ROAM

Aramoana beach weekend

2010-11-28T02:43:00.006-06:00

We've made some great friends here in Dunedin but sadly a few of them are moving on at the end of this year. A couple of weekends ago was the last weekend that we were all in town at the same time so we booked a bach (aka shack/cottage/cabin) in a small beach community called Aramoana, about 45min from Dunedin.
It was the perfect cosy semi-rundown family beach shack full of quirky homemade art. The days were spent lazing about, playing games and trekking up sand dunes.

The shack was on a spit of land jutting into the Dunedin harbour so we were nestled between sand dunes with beach 5 meters away on both sides and at high tide we were cut off from the mainland. By night we watched the sunset on the beach:

The water here is pretty chilly (there's not much between us and the arctic except cold water) but Charlie, Justin and Kate went for an extrememly invigorating morning dip (not me, I was bred in tropical waters!).
It was Guy Fawkes weekend so by night we played with fireworks and I got some great shots. Here's Kit letting a rocket off, magic!

Aramoana, or Aramomomo...?I just spent another great day with these guys today at the beach and managed to stand up on a surf board for a solid length of time! We feel really lucky to have met such great people and although we're sad to see a few of them go we look forward to visiting them some day, and to another year with the rest of them who will still be here.

Silver Peaks!

2010-10-20T22:51:00.002-05:00

Who would have guessed that there would be a back country tramping track just outside of Dunedin? I guess we do live in NZ so it shouldn't come as a big surprise. This track is so close most people start IN Dunedin. We could have started at our apartment and it would have only added 3 hours each way. In the end we wimped out and instead opted for a 25 minute drive to the trail head. This is because I hate the environment and just didn't feel right doing something without increasing my carbon footprint, oh yeah also due to time constraints.

We started on Friday night, walking about 5 km to a camp site.

Because we didn't have to walk far we packed in a pretty nice meal for tramping. See exhibit A:

woke up the next day to this:

Started to walk toward Jubilee hut, via the devils staircase. The views were pretty awesome. One one side of the track you could see Dunedin in the distance and the other way was nothing as far as the eye could see. Crazy.

We ate lunch at the hut, and then carried on to ABC cave and Yellow Ridge. Had a few stream/river crossings along the way

For the most part it was a clear, hot day (a very novel thing in Dunedin) and we were walking through mostly scrub bush without much shade. It was probably the first time I felt thoroughly warm in months. We camped by a river and after a huge hill climb had a flat walk along the road back to our car.

Earthquake!

2010-09-30T17:11:00.004-05:00

Oh Wow, has it really been almost a month since I updated the blog? Jeez, I guess so.

So you've probably heard and forgotten that there was a big earthquake here in NZ. It's true! It was a big deal because it happened very close to Christchurch, the second largest city in NZ and biggest on the South Island. Amazingly, no one was killed and very few were hurt. Most of this is because it happened at 430am and also because NZ has strict building codes in place for earthquakes. To put it in perspective the quake here was the same size as the one earlier this year in Haiti. Some people have complained that there is a lot of building damage, but from what I've been told "earthquake proof" buildings are a lot like cars they are designed to break/crumple to keep the people inside safe.

The quake itself hasn't affected much in our day to day life other than to spice up the nightly news (the headline news before the quake contained riveting accounts in to why the popcorn wasn't popping...). I didn't feel the quake but many people here did (430am.... I was ASLEEP). Christchurch is only a 5 hour drive away and was in a total state of emergency for a week, it is amazing to me how little it did change things here. I suppose it is the same way a hurricane can level a US city, but 99% of people in the country just go "oh yeah... i did hear about that."

A few supply chains did get interrupted or registered, there was some stuff missing on the store shelves and there was talk of a food panic, but it never materialized. There was more of a panic last week when a brewery in Auckland burnt down and there was mad rush to buy up beer....... I love the irony in the world.

Here is a photo I took on my mobile phone (sorry for the low res, don't usually carry the digital camera with me to the grocery store.

License to Ill

2010-08-30T05:30:00.003-05:00

I feel wonderful and gross all at the same time.

Kate's away a conference for a few days and you know who got to stay behind to punch ye old time clock. After an afternoon conversation with co-workers about burgers and chips (fries) I NEEDED a burger. Well the fish and chips shop at the end of the road does some tasty-looking burgers. I done a pretty good job at avoiding this place so far for obvious health reasons (Kate fell victim to the deep fried snickers bar a while ago).

Upon entry to the likely vermin infested take away i noticed not just a few burger options but a plethora. and cheap too. I was just going to get a cheeseburger, but for an extra $1.20 i could get bacon+egg+beet+mayo. Do you think I could pass that up? Hell no. No way in the world.

Look at this beaut:

and for the price of $4.50 the thing was a behemoth, this is the overhead angle is only the last 1/3.

If that wasn't enough I panicked while ordering. Suddenly in the midst of telling the guy i wanted a "bacon, egg and beet cheeseburger" i thought "dude, you need some chips with this thing" so chips I ordered. To which the very normal response from the cook was "how much chips?"

A quick aside to those who have not grown up around fish and chip shops. The way this works when ordering chips isn't a simple small or large, you call out a dollar amount and they give you whatever they feel is worth that much. In some ways its a cool system in other ways I always feel that they are ripping me off.

How much chips?

Now in NZ and Australia I usually don't order chips someone else does, I'm aware of my accent and aware that the dollar amounts are arbitrary, in my paranoid mind if Kate orders in a semi-local accent we'll sound more local and therefore get more chips.

How much chips?

[voice in my head] Ok so usually for a grow of people we split a big pack of chips and thats usually like $5 or 6, I think…. So, ummm, for one person….

"two dollars" is what i end up telling the man. I'm fairly confident with, cause yeah, $5 or $6 is usually, to my recollection, a good amount for 3 or 4 people. 10 minutes later my food is up, i get handed an enormous burger (see above) and an EVEN BIGGER pack of chips. like TWICE the size. !?!?!?!? then I remember, I don't think we've got chips at a take away since being here, at least not when I was in earshot of the counter. NZ must be prime potato growing land if two dollars gets me a freaking pound+ of deep fried delights. I mean seriously it is insane, I took a photo AFTER I had as many as I could possibly fit into my body (maybe I ate half of them before the photo?)

going… into… food… coma……… now.

DIY: Level Up!

2010-08-28T03:26:00.000-05:00

We have our first pet, a nice sourdough culture, affectionately named Bobby. When you leave Bobby alone at home in too small of a space he makes a mess all over everything. Bad Bobby!

But then those are those good days where you really get bond with your pet.

Nothing says love like eating 50% of his body mass once a week. Thanks guy!

In other DIY news we are starting to get serious about fermentation.

One of our closets has turned into fermentation cabinet. Wasn't much in it start with and we never did use those cleaning supplies that much….. anyway, back in June I brewed up my first batch of beer. I'm pretty excited about it, always something I wanted to do. Turns out someone I work with has all the gear so he let me borrow it before I committed to buying anything of my own.

Here is the beer before I put it in the bottle. You'll also noticed we made up two more batches of what I now refer to as "Hobo Mead." Lots of reasons to call it that I suppose, mostly the fact that it is pretty ghetto to brew in old plastic juice bottles and use balloons as airlocks. Also the fact that it tastes a bit like paint thinner. But it does the trick.

I bottled the beer 3 weeks ago, it will be ready to drink soon, just to keep the juices flowing last week I started another batch of beer which will be ready to start drinking around the 1 of November.

Keeping a supply of your own beer on hand takes a fair amount of foresight.

Chickens!

2010-08-02T05:03:00.004-05:00

Ok so a while ago Kate found a listing in the neighborhood newsletter for the Dunedin chicken show happening up near us in the Northeast Valley (our neighborhood). We've talked about getting chickens and some day, if we ever live somewhere for more than 2 years, we'll get some.

So at a $2 per person suggested donation this event did not disappoint.

A mid-winter visit

2010-08-02T04:38:00.003-05:00

With relatively little notice Eli and Beth showed up in Dunedin as part of an around the world trip after the World Cup in South Africa. To be fair I did have ample warning that they were coming, but I never quite believed they were actually going to show up. Not because I distrust them, more that I didn't want to get too excited before I knew they actually had purchased tickets (which turns out was about 4 or 5 days before they arrived).

We had a blast while they were here, so much fun that Kate and I both ending up getting sick while they were here, recovered, and kept rocking it.

While I was busy slaving away at work Kate managed to take Eli and Beth out for a Harbour cruise, luckily the provided spray coats kept everyone dry as well as fashionable.

The weather was very cooperative, albeit a bit nippy, but the sunshine allowed us to take a drive into the mountains and meet this cheeky fellow who was very playful until he started pecking at the rubber around our car windows. He then turned slightly hostile and I feared a Hitchcock 'The Birds' scenario was starting so we high tailed it out of there as the Kea hopped along after the car.

Eli also managed to fit this ridiculous lion hat into his suitcase. Those of you privy to justin and jayne'ss wedding last year will remember a similar affair regarding the lion hat.

A group shot of us in a wine cave.

Don't let the blue skies fool you this water was very cold.

We've been trying to lay low and recover in the week or so since they left, it was awesome to have some visitors to break up the winter hibernation.

Cockling

2010-07-17T04:27:00.004-05:00

Sorting through the photos from the last few months I came across some oldies but goodies. This happened a while ago, mid May-ish if i recall correctly…

So we were tipped off by some people that you can go "cockling" if you go a bit out of town on the habour. Our friends Kit and Natalie, who represent the fine state of Illinois, invited us along with 3 other Americans and another Aussie along for a Cockling adventure. All told one of the eight of us had been cockling before, a long time ago and not in Dunedin. But her dad was a fisherman, so we figured that was experience enough and rolled with it.

It turns out getting the Cockles (yes, plenty of very predictable jokes were made regarding Cockles) is the easy part, you just go at low tide and start digging and they are everywhere.

Kit, Burt and Caroline

Kate in the sand

Natalie

The time consuming bit about cockling is the preparation. Rinse, Rinse, Rinse, Rinse, scrub and rinse some more, then boil them forever.

Burt scrubbing away

The final product is this…..

Not much left for the end product. But it was cool to do, even though I can't eat them.

4th of July!

2010-07-05T03:59:00.003-05:00

For the 4th of July weekend Kit and Natalie threw a 4th of July pot luck at their apartment. Lots of good patriotic food was rolled out, sadly no photos of the spread but I will tell you the creamy pasta salad, the 'liberty holes' (doughnuts), 'footlong of freedom' (sausages), 'victory wieners' (veggie dogs) and many more scrumptious treats did not fail to disappoint.

After the food the celebration of freedom continued with some dancing and merrymaking.

Woke up Saturday to a very nice and sunny day so we shook out the cobwebs of liberation from the night before and took a long drive out to the mouth of the harbor where it meets the ocean. Walked on not one but TWO beaches. The first was Long Beach, home a long beach (go figure), a climbing craig and the infamous caves in which raves and dance parties illegally thrown.

The next beach was Aramoana, again another nice beach, we missed seeing the seals, sea lions and penguins that usually frequent the beach be we did come upon this tidal flat where hundreds of crabs had buried themselves in the sand.

One last victory jump for the 4th.

Around and About

2010-06-24T04:40:00.003-05:00

Its officially winter now, LOOK!

Winter is nice here by the coast, it is chilly, I won't lie, but nothing compared to the midwest. Gotta love being able to go for a walk or drive on a sunday and not worry about ice and snow.

The luckiest sheep in the world.

Met some new friends, learned about 'superman jumps.' You run down the hall and jump into a crowd of people who catch you. Pretty much awesome.

Remember that post about the mead? Here it is, in the bottle. We had a wee nip and it actually tasted good (and no Jim I did not go blind). Here are a few bottles, we'll see how long we can manage to age them.

WANAKA

2010-06-16T03:49:00.004-05:00

A combined birthday present to ourselves was a weekend in Wanaka, a relaxed little town that serves as a base for ski sports in winter. It's a laid back alternative to Queenstown, adventure sports capital (and birthplace of bungee). We lazed around, watched a couple of movies, napped and went on some short hikes. Wanaka is set on a gorgeous lake.

This is where you build if you have vaults of spare cash lying around.

We stayed in a house built from haybales from the field right next to it! The walls are plastered and all of the edges are rounded, giving it a very cosy feel. Here's the view from the balcony.

Justin's banana chocolate birthday pancake!

Wanaka is home to the greatest movie theatre on earth: full of old couches and yes, that is a morris minor. They stop for intermission and serve fresh hot cookies and pizza and even after an hour of stomach-turning cannibalism in our movie those cookies stirred up our appetites.

NZ loves its themed junk tied to fences (toothbrushes, bras...). Here we discover a fence full of bike carcasses along a rail way line converted to a multi-day bike trail. We want to ride this thing on some operational bikes some day.

A classic New Zealand scene: sheep, grass and mountains. The sheep always stare, it gets a little disconcerting.

Our Apartment

2010-05-18T05:50:00.004-05:00

Ok! some of you wanted to see our apartment. Here are pictures of the living room/kitchen, which is one room. We also have a bedroom and a bathroom, but they were dirty so I didn't take a photo.

The living room section.

You may be thrown by the stick on the wall. Yeah its a stick on the wall. We spray painted it gold and hung it up there. You may also notice the weird fireplace-ish looking thing under the light. That is the heater. Its a glorified space heater and its the only heat we have in our apartment, not because it doesn't get cold, thats just how the heating works. A lot of people still use wood stoves as the only source of heating (I really romanticize with this, and wish we had a wood stove). It gets crazier. In the supermarket you can also buy a 20kg bag of coal, yes COAL, for heating. Yes and they are still pioneering this advanced technology as there are ads in the papers and stuff about "new coal technology." To be fair, it's not really that weird as there are coal mines on the South Island, it is cheap and still widely used everywhere to create electricity. Even in my beloved hippie/greenie Madison I still managed to live 5 blocks from a coal power plant. But using it to heat a home, just seems archaic for some reason.

I digress. TO THE KITCHEN!

No sticks or weird stuff in here. Just a tiny fridge.

Jealous Yet?

2010-05-10T03:57:00.007-05:00

Due to lack of internet (who's still bitter? no, not me!) we didnt really get to post a whole lot of weekend trips we did when in our first few months here. So let's do a brief recap.

In March we went on a trip with the Otago University Tramping Club (OUTC) to a place called "Paradise." I think the photo justifies the name...

Then we took a quick walk out to Tunnel Beach, this is 15 minutes from out house....

Also right around Dunedin is the small town of Palmerston. It is near a large hill with a nice (although very steep) hike to the top.

The big trip over Easter weekend was to Mt Cook. Apparently it is rare to get a good glimpse of it because it is usually covered in cloud, but we were lucky and got to see it. Here it is as the clouds began to part.

Jealous yet?

DIY

2010-04-27T02:38:00.005-05:00

Ok so we've always been a bit thrifty and into making things ourselves but we've taken it to another level lately. There are a few key bonuses to making stuff yourself:

1. It is CHEAP and we're back on a student budget
2. Things taste extra DELICIOUS when the flavours have been wafting through the house for an hour.
3. It HEATS YOUR HOUSE. Dunedin weather is never hot and never freezing, just almost always a few degrees too cold. In ultimate efficiency the oven also manages to bring the house up to the comfy zone.
4. It's FUN! We're still making friends around here so that leaves us with some time to kill, which is great because we're actually doing all those random things we never made time for in Madison.

Kate shaking a bottle of honey and yeast to make some mead. This bottle is now aging nicely in the bathroom cupboard next to the warmth of the water heater.

Some delicious creamy lemon curd (by Kate) on a tasty slice of rye bread (by Justin). Oh the blessed domesticity of it all.

We made pizza dough and had a make-your-own pizza party with a couple friends. We put some left over pizza dough in the fridge but apparently it wasn't ready to stop growing. Mutant pizza danger!
I like the kind of DIY where you ignore the instructions. This hideous beast is a dessert pizza. Word of wisdom: don't attempt to bake anything AFTER applying cream cheese frosting. Surprisingly the cream-butter-sugar mixture melts and oozes everywhere. However, it tasted AMAZING, especially the crusty bits where the butter and sugar caramelized on the edges. So delicious I am tempted to do it this way again.

Non-food related DIY and ultimate cheapskate move: we downloaded a picture of a Scrabble board, printed it at work and cut little letter tiles out of card.

Attention: Back online!

2010-04-20T02:34:00.003-05:00

My deepest apologies to anyone who has been waiting for a post.

I'd like to blame this on the ISP's (internet service providers, AKA how you get the internet at your house) in New Zealand. To be fair, I really blame it on one of the companies in NZ. I wont name any names, but seriously, they suck.

A brief timeline of how it pans out goes as following.

Me: "Hi I'd like to get some internet going out at my apartment"
ISP: "Ok great, we'll send someone out to your place, the wait time is currently two weeks"
Me: "Great you're the best, etc, etc"

Three weeks later....

Me: "Hi, I called about the internet, it was supposed to be here a week ago."
ISP: "Oh, umm, yeah. We had some infrastructure issues and fell behind, sorry, we'll be there within the next two weeks"

Two weeks later....
Me: "Hola amigo. Donde esta mi internet?"
ISP: "Lo siento, who are you"
Me: (boiling rage)
ISP: "oh yeah, i see you on the list, probably another three weeks"
Me: "#$&%$&@^$#"

So after all of that we call company #2 they say it will take 2 or 3 weeks to get hooked up. Three weeks to the date, we have internet.

So forgive us and lets resume talking about fun things!

Fiordland Part 1

2010-02-22T23:00:00.004-06:00

Our first trip outside of Dunedin! Fiordland National Park!

You might be thinking "hey where is the 'J' in fiord?" well I've got no clue.

The first night we slept here, not a bad view, that is when it wasn't raining. But our new tent seemed to hold up well against the rain.

It's great that the National Park itself is free to enter and the camp sites (all basic sites) are only $5 per person per night. There are also campgrounds outside the park that are FREE per night, run by the Department of Conservation.

The next morning we were off to Milford Sound. The road leading up to the sound is amazing.

Classic big fern from NZ shot.

At last here it is, Mitre Peak and Milford Sound. Spent a few hours looking around here, although not that much to do unless you want to drop some cash on a boat tour and since Kate is a poor student and I'm unemployed we weren't about to do that.

Spent the rest of the sunny day hiking... I mean TRAMPING, around the alpine lakes.

This Kaka bird was in a cage, but you can pretend that we saw it in the wild with a perfectly halved apple.

Part 2 soon….

Frantic Feb

2010-02-22T22:31:00.002-06:00

Whew. February has been a busy month. We’ve moved into an apartment, bought a car, I’ve got my work visa, done tons of walking around the city, visited tons of thrift store (and there are LOTS in this city) and all the other moving to a new place and setting up a new home type of things. And we snuck a trip to Fiordland in as well (more on that later).

Here we are on the first day in the new place, only 1 mug and the thermos top to drink out of, but we did have some chocolate with Kiwi fruit in it.

Opening up my visa!

And our new beauty, a 1996 Nissan Sentra Q. NZ made, which is a bit rare since the last car assembly plant in NZ closed its doors sometime in the late 1990s and now all the cars are imported new or used (mostly from Japan).

Still waiting on the internet at home, which we were told would take “about two weeks.” Currently it has been near 4 weeks and although the company is apologetic about the delay, it still doesn’t give me internet at home. If it doesn’t come by the end of the week, head will roll (or we’ll go with a different company).

More soon!

Botanic Gardens

2010-02-03T22:14:00.002-06:00

Here is a look at the botanic gardens only a 5 minute walk from our apartment.

The rose garden

Inside the tropical greenhouse

A curious Kea (native alpine parrot of NZ) who was attracted to my phone at the aviary.

And some ducks who stole the bag of food right out of my hands, ran behind a tree to hide and gobbled the whole bag down!

Dunedin 1 week in

2010-01-23T05:19:00.004-06:00

We've been in town for a week now, busy, busy, busy looking for apartments, setting up bank accounts, Kate starting to do some work around the lab, me trying to sort out visa stuff….. and on and on.

Anyway, GOOD NEWS! We've got an apartment and we move in tomorrow! yeeeeeeah, its been 5 MONTHS since I've had a permanent residence and I'm pretty exited about it. No photos of the place, that's in a post to come soon.

Today we took a break and visited the beach. The beach is on the other side of town from us so we splurged on a bus ticket. So when I say "other side of town" I mean about 9km (5.5 miles), yeah Dunedin is tiny. So tiny we ended up walking all the way back to our place.

Lots of surfers out today

The obligatory sign post to far away places…..

Coffee. I realized I haven't had a coffee since arriving in town. This is a crime on many levels, but even more so because of Dunedin's reputation for good coffee. Most coffee is espresso based, or at home people either use a plunger (french press) or just rock instant grounds. I have yet to see an American style drip machine anywhere here, including at the shops.

This long black (americano) hit the spot.

Stumbled across the greatest park of my life:

A kids bike course for learning the road rules (I'll be on this once I get a bike)

A Whale (and a monster thing in the background)!

Dino Slide!

Time for bed!

Arrival!

2010-01-23T04:43:00.004-06:00

We made it!

Finally in Dunedin, here are some of the first snaps of the downtown area. Here is the downtown and Otago Habour.

Seems to be a lot of these old brick buildings, apparently they are Late Victorian and Edwardian in style. Whatever they are, they are cool.

The train station outside and inside.

And a picture of a building on the University of Otago campus, where Kate is soon to be starting at.

We'll post some more pictures and details about the city once we know them.

Auckland

2010-01-22T00:03:00.006-06:00

One day in Auckland, biggest city in New Zealand. A whoppin' 1.2 million people or approx. 30% of the NZ population (~4million total). Put it another way there are more Wisconsinites in the world than Kiwis. Speaking of Wisconsin…..

What is this? It's Burger Wisconsin, a NATIONAL burger chain. They claim the burger was invented in Seymor, Wisconsin and that the world's best burgers are also from Wisconsin. Nice claim, not sure if its true, but I'll give us the benefit of the doubt.

Cool Fact: New Zealand 1st country to grant women's suffrage.

We ended the day catching a bus back to the hotel, about halfway back I noticed that he had a giant stuffed tiger on the dash, amazing.

Minotaurs

2010-01-14T05:30:00.000-06:00

A few last days in Adelaide involved a few dinners and 43C (110F) heat. The first was a CJ's house out on the porch.

Mr. Wade arrives.

Also caught up with some of Kate's friends from High School. It was their 10 year reunion this year, which means mine isn't too far behind (yipe!).

And probably the best fact I've learned in a while:

And with that the Aussie adventure comes to a close. It's finally time to head to New Zealand!

Melbourne Pt. 2

2010-01-14T05:21:00.003-06:00

Most cities try to stop street art, Melbourne embraces it and it has run wild. You would be pretty hard up to find an alleyway in the downtown that DIDN'T have some art in it. Here are a few examples:

Kate in the one alley that wasn't overrun with art.

Later in the day we visited brunswick street in the Fitzroy neighborhood. Oh look, some street art!
Brunswick St

When you think Fitzroy think Williamson street in Madison crossed with Williamsonburg in Brooklyn and you are coming close. Much of the music and art coming out of Australia crosses through this neighborhood along with that loads of cafes, pubs and restaurants to boot.

A baby hung up by wires? I rest my case

Cool lights and pictures at Sista Bella

Melbourne Pt. 1

2010-01-14T05:13:00.002-06:00

Mmm, what does this tasty delight mean? Road trip to Melbourne! Yep, this is some certified greasy, salty, and great tasting roadhouse food. Along the 8 hour drive we passed the incredible shabby looking Giant Koala.

Melbourne loves its coffee, it is everywhere. This particular cup is from a shop in St. Kilda.

An act of desperation?

On Wednesday nights in the summer Melbourne opens up the markets at night. Lots of craft stalls and an incredible amount and diversity of food stalls, very cool.

Sangria!

They have a stage for live music at the markets. You can see it better from the bar across the road AND the drinks are cheaper too.

Adelaide

2010-01-10T21:23:00.004-06:00

I visited my old lab at the veterans hospital and had some time to kill so I wandered over to the second hand shop. It's run by a lovely but cantankerous gang of elderly ladies. The shop was closed for the holidays but I spotted this gem a sign on the window.

It raises so many fascinating questions: How do they know who stole it? Why can't they just get it back? Why won't they prosecute? Is $60 the average price for a mid-range wheelbarrow or are they attempting to upgrade? It has the makings of a thrilling episode of a British village crime show.

We went to McLaren Vale, 45 min from Adelaide and enjoyed getting reacquainted with delicious Australian wine and gorgeous vineyard views.

We've also been getting reacquainted with the burning heat of South Australia and the beaches. At 5pm the sun was still strong enough to give me a solid sunburn.

Brighton beach welcomed me home with a jellyfish sting for old time's sake. It's not that impressive looking (by the time I took this photo you could only see a faint red line) but it stung for a few hours and made me feel vital and reconnected with my wild and dangerous native land.

Christmas and New Years

2010-01-10T20:52:00.003-06:00

Made it to Adelaide, sunny, warm weather to be had. One of the first things we did was go to the Central Markets to buy some food for Christmas.

Had some breakfast and coffee with Bec while we were there.

For Christmas Kate and I made a cheese creche. Yes that is right, a cheese creche. It was an article in the Isthmus that inspired us to bring a bit of Wisconsin pride down under. We got a wide range of responses when we pulled this out.

Yum!

For new years we helped Bec make a Donkey-Pig-something-or-other pinata, here it is at its humble beginnings.

and there were also party poppers

Tassie: Epic Adventure

2009-12-21T23:15:00.005-06:00

The highlight of our Tassie trip was a kayaking adventure on Lake St Claire with Dad, Rhyanna and Zachary. It was gorgeous but tough going as we only have sit on top kayaks which are not built for speed. Plus we had an extra person and our attempt to just have them as a third person in the 2-man kayak ended in a desperate bid for land as the whole thing became submerged in the middle of the freezing lake. Instead Zachary braved the 3-hour hike alone and met the rest of us at Echo Point on the famous Overland Track. Justin and I slept in the bush hut while the other 3 put tents up on the little beach.
The tents on the beach:

Cooking tea next to the hut:
View from the jetty at Echo Point:

Dad and Zach taking a break after a bit of a hike:
The next day I did the hike back and was surprised to get back before the kayakers. Unbeknownst to us there was a wind warning out that day for small craft. Zachary and Rhyanna in the single kayaks had slogged their way through the waves to make it to the meeting point, having lost sight of Dad and Justin an hour before so we sat on the beach waiting as the sun got lower and lower in the sky. It turned out they had been forced to abandon the 2-man kayak after having to pull over to tip the water out every 100m. In a move that would make Survivorman proud they hid it in the bushes, hacked a piece of life jacket off with a pocket knife to mark to location on the track and then hiked back, with Justin wearing only Aqua shoes on the track that was rocky and involved lots of clambering over tree roots and muddy pits.
We topped off the grand adventure with a drive home at dusk as hundreds of wallabies threatened to leap out on the road at any moment!
It managed to snow up there the day after we got back but a few days later Dad was able to go up with a friend and his boat and easily retrieve the hidden kayak.

Tasmania - Part 2

2009-12-21T23:09:00.004-06:00

It's great to be back in sunny Australia where even in the supposedly rainy state of Tasmania it's still normal to dry your washing outside on that great Australian icon, the Hills Hoist.
Less power consumption + fresh smelling clothes = win!

We went for a roam around Cataract gorge in Launceston, where the peacocks roam wild having been introduced in the early days of settlement. Apparently they'll snatch the food off your table if you're not looking.

My sister Philippa was feeling less sunny. She went to bed feeling sick and ended up at the hospital a few hours later with appendicitis! I did take photos of her looking sad in hospital but I'll be a kind sister and not post them on the internet for all to see.

Tassie Part 1

2009-12-18T00:27:00.004-06:00

Farmers Union Ice Coffee. It's a South Australian thing, but they have plenty of it in Tasmania. And it is good.

Since our last visit Kate's parents have "adopted" a young Wallaby. It is blind and wandered into their yard and now it lives in a shelter and is content eating the grass and fruit in the backyard.

Kate and I hiked to the top of Ben Lomond, its more known for its skiing in the winter, but it has an easy track to the top in the summer. It's very cool at the top, rocks, moss, lichen and lots of small streams and puddles to hop around.

The trail is denoted by these weather-beaten mossy poles every 50 yards or so.

Towards the summit there are a few old cabins from before it was a national park, you can see one of them peaking out behind Kate.

Sunny Sydney

2009-12-16T22:29:00.003-06:00

Sunny Sydney! Made it to Australia intact, with minimal jet lag. Warm weather, sunshine and Adam Lemmey abound.

Hung out and checked out the sights of Sydney with Adam. After a thanksgiving/Wisconsin 3 weeks of meat mania we were extremely grateful that 1. Adam is a vegetarian and 2. He knows of some amazing vego restaurants.

He also is proud owner of a 1979 (or maybe 1981) Toyota Corolla. Sometimes I had to hit the engine with a hammer to start it, other than it is in great shape. Here is Adam before our road trip to the Blue Mountains.

At the visitor center there was an old candy crane game from 1909 (made in France). We all won two pieces of candies.

The Blue Mountains are home to the steepest grade of train in the world (they claim anyway). It can be scary.

The Blue Mountains

Adam also knows the location of a Rambo arcade game. It is a wonderfully good time pretending to be Rambo and shooting 4,000 guys and increasing your rage meter.

My RAGE meter is Heroic.

Back In Wisconsin

2009-12-03T08:18:00.003-06:00

Had an exciting time in our last few weeks in Wisconsin. Got to catch up with a lot of people, go to some shows, cook lots of food, eat lots of food, stand out by some fires, and on and on.

A few highlights included a bike trip from Madison to Baraboo with Aaron, something we both have wanted to do for a while now. It was supposed to be sunny and warm but ended up being foggy and cool. Still we had a blast.

In line for the ferry

Also celebrated my Wisconsin heritage in the basement with Chris and James.

We had a big Thanksgiving meal, I ended up being so full I felt sick. Because James and I won't be in Wisconsin for Christmas we also had a Christmas celebration over the weekend as well. As you can see I splurged on my brother, the 99 cent can of Lost Lake.

Went to a show in the small town of Roxbury with my parents and Kate. It was a cool bar (Roxbury Tavern), Lake Louie on tap and cheap eats, oh and the band was pretty good too (The Dang-Its). Nice to get a little folk-country-americana show in before we depart.

Chris and I wrapped Madge up like a baby…. stunts like this could be a reason for her dislike of Chris...

Back in Madison!

2009-11-15T11:39:00.000-06:00

Wheee!!! we made it back to Madison 83 days and 10,225 miles since we left.

We've had an awesome time seeing so many places, so many old friends, and so many new ones. It was so good to see so many people before we move, we are honored to have so many great friends and will always remember the special times we had with all of you.

I want to do a special honor roll here of everyone who let us crash at/invade their houses, we owe you.

Kerry
Chris
James
Justin
Jayne
Josh
Uncle Roger
Aunt Jan
Joe
Chelsea
Linds
Jeb
Andre
Yolande
Eli
Javier
Becca
WEC
Res
Joel
Nick
Beth

As far as the blog... We will keep updating it for the rest of our travels and will keep updating after we move to New Zealand in January. Please keep reading!

Milwaukee

2009-11-15T11:21:00.003-06:00

Stopped by Milwaukee for a couple of days to visit Doug & Mollie and Nick & Beth. It was a pretty relaxed time, we had some nice dinners and hangouts and also managed to clean out of the van and begin packing things up as we are only 80 miles from our final destination. Didn't take many photos but we did get some cute photos with Waffles and Chester.

Kentuck

2009-11-12T09:08:00.002-06:00

We didn't make it to the deep south but we did find a good bbq place in Lexington, Kentucky... it looked like a tin shed, in fact it was a tin shed, but it was good.

RIP Daniel Boone

After driving through the bluegrass and rolling hills of Kentucky we thought "hmm what else would we do here?" Answer? Bourbon Whiskey! By law Bourbon has to be produced in the US and contain at least 51% corn along with either rye or wheat (other whiskeys can be any blend of corn, wheat and/or rye). Turns out that all of the Bourbon in the US, therefore the world, is produced in a small patch of Kentucky. We got in on the last free tour of the day of the Buffalo Trace Distillery. It was lead by a charming old southern gent who told us some good info but also told us a lot of jokes.

Here is the beautiful old buildings from the 1880s that they still use today.

and the tour guide giving Kate some info

It smelled liked whiskey in the aging room and made me ready for the free tasting after the tour.

West Virginia (I'm coming home)

2009-11-10T15:31:00.003-06:00

Got out of DC and drove to the edge of the Blue Ridge Parkway and spent the night. Early the next morning we started out by driving 50 miles or so of the parkway.

Then we drove into West Virginia on our way to visit Joel, who lives in the Southwestern corner of the state, a major coal mining area. Here is a coal mine:

Out back of Joel's house in Logan.

We went to take a hike with Joel in the state park near Logan and ran into a Pioneer days fest and learned about a Native American vision quests and how to make a good knife blade. After pioneer fest and hiking we purchased some Big Wheels ice cream treats and did a short driving tour of the city. Yum!

We didn't stop here, but we did notice this at a stoplight on the boarder of WV and Kentucky. We were in real Appalachia.

DC (Part 2)

2009-11-10T15:26:00.003-06:00

Res took a day off of work and we went on a big bike cruise around DC. We started the day at the Florida Ave Grill, a greasy spoon soul food diner that did not disappoint. When Kate and I said yes to butter on our grits we did not realize that it meant a ladle full of melted butter... glad we are moving into a country with socialized medicine. Here we are, almost bursting with food.

We biked to the National Arboretum and saw a cool display with lots of Bonsai trees

We biked around a bit more then ended up at Res's house for a break. Then we ate dinner at an El Salvadorian place complete with a Mariachi band.

Oh and did I mention that we went to the bar called "The Big Hunt." Yes, it was called "The Big Hunt" It was a good dive bar with, of course, Big Buck Hunter.

In the Adams Morgan neighborhood we saw bluegrass music and continued with our theme of ridiculous bar names. The bar the band was at was called the Madams Organ (a clever play on the neighborhood name....)

DC (Part 1)

2009-11-10T15:21:00.004-06:00

Res works at a bike shop which means he has extra bikes! The weather was nice enough to bike around, and Res's old clunker cruisers did the trick. We biked from his house along a creek and ended up at the Lincoln Memorial. The authorities didn't seem to mind that we rode bike around in the pedestrian mall area of DC and that made it a breeze to get around.

After visiting the Museum of the American Indian (very cool) and the Air and Space Museum (also cool) we stumbled upon the capitol building and lots of protesters who were against the health care bill... luckily they we just finishing up their whining (ahem, sorry, right to organize....).

This fellow has "Live Free or Die Hard" on the back of his truck, not sure if he is in favor or against the bill or just really pumped about the Bruce Willis movie.

And glad to see that after a hard day of protesting AGAINST health care reform these protesters are happy to stuff their faces with lots of calories, fat, saturated fat, corn syrup, cholesterol, etc..... ahhh FREEDOM! (sarcasm).

Now to de-stress... a monkey at the DC zoo, a very cool zoo.

WEC + Delaware

2009-11-09T17:16:00.005-06:00

So remember how I grew up in Africa and went to boarding school and had pet monkeys and chamelions and ate snakes? Well a few hours south of NY, near Philiadelphia the mission my parents work with has its US base and a few old friends from Cote d'Ivoire live there. It's like visiting extended family, I got to see (L-R) Lee and Liz, the Mums of fellow boarding schoolers, Aunty Marilyn my 6th grade teacher, plus (not pictured) all three Durben girls and their dad Dan.

We continued south towards Washington DC via the lovely, picturesque Delaware wetlands. A nuclear power plant was the highlight of what our Atlas labelled a scenic drive.

Adventure highlight: we had to ford some rivers, apparently the wetlands weren't aware there was a road there. I thought I saw a log under the water but Justin just yelled "Do it! Do it! Go! Go" So I did, and we survived.

On the banks of the Chesapeake these big lumpy balls smell good like citrus, does anyone know what they are?

NYC!

2009-11-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

With great daring Astro braved the drive into New York City and lived to tell the tale.
We stayed with Becca, who hadn't done laundry in a month or 2 so we decided to use team power to lug all the laundry downstairs, walk it to the laundromat and have a drink next door while it washed. In the picture below you can see Becca on the phone with Alexa who is foolishly offering to do Becca's laundry if we will instead meet her at another bar (one with free pizza!) So we did, we had a couple beers with the laundry cart in the bar and Alexa took it all home and washed it. Impressive friendship.

We only had one full day in NY so decided to explore somewhere new. We had the obligatory delicious bagel for breakfast before hopping on the subway to Queens, remember, the place where Eddie Murphy found his bride in Coming to America?

The MoMa (Musuem of Modern Art) has an outpost there that had loads of cool stuff, including these structures in the courtyard:

and a swimming pool to be viewed from above or below. I want to turn my bedroom into this:

Across the street is a building where people can apply to graffiti.

We rounded out our visit with Molly and Darren, raw food, Philipino food, ice cream, and baked goods. Most of our tourism seems to revolve around food.

Halloween

2009-11-09T16:41:00.002-06:00

Having no costume at 4pm the day of Halloween we had to scramble a bit. Kate had a green dress and that gave her the idea to go as the green fairy from the absinthe artwork, and what you are supposed to see when you drink a lot of it.

Javier and I from a misunderstanding with what Kate said decided to go as Abstinence Fairies... we didn't really know what that meant either, but after a 15 minutes of theorizing we had a loose plan. Basically we went around the party telling people not to do it and we wore garlic around our wrists to repel possible mates.

The big bash was at GPSY, the graduate student bar at Yale. It is a big place, 3 levels and since it is members and guests only (Yale is into exclusivity) it was also cheap. Spent the night people watching trying to determine how many future presidents were in the room.

New Haven/Yale

2009-11-09T16:35:00.003-06:00

On down the east coast we go. Next stop is in New Haven, CT home to Yale university. The architecture is incredible, it is designed to look really old... it is old, from the 20s and 30s, but designed in the gothic style to look even older. Here is an example of what many of the building look like:

Yale has a Rare Books Library containing some neat old stuff and they have put it in a building with thin marble walls. The walls block out the UV light, thus protecting the books, but still let in some natural light.

There was an exhibit on avant-garde and counter culture protest art. Lots of cool posters

One of the many secret societies at Yale.. Skull and Bones!

Went on a walk of New Haven and a park the overlooks the city, it turned out to be more of an adventure than we expected, after we took a wrong turn and ended up circumnavigating the hill.

I told you it was an adventure.

This place claims to have invented the hamburger, no ketchup or mustard allowed. Javier wolfing it down like a hyaena.

ASTRO UPDATE

2009-11-04T07:32:00.003-06:00

It been two months and about 9,000 miles, the biggest question people ask is "how is the Astro?"

Well..... she's still running, BUT there are a few issues...

#1 - The check engine light. Yeah, its been on since Eau Claire Wisconsin day one of the trip

#2 - Side window. I managed to break it way back in Ft. Collins while trying to fix it (it wouldn't shut tight). Now we have some cardboard in it.

#3 - Side mirror. On our way out of Portland, OR Kate managed to "bump" the side mirror on the highway, causing it to break. Here is a before and after.

#4 - Gas milage. The first month of the trip we were getting about 16mpg on average. Since leaving the west coast we've face a sad downward decline. Currently we are getting 11 or 12 mpg. Could it be the cold rainy weather? Something to do with the check engine light that has been on since day 1? is the van suicidal? Probably all the of the above.

#5 - Headlights. For some unknown reason (maybe a fuse blew out?) the regular headlights stopped working when we were in the UP of Michigan. Now we just get to drive around with our high beams on and make the other drivers happy.

Going strong!

Boston!

2009-11-02T17:32:00.005-06:00

On our way down the coast to Boston we stopped at the lighthouse that is featured on the back of Maine's quarter.

Then..... 2 days in Boston! Visited Eli and walked the Freedom Trail, which is a trail around the city highlighting many of the revolutionary war sights. A lot of the old buildings are still in use, Boston has a policy of building reuse instead of just turning old stuff into museums. For example the old meeting hall where the declaration of independence was read out to the people of Boston still exists but now it is a subway station.

Here is a photo of the 3 of use pre-freedom, look at our sad confused faces.

On the trail we saw:
an old gravestone

Eli & donkey

The oldest pub in America, the Bell in Hand Tavern, opened 1795.

That night we ate some good Italian food in Boston's North End. Then the next day we walked around the Harvard campus for a bit. We also met up with one of Kate's former co-workers from the Adelaide Institute of Sleep Health (aka AISH) who is now a Post-Doc at the Harvard Medical School.

Here is a photo of some Harvard buildings.

Acadia National Park

2009-11-01T09:58:00.000-06:00

Acadia National Park is on the coast of Maine and it's gorgeous. On a map this section of the coast looks like it's been shredded, there are lots of islands and inlets.

The fall colours were spectacular to hike through. It's one of the most visited parks in the US, and some of the trees on the trails had been polished smooth on their trunks from the number of people touching them to steady themselves.

As a child of the tropics and desert it always feels slightly odd for me to be at a beach where everyone is rugged up and just walking around looking at things instead of swimming, but it was beautiful. We had to take our shoes off to ford a stream at one point, so figured we might as well have a paddle while we were at it, down coat and all.

We climbed the 'beehive', one of the best hikes I've ever done. We're so used to parks making everything so safe and easy to walk through, this was a wild hike with iron rungs in the rock and a couple of ledges to inch your way along above the forest and beach views. A trail designer back in the day wanted people to be able to climb the beehive without using climbing gear, it was fantastic, don't miss it if you're in the area.

The beehive

The rungs

In town that night we had some famous New England clam chowder, crab cakes and saw many many lobsters and ice creams. Here is a picture loaded with complex questions, who is wanting to eat who/what?

Maine

2009-10-31T09:24:00.003-05:00

Back in the USA. Welcomed in by more rainy weather (yay).

Drove to Bangor, Maine, home to Stephen King and probably other stuff. We did managed to find his house. It did not disappoint.

After that we went to the $3 movie theater in town and that also did not disappoint... it was dirty, dingy, and the undertrained projection staff made the experience complete.

Wardriving

2009-10-31T09:04:00.001-05:00

"Wardriving is the act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks by a person in a moving vehicle, using a portable computer or PDA." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardriving)

This is one of the main ways we access the web while we are traveling. It's so easy to find unprotected wireless its a joke.

A parking space outside of a coffee shop? Pull the van up next to it. City Hall? Pull the van up next to it. An apartment complex? Pull the van up next to it. A large-national wide chain of hotels that doesn't protect it networks? Pull the van up next to it.

Here are some photos of us surfing the web from the van.

Kate always looks this happy when she is conducting illegal activities.

Quebec City

2009-10-30T13:46:00.004-05:00

Quebec City! Its very old and has a big castle in the old section of town, also a lot of narrow streets and small shops.

As you can see it snowed.

Bummer.

The next day we woke up to 3 more inches of snow and a grey rainy day. We took a drive around the Ile d'Orleans, just outside of Quebec City, it was a nice drive (other than the weather) but most of the shops and farms had closed for the season. Here is a nice cottage, looks more like December than October.

We had planned on going a bit further north and east into Quebec to hike and camp but because of the weather we decided that it was best to head south and go through Maine and New England instead.

Montreal to Quebec City

2009-10-30T13:41:00.002-05:00

Left Montreal late and went to about an hour north to a cabin in rural Canada. The cabin is owned by our friend Christian's mother (she is also a friend!). It was very nice the she let us stay there, it was the perfect thing to do after a very busy festival. The cabin was also used in a number of films from the festival so it was nice to see the place in person.

From there we drove to Quebec City along the St. Lawrence River, lots of old small towns all of which had large old cathedrals. Here is one of them

A little way up the road we bumped into a tour bus of 35 Australians. They we in top form. It was 1pm, they were drinking, making fun of the French language and generally being very loud.... pretty much hitting all the stereotypes of aussie tourists. (sorry to the Australians reading this blog) We did have one of them take our picture, "Pierre" as his name tag stated. Luckily, he informed us that his real name was actually Peter, but he was trying to blend in. Thanks dude.

Montreal: Movie Stars

2009-10-23T19:01:00.002-05:00

While we were in town our friend Chris was in the midst of shooting his first feature, an adaptation of a hit Quebec tween novel. We visited the set a couple of times.
The first day was pretty spectacular, with a rain machine and about 30 screaming girls. It was also raining for real so we got completely soaked and toes frozen, but it was awesome to see Chris in his element and be on such a big, busy set.

The crew sizing things up before setting off the rain machine. Chris's wife Gen is the Director of Photography, in the green jacket and harness to hold the huge film camera.

Screaming highschoolers:

Le Directeur:

We visited again the day before we left Montreal as extras buying Christmas trees. Chris had a pretty sweet cameo as the tree seller:

big lights

Montreal: Catching Up

2009-10-23T18:57:00.002-05:00

In true kino style a complete stranger put us up for the whole 2 weeks we were in Montreal. Thanks Andre, you were fantastic and your apartment was completely relaxing.

groovy front doors:

Tipou, who liked to lick Justin's head in the morning:

Chilling out on the balcony with Andre, Eva from Slovakia and Tona from Madison. The cushions are genius.

We caught up with loads of old friends in Montreal. Had a great time with Ben, Kim, Christian and many many others. Christian took us curling, a classic Kanuk sport. It was also a major workout.

Claude sizing up before pushing off the stone.

Gen and ladies sweeping hard.

Montreal: Kino Kabaret

2009-10-23T18:51:00.004-05:00

We were very excited to make it to Montreal for the 10th anniversary of Kino. We spent a crazy 10 days making and screening short films with 60 directors from all over the world, plus at least that many actors and technicians. We each had 2 days to shoot, edit and then screen. We've done this before in a few different countries and it was great to see old friends and meet new ones and just be part of that kabaret buzz. We both made films that got good responses, an awesome feat considering the number of great directors and Justin, along with Dave from Australia, managed to make a 4 part series "Man Talk" that become the hit of the Kabaret. Mine included a bunch of childhood memories, including some of you. I'll send it out soon.

Justin's shoot in the appartment we stayed at, with Olivier on camera:

The kino lab, nerve center and heart of the kabaret. This is where we brainstormed, edited, ate, napped and created:

Justin, day 10:

And yes that is a photo of Michael Jackson, some sort of "Michael Money" coupon to get into a show or something.

The Wisconsin Crew. Kino threw it's annual VIP fundraiser while we were in town and Linda won the auction for some French Champagne. Thanks for sharing Linda! We followed it up with smoked meat sandwiches the size of your head.

MLPS to Montreal

2009-10-22T18:28:00.003-05:00

Left the twin cities early in the morning and headed through northern Wisconsin and the UP. It was nice to be on some familiar ground again. It was grey and rainy pretty much the entire way to montreal, but the fall colors were at their peak so it was a beautiful drive.

Stopped at some places in the UP before heading through Canada to en route to Montreal.

This is Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore where we also found the most daring chipmunk ever... he jumped INTO my hands

Here are the Tahquamenon Falls:

and the Soo Locks

Yellowstone to MLPS

2009-10-19T11:28:00.002-05:00

From Yellowstone we headed up to Montana where we happened upon the town of Forsyth. This town bears a family name of Kates (of Scottish origin) and also happened to have a homecoming parade!

Does anyone know what buffball is?

Got into North Dakota and tried to go to "Pitchfork Fondue" which involves putting a steak onto a pitchfork and deep-frying it in a vat of oil. Sadly, the restaurant was already closed for the season.

The impressive Soviet style North Dakota State Capitol

We spent two days in Minneapolis with Jeb and Meghan and realized that we didn't use our camera at all expect for one picture of a bar that looked like a ship. I did a little doctoring up to remedy the lack of photos...

Jeb and I also managed to play Big Buck Hunter for almost an hour, for only a dollar. We are killing machines.

Yellowstone

2009-10-19T11:17:00.004-05:00

It snowed in Yellowstone!

We spent two days here and it was gorgeous... however, the snow also makes it cold... even got some ice on the puma.

The geysers are unlike anything I've ever seen. It was so cold there was lots of steam coming up from them and it made it a bit hard to see some of them, but they were still really cool.

Portland

2009-10-04T13:23:00.004-05:00

The trip has officially reached the point at which I don't know what day of the week anything is any more. My lofty goal of keeping a daily diary has also, as usual, fallen by the wayside so I really couldn't tell you quite which day each of these things happened, but here they are in order. Portland fun:

Fun at Lindsay's house:

Justin got us all excited to do science experiments, here is the result of mixing bicarb soda and vinegar. A local hobo wandering by planted himself on the porch, shared a lot of opinions about how we could do our experiments better and also informed us that he is the king of blues. He offered to demonstrate but luckily no one had a guitar on hand.

After the science the best 6 person dance party ever.

For the whole month of September little birds called swifts migrate through Portland and nest in a chimney at a local primary school. Locals gather on a nearby hill to watch thousands of them gather in the evening and then, just as the sun sets, they start to spiral into the chimney in a black cloud. Myself, Justin and Josh took a picnic and watched, but forgot the camera. It was amazing to see them just keep spiraling in until they were getting pushed out and a hundred of them had to fly off to some other location.

We spent a day biking around and went to visit Josh at the University on top of a very steep hill. We took a wrong turn on the way to the cable car station and ended up carrying our bikes up a long-forgotten trail and popping out at the hospital entrance.
A view from one of Portland's bridges:

As a reward, after several visits to Portland we finally made it to Voodoo Donuts, famous for their crappy decor, crazy donuts and performing wedding ceremonies in the store.

Mine had cocoa puffs on it, sugar overload:

Mel and Lindsay came over to 'our house' and got to experience the joys of Astro's interior lighting one night:

Portland to Yellowstone

2009-10-04T13:17:00.004-05:00

On the way out of Portland we drove along the Columbia River Gorge. It was a scenic drive lots of cliffs, along the way we saw Multnomah Falls.

Making sandwiches!

Outside a coffee shop in Boise, ID. We need more of these.

Next stop was Craters of the Moon. Its a huge lava field with lots of cool rocks and craters. It was also a very cold and rainy day.

Learn it:

Camping in Newport

2009-10-04T13:10:00.005-05:00

Josh and Ariel rode bikes down to Corvallis and then the 6 of us (Joe and Chelsea too) went camping on the coast in Newport, OR. The first thing we did once we got there was hit up "Moe's" seafood dinner. The claim to fame is the clam chowder, they even have a picture of GWB eating there. My claim to fame is having this picture of Chelsea eating there.

The harbor has a cool bridge over it and also lots of sleeping Sea Lions on the docks.

Our campsite was right on the coast and also under a bridge so we could feel like hobos.

Cooking!

It got cold and we decided to take the camping trip to the Rogue Brewery in Newport, a very good call and we managed to get in on some bar trivia.

Oregon Coast

2009-10-04T13:03:00.007-05:00

On the way to visit Joe and Chelsea we stopped in at my Great Uncle Roger and Aunt Jan's house for a night. They live near the Oregon coast on a Salmon fishing river and we got enjoy a wonderful Salmon dinner and a cruise down the river on their boat.

We then took the Oregon coast highway the rest of the way to Corvallis.

warning!
Once we got to Corvallis we went out for dinner with Joe and Chelsea.

This led to going to a dive bar, then led us to the upstairs of the dive bar to the crappy dance bar. On the way home Joe and I saw his new neighbors outside having move in party. The first thing the 20 year old host asked us was "are you guys 21...... too?" It was fairly obvious he thought we might be undercover cops.

Getting to Portland

2009-10-04T12:58:00.003-05:00

We took a "shower" in the FREEZING stream next to our site to get all clean for the Portland folks. Here is Kate braving the waters.

Then we visited the Newberry Volcano Monument outside of Bend, OR and saw an obsidian flow, which is glassy volcanic rock

and toured a lava tube, which is really a fancy name for a lava cave. Here is Kate with the lantern.

We also learned that if you are disabled do not come to Oregon.

We got to Portland around dark and met Josh and had a slumber party (!!) in his living room.

Cowboy Poetry

2009-09-22T17:17:00.003-05:00

Got up early to leave another fantastic wal-mart parking lot and drove across the salt flats of western Utah. Utah totally got screwed because the second you arrive in Nevada you are off the salt flats and into mountains. Nevada = boring to drive across, but at least a little better than Utah. There was a bastion of hope.... Elko, NV.

Elko, Nevada home of the Western Folklife Center and most importantly every January home to the National COWBOY POETRY competition. If you don't know what cowboy poetry is you can learn a little more with this video: Heaven's Cowboys

This is the bar the competition is in.

After that it was more Nevada and onto Oregon where we encountered this behemoth of a hill.

Very interesting drive down, 6 miles of 25mph and no trust in our brakes, but we made it down alright. We found a campsite (for FREE!) in a national forest outside of Paisley, OR and got there in time to make a campfire (yay!).

Salt Lake City

2009-09-22T12:45:00.005-05:00

Salt Lake City is home of the Mormons, but also a modern city full of tasty looking restaurants we didn't have time to visit. We did a tour of the Mormon temple square, which was pretty interesting and explained a few quirky things I vaguely knew about the Mormons.

Here's where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir lives, the acoustics are amazing, you wouldn't want to be whispering in church.

We learned that they believe families are eternal and therefore perform rituals for dead family members, which explains their well-known, huge geneological research library. We attempted to find our family trees and realised we need to talk to our grandmas more because they know everything.

Sad news: It looks like in the promised land you still have to be a slave to the wage.

We spent the night at Walmart again, this time with 6 RVs and about 15 semi-trucks who idled their engines all night, the white noise made for a great night's sleep.

Denver to Salt Lake City

2009-09-22T12:35:00.005-05:00

From Denver we had originally planned to head South through New Mexico and then up the East Coast but decided last minute to head West instead, to avoid taking the Astro through the mountains later in the year when snow could make for some scary driving. We crossed the continental divide through the Eisenhower tunnel and popped out into a rainy 8% grade descent but were heartened by the sight of large trucks making the descent. Astro handled it admirably so we celebrated being alive by taking a stroll through Vail:

Spent the night at a nice rest stop we passed just in time:

Next morning was an exciting visit to Dinosaur National Park, where there are so many bones they left some in the rocks to be enjoyed.

I found a femur!

and a spine!

and a whole dinosaur!

In Utah alcohol can only be bought from State-run agencies, it's interesting to see a liquor store without all the advertising signage.

Garden of the Gods

2009-09-18T13:21:00.002-05:00

Before we left Denver James drove us down to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It's a rock garden right in the town and it looks like something out of the Australian Outback. We did a short hike around the park and then hit up the ENORMOUS souvenir shop... I came very close to buying a large silver belt buckle with an eagle and a flag on it, but in the end America just wasn't worth the $16.

Kate and Balanced Rock
Brothers!
We ate lunch at Souper Salad, a soup and salad buffet (along with taco, potatoes, and nachos of course). Kate was very excited.

Kate is still excited
Our server, Matt, was very upbeat and extroverted.... lets venture a guess, amphetamines.... managed to (in a socially awkward and psychotic manner) jokingly accuse Kate of sneaking food into the bathroom, make jokes about dr pepper being called "dr... dr.... nurse.... pepper... nurse.... dr nurse pepper! ah hahahah!" and telling james his girlfriend came in the door to which we turned around and noticed a very large woman walking through the door. Needless to say we gave him a large tip.

Monolith Festival

2009-09-18T13:11:00.004-05:00

Went to Monolith Festival at Red Rocks, which if you don't know is an amazing outdoor amphitheater just outside of Denver. Very cool place to check out and very cool place to see lots of great bands.

Saw lots of great bands, we got some photos, but not too many turned out because it was inside or dark. The bands we saw

Woodhands (best show of the day)
Starfucker (amazing)
Hollywood Holt (2nd best show of the day, hip-hop from chi town)
Roadside Graves (folk rock from jersey)
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (energetic folk+acid rock+hippie commune)
The Antlers (couldn't see much too crowded)
Girl Talk (good people watching)
Speakeasy Tiger (dance rock from denver)
Thunderhiest (rap-dance rock)
Boulder Acoustic Society (folk-punk from boulder)
Of Montreal (great stage stuff)
Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs (Karen O brought it)

Woodhands
Hollywood Holt (can you spot Woodhands rocking it in the photo?]
Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Red Rocks

New Belgium Brewery

2009-09-18T13:01:00.006-05:00

After backpacking we decided we needed some refreshments,, luckily ft. collins has a bar with a TREE-HOUSE (!!!!!) in it.

The next day we toured the both the Ft. Collins & New Belgium Brewerys.

New Belgium was pretty awesome, lots of free samples, a great tour guide (she also gave extra free samples later) and a SLIDE (!!!) in the brewery. Here is a video of me sliding down it.

Backpacking + Haircut

2009-09-13T22:40:00.008-05:00

Made it back from Costa Rica and they let Kate back into the country! yay! This may seem uneventful but it was a bit of a mystery if she would make it back in on the new visa, but apparently it wasn't an issue.

Then it was up to Ft. Collins for a bit of backpacking with Justin & Jayne. They took us to the Roosevelt National Forest about 2 hours outside of Ft. Collins. But first I decided that i needed to shave my head for no apparent reason.

Here are some shots from the hike in:

Here is the lake we camped on:

Kiley looking for chipmunks.....

most amazing invention thanks to Justin Mohar the "S'more-tilla"

note the two-handed technique he uses.... now the rest of us copy.

Jayne with the finished product:

The next day we did a day hike and found some snow

Kiley got tired:

We managed to get a photo of all of us using a stump and the camera timer. I'm still surprised that it actually worked AND that Kiley managed to get into the background of the photo.

Costa Rica Part 3: San Jose

2009-09-13T21:54:00.005-05:00

Jusin got healthy just in time for the 4-hour bus ride back to San Jose and in fact felt so good that we decided not to get a hotel but just hang out in town until our flight at 6am. Costa Rica played a soccer game vs Mexico that night so we soaked up the atmosphere at an outdoor screen, along with Superman.

It started to look like a resounding defeat for Costa Rica so rather than hang around and watch the misery we headed to the airport, hoping to find a comfortable patch of carpet to spend the next 5 hours. It turns out at least 10 other backpackers had decided to do the same, which is pretty tragic considering how cheap transport and accommodation is around here.

Kate saving about $20:

Costa Rica Part 2: Caribbean Cahuita

2009-09-13T21:43:00.007-05:00

Cahuita is about 5 blocks of dusty roads, carribean restaurants, reggae bars, cabinas, stray dogs and the odd chicken; the shabby tropical state of decay and extremely laid-back vibe reminded me a lot of my childhood in West Africa. It was a great place to just switch off and have the luxury of trying to invent ways to kill time.

We first stayed at 'Cabinas Smith', in a nice clean room off a little courtyard, complete with a Rooster morning wake-up call. Across the yard was rickety old porch permanently occupied by a rickety old man and a middle-aged lady who slowly drawled the day away in the local creole english. Here's the porch, sans old man:

The town has 2 beaches: black and white. We visited black beach first, the waves were perfect for lazily splashing about.

We saw leaf cutter ants along the way:

The next day we hiked through Cahuita National Park, which contains the white beach and the first 2 animals we saw were a squirrel and a racoon, both common in Wisconsin so exciting but not mind blowing. Then came the monkeys.

The monkeys:

Our faces after seeing the monkeys:

We also saw Howler monkeys which have much uglier faces and make some pretty loud, scary grunting noises.

We decided to move to Spencer's Seaside Cabins that day to get a bit more of said Seaside and scored a private balcony in the process. Here's the view!

Not a moment too soon as Justin came down sick while relaxing in one of the many hammocks at Spencer's and went into old-style invalid mode, taking lots of clammy naps on the ocean-front balcony and under the mosquito net. Was it all the cheese we ate for lunch or Roberto's "special rice" full of unidentifiable seafood the night before? Perhaps we'll never know but the next morning I once again got to mangle some Spanish, this time at the Pharmacy. Luckily the lady put me on the phone with an English-speaking doctor and I triumphantly returned to Justin with meds plus some delicious pediatric electrolyte drinks. Look at the Teddy!

Costa Rica Part 1: Central Valley

2009-09-13T21:30:00.005-05:00

We spent a brief night in Denver with Justin's brother James who gave us an early ride to the airport the next morning. We arrived in Costa Rica, stepped out of the airport and suddenly realised we don't know any Spanish. However we still managed to catch public transport to our first destination, the capital of San Jose where I mangled the language and succeeded in buying tickets for the next bus and a soda of some sort. The 1.5 hour ride to Turrialba took us on scary twisty roads through the jungle mountains past coffee plantations. I especially liked how they grow living trees as fences, with wire strung between them.

Turrialba is not a tourist destination but is a handy base for white water rafting, we stayed at the Hotel Intermamericano in a tiny but adequate room. The next day we managed to order a 'casado' lunch, a Costa Rican standard of rice, beans and chicken and I ordered something I had no idea of, except that it apparently came in either a milk or water variety. Turns out it was some kind of tasty milkshake with a fruit called Guanabana.

We took public transport to the Guyabo ruins and when the bus couldn't make it up one of the hills we had to get out, climb and get back on at the top:

The ruins are the only major archeological site in Costa Rica from before the Spaniards. It's no Machu Pichu but was it still fascinating to see these remains only recently uncovered in dense jungle. I even spotted a Toucan!

The next day we had a blast rafting the Pacuare river with Exploradores Outdoors, who then dropped us off at our next destination: Cahuita. We didn't get photos but here's what we pretty much looked like: click Excitement level: High.

CARHENGE!

2009-09-11T22:54:00.004-05:00

Woke up at dawn in the Thedford, NE (pop. 100) municipal building parking lot, jumped into the front of the van and drove to a gas station before anyone could notice we slept there. According to a free campgrounds book we had this was a legit place to sleep over night. According to my gut instinct it was not. When we pulled in the night before after dark Kate thought someone was watching us from the building across the street, it turned out it was a poster of two people. This was discovered after I drew the curtains of the ASTRO, pulled out my binoculars and proceeded to peep through said curtains across the street.

After getting coffee we drove well out of our way, but well worth it, to see none other than CARHENGE.

Yes, it is a replica of Stonehenge made with old cars and it is in the middle of nowhere (Alliance) Nebraska. There is also some other art there.

FACT:

Since it was deserted we took the liberty to get a photo op with the ASTRO inside of carhenge.

Drive To Denver Part 2

2009-09-11T22:47:00.004-05:00

After Wal-Mart we blasted through Minnesota and made a special detour for Kate to have an exciting childhood moment and visit the "Little Town on The Prairie", former home of Laura Ingalls Wilder:

Next stop: the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. And what a treat it was!

Sadly, the building is not made of corn rather decorated with cobs. We happened to be there for "Corn Palace Days" or something of that nature, which turns out is like a county fair.

We stopped by the Democratic bake sale and talked to the old ladies who were running it and we also happened to notice that the republicans were up to their old tricks, trying to win votes by bribing. Hard to see but the republican's sandwich board reads "free water and peanuts"

After that we stopped into Winner, SD.

Slot machines are legal just about everywhere in SD and i figured Winner was the place to give it a shot; however, the dark musty room and sallow faces of the people in the slots room at the gas station made me run the other way.

I'll leave you with this:

Getting To Denver Part 1

2009-09-11T17:06:00.004-05:00

After leaving the Boundary Waters we started driving to Denver. The first city of note is the Grand Rapids, MN. Not a big city, but a city full of amazing signs and northwoods glory. If you don't believe me check out the stylish VFW, straight out of the future (or the 80s, whatever).

A few hours later we stopped at the St. Cloud Wal-Mart for the night. Wait, Wal-Mart? Yes, Wal-Mart! For those of you who don't know 24 hour Wal-Mart stores permit you to stay the night in their parking lots for FREE. Now you wont catch me actually shopping in one of these stores anytime soon, but its great deal if you can sleep in your vehicle. We were one of four other vehicles staying at this particular Wal-Mart.

Here we are in the morning enjoying breakfast.

It might be a bit of a stretch to be cooking in the parking lot, but dont plan on going back there soon.

Boundary Waters (Aug 23-27)

2009-08-29T16:00:00.004-05:00

We spent four nights camping on Ensign Lake in the Boundary Waters canoe area with my parents and a family friend. It was a good time canoeing, exploring and fishing but the "highlight" of the trip came on the last night when i awoke to my dad and Mike yelling about something going through our food. Then the flashlight turned on to reveal a momma bear and two cubs. After yelling, jumping, and cursing at the bears in the end all we could do is make a big fire and watch them chow down on a good portion of our food. It wasn't a big deal since we were leaving the next day and they only went through one of our two boxes of food.

Here we are getting ready to go:

Paddling with dad:

Around our site:

Madison to Beaver Bay (Aug 22nd)

2009-08-29T15:57:00.003-05:00

Our first day of solid driving in the Astro! We left Madison around noon and drove straight up to Duluth. We found an overlook of the town, which is built on large hills, and ate dinner.

We drove up the Lake Superior Coast and found a rest area to sleep at a few hours from the Boundary Waters. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a photo. Bummer.

We're off!

2009-08-22T11:27:00.003-05:00

goodbye kamp kretchmar!

ASTRO mods

2009-08-22T10:26:00.013-05:00

Here are some modifications we did to the van to make it the greatest ASTRO ever. Lets start with the ASTRO chillin' in the bushes

fuzzy dice compliments of dinner night. stuffed duck compliments of beth ditter.

jams.

the bed is made out of some closet doors i found on the side of the road. yay move out days. the rest of the stuff was made from crap in our apartment. I think in total it cost about $18 in wood and screws to make all the stuff.

T-Minus 2 Days

2009-08-20T15:43:00.008-05:00

Greetings from Kamp Kretchmar!

Today Chris and I added a hood ornament to ASTRO van.

Who needs a security system when you have jaguar protection?

Leaving Madison

2009-08-19T14:40:00.011-05:00

Ok. Blog time. Since we are moving out of Madison and doing a bunch of traveling it's the easiest way to keep you informed with what we are up to.

If you aren't up to speed here is the abridged version of our recent life.
1. Kate was accepted into a Masters program in neuroscience at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Because of this we are packing up and moving to New Zealand.
2. We purchased a teal 1994 Chevy ASTRO van.
3. We will attempt to live in said ASTRO van for 12-ish weeks. Before moving to NZ.
4. We love and will miss you all.

Here is the rough itinerary, most of it subject to the health of ASTRO van.

Aug 14 - 22: Kamp Kretchmar
Aug 22 - 27: Boundary Waters, MN
Aug 27 - 29: Drive to Denver
Aug 30 - Sep 06: Costa Rica
Sep 07 - Oct 07: In CO, drive via south & east coast to Montreal
Oct 07 - 21: Montreal Kino Kabaret
Oct 21 - 30: Montreal to Portland
Oct 30 - Mid Nov: Hang in OR, drive to Wisconsin
Mid Nov - Dec 03: In Wisconsin
Dec 05 - Jan 13: Australia comeback tour
Jan 13 - Feb 01: Arrive New Zealand, make our way to Dunedin
Mar 01: Kate starts class