What: road trip with boyfriend and beast (Alibi)
Destination: Napier & East Coast
When: Last Weekend
Why: because when you've got the time and the wings... you've gotta fly. Additionally, this is my last hurrah for the unforeseeable future. I have now happily relocated to Wellington, am unemployed and have depleted my funds buying a new bed, bike and sewing machine. I've spent the last few days, bundled up in blankets and working on my resume. So far I've had an interview at the best restuarant/bar in Wellington, Matterhorn, but no job offers. I am actually trying to get out of the restaurant industry so this weekend I have devoted myself and efforts to working on a CV for the __________ industry. Hopefully I'll land a job that will challenge and teach me great new things while make me wildly succesfully! So in summary, "Its business time"!

Back to the point: The east coast of the North Island is the bomb!!! I am excited to take my family there in September. Napier is known as the art-deco city, which really means the awesome city with beautiful design. The people were friendly, the second-hand stores were abundant and affordable (not the case in wellington), the beaches were vast, there was great cheese and wine all over the region, and camping was FREE!!!
John and I camped 3 different nights. It wasn't easy to find the free campsites, most cities have mapped out motor camps that A. don't allow dogs and B. cost about $30/night, so we devised a plan to get to know the local hot spots. Once arriving to our new destination, we hit the local pub and chatted with the patrons until we had figured out where we could rest for the night and wake up and surf in the morning. We stayed on two beaches and in one parking lot.
The weather was ideal, we played barefooted under the stars and around the campfire while drinking whiskey and shooting photos. The following are some moments from the trip...

Limonada

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS...

my silly car has broke down three times, been towed once and had this glorious flat tire all since leaving Waiheke Island... I guess it wasn't ready to leave the island.

MAKE LEMONADE...

I love MY NEW BIKE!!! I got it for only $30 (much less than half a tank of gas) from the Green Bike Trust at Massey University!!!

Hello Blogspot,

I hope all is well in the lives of those who read this. I've been having an interesting time since my vacation with Marc ended. My time off has been enjoyable, but left me penniless. As Poison says "every rose has its thorn". There are always surprises when traveling, some great, others kind of annoying. My car has been constantly breaking down on me. I keep fixing it, thinking that its good to go, and it keeps dying. Last week I drove to Martinborough to give grape harvesting a try, and more importantly make a little extra cash, unfoutunately the trip left me more in the hole than I was before I even left. My car stopped starting, I couldn't find a backpackers to sleep at, and I had a hard time finding a decent job. After 3 days of harvesting it started to pour, I figured that was a good sign to go back home. John found me some work catering, and my tax refund just got deposited in my bank account so I am back on my feet.

I am ready to start working again. Tomorrow I am headed to Wellington to look at a couple of flats and drop off the ol' resume around town in search of a job. I am going to try to get out of the service industry... maybe even use my degree for a change. Wish me luck, as I will need it!

Coming "home" was a good idea. I just had a terrific easter weekend... whipped up some great lemon bars, watched my fav movie "charlie and the chocolate factory", and been crafting it up at John's place. The catering gig was also great, the bride gave us all a few bottles of wine to take home so I am stocked for the next few weeks and they paid me cash under the table!!!

I am thinking about changing the name of the blog, it was supposed to highlight brilliant things that happen in everyday life. I wanted to interview, document, and share beautiful things with people, but its turned into more of a travel blog... I still love the original idea better, but I find I haven't really been staying in line with the concept... well in the meantime, here are some photos for pure and sweet fun!

Happy loooong Easter weekend, from me to you!!!!



My new glasses stand a.k.a. John's anatomy study tool

Marc Blochs-a-lot & C Dougie

Dear Blogspot,

I just had a wonderful week with my friend Marc. He came ALL the way from Eugene, Oregon to go on an adventure with me!! I might be tooting my own horn a bit, he probably came out for the vacation and me being here was a bonus, but regardless I was still delighted.



Marc and I only had 7 days together, but they were action packed! We started off our vacation with a surfing adventure in Raglan (on the west coast of north island). It was amazing!!! Marc and I are great beginner surfers, we both got up and rode the baby waves all the way to the sand! I haven't had that much fun in the ocean since I was a child playing in California with my uncle. Our car broke down, but we were in luck and happened to stop at the nicest mechanics and they jimmy-rigged the car so that it should be running for the "next 6 months", I am keeping my fingers crossed.



War wounds photo: Colleen has minor injury due to long board whacking me in the face, Dude in background suffering from much more severe surfing injury


we saw these fantastic mushrooms all around the fishing hole...

Then we headed to Lake Taupo for our fly-fishing excursion. Marc is an expert fisherman, he probably would have caught far more trout had I not been fishing right next to him and scaring all the fish away with my sloppy cast and loud mouth. We had a really good time, our feet provided a delicious meal for about 200 sandflies. We got bit so badly we both couldn't sleep at night and had to go the the doctor to get antihistamines.

Don't worry, we didn't kill this beauty!!


Our final fantastic destanation was hiking Mt. Tongariro. John joined us for this beautiful 12 mile hike. It was stunning. The first half of the hike is up the volcano, the next part is walking along the mountain ridge... through emerald-thermal lakes and dried up lava flows, and the last part is all downhill, through fields of wild flowers and along a forest stream. We were all proud of ourselves, we happily made it over the "Tongariro Crossing" and none of us felt too beat up afterwards.




woop woop... almost back to the car!!!