Goodbye 2011! It's been fun!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and is waiting bright eyed and bushy tailed for whatever adventures 2012 may hold! And what do you think of the new layout/background? New year = new look (but still keeping it simple!)

My end of year adventures have been pretty slow compared to New Zealand, but here's what I've been up to:

Since I missed Thanksgiving day as I was halfway around the world - I had my own when I returned! Nothing as fancy as I'm sure most of you had, but tasty none-the-less! Turkey tenders, instant potatoes, rolls - all the fixin's :)

Nom nom nom

Most of December has been spent working working working (which isn't so bad as I need to save up for the next plane ticket - I'll let you in on a secret.... Meg and I have batted around the idea of India 2013!)

Unfortunately I got my bank account hacked into and someone had a VERY Merry Christmas on MY $5000 they took! Geez! It's been a slow process, but I'm finally regaining control of my accounts with all my money back where it's supposed to be. Hopefully it doesn't happen again as it sure is a big pain in the a**!

I didn't go back to the mitten for Christmas since my dear sweet brother decided to go to DisneyWorld for the holiday and not bring me (BLASPHEMY!) and I needed to save some $$$ so I opted out of visiting Colorado (probably the only time I've ever turned down a trip to the Rocky Mountains - so sad) Instead, I stayed in my good old land of cheese and spent my Christmas eve and day up in the Wisconsin Dells! Can you say indoor water and theme park? I can! It was a blast (and not crowded to boot!) No lines meant numerous trips down the tube slide and round the lazy river! And big thank yous to everyone for all my great gifts! A new bike light from my dad (gotta wait til spring when I start riding to work again to use this one!), bike shorts and a sweet metal mountain wall hanging from my mama, books from my brother and sister-in-law, wine and tree ornaments related to all our travels from the bestie, Meg, and cheese balls and concert tickets to my all time favorite bank Jack's Mannequin, from Jim! Good haul - thanks everyone!

The question is: Who DOESN'T jump on the beds in hotel rooms?

We ate at this Canadian restaurant called MooseJaw. I got a kick out of the moose on top of the PT cruiser.

See - Canadian!!!

Waterpark fun! And being Wisconsin in the winter, I wasn't even the whitest person there!

Tickets :) Woo-hoo! Too bad I need to wait until late January to use them!

Bike light (with epic container of cheese balls in background!)

My own mountains!

Me with all my stocking stuffers and some gifts!

As far as new years plans go.....Nothing set in stone yet. I'm still trying to find brave souls to polar bear plunge with me on the first! Any takers?

Have a safe and Happy New Years!

Stop reading this:

I mean it. Stop it right now. Drop everything you're doing, open a new tab in your browser and book a ticket immediately to New Zealand. Yes it's a bit pricey and Yes it's worth every single cent. Once you do that, you may come back here and look at my pictures. GO!

So basically - phenomenal trip. And that's an understatement. I'd be driving along thinking "Holy shit, this has got to be the prettiest view I've ever seen!" Then you turn a corner and everything you previously thought becomes obsolete and you think "Holy shit, THIS has got to be the prettiest view I've ever seen!" Imagine dropping the Colorado mountains on the California coast and getting rid of all the people (just replace them with sheep). Like that, but better. We drove the whole south island ad went kayaking, glacier hiking, bungy jumping, bike riding, hiking, camping, swimming, shopping, eating, drinking, exploring....all with huge smiles on our faces (even if it did try to rain on us a few times!) Rather than bore you to death with all my stories, let's just get to the good stuff - picture marathon of some of my favorites (there were over 700 taken after all)!!!!!
Consider this your sample size! (I know you really wanted the full size candy bar, but trust me, the fun size will just have to do for now - my internet connection won't load more than 5 photos at once and I'm just not that patient)

Christchurch Botanical Gardens - taking time to stop and smell the roses!

My face shows how it feels to drive on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car ,in a foreign country.

But eventually, I became an old pro and even conquered this road!

Dunedin Train Station: the 2nd most photographed building in the S. Hemishpere (1st being Sydney Opera House) - go play Trivial Pursuit with that one under your belt!

We got TONS of candy on the Cadbury tour

And we looked sexy while getting that candy

In between harassing the bartender at Mou Very (one of the top 10 smallest bars in the world) who let us drink at 10am

Getting ready to climb the steepest street in the world - Baldwin St

Good thing it was a short road. Climbing...climbing...climbing


We tent camped the whole thing. Unfortunately on night one we got soaking wet and lost our inflight entertainment.

Drying out our stuff at my favorite camp site of the trip. It was wide open spaces forever!

Hiking outside Milford Sound

It was cold and rainy, but who cares! Still worth kayaking the gorgeous Milford Sound

I made Meg do all the heavy paddling while I was on camera duty.

All the rain made for beautiful waterfalls and rainbows though!

Our whole kayaking group

NZ's longest swing bridge. A tacky stop on a long driving day

We walked across one way....

And rode the swing chute back the next!

Waterfalls were EVERYWHERE!
Taking one of many mini hikes though rainforest.

Just outside Queenstown, NZ

Practicing my climbing skills on the Moa statue

My weight written on my hand just prior to bungy jumping!!!

Feeling adequately terrified.... (notice my death grip on the railing behind me - which the guy had to shake my wrist loose from!)

but jumping anyways!

So absolutely worth it. I'd do it again!

Some of the cleanest water in NZ (you can buy it in a bottle, I'll sip straight from the source)

At the terminal face of Fox Glacier before hitting the ice.

This is how I spent my Thanksgiving!

Squeezing through an ice hole

The blue ice and crevasses were the prettiest.

Heading out on our bicycle wine tour!

Stopping to make friends on the way

It's clearly evident I have my mother's alcohol tolerance.

Meg relaxing at Cloudy Bay Winery

Hiking the Kaikoura Peninsula - much of which ran along side the Pacific.


Our hike actually went through a cow farm. Here I am out to pasture....

Having a laugh at Puzzling World in Wanaka where I took a fake poo!

One of 10000000 beautiful views

:)

My biggest problem now? Where do I go next? Open to suggestions ( and monetary support)