Back to tipping again. Crap.

Wow, unbelievably I sat down and got the photos all done! Proves the saying that it is far better to do it right away, instead of allowing the task to languish. Doesn't hurt that I am lollygagging around the house today a bit in a daze with jet lag. I am sooo glad we gave ourselves an extra day to recover before heading back to work. Even though it meant leaving the day NZ played France. That would have been awesome to be in the midst of. The other game NZ played (not counting the first one we attended) was a blowout and not very exciting to watch.

We did befall one small hitch - I lost my camera when we arrived in New Plymouth from Auckland. I am glad that if it had to happen, it was only the 2nd day so not many photos were lost. BUT, it did mean I lost the photos of the opening match of the RWC and the only game All Blacks played which we had tickets for. It was absolutely amazing to be a part of the opening ceremony and see NZ play live. Officials expected about 80,000 people to show up in Auckland for the festivities, in reality 200,000 poured in! The atmosphere was euphoric and exciting!! I even got in the act and convinced Jason to paint the left side of my face black and it looked pretty darn cool.

Enjoy the photos, starting with the 3rd day and our attendance at the USA vs Ireland match.

https://picasaweb.google.com/106641047386114998460/NewZealand2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJj4n874rbS53QE&feat=directlink

P.S.

TV coverage of the RCW sucks in the US, but here is a link to the opening ceremony. I highly recommend watching it, about 25min.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GkXpQhc51g&noredirect=1

This nook is great, but...

It is really too bad I can't upload any photos until I get home.  We are now in Queenstown for the last stop of our journey and plan on spending 2 very lazy days here.  We are both starting to feel a bit weary mentally of all the travel - constantly on the go and taking in all our surroundings.

This place is a ski resort area and definitely feels like it.  It is cute but full of trendy little shops and bars and foreigners. We still managed to run into a local last night to watch the match and it was great to get some info on some of the more obscure details of the game.

Stupid NBC is the owner of broadcast rights in the US and of course is doing a horrid job.  Very few games wil be shown and the rest are all PPV.  Stooopid!!!  We will have to figure something out when we return.

Some final notes on New Zealand: very little smoking, not much hard alcohol drinking, food is expensive (it all is really), people are super nice and laid back, not having to tip is super fantastic, the beer is awesome and not Portland hoppy, public toilets are clean, and every city has a huge park with a rose garden.

Cheers!

P.S.
I forgot to mention the chips (french fries). They are everywhere! We had to make an effort to avoid them at least a couple of days, but definitely ended up eating them almost everyday.

The road less traveled

Is not always the better road.  We took the well maintained road instead for a nice hike through the forest up to a glacial lake that was really cool.  Took the bubbly and some snacks and had a very nice picnic up top.

That was after Jason decided to splurge and we took a heli tour up around the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers this morning.  First time in a helicopter for either of us and it was pretty darn awesome.  (and apparently it was my birthday present - hopefully he won't remember by the time my birthday rolls around).

Cheers!!

Not sure there is not a hungover Irishman today

Holy Toledo! The Irish beat the Aussies last night - what a match!  I don't believe there was a single Aussie supporter at the bar either, which made it quite entertaining.

We are in Christchurch and there is a lot more destruction here than I thought.  The entire central business district is still fenced off to the general public and lots of buildings are closed and/or under repair.  Damage in the central core is pretty extensive with all the old buildings.  Our hotel even, to our surprise, is closed.  I read on the web it was open, but *gasp!*, I guess not everything on the internet is true.  Luckily the YMCA a block away had reopened Aug 1 and had a room available.  They were closed for 5 months due to water damage and other cosmetic items. Sad.

The All Blacks are supposed to be here today and we are going to try and attend the rally.  Stand in Black!

Perfect!

Yesterday was a glorious day, really quite perfect.  The top item on my list for this trip was teh New Zealand/Tonga opening match and that was awesome.  The next item was this stay in wine country and it has also so far performed up to snuff.  We went on a wine tour yesterday and it was a ton of fun.  The lady directing us also owns a vineyard so she was very knowledgable, not just about wine and the area, but also all the wineries.  Depending on our taste preferences, she adjusted where she took us and it was great.  There were only 2 other girls with us on the tour - from the UK - and they were a blast.  We ended up running into them for dinner at a pub to watch the USA/Russia game.  Boring game, but hey, we WON!!!!! Probably the only game, but we are holding out hopes for Italy.

Tonight is another All Blacks game.  Yeah!!

we are no longer in Kansas, Toto

It never ceases to amaze me how little wifi is available - and internet too - outside the US.  It has been quite difficult to find any wifi signals, even ones we can pay for.  So these posts are infrequent at best and hurried when they happen.

We are now in Blenheim on the south island.  The area is known for wine and we are taking some extra time here to hang out and enjoy the food and wine in the region.  So far so good, the wine has been quite tasty and the food too!  We will be heading out on a wine tour this afternoon and then we will pumped and primed for the USA v Russia match tonight.  Sweet As!

When I was last here I remember the beer was mainly divided between options of either north or south island brands.  Well now, pretty much every town has it's own brewery and it is all pretty darn good!  Definitely not to the level of sofistication or range of choice we have in Oregon, but it has come a long way.  Jason is tickled pink.

The weather has been cooler than I hoped, but not too bad.  In Wellington we got stuck in a pub (oh no!) during a hail storm and residents there said they had never seen anything like it.  But later that same day it was nice and sunny, warm enough for our jackets to come off.  Truly odd.

Doh!

Well, something bad had to happen, I knew I didnt have enough karma banked up for the BSG cast meeting.  Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced my camera sometime on the bus ride to New Plymouth for our 2nd match.  I couldn' t find it once we got to the hostel.  Sunofabiscut.

I couldnt bear the thought of not having a camera the rest of the trip, so of course we had to stop for one.  We both think it wil be recovered, but we wont be back to Auckland to claim it until we fly home.  Oh, I sure hope so!  I would really hate to lose the pics from the opening match.

The 2nd match was great, but of course USA lost.  It was way closer than we would have thought possible and still a blast.  We are now on our way to Wellington.  Cheers mate!

We made it!

It's been a long and crazy journey here, but we made it! Picked up our tickets no problem, got All Blacks shirts easily, made it to the hostel and are ready for tonight! The opening ceremonies begin at 7:30 and then our match starts after. It is insane around here as the entire town is super into this.  I'm really excited!

It's time to get my face painted and head out amidst the chaos... update y'all tomorrow!

Oktoberfest 2009

Finally getting around to sending out the Oktoberfest and Italy pics from 2009. The sharing rules have changed and I didn't realize these weren't visible. Oops.

Oh, just thought we would spend a weekend in Haiti....

We traveled to Port Au Prince, Haiti for Duckens' wedding to Martine the first weekend of August.  Because of all the travel we already had planned when I received the invititation, we only managed to take a long weekend off for the visit.  On top of that, we got stuck in Miami for a day because all flights were canceled due to tropical storm Emily.  Scheisse!  So a short trip, made even shorter, didn't allow for much sightseeing time.  We pretty spent most of our free time by the pool at the hotel, and the rest of the time was hanging out with Duckens and his lovely new wife, and friends and family of Duckens.  We had a great time and I am grateful for the chance to participate in the wedding and see Haiti, but the poverty was unbelievable and I can't imagine returning, unless we were able to get out of the city.

Please enjoy the photos!  They have not yet been captioned, but hopefully soon....