Lake Waikermoana

Here is yet another blog about a hike a did in New Zealand. If you are sick of my hiking stories and beautiful pictures then please stop reading. However if you are not sick of hiking stories read on....

TWO YEARS!

First off this is a hard blog to write... How do I condense everything that has happen and all the amazing people I have met and how I have grown and changed and everything that I have learned over the past two years into a readable blog post?! I am really not sure, so I am going to keep it short and sweet.

Winter Is Coming!!

Things are going well! Everything is falling into place before winter. 

The Routeburn Track

Last weekend I hiked the Routeburn Track on a date. The Routeburn Track is one of the Great Walks in New Zealand. There are eight of them and the Kepler Track I did with my dad is one as well. The most popular is probably the Milford Track.

Milford Sound

The day after my dad, Donna, my uncle and I finished the Kepler Track we drove to Milford Sound. Before the hike we booked a cruise and kayaking. The drive from Te Anau to Milford is about two hours. It rained most of the drive and we could see snow on most of the high peaks. Since it was raining the waterfalls were really flowing which was amazing to see. The drive was really beautiful with all the waterfalls and snow capped peaks. 

I Moved!!

Manon and I moved! I may regret this but I moved into a house with 18 other people....It wasn't going to work for Manon and I to stay in my old tiny room, with only a single bed, so we have been looking at new places to live. And let me tell you we looked at some amazingly terrible places. I am regretting not taking pictures of them so much! But honestly I wasn't thinking of taking picture I was just thinking "No. No. No. No. No. No." as I backed away. 

Flatmates

The flatmates... minus the boys

It's pretty common knowledge that living in a shared house with people can be frustrating but it can also be weird and funny. 

I'm currently sharing a house with two English girls who share and room, a guy from Colombia and a guy from Mexico who also share a room. And I share a room with my friend Manon.

The house... complete with boys collection of bottles

House from the side

My most common complaint is the dishes. Obviously no one ever does them. The sink always looks like this.

Barf.

It seems impossible for the kitchen to stay clean for longer than half the day. The fridge is gnarly and occasionally leaks fridge juice on the floor.

Dont step in the fridge juice....

Right now I'm currently sharing a tiny room with Manon. I hang my towels in the bathroom because there isn't room for them in my tiny room. For the last couple of days my towels have been the only ones in the bathrooms and it really worries what everyone is doing with my towels. One day I came home and one of my towels was on the floor like a bathmat, and there are like 5 real bathmats under the sink. (One of my roommates is a cleaner at a hotel and brought home a bunch of bath mats from work). But really, what else are they doing to my towels if they are using them as bathmats.... So gross. 

The best though was last week when I had to apologize to one of my guy flatmates because he wasn't able to have sex in my living room. On a couch that I sit on all the time. What happened was the boys who camped in my yard during their hike a couple weeks came back to Queenstown for a few nights. They asked to camp in the yard again and told them yes. We went out for a few beers and when we came home I assumed they would set up their tents but they actually just slept in the living room. One of my boy flatmates came home at four in the morning with a nice lady friend he met at the bars. Since he shares a bed with the other guy in the room I guess he was planning on 'hanging out' with her in the living room but my friends were sleeping in there. He was super drunk and  became pretty angry when he discovered my friends on the couch. I woke up to some loud voices but didn't really understand what was going on. The next day my friends sleeping in the living room explained to me the situation. I felt bad because the guy doesn't bring home ladies that often so I sent him a message apologizing for my friends sleeping in the living room. Turns out he was drunk enough that he didn't remember it and wasn't mad at all. 

The infamous living room

A Happiness Trick

I will be the first to admit that I've had a pretty amazing time this past year and a half. Things have gone really well and traveling has taught me a lot. It has allowed me to see and do some incredible things and make some true connections with amazing people. I've had a blast.

But it is not always as easy as the internet can make it seem. And moving to a new country doesn't come without challenges. I've been feeling off balance, not myself lately. I've been lonely and emotional. I miss my family and friends back home. I miss people back in Sydney and friends I made traveling. I really miss some of my friends and the genuine, funny connections I have with them.

I've been telling myself I'll feel more like myself soon. I've been trying to hike and get outdoors when I'm not working. I've been texting and trying to communicate with everyone I miss.

The other day, I remember some advice my friend Diane gave me after reading an article. The advice was really simple, all it asks is to spend 15 seconds 4 or 5 times a day to really appreciate the moment. The idea behind it is; due to evolution, our brains pay more attention to negative emotions because we needed negative emotions, like fear and stress to save our lives from immediate dangers (think lions, tigers and bears). But now every time we have a negative emotion, it doesn't save our lives and our brains focus on it and generally make us unhappy. The article suggested training our brains to focus on joyful and happy emotions by taking a small amount of time to appreciate a moment using as many senses as possible to activate as many parts of the brain as possible. For example; if you are outside walking or sitting somewhere take 15 or 30 seconds to appreciate the smell of the outdoors, the breeze or the sunshine on your face, find the beauty in something around you, and notice the birds chirping. In 15 seconds, you took what could just be a quick walk somewhere into a moment that can change your whole mood. If you do this multiple times a day you can train your mind to be a little happier.

It's pretty common sense when you think about it and it's really not that hard. It's a practice to actually help you "live in the moment" and develop positive thoughts. I've been doing it a couple times a day for the last couple days and I think it's making things a little better. 15 or 30 second is longer than I would normally take to appreciate something and it really slows me down, gives me a nice mini break. 

I really truly miss you all. I hope everyone has an amazing day. Thanks for reading. 

Love. 

Queenstown

So far Queenstown is amazing! The lake is such an amazing blue green color and the mountains that completely surround the small town are so beautiful. The town is adorable and there are lots of restaurants, bars and about a billion souvenir shops. 

I've found a place to live and it only took my four days. I took the first place I found in town because I've heard it can be hard to find a right place in town. My room is tiny but it will do.

Tiny room

My room from the other angle

I share the house three other people. Two British girls named Charlotte and Charlotte and a guy from Colombia. He is moving out in a couple days so we will get a new roomie. The Charlottes are really cool and funny so I think we will get along great! 

The Charlottes 

The living room

I've been spending lot of my time looking for a job. On Friday I had a trial a restaurant and an interview at a hotel. On Saturday I had another trial and interview at hotel for a receptionist job. Hopefully I will get ALLLL of the jobs but if not I'll be happy with one. 

I have been doing a little exploring but can't wait to do more. I went to Lake Hayes the other day, which is about a 15 minute drive from town. It's a much smaller lake then Lake Wakatipu so the water is a lot warmer and you can go swimming.

Lake Hayes

Yesterday I went for an amazing hike to the Ben Lomond Saddle. It took about three hours and the trail head is only 15 minutes from my house. 

Half way to the saddle 

View from the saddle

There is so much do it around Queenstown and everyone I have met so far seems really nice. Hopefully I will get a job soon and so can have money to explore more!

The Most Interesting Man in the World

My first day in New Zealand went really well. I got a ride to the airport from a friend I worked with in Manly who was also going to the airport. So I was able to avoid the ferry and the train (and the 25 dollars it costs.) Thanks again Bentely!

View the plane

Everything went smoothly with the flight and after sleeping for 3 hours I landed in Queenstown. Geoff, my couchsurfing host picked me up from the airport.

View from Geoff's house looking at Queenstown 

View looking the other way

During the 5 minute ride to Geoff's house he told me a little about himself and also that he had another couchsurfer staying with him, a girl named Steffi. During the day Geoff told me a number interesting facts about himself, like he is world ranked in Ironman Triathlons. He is still doing them at 53. While he was training I was able to go for a beautiful walk along Lake Wakatipu and I dip my feet in water... it's freezing.

In the afternoon Steffi and I went for a drive to Glenorchy. Glenorchy is a small settlement at the northern end of Lake Wakatip. The drive was amazing.

Lookout point during the drive

From Glenorchy 

Over dinner Geoff told us a little more about himself and I couldnt help but think about those Dos Equis ads about the most interesting man in the world. I think Geoff might actually be him. I'm really considering writing a Wikipedia page for him because I'm disappointed he doesn't have one.

Here are just a couple interesting facts about Geoff: he was the private secretary to Prime Minister of NZ for 10 years, he set up his own successful consulting business, he had an online tax-return service which he sold for a rumored $11 million, he owned Mt. Cook Alpine Salmon and a couple other businesses. He wrote a love song that was hit a couple years ago in NZ (complete with really cheesy terrible video). He also attended dinner at Nelson Mandela's house and apparently after dinner Mandela sang and danced for everyone. This is in addition to his medal from The Queen (of England... I assume).

Some of these things he didn't even tell me, I had to Google him... I honestly couldn't tell if he bragging or just telling stories about his life. I guess it's hard not to sound braggy when you have done everything he has. If you are wondering if he was creepy at all-- at first no but then he kept telling stories about 20 something year old women that wanted to sleep him (and of course how he wanted to sleep with them as well).... This gave me a better understanding of why he hosts so many 20 something year old women couchsurfers...

On another note his house is awesome and I only stayed in the apartment upstairs. His house downstairs has three bedrooms, a pool, and an amazing view. He rents it out for between $450-700 a day. He doesn't work besides training for Ironmans because he makes enough money renting his house (and I suspect that he had enough money from all the businesses he has owned). 

View from the master bedroom --I cleaned those windows

Here is an article about him.

Hope everyone is doing great! More on Queenstown soon! 

Here we go 2015!!

I hope everyone had a great New Years and 2015 is starting out on the right foot. I'm starting it out with a big change; moving to New Zealand. I'm planning on staying in NZ for around a year. I can't really believe the day is here! Hopefully in a couple months I'll be teaching weekly yoga classes, have a nice place to live in Queenstown and have a bunch of friends. However those areas of my life are uncertain right now.

Ahh goodbye Manly

Diane and I went standup paddleboading here the other day

2014 was a great year for me. I was able to live in Australia, travel in India for 3 months and get my yoga teaching certificate. Everything sort of fell into place perfectly during my time in Australia. I can only hope things continue down this path during 2015.

I can't decide if I am more nervous or excited for New Zealand but things seem to be working out already. I emailed a couple of couchsurfing hosts who live in Queenstown and sounded nice. A guy I contacted messaged me back and told me he would be able to host me for at least the first night. He is 52 and is picking me up for the airport! Basically everyone I have told this to is creeped out and told me to be careful. But I think its awesome and if I think he is creepy I'll just stay at hostel... but I really don't think it will be a problem. Personally I think I'm already half way to making my first old man kiwi friend.

I'm really going to miss this mess

And this crazy princess

Thanks to everyone that has been apart of my life in Australia. You have helped me grow, challenge myself and given me the courage to go on more adventures and make my dreams come true. I'm sad to leave and I am going to miss Australia and all my friends a lot. 

I really appericate everyone that has been reading and sending love and encouragement from back home. Your emails and comments make me so happy. It's really nice to keep intouch with everyone. 

Dharamsala Video

Carl and I filmed this video one day when we were in Dharamsala. Carl filmed everything on his iPad while I walked around and did weird stuff like put wigs on mannequins. We laughed a lot while filming. He did all the editing and composed the music on his iPad. Carl definitely has skills and is a talented editor. I'm impressed with his music and what he can do with just an iPad.

Carl is in Japan now and just got a job at a ski resort, cleaning and housekeeping a couple hours a day in exchange for a room and a little bit of money. I'm pretty jealous that he will be snowboarding everyday. 

I can definitely see the Japanese influence in his editing.

Here is a link to the video if you are having trouble watching it here.

I hope everyone is doing well. Miss you all.

Farewell India

I am headed back to Australia today! I don't really know how to write this post because India has been CRAZY. Maybe I'll have a better perspective to understand all of my experiences here once I've left. But in a few words India has been crazy, wonderful, challenging, weird, life-changing, eye-opening, difficult, exhausting, sad, funny and beautiful. 

I want to thank everyone that I have met along the way, it's been so amazing to make new friends. Thanks to everyone that has made India amazing (especially Carl I couldn't have done it without you). I'm thankful to yoga for bringing me here because honestly before I came here it wasn't on my list of places to travel. But I'm so happy I did come because I have had so many laughs, seen so many beautiful things, met people I will be friends with for a very long time and I'm definitely a better person now (I've been joking with Carl that everytime I have taken a freezing cold shower or after an especially long difficult bus ride that it makes me a better person). I have enjoyed India more than I thought I would (low expectations people, low expectation is the key to happiness).

I've learned a lot in the past three months and I'm so happy I came to India but I can honestly say I'm really looking forward to being back in Australia. I can't wait for baby cuddles from Ripley and Taylor. I can't wait to see my friends and hang out on the beach. I'm excited to share my travel stories in person with everyone. It will be nice to be able to truly appreciate a hot shower, fast wifi, electricity that doesn't go out, and a fresh salad with raw veggies. I'm also really excited to be invisible, just another white person among other white people; no one staring at me or people asking for pictures all the time.

I'm sad I'll be missing the holidays with my family back in Colorado again. It's been so long since I've seen them and I would love to spend December skiing and eating food with the people I love and miss most in the world. But alas, I must spend it drinking beers on the beach and taking adorable children to the park. 

Are you looking forward to anything? The holidays, seeing family, a vacation?

I will continue to blog and keep you updated about my life in Australia and my upcoming move to New Zealand. Keep in touch and happy holidays everyone :)

Here are some photos from India. 

Some of the yogis 

On the way to Leh

Leh

Dal Lake, Srinagar 

Manali 

On top of the world

The golden temple

Carl just being Carl <3

My yogi friend Siobhan in cakrasana (wheel pose)

And The Taj

❤️Cawa

Goa

I found the hostel we are staying at in Goa out of pure laziness. Our movie star friends from the Bollywood soap opera set mentioned that they would be staying a Jungle Hostel in Vagator beach. I had no clue about the difference between the 20ish beaches that make up Goa and had no desire to read the vast amount of material about Goa in the guide book. So I just copied our friends and we headed to the Jungle Hostel once we got off the plane from Mumbai. It was a great decision. We kept extending our stay by one day, then two days and finally we just booked the rest of the week (and our time in India) here.

They don't have seagulls on beach in India but they do have cows

And in restaurants...

The hostel has beds for 45 people. Each of the dorm rooms has between 4 and 6 beds. The owners are always around working and hanging out with the guests. Breakfast in the morning is included with our room. There is a great indoor/outdoor common area where people relax on hanging chairs and mats on floor. We have been cooking up huge amounts of veggies for lunch. Carl and I both like to cook and we haven't had access to a kitchen for two and half months. Its been so nice to be able to cook up fresh veggies which we buy down the street for around 100 rupees ($1.50). 

There are a lot of Russians in Goa (and apparently Russian mafia that brings in drugs, among other things) some of the Indian people selling stuff on the beach and working in the shops don't speak English but speak prefect Russian. In some areas all the signs are in Russian. 

The other backpackers turn into friends quickly. Both the Canadian girls and the Australia boys that we met working as extras ended up staying at the hostel so when we arrived it already felt like home. 

Let me tell you, the whole hostel is in love with Carl. The Australian boys are especially in love with him. Whenever we return to the hostel and or run into people out and about there are always shouts and warm greetings of "Carlito!" "The legend has arrived!" "Carl man, how ya doing man!" It's okay, I don't take it personally that a bunch of 20 something boys like Carl more than me.... But seriously who wouldn't love Carl, he is hilarious, happy, completely himself and he really knows how to live life.

Volleyball on the beach

Goa has been a great way to wrap up our India trip. Who can complain about watching the sunset set on the beach every evening and swimming in the ocean everyday. Carl did a photo shoot with one of our instant friends from the hostel and the pictures are truly amazing.

The hostel was organizing a yoga class on the first day we arrived. Carl volunteered me to teach the class (since I was too shy to volunteer myself). The owners quickly painted the roof, put in a railing, and bought yoga mats for the class the next morning.

Yoga class on the roof of the hostel

I was a really nervous for the first class but it will well. Its been so great to get some practice teaching. I have taught a beginners class most morning. Between 8 to 3 people have been attending the class. I am feeling a little less nervous and more prepared to teach some free classes in Manly.  

My friend and one of my roommates during my yoga teacher training, Siobhan just arrived in Goa. She is staying at the hostel with us. She has been traveling around India as well. It's so great to see her again! 

Only a couple more days in India! Thanks again to Carl for taking all the pictures!