Doom and Gloom!

Kat and I are finally in Sydney, but between here and Auckland we had a fantastic sidetrip to Mout Ngauruhoe which is otherwise known as MOUNT DOOM!!!!

It's a one way hike that you can hire a ride back to your car. The hike takes you across the Tongariro Crossing and as a side trip you can summit none other than mount doom (from the Lord of the Rings movies). We had an excellent time and despite less than perfect weather actually got some superb views. The gloom part was that it was raining and snowing at the top of the mountain, but really that just added a feeling of accomplishment for reaching the top! There are a lot of volcanic activities in the area as you'll see in the pictures.

So far we're having an excellent time in Sydney and we haven't even explored much yet. I've been keeping my head down applying for jobs and looking for a place to live. Within the next few days hopefully we can do some exploring and I can put up some pictures of Sydney.

Abel Tasman Photos

I put more pictures online.  It was such a gorgeous place - these photos really don't do it justice!!!

Tramping the Abel Tasman

Right off the bat in New Zealand we took off for the Abel Tasman National Park with Elizabeth and her friend Chris. Kiwis (New Zealanders) have an entirely different vocabulary and outlook on hiking (tramping), camping, and experiencing the outdoors. I really have to say that they have a wonderful system and it makes the outdoors more accessible for more people. The Abel Tasman track (trail) is called a Great Walk. A Great Walk is one of a few of the more popular tracks in New Zealand and it means that it has a very good infrastructure. The trails are extremely well marked, there are huts and camp sites all along the track, and there is either fresh and/or drinking water at every hut and campsite. 

Details aside, everything about the Abel Tasman track was beautiful. The flora and fauna are so different from what Kat and I are used to, but with a similar geography and climate to the northwest. Around every corner was an exiting new plant or bird. Also around every corner was a new golden beach with turquoise water! 

We had an excellent time with Chris and Elizabeth on our four days on the track. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, she had a surfing accident the week prior and dislocated her left shoulder. Not wanting to cancel the trip, the rest of us volunteered to carry her gear for her!

We overnighted in the very cute town of Nelson on the way home and spent an entire day wine tasting in the Marlborough region on the South Island. This region is especially known for it's whites. We sampled, and of course purchased, some excellent wines. Our exchange rate made this an excellent value! Kat and I are extremely disappointed that we won't be able to share any of the Kiwi wines with people back in the States! But I have to recommend that the next time you're going for a white try a New Zealand label. I'll try to do some research on what is being shipped back to the US.

Leaving the North Island behind us...

Lush hills, golden beaches, and torquoise waters

Lots of walking on the nice sand

Elizaperson was a trooper!  Four days of tramping in a sling!

Tidal crossing.  Kiwi men normally wear shorts this short so they didn't have to roll theirs up like I did.

A happy Kat on a happy beach!

Some pictures in Wellington

Kat, Elizabeth, and I took a long walk today through the charming town of Wellington. Enjoy!

Happy in Charming Wellington

Kat and I arrived into Wellington, New Zealand last night. Elizabeth was waiting for us at the airport, and it was so good to see her again!!! We arrived into Wellington on a very good day for two reasons: it's Waitangi Day and it's also the Sevens tournement of rugby. After showering 30 hours of grunge off at Elizabeths superb pad we walked to downtown and were greeted by a city full of Kiwis that were dressed in outlandish costumes that all seemed to have refreshed themselves with no less than two gallons of beer each (or seven and a half liters, as they'd say). Even though we were exhausted and jet-lagged it was impossible not to get into the fray and enjoy ourselves. Kiwi's really know how to have a good time!

Our travels getting here were pretty hairy and there were lots of close calls and miracles that happened to ourselves and our luggage. But everything made it in the end! We flew from Seattle to LA (LAX sucks. It really sucks!), then to Papeete, Tahiti, then to Auckland, NZ, and then on the Wellington, NZ. From the Papeete airport we could see the island of Mo'orea that we had planned on visiting. It definitely gave us some motivation to get some kind of reparation from Orbitz for missing our entire Tahiti vacation.

Lastly, and far most important, Kat and I owe a lot of thanks to many folks back home for helping us out! There's no way we could have done this without the help of all our friends and family back home. We really appreciate it everyone! Thank you so much!

A few facts: it is roughly 8,000 miles to fly from Seattle to Wellington. We left Feb 4th at 3pm and arrived into Wellington on Feb 6th at 7pm local time. An entire day is missing for me! I will never have a Feb 5th, 2009 in my life. Good thing I don't keep a journal. Anyways, that makes for about 31 hours of travel time.

Not Good

I understand that this is very inappropriate in Australia:

Visa status: approved!

We now have one!!!!!!!!!  Yes I know we were supposed to fly out yesterday.  But we were finally approved just today :)

Yeah for team Jer-Kat!!!!  Now Jeremiah doesn't have to take illegal jobs on a tourist visa or have to swim from New Zealand to Australia.

Also, a big thank you to ALL the people that helped us out on this.  Getting this visa was a huge effort and we had a lot of help.  So THANK YOU!!!

Flying is such a pain!

Listen to this:  today Kat and I were scheduled to fly from SEA to LAX and then onward to PPT.  However, when I was writing down our itinerary I noticed that we were scheduled to arrive at LAX at 1440 while our LAX/PPT flight out had changed to 1300.  What the hell!  If either Orbitz or Air Tahiti Nui had informed us that they had changed the flight time then we could have done something about it, but since we only found out this morning we couldn't get on an earlier flight to make the LAX/PPT connection.  And to frustrate us further, the next flight out with Air Tahiti is not until Thursday!  

So, after hours and hours on the phone with Orbitz we finally had to accept the later departure.  This means that we will have zero time in Tahiti and will have to go straight on to New Zealand.  This has really taught us what happens when you go with an internet company like Orbitz and run into a problem.  We had to go through three levels of managers before we could get someone who could even help us.  The first person we talked to actually recommended that we get on the flight to LA!!!  If we had listened to her we'd be stuck in LA until Thursday!!!

Now we're going to collapse into a sleep coma for a while.  Sorry superbowl!