Thanks Zack!

Thanks Zack Albrecht for suggesting canyoning...it was CRAZY AWESOME! The pictures can probably speak better than I can. We repelled, went down slides, and jumped into water. I did a 14ft. jump into the water...scary but fun. There was also one where I went head first into the water. It ended with a zipline. It was a great adventure we had in Wanaka!

Ode to the New Zealand Public Toilet

This might be a strange blog but I feel the need to write an ode to the New Zealand public toilet. You might think to yourself that there's nothing special about a public toilet...but oh you are wrong. You haven't seen the New Zealand public toilet especially the ones on the south island on the west coast. I know what you're thinking, you just need to toilet to do your business but this toilet cleans itself, checks up on you, flushes itself, and even sings to you. In order to enter you must push a button. When you get in it tells you that you have 10 minutes to use it and then precedes to sing classical music to you. In order for you to flush, you must wash your hands. You get soap by put your hand under it and water but just putting your hands in the sink. If you stay too long in the toilet, the music will stop. It will ask you if you're still in there to move. When you leave, it completely washes itself. Everyone must come to New Zealand just to experience the toilet. You're so GREAT New Zealand public toilet!

On a different note, we hiked on a glacier today. We had crampons on and explored the ice. At one point there were huge walls of ice on both sides of me. What a cool experience! Great pictures from the trip.

A Great American Feeling

Warning to all...I'm about to get political in this one. It's been so great traveling now that Obama is president. This is the first time that I've traveled and people have positive things to say about the American gov't. From the guy we bought our car from to political leaders to street vendors, everyone has a renewed feeling about America. When we were at the Waitangi Day festivities at the beginning of our trip, the leader of the Maori Party was wearing an Obama shirt (at an important event!). The leader of the Labor Party (he's the second highest political figure right now) said that at least they can agree on one thing...America has the right president! It's great to hear this attitude.

It's so New Zealand

After Abel Tasman, we drove back to Nelson to take part in creating our own bone carving necklaces. On the way we stopped and picked raspberries. I think I ate more than I actually picked! That night we drove to a beach and cooked our dinner on the beach. We decided to sleep in the parking lot of the beach. There were signs that said no overnight camping but there were at least 20 other vehicles parked there to sleep. We even talked to someone that had been sleeping there for 2 weeks. We said that every once few days they get kicked out but always come back. It was raining so we weren't worried. At about 10:30 that night I woke up because there was lots of car noise. A couple of seconds later there was a knock on the car door. There was a security officer there. In the nicest and most apologetic voice he said "will you please move but you can go on the next street to sleep." It was so typical of the people from New Zealand there always nice even if they have to kick you out. The next morning we went to this guy, Stephen house. He's a bone carver and we took a workshop with him. Bone carvings are very sacred in Maori culture. Each one tells a story. They are made to be give to someone (I wonder who I'll give mine to...). Check out the picture of mine. I can't believe how well it turn out...I love it! Sara's is also great. The workshop was awesome with great results! Today we had a long drive. In Lonely Planet it was listed as one of the 10 most scenic drives in the world. All the drives have been gorgous but this one was spectacular. We stopped on the way at a place called Pancake Rocks. The rocks look like stacks of pancakes. At high tide, water shoots up through the holes. Sara and I enjoyed finding faces and pictures in the rocks. We arrived a Franz Joseph Glacier. We booked a hike on the glacier for tomorrow and took a hike today to view the glacier.

I think I'm in a postcard!

We ended up in Marahau and decided to stay at Old MacDonald's Farm. They had llamas and alpacas on the farm (on like any farm I'm used to). The place we stayed had naval orange trees (for those of you who know my love of oranges will understand) and I ate sooo many of them. They were delicious. The morning we left for a 2day and 1night hike in the Abel Tasman National Park. We took a water taxi to the start. On the way we stopped on an island with seals on it. All of a sudden I saw a dolphin jump out of the water. It followed us for a while and gave us a show. The hike was great. We pretty must hiked from beach to beach. Great views!

Shout out to all my friends and family that are reading

Thanks to everyone who has replied, send emails, or messages on facebook. It's been great hearing from so many people! I misss everyone soooooo much. I'm sorry that I'm not able to send personal emails. Internet is expensive here and I'm just finding the time to update the blog.

Love to all!!!

Every story must begin with a story...

So here's a story that Sara told me after this situation happened. I have been asking Sara to share one of her stories with me and she always relies, when the time is right. The story goes like this...There was once a Chasidic Rabbi back in the day that was walking to synagogue and was stopped by the king. Now this king thought highly of this Rabbi and even consulted him on important matters. The king asked the Rabbi where he was traveling to this morning. The Rabbi replied that he's not sure. The king asked again and got the same answer. The king thought that the Rabbi was lying to him so he took him off to jail. When they got to the jail the king asked the Rabbi why he wouldn't tell him the truth. Well the Rabbi replied, I was on my way to synagogue and headed up in jail. You never know where your journeys might take you.

Now this story being told, this is our story. We took the ferry from the north island to the south island. The view was gorgous. We drove our car off of the ferry and were heading toward Nelson. We were just about to leave the city of Picton (where the ferry gets let off) and our car breaks down. Sara stays with the car and I run to a gas station close by to get some help. The man says that he can't leave for 45min but will come when he gets off work. I go back to the car and we get our stove out and cook a big feast on the side of the road while we wait. The man goes and pulls us (literally with a rope) back to the gas station. He tells us to come back in the morning. He was incredibly nice and helpful. We find a hostel and it has a hot tub! I go back in the morning and the car is all fixed. We leave for our second time to head to Nelson.

Check this Out!

http://www.youtube.com/purenzhaveyoursay?v=szBCIp0Rcgs

In Wellington, they had this thing to made a video about your trip for FREE!!! Check it out!

Life in New Zealand

So, tonight will be the first night since my first night here that I will be sleeping in a bed. I have either been sleeping my tent or in Tiger (our car). We've been eating real well. We've only eaten at a restaurant once. We cook every meal and they have been delicious. We had omelets for dinner. I don't think that Sara and I could survive without avocados. We eat them at about every meal. For me it takes ice cream, beer, and avocados to keep me happy. For Sara just exchange the beer for coffee and chocolate for ice cream. We're getting along real well. She's a great traveling companion. Every night at dinner we have a question of the day. It's keeps us thinking and a great way to examine my own ideas. It's been great here. Lots of adventure, meeting great people, and seeing beautiful sights. Even with all the travels, my neck, back, and jaw are not hurting...yay! I love the way people think about and respect environmental issues. Recycling is everywhere and used! The DOC has preserved lots of land. You rarely see trash around. Also the people are extremely nice. It always takes Sara 15min to get coffee just because they ask her lots of questions to make it just as she likes. In the grocery store today the cashier and I were talking because he was interested in what I did today.

Loving traveling and life right now!

Mom and Dad don't worry...I'll be coming home.

Officially like a Kiwi

I feel officially like a Kiwi! Sara and I opened up New Zealand bank accounts and applied for IRD numbers (number for tax purposes). We're getting everything in line to work when we get to the south Island. We booked a ferry ride in 2 days to get us to the south island. The lady at the bank was extremely helpful. She took 1.5 hrs helping us and explaining everything (at least 10x). Everyone here has been extremely nice. We can't get over how genuine everyone is. Last night we arrived in Wellington (the capital). Today we spent the day being tourists here. We went to the Te Papa museum. It's one of the coolest museums that I've ever been to. It's very interactive and informative. Their prize exhibit is having the only giant squid on display. They had this awesome exhibit teaching kids why they should be thinking about the environment. They had a trash relay game just like at Teva! Afterward we took the cable car to the botanical garden. My nose was in heaven. The smells of the flowers made my nose have a party!

I'm excited to head to the south island tomorrow! Farewell...

Pictures Are Up!!!!

I finally got pictures up from our adventures...but of course they don't do the scenery justice! Enjoy!

Time to strap on our packs

Up until now we have been doing LOTS of driving so that we can see lots of the sights. We decided it was time to do a 4 day hike. We chose Tongariro National Park. It was New Zealand's first established national park. We began our hike on Friday afternoon. On the first day we had to cross many streams. On of the funny things about hiking in New Zealand is that they rarely give you distances but give you the time the hike will take. The first day was an estimated 3hrs. We met 2 German guys that we became friends with and hung out with throughout our 4day hike. On Friday night we set up our tent and had a quite Shabbat dinner as we watched the sun set over the mountains. At one point our tent blew away and Sara had to run after it...it was a funny sight to watch. At one point during our dinner, all I could do was jump up in excitement for the amazing place that I was able to spend Shabbat in. We even had grape juice and did motzi over crackers. We got up early on Saturday for our hike. Little did I know how intense the day would be (mom, I'm not sure if you want to read this). There was lots of steep uphills. We were doing the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which is one of the most popular hikes in New Zealand. After some time, we got to Mt. Ngauruhoe. For those Lord of the Rings fans, it's Mt. Doom. It's a volcano. It was rocking and sandy also very hard to climb. I went up with our 2 German friends. It felt that for every 3steps up I went 2 steps back. It was soooo exhausting but worth the view once I got to the top. We walked around the top of the volcano. There was steam coming out and snow on the top. We had a snow ball fight. Going down was very scary. Probably one of the scariest times in my life. I had to walk straight down the mountain. I was skiing down on my boots. At one point I heard the people above me yell rock. I look behind me and saw a softball size rock going flying past. About 15 minutes later, they started yelling again. I looked back and saw a rock about 5x the size of a football coming at me. I was on my toes and my body was going back and forth deciding which way I needed to go. Luckly it just missed me and I began to yell to the people below. My heart was still racing for most of the way down. At the bottom I met up with my German friends and we were all thankful that we didn't get hit. After a short break we continued walking. The scenery was amazing. We pasted Red Crater and the Emerald Lakes. It was a constant up and down hill walk. By the end of the day, I was pooped and my feet hurt. The next day had us doing more walking past breath taking scenery. We went through about every terrain on the hike. One of the best parts of the hike was staying at huts and meeting lots of people. I even got a German grammar and geography lesson from Malte.  There are sooo many Germans here so maybe it'll come in handy.  We met a guy who hiked with a basil plant.  It was a tough hike but I think the plant suffered the most.  By the time I saw it, it needed water.  In the huts it felt great to sit around and relax after a long and great hike.

We had a great 4 day hike and were sad to leave our German friends, Malte and Florian but we have more adventures ahead. We're both looking forward to going on more multiday hikes to see different parts of New Zealand. It's a great way to really see the country.

Farewell for now...

Maggots lighting their poop on fire!

We visited the Waitomo caves on Thursday, Fed. 12th. There many "glowworm" caves throughout New Zealand and these happen to be popular for not only seeing "glowworms" but also for adventure sports inside the caves. We took a tour from Rap, Raft 'n' Rock. It started with an 27m adseil (repelling for us Americans) into a cave. The desent was beautiful. We went down slow enough to be able to have a great view and fast enough for a little adventure. When we landed we got in black tubes and floated through the caves. As we entered the caves we began to see things glowing on the ceilings of the caves. We learned that they're called glowworms but really they're maggots. They glow by adding natural chemicals and oxygen to burn off their poop. Even being maggots, they were AMAZING to see! The ceilings looked like the night sky and the glow was stars. Once we floated for a little while we stopped and began caving. We crawled through small opening in the caves. I even got stuck trying to get through one of the holes. At the end we rocked climbed out of the cave. It was such a great day of advenure and seeing the glowworms! One of the best parts was at the end we got a free hot shower! It had been awhile since we had one (please don't ask how many days!).

On to the next adventure...farewell for now

It's Tapo...but a GREAT place to dive!

We had a hard time deciding where to go next. I really wanted to dive. I heard of a place that's a marine reserve and rated one of the world's top 10 places to dive so we headed to Tutukaka. From Tutukaka we took an hour boat ride to the Poor Knight Island. A Maori chief put a tapo (made the Island forbidden) on the Island and it's been declared a reserve so only the Dept. of Conservation is allowed on the Island. People aren't allowed to fish around the island so there's a large array of fish. The Islands were made from volcanic rock and you could take a boat right through some of them. What amazing sights above and below the water. I had 2 dives there. I saw sting rays swimming and large moray eels. One of the most famous diving pictures was taken in the place that I had the chance to dive at. The water was sooo cold so I had to wear a thick wet suit. Not bad for my second time ever diving!

Farewell for now...must investigate my next adventure!

Hug a tree it's Tu'Bishvat

We drove into the Waipoua Kauri Forest to check out the old Kauri trees. We took a hike by a water fall and into the forest. All of a sudden we saw the big trees...you really can't miss them. Sara and I hugged a few and our arms didn't even come close to going around it. I think you need about 10 people to make it. After our hike we drove to see the oldest and biggest kauri tree. It's believed to see 2,ooo years old! It was a baby when Jesus was around was what the sign read. I believe a perfect way to spend Tu'Bishvat!

A BIG sneeze...Happy Birthday to Amy?!?!?

We got up early on Sunday morning and headed north to take a tour of the far north of New Zealand. We headed to Cape Reinga. This is the northern most part and is where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean collide. Sara and I thought it was so cool that less than a week before we say the Pacific Ocean in a very different place. On the tour, the guide taught us about Maori culture and even sang to us. It's custom to sing before and ending a trip to thank everyone for allowing the journey. We also learned about the Kauri trees. They are huge and some have been found in swamps that are over 45,000 years old! We went to a place where they make furniture and other things about of it. Our stop for lunch was at a pictureque beach. There were only a few people there and we could see the whole coast. We reached Cape Reinga and had a little time to explore. We saw the waves from the Pacific and Tasman crashing into each other. We climbed a little hit and could see for miles. I wish my camera could capture the beauty. While we were riding on the bus, I sneezed really loudly (for those of you who have heard know what I'm talking about). Everyone on the bus reacted to my sneezing. After a little while the bus driver asked who was the person who sneezed so loud. I told him my name and then he had the whole bus singing Happy B-day to me in Maori....Hari Hurito Ki a Koe Amy. He kept have the bus sing it louder and louder. We also went sledding down sand dunes at the 90Miles Beach. I went pretty fast and got sand all in my face. I went for a swim in the water to cool off.

What a great day...Farewell for now

Shabbat at Linda's

As I was preparing for this trip, I was asking everyone about things to do in New Zealand and if they had any contacts for people there. I received the contact for Linda from Abby at Isabella Friedman. Linda used to work for Elat Chayyim. We met Linda at the ferry in Rawene and took the car ferry over to Kohukohu where Linda lives. The view from the ferry was beautiful (I'm sure that I'll be writing about the amazingly beautiful scenery ALOT...it's pretty incredible). We soon arrived at her house. It was up on a little hill and overlooked the water. She has a great garden, orchard, and chickens that she gave us a tour of and she gets all her water from rain water. Sara and I picked grapes for her. There was something so satisfying about lying on my back and picking grapes off the vine. I was excited to hear from Sara and it's a Jewish law to allow your workers to eat some of what they harvest. We didn't eat too much though. It was sooooo great spending Shabbat with Linda. It gave us a great perspective about life in New Zealand. She made the most amazing food! Most everything was either grown in her garden or grown local. Even the fish that we had for Friday night dinner was caught the day before off of the waters in front of her house. Saturday was a lazy day. We relaxed and walked around Kohukohu. We were very sad to leave Linda. Her hospitality was amazing. She was great and we had such a lovely time!

If you're ever in New Zealand, Linda takes volunteers to help her in her garden and orchard. I highly recommend it!

'Til the next advenutre...Farewell for now....

Off to an AMAZING start!

We arrived in New Zealand at 5 am on Tuesday, February 3rd after spending 13 hours on the flight. It was an easy flight and went by really fast. Sara and I looked at each other with big smiles on our faces as we landed at the airport in Auckland. We didn't waste anytime. We went quickly through customs and headed for a bus into the main part of the city. We met a guy named JohnO at the airport and he joined us on the ride into the city. The 3 of us went to a hostel and then headed for the ferry. JohnO had the idea to go for a hike on Rangitoto Island. We hopped on the 9:15 ferry and headed over. Rangitoto was created by a volcano so it's made out of volcanic rock. The view from the top of the volcano was breath taking and we could see 360 degrees around it. Sara said, "I think this is seriously the most beautiful place that I have ever seen." We spent all day hiking up, around, and down the volcano. We were pooped after the flight and the amazing day of hiking. We headed to our hostel for a needed rest. We woke up the next day and decided to head north. We wanted to meet up with a lady I was in contact with who used to work at Isabella Friedman, Linda. We began the day looking for buses up there and by 2pm we bought a car! We found an ad, made the call, and then bought the car. It's a cute little old Mazda. Driving on the other side of the road has been interesting. Sara and I call out big or small turn just so we don't end up on the wrong side. We headed north and made a stop in Whangarei to hike by a water fall. The falls was amazing and not even the best part. The backdrop was full of flowers and butterflies. We stayed the night at a camp sight that's in a town that claims to have the longest foot bridge in the southern hemisphere. I forgot to mention that being in the southern hemisphere, it's summer! It's very hot and the sun burns easily. Sara didn't believe it and is now paying the price. On Thursday we headed to Paihia and Waitangi. There was a festival there. February 6th is Waitangi Day. It's like July 4th in the US. Waitangi Day is when New Zealand became a country. The Europeans and the Maori signed a treaty in 1840. We heard major political leaders in New Zealand speak, watched traditional warrior chants, and saw the Maori row their war canoes. We heard a great reggae band 1814. Friday brought us to Linda's house for Shabbat.

There's sooo much more I want to write about but the library that I'm in is about to close. I can't wait to share all the details and feelings. I'm already overwhelmed by the amazingness of the trip.

Farewell for now...

First time to Cali

I spent 3 days in California before the big trip. I took about every mode of transportation possible to see the city including riding on a trolley and taking a ferry ride past Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge. I got to spend some time with Teva people which was so special. I stayed with my cousin Leah and relatives Ed and Deb. I spent some time in Muir Woods and Muir Beach. The view from Ed and Deb's house was spectacular! You could see miles of the California coast. I even saw and touched the Pacific Ocean for the first time. I got to see some BIG trees in Muir Woods. I have been talking about wanting to see big trees for a long time and finally did...I was trying to be a tree hunger when I saw them but they were just to big. The fun has begun!

Next time I post, I'll be in New Zealand!!!! Farewell for now!