Wednesday January 11, 2012

Monday January 9th I got up and went for a short run before we checked out. I just ran through town about 20 minutes but my pace was fast and other than the humidity I felt pretty good. Just about 10:00 we checked out of our Takaka hotel and for the last time drove down that horrible windy road. Toshi did basically all of the driving that morning as he’s been doing.  We got to Kaikoura in the afternoon and got ourselves checked into the Andara lodge, which was just a bit out of town. We headed in for dinner at an all local all organic place – it was tasty!

I went to bed that night excited and nervous about the dolphin swim the next morning.

Tuesday we got up and got ready for the dolphin swim. We had decided on the 8:30 tour, which was much better than the 5:30 one would have been. To be on the safe side I took a Dramamine before we got on the boat.

They gave us all of our gear and a little briefing on what the morning would look like. We got put in wet suits and I was glad that this time it fit better – really snug actually which was great.

They then put us on busses that took us to the boats. Our guy in charge was a guy named Owen who gave us the Maori welcome with a Scottish accent. We got out on the water and started hunting for dolphins. It took probably a good 45 minutes or more for us to find them and then it was time to get in the water. Due to the issues I had swimming on the Great Barrier Reef, I was worried about this but I was hoping that my excitement about the dolphins would outweigh my nervousness. Luckily, due to the shape of the ocean floor, it’s really, really deep. Therefore you can’t see the bottom – it’s also much more cloudy than on the reef. So, I had no issues! The first time off the boat it was a bit cold and I had to figure out exactly where I wanted my snorkel, but all issues were gone when I had dolphins swimming underneath me. They told us to make noise and do things to interest the dolphins. Dolphins are smart and they want to be entertained during their play time so the more you do, the more likely they are to stay with you. So we all were making silly noises through our snorkels, which was tough to do all the time! After being out for a little bit the horn would blow and we would get back on. We would all sit at the back of the boat and our driver, Colin, would follow the dolphins, using the horn to tell us when it was ok to get off again. After the first time it was easy and each time it was the same.

The third time we got off the boat I swam to the right and almost immediately a dolphin swam over to me. Determined to keep him/her close by I started swimming in circles with him. He would swim one way and I would try and keep up with him, then he would change and I would change or the other way around. I would guess that for a good solid 30 seconds or more I had my own dolphin to play with! I wish that I had been able to dive – I didn’t try and dive but because of our really heavy duty wetsuits I knew I wouldn’t be able to.

We got to swim with the dolphins 4 times. It was so much fun. Toshi thought it was really tiring but I think I was having too much fun to be tired. After the last time we got back on the boat and got to use the hot water hose, it was so warm! We then had hot chocolate and ginger biscuits. Tasty. I’m not sure how Toshi feels about it but I loved it and thought it was incredible. I was really proud of myself for not freaking out and having a great time. Dolphins! Somewhere I have a New Zealand shotglass that I bought in the gift shop afterwards.

After swimming with the dolphins we got some lunch in town and then headed to Methven. The drive is about 4.5 hours or so, maybe longer, so I drove the first bit, as long as I could. It was a pretty uneventful drive overall. We got all checked in to our Methven hotel and went out and had Thai food for dinner.

Today was a long and crazy day filled with lots of things. We got up at 4:45 and we were out the door at 5:15 to be there before 5:30. There were 6 other people with us, two of them were on time and the other four came together and were over 10 minutes late. We got in the bus and headed out. We stopped along the way for the guys to release a little balloon to figure out what the winds were doing and from there pick where they wanted to launch us. We got to the field and then we all helped get the balloon ready. It takes quite a while to get a balloon ready! The balloon is huge 210,000 cubic feet! It gets unrolled and then fans start to get it going until you can put hot air in. We all helped. Then finally we were ready to go.

Toshi and I were in part of the basket together. I did ok for about the first 15 minutes and then things slowly went downhill. I got freaked out and started to silently cry. There was nothing I could do to stop it. Our guide, Marvyn, was asking everyone how they were. I tried to say ok but it didn’t work… I was no ok. He gave me a candy to eat and told me things to focus on. I got a little better and then finally I started to enjoy it. The hard thing about a panic attack like that – because of my fear of heights – there is nothing that I can do about it. It just happens. Before I calmed down Martyn asked if he wanted me to bring the balloon down, I told him no. No matter how bad things were for me, I was not going to ruin the ride for the other 7 people in the balloon. I don’t think my pictures are great but I do have pictures from way up high!

We landed in a field, helped put the balloon away and then had champagne breakfast. Even though it was terrifying at first, it ended up being really fun once I got used to it.

Because it was really early when we got done – about 9:30/10:00 Toshi and I had some extra time. I mentioned the Adrenalin Park in Christchurch. We were about an hour from Christchurch so we decided to go see if we could find it. We went looking for an iSite – tourism place but had a hard time finding one. Driving around Christchurch was interesting because whole blocks are closed off from falling buildings. At first it didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with the city but the more we looked the more we saw. Finally we called and got the iSite. We then went and got the address.

We got to there, had our little brifing and were ready to go. They have 6 levels – each gets more difficult and higher off the ground. The first one I was fine with – not high really and simple tasks. I went first and kept Toshi behind me. Each pathway starts and ends on the ground. So you get done with 1, get down and go find the start of 2. There were some scary things on 2 that I’m pretty amazed that I managed to do. The first is walking on one wire, with one on either side and clipped in to one above. But it’s going slightly uphill and there are spots where you have to step over things. The other was the barrels. I tried to crawl headfirst and when that didn’t work, Toshi called to have someone come get me. Someone heard and passed along the information that I should go on my back and pull myself along the cord I was attached to – awesome. Although I made it through 2 I decided after that I was done. The first half of 3 looked ok but after that things were too high off the ground and tasks were such that you would have to look down to figure out where to put your foot. Toshi however did 3 and 4 before deciding not that it was too hard, just that he was tired – we didn’t have any water or anything with us.

We got some lunch, which turned out to be in a small town where nothing was open except Subway and headed to Punakaiki. We got all checked in here, had some dinner, walked a little and then I called about horseback riding. I convinced Toshi to give it a try since we drove past a place on the way to checking in for our hotel. I was all excited because I love horseback riding. I called, they had a ride tomorrow, there were spots open but Toshi weighs too much. The weight limit is 95 kg and he weighs 105. He doesn’t seem to think that the weight he put on is too much but I do. He put on 25 pounds. Had it not been for those 25 pounds, he would be able to go riding! Just barely but still! Kgx2.2=lbs. So he would have been just about exactly 95kg. So I’m a bit frustrated because I really wanted to go. He told me I could go without him but that seems silly. It would be different if he had something he wanted to do that I didn’t – like mountain biking – and we had planned to do them separately so we could each do our own thing but this is different. He doesn’t know what he’d do.

I think we are going to hike instead. We shall see.

It’s not 11:00 and we’ve been up since 4:45 – it’s time for bed.

Sunday January 8, 2012

Friday morning we got up in Blenheim, went for a short run and then headed out. We stopped by this little café and had breakfast. I had French toast and wow was it good! There must have been some cinnamon and nutmeg in the batter or something. Tasty! We then made the drive to Abel Tasman. At the time that I booked our hotel, I had no idea where things left from for Abel Tasman. It turns out, everything gets booked from the other end. We are just about an hour from where all the tours started. We realized this on our way here as we drove past the sign for Kaiteriteri and then drove to our hotel in Takaka. Not only is it far but the reason that it takes so long is because the road is up and down a mountain. The road is steep and incredibly windy.

After checking in to the hotel we drove north-west up on the north end of the south island. We drove up quite a while and got to where there is a spit. Toshi wanted to do this off-road vehicle thing but because of the tides it only goes ones a day and we missed it. So instead we just walked out and back a little bit.  We came back in to town and stopped at a pizza place for dinner.

Saturday morning we got up around 6. We had to be down in Kaiteriteri by 8:30 and with me driving (since we were making 2 round trips I told Toshi I would take 2 of them) we weren’t sure exactly how long it was going to take. We left just before 7:00 and it took just over an hour. We brought with us what we needed and went to the beach to meet with our team. They call everything team here – each person leading the group always says, ok team or let’s go team, or great work team. Our leader for the day was Tank. He got us all checked in and on our ferry (water taxi) to take us to the beach where our kayaks were. The problem? We got there and there were no kayaks. So, we waited. Then he finally got in touch with someone. We had one double and needed three more doubles and a single. The guy came and brought one single. So we waited some more. Although we got to that beach about 9 or shortly thereafter, which is when we were supposed to, it was nearly 11:30 by the time we got in the kayaks. We still did the whole thing just later in the day.

We saw seals. Lots of seals and one was showing off in the water and I got it on video! Toshi got a little frustrated with me because I get tired and I stop paddling. Totally understandable. We paddled around a while and then stopped for some lunch on one of the beaches.  We did some more kayaking and got back around 6:30 instead of 4:30. We checked in for our ferry the next day, called Shannon and figured out dinner plans and changed in to dry clothes.

We met Shannon and Brian for dinner. We went to a Thai place in Motueka, not too far from Kaiteriteri and close enough for them – they were coming from Nelson I think and were headed to Ruby Bay to stay with some people they know. It was so fun to see them! And at one point Shan pointed out, it seems so weird we are in NZ, it feels like we are back home! We talked about Christmas and what they had been up to. They asked what we had been up to and what our plans were for the rest of the trip. It was really fun to get to see them since it had been a while and since they are here for a year (yesterday was their three month New Zealand anniversary) I’m not sure when I’ll get to see them again. They are talking about spending a year in Australia after they get done here although Shannon says that she really misses Christmas back home. We parted from them and headed back to the hotel.

This morning we got up about 6:30 and headed out about 7:30. We had to be there about 8:45. It took about an hour to get there again. I was worried along the way about the day in general. Yesterday when we had checked in they told us that there was a chance we weren’t going to be able to go because of the possibly horrible weather. We got there and things seemed fine. We got on the boat and found out that because of the predicted afternoon weather they weren’t going to be able to take us all the way up to our planned spot because our pickup spot they weren’t going to be able to get to. So they dropped us at Totranui. He told us where needed to go and about the place we were going to need to cross at low tide. He made it sound like not a big deal but it actually was…. We hiked for a while, stopped for lunch and hiked some more. The path is well marked so that wasn’t an issue. When we got to the place we were going to have to wait for low tide there were others there. We all waited together. Finally some people decided they wanted to go. The sign said 2 hours before and after low tide. It wasn’t even 2 hours yet so the rest of us waited. At about 2:15 Toshi decided we needed to go because our boat was coming at 3:15. We started waking and it was pretty gross. Our flip-flops (jandals in Kiwi) were getting stuck. I walked as long as I could in bare feet but it was too much after a while and I had put them back on. It was deep in some spots – up to my knees, not the best. I was not happy about it and honestly, it sucked. We finally made it across, cleaned off our feet and put on our hiking boots. We started walking and eventually found a sign telling us that our destination was 20 minutes away. Our boat was coming in 10. So we walked fast and Toshi found what looked like a cut through. It wasn’t necessarily going to be far enough but it would get us back to the beach (since the path had taken us away from the beach) in hopes we would see our boat. We popped out and Toshi saw a boat. Thank goodness! Good timing on our part. Our guy was out looking for us. He was the one that had dropped us off so he knew who to be looking for.

We got on the boat and he warned us it was going to be rough and that maybe we shouldn’t sit up front, however since I have a slight motion sickness issue I wanted to. HUGE MISTAKE. It was insane and we were getting tossed all over the place. So the first stop we made, Toshi and I moved back. Far enough for it to be a little less crazy but not so far back that we got wet. We picked up a lot of people along the way and it was really slow going and finally probably an hour later than normal, we made it back to Kaiteriteri. It was not a fun boat ride at all and I was incredible grateful when it was over.

We stopped and had some Indian food on the way back in Motueka and then came home to relax.

Tomorrow we drive to Kaikoura where the following morning we will swim with the dolphins in the ocean!

January 6th

2:05PM

Frustrated. It’s really hard booking a trip when you don’t know where things are or how long it’s going to take to do things. I booked a couple of Abel Tasman things but it turns out that we are located on the wrong side of the park. There is a really windy and long mountain-type road to get us out of where we are staying and it takes a good hour to hour and a half to do it. We are supposed to be in Kaiteriteri at 8:30am tomorrow for kayaking and 9am the next day for a water taxi and hike. It’s a long way to go, not distance wise but driving time since the road takes so long to drive.

Toshi wants to cancel the day after tomorrow and figure out something else to do. I’m frustrated because I didn’t know when I booked and I suppose I should have booked the activities first. I hope that other things don’t end up being this way too…

Thursday January 5th

Tuesday January 3

Ok so I’m behind on writing! We are now in Blenheim, our first stop on the south island but a lot has happened since I wrote on the 3rd.

The morning of the 3rd we left Rotorua and drove to Whaka Thermal Village. The whole name is much longer than that but I can’t remember it all right now. We walked around the living village with a guide, saw a Maori cultural performance and had lunch, tasty. It was interesting to see a village built on a thermal site.

After lunch we went to Hell’s Gate, which is a spa of sorts. We went and checked in and were given a map of the thermal park. We walked all around – about 45-60 minutes or so and even though there were clouds, we both got a bit sunburned; Toshi on his face and me on the tops of my feet since I was wearing flip flops. After doing our walk we were shown to our mud bath where we were for 20 minutes. It’s a very strange feeling being in mud, but Toshi and I painted all over each other and that was kind of fun. The worst part was once we got out of the mudbath that we had to take a cold shower before going into the hot springs. Our mud bath was not as hot as we would have liked but the cold shower was still very very cold. After we got mostly clean we went into the hot springs and that was fantastic. We only stayed in there 20-30 minutes because it’s so hot. It was a wonderfully refreshing day after the hard work of the caves the day before.

After getting done with all that we drove to Taupo – only about an hour and a half south of Rotorua. We got checked into the hotel and vegged for a little while since we were tired from the hot springs. We went out to get some dinner in town and did some walking around until it started to rain, we then went back to the hotel.

Wednesday January 4th we made the drive to Wellington. The drive was just about 5 hours and Toshi did it all. So far I have not had to do any driving at all! It’s been pretty amazing actually. I’ve really enjoyed not having to drive but definitely would be able to if needed.

We got to Wellington and met David for lunch. David is a friend of Toshi’s from ridemonkey.com. We did some walking around with David, went up the funicular, got some lunch and then he gave us a driving tour of the south shore. Wellington is beautiful and even driving into it, it felt like driving into Seattle, only newer and with more people out and about. Everyone was out walking since the weather was nice – a little windy but overall gorgeous. By the time we got done walking around I was rather toasty!

We went and checked in at our airbnb about 4:00 and then decided we needed to veg a bit. The sun had taken a lot out of us and Toshi took a nap. About 7:30 we got up, headed back down into down and met Nick and his wife for dinner. Nick is another friend of Toshi’s from ridemonkey. We had some great Cambodian food, which was very much like Thai and Indian sort of combined. Curry, but also things like Roti and peanut encrusted beef. We went and got gelato with the, headed back to where we were staying and crashed.


Wednesday January 5
I can’t believe this is still today. I can’t believe that this morning was when we got up and left Wellington. We got up about 6, showered, got ready and headed out just before 7. We got to the ferry in plenty of time and then waited to be put on. The ferry, since it has to go in the ocean, is HUGE. Nothing like the little ferries that they use in Washington. Incredible really. This one had 10 decks! The ferry ride itself is 3 hours long and most of the time we just spent reading.

After getting off the ferry we drove to Blenheim where we are staying tonight. We stopped and got a little lunch and then came to the hotel. We were going to check in after our wine tour but one of the owners was just getting in from a bike ride and checked us all in. About 1:30 we got picked up from our wine tour that we got dropped off after about 5:00.  We went to 5 wineries and Toshi was a good sport about all of it. Sometimes he tasted, sometimes he just tasted from my glass but he even found one he liked enough that we bought a bottle! So at some point we will have a wonderful bottle of wine to open up and enjoy; a semi-sweet Reisling.

It is so much warmer here on the south island that it was up north and everyone has warned us that when you go to Abel Tasman (where we are headed next) so make sure you have lots of sunscreen and bug spray. The burn time down here is 15-20 minutes so we are going to be good about the sunscreen.

Tomorrow we drive to Takaka where we will actually spend three nights – finally! And will get to explore Abel Tasman.

Incredible and we are still only 6 days in!

January 3

Yesterday was an incredible day. We drove out of Auckland and headed toward Waitomo where the glow worm caves are. It took us a couple of hours to get there. Once we got there we got some lunch and then headed to the Legendary Black Water Rafting Company who would be our guides for the five hour tour.

They outfitted us for wet suits, booties and boots. We were driven to the site in a large van, the eight of us and our two guides. First we learned how to use the ropes and the equipment that would help us make our way down in the cave. We spent about 45 minutes on land learning how to use the ropes and what it would be like as we descended. Then it was time to go.

Toshi and I went last in our group of eight. The scariest part for me was where you had to step off the platform and trust that the rope would hold you. Then it was time to abesail down. It took me quite a while because I was nervous about it and I actually had to help the rope lower me down. My back started to hurt about halfway down but I made it, no panic attack or anything about the heights!

Once we all got down we had a little bit of walking to do and then the zip line, in the pitch black! Terrifying but so much fun! After the zip line we sat down and got hot chocolate from our guides. The hot chocolate was very welcome since it was cold down in the caves even with all our gear. Then it was time for the tubes. We were each given a tube and told to jump in the water. The water was really cold and was shocking as we jumped into it. We then grabbed a rope that was attached to the rocks and started going down the river. Other than the cold it was really fun. My jacket was too big in the arms and so my arms were really cold, although the rest of me was sort of cold too. We floated down the river and over a small waterfall. Then at one point we stopped and our guide, Zane told us about the glow worms – glow maggots actually. We got back in our tubes and linked together via arms and legs and he pulled us down the river while singing the cave version of My Heart Will Go On. I thought it was very entertaining. We made our way back around to where we had started and dropped off our tubes. We then floated down river without the tubes, which was fun. The water was really high in the caves because of all the rain they had over the last couple of days. It was the first time it was the first time they were open in multiple days because there had been so much rain. We were lucky since that was our only opportunity to do it. After floating down the river for a while we stopped and had hot juice. Very welcome since we were so cold! After some more floating it was time to walk through some rather strong rapids. We all managed just fine but it was tough at some points. We then got to the end and the waterfalls. We were going to have to climb up through the waterfalls. To get there we had to go through a very small space where only our heads were up above the water. We waited and went one at a time. The waiting was difficult because we were sitting at the bottom of the waterfall and it was so loud! Then one at a time we went up. I was honestly afraid that I wasn’t going to be able to do it and was going to have to go the easy way out but once I got there I decided I was going to do it. Battling a raging waterfall and pushing yourself through it is not an easy task. Then even at the top of the waterfall there was walking through the rapids. I made it through the first one and then sat and waited with the rest of the group to get ready to go through the second one. The second one worked the same way, one at a time and very slowly. One of our guides, Ann, was on each of the two waterfalls to tell us where to step and where to grab. Having her guidance was incredible because she knows these waterfalls so well. Nice to know that when she tells you to step in the waterfall you actually should step in the waterfall. The second one was stronger but not as difficult in terms of climbing. I think that the rapids at the top of the second one were stronger but that could be because by this time my boots were torn and I was losing my left one so pushing through was more difficult. Everyone kept telling me that I made the best sound effects – I figure whatever I have to do to get myself through. I making groaning sounds helps me push through then that’s what I should do. I did, and it worked.

I got to the top of the second one and pushed through the rapids and met up with Zane who was our other guide. He took photos and then I climbed through the last smaller waterfall and out to daylight.

I was worried there were going to be things that I couldn’t do or times when I might have a panic attack but I did everything even though I was scared. Jumping into the river was tough but they don’t really give you a choice and when they tell you to jump you just jump!

If we were to ever come back when we have kids and they are older I think I would want to do this again. What an amazing day.

Today we are going to walk around the village and have lunch there. Then we are going to the thermal village for mud bath and hot springs. Should be nice and relaxing which is good since I’m sore from yesterday!

Sunday January 1st Auckland

Yesterday was quite the day. Not just yesterday but the last couple of days I guess since technically we left the US on the 29th.

Toshi was the first to leave. At around 2:00 east coast time he took off to the train station, took the train and the AirTrain to the airport. I got a text message from him saying instead of a 6:30 departure it was going to be 9:15. Toshi only had an hour and a half layover in LA and I was worried he was going to miss his plane. We then found out that our Auckland flight had been moved from 11:30 to 1:30 so problem solved.

I left the house about 1:50 Seattle time after saying a quick hello to Jeffrey and Lindsay who had just gotten there from Portland. Mom dropped me off, reassured me that everything was going to be fine (this was before knew the Auckland flight had been changed) and I was off. I got all checked in for all three flights, went through security and sat waiting for my plane. The first two were fine – SEA SF, SF LAX. Then I got to LA. I got off the plane and had to figure out where my next one would be – thankfully I had a three-hour layover that had turned in to five because of the delayed plane. I was in terminal 7. I found an airport map only to find that the international terminal was far away. As I was trying to figure out how to get there a stewardess walked past and asked if I needed any help. I told her I was trying to get to the international terminal. She gave me directions and I was off walking because I didn’t want to catch the shuttle. The walk was outside and the weather was nice so I walked. I got there and found Qantas but that terminal was only for checking in to Brisbane and Melbourne. So I had to go back the way I came to terminal 4. Why Qantas international flights leave out of two terminals – one of them a non-international terminal – I have no idea.

So I got there and waited. Got something to eat, waited some more and waited some more. They talked about the flight how it was delayed coming from JFK – yet another reassurance that it was Toshi’s flight, so that I felt good about. Finally about 12:40 they started getting off the plane and for the last hour I had Toshi to wait with. We boarded the plane just after 1:30 and took off shortly after 2:00.

The flight from LA to Auckland is just over 12.5 hours. Luckily they feed you twice and the food isn’t bad. We had dinner, they turned out all the lights and we all went to sleep. I would say that I slept about 6 hours or so; not bad for being on a plane! When I got up I played some Tetris (I remembered that from my LA to Sydney flight many years ago), and read a bunch on my Kindle (Best. Purchase. Ever). They fed us breakfast, I played Tetris and read and finally they announced our descent into Auckland!

We had our customs forms filled out, waited in the short line, got through, grabbed our bags and then waited in the longer line with our bags. In filling out the customs form they ask about shoes and soil on your shoes. I had my hiking boots in my bag but Toshi told me not to worry about declaring them. I should have gone with my gut and declared them because when our bags went through the woman asked me about the shoes. I had to open my bag and have her look at them. She said, luckily those are clean, otherwise it’s at $400 fine for not declaring them. WOAH! Glad she was nice about it!

Next step was the rental car. We called, waited for the van, got in the van and then got the rental car. A very small hatchback but since its only the two of us, even with our good amount of luggage, everything fits nicely. Then we came to the hotel, got all checked in and found our room. I wanted to take a nap but we both knew better. By this time with the delay and everything else is was about 3:00 – honestly better than it would have been without the delay, about noon. So I took a nice long shower, put in new contacts and then we went out for groceries at the Asian grocery store nearby. Stuff there is ok but we won’t be going back. We had a snack and decided we would go down to the Viaduct (weird right?) and the waterfront and walk around a bit. It was good to get out of the house. After a good amount of walking around, stopping by the tower and seeing some people on the giant bungee things, we came back to figure out dinner. We read about an ethnic food court in Ponsonby (which for some reason I really want to call Ponsby) and went there. We had Indian and it was tasty and reasonable. We came back to the hotel to veg before going to sleep. The goal I had was 10:00. The people at the front desk had mentioned the midnight fireworks but honestly I knew there was no way I was going to make it. I pulled my kindle out and did some reading but by about 9:30 it was hopeless and we went to bed. I woke up a couple of times but not until early in the morning, I think about 4:30 and then again about 6 before I woke up a third and final time about 7:00. Not bad for the first morning!

After some reading and lying around we got up, had some of our Asian groceries for breakfast and tried to figure out our day. We had done a good amount of walking the day before and we were planning on going all over so we decided that we would drive. We started by going to the Domain, which has greenhouses. Since it was a bit gloomy outside it was nice to be inside at least in the morning. After the Domain we went to Mt. Eden. The view is fantastic but it was pretty foggy and that’s all there is there so we saw, I took a picture of the crater and we left. After Mt. Eden we drove around a bit – east in the city along the water to a view-point overlooking Achilles Bay.

Afterwards we went to the Botanic Gardens were we walked around a bit outside. I think we much be little late for them. While there were some really beautiful things, the rose garden especially was past it’s prime. It was nice to be outside and do some walking around and even though it was gloomy the temperature was pretty good. Because it’s New Year’s Day a lot of things are closed. Whole sections of streets with business are closed. We were worried we would have a hard time finding things that were open so we ate at the gardens.  Some of the places that we saw are closed from (for example) December 23rd until January 8th for the holidays. Incredible that this is done by a lot of places and completely accepted. Very strange for us though! In the states people get mad if you are closed for any reason!

After having lunch we drove up north past the city. Toshi had found a place called Goat Island so that was our destination. It was beautiful driving up the coast and Toshi loved the windy roads. We walked around near Goat Island and up a rather muddy trail that took us to a lookout point. We learned the story about Goat Island. There are not any goats there but the reason is got the name was from sailors. They would find an island and label it Goat Island when the left goats behind to become food for anyone who might get trapped there. Most recently there were pigs but they ended up swimming to the mainland.

We drove back down part of the way on the west side of the island and then headed back over to the freeway to head back down. Some of the roads we were on were incredibly windy and toshi had a great time! Thankfully he didn’t go to crazy on them.

We decided since we are in an apartment style hotel and have a kitchen that we should make dinner (since most of our other hotels won’t be like that). I went on the GPS and asked it for a grocery store. The first one I found didn’t exist but thankfully the second one did. It was pretty nice and we got some dinner and breakfast things for tomorrow.

Tomorrow we drive to Rotorua – about 2.5 hours. We’ll get some lunch there and then do our blackwater rafting. First adventure!!! I know its going to be a blast and I am hoping to not have a panic attack anywhere along the way.

Not sure when we will get internet again so that’s all for now!

Wow, lots has happened!

I keep saying that I'm going to post and then I never do! Maybe I should actually start doing it this time!

The last time I posted was September, a good solid 6 months ago. Since then a lot has happened. November brought the half marathon that I had been training for. I flew down to Atlanta for Thanksgiving and Carrie and I ran the half marathon on Thanksgiving morning. 2:33. Not bad for a first but wow were we tired (from all those hills) and I was sore, especially the next morning when I had to hobble around the airport because I was flying back to NY. I am happy that I did it although right now a half marathon feels a bit crazy to me so I'm staying away from them for a bit. (More on that shortly)

December meant family visiting and my recitals. It was a bit crazy having mom, Jeffrey and Francine all staying in the house (and dad in a hotel) but we managed it just fine. Things were crazy recital morning but I guess that's to be expected. My NYU audio guy didn't show and my video guy nearly didn't show because he forgot that my time had changed from 2:00 to 12:00. He showed up about 11:30 and just barely had enough time to set up his stuff (which he made a point of telling me. Um... I think it's your fault not mine that you showed up late! The last email he had sent me he said "I'll see you at 10:30", yeah, good times. We managed to get out of the hall in time and not get charged for being there too long but all that stress about the hall and my videographer made me stressed out and I didn't play as well as I could have. I also have now learned that maybe putting all the solo stuff on the beginning of the recital is not the best for me, as having people on stage really helps me calm down. This was shown a second time when Jeffrey and I did a recital in Seattle in December and I decided to do the same thing - not really sure why - and I had some issues in the first half as well. We had a really great time playing and Evan played with us which was awesome. I hope that we will be able to do this again, maybe next year, as I really had a good time. Playing with Jeffrey and Evan was incredible and definitely made me play better. I really really hope that we get to do another one!

In January Toshi and I went to New Zealand. I was coming from Seattle and we met in LA. Toshi decided not to bring his phone which was an adventure based on the fact that his flight was having issues and I was only able to contact him via texting on the iPad. Hopefully that won't happen again. We had an incredible 3 weeks in New Zealand (more on that later) and then he came back to NY and I went back to Seattle for another week. Mom and I spent a couple days in Cannon Beach and I had a great time being home.

February I came back to New York and it was strange being back with nothing to do. Although at first I really enjoyed having nothing to do, after about a month or so I got bored. So I became a volunteer at an animal shelter in Huntington (about 20 minutes away). I go as often as I want, spend a couple of hours and walk the dogs. I am actually really enjoying walking the dogs, much more than I thought! I had some favorites that have been there for a while and I walk them each time I go. My favorite, Fondue, is a little chiuaua and is just adorable. She, however, does not do well with other dogs so is having a hard time getting adopted.

In March I went home again. It became time to move the D'Amour grandparents and they agreed to move in with mom. This would make it so they wouldn't have to be on their own anymore and wouldn't have to drive which is key. Grandmama was diagnosed about 9 months ago with Alzheimer's and she's the one that does basically all of the driving - because of Grandpapa's vision - and she no longer can drive so them using a car was not really an option. Moving them was difficult as Grandpapa has gotten more OCD and moving Grandmama out of a familiar place was difficult as well. As can be expected, mom is having  hard time with them. Grandmaman has good days and bad days and mom says that sometimes she gets really angry and lashes out at mom and Grandpapa. She sometimes has times she seems like she's only stage one, but then there are symptoms, like lashing out and not recognizing people, that are stage 3. I have no idea how long they will stay living with mom. Mom says it's like having kids all over again, and I know it's really wearing on her. Sometimes Francine comes to help out to give mom a night off, but Michele isn't any help, or very little. Sometimes Francine helps get mom out of the house and they go do something fun. I know it's hard and I wish I could help more but I can't really, even if I was home there is not much I can do. I'm going home again in August and will be hard to see how Grandmaman is doing. She's the grandparent that has always been the most stable, with the least amount of health issues (other than medications) and it's so hard to think that at some point she won't recognize who I am and that when we do have kids, they won't ever get to know her the way I did.

After getting home from New Zealand I officially went off the pill and we officially started trying. I have been waiting for this for so long and after just a couple of months am frustrated. I thought it would just happen right away. February was kind of a guessing month, March Toshi was gone but April and May have been interesting. I use ovulation strips to test and we have a schedule to stick with which is hard on us both. I thought it would be easy but it's not. Unfortunately it's not officially an issue until it's been a year. A whole year. I really hope it doesn't come to that. In my plan when we move home in June - 13 months from now - we have a little one that's coming with us. If it takes a year, or longer, that won't be the case. Right now, if I managed to get pregnant the next cycle, the baby would be due at the end of February, already much later than I had hoped for. All we can do it keep trying and hope that it works and try to not be too stressed out about it. Having read forums and blogs I am realizing that there are a lot of people who have been at this a lot longer than we have. At some point we will talk adoption. I don't want to be 2 or 3 years from now still working on this, I don't want us to be 35 before we have our first kid. I know that Toshi is not particularly excited about adoption but we have so much to offer a child that I think we should take the opportunity to be parents even if the child is not biologically ours. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Now here we are at the end of May. Also in news I ran my first 10K about 3 weeks ago. The Long Island marathon weekend consists of marathon, half marathon and 10K (plus 5K and 1 mile on Saturday) and I ran the 10K. Originally I had 5 friends that told me they are going to run with me but in the end I ran it by myself because none of them had trained enough (and Kim had her recital the following weekend). I am now in training for my second 10K which is in August. It's a flat trail run, how cool is that? Marsha is trying to train with me. Then in September there is another and Jack wants to run that one with me. When I went to the expo for the LI marathon weekend I got all kinds of info. In there was info about triathlons (woah I know), and how there are places that have a little tiny mini one for those who have never done one before. Totally doable, even for me who hates being on a bike. I also found out about a close thing, in Oyster Bay that is just swim and run. I'm trying to convince Toshi to do the swim part (since you have the option of splitting it) but I might do both parts if I can't get him to do it. The tough part? It's the day after the September 10K whose course says it's "rolling". Not my favorite. I may be too dead to do it although after the 10K I wasn't nearly as sore as after the half.

I am also working on getting a job. Although I really like volunteering at the shelter, it's hard to motivate myself to get out there especially when the weather is not so great and not having a schedule is kind of rough - honestly I should just make myself one! Although I really do like it when I get there. I applied at Apple and got invited for the first interview but they didn't want me - not likely I would stay around because of all my schooling? who knows but oh well. I put in an application at REI and also our climbing gym (we are now members! and LOVING IT - well Toshi likes it, I love it! Not sure if I will be able to do it if I manage to get pregnant though...) and I just put in an application for Red Mango since there is one close by, just in the shopping center down the road.

Well, I guess that's about it. I'll try and write more often now that I remember this exists. :-0

In other random things - we are working on having less plastic things around the house so we've gone to a stainless brita as well as glass tupperware. We are also working on less meat during the week and often do one vegan meal. Toshi still likes meat and I give him beef about once a week as long as it's something I can easily add ground beef to - like curry, or just add a small steak for him. My next thing is trying to get sugar out of our diet, at least less in our diet than I know it is. We are better about snack foods and read labels, if you can't pronounce it, you shouldn't be eating it!