Home home on the Range!

Hello everyone! Just thought we would write an update for the NZer's. We are now home, I am working for the city 5 days a week and taking an evening course 2 nights a week. Matt is in school and is keeping busy with baseball. I am also playing some football. I just thought I would post some pics of my favorite place in the world... The cottage... by the way feel free to come and visit...

The fist pic is the cottage and boat house/party room, pic 2 is me wakeboarding and pic 3 is my friend biscuiting!

SYDNEY

Sydney is a sweet city there is a lot to see and do. Kels and I are still getting used to being in a big city however since the ones in New Zeland are so small. We bought a pass that gets us on the train, bus, and farries for a week all for the low low price of 33$ not bad eh. So we've been out exploring the city, checking out the opera house and we spent most of the day at the Aquarium today.
Kels parents are coming to meet us in about 4 days so we are looking forward to that. Better pack your shorts though Beaudry's cause it is really hot here. I'll scope out the good beaches for ya!!

Australia

Well the day has come for us to set off to Aussie. We just want to say thank you to all the fabulous Kiwi's we have met on our trip who have treated us so well, it really was the highlight of our trip to meet you all. And you know who you are! We no longer have our cell phone... thank you so much for the use of it though Troy and Tracey. You can keep in touch with us through our e-mail and through this website which we will continue to update when we get home.
Our e-mails are...
Kelsey - kelsey_beau@hotmail.com
Matt - matty_o29@hotmail.com
We would love to hear from you! Keep in touch!

So here are some pictures of a dolphin cruise we took!! It was such a lovely day and we saw lots of dolphins...... oh wait no we didn't we got caught in a sudden storm 200 m from the dock. It was so bad the captain of the boat couldn't even turn around and go back!!!! There was a sail boat race going on and I don't know how some of them didn't flip. There was kids crying, people screaming on the boat and in the town there was an air raid siren going off, thats how they call for the fire department. It was all pretty nuts.

The pic of me is on saint Patty's day. Some one asked me to have a beer for them on that day and if you zoom in on the can you can see who that drink was for!

En Route

Well we are on our way to Christchurch our final destination in NZ. Then it's off to Sydney for about a week and then HOME!!! We spent the last few days in Queenstown and it snowed! Winter is coming so we are leaving!

5-4-3-2-1....BUNGY!!!

We did a sweet bungy today! I was so pumped to do it. It was so different than the sky tower jump we did. That one I was scared, the Bungy I was just excited. We didn't buy any pictures though because we got free DVDs because we were the first group of the day to go! You can check it out online at http://www.bungy.co.nz/index.php/pi_pageid/17 It was really sweet. I'm kinda bumbed out because I dindn't touch the water at the bottom because I jumped out too far and not straight down. Sweet times though.

Great Hike

We went on a sweet hike today. It took about 4 hours round trip, but it was so worth it. The bird is called a Kea. They are NZ's only parrot. They live high in the mountains and are so funny. He is pretty big so curious. He would come within 2 feet of us and throw rocks, and pic up big sticks like a dog. He hopped around more then he flew. Funny bird.

The other pic is of a glacier I think its called Rob Roy but I'm not sure. But we were so lucky going up there today. Because of all the rain we had yesterday there were over 20 waterfalls coming off the glacier!! It was by far the most stunning thing i've seen in NZ to date. The waterfalls are hard to make out on that pic but I think you can make out about 10 of them. Can't get over how nice it was.

Rock Climb

We had a sweet time rock climbing yesterday. I didn't know how pro Kels was, but she nailed a couple of really tuff walls. I had a great time. I fell a couple of times but its all good, thats what the safety equipment is for. The best part is coming down anyways.

Rainy Day

We are now in a town called Wanaka. Its about an hour north of Queenstown! Queenstown is the adrenaline capital of the world so we are going to do something crazy down there I hope. But for now we are stuck in the rain. So we are going to go indoor rock climbing this afternoon. Kels has done it before but I never have so it should be a good time!!! At least Kels and Jill will get a cheap laugh out of watching me. hahaha.

Knife Making!

The first two pics are matt and I shaping our knives. The last pic is only the knife in it's early stages, we still had lots of steps to go. We don't have pictures of the finished product so you will have to come visit us when we get home to see them!

Happy Belated BIRTHDAY Nicole!!!

Matt in Flight

Matt learnt how to fly the other day! That was neat.

Franz Josef/ Kels Bday

Kels had a wicked birthday. We spent it exploring the Franz Josef Glacier. Its one of only 3 Temperate glaciers in the world. Its next to a rain forest how weird is that? Our friend Jill even gave Kels a birthday muffin on top of the glacier. We loved the warning signs.

Knife Making

We are in Barrytown population 45. We spent the day making knives, and drinking moonshine. It was sweet all you start with is a piece of steel and some brass and wood and you make these sweet knives. Check him out online at www.barrytownknifemaking.com he says his website sucks but it may be worth checking out.
We are heading down to Franz Josef, a glacier, tomorrow. We may do a walk on the glacier or climb an ice wall we gotta see when we get there. Check out prices and see what people say about doing those things.
Kels's Birthday is on Monday so we sill have to do something cool for that.

Able Tazman

We are now in Able Tazman, national park, at the Kiteri Lodge. Our backpackers is accross the street from a golden sand beach. Not white sand but gold sand. Tomorrow we plan on getting on a water taxi getting dropped off at the northern end of the park and doing a 7 hour walk back down to our hostel. There are beaches and pools and waterfalls along the was so it should be pretty sweet.

Blenheim

Yesterday we drove to the lovely little town of Blenheim. And we did the only thing that there is to do in Blenheim... Rent some bicycles and get drunk!!!! HAHAHAH! Blenheim is actualy in the heart of the Marlbourough wine country. And we rented our bikes and rode to all the wine yards and did a tour and got some free wine tastes. There are 40 vineyards within biking distance we made it to 4 of them and then we were to hammered to go any further!! HAHAHAHA. We did however visite my mothers favorite wine maker Montana's I didn't know they were a NZ label. We had a great tour of that place and they taught us how to properly do wine tastings. Except we didn't spit the wine out like most people do.

Hobbiton

These pics are from Hobbiton. People actualy pay 85$$ to go see this place. Thank God kels and I were Filming our show at the time and got the tour for free.. or I woulda been kinda pissed. hahah. It was cool to see but the tour was so long and it really didn't have to be. The guide would point out a red post every ten feet and say something like... "see that red post?? thats where the stars would eat their meals" or "thats where the crew parked their trucks" And Kels and I were on camera so we had to act enthused. The pic taken from the hobbit hole is us with Jen and Ben they were the film crew that followed us around for 5 days. We had a blast with them.

GOOD TIMES!!

Well I couldn't help myself I had to put some more pics on tonight cause I don't know when we are going to find another comp that lets me do it. The pic on the left is the Huka river. Its the river that kels and I went swimming in later that day. At a calmer spot. The spot that we were at in the picture could fill an oplympic size pool in 3 seconds!! crazy so much water. The place we went swimming was still really blue just not so wild. scroll down to HOT SPRINGS to read more.
The other pic is Kels at the rugby game 2 nights ago. We had front row seats and our team got a tri (touchdown) with 0 seconds on the clock to put them up by 1 sweet game!! the crowd went nuts. And we got to see a fight. What a night.

Tongariro Crossing

Here are 2 pics from the 7 hour hike we did. The picture with me is taken infront of mount Doom, from lord of the rings, Right before the clouds roll in on us. Kels picture is taken about 4 hours into the walk and she is pointing at the mountain we had just hiked over. the black stuff in the valley infront of her is actually a magma field. pretty sweet eh! The walk was insane! We have so many sweet pics from it.

PICTURES!!!

finally a comp that I can use to add some pics!! these are two new sports that we've tried here. DUNE ridding and Gumboot throwing. Which is throwing a rubber boot as far as you can. Its harder than it sounds kels was pretty good I sucked. And everytime a guy dosen't throw as far as the girls winning mark they have to lose some clothes. Sweet game!!

Wellington

We have hoped off the bus tour for a couple of days and are going to be spending some time in Wellington the capital of New Zealand. It is the southern tip of the north Island. We are going to be spending our time at the 5 floor museum a very interactive and technological museum. Everyone has told us that we need to spend atleast 2 days going through there. And they have an Egyptian exhibit on right now with a 2700 year old mummy should be cool. And we are going to a Rugby game tomorrow! I can't wait! Then we are heading to the south Island on sat.

7 hour hike

Yesterday we did the #1 day hike in the world. It was deffinatly unbelieveable. The hike took 7 hours and we went up a mountain and down the otherside. We went by hot pools and gas vents and through the clouds, And right by mount Doom from the lord of the rings. A lot of the filming for Mordor was done in the park we were in. It was sweet. But we were both extreamly exhausted by the end. It was really hard to do but well worth it. The hike was called the Tongariro Crossing.

Hot springs

On Monday we were in Taupo. A sweet town on a lake surrounded by mountains and rivers. Kels and I heard about this place where a hot spring river meets up with a mountain glacier river. So we hiked down there. It was so cool. Were the hot srings came down it went into what looked like a hot tub with a waterfall behind it. And if you got too hot you could just move towards the bright blue river and cool off a bit. I loved it there.

Sweet As....

So we've been having such a good time on our bus tour. We got to go on one of the Nicest beaches by ourselves because they had closed down the walking track to film the second Narnia movie. So we took a kayak tour and they made us wait for 10min to finish filming but it was so worth a beach with just us and our tour 3 others. so so nice. Google Catherdral Cove you might get some pics. Yesterday was surfing and a sweet hostel in the bush and a Flying Fox zip line in the pitch black. I was up in time to see the sunrise on the east coast and I watched the sunset on the west coast. It was pretty sweet.
Today we spent going in caves for about 4 hours www.waitomo.co.nz such a good time tubbing underground and going through small spaces. A little freaky at times especially the rebirth Tunnel a 12 m tunnel in the pitch black with no room anywhere around up down or to the sides. We the black water rafting if you check out the web site.

Started Our Bus Tour

We started our bus tour today! Hurray!! Starting From Auckland and we are making our way down to Christchurch to fly out of NZ on March 20th. If you would like to check out our bus tour i'm sure you can find it online at www.straytravel.com the tour we are doing is called the short Moe. We are currently in the Coromandel on a beautiful White sand beach. And we will be going sea kayaking tomorrow, I can't wait. Then for the weekend we will be surfing!!! I love surfin so it'll be a sweet weekend.

In Auckland

Hi everybody
We are back in Auckland and have been staying with friends of ours, Tracey and Jason, that we met while camping in Whinanaki. They took us to a place called spookers the other night check them out at www.spookers.co.nz this place is an old assilum turned into a haunted house and I have never been so scared in my life! it was so sweet. They have a rule that you must go pee before going in just in case and they have a board for you to wright on if you do have an accident. And by the end of the night Tracey was on the board. hahaha.
Other than that we are set to start our bus tour of both islands. We start from auckland and head south till Christchurch. Then we are flying out to meet Kels parents in Australia for a week at the end of March then we will be coming home start of April.

White island

Here are some pics of White Island an active volcano. I took the pic from the helicopter! The pic of Kels and I we are wearing gas masks because of all the sulfer gas around us. The hard hats were just the style not for safety.

Back in Pahia

We are all done filming our TV show. It was a great time but i'm glad that we're done. 5 days of filming and we did a lot of sweet stuff the Helicopter ride to white island was so sweet. It was like landing on the moon. The was nothing but rock around and a lot of sulfer and gas really cool. We also got to go to the "shire" or hobbiton for the lord of the rings. It was cool but the tour could have been 15 min and I would have been satifsifed but it was over an hour and we had camaras on us so we had to act enthused the entire time. The guide would be like "do you see that red pole over there? thats where the crew parked their trucks when they showed up for work!" I was like wow that neato... and there was a lot of boring stuff like that.
But we are now staying in whangarei and have come back to Pahia for a couple of days bcause t we are travelling with a couple of german girls and they wanted to do a sky dive so they are doing that right now and then tomorrow we are going on the dune rider up to the northern tip of New Zealand. www.dunerider.co.nz if you are interested. Too bad we don't have our film crew anymore cause now we actualy have to pay for our tours.

Earthwalkers

Well we are two days into filming now and its going great. Kelsey is done filming her show and we did so much over the last 2 days. We took a tour of the Cultural grounds around us, we had a dinner at the most expensive restaurant in the town it was an old boat turned into a restaurant very nice! We went to a Maori performance of them singing and dancing it really was spectacular. And then yesterday we went on a all day cruise and went snorkeling and that kind of stuff and then at night we went to some hot springs and chilled out in them for a while. So thats Kelsey show. We are starting filming for my show today its going to be a travel day but we will be stopping along the way to do some filming. And then to the white island for the helicopter ride!!! It is a lot of work and it takes some getting used to. Our camera man/director/producer is amazing and we are having a really good time with him and his lady. They are really cool people so its nice to just hang out with them. I better get going though. The name of the show is earthwalkers check it out online at www.earthwalkerstv.com
bye for now

Big News

Ok I'm so so so excited! Kels and I saw this application to be on a TV show and I applied not thiking too much about it. Well they showed up at our hostel today and we start filming tonight! We are doing two episodes we will both be in each episode but kels is going to host the first one and I will host the second one. The first episode is us going around the bay of island. (where we are right now) doing things like cruises and dolphin watching and going to the hot springs! I can't wait. We are even going to try to work in our friend Pete's sail boat its over 120 years old and he will be teaching us how to sail on the episode. Good thing we went out last night so that we have some idea what we are doing!!! Then My episode will be us travelling down south for about 7 hours and then taking a helicopter ride to white island, an active volcano!!!!! We have to wear gas masks on the island because it stinks so bad!! But I guess I'll have to take it off to be able to speak and host the show! They said that they will mail us a copy of the show when its done so I'm beside myself. Anyways we'll be filming for the next week or so. So if I don't answer my phone thats why! bye for now.

Useless fact time

Wanna know some useless facts about New Zealand?
-The population of New Zealand is only 5 million
-There are 1 million Kiwi's over seas at any given time so there are only ever 4 million Kiwi's in New Zealand. Thats 20% over seas!
-The population of the south island is only 1 million
-A city has to have over 500 000 people that being said The entire country only Has 1 city, Auckland.
-A JAFAR is a commen term used to describe people from Auckland it means Just another Fuckin Aucklander.
-A POMER is someone from england it means Prisnor of mother england..er.
-New Zealanders feels about Australians the way Canandians feel about Americans.
All these useless facts are just things I've heard and picked up word of mouth So I hope that they are true.
Its hard to get photos on to this comp so I hope I can figure it out but it costs money to be on the comp so its a bit of a pain.
bye for now

Hostel

This is the web site of the hostel that Kels and I are staying at. http://www.saltwaterlodge.co.nz/ We stay here for free in exchange for 2.5 hours of work a day its a pretty sweet deal. We were supposed to stay at a different hostel just down the street but when we arrived the lady told us she didn't have a any beds for us and that most of the hostels are already booked so we had better hurry and find something! So she screwed us over pretty good. But we found this place and he didn't have any beds for 2 nights but he called around for us and found the last 2 beds in town! Thank god. So we are going to be here for the next 2 weeks we are way up north on the east coast. We plan on doing a day trip to the northern tip of the country were you can see the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean meet. They are different colours so I hear its pretty cool. And on the way home you drive in the ocean in like 2 feet of water on whats called 90 mile beach.

PENGUIN

this is a pic of kels with a blue penguin that we got to hold! He is 10 weeks old and almost full grown we were very lucky to get to see these penguins because they are going back to the wild next week. I have more pics to post but my time is running up on this comp.

Ok other than living in a tent for the last 2 weeks we've been pretty busy. We jumped off the sky tower in Auckland!!! http://www.skycity.co.nz/skycity/index.cfm?5FB8E87E-50BA-1DC3-65EA-F9A4845CF393 I think thats the web site if not just google skyjump. It was Crazy they take you up to the 53rd floor in a glass bottom elevator all I was thinking was holy shit what did I get myself into and then you go outside they strap you on to this giant cable the next thing you know your leaning over the edge and someone yells 3, 2, 1 go go go. and you jump off this building but you only fall 10 feet at first and then you have to look back up and pose for a pic. Its funny cause your hangin right in front of the restaurant and people are just eating and looking at you. hahaha. But then you fall the rest of the way down. It was so cool. It was really only scary untill you jump. After the jump its just fun. You fall 630 feet at 85 km/h and land on your feet! sweet eh.

This computer does not have a usb port so I can't hook up my camera too bad cause I've got a lot of sweet pics to post. Anyways Kels and I have been very busy over the last month. The Kiwis and one Aussie (You know who you are Cher) have been taking such good care of us and showing us such a good time. We met the nicest couple on Waiheke Island who took great care of us and showed us how to party like kiwi's and gave us the cell phone we have! Then we went down to a camp ground on the east coast north of Auckland. We can't thank the local campers that we met there enough. Kiwi's are by far the nicest people that you can imagine. We spent Christmas eve fishing! It was so sweet. Our neighbor Pete took us out. We got invited out to dinner every other night it was crazy anything that people had they were willing to share. Kayaks and fishing rods. Kels got to go for a waterski yesterday. People took us snorkling and showed me what I could eat right out of the ocean. Sea urchan (not bad) all these little clam things pick them up throw them on the bbq. (so good). We had a party to go to everynight and had a great time so thank you to eveyone!

Phone Us

Hello eveyone! Here is our phone number 021 206 1839 you might have to dial something before that to call us but I don't know what it is. Maybe if someone does know what it is they can post it in a comment for us. Like I said though its free for us to receive calls so we would love to hear from everyone! If you are reading this you know us enough to call us. And if you have shaw digital phone its a free call for you too because you have 1000 international min to use. But you need to keep in mind that we are 19 hours ahead of Winnipeg time so if you call at lunch its only 7 am here. the best time to call is after dinner I think. And if you call there is a bit of delay on the phone its kind of annoying but oh well. Ok can't wait to here from you all.