i'm not far from antarctica...

sorry for the lack of photos to post this time. after partying it up in auckland and saying goodbye to our boys rory and pino i am currently in the south island, in dunedin with my buddy gemma awaiting our bus to clinton where we will be wwoofing on an organic farm. before we arrived here we spent a few days in queenstown camping and taking in the sites. the town reminds me a lot of a colorado ski town except the mountains surrounding you are something straight out of lord of the rings. the sites are not just restricted to nature. there was a ratio of about 10:1 boys to girls. and they are all foreign and beautiful. enough said. me and gemma climbed to the top of queenstown hill which felt more like a mountain and had an amazing lunch while looking out at the most amazing view. deciding to move on to the farm has been a hard one. there is nothing like just doing what you want with every moment of your day but it comes pricey here and the farm will provide us with food and shelter for a few hours of work a day. so i am on the move carrying my house on my back. it is quite a sight and i caught an older man laughing at me yesterday. i'll post pictures as soon as humanly possible. i miss you all.

the group on the way to cathedral cove. left to right: bri, teresa, gemma, jen, rory, jenny, pino


much has changed here at the valley. since i last posted my trip has taken a very different direction, one that i am both excited and scared to embark upon. jon the director of tararu valley has put the volunteer project on hold, claiming there were not enough volunteers to meet the requirements of the valley's conservation needs. with this development he asked that the group leave on the 8th of march, leaving me with more than half my trip open ended. luckily enough i have made a close friendship with a girl named gemma from devon england who was also left stranded once asked to leave. we have made plans to explore the south island, starting in queenstown on the 12th, woofing on an organic farm in dunedin for two weeks, then hopping into our very own camper van for three weeks and making our way back up to the north island ending in auckland.
my time at the valley, although cut short has been one of the most amazing experiences i have ever had. i am not a stranger to being insanely dirty and tired from some good ol fashion hard work. i've had dirt under my nails for the past 5 weeks. i was infested by mites one afternoon after working on a pile of mulch. i constructed a chicken dome that will house chickens who compost our food. i woke up in the early morning to trek down to the chickens for some fresh eggs for breakfast. i slept under the most stars i have ever seen in my life. i learned i'm a pretty good baker. and i have made some of the greatest friendships. when i began at the valley the group was rather large but that quickly changed when several people left at once. this left a small group of us that became incredibly close. gemma from the uk, rory from scotland, pino from switzerland and me had more fun together than i thought possible. now that our time is over at the valley we are beginning to say goodbye to each other. it feels like your missing a limb each time someone leaves but that is the nature of the game.
i miss everyone so much at home. today was one of those days that makes you realize that traveling makes you feel alive but its not worth living if you aren't surrounded by the people you love.

on the way home...

on our charter off the island we were fortunate enough to ride on a marlin boat with captain billy. it was something out of a movie with the fish jumping and whipping around out of the water. it put up such an intense fight for an hour that it had died by the time we got it on the boat. when we returned to town many people had caught word that a marlin was caught and they came to the dock with cameras to watch the weight-in. it was almost 200lbs.

this is the life...

this is the stuff dreams are made of. we have spent the last week stranded on a deserted wildlife island stuck soaking up the sun and sand. the whole island was ours except for the two caretakers, jon and jessie, who were wiry drunk new zealanders with hearts of gold. i got a personal offer from jon to come and live on the island permantently but i don't think i could swing it. i've never swam so much in my life. i think i have turned into a fish. i would walk out of my tent each morning straight into the clear blue water. a few days several friendly sting rays would come and swim with us and nibble on our toes with their juicy lips. at night we would climb to the other side of the island and enjoy the most amazing sunsets i've ever seen in person. i now know exactly what heaven looks like and strongly felt the company of grandma and lizzy sitting next to me in the sand.

finally

so i've made it to the valley. not without a few bumps...well gigantic bolders in the road (i tend to exagerate). anyways my flight from la to sydney pretty horrible...and late, so by the time we got into sydney we had to run to the other side of the airport all "home alone" style. i caught my flight but as you can imagine my baggage did not. not such a good thing when all you depend on you carry on your back. i at least have my bathing suit and a few pairs of underware but i've had to resort to buying men's boxers at the super market to double as shorts. needless to say i didn't get a glimps of myself in the mirror for a few days then at a restaurant bathroom i realized the boxers didn't quite pass as shorts!
the second i got off the bus and met up with my group we were off to a paintball game. it was pretty intense but a blast. we camped by a lake that night and i woke up to the sounds of dozens of different birds. some sounded like computer noises and some sounded like wind instuments and together it sounded like nothing i had ever heard before.
i already love all of the people i am living with. we are working on the property planting flax. its hard work but totally amazing and at the end of the day we go swimming in the watering hole with a waterfall and rocks to jump from.
i am sunburnt, tired, and sweaty but loving every single moment of it. i don't have very much computer access so i will try as much as possible to update but it might be not so often.
next week we are off to a wildlife island to camp on the beach for a week.
i love and miss you all and hope all is well back home.
i cannot load pictures yet but will try soon.

i thought i liked traveling

so i am mid route...well actually i haven't left the united states yet but i feel like i've already flown across the world. i am a chronic over-packer and i have been carrying aound my 60lbs during my 9 hour layover in LA. my friend jimmy who lives in here was nice enough to hang out with me for a little while today dispite the fact that it was his birthday and he could have been doing way cooler things. i must really sound like i'm complaining...i not. i'm way tired and my camera is deciding not to work! but all in all i am on an adventure that i'm excited about. i'm gonna sleep on the plane and i will be a new woman in the morning!

maybe its a good thing i'm not posting a picture, i've had two people at the airport tell me i look exhausted!

the future...

as of february 1st this will be my view every morning when i wake up, every night before i go to bed, and every hour in between. i wanna give a shout out to jesus. thank you jesus...and mom and dad.