Our adventures in the land UNDER the "Down Under."

Which is pretty far under if you ask me. In fact we lost an entire day getting there. It took 18 hours in the air not counting layovers. We left San Francisco Sunday night, and arrived in New Zealand on Tuesday. Because technically right now it is tomorrow there already, and not only is it tomorrow there right now but it is also autumn and all the leaves are changing. So in one month we have experienced Winter, Spring, and Fall.

I have to say I was a little dissappointed about the fall thing, I love fall. But I really wanted to get out of the cold, and the week before we left it was warmer in Utah When we checked the forecast it said it would be in the high 50's to low 60's with rain on a few days. But when we got there it is just soooo sunny. The way it faces the sun or their lack of ozone really made everything so bright and warm. If you have ever paid any attention to the bright beautiful sunlight just before sundown, where everything just glows, that is what New Zealand sun is like all day long. I think that Chris got a little tired of me ranting and raving about it, but for photographs it is amazing!

I wasn't too sure about what to expect when we got to Queenstown. It is on the south island, and flying in to it was just like we were flying into park city. Except for the fact that the mountains are taller, more jagged, and there is a beautiful, huge, crystal clear, blue lake ( Lake Wakatipu) that the city hugs up against. The trees are quite a bit taller too, they had my favorite evergreen variety in their botanical garden the Monkey Puzzle tree, it is really cool looking. When we landed they bussed us over to a little dock and we took a jet boat to our hotel. It was so cool. The jet boat sucks water up under a grill in the bottom and spits it out above the water line in the rear which they use to steer the boat. It can go on just a few inches of water and it makes crazy tight turns. The maneuverability is just insane. The driver whipped us around in circles, barely missed huge rocks and sand bars, and could go through tight rivers right inbeween rock cliffs, it was tons of fun, and really kicked things off. Queenstown is known as the extreme sports capital of the world. So our activities included things like bungy jumping, river rafting, helicopter rides, 4x4 jeep rides, Atv's, luge carts, and even skydiving if you wanted to (which I didn't, and wouldn't let Chris either). I even shot clay pigeons with a shot gun , and for anyone who knows me that is about as extreme as it gets for me, I absoloutely hate guns, and that was my first time shooting one, and I only missed 3! It also was a gold rush town, so on our jeep ride we even got to pan for gold. The guide said he has never panned and not gotten flakes of gold, and it's true I got three little flakes of gold in my pan. Nothing to shout Eureka over, but nonetheless it was pretty cool. So If that's all the info you care to read then that's the short of it. For my own journaling purposes I am going to break it down day to day with more pics.


Sunday:
















Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until about noon with a layover in San Francisco. But we figured we would sit there for 4 hours or we could fly in earlier, rent a car, and hit San Fran. which Chris has never seen. So we reserved a rental car. The P.T. Cruiser convertible was the same price as a economy car, so we reserved that one. When we got to the airport though they were out of P.T. cruisers so they upgraded us to a black Ford Mustang convertible for the same price. It was chilly there but we were excited about it anyways it took us back to the days when we first met. Chris drove a '73 Mach 1 Mustang in College. So he was a little giddy driving it. Despite the cold we had to put the top down so I could take pics as we drove under the Golden Gate bridge and down the crookedest street, so that was pretty fun. They were definitely shots you couldn't get any other way. We met another agent Chris is friends with at Fisherman's Wharf for lunch at Bubba Gumps Shrimp, then headed off to the airport to catch our flight to Auckland.













































Monday:

Dissappeared somewhere over the Pacific in a time Warp.


Tuesday:











We arrived in Auckland, and then took another flight to Queenstown. The Queenstown airport is quite small so you take the stairs right off the plane. The first two things that hit me was the incredible pine smell, and the bright sunlight, It seemed like everything just glowed. The events staff took our bags to the hotel and we were bussed over to the jet boats. That was definitely a Queenstown welcome, and the best way to come into town. After flying all over Lake Wakatipu they took us over to the main pier. It was about 2:00 in the afternoon when we arrived and a little shuttle took us up to the Millenium Hotel so we could get some lunch and shower. The hotel had a great buffet lunch and breakfast which is largely responsible for my 5 lb. weight gain I suspect. I do hold out hope however that it was due partly to water weight though, because by the time we arrived home in SLC after that ridiculously long flight, my ankles had swollen into puffy cankles and it wasn't until this morning that I feel they are back to their almost normal size. Very weird side effect of long flights and pressure changes. Anyways after a nice long shower we hit town to do some shopping. I had packed very lightly as Air New Zealand is pretty Nazi about your luggage, checked bags can only be 50 lbs and your carryon's can only be 15 lbs. And of course when we arrived they announced a special regional dinner we were invited to where you needed to dress up, and I had not planned on this in my packing. So we hit the outdoor mall to find me a skirt and some jewelry as my jewelry case turned up missing in my luggage. A delightful thing about shopping in NZ is the exchange rate. Our dollar is about worth two of their dollars, so it is like everything in the country is 50% off! A welcome change after the opposite was true in Italy. I found a cute skirt and necklace for dinner and discovered "The Pumpkin Patch" a darling kids store a neighbor had warned me about. They had the cutest most unique clothes. I hit their clearance (summer clothes) which were 70% off and then with the exchange got another 50% off. What a find. Well after shopping we walked around town a bit and got some pics on the pier and in front of the giant Kiwi statue, then went back to the hotel to get ready to go to Gantley's. Gantley's is one of the oldest most well known restaurants in Queenstown. The building is really old, and all made of rock like many buildings there. They have a ton of beautiful grey slate like rock that they build tons of things out of, bridges, buildings, walls, etc. So the restaurant looks like this little stone cottage in the middle of huge trees and a big garden. They had cocktails in the garden for the first hour in front of this big stone outdoor fireplace with a fire going, it was really pretty. We drank tons of juice and coke during these "cocktail parties." But it really is a great way to start off an evening so you have a chance to talk to everyone. About the only time I see many of these people are on the trips once a year, so it is fun to catch up. They called us to our tables so we went inside. The inside was just as charming. It had old harwood floors and a big woodburning fireplace with a cat curled up asleep on the rug! Talk about atmosphere. It felt like you were in some kind of fairytale and needed to leave a bread crumb trail to find your way back to the bus. The food was great though. I had wild mushroom soup and blue cod. There is a lot of blue cod around Queenstown but it is excellent! It all had a really nice presentation and the dessert was awesome. They served a trio of homemade ice creams in a tulle ring with berry sauce. It was the only time ever I loved the chocolate and strawberry ice creams better than the vanilla. I usually won't even eat chocolate or strawberry, but it was divine! We were pretty exhausted after so much travel so we went straight back to the hotel to SLEEP!


Wednesday:


We started our morning with a gynormous breakfast of course. How can you turn down fresh pastries and croissants and vegetarian omelets with fresh squeezed juice every morning. We then reserved Segways to tour Queenstown on. This was one of my favorite activities. We were laughing so hard just thinking about it, we just had to do it. I am so glad we did. They were so much fun to ride. All you had to do was barely lean forward and it went forward then you leaned back to go back and straight up to stop. there was a little lever on the handle to turn right or left. We went with a couple Chris had become friends with from Madison, Wisconsin and they were so much fun! They have the exact same sense of humor as Chris and I, and we really hit it off. Just goofy and sarcastic. Not everyone can pull off a Segway, without looking like "Mr. Bean tours Queenstown." They took a bit of getting used to, but you just glide everywhere. Up hills, down hills, over dirt, gravel rocks, and curbs it was awesome. The guide led us all over so it was pretty funny to watch the look on people's faces as five Segways went by. We had so much fun!

If that tour wasn't enough the company took us up to Moonlight Farm. They told us there would be Horses, and ATV rentals up there so dress appropriately, but they didn't tell us they had prearranged a whole schedule of rotating activities. We pull up and there are two helicopters, about 75 four wheelers, a shooting range, a backhoe contest, archery, paintball, and crossbows. So we divided into 5 groups and rotated around to the different activities, it was so much fun, we totally weren't expecting all of that. We hit the helicopter ride first which was amazing while we waited they served english style scones, with raspberry jam and whipped butter. Then we went to the shooting range where I actually shot clay pigeons with a shootgun! A little unnerving but now I can say I shot a gun. Then we headed over to the four wheelers. Two people had already been sent to the hospital after the four wheelers so I played it pretty safe and just followed the guide. Chris took off with the more experienced riders. They actually had someone whose tire fell off. We are a rough bunch I guess, the guides said they had never seen anything like it in 16 years. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

After the activities we headed over to the farmhouse for dinner. They had beautifully set tables and a great Kiwi buffet (no we didn't eat Kiwi's they are endangered, that is just what they NZ people are called, kinda like Australians are Aussie's). However I made the mistake of trying their ribs which were a huge dissapointment and a waste of cheating with meat (besides fish of course). I have been cheating way too often lately. There have been too many "special occasions" or maybe I'm just a terrible justifier. Chris was awarded with a $1,000 gift card from a challenge the C.E.O made last year that if first time qualifiers for the trip last year qualified the following year they would give them $1,0000. So that was pretty sweet. We actually had kinda pre-planned to put that money towards a new wedding band for Chris since his has been lost for about 5 years, and to get me a black pearl ring. We thought it would be a cool thing since our ten year anniversary is coming up and we were near Tahiti where prices would be better on Tahitian black pearls. So it worked out great we found the perfect pieces, and we both really like them. I couldn't stop staring at my ring the entire rest of the trip, I absoloutley LOVE it! There is just something so organic and unusual about them. They change color all the time in different light. I would take a black pearl over a diamond any day!

Thursday:

Chris had to go to the business session, so I shopped for souveniers and such and we met at a Thai place for lunch. After lunch a group of us scheduled a 4x4 Jeep tour that took you to many of the sites they used in Lord of the Rings. That was really fun, I didn't get nervous at all, but I did get a little car sick or the Thai food didn't agree with me so I ended up puking at the bathroom stop. That was very fortunate timing. I thought I would end up puking off the side of the road. I also made the brilliant move of forgeting my medication for the trip. The first few days were way rough as I recently am having another active episode of the disease. Bad timing! But I managed to get through it with Ibuprofen and a bunch of NZ over the counter meds. The pharmacist had never even heard of my medication, so I knew I was screwed at getting a prescription called in. Oh well serves me right for getting cocky and stopping my meds for a month. Anyways then we stopped at a place outside of Arrowtown to do some more extreme jeeping through rivers and stuff then

we panned for gold had tea (hot cocoa). Then went up skippers canyon to see some amazing vistas and a freaky road perched on the side of cliffs. The landscape was amazing though it was worth powering through our fears of heights.

We had to book it back to the hotel to get ready for the formal night. There is always sooo much pressure. I swear it's worse than Prom. At least at Prom you can get away with teenage ignorance and cheap dresses. Oh well, it is fun to have an occasion to wear a formal dress once a year. Last year I made the mistake of going semi-formal with a 100 inch strand of cultured pearls to dress it up a bit more, I figured at least I would be able to wear the pearls again. The company literature indicates it is semi-formal to formal, but boy did I feel stupid. They also say that the farewell dinner is casual, which it wasn't last year and wasn't this year either. I guess there's what they say and what people do. This year I found a great dress at BCBG Max Azria at a decent price in Park City. It travelled well, and even survived a stupid waitress spilling coke all down it, my fur shrug, and Chris' suit. I just really hope it cleans up okay. It's hard enough getting some leather cleaned let alone fur. Not that I will likely ever have another occasion to wear it. Maybe an Opera or something. At least it happened after the awards were given so Chris didn't have to get up on stage with coke all over his suit. Chris had a tough year for auto's this year so he didn't get Leading Edge Award like last year, but they did surprise all the E.A. agents with a jade Maori medallions. They even had a traditional Maori performing group there who blessed the medallions and presented them to the agents on stage. They did their traditional Haka dance, and everything it was pretty cool. It was a fun night and the food was delicious. They had transformed the downstairs of the hotel into almost a night club type atmosphere where we had dessert and dancing. It was a great night, we had a lot of fun joking around with friends and catching up.

Friday:

We were so excited for this activity we had signed up to go see Milford Sound by bus with the company, but it was like a 12 hour tour, and we wanted to get back earlier so the boys could bungy jump so we signed up for the fly-in tour. Well unbeknownst to us if the flight gets cancelled due to weather you're pretty much out of luck. We thought they would just put you on a bus, but no it is just cancelled altogether. Which was a huge dissapointment! The tour was really going to be the highlight for me. Milford sound is more of a tropical environment with thousands of waterfalls, seals, penguins, and even dolphins. They fly you in and then put you on a day cruise over the water, then fly you out. With the pouring rain outside we knew it was a fat chance they would fly later so we signed up for Saturday, and then Sunday to no avail. I guess we will just have to make another trip down there to see it and the Fiordlands. maybe then we could hit Bora Bora on our own.

We decided to shop for the morning so wen went and picked up Chris' ring and finished up getting souveniers. We had the most amazing fish and chips I have EVER tasted, they were sooo light and crisp they just melted in your mouth. They were made from the blue cod which was incredible and absoloutely fresh. I have had Fish and Chips in London bloody England, Victoria Canada, Seattle and Portland and never come close to how good these were. Found at the little shack by the pier of course. We smelled them the day we came in by jet boat and were waiting for the hotel shuttle, and knew we had to try that place. We were not dissapointed. I also tried a NZ soda called "Lift" which was sooo good, I usually don't go for carbonation but wanted more than water and all the orange juice in leu of cocktails made me pretty tired of O.J. This soda was sooo lemony like real lemonade but lightly carbonated. Yum! Perfect combo with those heavenly fish and chips. We then also discovered the Patagonia chocolatier on the pier who had wonderful gelato. Even my favorite melon kind. So I had a scoop of Rock Melon and a scoop of hokey pokey (vanilla base with tiny little Manuka Honey candy crisps). Delicious! We met up with our friends from Wisconsin who just returned from their sheep farm tour off the Wakitipu steam boat and we made a reservation for the Minus 5 bar, and walked up to the Kiwi Reserve. The walk up was so beautiful the rain had brought misty clouds around the mountains and they had a cool old cemetary on the road up there. I caught a lot of crap for commenting on the cemetary. Our friends from Wisconsin were joking about how I must really be gothic and hang out in cemetaries. It was just really old with Lichens growing all over old headstones, and an old iron gate around it, right next to these huge forests full of mist. It kinda became a joke the rest of the trip. The Kiwi Reserve was cool. Kiwi are endangered, and their population is shrinking by 5-6% every year. Cats, Dogs, and Ferrets are responsible for killing the babies when they're tiny, so they don't have a chance to keep population numbers up. They are nocturnal and one of our guides said you would spend 4 hours sitting quitely in the middle of the night to even have the slightest chance of seeing one in the wild. The reserve had little houses with a few in there. They had the lights very dim, and you had to be really quiet. They were really cool to see. Much bigger than I expected, but just like the cartoony pictures you see of them all over T-shirts, bags and hats in Queenstown. We watched a nature show given by some guides in the reserve about indigenous species to NZ. Then we had to hurry back to the minus 5 bar for our reservation. The minus 5 bar is made completely out of ice, so you have to pay a hefty cover charge to get in. The walls, tables, floor, decor and even the glasses you drink out of are made entirely out of ice. They give you big parkas and gloves before you go in and even still you can't stand to be in there for very long before you are freezing! They had alot of ice sculptures and stuff in there so it was pretty unique. We had the evening to ourselves for dinner, so after the minus 5, we went over to "The Cow" for dinner. The Cow is a really old pizza place that has been in Queenstown forever. It is in an alley, and it is a really cool old building. It has a woodburning pizza oven and it is made of the stones like many other of the old buildings. It is just so unique. The pizza was amazing, and they brought out some great garlic bread. It is pretty much a loaf of wheat bread slathered in butter and minced garlic. It is so garlicy it almost makes your tongue burn, but it was really good. Just don't get to close to people afterward. After pizza we went over to the patagonia again for gelato and hot cocoa, for dessert. I had a cup of fresh ginger hot cocoa that was really yummy. We checked out the shops a bit more and then walked back to the hotel. The walk back was really nice. There's a pretty big hill you have to climb, but it is very near the botanical garden so it has pretty rock walls, tall trees and a little stream you pass on the way so it was really nice. We hung out in our room for a bit laughing and talking before hitting the hay.

Saturday:

We woke up early in case the flight opened up for Milford Sound. No such luck, so we got ready for the whitewater rafting instead. We were going to raft the Shotover river with alot of clas 3+ rapids. I'm not alll that much of an adrenaline junkie, but rafting I really love to do. I mostly wanted to see Milford Sound, but I really didn't want to miss rafting either. We had to drive through Skippers canyon again to get to the rafting spot, we took that same road on the jeeping tour. It was an entirely diferent experience in a little bus however. It is a dirt road with huge drop offs on the side. There is one spot where the front tire of the bus actually hangs over the edge as it corners! Then on anohter part of the road a wash took the road out about 80 years ago so they built it up again with dry stacked stones cemented with horse manure, and metal stakes, and it has not been improved upon since! The river was pretty full from all the rain we got the day before so it was sure to be a great time on the river. Some friends of ours went the day before during the rain and gave us some pointers for how to get the best guide. The head guide's name was Dave, so they said to hang towards the back until all the other groups are assigned a raft. So we did and sure enough we got Dave. I'm so glad because we hit every rapid exactly like he wanted, Dave said we definitely had a dream run that day, and It was so great. I didn't want to risk getting my camera wet, so we left it at the rafting shop, but the rafting company took a few, and a friend of our had a underwater camera, so I'll post some pics later, but I'll have to transfer them and scan them and stuff. About the first half of the run was pretty tame, and then in the middle there were about 4 rapids just one right after the other. You had about 10-20 feet inbetween to brace for the next, so it was perfect. The last one was the best. During the gold rush days they blasted a tunnel off to one side of the river, so that they could divert the water in the low season for better luck panning. So on the last rapid you go through that tunnel, and then right after you get out there is a huge drop off called champagne falls as the water switches back to the original river. That one was amazing. It nearly folds the boat in half as you go in and you come back up with a raft chuck full of water and sand from the bottom of the river in the bottom of the boat. It was so much fun!

Well I guess the rafting got the boys all pumped up to go Bungy jumping. So we met up at the Bungy shop to take the bus over to the Kwarau River Bridge. The bridge is about 120 feet above the water below, depending on the water level. They strap the bungy rope to your ankles and you dive off the bridge head first! You can request to stay dry or get dunked in the river up to your shoulders, waist or ankles. It was actually the very first commercial bungy site in the world, and they have never had a fatality. Which was such a relief to hear since my husband was about to dive off it. Our friend Steve and his son (13) jumped off first. Steve was a little hesitant since he was pushing the weight limits of the rope. I guess he ended up being the second heaviest guy to ever jump. I don't recall if we discovered that before or after. But he was so glad he did it anyways. Then Chris and our friend Joel went off. Chris got dunked to about his knees and Joel got it up to his ankles. I got some awesome pics of them as they fell. I got one of Chris just coming up out of the river and one of Joel with only his ankles showing out of the water. Then they all bought the DVD of their jump afterwards .They give them a free T-shirt to go, and they all had a great time. I was just relieved to see no one got hurt. The busdriver was kind enough to drop us off at our hotel which was on the way back to the bungy shop so we could shower before hitting Bob's Peak. It is a restaurant perched on top of a mountain overlooking Lake Wakatipu. You take a Gondola up the side of the mountain and then on top they have some Luge cart tracks. We had to take the easy track on the first one to acquaint ourselves with the feel of the cart and then we could hit the advanced track. Horace Mann actually ended up sendin another couple of people off to the hopital on that one too. Some guys were racing, and couldn't pull back on the brake because their legs got in the way. Oops, pretty ironic that an insurance company would condone such risky activities, but most everyone else had fun and were safe I guess. It's bound to happen. At least the injuries weren't as bad as they were on the four wheelers. We only got two runs in before the track closed down for the night, and then we went in to the restaurant for a performance of Maori dancers, cocktails and hor'deourves. The restaurant had the most unbelieveable views the entire area that overlooks the lake is just all glass. The building is kind of rounded so from 180 degrees all you see is misty mountains covered in pines overlooking that beautiful lake. It was so pretty. The dinner was a Kiwi buffet which was excellent. I had some awesome pumpkin soup (pumpkin is really big over there) oriental type noodles, pumpkin and cheese ravioli, smoked salmon and some great desserts. We were so stuffed. They ahad a big carving station with Lamb, and Prime Rib and stuff, but I didn't partake. The ribs cured me of meat on the hoof for a while. Speaking of lamb though, I got Chris a great T-shirt in town. Sheep are just everywhere in NZ and I found a T-shirt that said "Silence of the Lambs" and it had a picture of a BBQ grill with a bunch of lamb chops sizzling away on it. I knew Chris would love it, because that is his favorite movie of all time (twisted I know) and it was just sick and wrong with the lamb chops sizzling away. And supposedly I'm the morbid one just because I noticed a cool cemetary on the way up the hill. The company had a band there after dinner for dancing, but no one stayed too long afterwards. We took a bunch of pics with friends and then took the Gondola down. Kara and I thought it would be funny to not get out at the bottom and go around again. The boys didn't think so and got out. But we took the 10 min. ride again just laughing hysterically about doing it yet again just to see the look on the boys faces. It was pretty funny. The Gondola operator had a good laugh about it. And everyone else was just sitting on a half full bus waiting for it to fill up before they could even leave for the hotel, so who are the morons? At least we had a good view.

Sunday:

Well we had put our names down for the Milford Sound tour again that morning just in case. The weather was much, much clearer but we realized the night before that even if they could fly in to Milford Sound, there were not guarantees that they could fly out again. And if they couldn't fly out we would have to take the bus meaning we would miss our flight from Queenstown to Auckland, and Auckland to L.A. and L.A. to S.L.C. So we just didn't think it was worth the risk of jeapardizing all those connections if we missed one. So we just took the morning easy and looked around at some art galleries and souvenier shops. We met some friends early for lunch since their flight left earlier. We stopped at GUITLY, which was the old courthouse that they converted into a restaurant. It was a neat building and we had a great lunch. I guess they had Heineken on tap which is great if you are a beer drinker. Our group just took advantage of their Heineken beer battered fries. Chris and I had a GUILTY platter for two, which is a great sampling of some of the appetizers. It had shrimp scampi, assorted breads with oil and vinegar, hummus and yogurt dip and then crisp flour tortillas with a cheese and veggie dip. Sooo yummy. If you can't tell I love good food, and have to include every detail about it for others who may too. Anyways after saying farewell to our good friends Yvette and Steve (California), and Kara and Joel (Wisconsin). We decided to walk up to the botanical garden for the afternoon. It was windy, but sooo sunny and bright. I was really glad that we took a Sunday stroll through the gardens. It was the perfect day to go and drink in the beauty of our surroundings before we left. We had been so busy running from one adventure activity to the next, that we didn't take the time to just watch the world go by. The bright sun, fall colors, jagged green mountains, and crystal blue lake just looked gorgeous that day. The botanical garden overlooks the water in a few spots and some of the sail boats were heading out to take advantage of the wind. We sat in the sun, watched the ducks floating around in the lily pond and watched the darling NZ families taking their kids and dogs for a walk or just playing frisbee. Seeing all those darling little kids and hearing their little accents as they spoke, just really made me want to get home to squeeze my own little guys. Everything was picture perfect but we really were just ready to get home. It was the perfect end to a great vacation!

Our second Sunday