SURPRISE SURPRISE

Well my friends already know; as does everyone here in NZ. BUT, my family is, as of this moment, completely unaware that I am headed their way in the not too distant future. After much research and prayer---and a chat with my lovely sister Tess--I became convinced that for the girl who loves birthdays (me) there would be nothing more gratifying or exhilarating than popping home on the day of my mother's 60th. I mean, I would want that if I was a mom! So the world travels are being put on hold for a bit until after  this  little adventure. But tickets are  bought and I’m freaking excited.

Feb 18: Hitchhike: Hanmer Springs to  Christchurch—2HRS

Feb 18: Bus: Christchurch to Picton—5HRS

Feb 18: Ferry: Picton to Wellington—3.5HRS

Feb 19: Taxi: Wellington Ferry to Wellington Airport—30MIN

Feb 19: Plane: Wellington to Sydney—3.5HRS

Feb 19: Plane: Sydney to DC—13.25HRS

Total: 27.75 HOURS of travel in 2 calendar days 

And so, while you all are getting this post long after I’ve gotten home, for me the countdown has just begun. 

27 days: ‘til I leave

28 days: ‘til I’m back in the USA

31 days: ‘til mi madre gets the surprise of her life

BOOM BABY. 

Diary of life until my return:

Jan 25---Friends agree to help with surprise

Jan 29---Gave in and told Tess that I'm coming home. She's excited. i can't wait to see her.

Jan 30---Had an interview today with a company I'd really like to work for. It went AWESOME. Love the people, love the mission. So good. Now just waiting to hear back. Applies for my superannuation today as well--really want to get my money back so that I can plan my trip to Europe. Thinking i might have to cut it down a bit which sucks...just money-wise though. ugh.

Feb 7---Claire unknowingly came up with the best way to surprise mom. WIN.

Feb 8---Got my super coming back to me and my tax refund from Aussie too!!! WOOT WOOT! But still waiting to hear back from the job. Nerves on edge. ALSO: 10 DAYS LEFT.

Feb 13---Enjoyed a final weekend in Christchurch thanks to awesome people.

Feb 17--FINAL DAY IN HANMER. So sad to leave. Especially hard to say goodbye to Mara and David. So strange to leave a place I've called home for almost 3 months.

Feb 18--THE JOURNEY BEGINS. 

Feb 19---Seriously though, it's been the longest 2 days ever. so many flights, buses, passenger bays, ferries, random conversations with people it's been insane. I met a writer from NYC after the ferry and spent the 1.5 hours we couldn't get into the airport in Wellington chatting with her at a cafe about life and travel. Then the 14 hour flight from Sydney to LAX I met a lovely woman from Melbourne who split her time between LA (where her husband is) and Melbourne (with her daughters). I'll be honest. 

     Today is strange. I arrived in LAX and have been feeling sick in my stomach since I landed. I think this is partially due to the feeling that this is just a quick getaway and i'll be back in NZ again soon. But...it's not. The tears haven't come yet, but I'm betting touch down in DC will do it. (Repeat of Post-Egypt anyone?) And while, in many ways I am sad and angry that i'm not in NZ anymore, the past few hours waiting at LAX have begun to remind me why I love the US. I've missed seeing faces of every race you could imagine mixed together into families and friends. Hearing languages from all over the world all crammed into one little building. New Zealand and Australia are stunning. I could happily live in Sydney weather, wasting time on the beach and having a winter that feels like Virginia Autumn. But, oh how I have missed the variety. I love seeing families of loving mixed race parents with beautiful babies. Of hearing Spanish on one side of me, Korean on the other and Arabic across from me. The US has its problems, no denying that. But, nothing can beat watching people of every background doing life together. Side by side, working hard to just love those around them. Some things are universal and I feel privileged to get to see those universal commonalities every single day in the US. Right now, I am proud to be an American. This country of mutts, this mixing pot of the world.=]

OH and I get to see my best friends tonight! AHHHH FREAKING OUT.

Feb 22-- Surprised mi madre today and it was BRILLIANT. I mean i seriously could not have asked for a better reaction. I kept looking back at my friends who were filming and all of us were crying we were laughing so hard. It was SO SO funny. I think we got as close to giving her a heart attack as we could without ACTUALLY killing her. This is wh.at happened:

My friends arrived and gave her gifts (6 chocolates, 6 balloons, 6 pictures etc) I'm hiding in the car at this point.

The last gift is a 6 minute phone call with yours truly! I'm still in the car at this point. Until of course, she opens the door and realizes i'm NOT in NZ.

Hugging continues after the initial shock wears off. Tears of laughter everywhere. Except for my mom who was actually crying out of nervous excitement. Totally worth the lying.

Feb 26--I should have posted this ages ago, but now I can give you all an update on what life has been like since I've been back! WHAT?! so awesome. Totally what you wanted right? I know. 

Well, my body has been attacking me from the moment I arrived stateside due to it's confusion over why I would go from 80* (26* C) weather to 15* (-10* C) weather. SO I've been attempting to recover from that. But, since I had to cancel my epic Europe plans due to lack of funds, I have trip after trip planned for the US! YAY! So i'm headed to Princeton and NYC this weekend to see friends, followed by Charlottesville/Richmond trips next week then an EPIC road trip with the one and only Amanda Hall from here to Austin in a couple weeks! With stops by Knoxville, Nashville, San Antonio Houston and perhaps New Orleans along the way. So, while it's been taking some adjustment to get back into US life, I can't complain. I have incredible friends and family that I've been able to spend loads of time with and more adventures to come. God is good.=]

2014 Overview.

I came to the realization today that a LOT has happened in 2014 and I should probably document it some way or another. So here we go, a brief summary in numbers of what this year was like:

Flights taken- 14

Boats sailed- 5

Buses taken-6

Jobs- 7

Jobs Quit before intended- 3

Long-term homes- 5

Countries Visited- 6 (Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Thailand)

Goodbyes said- too many to count

Exotic animals engaged with- 4 (tiger, kangaroo, wombat, whale shark)

Roadtrips taken-2

Hostels Stayed in-19

Languages attempted to learn/improve-5

Long-term Travel buddies-6

Churches attended- 4

Temporary Pets (places i lived had animals--i pretended they were mine)- 16

Tattoos designed- 1

Notebooks Used up-3

British/Aussie-isms Acquired- 8

Gotten Sick- 2

Cars owned- 1

Cars destroyed (sort of)- 1

Festivals/Holidays - 5

Volleyballs Owned-3

Major Cities visited-11 

Movies Seen-8

But regardless of all the insanely fun/crazy/awesome/scary/overwhelming things I have done this year, the one I think is the craziest is that I have officially spent an entire calendar year away from my friends and family back home. Not having them around me for support when things got tough has been one of the most challenging things I've ever experienced. Yes, of course I can skype/call people when I need to talk. But sometimes....you just need a hug from your best friends or dinner made by your mom. So I have grown. I've got on, met new people, had incredible experiences and enjoyed (almost) every minute of this year. And yet, I continue to look forward to the day I head back. Not permanently (let's be honest, I'm not good at permanent) but at least for a while to be again with people who know me inside and out and can call me out on things I can hardly see myself. Back to not really the house or the country---but to the home. To the home created by loving family and friends who make every little thing seem important. Miss you all dearly. Thinking of you today as the clocks begin to change around the world. 

May God bless and keep you this coming year. May you learn something new. May you go on an adventure. May you rise to a challenge. And may you love. May you love joyfully. May you love abundantly. May you love unexpectedly.

CHEERS! And a HAPPPY NEW YEAR!

                            

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Romans 15:13

New Zealand or Returning the Ring to the Fiery Chasm from Whence it Came

AUCKLAND

To be honest, I didn't love Auckland. It was one of those cities that really could have been anywhere. It was a good base it seems, to get elsewhere but didn't have that much to separate it from any other city. Having said that, it was rainy when I was in Auckland, I was primarily job searching and while I DID get to go see Interstellar (which was FASCINATING) I didn't get to do much else. So, I should probably head back at some point and see it properly.

WELLINGTON

This was a fun city. A small and incredibly windy city, but a fun city. In the short time I was there, I wandered through the botanical gardens, saw the city from atop Mt. Victoria, learned how films are made at Weta Workshop, stayed with locals through AirBnB, danced at an 80s night, attempted to find hobbit holes, saw where they shot portions of Lord of the Rings, caught up with a friend and continued the neverending job search.

                                  

 

                                                       

                                                   ^^Shots from the botanical gardens  ^^

                                 

Views of Wellington from on top of Mt. Victoria ---I attempted to find where they shot a few scenes from The Fellowship here, but unfrotunately followed the wrong path up the mountain....

                                  

                                 

An important Dislay at the Te Papa Museum in Wellington about Shrek, the sheep that escaped         shearing for YEARS. ^^

                                             

                        

                       

                                 

                              

                      

                                        

                                             

                         

                         

                                          

A combination of my Lord of The Rings Tour and WETA workshop tour. Both Incredible. The WETA tour was led by a South African guy who worked in the paint department and had worked on both District 9 and the Hobbit. On top of that..a bunch of guys who worked for WETA joined our tour, simply because they'd never done it before and wanted to see how people were shown their work. They were lovely and had all worked on LOTR and the Hobbit as digital designer people.

      

            Took a random daytrip to Waikanae beach. Cold, rainy day but still pretty cool.

PICTON

After Wellington I took a 3-hour ferry ride from the North Island to the South Island where we landed in Picton, a small town along the Queen Charlotte Sounds Track. I stayed there for 2 nights, giving myself enough time to do a day-hike of the Queen Charlotte Track. This area alone has 20% of NZ's coastline due to the miles of mountains along the water. It is stunningly beautiful and the wildlife includes penguins, seals, dolphins and a multitude of birds! Fun Fact: No land mammals are native to NZ. Only birds and fishy creatures.

                            

                            

                 

                                                      A penguin on eggs!

                           

                                           

                           

CHRISTCHURCH

It was interesting to be in Christchuch because honestly, I didn't know what to expect. Other than the fact that they had been devestated by earthquakes a few years back I really had no information on the place. You could tell wakling around that it had once been and would one day again bee a happening, cute little city. But, the earthquakes truly took their toll, and while the people of Christchurch have truly taken it in stride, it's hard to oenjoy the city when so much of it is under construction. 

                          

                          

                                 RE:Start Shops---a mall made out of containers.

                          

             Once the center of Christchurch, the Cathedral is now almost completely destroyed

                        

HANMER SPRINGS

Due to my taxi being super late I ALMOST missed my bus for Hanmer! And by that I mean to say I DID miss my bus to Hanmer. Luckily the bus company felt so bad for me when I called (because it was FEREZING outside and i'd been standing in it for 45 minutes) that they came to pick me up and drove me to meet the bus. Since then I have settled into my new home. I have my own room at a  small hostel where I work as an assistant manager. It is a small town of 650 people with two tiny churches, a small and expensive grocery store, lots of hiking and famous hot springs. God has been good thus far. One of my first days here I went around town just to see what there was and ended up chatting with this shop owner for a while. She was lovely and just kept saying how I needed to meet her daughter, as she was very adventurous and could tell me all the best hikes to go on in the area. WELL. The next Sunday I was at church chatting with the gentleman next to me only to discover that it was this woman's husband! He is the head of the contemporary evening service here in Hanmer and they are a lovely family. Joanne even stopped by to coem see me the other day! God is good.

 

These are a few photos from a hike I went on about ten minutes away from where I live in Hanmer Springs. It's a stunning Alpine village and the scenery seriously cannot be beat. The job is easy and the people are kind. I've just gotten another job, which I start today, at a local restaurant. And 2 nights ago I got to go see the final Hobbit movie with some friends at a midnight premier! Fun Fact: I watched the first Hobbit in the US, the second Hobbit in Australia, and the third Hobbit in NZ! Overall life is wonderful here and i'm excited to see what the next few months hold!