May 18, 2009-just a catch up to the end of people visiting

SOOO LONG!!! I AM SO SORRY!!!

It has been an absolutely crazy couple of months. 

First, Ari's mom and sister came and we went on a sailing trip to Motiti Island and then Ari and his mom and sister went up to Hot Water Beach, Cathedral Cove, and the Coromandel. Then his mom said goodbye and Ari and his sister took the van and headed south. I was bummed that I couldn't go with them, but I worked hard out while they went to Abel Tasman and hiked the national park and then they drove down the west coast of the south island and hiked up Fox Glacier. Then I flew down to Christchurch and then took a bus to meet them and Chris Duncombe in Queenstown. We all four spent the night in Queenstown and then drove down to Milford Sound to visit Nana! It was fantastic! Milford Sound is absolutely stunning!!! Nana hooked us up with a free ride on the boat and we got the boat cruise and got to go into the underwater observatory. Of course it was a challenge to get Ari out of the underwater observatory. They said "now or never" and Ari tried to choose "never" but I think his mom might have killed me if I'd left him down there forever. 

Then we drove up to Christchurch and picked up Rocky and headed back to the West coast and went to the Hokitika Wild Food Festival. And by wild food...I mean wild food....  Try grub worms (I threw it up), regular worms (took it in a red bull shot and didn't notice it even go down), shark (really yummy), wild boar (not so yummy), lambs tail (really gross), pure hunny (made me nauseous), and so so many more. That night we drove up to Greymouth to stay, but there was no where to stay because of the festival so we sadly dropped off Chris and the rest of us drove to Nelson. 

Nelson is a beautiful little town and we stayed in a pub hostel. It's a speights bar with a hostel upstairs.  We tried to sneak all of us into a double room and got caught. That didn't go so well, but I smooth talked the guy and in the end we were all fine and everyone was happy.  It was a bit embarrassing, but it was late by the time we had gotten there so I told him it was all confusion on our part because we were so exhausted and he bought it. Oh well..chalk it up to one of those crazy young life experiences.

The next day we drove to Picton and Ari and I sat up front. Liz and Rocky hid in the back of the van between the seats and we snuck them on to the boat. It's so expensive for the ferry across between the islands! It's like $50 per person and $110 for a normal vehicle! It's simply stupid! So we paid for the vehicle and two people and didn't mind ripping them off another $100 for the other two.  

Liz and I then slept while Ari and Rocky drove the 8 hour drive back from Wellington to Mt. Maunganui.

Then we spent a couple more days and Ari and Liz and I drove to Auckland and picked up my mom!!!!! I was so so so excited to see her I could hardly contain myself!!! I was so happy to see her! We went on the Stray tour and took them on a tour of all the cool places in Auckland and some new ones we'd not been to. It was a perfect day. And then we got a hotel and my mom took a nap while Ari and I took Liz to the airport. It was very sad to say goodbye to Liz. 

Elizabeth, I know you read this, we truly had such an amazing experience with you. I loved all of our little chats and spending more time getting to know each other. You're an amazing girl and I love you dearly! Ari and I still talk about how freakin' awesome your visit was.

Then Ari and my mom and I went up to the Bay of Islands and had a fabulous time up there. It never ceases to amaze me how stunningly beautiful it is up there. We went to the Kaori Forest Museum on the way down and stopped at a top 10 holiday park. I am sad to say that that was the last we ever saw of Ear Big. It was a sad day for the stuffed animal that has toured the world. I think it befriended the sheep and ran away with them. We spent a couple days up there and then headed back to Auckland and picked up Kelly Bouyer and Dave Williams from the airport. 

We then all headed out to the Coromandel Peninsula. For the next couple days we went to Hot Water Beach and dug our own holes, we walked to Cathedral Cove and hung out on the gorgeous beach there. We stayed at a place called "The Church" which is a beautiful old church that has been restored into a restaurant and the back lands have been turned into hotel rooms and cabins. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Except for the cockroaches that were apparently climbing all over people at night. 

Then we went back to the Mount and spent a couple days soaking up the sun before heading down to Rotorua and then Taupo. While in the Mount we all went on a helicopter tour of the the area and it was SO awesome! it was a perfectly sunny and clear day and the views were absolutely stunning!! Then we went to Rotorua and went Zorbing and spun down a hill in a big plastic orb before going and feeding ostriches and my mom befriended a fuzzy cow. Then we went to Taupo and and the crap weather set in. We tried to chase the sun, but we failed for a brief moment. Luckily, the skies parted for an afternoon and we went on a guided kayak tour to see a bunch of Maori stone carvings on Taupo Lake. It was so nice and we all had a great time!

The boys were going to go skydiving, but then the weather set in and no more diving was possible. so we all headed back to the Mount for the final night of enjoyment. 

Sadly, Ari took them to the airport and we all said goodbye. It was a sad day. I worked a couple more days. And then Ari started work at the Kiwifruit packhouse. And my mom and I flew to Christchurch again.

We rented a car and drove over Arthur's Pass. We hiked to the Devil's Punchbowl-a really cool waterfall. And we stopped to try and see the Kea parrots, but no such luck. Then we drove down the Franz Josef. It was beautiful there, but we kept going to Fox Glacier. Ari said we had to do the full day hike. He said it was like 300 steps and then you get on the glacier and then you spend the rest of the day on the glacier. Then we got there and we were nervous, but really wanted to do it and Ari said we'd be able to handle it. Then the girl there said it was 500 steps to the ice. We said 'okay, we'll do it." We slept in a hotel watching the fabulous sunset over the amazing glacier. Then we got up the next morning, got to the meeting place and mom says "everyone else here is 12" and she wasn't far off. But I was sure we could still do it..however nervous I still was. Then we get on the bus and the tour guide says "700-800 steps!" and we panicked. Most of the way up I could tell mom really wanted to strangle me and clobber Ari for suggesting it. The stairs were out of control hard. But we made it! and we spent the whole day tramping around with crampons on the glacier and it was fabulous!!!! And we finally got to see Kea Parrots up close and personal!! We had such an awesome time up there and it was so worth the pain of the stairs. Would I do it again? I'll have to get back to you on that one. I might pay the extra $150 per person to get the helicopter tour up to the top. hahaha.

We were supposed to head north to Abel Tasman, but we were exhausted. So we stayed another night and then headed south to Wanaka. We saw a hitchhiker from our Fox glacier tour and picked her up and gave her a ride a way down the road. 

We got to Wanaka and decided to stay the night. We got a hotel with a gazebo that looked out over the lake and out at the mountains and we read our books as we watched the sunset. Oh, before that we went into a gigantic Tui nest and filmed a video home:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?v=mgyFIl2BJS0&user=PureNZHaveYourSay

Then we headed East and drove through Twizel (and I bought mom an Ear Big replacement and she named it Twizel) and then we went to Lake Tekapo (still one of my favorite views). then we drove to Christchurch and met up with and old friend of Uncle Luke's for some drinks. That was a very nice time.

Finally, the next night we flew back to Auckland. Chris Met us there with my car (he had returned to Mt. Maunganui and was flying home the same day and time as mom). I sadly..very sadly said goodbye to them both and drove home alone. I cried the whole way. I had such an awesome time with you mom!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!! It really was one  of the best experiences of my life so far! I miss you very very very much and it was very hard for me to get into anything after that. I just wanted to go home and be with you all the time.

But, back to work I got. I was working at the hotel and the hostel days and Ari was working at the packhouse nights and we were working hard and not seeing each other much. But then I picked up some shifts at the packhouse to spend time together.