Hong Kongers!

What a great weekend, and interesting, too…

We woke up in Suzhou on Friday morning to the first sunshine I have seen since I got here almost a month ago, and of course, we had to high tail it to the airport to leave it… sigh! Of course when we landed in Shenzen we were welcomed by more clouds, as it’s a 2-hour flight away and south of Shanghai, so the weather and climate are completely different. Oh well…

Even though we left so early on Friday morning, there was so much time padding everywhere that it ended up being a full day of travel… We went from Suzhou to Shanghai to the airport, waited, flew, landed in Shenzen, taxied to the ferry station (and missed our ferry by 10 minutes, so had to wait for 3 more hours til the next one), waited, ferried over to Hong Kong for an hour, taxied to Kowloon, and finally at 8:30 p.m. we got to our hotel – ouch!

While waiting on our flight over from Shanghai to Shenzen, I went up to ask the gate agent if Star Alliance Gold members got to board after first class, etc. She didn’t understand me so I thus ensued in pointing to my plane ticket which had my Continental One Pass number on it, and with pantomimes and a few Chinese and English words tried to ask again, she said, “Oh, VIP?” And I nodded – “Sure, why not ?” It’s close enough being Platinum/Gold, right? What was hilarious was then before they called the plane to board, she nodded for me and Curt to come over, and we boarded the plane FIRST before anyone else in front of all of these waiting people. We were a little embarrassed, but laughed it off… we could be VIP’s after all, right? I guess with the communication barrier, the gate agent felt it was better to be safe than sorry!

In all of the traveling though, we did get to see a lot of Shenzen, the water/islands/surrounding areas, and a first glimpse of the city at night. We dropped our things off and quickly went out exploring the Kowloon side and got a late dinner at the Spaghetti House, which was delicious.

While eating and enjoying our pasta (Curt) and soup (Me) and iced tea (Both – yum!), a song came over the loud speakers that never fails to remind me of my childhood… “The Way it Is” by Bruce Hornsby… I told Curt as the piano started playing how much I loved the song and he cocked his ear up to listen, and he’s like Bruce Hornsby, huh? I didn’t even know who sang it, haha, it’s just one of those songs that when you hear it, it instantly triggers a memory, you know? I told him to close his eyes as I began…

Dad is driving the brown BMW, Mom in the front seat, me behind Dad, and Kendyl (so small) on my right... I’m thinking I may have been 5 or 6, and Kendyl 2 or 3? We were on some sort of road trip, and it was morning, and all I could see for miles was yellow brown fields of high grass. Dad had turned it up a little, and it was just… peaceful. Maybe that’s why I remember it… usually I’m sure Kendyl and I were playing games, or talking, fighting, or something, but I just remember looking and all four of us were just silent, looking out the windows listening to the music… and I was happy.

As I described the scene to Curt (he had opened his eyes by now), I started to get choked up. He was half laughing and was like, “why are you crying?” And I blubbered out that I just hoped that someday when we have kids they’ll have such happy memories of our family like I have, and that they’ll love us as much as I love my parents (I’m totally crying right now again, and have the song on in the background as I write this… Mom, Dad, I love you, and you gave me and Kendyl the best childhood memories ever – even the simple ones… thanks).

After I composed myself – they were happy tears, so it didn’t take too long to recover – we went out on the city again and walked the city until maybe 11 p.m. or so. Hong Kong is another city that never sleeps, as it was still packed when we were heading in! The lights were so bright and blinding, and it was almost overwhelming. We went down by the water and walked along looking out at Hong Kong (we were on the Kowloon side), and just had fun checking things out. We even saw Jackie Chan’s star on the Walk of Fame and the statue of Bruce Lee – pretty cool, I have to say.



The next day, we slept in a little and got on our way to Stanley Market before lunch. We had to catch the Star Ferry to go to the Hong Kong side to catch our bus, and as we were approaching I saw the “Boarding” light flashing and some Chinese people started running, so I shouted at Curt to hurry with paying for our tokens and we started running, too. Down the ramp, and then the gate started to automatically close just before we got there, so we slipped in laughing as I had squealed a little in surprise when the gate and I almost collided! The people behind us didn’t make it, and I said, “When you see Chinese people running, you should be too,” which Curt seemed to think was hilarious (and true) so it became one of our quotes for the weekend.

Curt told me we didn’t really need to rush so much for the Star Ferry though because one runs almost every 10 minutes, but after Friday where missing our ferry had meant *3 hours of waiting* in a dark and dingy terminal, I didn’t pause to go for it as I didn’t know, LOL.



Once on the HK side, we had to catch a bus that took about an hour and 15 minutes to get to Stanley Market. It was actually really nice! Since we caught the bus at the bus station, we were the first ones on and sat in the front row on the second deck of the double decker bus, so I felt like it was kind of like a tour!

Driving along the coastline and seeing the islands and mountains was really cool. After a great – and sometimes crazy trip (the bus driver was much like the one of the Knight Bus in Harry Potter; he definitely did not know my family’s phrase of “Don’t sling the beans!”) – we arrived at Stanley Market.

We did some shopping at first to look around, and then went over to the Pickled Pelican for a lovely lunch overlooking the water. I know the point of traveling abroad is to take in the sights and sounds of the culture you’re in, but honestly, what was so refreshing about this day was how Western it all was… There were foreigners everywhere – little kids playing on scooters as their parents ate lunch, and people out walking their dogs. And they weren’t tourists, like we were – it must be where a lot of the expats in Hong Kong reside, because we hardly felt like we were in Asia! And yes, it was nice… we were in heaven as I sipped my cider and Curt his Guinness – splitting a burger and a club sandwich.



And wouldn’t you know it – what song starts playing to polish the perfect moment off? “Time to Say Goodbye” by Andrea Bocelli. Sigh… Curt and I both noticed it immediately and he glanced over at me to see my reaction… we chatted about Vegas, and Pap, and then he said, “Don’t cry” not two seconds before the tears started to come again as he laughed gently at me saying, “Gosh, I so know you!” To which I couldn’t help but laugh through the tears, too… What is it about HK and crying over meals, anyway?! This time was a little more bittersweet, but I take these moments as a “Hello, I’m here” type sign from Him, so I got it out, and we went on with lunch – all the more perfect for the unexpected visit.

Afterwards it was getting a little chillier outside, so we hurried down to the pier to snap a few photos, and then back to the shelter of the market stalls to do a little more shopping and browsing. We ended up buying A yellow reflector vest for Maverick for him to wear out on the ranch (lest he be mistaken for a deer – he is the right color and size), a dress for me, and these AWESOME heating pads that use some sort of chemical reaction! They last for about an hour, and then you boil them to return them to their first state, and you can use them as cold packs, too! I can’t wait to try one – we bought the 4-pack for roughly $12.



We hung out walking some more, and as it was getting late and we had other plans for the evening back in HK, we decided to go ahead and go find our bus. We lucked out again and got the first row on the double decker, and knowing when some things were coming up, I got to snap a few shots of what we were seeing (even though it was a little maddening trying to get the shots because of the trees and mountains constantly getting in the way)!



After we got back and cleaned up, we got on our way to go catch the Star Ferry again so we could go up to the top the mountain behind Hong Kong to view the lights. There is a tramway there that is pretty historic – built over 100 years ago to help take western tourists and expats up the mountain, to ease the poor Chinese from carting them up individually by sedan just for picnics, LOL. It seems very British to me (not in a bad way, you can just totally see it, I mean), and reading about the history as we were waiting in line for about an hour was really fun.

The tram ride itself was impressive, and Curt had prepared me for a roller coaster ride, which in some ways, it is! It is a pretty heavy little thing, and carting up 70ish people at a time, it moves FAST, and what’s more, it goes literally STRAIGHT UP THE MOUNTAIN! Forget switchbacks and hairpin turns snaking upwards – I guess that wasn’t in the budget. Literally your head gets heavy from holding it up, LOL! The scenery was amazing, and all I kept thinking was how in the world did people carry sedans (with people in them) up this mountain side? Holy smokes!



We were pretty hungry by the time we got to the top, and had a few moments of indecision… I wanted to go see the sky as daylight was beginning to fade, but I guess Curt’s stomach was doing the talking for him and he ushered me into the first non-Chinese restaurant we saw which was Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. I was kind of like, “huh?” because I had in my mind we were going to eat this slow, romantic meal by candlelight, and I wanted to go take pictures. Well, miscommunication I guess, and we were seated…

I was still puzzled and Curt noticed, so he asked if I wanted to leave? I said no, it didn’t matter too much but I was kind of pouty for a few minutes… UNTIL I reminded myself how lucky I was to even be in Hong Kong in the first place, um, hello Tasha! LOL! Dinner was delicious, too… I got some salmon that I have been seriously craving, AND one of the best desserts of my life… “That Chocolate Thing.” Basically a flourless chocolate cake in a Ball jar, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and covered with whip cream, drizzled with raspberry sauce. Oh. My. God. This is my personal heaven.



I scooped off the ice cream for Curt, and quickly dove in to the warm and gooey cake… flourless chocolate cake is really more like warm cake batter, which makes me love it all the more. And oh my goodness gracious it was so good, I could have died right there and been happy. I wasn’t able to finish it, which was a true shame, (after only one bite Curt said it was way too rich for him so he just ate the ice cream) but it really made my night… all that would have made it better was my baby sister to make a vicious scene with me if we could have devoured it together (you should see the two of us eat a chocolate molten at Chili’s – it’s a little gross, haha)! So I ended up being very pleased by our restaurant choice, after all it is only the dessert that REALLY matters, right? At least for me…



Then we finished out the night on the Sky Terrace, enjoying the city lights and after awhile, the HK light show. We were too high up to hear the music that the lights are choreographed to, but it didn’t matter… it was a blast. I told Curt that I was a little happy about dinner even though he kept feeling a little bad about it... I told him I was glad (truly!) that I'm glad he's not a smooth operator 100% of the time - the whole thing made me laugh and just glad that he's real, and he's mine. Afterwards we wandered about, then caught the tram back down the mountain (just as crazy sliding steeply down, and my head was even heavier this time)!



The next day was laid back – a travel day as we had to get back to Shenzen, so we piddled around walking the streets in the morning, grabbed some lunch, and started to make the logistically complicated way back to mainland China.



When we got to Shenzen we settled into our hotel there (more like a 3 bedroom apartment – nice!), and went out wandering to find a movie theater in hopes there was a movie playing in English. We were in luck! Clash of the Titans was playing, so we wandered the shopping mall until it started, were assigned our seats (yep, assigned – you pick your seats when you buy your tickets like a concert), and issued our 3D glasses.

The movie was subtitled in Chinese – and here’s a random question… Shenzen speaks Cantonese, which I didn’t realize at all until we had been trying to communicate unsuccessfully in Mandarin and English that we wanted to know if any of the foreign movies were actually in English, because sometimes they’re dubbed over with another language, etc., but the movie was subtitled in Chinese for obvious reasons. So, if Mandarin and Cantonese are so different, is the written language the same? Hmm…

Anyway, it was a little annoying because the Chinese people kept going in and out all during the movie, and were talking incessantly. I tried not to be too annoyed, though, as I was sure the talking was due to people translating for their peers, etc., haha, and was really just thankful that we got to see a movie at all… I really miss my Netflix and movie theaters, so it was a special night!

The next day Curt had his training in the morning, and when he was finished we went out to lunch with all of his work friends that had also flown in. Then back to the airport, where I napped for an hour and a half like a ragamuffin homeless person on a bench, LOL. Once we were on the plane, we were then delayed for an hour – Chinese airlines always are delayed somehow, I’m not being dramatic. Literally the entire time we were waiting the announcements of all the delays were literally back to back… I can still here that woman’s automated Chinese accent English speaking voice: “…. Due to….”! What fun, though… it’s these times when I am so thankful for Curt, but not in the way that you might think... You know it’s something special when a day of basically full travel, which is miserable for the most part, is actually fun because of the person you’re with.

Then safely home, which strangely enough was a relief. We still miss our place back at Horizon, but our new place at the Crowne has become home now as well. It’s a little strange in fact, how easily and quickly that happens! It was a great weekend, though, and we saw a lot… Hong Kong is a wonderful and bustling city. We kept saying how cool it would have been to be assigned there, but after spending time in another Chinese city (Shenzen) which is not as nice as Suzhou, and where we had a lot more difficulty because almost NO ONE spoke a word of English, we’re really thankful to be where we are! In fact, I’m starting to get sad about leaving soon…

A Day In the Life (or Two)

Sometimes people ask me what it is I do over here while Curt’s at work, so here’s a good sampling from the last couple of days.

Yesterday: Wake up as Curt is leaving for work.

Make oatmeal, or if I’m feeling like a treat, fix myself some Lucky Charms. Lucky Charms are a treat (read: to be rationed) because it’s expensive here and you can hardly ever find it. Our market here got a shipment in last week and Curt and I spent $100 US dollars on the 8 boxes – every box they had – and they are small boxes at that… When you’re here and missing things from home, it’s worth it. Yesterday was a Lucky Charms day – it was raining… again. :-/

Chat with family and friends from home online (thank the Lord for the internet).

Depending on what I have going on for the day, here I either work out or shower. Yesterday, I showered because I had lunch with friends!

Usually though, I just make my own lunch – usually leftovers, or something like PB&J or mac and cheese, or Chef Boyardee (things that I likely brought from home).

Before my lunch outing, though, Han took me to go pick up my new cashmere coat, and not a moment too soon, the rain was turning into sleet so my hooded coat came in handy!




Lunch with friends was great. We went to a Tibetan restaurant and ordered WAY too much food… it ended up costing about $7 US dollars per person and we were stuffed!




The afternoon is usually for errands, or working out, or if it’s gross outside, maybe a movie or a book. Yesterday after lunch me and my friends went to the Flea Market to kill a couple of hours and did some exploring. It was indoor, which was great because it was sleeting, and still freezing inside because there is no heat… the weather has been crazy. At the flea market you can buy pretty much anything you could ever imagine. My purchases included two pairs of earrings, totaling about $7, so not too bad! Definitely a place to remember though, in case I should need... anything!

By the time we were finished, I still had time to run to the Pearl Market to get some jewelry to send to family back home.



Then I made dinner, we enjoyed the fountain and firework show from our living room, and settled in to watch a movie, and then reading before bed.




Today: Wake up when Curt’s about to leave.

Eat oatmeal for breakfast while I talked to Mom and Aunt Whitni.

Got some work done around the “house.”

Packed a little for Hong Kong this weekend!

Showered up, got some more work done, made chicken nuggets and leftover mac and cheese for lunch.

Met Lisa downstairs so we could go get rings made near Pet Street for our Sea Pearls! I brought some “old” gold from home, and am having a custom ring made here… wax mold should be ready in 4 days, woohoo!

When we were finished with “Jimmy,” Lisa showed me Pet Street, which was… interesting. Not as horrible as I imagined, actually, so that’s good, but I still found myself praying for the poor animals as I passed by stalls. Some of the dogs didn’t look too healthy, and I think I noticed a Rottie with kennel cough… some of the dogs are beautiful, though, and I’m hoping all of the animals will find good homes. The good thing is that the Chinese seem to adore their pets, so just hoping they aren’t in the shops for too long…







Then we bought some flowers, and some fish for her kids’ tank on the street over. The flowers were so pretty! The Chinese definitely do have some green thumbs!



Then, back in where we live (everything here is spread out, so to get to each place is usually 20+ minutes), she dropped me off so I could go get a massage! I usually get one per week, and it’s heaven… bliss, even. Sigh! Afterwards, I walked home... even though it's cold (in the 40s), it was strangely clear outside, and it was nice to see things without looking through haze. (Below picture is our old home, Horizon on the left, and our new home, the Crowne, on the right).



Then home, and quickly got ready for a company dinner at a local hot pot restaurant, where we spent our evening with Curt’s coworkers.

Then finished up packing as we leave for Hong Kong in the morning, and now writing this post!

All in all, I can keep myself “busy” here, but of course my definition of “busy” here is different than my definition of “busy” at home. Everything is relative! And yes, as good as it sounds here, remember the grass is always greener! :-)

My Newest Obsession: Outlander

Disclaimer: Below I will be discussing a couple of passions of mine, which are books and reading. If neither interest you, then this post most likely won’t either!

So… I am ready to take the first step and acknowledge that I am addicted. It has been an admission I have known would have to take place, but I’ve put it off to see if it would abate, but it hasn’t, so confess I must!

I have found my new favorite book – Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. It’s also part of a series, but I am desperately trying to slow down my reading – no, devouring – of these books. Until I’ve read the whole series, though, I have to wait and pass judgment and see if in fact it will also become my new favorite series, unseating Clan of the Cave Bear et al which has reigned for the last 12 or 13 years.

What’s more, is I feel it was *serendipity* that I even happened upon these books, and looking back, I wonder how it is that I could have even missed them? It gives me hope that there is still much out there that is still to be read and loved, in a time when I was getting tired of browsing shelf after shelf waiting to be grabbed and settling for mediocrity because I just love to read that much.



But, divine providence intervened while we were on our ski trip in Steamboat… Kendyl and I had just finished some amazing chocolate from the chocolate shop in one bookstore, and while walking through flakes as big as quarters, happened upon another book shop on Main Street. I popped in before Kendyl could protest, and started browsing titles again, for the second time in the afternoon, noting that both shops had similar books on display – some of which I’ve already read, and some that I may read later, but wasn’t in the mood for at the moment.

As I was walking through to the back area, a local girl was chatting with the guy behind the counter, also a local I presume as it seems like they knew each other, and she was talking about how she had just finished the Twilight series and how much she had loved it, despite that it was written for Young Adults (agreed – don’t we all love it? I sure do!). Since the girl seemed to share similar taste with me, I eavesdropped some more and lingered at one of the bookshelves, pretending to find something interesting there, whilst listening in.

She was going on and then said something to the effect of, “It was the same for me and the Outlander series,” to which my ears pricked… I’d never heard of it, but she mentioned it as if it were common knowledge, as I imagine it was to the guy who worked at a bookshop. He agreed heartily, and I tried to rewind the conversation to remember who she had said it was by but all I could remember was “Diana.”

I made my way back to the fiction section, and just when I found another Outlander book, not by a Diana, and not part of a series, and thought about giving up, I spied it on the very bottom shelf, along with other titles by the same woman which I assumed were other books in the series. I opened the cover to find that there were seven titles listed there – seven, yes! – and then quickly read the back. Historical fiction (my favorite), Romance (a requirement), Action, and a little Sci Fi… perfect!

I looked again to try and determine the order, and picked out the first three… I went to check out, and as the guy looked he struck up a conversation that I must have heard the previous conversation. I admitted I had, and as he was looking he said, “Oh wait, these aren’t the books I thought she was talking about… I thought she was talking about the series with the cave people….” And I finished for him, “The Clan of the Cave Bear?” and he smiled and said, “Yeah, that’s the one… I haven’t read these.” I just smiled back, practically giddy, and happily paid… books in bulk are expensive, but all I have to do is remember how expensive they are in Australia, and then I don’t mind so much, haha (See Previous Post). As a side note, I do, however, try to shop at used bookstores, and take books that I don’t have to have on my bookshelf in for trade.


Kendyl started laughing at me as we left the store claiming I was skipping, and truth be told, I probably was. I clutched the bag wrapped tight so as not to get the books wet with the falling snowflakes, and set them on the nightstand in the condo (in order) as soon as we got back so that I could admire them for awhile before I began.

I managed to wait a day… why you ask? Because it really has been appalling how fast I’ve been going through books, so I have to put measures in place to draw out the whole process. Lately it’s been a book a day, or two days at the most if I’m busy… but busy usually doesn’t even enter into the equation, because regardless of what I have to do in the day, I will find time in the evening, and stay up until the wee hours of the morning if the book is worth it.

Not even at the end of the first chapter did I know that I would love this book… and love it I did. 600+ pages and a day and a half later, I was sighing as I closed the book. I half scolded myself (we were home from the ski trip now), and vowed I would make myself go slower for the second book – only one chapter a night! Well… that was too hard, so I’d usually settle for two or three, and on two nights there was no great stopping point, so I read until 1 a.m. (but not a minute later!), but I managed to draw it out for a week, at least. At that point, I had another week until I had to leave for China and said I wouldn’t start the 3rd until I was on the plane on my way, so in the meantime I collected the rest of the books in paperback (3 more, the 7th is in hardback at the moment). I was dying with the wait, so I decided to read the first, Outlander, again. Just as great the second time.

Then it was time for me to go, and I was so excited when I finally cracked open that book… you’ll laugh, but I even packed all of the other 5 books in my carry on (heavy), but I wouldn’t risk them being manhandled if TSA opened my luggage, and since they were my prize possessions, at least for this trip, then they were coming with me.

By the time we were an hour outside of China, and even with my breaks to eat the 7 meals they offer in Business First (YEA!), and a movie, and a nap, I finished it… and it was glorious. The flight attendant even exclaimed as I was within 30 pages to the end that she couldn’t believe I had finished the book, in what I calculate to be about 6-7 hours… yes, they are that good. And the third book is just jam packed with action, I felt almost stressed with having to turn the pages to see what would come next!



I haven’t started the 4th book yet, but instead have started over again… I’m in the middle of the 2nd book again, which is set mostly in France, whereas the first is mostly in Scotland, and because I know what happens later, I find myself hesitating to read it as fast anyway… as if the heartbreak can be delayed by the pace at which I read it.

What I love about these books is that I’m learning so much about a time and period I haven’t studied before. I have read a ton on England and Wales from the 1200’s to the present (my current favorite book is Falls the Shadow by Sharon K. Penman – I love it so much), learning about the monarchies and goings on of the time, but thus far had not known hardly anything about Scotland. Well, other than what I knew from Braveheart and the over-lappings with their history with England’s, that is. It has been fascinating, and as I was telling Curt, truly the measure of a good book when you find yourself constantly on Wikipedia trying to learn more of the history behind the story so as to be a more educated reader of a fictional book.

What’s even more fascinating, is the author, Diana Gabaldon, is an American raised in the southwest, who is educated in science (zoology and marine biology) and nothing even close to any of the topics she writes so vividly about! It takes her 2.5 years to write one of these books, and from what I gather, promises there will be an 8th… thank goodness. I haven’t felt this kind of anticipation since Harry Potter. And as these books are older (starting in the early 90’s), again I have to wonder how I would have missed them? It makes me think I need to join a historical fiction book club or something to stay on top of this stuff…

So there it is… obsessed. I also have to admit that after falling in love with Jamie Fraser (the main character, and don’t worry, Curt knows and is ok with it because he is fictional) I also did what apparently thousands of other women who feel similarly have done, and as I started to Google the book, etc., stumbled upon literary bloggers and even people who have made YouTube videos starring people they think should be cast if they are to be made into a movie. Some are cheesy, but others are pretty good (surprisingly? Or maybe not – I had no idea the whole video and picture movie and book montage creation existed on YouTube, but why wouldn’t it)?




My favorite casts Gerard Butler as Jamie, which while Jamie doesn’t look quite like Gerard in my mind, I can’t say I can think of anyone better to play him, either? It’s called ”Gerard Butler as Jamie Fraser” set to Scarborough Fair by Celtic Woman (that song gives me goosebumps as it is), if you want to look it up! Others have Gerard and Rachel Weisz paired together, and those are also good, too, haha. (I'm not going to post the link because I don't want to be responsible for cast-typing a character if you go on to read the book - you should picture them as your mind paints them, but you can search for it easily if you like. I still also love Henry Cavill, but I’m not sure he could pass for Jamie and/or a Scot… maybe he can be another character instead, though, if they end up making the movie?



So there it is… yes, as you can tell, obsessed. I admit it, and I’m even ok with it. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading, I know it was long, but I just had to tell someone!

Spring in My Step

I know it's been awhile and now that I've finally gotten to it, hopefully it won't seem as daunting and I'll write again much sooner!

So... back in China (as you can guess, I always do a *much* better job at writing here), and it's chilly! As I mentioned in my post before, I had two gorgeous coats made, and left the white one at home, and then after reading Ashley's comment, I decided to gift the charcoal gray one to her for her birthday! It was hard (I love you, Ashley, and I think it will look so great on you, I can't wait to see it), but ultimately I was reminded of a Bible verse that says something to the effect of "if you have two of something, you should give one away, or better yet, give them both away." So... being a little selfish, I gave one away, and she couldn't be more deserving.

But problem - I didn't pack NEARLY enough warm clothes for this trip back to China. On the last trip home, I pretty much took everything as we weren't sure if I'd be coming back or not, but I did, so I just packed two weeks worth of warm clothes... why you ask? Because I remember that this time LAST year in China, I was wearing short dresses and shorts, with maybe jeans in the evenings. Yep... nope, it's cold here still. So far I've been supplementing my wardrobe with Curt's sweaters and coats, which he seems to find cute, haha, but I had to go and buy myself another coat. Sigh... This one's black, but basically the same as the charcoal one, but I'm guessing it's going to get a fair amount of use out of it if the weather keeps up! This is the last one!!!

I also finally picked up my finished dress from wedding street - now I just need a place to wear it - and next week am hoping to take my sea pearl and old gold I brought back with me to the jeweler to make a custom ring. So that's the China update!



Now for looking back... My family and I went on a GREAT ski trip while I was home to Steamboat. Every year we talk about when we're going to finally break down and buy a property up there since we've been going there for 26 years, and I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, next year might be the year we start to seriously look which is so exciting! Mom always talks to realtors, and in past years has even taken off some ski time to go look at some bargains, but we're going to hold out a little longer and see what the market does.



Weather wise, it was a weird spring skiing week though. We had some great sunshine days (normal), and then we had some crazy, creepy fog, too! On that day, you couldn't see more than 12 feet in front of you, and what was weird is that it wasn't snowing, or anything, and no one was on the mountain at ALL. It was just me and Dad that afternoon, and I had him skiing in front of me as he wears red and black (and I wear off white and black, so was nervous about blending in too much), and I was practically on top of him to keep him in my sights.



There were runs that we've skiied literally thousands of times and could almost do with our eyes closed that looked SO different under this blanket of fog. We stopped frequently, and at one point Dad said, "I don't think we're on Tomahawk anymore." I scoffed, thinking where else could we be, but a small shiver of fear ran up my spine as I remembered one of my favorite shows, "I shouldn't be alive," and an episode where two skiers get lost in similar conditions for 10 days! Yikes!

It was just eerie. You could hear the lift somewhere in the distance, but couldn't see it until you were right up on it, and on the lifts, you could hardly see the outline of the chair in front of you, and only then because you KNEW it had to be there. When the chairs coming towards you would suddenly roll through towards you, it was like I was waiting for a dead body to be on one or something because it looked too much like a scary movie! So needless to say, we didn't stay out too long on this day, LOL. My imagination can get a little too wild (and I watch too many - and love - scary movies). All in all, though, the trip was amazing and I can't wait for next March!



While home I also hung out with Maverick, whose scars are healing so well - what a relief that that's all over with! He's back to his normal self and hopefully cancer free. When I would do whatever on the computer, he'd usually come and lay at my feet and acted as a pretty solid (and warm) footrest, and I have to say I'm missing him a lot over here.... Curt and I were talking last night that probably our whole China experience would have been different if we didn't have him as I wouldn't be traveling back and forth so much, and worrying about his situation and having to depend on my family (thank you again Mom, Dad, and Kendyl - lifesavers you are) and feel so indebted, but he's worth it we both decided, and he's ours til the end, so there's no sense in what-iffing anyway. If only Suzhou allowed Great Danes... :-(



We also celebrated Kendyl's birthday early since I was leaving on the 31st, which was nice of her. I hated to miss it, but we had an amazing family dinner out at Benihana, one of her favorite restaurants, with some GREAT cookie cake after (her favorite, which between the four of us, or really three of us with Dad, Ken, and me, we devoured in less than 2 days.... we love cookies)! Happy Birthday, sweetie... sorry I missed it but thanks for letting us celebrate early :-(



On a cheerier note, Curt and I get to go to Singapore later this month, which I'm so excited about! Curt has a meeting there, and for the first time, I'll be tagging along as the lucky wife who gets to go with her husband on a business trip! What luck! We're also looking into a weekend in Japan, and if we can pull both of these off in the next month-ish, I would wipe out all of my top-priority destinations that I had in my mind of visiting during this experience for us! So blessed...

And speaking of blessed, we spent our second Easter here last weekend. It started out a little crazy as we had found out the church service time, but weren't exactly sure where we were going as they built a new church and were holding it's very first service that Sunday morning. We should have scouted it out beforehand, but like I said, it's been really cold and our only weekend transportation is Curt's motorcyle (with sidecar).

We left in what we thought was good time to get there, knowing the general area, but 45 minutes later, with me freezing on Curt's back because the side car was too cold (picture Dumb and Dumber here, people), and almost 20 minutes LATE (so yes, I was annoyed - I mean, it's Easter, come on, lol), we pull up to church. My hair was a rat's nest, but all of that simply floated away as we walked up to a beautiful church... a REAL church! And it was PACKED! As we bustled inside, we saw rooms that were brimming with people, standing room only, to view the monitors. An American saw us and we asked what was going on and he said the sanctuary was too full, so these were the overflow rooms. Turns out that since the service was almost 2 hours, we didn't miss too much either... whew!

Since I'm not much of an overflow room kind of girl, we went to the sanctuary (we came to church and I wanted to SEE church), but lucked out when some people we were standing near left for whatever reason! As we were standing there, though, I was totally shocked to see a sanctuary that probably seats 1500-2000 people again, at standing room only. I have to say I was also a little confused because it just blew my expectations away. Number 1, we're in China, remember? And Number 2, over half of the people in there were local Chinese people. The Westerners had an amazing showing, have no doubt, but I guess I was expecting less Chinese people in general because last I checked, religion is frowned upon pretty heavily (to say the least).

I whispered such a thought to Curt (I mean, we're only allowed one Bible here!), and he whispered back a quote that one of his Chinese workers told him at some point... "In China, anything is possible, and in China, anything is impossible." Basically meaning that the government can do whatever it wants, and anything can be achieved for a price... so who knows? I'm not going to ask questions, but I did find it interesting that at one point in the service the Reverend did thank the government for their generosity in allowing "this" to come to be...



The service was held in Chinese and English - alternating in which one was said first to then be translated. There was also hymn singing in Chinese, and even the Lord's Prayer, also said in Chinese (and the Chinese knew it?!), while we and other westerners muddied up the synchronization with the English version. We just tried to soak it all in, to be honest... and though we were shocked by how bizarre it was, we could also see how miraculous it was that Jesus is here, and not in hiding?



It was amazing... afterwards we made our way to the Renaissance for a lovely brunch - thank goodness the Western hotels try to bring a piece of home to us, it makes such a difference. After we ate I got to hold baby bunnies, and watch the little kids hunt around the lobby for Easter eggs with the Easter bunny, and it was a good Easter.



Later that weekend I cut Curt's hair, and if I do say so myself, I did a rockin' job compared to last time which ended in a buzz cut :-), and then sadly Curt got food poisoning and was down for the count for about 3-4 days. It was rough... I've never seen the poor guy sick as often as he has been here... living in China is *definitely* hazardous to your health!



Other than that, nothing too exciting! I find myself missing the movie theater... here all that's playing is Alice in Wonderland, and that one's always been a little too trippy for my tastes. What about some "How to Train your Dragon" or "Last Song" here (I'm obsessed with that song, by the way) Anyway, hope everyone is well and I promise to write again soon so it won't be as long next time, haha!

Yummy Cashmere Coats!

Hold me back - I've found an obsession that if I'm not careful, could take permanent hold... cashmere coats! I already love coats, which is unfortunate as my home state is the great state of Texas and I don't have endless opportunities to wear them, but just the same, I could spend more money on coats then handbags, shoes, and clothes combined.

One great thing about living in China is you can get clothes custom made to fit you for pennies on the dollar, in the material of your choosing. This includes beautiful coats made out of cashmere. Over the summer girlfriends here showed me the place everyone goes to get them made, so before we left on our trip, I stopped in to do just that.

I gave them my measurements (they take about 20, not just 4), picked out my winter white cashmere fabric, said yes to a belt, double breasted, and the button cuffs, and was told it would be ready after the New Year. We went back earlier this week when we got home, and I was so excited when I got to try on this:

My new coat... I'm in love. I'm not going to wear it for one second here in China, though - it's way too beautiful and it's too polluted, grimy, smelly, and gross here. Which left me with a problem - I didn't bring enough cold weather clothes, and in the meantime while getting this coat made, I was wishing I had a darker color one with a hood that would be more casual that I could wear more often.

Lucky for me, there was a coat that fit this description in the shop - charcoal gray, beautiful hood, and just my size except it needed to be taken in slightly at the waist. No problem, they did it in a day, so now I'm the proud owner of two luxuriously soft, cashmere coats.

I already wore the gray one out last night with our friends for a great hot pot dinner!

So exciting! Between these two, and my old favorite long red wool one, I promised Curt I shouldn't need another for quite awhile :-)! Thank goodness anyway for doting husbands, I love him!

They even have great inside pockets in the lining! I find myself trying to think of another coat that I need like this, but really I don't... unless I could make the argument for brown? LOL, probably not... but it's so hard not to when they're so gosh darn cheap compared to what you'd buy them for at home!

Observations from the Land Down Under

While we were on our trip, Curt and I made a few fun observations on Australia and how they are (in a great way) different and unique!

First of all, everyone always hears how friendly Aussies are, and it’s true – we found it to be so refreshing not only to be in a Western country, but any time we needed ANY help, we hardly even had to look around before it was offered readily and with a friendly smile. Felt like home!

Certain things are expensive… on the whole, you’re going to spend a lot of money on vacation so we try to cut corners where we can. In Oz, a lot of items are expensive, but then other things that you think would be, aren’t so much? It’s a mixed bag and you never know what you’re going to get when going to pay… for example, bottled water is expensive, so we tried to get tap wherever we could (duh, you say, but it’s not available everywhere, and when it’s not, expect to pay $4 for a bottle – yikes)!

The HARDEST expense that I had to swallow was in one of the many airports we were in… I brought two books with me, and I finished one of them on the plane ride down, and I couldn’t bear starting the other one and then be left without a book SO early in our trip.

So I browsed the airport book store, spent a lot of time finding just the right book, and was so excited when I found a great historical fiction about Australia’s women prisoners! For the first time, I flip the book over to see how much it is (it was a paperback, mind you), and my knees almost buckled in shock when I saw it was $32 Australian dollars!!! I couldn’t believe it, so I quickly started checking other paperbacks, and sure enough, all of them ranged from $29 to $35 (books that would cost MAYBE $14.99 at home).

The small junky paperbacks that you can get at home for $7.99 cost $20. I was SHOCKED, and curiously went up to the counter to ask the guy why books are so expensive. I was thinking maybe because they have to import them, or maybe because we were in the airport they charged more, but both were wrong… first he looked at me like I was crazy until I explained that the price was over double of what you could get a book for in the states, and then the other guy working chimed in and he said he’s pretty sure it’s because they print all of the books on the island, so maybe they don’t have the economies of scale… whatever the reason, I was heartbroken.

Curt had given me $25, and I went back to him and said it wasn’t enough… he could tell my heart had been set on this book, so he gave me the difference, and we joked that I could only read a chapter a day to make it last, and when we get home I have to frame it in a shadow box as the most expensive paperback I’ll ever own.

Seriously, if you know me, you know I can drop more money on books than clothes, shoes, purses, etc. combined, and I constantly have to find books in our library to sell to the used bookstore because when we moved we were VERY out of room for all of our shelves, so there’s one reason why I can’t ever live in Australia for a long period of time – we’d be BROKE!

This is also why I think book exchanges at hotels/traveler’s places are really the coolest thing in the world – before we left I traded the first book I had read (it was hard to let it go) for another great one. Whew!

Another unique thing about Australia, and these are things I’m not a fan of, are there are CCTV cameras literally EVERYWHERE, and they seem to fine people for EVERYTHING.

At any given point in Oz you can stop, pause, take a look around, and probably count at least 5 to 8 CCTV cameras in your immediate area. To give an idea, one takeaway food restaurant counter had them placed between every light fixture, for a total of 4…. For a sandwich place, people, please. I got used to this somewhat when in London, but in Australia it was even more so to the extent of overkill. We were never sure if this is more of a preventive measure, like a Big Brother “we’re watching you” type tactic, or a tactic to make people feel safer and they don’t really ever to utilize them. Either way it creeped me out a bit – I mean, they took away everyone’s guns already, why exactly do they need 8 cameras on you at all times, in every place except your toilet stall?

And the fines – they have signs posted everywhere that you’re fined for X or Y, and for how much. On the flip side, because they do seem to fine for such a wide range of violations, I think this is how Australia paid off their deficit in 10 years, but still. Don’t even look at someone cross-eyed or you could get slapped with a fine that far outweighs the act (in my opinion) – like if you forget you have an apple in your bag coming through customs, they could get you for a few thousand dollars.

On to more fun things, Aussies love their tattoos, and they seem to love to show them off. Culturally, I’m not sure where this comes from… while in NZ we learned about the Maori and their tattoos, but on the whole we didn’t find Kiwis to be more decorated than their Australian counterparts, and since Maori are the New Zealand indigenous people, and Aborigines Australians, that doesn’t fit. On the whole Australians are more lewd, crude, and open about certain topics as well (not the point of being offensive, just to the point where you notice it because initially you’re shocked that “x” can be said on the radio, TV, or overheard in public), and I wonder how much of this is a throwback to Australia’s beginnings as a convict state.

I learned a lot in the book I read about Australia’s beginnings, and if people had to be a bit rougher to make it here, then it makes sense that you might see some of that in today’s society, I guess?

Their fashion taste is a bit different from ours as well – not in a bad way, like “I would never wear that,” but for women, more in the pairings of things together that I really would not think of because I haven’t seen it before… it was interesting and Curt and I had fun picking out some of the more “out there” styles!

We spent roughly the same amount of time in New Zealand, and our two observations from there are one, they seem to like to be naked and are very open about it… not in the nude beaches and colonies sort of way, because we didn’t see any of that, but I first noticed it with the Air New Zealand safety briefing (which I LOVE), but also in play posters, billboards, etc. Nothing was ever SHOWED but the suggestion seems to be prevalent, which is curious.

The second observation was how the Maori people play heavily into their culture, which we both liked. Certainly it is evident that there have been problems and obstacles with the assimilation efforts and people have differing opinions, but on the whole their culture is not only accepted, it has been adopted in some ways as their own. The Maori people actually have *support* for sustaining their culture, which in no way detracts from the other and the two seem to coexist harmoniously enough. I found myself wishing it had been more like that for our own Native Americans in our nation’s history, but maybe lessons from them could be used for us still today going forward.

So those are some observations from our short time there. I disclaim they are strictly the observations and opinions of what WE observed and took note of, so obviously we could be off base, but it’s what we saw from the time we were there.

But we loved every minute of it, and can’t wait to go back and spend some more time to learn more about both of these amazing and interesting countries...

And yes, this is what I think about. Take note of something, and then ask why and ponder the question... it makes life fun!

Trying to fill in some pictures...

Take a look back at this trip's posts as I've tried to insert some pictures in... more to come when we get back to China!

We're in the airport now, just about to begin our long 26ish hour journey back... yeesh!

See ya on the flipside :-)

Wildlife Day... I love Albatross!

It’s so nice to start the day off with a great breakfast, and then we were off to check out the Otago Peninsula where we saw Lanarch Castle which was probably in the best location ever (Curt and I decided we want one), with amazing gardens. Then we headed on to the Royal Albatross Center where we were in for a huge treat (but we didn’t know it when we got there)! We had a briefing on the birds (they’re huge – much bigger than I thought they would be – wing span of 9-12 feet, and standing up they are almost up to a person’s waist), and then went up to the observation center.

There are currently 3 nests within view of the deck, and we could see the mothers, fuzzy 3 week old chicks, and a juvenile hanging out nearby. We were told we probably wouldn’t see a ton of flight activity as it wasn’t very windy (they are soarers so need that extra help), so we were just checking them out, when all of a sudden, one soars in to the area of one of the nests! Our guide got really excited at that point – the parents take turns watching over the egg and chick, so one goes out to eat and feed at sea for a week or so, and then comes back to do what’s termed as the “change over.” It only happens once a week, and can happen at any time of day or night, and we were on that one hour tour where one happened!

So the one parent flew in, they chatted and clicked bills for a few minutes, then preened each other, and they did a calculated maneuver where one took over for the other so the chick was always in contact with a parent, and then the other waddled off and took flight. The whole thing happened over only 5-7 minutes, but it was so fun to watch and everyone (including the guide) was so excited!

After our tour we went down to the cliffs, and as the wind was picking up we saw some more flights, and some seals below… so perfect!

Then we went to another site called Penguin Place which is a reserve for Yellow Eyed Penguins, which is covered with blinds so you can have close encounters without disturbing them, and we saw molting adult birds and chicks about to leave the nest! We also saw Little Blue Penguins (the smallest species) in some nests with big fuzzy chicks, and some more seals on the coastline coming out of the ocean from playing. YEA!

Then we headed back into town, got cleaned up, went to Evensong at one of the main cathedrals in town, had some yummy dinner, then home to bed.

Today we caught a flight into Auckland, relaxed, wandered around town, and as our travels will officially start VERY early again tomorrow morning we’re taking it easy right now… gonna be a really long day.

This vacation has been so awesome, though… too many great highlights to pick a favorite, and we know the memories will last a lifetime!

Headed South to Dunedin

In the middle of the night after our great astronomy tour, around 3:30 a.m., I woke up to an alert siren – the kind that goes off before a tornado. I was confused and awake in 2.2 seconds, going around to the windows to confirm that it was in fact a siren. After a few minutes it shut off, but I was lying awake trying to think what on earth it could be for… we’re in the mountains so no hurricanes or floods (I would think), so that left fires and earthquakes.

Hmm… the survival girl in me couldn’t sleep, so I made us get up and drive the 3 minutes into town to the fire department that’s in the center (to see if we could get a clue). I was thinking maybe it’s what calls the volunteer fire fighters, and sure enough a fire truck was gone and it looked like activity had been going on, though there wasn’t anyone out… no big orange lights on the horizon, so we decided we could sleep… Curt is so nice to humor me.

Then time to get up and get some food, head out and get driving to Dunedin which takes about 4 hours or so, and it was a beautiful drive. We dipped our feet into the ocean and enjoyed the view, and when we got into Dunedin we checked into our B&B and headed out to explore the Railway Station (beautiful), and the Octagon and city walk which was great for us to see the city for the evening.

It was a travel day so we took it easy for the most part!

Into the Skies!

We woke up to a beautiful morning – really, the weather was just perfect – and exhaled, as we needed pretty great weather for our helicopter ride up to Mt. Cook! We had slept in until about 9:30 a.m., which was just beyond wonderful, and got up and going to town for a late 10:30 a.m. breakfast…

We didn’t know how long it would take us to go to our pick up point for the helicopter ride, so we quickly got on our way after eating to head to the Salmon Farm on the hydro canal near Lake Pukaki. It didn’t take us long at all, so we ended up checking in and paying to go check out the salmon… they’re set up in the canal, which is maybe about 40 feet deep, and maybe 40 feet wide. They have sections set up, and about 4 which you can go out on a series of bridges and see the individual squares, each of which has thousands of fish in them… of course they sell fish food, so I was reminded of Pap as I fed the huge fish small pellets as they jumped out of the water to get them.

Then time to go wait for our helicopter… As we were sitting there, I started to ask the ground guy about New Zealand (we hadn’t noticed much mammal wildlife, and an absence of predators), and he was JUST the guy I was looking for – a veritable biologist with plenty of general information to occupy my time while we were waiting! He told us how when it was found, New Zealand had virtually ZERO mammals – the only ones they had were two small species of bat, and that’s IT! The rest were introduced by the Europeans (some knowingly, some unknowingly).

New Zealand used to be the land of birds, and strange ones, at that… Apparently they’ve lost 90% of them as each species occupied a very specialized niche. The kiwi for example (still around though endangered) evolved to be much like a mammal with fur like feathers, and lives in burrows. Then there were other more unfortunate species like the Moa, a large, ostrich-like bird that was so docile that the Maori people hunted them into extinction. The loss of the Moa meant the loss of the Harris Eagle – the largest eagle probably ever in modern day times, with a wingspan of 15-17 feet, and large enough to swipe a human for food… they lived exclusively in the mountains (I think I know where dragon legends come from!), and their diet was pretty much only Moa, so you can see how the links in the chain started to come undone.

It’s written in a ship captain’s diary in the early days before there were settlers that 200 meters offshore in the ocean, the dawn birdsong from all of the different species coming off of the land was “deafening.” Hard to imagine, huh?

Then the helicopter came zooming in from the tour before us, and it was time to get excited (and temporarily blown away)! We had one other couple with us, so 5 people total including the pilot, so to take turns Curt and I sat in the back first. We climbed in (after a full safety briefing, of course which I noted had no part that said, “in the event of an emergency,” because really the next part would be, “you’re S.O.L,” though we WERE told about the emergency food, first aid kit, and signaling kit should we be fortunate enough to survive an emergency, haha), strapped in, and got our headphones on.

As we took off and I felt that weightless feeling in my stomach, it occurred to me that I had been so excited about the flight, that I forgot to consider what the flight itself would be like, which was a little bit scary but exhilarating at the same time… kind of hard to describe, actually but it was a good healthy fear mixed with excitement and wonder!

We rode out about 20ish minutes with Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman in view, and a beautiful glacial valley below with the lakes in view. Our pilot pointed out two big glaciers to us (that have formed these valleys), and then we closed in on our landing site, which again made my stomach flop as I could see the ground approaching in a way I’ve never been able to before.
When we landed on the snow I was so excited – they don’t actually stop the chopper so it’s loud and idling, but we stood up there and enjoyed the view for about 10 minutes taking pictures and exclaiming at how cool it was to be up perched on a peak like that!

Then it was time for me and Curt to be in the front, and now that we had full 360 views (including above and below), it was REALLY exciting… the take off was incredible – then we swooped off the mountain and down a little bit to get shelter behind the peak, and I literally had a moment where I thought it was just like the IMAX theater, except that THIS feeling was the feeling they try to imitate!!! It was just awesome, and the trip back felt a lot shorter… we loved it!



We were sad when it was over, but then went into town, grabbed lunch, hung out and went up to the observatory, and took a nap as we decided to book an astronomy tour. Apparently Lake Tekapo is THE place to look into the Southern Night sky – there is a huge observatory there open to the public that is run by a major university there, and I think we counted at least 6 of the huge domes for the big telescopes up there. We also had unobstructed views of the lake on the top of this mountain, and again (I know I’m being repetitive), it was gorgeous.

Our tour wasn’t going to be at the observatory though, as that tour was at 11 p.m. and was a 2 hour tour – we booked the one hour tour starting at 10:30 that was out in the field with one dome and one in ground stand for another large telescope. After our nap we cleaned up, and went into town, had a nice dinner overlooking the lake, took some pictures of the church and stars, ran home and went to go meet our tour.

And WOW – it was so much fun… educational to the point of mesmerizing (learning about light years, seeing stars with a green laser pointer that shot through the sky and learning about how old they are made us feel so small and just a tiny piece of a grand mastered universe). I immediately noticed that Orion was upside down, and it occurred to me (duh) that the sky would look completely different from this vantage point, and our tour guide filled us in on all the differences…
We learned how to identify the Southern Cross and line it up to find south (just like the Northern Star), which I’ve never seen or known about before, and of course as the Milky Way was so easily identifiable, we were able to see the Magellanic clouds which are clouds of matter

that block the view to the Milky Way (which frankly I didn’t even know existed). All of this and MORE, as the sky was so filled with more stars than I have ever seen and maybe ever will see in my life. It was so romantic, too… in the big telescope we saw where old stars live, where new stars are born, and Saturn! I even saw the rings of it, which I wasn’t prepared for at all, and it was SO GREAT – really a highlight, which we hadn’t even planned on!

It was an amazing day, that’s for sure…

The Dolphins Like Me!

We had to wake up early again the next morning, but not TOO early so we were almost relishing it because of every other morning, but it didn’t matter either way as it was time for our dolphin swim with the Hector’s Dolphins – the smallest and most rare species of dolphin. They only live here in NZ, and they are as endangered as the Giant Panda. To even get a spot in the dolphin swim with this one company is difficult as they have very strict regulations on the time, and how many swimmers there are in the water to even have the opportunity.

It was still rainy and messy, but we were about to get wet anyway (and the dolphins don’t care), so we weren’t worried about that, just that we’d get a great encounter with them.

When we got to the pier everyone changed into their wetsuits (two boats, 8 people per boat), and they were 5 mm suits, which gives a clue as to how cold the water is (this is a THICK wetsuit)! We quickly got onto the boats and headed out of the harbor, everyone looking for the dolphins (they can be anywhere, in any kind of pod size from 2 to 10+). We didn’t see them in the harbor so we kept going towards the ocean, but the skipper DID point out two separate blue penguins that were just swimming along at the surface!

I was so excited – these penguins are small and so sweet looking (much the same size as Napoleon, one of my stuffed penguins when I was younger as these have long been a favorite animal of mine), and I’d never seen a penguin in the wild before!

Then we got out to the mouth of the harbor – waves were bigger and choppier, it was raining crazy, cliffs on both sides with waves crashing against the shore (don’t worry, it’s a big harbor so no danger for us here), and we spotted two mothers and their calves (melt your heart so adorable – the calves were 2-inches-away-shadows and tiny replicas of their mothers).

We can’t swim with them, so we kept looking around, and finally about 5 minutes later, a small pod of 3 was spotted, so the skipper set the boat to idle. Now, even when dolphins are seen as prospective swimming partners, they don’t send us into the water unless those dolphins act curious about the boat, and they approach US. I guess they’ve learned after much experience that it’s pointless to unload everyone if the dolphins aren’t in the right mood, so after we (the boat) were able to hold their attention for another 5 minutes, we all quickly jumped into the water (VERY excited).

And thank goodness I was excited, because although I was prepared for cold water, I wasn’t quite prepared for JUST how cold it would be… even in the wetsuit it was utterly take-your-breath-away cold, the kind that makes you make a “ooh-ooh” sound every time you exhale as you’re fiercely doggy-paddling to pretend like there is something you can do to get warm, LOL! And don’t forget – it’s the dead of summer in NZ, so imagine how cold winter would be!

As I was jumping in (the 2^nd in – you KNOW I was up front), the girl handed me two rocks to make noise with under water. We were encouraged in the briefing to sing, squeal, chatter, etc. and basically do anything we could think of to make ourselves interesting to the dolphins. We were also told not to be within a few yards of each other, as the dolphins work off of sonar and would assume a group of 2-3 people a few feet apart was some big sea monster with lots of legs (that made me laugh – makes sense, though?), so there were quite a few guidelines to think of in order to make sure we could maximize our experience (and you know me, I was just HOPING that everyone paid attention so I didn’t have to carry the group on all of this important stuff, haha).

So I’m convinced I’m going to freeze to death, but all of a sudden it doesn’t matter because as I’m swimming out, they’re swimming around us! It was beyond amazing! You can see the gray under water when they’re getting close, and of course they breach out to breathe and check us out, and I started hammering the rocks together in a Morse code type pattern (meaning, a non-pattern at all). I clicked fast, went slow, and as everyone was getting in the water the spotters were telling us where they were, because MORE WERE COMING!

Pretty soon we had around 10 dolphins swimming all around our very big circle, in between us, and through the circle. Turns out they loved me… not just because I had the rocks (though I’m aware that obviously had something to do with it), but I think also because I was making high pitch squeal noises and rolling r’s under water. Yes – this would have been hilarious to catch on film, because although we had masks and snorkels, it’s not clear enough to really see underwater and the waves were so high anyway, so it was easier to make the noise, snarf some salt water (where you accidentally suck it in), get the water out, and start noise-making all over again.

The other people saw that I was getting a lot of close encounter attention, so pretty soon everyone was making the same noises I was making, but the dolphins weren’t fooled… the spotter girl saw the same thing so she told me to come out to the middle of the circle so the dolphins would have to swim by others on their way to and from me. It really was the coolest thing ever… some would zoom past so quickly, and a few others swam around me. One even started to spin around me (a very playful maneuver that we were told to imitate), so I started to spin madly with it in efforts to keep it there with me.

I could have reached out and touched them countless times, (of course that’s a no-no), and was loving the experience. I was helping spot for Curt too since he had the camera, and we were laughing and having such a great time. All in all we got about 40 minutes of playing and swimming with the dolphins, which the guides said was a fantastic encounter. We had about 5-10 dolphins with us the entire time, and we’re only allowed to be in the water with them for a max of 45 minutes, so by their terms, it was a perfect encounter (in both numbers and the time they stayed with us it’s unusual, so I felt SO LUCKY)!

There was one time about halfway into our swim, where it hit me (like a cold wave, oh wait, that was real), that there could very well be great white sharks in these waters... it was cold enough, south enough, and we were making a BUNCH of noise that would be bound to attract curious predators.... my blood ran cold (oh wait, it already was, but you know), and I started to edge my way closer to the group and boat... after pep talking myself, I figured there was no way on earth the dolphins would be hanging out with us if there was one of them around, so I felt safe as long as they continued playing with us. Oh geez... praise God, we made it! :-)

Curt didn’t get a single picture, but it was ok… his lense was having trouble focusing because of the water clarity and how fast the dolphins were, but we tried! Talk about fun, though, man… it didn’t matter that after we came in off the boat, that I felt like I’d never be warm again! LOL – they had hot chocolate waiting for us, which helped immensely, but 30 minutes later (and still warmer even if it didn’t feel like it), when we showered at the pier (they’re provided when you take off your wetsuits, etc.), my hands were in immense pain from the contrast!

We got cleaned up, kept reliving the morning, caught some lunch, and got on the road to Lake Tekapo, which was a 3-hour drive. The drive was interesting, and beautiful despite the rain… lots of farms, and into the mountains. It looks like Colorado or Wyoming here – and smells like it, too. We even happened upon a roadside restaurant that had real road signs that said “Driver Reviver 300 km, FREE” with a picture of a coffee mug. Since we needed to use the restroom anyway, we stopped to see what this was all about, and it’s true – the driver gets a free cup of coffee! It was really cool, actually… I think it’s a great idea, and a win-win for everyone as we bought a snack and a chai latte for me, and it probably helps keep people safe along this busy stretch of road!

When we arrived at the Lake around 5ish, we were spellbound with its beauty. The lake is enormous (you’d forget it wasn’t the ocean), and a bright blue as it’s a glacier lake (full of glacial silt that gives it its color). The Church of the Good Shepherd is right there on the edge – an old church that is tiny and is a confirmation of what I felt when we first got here… this is a place where your soul can heal.

We were excited when we checked into our cottage – EVERY place here had been booked, and out of desperation (2 days before we left to come on this trip), Curt called the nicest place here asking for advice and just double-checking they hadn’t had a cancellation. Turns out the lady said her friend had just opened her cottage and she could book it through their place since it wasn’t online, so we ended up at Roz’s cottage. Literally a 2-minute walk to the lake and the Church – SCORE! We also have this whole working house to ourselves…

After roaming and taking pics of the area (we saw a hedgehog out and about – it was awesome!), we ate dinner at a local pizza joint (this time we were warned when checking in of the early dinner rule) which was delicious, and came home to start a nice fire in the stove (it’s chilly here!) and settled in to watch a movie while I caught up on blog posts…

Bliss!