wellington, new zealand

if you were biting your nails about my escape from agnes water, fear not! i escaped and made it back to sydney in time for my flight to new zealand. exactly how i escaped is a story for another time, possibly with a few bottles of wine to pass the time....long story short, i got back to sydney via ferry, van, car, walking, train, and plane. not joking. it was an adventure though.

and i haven't been updating at all because i just finished ten days hiking in the wilderness of New Zealand's North Island. absolutely stunning! i just loved it. i was sick as a dog for part of it, and had some nasty blisters but i climbed 3 mountains, walked for 8 hours at a time, and camped under the stars. i am still in awe of the magnificence of the wilderness here. i'll upload photos when i get a decent computer, but if you are curious to see which mountains i climbed, you can watch"Lord of the Rings" or "The Last Samurai" (i climbed "Mt. Doom" aka Mt. Ngaruhoe, and Mt. Taranaki from Samurai). ok time on computer is up, love you all.

Agnes Water, Australia

Help, I am trapped in the most boring town on Australia's East Coast! Severe flooding has closed the roads in and out of the town, and there's NOTHING to do. I really shouldn't complain because things could be a lot worse, aka I could be one of the poor passengers on a stranded yacht out on the Whitsunday Islands! I just bought a ticket out of town tomorrow and I'm praying soooo hard that the roads are passable in the morning! Pretty much the rest of my trip in Australia and NZ depends on me getting out of here tomorrow so um, just cross your fingers for me. I'm going to go check out the ridiculous waves on the beach right now and maybe eat some lollies (Aussie for candy) to make myself feel better. cheers!

Hervey Bay, Australia

Quick post because I've just come back from 3 days of beach camping and I am FAMISHED:

I'm happy and tanned (ok maybe a little sunburned), I saw dingos and dolphins, I kinda surfed, I've started saying "No worries", and I love Australia. Also, this country is bleeding money from me! Pizza time now, more posting later if less hungry!

Sydney, Australia

To everyone in Minnesota: All I've been doing for the past eleven days in Australia is
a) lying on various beautiful beaches
b) checking out some of the world's best surfers
c) getting a suntan
d) eating ice cream
and
e) wearing tank tops and shorts

I'm sorry, I just had to rub it in. I think the best way for me to do this blog is just to promise you better photos and stories when I get back to the US, and to just live them right now and write little bits of it on here. Suffice to say, the Great Ocean Road, Sydney Harbor, the Sydney Opera house, and the Otways National Rainforest are more beautiful than any photo I could take or words I could write. You just need to go see them, period.

I'm off to bed now because I have an appointment to go surfing at 0600. It's a rough life.

Auckland, NZ

Waiting in Auckland's airport for my delayed flight to depart for New Zealad. I am so tired I feel sick. Our flight was supposed to leave at 655 and now it's leaving at 1130, putting me in international transit for roughly 24 hrs. Just....want...to....sleep.....

In other news, I really liked my day and a half in LA! I stayed with the lovely Amanda and her great roommate Lynn and got to do all the various touristy stuff, including taking pictures of the Hollywood sign and seeing the Walk of Fame. I took a picture of Arnold Schwartzenegger's hand and foot prints. I think it's time for a little coffee right now, but hopefully I will get to Australia by 5 pm tonight. g'day!

Raleigh, NC

After 23 hrs of driving in 48 hrs, Matt and I arrived back in the land of the 60 degree winter. We drove through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, and part of North Carolina to get there. and we only got lost once! As a whole, the drive was pretty bleak, but once we got into Kentucky and West Virginia, it was lovely. Despite it being the Christmas traveling season, we saw hardly another car on the road for most of the Kentucky portion. And I-46 East between Huntington and Charleston, W.Va goes through the mountains and is just gorgeous. We drove through at dusk and it made me really want to stop at WinterPlace Resort and go night-skiing. I would have taken pictures but a) I was driving and b) I thought my camera was broken. Luckily, I'm just inept with cameras and it is NOT broken! We got to my parents' house at 10:30 on Thursday night and everyone was waiting up for us, which made for a very nice homecoming. Now I'm just relaxing like a college student on break (miss those days!) and looking forward to Christmas with the family. Thanks again to the awesome Minnesotans who gave up sleeping in on Weds morning to see me and Matt off (especially Hannah)...miss you guys already!

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

My time in Rochester is almost over, and against all odds, I'm very sad tonight. I had my last day at work on Wednesday, and saw some lovely co-workers for the last time. Tonight we had some friends over for a little get together and I spent most of my time pretending that it wasn't the last time I would see them. Ugh, tears. I am such a softie. Yes, I spent quite a bit of my time in Rochester complaining about what the town lacked, but I'm starting to see that I'll miss it a lot! I will especially miss my little Minnesota family - the friends and co-workers who kept me sane even in -20 degree weather. What am I going to do when I can't complain about doctors, c diff, and bed alarms every day?? I can't wait to download some pictures from Hannah (my roommate) and post them on here so everyone can see how attractive our purple scrubs are!

So. The furniture is sold, the clothes are packed, the job is over, and I think it's time for me to get out of Dodge. Peace out, Rochester, I don't think I gave you enough appreciation while I lived here!