Final Outback Day

After a good night's sleep under the stars, Erin and I headed out to try and watch the sunrise. Unfortunately the flies were crazy and we forgot our fly masks, so we didn't last very long.

We got on the road reasonably early again and headed to Kings Canyon. It's sometimes referred to as the Grand Canyon of Australia. It was an amazing place, but from a size point of view, it's very much smaller than the Grand Canyon. We went on a 4 hour walk around, in, and over the Canyon. There is generally a pool of fresh water that you can swim in, but because they haven't had much new rain in the recent months, the water wasn't the most sanitary. Tony described it as "skanky".

King and Queen of the Mountain

Our friends from Japan. They didn't speak much English but did root for the Red Sox!

On the way home we drove most of the 4 hour trip on a dirt road through the barrenness which is the outback. We ran into a bunch of wild camels, saw a pretty big lizard crossing the road, and saw a famous singing dingo. Dinky the Dingo is world famous, is in the new trivial pursuit and we saw him in person.

We made it back to Alice Springs and unfortunately our tour has come to an end, but not without 1 last night out with the tour group. We decided to meet up at 8:00pm for dinner, drinks, and what turned out to be a bunch of dancing and mingling with locals. We spent our night at Bojangles and around 2am we were all kicked out of the bar, said our goodbyes, and parted ways. Overall a great tour!

On another note: Here in Auckland today, we had some visitors from the US. My cousin Jo-Ann and her husband Tom were in Auckland for a couple of days at the end of their 4 week trip around New Zealand before flying back to Seattle. We had a great dinner at Sails, enjoyed looking at the ships, and some great conversation.

Outback Adventure Day 2

It was an early morning up on day 2 as we had to pack up and leave before sunrise as we were going to be watching sunrise as it came up over Uluru. Packing up was quick and easy...except...when rolling up the swags my lovely wife left something in her swag. It was a sad day when we left as we had lost our red winding flashlight (torch) which I received for a Christmas present from my parents a few years ago. It was sad, but hopefully the next person to use the swag found it and is putting it to good use.

The sun rising next to Uluru

After watching the sunrise, we headed to The Olga's (Kata Tjuta). There was a walk through the 36 domes called the Valley of the Winds which must be done in the early morning because the heat gets so extreme that it's closes at 11am. We walked for about 3 hours and it was beautiful and relaxing as there were very few people around.

Hiking through The (VERY WINDY) Valley of the Winds

We then headed to have lunch and on towards our destination for sleeping that night.

Jeremy leading the boys in gathering fire wood and then helping Tony load it to the top of our truck

In order to get to our campsite, we drove off road for about 5km's and finally came upon a little hut, and campfire where we were staying (very remote). There was a bathroom which only had 3 walls and a shower which was heated by a fire that we would have to light (no showers were had that night or morning).

The flushing toilet in the middle of nowhere

That night we enjoyed some more Kangaroo tail and also were able to get some good shots with the tail prior to being cooked up.

Moustache?

Mr. Kangaroo Ciaccia

We also saw a brilliant sunset and were able to snap some nice pictures.

Another few beers by the fire, and listening to a few Outback stories from Tony and it was time for sleeping. A few of the guys in our group were snoring, so Erin and Christiana (Germany) had some trouble falling asleep, but finally made it to bed.

Stay tuned for our 3rd day which included an adventure in "Australia's Grand Canyon".

WayOutback Tour Begins

Tony, our guide, picked us up at 5:55am on Sunday morning for our 3 day / 2 night outback adventure tour. There were 14 people on the tour from all around the globe including; 2 UK, 5 Germans, 1 Dutch, 2 Japanese, and 2 Taiwanese.

Our first stop on the 5 hour drive to Ayers Rock (Uluru) was at a place where they had Camel rides. For a price of $5 Erin was the first one on a camel for a quick little ride around the area. (There are around 500,000 wild camels in Australia, we saw plenty of wild ones as you will see from pictures on a later day).
We also stopped at Mt Connor to take some pictures, and then headed further West to Uluru. What a sight this place was, it was absolutely amazing to see it in real life. We ended up walking 1/2 way around it in the 38 degree heat and as you can see there were tons of flys so we both sported our fly net masks. We then watched the sunset with (300 other tourists) and then headed to our place of rest for the night.

There was running water, toilets and showers, but our actual camping location was pretty deserted and set back from anything. Our dinner was Kangaroo, vegetables, and rice cooked directly on the fire. Tony also had a Kangaroo tail which was cooked up and both Erin and I tried it (tasted a little like pork or maybe rabbit I thought). We finished dinner, had a beer around the fire with our group and then hopped in our swags (defined as a portable shelter by Wikipedia, but in this case, there was no tent, just a thing to lie on) for a night of sleeping under the beautiful stars.

Our first day of adventure was great and our nights sleep was great as well. No scary animals, lizards, or snakes around the fire, except for the Hopping Mouse which came to visit.

Alice Springs

We were up bright and early and headed to the airport for a 6:30am flight to Alice Springs which connected in Sydney. As expected, both Erin and I were excited to get into the Qantas Lounge and feast on some of the breakfast food and drinks which we did in Auckland as well as in Sydney during our lay-over. Arriving in Alice Springs we walked off the airplane to 35 degree Celsius (95 degree) sun. It was great!


We proceeded to do a little exploring and shopping around town and looked for an Opal. My mom bought an Opal when she was in Australia as they are mostly mined in Australia (97%). We spent quite a long time in the shop speaking with the owner who was following the Red Sox in the playoffs and previously worked in Washington DC for a couple of years. We left empty handed, but at a couple other stores we were able to pick up some fly masks (wait until day 2 and you'll see pictures).

We bought some beer, water, sunscreen, bug spray, and some granola (muesli) bars and then headed back to our hotel. We had dinner at the hotel and went to bed early as we had an early pick up the next day by Wayoutback Tour to begin our Outback adventure.

On another note, both Erin and I completed our absentee ballots today in our private voting booth in our apartment and they will be mailed tomorrow. Also, I had my first touch rugby game of the season tonight.

Back Home in Auckland

We just arrived home after a great holiday in Australia. The past ten days have been amazing - filled with camel riding, hiking, kangaroo eating, crocodile chasing, scuba diving, exploring rain forests, and MUCH more. We will post more about our trip (and lots of photos too!!) in the coming days!!!

Leaving...

We have been very busy running around wrapping up all of our work so that we can enjoy ourselves on our holiday (vacation) to Australia. We are heading to the Outback for 4 nights including a 2 night Outback Adventure and then to the Great Barrier Reef for 5 nights of fun and relaxing. Stay tuned for our updates and pictures from our trip when we return.

Tonight we went to the supermarket to pick up a few last minute items and saw a Kiwi Celebrity. His name is Paul Ellis and he's one of the judges on New Zealand's Got Talent.

Speak with you soon!

Rock Climbing

Thank you to everyone who participated in our survey. It reveals that there are either 9 people who are actively reading and participating in our blog OR someone submitted an answer 9 times. A special thanks to Susanne for adding in a comment.

The other night Erin and I went Rock Climbing at an indoor climbing centre here in Auckland. We had a coupon from our Entertainment book, so instead of costing $40, it cost us $20 which was pretty good. The place was massive and had a ton of different walls and ropes to use.

We told them it was our first time and a guy gave us a quick safety lesson and then we were off. We both did very well climbing the wall as well as being the belayer down on the ground. For those of you who don't know the belayer is the person at the bottom who manages the rope and lets you down after you have reached the top.

It was tons of fun and we plan to go back after we return from our trip to Australia.

Thanks again for voting. The other choices which got some votes were shearing a sheep and mini golfing. It would be fun to shear a sheep although I think it's rather difficult.

Survey Time

It's been a while since we have done a survey and we figure it was time to bring it back out. This will give us a sense of how many...or how few people are reading our blog.

Tonight we did something. Please register your guess below:

What did we do tonight?
	Went Indoor Skiing
	Sheared a Sheep
	Went Rock Climbing
	Washed the Car
	Played Mini Golf
pollcode.com free polls

We look forward to sharing what we did tonight with you in 1-2 days after we have given people a chance to vote.

Pink Star Walk

At work, I am a member of the Culture Club, which facilitates company-wide events. I organised a group to do the Pink Star Walk, Auckland's 5k walk under the stars for Breast Cancer Research.

We had a good turnout from work and our new friends from Connecticut, Deon and Steve joined us as well. The day started off very rainy, so we were a little bit nervous about what the walk would be like. We were lucky as it only rained for about 15 seconds.

The event was lots of fun! At the end of the walk there were sausages, ice cream bars, massages, and goodie bags for the participants as well as a fireworks display. Here is the shirt that we arranged for the Hudson Team.

Chicken Taco Soup

As the weather gets warmer here in New Zealand, my days of slow cooker meals are sadly dwindling. This weekend was a bit cooler than last, so I took advantage and made Chicken Taco Soup, a recipe I found online and adapted with my personal touches. The meal is simple to make and tastes a bit like Chili, but isn’t as heavy. It was a hit with Jeremy!



Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
1 16-oz can black beans
1 16-oz can kidney beans
1 16-oz can corn (drained)
1 jar taco sauce
2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes
1 1.25-oz packet taco seasoning
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Directions
Mix everything together in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. 30 minutes before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and mix with soup. Top with tortilla chips and sour cream.

Servings: 14 (3/4 cup)

In addition to cooking this weekend, we went to an outdoor gear store and did some shopping for our trip to Australia. I got a backpack that will hold our stuff for two nights of camping in the Outback and another pack that fits into a tiny little pouch for easy travel. We also both got a new pair of shorts because we checked the temperature and it's currently in the high 90s over there. We were very excited about the sales we found. All of the goods cost us less that what the backpack would have at full price. Yay for a great shopping trip!

White Island

On Saturday we boarded a luxury launch for the hour and a half ride to White Island. Thankfully we took our seasickness pills as most of the people on the boat got pretty ill from the ride. After we arrived at White Island we hopped onto a small raft that took us to shore. We were equipped with hard hats and gas masks and began the tour.




White Island is estimated to be 150,000 to 200,000 years old. The tour took us all over the island, past bubbling mud, hissing steam, sulfur chimneys, and up to the edge of the crater lake. We felt like we were on another planet. The end of the tour took us to the remains of an old mining factory and back onto the boat for the trip back home.

The experience is definitely something that we recommend. However, the seasickness pills did make us very sleepy. We took a "nap" at 5:30pm and didn't wake up again until 12:30am, so we missed out on the entire night!

On another note, it saddens us that it has been determined for the best that Maxwell (Erin's dog) is put to sleep. He has lived a great life and brought plenty of joy to Erin and her family.

Driver's License

Jeremy was thrilled when I brought the mail as his official New Zealand Driver's License arrived today. I'll be applying for mine in a month when I don't have to sit for the exam. The licenses are good until 2018 and I reminded Jeremy so kindly that he would be 40 then! :o)

Kiwi Country

On Friday we took the day off of work to enjoy an extended weekend. We started the day off nice and slow - Jeremy did some work from home while I slept and then did a little bit of cleaning. We packed some sandwiches and hit the road around mid-day for the Bay of Plenty. The Bay of Plenty has a mild climate year round, so we were really looking forward to a nice sunny (and warm) get-away!

Our first stop on Friday afternoon was the town of Te Puke which is home to Kiwi 360. Kiwi fruit is one of New Zealand's main exports and is grown in the Bay of Plenty. We climbed aboard a kiwi cart and went on a tour of the kiwi orchards. Not only do they grown kiwis, but also a variety of other things such as avocados, macadamia nuts, apples, and lemonade lemons - which we got to taste on the tour. We also enjoyed some samples of kiwi wine and liqueur before buying some kiwi jam to take home.
We then hopped back into the car to head towards our final destination, Ohope Beach; one of New Zealand's best beaches. (We can't say we've really seen a bad beach yet!) We checked into the holiday park and quickly put our stuff into our cute little hut before heading out for dinner.

We decided to stop for some "take-aways" (the kiwi term for takeout) at a fish and chips shop down the street. There was so much to choose from, and our tummies were rumbling so we settled for fish burgers, chips, and a mussel fritter. The food was delicious. We were stuffed, but very satisfied. We finished the night off with a few games of Yahtzee before tucking in for the night. We had an early boat ride awaiting us on Saturday morning as we had booked a trip to White Island, New Zealand's most active volcano.

Erin Point

For the past couple of days we have been in full weekend mode. On Friday night, we settled in early with some pizza to watch the Warriors beat the Roosters in a Rugby League playoff game. On Saturday and Sunday mornings we were up early and at the gym...getting in beach body mode as the beach is just a few weeks away. Saturday afternoon found us shopping in the city. We stopped into Borders to pick out some travel books for our trip to Asia in 2009. We felt completely overwhelmed and decided to start with a advice from a travel shop instead. We have a tiny plan in place and will attack that over the coming months. We also ran into a few Australian Netball players during our shopping spree. They were in town for the NZ/Australia game. Once again, NZ dominated the court. We met up with Sander and Mirjam (from the Netherlands) for some coffee in the afternoon.

After our session at the gym today we relaxed for a while in the sun. By 2pm we were stir crazy and decided to go for a walk around the block. 2 hours and many steps later, we were back home. Our walk took us from Viaduct Harbour, where we live to the Auckland Harbour Bridge, up a big hill into Herne Bay and a place called Erin Point. We explored the point before stopping for a snack in Ponsonby and returning home for a homemade feast of slow cooker Curry Chicken.





We both have a busy week ahead and we'll be heading off to the Bay of Plenty next weekend to see New Zealand's most active volcano, White Island.

One More Work Conference

Jeremy arrived home from Florida very early on Monday morning. He brought back a few American treats like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (have we really gone 18 months without them?) and some face creams for me that are literally half the price at home. He quickly got back into the swing of things, returning to work Monday afternoon and has been going strong ever since. We did have a few early nights as he adjusted to the jet lag.

Yesterday we decided to check out a French market in Parnell, which is the town next to ours. The market was great! We enjoyed samples of cheese, bread, dips and wine and then purchased some fresh veggies, hummus and bread. We enjoyed that while I cooked up a new recipe (Oven Roasted Salmon with Pesto) from the You Are What You Eat cookbook I got a the book sale a few months ago. To my excitement, after many kitchen disasters, the recipe worked and looked just like it did in the book!

We finished off the night watching the All Blacks beat the Wallabies, yay!

Jeremy left early this morning for another work conference. The one is for PwC New Zealand's managers and partners, so we'll at least be in the same country this time around!

Busy week

I have been in the US for the past week at a conference in Orlando. The conference was very well done and had 1900 people attending. The Marriott which we stayed at is the largest in the world with 2004 rooms. I arrived on Monday night after 25 hours of travelling and had a few Bud Lights with Dennis and Eric. The next day we actually went to Blizzard Beach for some fun in the sun/water and the conference began that evening.

It was a great time reconnecting with all of my US colleagues during the various sessions during the day as well as over some beers and drinks at night. The B52's performed at the hotel for us 1 night which was pretty cool.
One night, my break-out group rented the House of Blues out and we had dinner and a show there. The nights were long and the hours of sleep which I was able to pull over were very few (ranging from 3-4 hours a night).

The conference ended on Friday afternoon and Dennis was nice enough to extend his stay and hang out with me on Friday. We went to Disney Quest as well as saw a Cirque Du Soleil show (La Nouba). I'm currently sitting in LA waiting for my next flight to take me back to Auckland. It was a great week and great to catch up with everyone.

Erin had a good week in Auckland (despite me not around). This included going to the gym, hanging out with our friend Diane and her son Matthew, going for a massage, and doing research for our trip to Australia in October.

Hope everyone is well and let the Football season begin!!

Devonport

Today was the last day of Winter, but we were lucky to have a really nice spring-like day! We decided to take a ten minute ferry ride to Devonport and explore the town; something we have been hoping to do for the last 18 months but the weather just never seems to be right.

After catching the ferry we followed a 5 km tour route through Devonport. We hiked to the top of Mount Victoria and North Head, which are Devonport's volcanic peaks. Mount Victoria is the higher of the two and provided us with great views of Auckland. It is also home to a some old military bunkers and a disappearing gun.





Jeremy has been busy today preparing for his trip back to the US. He'll be in Orlando for work for a week. I'll find something here to keep myself busy!