called and found out it was the Expedia charge, so we just had them cancel that. When
we checked our other card we found that Expedia had charged that one
too, even though they never said it went through. Thank god for
credit cards that just let us decline purchases!! After our fun
little airport adventure we were more ready than ever for New
Zealand!