Jul 2006

Well today you are getting an entry from the other half of this dynamic duo travelling around the world. I feel inspired to write today, as we have done something that was the biggest adrenaline rush either of us has ever felt.

We went crazy and decided to fall out of a tiny plane from 12,000 feet up in the air. We are currently hailing from Taupo, New Zealand, and the opportunity of skydiving presented itself so we did it. I can hardly believe it as I am writing it now. The town of Taupo is right by a huge lake and some huge mountains, so the scenery was fantastic from way up there.

Both John and I were ancy all morning in anticipation of our jump around 12 noon. As we got all suited up there was no turning back. We got on the plane and flew around for a magnificent view for about 20 minutes. John jumped out first with Ollie, a Polish man, strapped to him tightly. I think he was glad to be that close to a man for once. After that it was my turn, strapped to Mike. I was pretty terrified sitting on the edge of the plane, but once we took the dive, it was absolutely surreal. The freefall was 45 seconds, but it felt like 10. After that, the parachute opened and we gracefully glided down towards the airport. The gentle coasting after the freefall was the best part for me since I got to take in all the scenery and my surroundings. John liked the freefall the best, on the contrary.

So now we are back on safe ground and feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to skydive in Taupo, New Zealand.

Nadiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnne

The road goes ever on and on. Down from the door where it began. Not far ahead the road has gone, And I must follow, if I can. Pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then, I cannot say.
- J.R.R. Tolkein - Fellowship of the Rings

Nadine and I have made the successful journey from the Cook Islands, warm islands, to New Zealand, cold islands. Once again, to make it perfectly clear, we are in New Zealand where it is currently winter, and by the temperatures here, I think that that would be the equivalent of being on the North Pole. We are currently in the city of Rotorua which is located in the middle of the North Island. And yes, the mullet is still in style here in New Zealand.

We have found that there are three types of travellers that we keep running into : A) people traveling for a short vacation B) folks taking between 7 months and a couple of years to travel around the world AND C) English teenagers that just graduated from high school and are traveling anywhere Nadine and I are headed. I will let you pick which one has been a big pain in the arse. We've experienced it here in New Zealand and in the Cook Islands, English teenagers get their first taste of freedom, travel to another country, and decide to go plum silly drinking lots of beer and alcohol, being loud, and not really seeing the sights other than the local liquor store run by Ned. Ok, not every English traveler is like that, i.e. Jason and Sarah (currently in Las Vegas), but we have met more than one that is annoying. Which leads us to Auckland.

Thus, our first stay in the land of Lord of the Rings, extreme sports, and friendly folks, we stayed in a crap hole called the Fat Camel. Better yet, call it the Fat, Smelly, Dirty Camel's Butt Hostel full of slime balls. Travel presents different types of people and different views on life by people. Needless to stay, our hostel was "special" in that it was nasty, but it did do one positive thing, it forced us to see Auckland and it's many treasures from the early morning until the late evening.

Don't misinterpret the above paragraphs to mean that we are miserable and not having a great time, quite the contrary. We are having a great time, feel fortunate to be able to travel, and have met loads of great people. Earlier this past week, our credit card was being charged for bus tickets to explore the North Island, and a couple leaned over and said that we could have theirs, for free, and it takes us to the sights we wanted to visit. Talk about a good deed, and the couple wouldn't accept any money from us in exchange for the tickets. I am convinced that there are more good, quality people than bad. I am sure of that.

This past Thursday evening, Nadine and I went to see one of the movies showing at the Auckland International Film Festival, the Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. The movie was quite interesting and the fact that the movie was based in West Texas, not Western New Mexico, made it even better. Odessa was mentioned several times along with a couple of scenes actually filmed in Odessa. There isn't nothing like seeing Odessa when you are in Auckland, New Zealand! Once again, wasn't New Mexico. As intriguing as watching a movie featuring West Texas was the theatre itself, the Civic Theater. This elaborate theatre, used for plays, only shows movies during the film festival. On top of that, while the movie was playing, there was a simulation of the sky, stars, and clouds on the ceiling as they were on April 21st. Pretty cool stuff. I wasn't sure whether to make a wish when the the shooting star passed by.

One of our final excursions in Auckland was a ferry over to the volcanic island of Rangitoto. Rangitoto is a volcanic island that was formed 600 years ago, very young for a volcano, ancient for a human, and is located across the whale, dolphin, and sealife infested Waitemata Harbor. On the black island, we climbed the 260 meter tall cone for another superb view the Auckalnd cityscape and our surroundings.

After a short lunch trying to feed ourselves and the small green bird ressembling Tweety, we walked around the lip of the volacno and then on to some caves. At the caves, Robin, an engineer from Maine living in Cali, and I explored the volcanic caves with the aid of a small "Curves" gym light. It started offf somewhat tight but expanded into a tall, circular cave. We were able to see roots hanging from the ceiling. When we came to the end of our cave expedition, we had to climb out of a jagged exit, and our freedom. As soon as we poked our heads out, and Nadine knew that it was doable, she jumped right in and did it herself. She exited with a non-claustrophoby induced smile on her cute little face.

A little side note. New Zealand is very environmentally conscious. You can tell by the way they talk and carry themselves that they are making a genuine effort to protect the environment. As a result of their effort, the place is clean, clean, and clean. As one little boy on a trip back from Minnesota mentioned, this place is "way to green."

From Auckland, we traveled by bus, a free bus trip that is, to Waitomo wiht their famous underground caves and glow worms. Let me drop a little knowledge on y'all. The Maori word Wai means "water,' while "tomo" means hole, cave, or space. Thus Waitomo is the "water hole". This is where you can find hundreds of underground caves to explore by boat, innertube, swimming, upside down, basically anyway that the Kiwis can think up. This is where you will also find the "arachnocampa luminosa," for those of you not as scientifically blessed as myself, those are glowworms, or honestly, "glow maggots," and they are unique to New Zealand. Our trip in an underground river with glow maggots overhead was amazing! It ressembled a bright night sky in West Texas where you can see all the stars, yet this time, they were maggots. I did resist the temptation of placing a few in my mouth and to scare small children. Maybe next time.

The most recent extreme sport we have tried has been zorbing. Zorbing originated here in Rotorua and it is a sport? where you jump inside an oversized plastic ball that is full of water, and you roll down any hill or mountain that is close by. It's not dangerous, because you are in a space that is soft and plastic, which is surrounded by another ball of plastic and you have lots of cushiony air in between the two. It was great fun. That must be how a baby feels for 9 months.

Nadine and I have spent a week here already and been able to experience some great things so far - eating lots of sushi, visit a few volcanoes, Mt. Eden, Achilles Point; free bus tour of the city; try some Hokey Pokey; Nadine talked to her parents, I talked to Tim; be up close to stingrays, sharks, and penguins; reach the top of the Sky Tower (tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere);

Life is good. Over the next 7 days, we hope to skydive!, finish visiting the North Island, travel to the South Island, and find some clean hostels along the way.

Hope all are doing well and enjoying the blog as we globeblog. We hope to get a few more photos on the website at the beginning of August. We are only allowed a certain amount of photos per month.

Peace and love from Rotorua, New Zealand

[/b]Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. - Unknown[b]

During our time in the Cook Islands, that has been a common theme, the kindness of strangers. It appears that everywhere we go, people are always willing to give a helping hand on the islands.

A couple of our goals on this trip was to volunteer in the Cook Islands and to intermittently meet up with different Brothers from the Congregation of Christian Brothers. We weren't too successful on the first one, but we were able to meet the three Brothers living in Rarotonga, Brother John, Vincent, and Ben. We shared dinner with them twice while on the island, and Brother Ben, mid-80's shared some funny stories from when he was studying to become a Brother, back in the late 1930's. This guy has seen quite a bit. It was great to meet up with them.

I mentioned this previously, but the Cook Islanders are very welcoming and generous. A few times around the islands, we were approached by locals asking if we needed any help or wanted a ride somewhere. So if you see a Cook Islander, pat them on the back and thank them on behalf of me for their kindness.

Our last week in the Cook Islands was characterized with quite a bit of lounging by the beach, reading, lying by the pool, and reading a little bit more. The life of a traveler is TOUGH!

There is one activity we did do, a cross island hike. This was a hike that crossed the island from the north to the south, and we had been looking for a chance to do it. We were lucky enough to catch three straight days of sun, which was the first time so far. We quickly jumped out of bed, laced up our running shoes, and headed downtown to begin our "epic" hike. This hike turned out to be one of the most unique and challenging hikes that we had ever attempted. We were following what we thought was the trail to the trailhead until the path was no longer visible. We walked down a couple hundred yards to the road, and three locals said that we were going the correct direction. So we went back to where we stopped, and poked our head into the brush, and there the hike continued. From there on, our hike was under a canopy of trees. Our ascent was full of walking on top of tree roots, grabbing on to tree branches, until we finally we reached the top. From there, we had a panoramic view of the northern and southern beaches and the famous "Needle." The Needle is a large rock sticking out at the top of the mountain. The hike down was twice as tough as the ascent. This way down, the side receives less sun and less hikers, and as a result was muddy, steep, and sleek. Nadine caught herself several times from falling by grabbing a tree branch. It was a challenge. Nadine and I don't have any great desire to do it again, but we felt proud to have climbed it.

Our time in the Cook Islands has ended. We are now in Auckland, New Zealand after heavy fog diverted us to the capital of Wellington before eventually landing in Auckland 6 hours late. Yes, the rain has followed us here. New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere and rather than being the heat of a Texas summer, it is winter and cold. We have four weeks to explore the two islands and we are excited to see what the land of Kiwis has to offer.

JW

Hold a true friend with both your hands.
-Nigerian Proverb

Our first two weeks here in the Cook Islands have been great. A week ago, we took a short early morning flight from the main island of Rarotonga north to the small island of Aitutaki. We thought that the lagoon surrounding Rarotonga was nice, the one surrounding Aitutaki was superb.

The highlight for both of us on this trip so far, even though we just started was the lagoon cruise that we took midweek. We woke up quite early to make reservations for a cruise to Honeymoon Island and the motu Maina. Nadine and I were accompanied by our two English friends, Sarah and Jason. I am able to communicate in Spanish and French, but this English English takes a little getting used to. We got a ride up to the wharf where our barge was set to depart. Upon our sea-going vessel, we had tables with chairs all around it so we could eat, drink, be merry, and watch the blue water as we sailed on by. Along the way, we stopped to snorkle in 20 foot deep water as we sailed over puffer fish and clams the size of a scooter. These were the biggest clams I have ever seen. I am now identical to Jeremy Pepper in that when I went to pick the clam's nose, it shut, chopped my finger off, and I now only have 9 fingers. It makes it easier to swim in circles now. Mom, I was just joking about that.

We followed our snorkeling with a huge lunch of fruit and yellow fin tuna. This tuna rivals all of the salmon I have had in my life, good eating! We then visited Honeymoon Island which houses the rare red beak bird. I killed one to take home with me and show everyone back in the States. Another joke mom. We finished off our motu visiting with Maina. Here we were able to learn how to effectively open a coconut, get our passport stamped again, and do a bit more snorkeling along with some of the bread that I took from lunch. It was great just watching fish fly by.

On our way back to the wharf, Nadine, Jason, Sarah, and I were part of a sarong wearing demonstration. I think that this was because we were the youngest folks on the boat. The rest were folks coming from the main island for the day, thus they were all blue hairs. The entire day proved to be the highlight of our trip so far.

The people of Aitutaki have to be some of the warmest, most welcoming people we have met so far. They are Polenesian Texans. Anytime that we were walking around the island, several people would stop and offer to give us a ride. One evening, I stopped, chatted with a local guy whose name I couldn't understand. He chopped down a few coconuts, pulled a few bananas, showed me his land crabs (ladies beware!), and I played soccer between four coconut trees with him and his two kids and a young girl from next door. I helped him bring his boat ashore. This type of experience reaffirms your faith in humankind and the joy and blessing of being able to travel. Everyone should try it!

After we booked our flight for our around the world trip, we learned that Survivor was going to be filming at the exact same time that we were going to be there. The entire island of Aitutaki seems to be geared for the show. There are several parts of the island that we can't actually get to because of filming. One day, Nadine and I went over to a part of the lagoon which houses a luxury resort. As we were standing there, I looked over and there was Jeff Probst, the host of Survivor. I went over immediately and told him he needs to replace one of the current Survivor contestants with me. Actually, Nadine and I talked with him for a good 5 minutes. He seems to be a pretty good guy from the Midwest. It was nice to meet him and talk with him for a bit. I told him that I would run into again in about a year and a half when I'm on the show.

One of the more amusing things to happen to us so far is renting a scooter to explore the island. The fun part is that neither Nadine nor I have actually driven a scooter and everyone here drives on the left side of the road. That provided for two challenging obstacles. Fortunately we started with an automatic little gray crotch rocket. Initially I had an ackward time getting used to driving it as Nadine continually laughed and yelled at me to drive on the left side of the road, not the right as we're accustomed to. No animals, humans, or plants were injured during this expedition. Actually, a few Cook Islanders were laughing pretty hard when they saw me have a hell of a time trying to turn the scooter but really just driving onto peoples' yards. We are not quite sure the condition of their spleen at this time.

We are currently have another week here in Rarotonga and the Cook Islands before we continue on to New Zealand on July 17th where they have been having quite a bit of snow.

We are having a great time and wish everyone continued health. [/i]Akeeta! [i]

We hope to add many of our great photos in the next week.

Peace from the Cook Islands!

John and Nadine

You learn alot while traveling, butt nuggets of information.
- Sarah (our British traveling partner in the Cooks)

Hello yall! Nadine and I finally arrived to Rarotonga and the Cook Islands last Monday and we are happy to be in a rainy paradise. Quite a bit has happened since we arrived to the tiny island, so we will let you know what has been happening.

First of all, if you are not familiar with our locale, here is the 411. The Cook Islands are located in the South Pacific west of Tahiti, east of Fiji, and very far due south of Hawaii. It's a tropical climate. There are two groups of islands, the northern group, hardly inhabited, and the southern group which contains Rarotonga and Aitutaki, the two islands we are visiting. We picked these set of islands over Fiji and Tahiti due to A) the fact that we wouldn't expect there to be many visitors, which there aren't, B) a little cheaper, which it isn't, compared to American prices, and C) it would be beautiful, no doubt about that.

June 22nd we flew to L.A. to meet up with some old college friends before going to our first international destination. Upon arriving to L.A. our goal was simple, relax. Previously we had been packing, moving, and making sure our apartment was empty before our first flight. Chrissie was Nadine's roommate at TU and we stayed with her and her roommate Vola. It was great riding down to Venice Beach where I could lift weights and constantly ask where the gym was in front of a big crowd. I also met up with Van Schaick, one of my college roommates. He is a big lawyer in Hollywood now, so if you ever watch COPS, he is responsible for making sure the show is not breaking the law themselves. Quite ironic! It was a great time of laying around, watching World Cup soocer, and repacking our bags.

Our flight from L.A. to Rarotonga left at 11:45 in the evening. The entire way, Nadine had the middle row to herself where she remarkably slept a solid 5 hours on the plane before our arrival into our layover spot of Papeete, Tahiti. Myself, I had two seats to myself where I curled up like a baby and slept like an old man. The actual arrival into Rarotonga was pretty nice. Instead of just landing onto the single runway, we flew by the island at a low altitude to land from the opposite direction because of the wind blowing off of the Pacific. The view of the entire island was amazing.

The first four days of our time on the island consisted of reading, writing, staring out the window praying for the rain to stop. Yes, our first days in paradise were restricted because of the rain.

After several days of non-stop rain, Nadine was content staying in the hostel reading her book, myself, I had to get out of the hostel, so I jumped on the bus and headed to Muri Beach to just see another part of the island. When I got there, I found a nice little place to rent a kayak and the rain let up and the sun had actually peeked its head out along with Sabrina, our German friend from our hostel, so we rented two kayaks. As soon as we put it in the water, the clouds clouded over, wind picked up, and the rain began to fall again. Since I paid for the kayak, I was determined to use it. Kayaking in the rain across the blue lagoon was refreshing in the choppy Pacific Ocean water. After we landed and searched the first motu, Sabrina decided to head back to the beach, because she was cold. I on the other hand figured I might as well visit the other motu born of volcanic rock. As I paddled over, the waves and wind were blowing me and my kayak around like Matthew Pepper in high school, so at that moment I decided it might be wise to go back to shore. I did live to see another day.

Once the rain really stopped on Friday, Nadine and I traveled back over to Muri Beach to try our hand at kayaking. From the beach, we manuevered our bright, plastic kayaks around motus, the name for the little islands, as waves crashed in the far distance against the reef that surrounds the island. When it came time to return our kayaks, we paddled against a powerful headwind. As a result of our kayaking, the next morning, Nadine had some sore shoulders and back.

Saturday started off as a sunny day and we had high hopes. Snorkeling was our goal. We rented some snorkeling gear and walked south down the island road. We found a secluded spot on the beach and dropped our stuff there. As we headed out towards the reef, the water wasn't that deep, so we had to avoid running into it. After a few trips around the reef among parrot fish, several of the fish that you saw in "Finding Nemo," we decided to try another spot further down the beach noted for great snorkeling. This next spot was the perfect spot for snorkeling. In front of the Rarotongan Resort, there was deep water with 10 times as many fish as the previous spot. The entire sensation felt like we were swimming among all types of fish one would find in an aquarium. It was awesome!

Sunday, July 2nd, a very important day in American history, my 29th birthday, we attended mass at a church close to our hostel. In the Cook Islands, people are known for two things, their dansing and their singing. The singing at mass was lively, unique, and in Maori. After mass, we were invited to join in the monthly tea. Basically, everyone brought some type of food to go along with either tea, coffee, and juice after mass. It was a good time as we talked with folks from the island.

To celebrate my birthday, we went to eat at an Indian restaurant for a buffet the night before as well as a day of renting bikes and circling the 20 mile road circling around the island. It was a great way to see the island.

So there has been a few interesting things that have happened here, just some quick notes. At the Indian restaurant, I walked into the restroom, and instead of seeing a trash can for your paper towels, there was a very large crab eating the paper in its place. I jumped back when I saw it. You would hate to have him bite your butt while you were going to the loo.

Another item of interest, we have learned that you have to wash your clothes everyday or two, not three or four, because, as is the case with our clothes, they begin to stink quite a bit in the humid weather.

We actually went to an "Island Night." Different Cook Islanders perform their native danse. It was great to see the folks in their native attire. At the end when it came time for people in the crowd to danse with the dansers, Nadine hurriedly hid behind me. Unfortunately, they didn't pick her.

It has been fun here on Rarotonga. We are now heading to Aitutaki where they are currently filming Survivor. I am going to sneek onto the island. Hope all is well.

Peace from the Cooks - John and Nadine