Colac Bay, Te WaeWae Bay, Nuggets Point.

11:20 PM 0 Comments




The Ocean, let me repeat myself...the enormous, gigantic, 96.5% of the earth's water, the OCEAN!
Oh hello, gorgeous people that read this blog. I have pictures for you. I have adventures to tell of, stories both tall and short. My goal is to inspire and to tell you that dreams are something you can touch.  I have gone far, but still I have miles to go.

This post is going to be a picture post mostly, since my last post lacked any retina stimulation.

A couple Fridays ago I was walking down the driveway like I always do, after being dropped off from work for the day. I walked down the driveway, doing my absolute best to leave work at work and be Dan, the fun loving guy and not Dan, the tired guy from working hard all day. So as I am doing this I notice Hugh, the fun loving Australian surfer “cruzie” dude, our flatmate, packing his car up.

It's a blue little car, the size of maybe a Ford Escort. I asked if we could tag along and he said "Yeah, I’m leaving in an hour," so Teryn and I packed up as quickly as we could and stuffed ourselves in Hugh’s clown car and left!

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Crusing along, we made our way down south straight to the coast our sights set on Colac bay. The weather man says clouds and rain all weekend. This, of course, doesn’t stop us from continuing forward. Clouds and rain did roll through, but I still managed to capture some great shots. Once in Colac bay, we drove up and around the coast and found Te Wae Wae bay with one of a kind oceanic views. 



Te WaeWae bay  Can you imagine a beach that is a mile long? Now imagine that same beach and it has not a single human being on it! No one trying to catch a tan, no one yelling, no kids crying, no sounds that are hcean waves crashing on the shore, birds and the gust of wind. My own cluttered brain noise stops in its tracks upon the views that we encounter.

I don’t always express my emotion on my face, sometimes it’s just a constant “resting bitch face”, but rest assure my brain is going off its hinges! This trip or “mission” as the locals call it, was worth it. We got to hang with hugh and discover a New Zealand that we have been dying to see. Teryn collected rocks and shells, Hugh surfed some “swell” waves and I saw the ocean. At 30 years old and this was only the 3rd time that I’ve seen or touched the ocean.






Meanwhile back in Wanaka. Mac “The Austin Powers of NZ” our most animated character, is making moonshine. As I walk into the house, I find a familiar smell. I think back to when I first experienced this smell. Kody K, my basic training bestie from Wisconsin. Moonshine. Moonshine such a distinct smell. Mac has such an amazing set up. His version of fireball is grade “A”.




Ataahua is 6 years old. Ataahua means beautiful in Maori ( Maori is the natives of New Zealand ) Ataahua is constantly surrounded by adults and different flatmates that come and go. She can be a pain, but for the most part she is just a very curious kid. I always have a hot and cold reaction to kids and I have realized that as I get older. I want kids, but I know that I am not ready for kids. I much rather entertain the thought of buying a jet ski and raising that to be a glorious yacht! Either way though she is a cute kid!



I call this one “Girl vs. Oven” Pizza oven, Check. Head lamp, Check. Trying to roast chicken, Fail. Overall though, Teryn is quite flawless when it comes to making a feast out of barely anything. I couldn't asked for a better person to travel around and experience this all with.



This last time I went to Queenstown, I purchased Dug, our sweet little campervan. After I picked up Dug, I was hanging around Queenstown for a bit, while waiting for Teryn to get off from working at the PGA tournament. During that time, I came across this gem of wall art and I found the Queenstown gardens. There were trees and plants brought in from all over the world. What immediately caught my attention was this massive tree. Upon walking up to this gigantic tree, I thought this might be what a Red Wood from California would look like. I have yet to go to the Red Woods, but I’ve seen them in movies and in pictures. As I walked up to the little plaque that was attached at the base it read. “Sequoiagigantean” Red Wood, California. This was in fact a Red Wood! Super cool! Many of the trees in the Gardens were imported there back in the late 1800’s. Just makes me want to go to see them in their natural habitat in California that much more now. They are quite a sight to see.






(Photo Cred: Teryn)

Finally we have a vehicle! I’m sure most of you seen the picture of Dug on facebook by now. We are finally able to take some trips away from Wanaka and more around the rest of the country. On this last trip we decided to go on over to Kaka Point and Nugget Point in the Catlins. It’s South of Queenstown and along the coast. Teryn had seen a picture of the lighthouse and we both really wanted to get some more ocean time in, so away we went!

Due to the massive boulders in the water this made the area very dangerous to boats that were trading along the coast. Thus propping a lighthouse to be built to warn of impeding dangers ahead. The lighthouse was built in 1869 and stands just 249 ft above the water.  





I couldn’t get a good picture, but down there in a little side pool of water there were several sea lions swimming around! This area is home to sea lions, fur seals and a bit further south there are penguins!




The Nuggets at Nugget Point. It looks like something straight out of a movie scene, it would be a great pirate movie location. This was probably in one of the Lord of the Rings during a part that I was asleep.

That is all for now guys, but Easter weekend is a 5 day weekend and we are stoked to get out and about again!

What is something you've always wanted to see? The redwoods, Grand Canyon, The biggest ball of yarn?

Let us know below in the comments.


Also we are trying to brainstorm a new name to our blog, that will be used for not only this blog, but all of joint travel social Medias. Let’s hear your ideas. 

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Work shmerk

1:54 PM 0 Comments

Queenstown from the top of the gondola.



I apologize for us not updating for a few weeks. I had a feeling that once we found better things to do we would start slackin' on here a little bit. It's been a crazy couple of weeks with work, people, and small adventures, or "missions," as they call them here. Dan has gotten a full time electrician job for a company called Aotea, and I've ended up working for a vineyard called Northburn Station. It's cool and all, but sometimes involves 16-17 hour days like last weekend, and that's not so much fun.

I think I last left you with an update of some of the cool new people that have become our friends here. Last weekend Flair's dad (our flatmate) threw his 60th birthday party at a nearby lake called Lake Hawea. I can imagine the image in your head, lots of old people sitting around picnic tables by the lake, grilling hotdogs and burgers, eating Grandma's potato salad and aunt Janice's jello mold... all falling asleep sitting up. Nope. Flair's dad Chud is kind of epic. He rented out an entire campground, brought in his own circus tents, hired DJ's from Australia, and threw himself a 4 day music festival. The tents had mutiple levels of stadium style couch seating, a massive dance floor, and a kitchen tent just beside the main tent. You could fit 500 people in the main tent. I've been to real music festivals that were less impressive than the main tent of Chud's 60th birthday party. He rented compost toilets for the weekend, and had a massive cabin tent with individual beds for about 20 people to sleep. We were only lucky enough to make it out to one of the milder nights, Friday, because we were working a wedding for the vineyard I work for the next day and didn't end up getting off until really late. I heard that the real party happened on Sunday, when they all moved the party to the beach and danced until the sun went down. Kiwis definitely have the whole having fun thing down to a science.

Aw, as I am writing this Mac (who has officially moved in and become our flatmate, woo!) just brought me over 'brekkie' and tea. He hurt his back jumping from a bridge into a river a few weeks ago and has been in a lot of pain. He's usually full of energy and extremely happy, but he's a little bit like a bird with a broken wing lately. We've had a few brekkie and tea chats this week. I'm hoping I'm helping bring him out of his funk just a little bit. He's the only one willing to give me me driving lessons with a manual transmission on the other side of the road, and I greatly appreciate his patience and for never yelling at me when I stall his car. We drove out to this really cool peninsula on the lake the other day, where he keeps his trailor full of his life parked, to pick up his liquor making supplies. We spent the afternoon after that 'putting down a brew', and he said he just stilled the liquor last night. We're well on our way to making our own booze, yay!

So this past week on our little hippie compound has been interesting. Mac was dating this lovely girl named Jessie all summer. They met at a music festival called Luminate and then just decided to spend the rest of the summer traveling around New Zealand together. Mac wanted to end the adventure in Wanaka, so that's how he ended up back here. Jessie and I have become quite close over the past two weeks, and unfortunately she had to fly back to Auckland on Saturday. It would be the case that I finally make a really solid friendship and she has to go away. We spent a few days thrifting for fabric and clothing to upcycle, because she's really been encouraging me to use my sewing and clothing design skills here because no one else is really doing it. It's been awesome having someone to light the creative fire in me again, and I'm going to miss her a lot until she makes her way back here. Friday night the crew invited over probably 50 people for a pizza party/Jessie's going away party, but I was exhausted and dead to the world so I didn't participate. There were 7 campervans in our driveway when I woke up Saturday morning. I guess Mac and Jessie had to say their goodbye's too that night and a long, emotional summer came to an end for them. Jessie is supposed to call and give me the scoop on how that left off, so we will see. Summer lovin' can be a real bitch sometimes.

Summer came to an end for all of us yesterday, with the first day of fall in the southern hemisphere bringing with it colder temperatures and tons of rain. I woke up today with a swollen throat and lymph nodes because my body can't handle extreme temperature changes very well. I'm sure temperatures will remain warm until the end of March, but then winter kicks in, and we're hoping by that time to be heading north to where it is warmer. The weather here is more unpredictable then Colorado, Ohio, or the rest of the random US weather combined. It snowed the first few days we were here, then was blazing hot the last few weeks. It's been nice having a little bit of summer, even if it may be short lived.

I can't find my damn notes I took on everything I wanted to write about anywhere, so I'm just going to wing the rest of this. I have one small rant I need to go on that has been driving me nuts lately. So I have been more fascinated than ever about the American food system and how fucked up it really is. It's not that I haven't been into it before, but living in a country that doesn't allow GMO fruits and vegetables has been really eye opening. The only way you'll find GMO's in NZ is in food that has been imported from other countries. I've complained a lot about the taste of food here, but that's mostly just because they don't understand seasoning and how to make things taste really good. I wasn't complaining about freshness or quality. Any meal we've made at home or with our flatmates out of the fresh ingredients we've gotten from the store has been really good.  It's really scary to know that the only way we will know how bad things really are for us in the states is if we go digging for that information because they lie to us our whole lives with advertising, and refuse to label GMO's. I've just been thinking lately that maybe I don't want to go back after traveling and buy a house and raise a family in the States. I don't want my kids to grow up thinking that it is all OK. Several of the travelers I've met here that aren't Americans said America was one of the scariest countries they've ever visited. It's hard hearing that from people who have spent a lot of time in third world countries. I'll just say Dan and I have been reevaluating our future plans and seriously considering living permanently overseas in the future.

Anyways, I'll get off my organic/non-GMO soapbox and move onto happier things. Poor Dan has had to listen to it a lot lately.
*wipes brow*

On Sunday we took a little mission to Queenstown, which is the original place we were planning on moving. Queenstown is like Wanaka's big brother, but a hell of a lot more touristy. Touristy can be fun though, it's not like we're real locals anyway...we've only been here a month. We drove over the Crown Range Pass, which was absolutely beautiful. It's about 45 minutes away. When we got there, we picked up a couple of gondola passes and rode to the very top. The pictures below were all taken on my cell phone right at the top of the gondola, and the lake you see is called Lake Wakatipu. From the top of the gondola alone you have the option of luging down the mountain (which we did), paragliding, mountain biking, bungee jumping, or just enjoying a nice meal at the restaurant at the top. It reminded me a lot of the main gondola in Aspen and the Sundeck at the top of Ajax, but with even more to do. Queenstown is considered the adventure capital of the world, and I think over the next few weeks we're going to try to get up there once a week to do some crazy shit. Wanaka is definitely a better place to live on a day to day basis, but I'm glad we have Queenstown to go get rowdy in when the mood strikes. We discovered a sort of Groupon of NZ activities called BookMe, so we're able to find some awesome deals on end of the season adventures.

I wrote this blog a week ago, and am just posting it today, so I'll add to it the fact we just took an epic little mission this weekend to the southern coast to go chase some storm swells with our Aussie surfer flatmate, Hugh. We will post pictures of that trip and talk about it in next week's blog.

I will be bartending the New Zealand Open PGA tournament in Queenstown from tomorrow until Sunday, so hopefully I'll have some cool stories to tell from that. We have been spending a lot of our time the last couple days getting together some sort of game plan for the year that we are here. We are thinking of sticking around Wanaka for the winter as our home base while we explore the rest of the Southern Island, then heading north in the spring time. We should have our campervan in another week or two, then the real fun will begin! I'm personally falling more and more in love with New Zealand every single day. Seeing a completely empty beach perched right up against jagged mountain peaks and rolling green hills this past weekend was probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It was exactly what I had imagined New Zealand to be. In America, that same strip of land would be littered with beach houses and people. It's awesome knowing we can just drive a couple of hours and have a huge stretch of the ocean to ourselves. Many adventures await in the next few weeks...and we're planning a seriously epic adventure for my birthday in May that may or may not involve great white sharks. Hang in there for the good stuff to get going!

A wealth of adventures awaits you at the top.

Pre-luge cheesin'.

I liked the dramatic 'no alcohol or drugs' pictures. Pretty sure I know that guy.

Weeeee

Post-luge beers and pizza at Winnie's Pub, as per my friend Hilary's suggestion!

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The Grind.

12:51 AM 0 Comments

     Oh hey there! Sorry I’ve been gone for a hot minute. Just been doing the grind of trying to get some cash back into my bank account. Ok, let’s go back into my notes and see what I have to tell you guys about.

     I have come to conclusion that there are 10 blondes to 1 brunette here. I’m at a coffee shop, naturally, and there appears to be 5 blondes, 1 brunette and 1 woman with red hair. I think she might be the owner and the blondes are her little minions. So if you like blondes, man or woman, then New Zealand is the place for you.
When you ask for a Lemonade here, you get a Sprite. *Scratches head* Huh? I’m not sure if they know what lemonade is, but that is probably because lemons here are very scarce and thus, are very expensive.

     Half the town closes at 5pm, and the other half opens at 5pm. Much like all small towns, the trick is figuring out what is open at which 5. Speaking of Wich Wich, they don’t have those here. Sad face, but they do have a Subway. Which does, in fact, still smell the same. Still shitty sCrubway food. Sad face. I did go in there for some cookies though. (Yep, they taste the same as back in the states.)

    Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” is blaring at the climbing gym. Oh, the 80’s and 90’s are still alive here. Pearl Jam follows me everywhere. Oh, and did I mention “ Welcome to New Zealand, the only place in the world that will play Creed and Nickleback songs back to back on the radio.” Oh gawddd my ears can’t take it!

    I did, however, successfully introduce my co-workers to gangster Fridays! Bumping some Biggie and Pac with some old school Dre.

    I met the neighbors Goldie, Alex and their little boy Caleb. Super cute kid. Long blonde hair, looking like he is already surfing bigger waves than I ever could. Goldie is tattooed from head to toe, a rare sight here. Doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of inked up people here. Goldie automatically gives me a huge hug and warm welcome. I later find out that she does the traditional “poke” tattoos! So needless to say I’ll be getting one before I leave Wanaka. (Sorry mom, yes another tattoo.) I also learn that Goldie and her husband are the owners of the one tattoo shop that is here in Wanaka! Yay!

     Netflix is not allowed in New Zealand and actually it’s not allowed in many countries. So that was a big blow to us, at first. But luckily there is ways around it, and for $4 a month, we can bypass it and configure our computers to be able to watch it again. New Zealand is epic and there is a ton of things to do, but until we get money and a car, our options to do epic things are a bit limited, for now. I guess I’ll watch some docs and mindless shows on the laptop.

     Ghost!! So Lonestar ,the bar and grill I briefly worked at, has a Ghost! Every couple of days when they first turn everything on and open up, the POS system has a glass of brandy ordered on the screen! It’s very rare that anyone drinks brandy here. I thought “well maybe it’s just the one register fucking up,” but no, one day it’ll be ordered at the bar register and the other day it’ll be ordered on the waitress staff register. Then it’ll come up on the one upstairs. At least the Ghost is attempting to pay for it?

     Whoooo, I found a pinball machine. It’s a sweet AC/DC pinball, but it cost $2NZ to play. Boo!

     I found myself a proper job as an electrician, aka ‘Sparky’. I’ve decided that I’m not going to go into the depths of the job, but know that I’m making just a little bit under what I made in the states and in a lot of ways it’s tons or “heaps” easier. They don’t even use metal conduit it’s all PVC plastic pipes. The outlets are all super simple to install. There are 7 employees and I make 8. Super chill, super laid back. My boss’s only question during my interview was...if you even want to call it that, where my hobbies were at on my resume? Dumbfounded, I told him that I don’t usually list my hobbies and he said “well on Mondays we all gather around and talk about the adventure we did on the weekend,  so you best have something good to say on Monday.”

     Day 3, and I’m in the workshop with Jonny fixing appliances and whatever else people are having problems with. On the wall of the workshop is about 8 posters of naked girls from what looks like photography from Playboy, circa 1995. I didn’t know if I was in my uncle’s garage or at work. My day was spent fixing coffee and espresso machines, 3 vacuums, rewired a storefront’s open sign, fixed some other tools and a bakery’s industrial mixer. Here they don’t throw things away when it breaks, they take it apart and fix it. I can’t help to remember my Uncle Richard, one of my many uncles that were in WW2. Richard was the neighborhood handy man and always had a garage full of lawn mowers that he was fixing. There is something satisfying about taking something broken, taking it all apart, figuring out what is wrong with it, and then remembering how it all goes back together again. I can see myself being 60+ and being like my uncle Richard, fixing the neighborhood appliances or helping with electrical issues.
I’m pretty stoked that my schooling for construction/electrical is something that is in high demand in other countries as well as the U.S…now if I can only find a way to own a company and still be my own boss.

Switch lanes.

     The UK version of Cards Against Humanity is hard! There is so many cards that I have no clue what it’s supposed to be or who it’s supposed to be. But… I managed to beat everyone still. J
Here is a new game for ya’ll, Giant Jenga with a fucking hammer! Rules goes as follows: You must first use the hammer for the first hit or tap. Once you touch any block that is the block you have to get out, there is no tapping to see which one is loose. Best tip: Just swing hard. “it’s kinda like the same concept of pulling a table cloth off the table, without spilling all of the glassware onto the floor.” Do ya follow me? So just pick a block, hit it really hard, and hope the rest don’t all fall down!

     I have to take a moment to talk about car doors. 6 out 7 lonely car doors are left open. These sad car doors are left open and forgotten about, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days. It’s sad. These doors never know if they will ever be shut again. They might just be open forever! “Shut the damn door!” is what I can hear my parents telling everyone here. I guess a lot of cars here don’t have “dope scopes” or dome lights, because people everywhere around here just leave their car doors wide open. It kinda drives me crazy, but meh, it’s not my car, so not my worries. It’s just an odd thing to me.

     Oh, I know what would drive my dad crazy…. the potato salad here. We bought a package at “New World” (the most expensive grocery store in all of New Zealand.) The package said, “American Style Potato Salad.” Well, I opened it up and it was more like a potato salad soup…It had potential for taste, but it had a gallon of water in it. Oh man, I can’t wait til’ Teryn and I get our food blog done up for ya.

New words and phrases for your pleasure:

     Cruzie – Super Chill. “Oh dude, today was super cruzie, I just laid at the beach all day.”

     Dodgy – Sketchy. “That is a dodgy job they did on that repair.”

     Yarn- Chat. “Let’s meet up at the cafe and have a yarn.”

     “I was doing a proper boogie wiggle.”- I was getting down on the dance floor.
   
      “I am so wrecked.”- I am super tired.


     “Oh man you fucking smashed it!”-You did a great job man!


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