Christmas Eve in New Zealand

Christmas Eve morning and I am finally laying on a bed!! :). In the last 33 days I have slept only 2 nights in a bed, and that was on our live aboard trip 21 days ago! It feels nice to be back in civilization.  We  are looking pretty tired and beat up from being on the road. When we bought groceries yesterday they asked to see our ID for our wine. Even after showing our ID, and explaining that we are married and 30 years old, they still did not believe we were 18 or older!! haha. They had to get supervisor approval. I guess that should be a compliment but gees, really?

We have had such a incredible time in New Zealand. It's one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I couldn't stop taking pictures, everywhere I turned. New Zealand is known for these beautiful caves but we couldn't afford the tour so we went exploring on our own. Way more fun anyways! We were so covered in mud from slipping around in the dark, way off the trail. We even saw glow worms. I didn't even know there was such a thing. I thought it was a make believe animal like a unicorn or a ziger. We went on a really beautiful hike through the mountains too. It had scrub bushes, then desert alpine climate, beautiful pools of water, tropical areas and the whole thing is an active volcano. We found out later it was where Mt. Doom was filmed for LOTR. Seems fitting. We also got a chance to check out some of New Zealand's world famous beaches. They are incredible too! We went to the "hot water" beach. You dig a hole in the sand and the lava under the earth heats the water to boiling temperature. So many natural wonders all over New Zealand and the world it is incredible!!

Freedom to roam- New Zealand

Adam got a hat last Christmas and it says "freedom to roam" with a California flag on it. It has kind of become a motto for our trip.  We have become a bunch of aimless wanders. Although there is something very freeing about deciding what you want to do with your day. We wake up every morning and we can choose if we want to drive, hike, visit a city. You never know who you will meet or what you will do that day. Traveling New Zealand has been so amazing! There is so much natural beauty in this country. We just finished our tour of the South Island. We went down to the Fiordland areas, did some hikes. Then we drove along the west coast and looped through the middle toward the east coast. They have everything here: tropical beaches, glaciers, rolling hills with vineyards, agricultural land, snow covered mountains. The entire country of New Zealand only has about 4.5 million people in it. It is so open and untamed. They are so environmentally conscious. They don't allow dogs anywhere and when we flew in we had to get our hiking boots and tent chemically sprayed down so we didn't bring any foreign particles in with us. The weather here has definitely improved as well. It has been sunny and warm almost everyday. It's strange to get a sun tan and hear Christmas music on the radio.

Roughing it in New Zealand- Queenstown, Milford Sound

What does sleeping in a car, hiking in the rain, showering in a freezing stream and washing your dishes using a rock have in common? Yep, you guessed it... my life for the last 7 days. We decided to rent a wagon in New Zealand just in case it was raining too hard to use our tent. I'd say that was a good investment. We flew into Queenstown (the southern island) and it is so incredible. It is the cutest little mountain town. The country is so green with huge mountains all over. It is everything we loved about the Ireland and Switzerland landscapes combined. We drove over to the Fiordland and Milford Sound area. Miles and miles of beautiful mountains, wildflowers and everything is so green. We had a couple of days of good weather and we did a few incredible hikes.  This area is so remote though so there is no running water or power. The first time I had to shower in the snow run off river I was miserable but I kind of got used to it after a few times. We always say that this lifestyle is shameless. You have to be willing to do whatever you need to do and not worry about who sees you. Sometimes when we are doing something so embarrassing like putting deodorant on in a truck stop we will laugh and say "if someone has a problem, then that's their problem". Lol. It also makes us feel better to know that everyone around us is doing the same thing. Well, there are some miserable times but the beautiful scenery and hikes makes it worth it. It is quite incredible to just be out enjoying nature and relaxing. 

Sydney and the Blue Mountains- Australia

Our "big city navigating skills" got a little rusty while we were camping for the last couple of weeks. Haha. Showing up in Sydney was a shock to the system. It is a really neat city. Such a huge outdoor community. We went down to Bondi, Coogee and South Coogee  beaches on our first day in town. They are beautiful beaches only 5-10 miles from Sydney. We were feeling guilty because everyone else was working out so we started going for a jog everyday.  The downtown area is really cool too. They have a bunch of parks and rivers. It has a great feel. Then we decided to drive out to the Blue Mountains. Absolutely stunning! We hiked the National Pass trail, which has won International awards it is so beautiful. Waterfalls and rivers are throughout the trail. Then we did the 3 sisters hike and the Grand Canyon. Actually, come to think of it we did a lot of hiking. The weather down in the Sydney area is quite different then in Brisbane though. We had a few really cold nights. We also went through the Botanical gardens which were really beautiful. There is so much to do in Australia and most of it is free or a very minimal cost. We had a few really cold nights. Free camping has once again been a great perk to Australia :)