Happy Holidays?

I can't even believe it's almost the end of October. Like how is this happening?! I'm missing all the holidays this year, Fourth of July has come and gone, and now the three best ones are coming up: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

It's not that they don't recognize Halloween here in Australia, it's just not that big of a deal. From what I hear, some kids still get dressed up and go trick-or-treating, but as far as Halloween for the "older generations" it's just another normal day...Halloween parties aren't had, and bars don't have costume contests or anything. That being said, I'll be spending this year's Halloween on the couch watching heaps of scary movies with Mitch and Phil, while eating all the candy we should be giving out to little kids, but aren't...

I'm really most upset about not dressing up myself. The past few years I've been really into going all out and bringing out my dark side. For instance, here are my last four Halloween costumes: 

I love getting creative and spending minimal amounts of money on a costume. My favorite costume had to have been when I was the Corpse Bride and I wore my mom's old wedding dress. Thank goodness it was Halloween because that's one day of the year that if things are too small, it's "normal." I was by no means showing too much skin, but my mom was a lot smaller than me when she got married, and that dress wouldn't zip up...but that was okay...because, you know, it was Halloween. 

Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here either, for obvious reasons. So yeah, this year I am missing out on Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, football (which I watch pretty much only twice a year...Thanksgiving and Super Bowl), and family get-togethers with loads of delicious food...foods Australia can't even offer. People here just don't understand how good Thanksgiving is; I think even I have taken it for granted in years past. The saying is definitely true, "you don't know what you got 'til it's gone."

And let's not talk about Christmas. A couple months ago I basically cried myself to sleep thinking about how this will be the first Christmas that I have EVER missed! I mean, even Lindsay flies home every year from New York to be with the family. It's weird, growing up and all, and having real responsibilities. I talk like I have real responsibilities...but I'm literally living the life in Australia right now. But really, the four of us kids have now all graduated college and moved on with life; so it's not like it's Winter Break and classes are out for a month so there is no reason/excuse that you can't go home. Lindsay works, Caitlin works, and now even Charlie works. It's not as easy to make it home anymore...still everyone seems to make it happen. But now I'm over eight thousand miles and a fifteen hour plane ride away from Amarillo...and I could catch Ebola if I hopped on a plane right now (jokes...but really...haha).

While I was in college I would go months and months without seeing my family, and wouldn't think much of it. Three weeks during Christmas break, and one month during summer break was generally the only time I was home. It's not until you're so far away, and when you can't drive home on any given day (if you wanted to), that you realize how much you can really miss your family. And I do, I miss them so much!

So happy holidays to all my friends and family back home in America. I have a love/hate relationship with seeing all the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts about what everyone's wearing/eating/doing during these upcoming holidays...I miss it all, so enjoy it!

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." 

- Proverbs 22:6

XO - Cristin

Welcome to Maitland. Home of the Mustangs.

Seven months ago I planned a four-month trip abroad to Australia. My flight back home to the states returned sixteen days ago, without me on it.

After our holiday to New Zealand, the boys flew back home to America and I moved to Newcastle. Well, Maitland actually. I figured that if I have a visa that allows me to stay in Australia for one year, and getting a second visa is pretty difficult from what I hear, I might as well max out the entire year that my visa allows. And besides, who the heck would want to leave Australia to go back to the states and get a real job!? Not me. I want to be young and wild and free as long as possible.

So, yeah, I was fortunate enough to have another friend from college living here who offered me a place to stay. It’d probably been four or five years years since Mitch and I had last talked, and now I'm living with him for the next six months…funny how things work out. 

(The picture on the left is from my either my freshman or sophomore year when we were at UCA together, the one on the right is from two days ago...five-ish years later.)

Mitch is four years older than I am, and played basketball for UCA. We were friends for two years before he graduated and moved to Florida. After being in Florida for ten months he moved to Australia to pursue a professional basketball career, and he’s been here ever since. 

We live in a shed behind one of the families that he knows here in Maitland. This place is sweet. It doesn't look like much, but it's nice and secluded and has the best views. He was nice enough to give me the big bedroom downstairs, with a queen size bed, and then him and Phil sleep upstairs. 

He not only hooked me up with a place to live, but also a job. I FINALLY have an income again. I work for a friend of Mitch's with a program called SNAP. I'm part of a team that works with individuals and groups to help participants build more satisfying and productive lives. We want them to reach their full potential and we do this by offering our help in their everyday lives: setting up daily routines to follow, getting them to and from places, hanging out, and mentoring/leading by example. It's a pretty sweet gig. 

We also got a puppy, named Snoop. Mitch is trying to convince me to stay here forever, and he thinks that if I get attached to Snoop I'll never leave. It won't work, I have a five year plan...

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." 

- Phillipians 4:19

 XO - Cristin

Mum's the Word...for Mom.

I don't think there will ever be an end to the new words and phrases that I hear living in Australia. There's literally something said every day that I'm like, what? what does that mean? Ha. I'm so American...if I add a "y" to everything and/or don't pronounce the r's in any of my words I'm basically halfway there to being Australian. Here's a few other things I'm trying to remember: 

If you are being introduced to someone, or want to know their name, you ask “what are they called?” Not “what’s their name.”


Instead of saying thank you, you say “cheers” or “ta.” Which, I’m all about being polite and saying thank you for everything, but something about using cheers annoys me, it’s overused.


If you want someone to give it a try, you tell them to “give it a crack” or ”give it a go.”


You write the date at day/month/year. I’m starting to do this automatically now, and I don’t like it, it really makes me have to think too hard sometimes to figure out which date I'm talking about.


They don’t know what parentheses are; they call them brackets. So there’s not a difference between ( ) and [ ].


Spelling is always a bit different: tyre = tire, organisation = organization.


If you want to order something to go, you ask for “take away.”


A bachelorette party is called a "hen's night."


If the restaurant or somewhere isn’t busy, you say it’s “quiet.”


Calories are measured in kilojoules. Like, I’m now on a 8,700kJ diet…that kinda seems like a lot right!?


If someone calls you cheeky, it means you’re mischievous. I thought it was some special word for flirting…


Anything wooden is called timber.


A pint of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream costs $13 here! Now that’s ridiculous.


A snack bar is called the canteen.


If you drink too much, you’re considered “blind,” rather than wasted. It’s also “drink driving” here, not drunk driving…so strange.


If you go somewhere for an extended period of time you’re “on holiday” not vacation.


 Here are some more quick translations (Australian to American):


• Mum = mom
• Me = my (this one I can't stand)
• University, or "uni" for short = college
• How you going? = How are you?
• Missus = girlfriend
• Partner = significant other (not necessarily of the same sex)
• Best mates = best friends
• I like your crack = I like your personality (I still can't take this comment seriously...haha)
• Bottle shop, or bottle-o = liquor store
• Brekky = breakfast
• Gridiron = American football
• Let's run it = let's do it
• "Zed" = the pronunciation of the letter Z
• Arvo (pronounced ah-vo) = afternoon
• Macca's = McDonalds
• Chips = fries
• Crisps = chips
• Biscuits = cookies
• Potato Gems = tator tots
• Jumper = sweatshirt
• Scuffs, or slumbies = slippers
• Stubbies = longnecks
• Good on ya = good for you
• Winging = whining
• Trials = tryouts
• Training = practice
• En suite = bathroom
• Sook = the act of being a baby
• Righteo = of course

Pretty soon I'll be talking full Australian. Look out, mate!

XO - Cristin 

Six Days, Seven Nights….in New Zealand. Three months of anticipation finally here!!!

Holy smokes, New Zealand was AMAZING. Hands down, the best week of my life (minus that one time I went to Younglife camp…haha). We spent six days and seven nights in New Zealand, and let me just say, that’s not near enough time. We only went to the South Island too, taking the inland scenic route to each of our destination cities.

This is what our week looked like:

September 24: Fly into Christchurch from Sydney

            Our flight from Sydney to New Zealand left at 7:35pm. It was an easy three-hour flight, except for the fact that I sat next to a very large, hairy man. The only downside to leaving so late in the day was that it was completely dark when we landed in Christchurch; I didn’t get to enjoy the scenic aerial views that we had seen plenty of pictures of during our “research.” Around 11pm our plane had landed in Christchurch and we had retrieved all of our bags…no luggage lost (which is always a good start to any trip).

            Because we booked our caravan through the Flight Center, we had a complementary night at Airport Birches, one of the local motels; our taxi got us there around midnight. We hadn’t originally planned for Molly to join us three months ago, so all we had was a queen and a twin bed. Ethan was nice enough to take the floor, and let Molly and I share the bed (even though we all three could’ve squeezed in).

Day 1: Christchurch to Lake Tekapo to Mount Cook

            We didn’t check to see when our check-out time was be the night before because nobody was at the front desk when we arrived. We actually overslept that morning…oops! Fortunately, it was only by about fifteen minutes and the manager of the motel was pretty understanding, knowing we had gotten in late (or early depending on how you look at it) the night before. By 10:30am we were out of there and the Airport Birches car service gave us a free ride to our caravan pickup.

  

            After we picked up our caravan, we got everything sorted and organized, and got on the road! Lake Tekapo was our first stop. The entire drive was beautiful; a picture perfect view around every corner. New Zealand is seriously gorgeous. 

When we got to Lake Tekapo, it was something else though. Molly put it perfectly when she said, “I never really understood the phrase ‘breathe it in’ until now.” I’ve never seen a more beautiful backdrop, you didn’t even want to blink. The lake’s water was the bluest water I’ve ever seen, and not like a dark blue, it was a light creamy blue (which apparently is runoff from the nearby glaciers).

  

We didn’t stay long in Lake Tekapo, unfortunately. It would have been the perfect place to enjoy some hot pools! That’ll definitely be where I take my mom if we ever make it to New Zealand together. 

From Lake Tekapo we made our way to Mount Cook. And trust me when I say, you didn't want to close your eyes...no matter how tired you were. The views just kept comin'.

When we got to Mount Cook we found a campsite to park our camper van and sleep. Before we went to bed though, we found a nearby pub to eat at, and booked our first adventure for tomorrow morning: a glacier exploration! The food at the pub was delicious. And we made friends with a bartender from Fiji, Etuate (or Edi)...he was awesome, and he convinced us that we all need to visit Fiji soon.

Day 2: Mount Cook to Queenstown            

Last night's sleep was ridiculously windy! It felt like we were literally going to blow over and roll down the mountain we were parked on. It rained hard too, we figured there would be no way we would be out on the water for our glacier exploration tour. We figured it'd be canceled; we were wrong. 

 It was SO cold! And me, you know, packing for a trip to Australia, didn't pack ANY winter clothes! Taylor got lucky and had his dad bring over all his winter clothes when he came to visit, and Molly brought all Ethan's stuff when she met us there. I had one pair of sweatpants, a couple of pairs of leggings, and two sweatshirts...that's basically it. 

 The glacier exploration was a blast though; it was really neat seeing an iceberg in real life and realizing how big those glaciers actually were. Plus our tour guide was funny, and that always makes things more enjoyable.

After the glacier exploration we ate breakfast, and went for a quick hike to one of their infamous wooden bridges. I definitely thought this was going to be a rugged, dangerous, rope and wood bridge, but it wasn't....it was very well built...not dangerous at all.

After our hike we changed into dry clothes and got back on the road. Our next stop was Queenstown. This was our “main” destination I would say. I think, the boys were most excited about this place because it was more like party central from what they’ve heard. 

We got to Queenstown fairly early in the evening. We found a nice place for dinner, scoped out a place to park the caravan for the night, and headed out to find why this town had to offer. We stopped in at place called Happy Travels; they knew anything about everything and basically set us up for all our extreme adventures for the next couple of days: jet boat tours, skydiving, skiing/snowboarding, and hot pools.

Day 3: Queenstown

            I’m one of those people who, when on road trips, like to stop along the way in small towns to walk around and do a bit of sightseeing and shopping. Unique little boutiques and weekend markets are my absolute favorite. That’s not exactly the definition of fun for two boys…all they had on their mind while we were in New Zealand was driving from Point A to Point B each day as quick as possible so that they could find extreme/adventure tourist activities to do.

I knew we would be leaving Queenstown tomorrow, and we had already spent a day here without seeing the city, so when the boys (and Molly) decided to go on a Jet Boat Tour, I opted out and chose to explore the city and all it had to offer instead. I’ve been on one of those jet boat tours before in Wisconsin last summer anyways, and it was great and all, but I’d rather spend my money elsewhere (and yes, I know…Wisconsin IS NOT New Zealand, but still).

After the boys and Molly got back from their jet boat tour we found "the place in Queenstown to eat." Everybody told us we had to try the burgers at Fergburgers. They weren't lying. This things were delicious! And huge. I had the Southern Swine burger, which had: lettuce, tomato, an egg, grilled jalapeños, cheese, and some special sauce....AMAZING!!!

After Fergburgers we went back to the caravan to change clothes and head out for a fun night on the town. We told ourselves we weren't going to stay out past 2am, since we had to get up early to head to the slopes. We weren't in bed by two...

We started out at one of the local bars; it was a fairly quiet night (that's what they say for non-busy), but it was also still early, around 10pm. We had a few drinks, watched the rugby game, and started making random friends...I love being foreign. A live band started setting up around eleven or so, and once they started, they played all cover songs, so everyone was all about singing along and dancing. It was a blast. And we stayed there 'til around 2:30am, and by then we had become pretty good friends with a guy named Aaron who wanted to show us a new bar called Cowboys.

This bar had Texas written all over it. I was like we were back home, almost. As soon as we got there we stopped to warm up and enjoy the fireplace. Taylor made the mistake of touching one of the logs, and then touching his face...ash everywhere! 

We made even more friends with a bunch of rugby players. They were huge! and a lot of fun. I think we left there around 4am, and on our way back we saw some other Americans that Taylor and Ethan met earlier that night. We only knew them by the names "New York" and "New York's friend." They shared their pizza with us, offered us free cookies, and sang the Star Spangled Banner with us. We are so American, right? 

Day 4: Queenstown to Cardrona

A full day of snowboarding…that was our plan. We needed to leave Queenstown by 9am to make the 43km trek to Cardrona and make it by the 10am lift openings. Yeah, that didn’t happen…ha. We had stayed out laaattteee last night in Queenstown, we didn’t even get back to our caravan until 4:45am, and our beds still weren’t made.

I don’t think we ended up waking up until around 10:30am, and it was still an hour plus to the mountain. The end of ski season was in a week; the entire time we were driving, all we kept thinking was, “where’s the snow? It’s gotta be right after this turn.” We got to Cardrona just before noon, bought our lift tickets, ate a quick breakfast, and hit the slopes.

It was Molly's first time ever skiing. So that was fun. 

The snow wasn't great, but the weather was. I had rented snowboarding pants, a jacket, and gloves gearing up for a cold day on the slopes. I took my big ski jacket off after the first run...I think it was probably around sixty degrees. Now that's my kind of snowboarding weather; all I needed were my pants, gloves, and a long sleeve shirt!

I'd love to come back here when the snow is really good. Lots of powder...

Maybe I'll bring my brother Charlie with me next time, he would love it! And he'd kick my ass down the mountain.

Day 5: Cardrona to Wanaka

We woke up with a $200 parking ticket today. Obviously we wanted to spend as little money as possible on this trip, or at least save where we could, and we parked our caravan on the street for the night. Being out-of-towners we didn't realize that paying for parking 'til 9am didn't count for caravans...oops. Oh well, nothing was going to ruin this day. 

We went skydiving. Let me say that again…WE WENT SKYDIVING TODAY!!! It was incredible. It’s always been on my bucket list of things I want to do before I die, and I always thought that I would only want to do it one time. Not the case anymore. I want to do it over, and over again in as many badass places as I can! 

I really thought I was going to be petrified. I was talking up a big game about how excited I was to jump out of a plane from 12,000 feet, and I was, but I kept waiting for that "oh shit, I'm about to jump out of a plane" moment and it never came. Haha.

One of Skydive Lake Wanaka's slogans is "strap yourself to a beautiful stranger." And I did. Anthony was awesome. He was from South Africa, funny, and definitely put me at ease. We were the first to jump out of the plane. He had jokingly said if he wasn't the first out he wouldn't go because he'd be too scared. 

Skydiving was hands down the best thing I did while in New Zealand. I highly recommend it for anyone and everyone. You gotta do it at least once. I promise you won't regret it! 

After an exciting day, it was time to wind down. What better way than to spend the evening looking at the stars in some of the best hot pools?

Day 6: Wanaka to Roy’s Peak to Christchurch

            We had a long day's drive ahead of us today; six hours back to Christchurch where we would be leaving from tomorrow morning. There was this huge mountain called Roy's Peak that people had been telling us to hike if we had time. Since it was on the way to where we were going, we figured we'd might as well climb it. 

Little did we know it was a three hour hike up the mountain (just up, not including coming back down). So instead of climbing to the peak, we walked up the mountain for about twenty minutes, high enough to see a great view, and took a nap.

I didn't nap during this time. I decided to keep hiking up the mountain and chase some of the sheep. I don't think I mentioned how many sheep New Zealand has...there are sheep EVERYWHERE!

 It was a long drive back to Christchurch, and that's when I did my napping. I slept most of the way, except for when I was sliding off the bench in the back...Ethan was putting the pedal to the medal! We had to get back by 4:30pm in order to turn our caravan in on time (the place wouldn't be open before 8am tomorrow, and we had to be at the airport by 5am). We took the same highway back to Christchurch that we had before, so I wan't missing any new views, fortunately. 

We BARELY made it to Christchurch on time. We literally pulled up to the caravan return place with five minutes to spare! And then we had to leave again because we didn't refill it with a full tank of gas. Luckily they were nice enough to wait up for us, and didn't charge us for being late.

Day 7: Fly back to Sydney from Christchurch

            Our flight to Sydney left at 7am…waaayyyy too early when our average bedtime for the past week had been around 3am. We all packed the night before, called the taxi for a 4:20am pickup, and made sure we’d be ready to go bright and early the next morning. The next morning came way too soon, and not a single on of us were ready to leave this beautiful country. Is it too soon to go back and visit already???

We arrived in Sydney at 7:30 am, and each went our separate ways: me to Newcastle, Taylor back to Brisbane for a couple of days, and Ethan and Molly back home to America. 

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth...and God saw everything He had made, and, behold, it was very good." - Genesis 1:1, 31a

XO - Cristin