yep, i'm talking to myself on a regular basis

soo. travelling alone. good times. interesting times. i find myself making myself laugh at jokes i made up or things that shouldn't even be funny. i also shower less. and i sing in the car lots. and well, it's great.

here's my story thus far,
i went to paynes ford for rock climbing! i met some sweet australian kids (who are also math majors... crazy), mica and john:

we all stayed at the hangdog camp which was within walking distance of the crag. lots of pretty good sport... and by lots i mean about 10 walls, but that's enough to keep me entertained for a bit. so we climbed for a couple of days on some fun stuff... it reminded me of the new... but a bit shorter.
here's camp:

and my tent:

and then we spent the last day in golden bay at farewell spit:

there were sweet sand dunes there:

then joanie texted me and asked me to drive toby home if i could. i was like, "where is toby? and yep, no problem!" so i found out he was about a 15 min drive from me on the beach. i drove him home and dropped the australians off at the spots they needed to go... and since we had become such great friends, they said they would pick me up at the airport in melbourne and take me trad climbing in australia for the first weekend i am there! freaking sweet. they are soo nice and cool.
anyway, after stopping at the farm for the night, i went to christchurch and did some laundry and then headed for the west coast... lots of driving:

i first stopped off at punakaiki (pancake rocks) and camped out in the rain.... ugg. the tent got soaked... which was only annoying because i had to pack it up. here's the rocks:


and i camped along the shore there somewhere:

then i headed off for the glaciers. i first went to fox glacier, which had excellent signs:



it was a bit rainy, but my spirits were up. glaciers are cool.



and there was strange water that was pretty blues and greens:


then i headed over to franz joseph glacier... it was raining more and i was pretty wet/cold by now, but it's the west coast... it rains a lot. so here was my view of that glacier:


which made me feel like this:

then i hiked to a "spectacular" view of the glacier and this is what i saw:

which made me feel like this:

so i gave up and went back to the hostel... where they had free organic veggie soup at 6pm and a hot tub all the time... yesss! i watched chicago with some sweet european chicks. and sat in the hot tub with a guy from israel and a guy from auckland. then in the morning, it wasn't so rainy, so i went back up on franz to check out the spectacular view:

much better. this made me happy.

after i finished playing at the glaciers, i went to hokitika... the jade capitol of new zealand.

i visited the gorge there:

and lake kaniere:

and the hot wheelz is still going good:

and walked around in this creepy ass forest by the lake:

the beach there was awesome!!!! there was a view of mt. cook:

and some other mountains/hills:

they were having a sculpture competition with stuff you find on the beach (there's tons of driftwood). here's the sign and some of my favorite pieces:





i stayed there for about three days, so i got to walk on the beach tons and look for jade... silly thing to try to do, but this lady who worked at the backpackers taught me. the first night i looked with this old lady from denmark... we were unsuccessful and i looked alone the next morning and found nothing... but then! the sweet lady gave me a jade necklace. she had found the piece herself and it is huge... i don't have a picture of it yet, but i'll put one up soon. so i went out that night looking with a swiss guy and i found a piece that night. i was so excited! then i went out again the next morning and found two more pieces. here's all three (and yes, i took them in and a jade expert told me they were all jade... nonbelievers...):

i ended up giving one to the swiss guy because i could tell he wanted one. and jade is supposed to be given. i was just excited because they say it finds you, and not you it. so that day, i drove the swiss guy to greymouth. and we went through a sweet one car bridge... even though those bridges are everywhere, this one was also shared with the train, which made it more intense and totally sweet:

then i drove myself back to christchurch through arthur's pass:





just after i passed castle hill, this huge cloud was coming up into the mountains... where there was perfect weather. it looked crazy:


and i drove into it... and it's been raining here in town since. i found a little camp site while i was in the mountains where i plan on living (because it's free... also it's in the middle of no where... no phones or cell reception or anything) but there's a creek and i can boil water and i can always drive an hour to town if i need stuff. mmm. complete isolation. luckily there aren't bears out here... hehe.

i got a strange coffee this morning. they put a red ball on it.

i didn't know what it was or if i should eat it, but i did. and it ended up being chocolate. it reminded me of the first episode of black books... what a great show. haha. that's all for now. peace and love. i'll try to check in again in a week or two. or if the weather is shit, then i'll probably just laze around town.

hugs and kisses kids. i miss you. only 1.75 months till i get home!!!

stella: i haven't been as hardcore of a climber as possible, but hopefully i'll be working on that a bit harder now. i only lead easier stuff because mica admitted she had never caught a whipper before and i was too scared to fall... so i did laps on all the climbs i lead and still had tons of fun. john is a bit more experienced, but he was only around the first day because he had to go to town and get boots the second. anyway, they want to teach me trad in australia and they said there's lots of super easy trad routes... so i'm really excited and a bit nervous, but i'll be sweet. there's a route there that people solo all the time which is rated a 5 in australian... i'm not sure what that is in u.s. but a 5.7 is about a 14, so it's ridiculously easy and it's like 300 ft tall! holy shit. i might try to trad lead it because that would be sweet. but it might end up being sketchy... mmm. anyway, i miss you. come and play with trad with me. i hope you're still kicking i.s. ass at home. be good... ;)

jessi: dude! i love your idea to have photos of everyone we love. i wanted to do something similar to that some years ago where i took pictures of everyone's faces when they make their face.... you know everyone has a face that is unique and completely weird and totally us. mmm. i love that about our group. i hope ou is treating you right. i miss you so much i can't wait to come play with you!

caitiln: glad to hear peru was totally badass! i am super excited to see your pictures! i bet they are sooo amazing. the pictures i have are ok sometimes, but the weather is crap so often that it's kinda hit or miss. glad ian passed the hug along. he said you got mad when he also licked your face on my orders. i did order him to do that, too. sorry if it bugged you. i thought it would be funny. but i suppose i just miss you bunches. i hope school and work is still fun... or as fun as it can be. i miss you... kisses.

end phase 1: farming and begin phase 2: climbing

before we get to business, i just want to say i still miss you all oodles. nancy just came out and visited, so that was toally sweet. we rocked new zealand hard core. now, i'm beginning new zealad phase 2... travel around and camp and rock climb as much as possible. i've taken a long enough break... it's been like 2 months!!! so i am in town for another day or two until i hit the road and see where the rocks take me... did i mention i am now an expert manual car driver on the left side of the road? because i am ;)

but anyway, to catch up, here's some christmas pictures:
here's the boys body surfing and kayaking on the insane ocean:

toby's baywatch photo:


here's the boys going tubing/kayaking down the river of death (the clarence river):

the weather really got nice then and the farm still looks great:


here's toby with our christmas tree:


here's the christmas fun!! (did i mention toby wore spandex... because he's sooo cool):






yeah we did a bit of work on christmas... moving some cows across the street:


yes, we got dressed up for dinner:


here's how sweet the fishing was right after christmas:






now, here's some shots from nancy's wonderful week in nu-seel-hand:
we did a good bit of driving:


here's where we stopped along the east coast between kaikoura and christchurch:




i was reunited with castle hill:




on the road to tekapo... lupins!:


finally, the lake and nice weather:












then we were on the road again:


we stopped at mount cook:



then we were off to wanaka... where we went to puzzling world:




and that's all for now... i'm off to pick up the car. it was getting the window fixed... it had a bit of a crack in it. talk to you kids soon. much love!!

replies:
nancy: i can't be bothered to think of something to say... we just spent a week together and it was bad ass!!! love you. cheers.

jessi: i am an ass. i totally got your card and chuckled over it for a bit then forgot to thank you for it. it completely made my day. i love you so much. i hope your ears were burning because nancy and i talked about you. only good things, don't worry. we just love you so much.

stella: nancy said she failed to give you the red book. i kicked her ass for you. i hope your break is going well and that you've gone on some sweet climbing trips. i miss you tons. umm. it's totally sweet that rob killed a beaver with the back of a hatchet. i am really impressed. give him my compliments. and the first step to being able to do that is being able to watch someone do that... so you are amazing. and i love hearing from you, as always.

jay: your pictures are great! i'm glad to hear you had fun out west. i think you are totally hard core!!! i guess you're probably back to your studies, so i hope that's going well.

steve: i love your posts. you crack me up. i was glad to hear alex visited and that you had a fun break. nancy said you guys were pretty busy being sweet. that sucks about the workload at school. if i had money i would send it to you so you could visit nancy. i think she's going to visit you sometime soon. she was talking about it. miss you still. oh and good luck with those programs you applied for. you never know. they are really sweet.