New Zealand Trip Day 2- Queenstown Gondola & Luge

So the next day we flew from Tokyo into Auckland, and then took a domestic hop down to Queenstown... our plan was to start at the bottom of the country and drive all the way back up to the top! So we picked up our rental car and made our way to our first Hotel. We stayed at the Rydges Hotel & Resort, the same hotel that the Lord of the Rings Crew stayed at while in the area. The hotel was situated on the shores of Lake Wakapitu with maybe a 7 min walk to the town center. We got upgraded to lakefront rooms when we arrived so we had a sweet view of the lake and the town.  

View from our room during the day!

View at night!

Right after we got into town we headed up to the Skyline Gondola on Bob's Peak. The views were amazing! This is looking down on Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables Mountain Range.

 From the top of the gondola we headed to the luge track. We had to take another smaller lift to the top of the luge and then of course luge back down... we went twice... since I heard once was never enough... 

This is looking at the luge track, there is a beginner and advanced course... everyone had to do the beginner first, I was a little disappointed looking at the track cause it looked so easy... but is ended up being SO fun, you go SO fast, I almost died a couple times... Derick and James had alot of fun racing!

After the Luging and Gondola, we walked around town and ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant, we then were off to bed tired from traveling all day and I had to get my rest before 

BUNGY JUMPING the next day!

New Zealand Trip Day 1- Tokyo

We were flying out of Tokyo for our trip to New Zealand but Derick had some stuff to take care of in Tokyo so we ended up going down a day early and had some extra time to hang out! We stayed at the New Sanno Hotel  a hotel for military members that offers super good rates in the heart of the city. While we were there we went to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, a  garden that was created as an imperial garden in 1906! 

Not only was the garden beautiful they were also have thier annual fall chrysanthemum exhibition... what they can do with these chrysanthemums is crazy!

Ozukuri (thousand bloom) Bed

 They create this massive dome shaped chrysanthemum plant by a unique technique of pinching and training.  You can tell how but these are cause that is Derick standing by the plant in the background.

Kengai (cascade) Bed

This is a training technique where they try to make small flowered chrysanthemums to look like wild  chrysanthemums flowering on a cliff.

Ichimonji (imperial crest) and Kudamono-giku (spider) Bed

These things were as big as my face... and super perfect. 

Ogiku (large-flowered) Bed

These were definitely as big as my face... look at one compared to this old Japanese man taking a picture with his phone! 

fall... sigh...

I love fall, so does Derick. We did not want to miss all the fall leaves since we are leaving TODAY for New Zealand, so yesterday we went out with our friends the Nation's to see the leaves in Oirase Gorge... it was SO worth it!

Kuji Sea Cliffs

My friend Kate took me rock climbing at the Kuji Sea Cliffs. I did my first lead climb. 

"Lead climbing is a climbing technique used to ascend a route. Lead climbing is an advanced aspect of rock climbing and is not often practiced by novice climbers, and involves a lead climber attaching themselves to a length of dynamic (elastic) climbing rope and ascending a route whilst periodically attaching protection to the face of the route and "clipping in" to it. The lead climber must have another person acting as a belayer. The belayer has multiple roles: holding the rope in the event of a fall, and paying out or taking up rope as the climber moves."

The scarry part about lead climbing is you have to climb above the spot that you are clipped into until you reach the next clip. On this climb there were spots where the clips were maybe 10 feet apart, so if you fall 10 feet above the last clip you really end up falling 20 feet before your belayer can catch you! Dont worry Mom, Kate let me wear her helmet!

Here is Chris doing the same rout I did as a lead climb. 

It is rated an 8... or  5.8... I dont know. 

I think the coolest part about this area is that the ocean is crashing in on the cliffs as you are climbing...

 it was so epic feeling!

Here I am climbing a 10a... but I am top roping it, which means the rope connected through an anchor at the top, so I cant really fall... hopefully a couple more times top roping this route and I will be able to lead climb it!

Beachy Beach

Some pictures of one of our many family excursions to the beach... well, we left Sabastian at home... but he hates water anyways! 

I am going to be so sad when we don't live by the ocean anymore, especially a  freaking awesome ocean with great surf, great sand, and NO PEOPLE!

 I have a new found love of feathers... Someone told me once they were full of nasty bird bacteria... so I was always scared to touch them... but I have changed my mind and I always come home with at least one!

Kona loves her beach time! Her life is SO hard! 

I love our beach time too... my life is SO hard!

Derick... well... his life is SUPER hard!

Look at Kona's face! She loves to play fetch... especially when water is involved!

The waves don't even phase her!

I love how in this picture Derick is looking at Kona and Kona is looking at Derick!

Korean Bar

We just had the "Far East Bazaar" here at Misawa (where vendors from all over the world come and try to get us to buy their crap)... this is HUGE event that alot of my friends worked A LONG time on to make happen! I however only donated 48 muffins so I could go to the pre-sale... Anyways when we first got here we saw these bars that are pretty cool, they are on wheels so you can roll them to where ever you are needing some drinks and keeps everything in one convenient location! So we decided we wanted one before we leave, and since we are not sure anymore when we are leaving we decided better safe then sorry and went ahead and got one. Most were super ornately carved and had lots of detail... not my thing, this was the only one that was simple plain and fantastic!

AND here it is... this is why I had to get the mirror on the wall... So I could fit our bar where it had been leaning... but now I don't know where the christmas tree is going...
I'll figure that out when the time comes!

This is what it looks like all opened up... we obviously need more wine... The doors open all the way and the top folds over on top to make a large bar/ serving area!

The red wine glasses in the center are on a panel that rotates so that would normally just be a wooden panel unless you rotated it to get a glass.

Ocean Rage!

We went camping on a Friday night with our friends the Nations with the hopes to surf the next morning. It was a gorgeous night but the next day was gray, rainy, the the ocean was bigger then I have ever seen it before... and not in a good way... it was just solid whitewater. So we thought... lets try again Sunday. These pictures are from Sunday... the ocean was still just as big. We later found out there was a typhoon!