love the road you're on.: I Feel Like a Toasted Sandwich

Oh bother, my apologies for not blogging in a while. Hope December has been treating you all well and that your holidays were merry.

Lake Rotoroa

We’ve been doing some easy tramps (tramp = hike) in our time off, gearing up for some bigger tramps in the future. There are some nice walks around Murchison and we also ventured to Nelson Lakes – Lake Rotoroa and Lake Rotoiti. Hello beautiful. New Zealand has a lifetime of tramping tracks that are amazingly well maintained and marked – thanks Department of Conservation. There is also a huge network of backcountry huts, but we have yet to stay in one. Soon!

Becky and I decorated the lodge Christmas tree…Charlie Brown style. We were of the mind that less is more, but the tree was promptly redecorated with the mind that the more is more. Ah well. Christmas is not about the tree now is it (perhaps I am not the one to say what Christmas is about - Happy Hanukkah). By the way, they do grow normal Christmas trees here...the one pictured below is not one of them. Instead of getting a tree of our own for our little house, we decided to collect some tree trimmings from the one in the lodge and put them in a bowl. So easy and smells great. And then you can hide the presents among the trimmings and then it’s like a scavenger hunt.

Two great events in our social life! 1) A last-minute visit from Amanda and Shannon! They were in the area buying Shannon’s new sweet as van, and stopped by for the night. Shared some beers, old nachos, and some laughs. It was fun to be the hosts for once. 2) Kade’s 4^th Birthday Party – robot themed! Parachutes, balloon helicopters, rocket launcher, pass the parcel, and freeze dance. And adorable Kiwi children.

Amanda and the Christmas Bowl

Happy Birthday Kade!

This Christmas could not have been more different than last year. Christmas 2010 = VVR in Colorado, 2010 inches of snow. Christmas 2011 = New Zealand summer, 2011 degrees. We spent Christmas Eve Day at Tahuna Beach in Nelson, and made Christmas cookies for our friends that evening. Father Christmas did not come down our chimney this year, but that’s ok because being here is enough! We worked for a bit Christmas morning, and came back to the lodge later for dinner with the guests. There were two very interesting couples – a couple from the Australian Outback, and an American doctor (from Knoxville!) and his Korean wife who currently live in Papua New Guinea. The dinner table conversation was quite interesting and worldly, but Becky and I found ourselves unable to keep up and I think we were silent for at least an hour. I guess that’s what happens when you spend the last year and a half working on ranches. Sometimes I feel like I know nothing about the world, and it all seems so vast and unattainable.

Lady Zahra

Please don't catch the eels

So, we’ve made a big change of plans. Becky and I decided to no longer work at the lodge. Without going into too much detail, we wanted more time to travel and explore, and the job was just tying us down to one place for too long. We may never be here in NZ again, and so we're going to experience as much of it as possible. We are sad to leave our friends here in the Owen River Valley, but excited for the adventures to come. We are in the process of figuring things out. I see a lot of hostels, camping, peanut butter, box wine, and Budget Brand in our future. Capsy is going to be our mobile home. Becky has already warned me that the car is going to be messy and unorganized…deep breaths. We will probably be headed to Christchurch for a little while, to gather camping supplies and to welcome our 4UR friends to the country. We could not be more excited to get on the road, meet some fellow backpackers and friendly Kiwis, see the sights and walk the walks. Think of all the roads we have yet to travel on. There is so much of the South Island we have yet to explore – so here we go (until we run out of money)!