Doubtful Sound overnight cruise April 29-30

I think most folks just go for the day cruise, but considering how long it takes to get there without a car, I'm glad that I splurged on the overnight boat cruise. We started off with a bus ride from Queenstown to Manapouri (~50) with a stop at the Five River's cafe near the half way mark. At the visitor's centre, we boarded a boat to get across the lake, then hopped on another bus to get us to the 'cruise ship' for the next ~24 hours. It was a pretty good deal, the meals were prepared on the ship, there was lots of complimentary warm bevvies to be had and the commentary provided was quite good and informative.

Wellington, Picton and the Queen Charlotte Track

Travels with Nicki

Red Rocks along the aptly named
Red Rocks Walkway.

I met Nicki during my last two weeks on the farm, and we made plans to go hiking together before she settled into work over the winter. I felt I had earned a vacation after 6 months of wwoofing.

Krumm-Jury farm conclusion.

Holy smokes! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown during my stay with the Krumm-Jury family. It's the first fully properly organic place that I've come across (makes you wonder about who's running this wwoof organization, don't it). I've had the opportunity to do all sorts of different tasks and I believe I've learned a lots of new skills and gained a lot of insight into how much work goes into keeping a place like this going (and why macadamia nuts are so goddamn expensive).

Not much to say about this vid...

I'm afraid the last thing I want to do in the evening is sit at my computer, so updates are pretty slow and few.

Enjoy a time lapsed video of this morning's sunrise in the meantime.

http://youtu.be/li_8fBjr_Og

Swanson, Auckland, New Zealand September 19 - October 3

My very first WWOOF hosts were located just west of central Auckland, but it was very much the bush. I loved it. There was a new little sleepout building for up to 4 of us to sleep and cook in. There was even a flatscreen tv and cable. I was blown away by the amenities, actually.

Northland Road Trip October 3 - October 6

Sue and John sent the 3 of us away for the long weekend to enjoy some travel in Séb's car.

We zipped up along the West coast, stopping briefly along the way to check out a few sights, like the biggest/oldest Kauri tree, some beautiful lakes and had a peek at 90 mile beach (which is only really about 55 miles long. LIARS!). Our goal the first day was to get as far North as we could (all the pretty stuff was along the North and Eastern coasts, we'd been assured by several people before we set out). As it was still spring, we did get a fair share of showers as we made our way down the highway, but thankfully it was never enough to completely ruin our trip. The first day, we made it from Swanson to Ahipara Holiday Park.

Rawkin' the River City

Fukaura: Sunny Solstice Edition

One final road trip across Aomori before I leave. I needed to complete this last destination goal of mine, as it's a much more affordable one than trying to get down to Okinawa at this point. Next time, Gadget, next time.

Spring is ON!

Shichi-Snow-he

I've found myself feeling rather restless these last few weeks, the wether doesn't always lend itself to walking around outdoors. However, today was rather nice, so I took advantage of it and decided to play around with my new fave toy.

Here's another sampling of where I've been living the last year and a half.

I went out for the evening and lost my driveway one night.

I've been doing lots of reflecting...

...and I think this quote sums up where I'm sitting right now:

"We all change. When you think about it, we're all different people. All through our lives.

And that's ok. That's good. You gotta keep movin'.

So long as you remember all the people that you used to be." - The Doctor

Christmas Baking!

Merry Christmas, lads and lasses.
I must confess I haven't been up to much that I deem blog-worthy lately. I've been going to work dinners, making weekly trips to the post office taking long evening walks before the winter winds begin to howl. I feel that I must take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts. I've been really lucky so far with how nice the weather has been... I fear that mentioning it will jinx it and it'll be nothing but heaps of snow for the next 6 months, but... I'll take that chance right now.

To the gates of Hell and back again.

When I realized there was a Mt Fear in Aomori, I knew I had to go there. The same location also has the Buddhist equivalent of the river Styx (the Sanzu River) and the gate to Hell it was believed by followers of Buddism to be the doorway to hell... I'm surprised it took me this long to get up there, actually. We got up early and headed out (I packed myself a bento of Roctober Curry) to the Shimokita peninsula to the desolate, yet eerie beauty that awaited us there. I told my office co-workers where I planned to go on the weekend, and they kept (jokingly) telling me that I was going to Hell.

The Cove

Have I told you guys I love to swim? If not, here it goes. I love to swim. I used to work at summer camp where I got to swim several times a day. During my visit to Canada, you better believe I jumped in that lake while I was there. 

Several times. 

Cold water be damned.


...actually the water in War Eagle was beautiful. I was expecting slap-in-the-face-with-a-bag-of-ice and instead it was just refreshing.

This may seem like a strange thing to blog about...

My beautiful motherland.

...but I went to Canada to visit my family as it had been about a year since I had been away. The time has flown by this year, for the most part. I wonder how year 2 will feel.

Anyway, because this is not just read by my Mum (Hi Mum!!! *waves*), I thought I would stick up a few photos from that whirlwind tour.

Flowers and Pizza (and a bonus treat! Woo hoo!)

Spring seems to have arrived in Shichinohe. Hoooraaaaaay! I'm sure it will go by quickly, so I figured I should take advantage of the fact that it wasn't raining and see how the flowers were doing. I had tried to get out a couple times last week, and I got rained on each time. Once it was a freaking thunderstorm!

Lake Towada

Sunday afternoon road trip to Lake Towada resulted in some pretty pictures...

We stepped outside after lunch and were treated to a sun shower...

Friday afternoon... It's warm, but not warm enough for a/c... I knew I should have worn a skirt today...

IT'S TOO HOT FOR PANTS! Well, not quite. Anyway, I'm finding it too warm to concentrate on anything terribly productive, so... I'm gonna start another post that I will update as we go along... (well, I'll tag subsequent posts as "NATURE" so you can follow along... )

NATURE!

I hope to see lots of neat stuff this coming weekend (but I'm not gonna tell you where I'm going in case the weather is shite and all I get is rained on!)

Here are some things that I've found worth noting so far...

While heading to the exit of the Hirosaki castle grounds, I spied this one branch of red in among the green...

These leaves just could not wait to get their red on...