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

We Are the Champions!

One day to New Zealand. How is it already time to leave this wonderful place?! Brisbane has been home for the past four months, and the people I’ve met along the way only make it harder to go. 

For three months we’ve been planning this trip to New Zealand, and now that it’s time to go all we want to do is postpone it for a little longer, because once we leave that’s it…we’re not coming back. So we figured we’d go out with a bang :)

Tonight was the boys’ Grand Final game with Peninsula Power FC. And lemme tell ya, they KILLED IT. They beat Wolves FC 5-0! Taylor scored the very first goal of the match but had to be subbed out within the first fifteen minutes due to a hamstring injury. So that kinda sucked, but at least he scored before leaving the game. They had lost their last matchup against this team 5-1 two weeks prior, so this was sweet, sweet revenge.

  

After the game the Peninsula Power Clubhouse opened up for a big celebration. Free drinks all night! What a way to celebrate the boys’ big win and our last night with everybody. I don’t think we ended up going to bed ‘til 5am that next morning.

We were supposed to be picking up our caravan at 10am…yeah, that didn’t happen. Flights from Sydney to New Zealand were about $200 cheaper than flights from Brisbane to New Zealand due to the school holiday going on in Brisbane (making it a popular time for travel), so we ended up driving to Sydney and then flying form there to NZ. We found this thing where you can relocate a vehicle for a company to a particular city of origin for only $5/day, plus the cost of gas. That’s pretty cheap! It ended up saving us about $150 each on a flight to Sydney. Even though the roadtrip was about twelve hours long, it was night to see the scenic views of Australia from Brisbane to Sydney!

XO – Cristin

Good Riddance

So I was, in fact, fired from my job at the Golden Ox all those weeks ago. To be honest, I'm not sure if you could call it being fired, or if I really just quit. I like to think it was mutual...yeah, that's how I see it. After the initial argument I had called my boss the following Monday (two days later) to ask if I had any hours for the week. He told me it was a "very quiet week" and all he would be doing was working on the refurbishments with the architect (which I was a BIG part of the previous couple of weeks, having to print out EVERYTHING for him, and get him coffee on top of coffee, which he didn't drink)…no work for me that week. The following Sunday I called my boss again to ask if I had any hours and this time he told me the same thing, "it's looking like a quiet week," but he also added in "if you can find other work I think you should." I took that as I was fired, and decided never to call back again. Ha...good riddance. 

Now I had four weeks left 'til we flew to New Zealand for a week. And as much as I probably needed a job to earn a little extra cash, it had taken me three weeks to find my first job, so I decided to not waste my time. Thank God my mom taught me the importance of living on a budget while I was growing up. It was by no means easy living on a strict (and I mean SUPER STRICT) budget, but it paid off and I met my goal of leaving for New Zealand with $2000. I literally only pitched in for my share of the groceries each week (around $50), and bought credit for my phone ($30/month) when I needed it. There was no other spending! Had I not lost my job I would have easily made an extra $2500 before we left, and that would have come in handy once I moved to Newcastle after our trip, too.

Not working is boring. You would think that not having to go into work every day for a month would be great, but it’s not. It gets old…like, really old (especially when you don’t have a car, and your bike has a serious flat, so your walking radius is only about six miles…on a good day). Yes, I spent lots of time at the beach, when it was warm; but it still wasn’t full on summer yet, it was barely spring, so on the colder, and even rainy days, I was stuck inside. By myself. Until the boys got home around 4pm, and by that time they were ready to eat and go to bed.

The weeks went by slow, up until that very last week before we left for New Zealand. Then it just flew by.

"Labor not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom." - Proverbs 23: 4-5

XO – Cristin

And Then He Called Me Un-Christian!

A few weeks ago I asked for two days off, August 9^th and 23^rd: the last two home games of the boys’ soccer season. That’s a reasonable request, right? I mean, that was the first time I’ve requested time off AND I’d already missed the past eight games because I was working; plus, three weeks is plenty of time to find someone to cover a shift, yeah? Well my boss said, “I’ll only give you one of those days, so pick.” I picked the game on the 23^rd, because it was the boys’ very last game. Right after I picked, my boss then decided he had to check the function book first to see what was going on that day. We happened to have two functions along with our normal dinner in the restaurant, so he decided it’d be too busy, and changed his mind; I could only have the 9^th off. Fine, whatever, I tried to reason with him but he just got angry. So I gave in.

I went to the boys’ game on the 9^th, sat up in the box with their boss Jonesy, and he said that I needed to be sure to get the weekend of the 23^rd/24^th off since it’s their last game and they have a big party with music and races afterwards. I told Jonesy I had already asked for that day off and my boss said no. So (knowing about some of my prior complaints with my boss) he told me I should just quit…

As any of you could see from my last post, these past couple weeks have been really rough; but I’ve done my best to fake a smile and suck it up. I’ve wanted to quit, and I’ve had numerous people tell me that I should quit, but I just can’t bring myself to do it because there’s no one else working in my position (as personal assistant/wedding coordinator/waitress), and my boss would be absolutely lost if I just up and left. Plus, I’d feel bad dumping everything on his wife to deal with by herself.  

So, after those rough couple of weeks I decided that: you know what? I’m here on holiday to spend time with my two friends and watch them play soccer. If I want to watch their last game, I’m going to watch their last game! I had full intention of telling my boss tonight, a full week in advance, that I wouldn’t be working next Saturday (the day of that last game). Our work roster is made up on Saturdays, and I wanted to tell him before it was finished so that proper arrangements could be made to replace me in my shift, but I didn’t stop working from 1:30pm to 10pm this evening. There was literally never a good time to tell him before the roster was already made up.

When my shift did finally “end” at ten o’clock, and I sat down to go over the emails I had printed him, he said something to the extent of “I think I gave you Monday off too (because I already had tomorrow (Sunday) off).” That was my cue to break the news… I had started off by saying, “I know you’re not going to be happy about this, but I can’t work on Saturday. It’s the boys’ last game and I just found out there’s a big ceremony and awards to be given out afterwards. I don’t want to miss that.”

(That was a slight exaggeration, there’s only a big party after…ha. But still, I don’t want to miss it). I already knew he was going to get upset. What I didn’t expect was for him to say what he did…

After the initial, expected, anger reply he proceeded to call me UN-CHRISTIAN and told me that I was killing his business. Are you kidding me!? You know what’s killing your business, mister? How about the sky-high employee turnover rate! You can’t keep employees around long enough to even get them through training…and the one’s who are still here, don’t exactly enjoy it. I trained my first new employee just FIVE WEEKS after starting myself! That’s kinda ridiculous in my opinion; at that point, I was still learning!

One of my favorite quotes is by St. Francis of Assisi; it says, “Speak the gospel wherever you go, and when necessary, use words.” I try to be a living testimony of my faith…I don’t always do a good job talking about it, but I do my best to live it out through my actions. When he called me un-Christian, that really got under my skin and upset me. I lost it. I said to him, “Do not call me un-Christian. I’ve gone above and beyond for you since the day I started. I came here on holiday, to have fun, and watch my friends play soccer, but instead, I’ve been working constantly. I could’ve quit a long time ago but I didn’t want to leave you with no one to help you stay organized or finish the things I’ve started. So please, do not call me un-Christian ever again. And since you’re already mad, I also need to tell you that I’m quitting on the 12^th now instead of the 22^nd (of September).”

He said a few more mean things, confirmed that yes, what I was “doing to him” was in fact, un-Christian, and then said, “I don’t need you anymore you can go home.” We still had those emails to go over…so I’m actually not sure if I quit, if he fired me, or if he just needed the rest of the evening after that heated disagreement to cool off. I guess I’ll call on Monday to see if I’m working next week? Whether I am or I'm not, I'm glad I said what I said. He's a bully, plain and simple.

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes." - Psalm 37:7

XO - Cristin

Horrible Bosses

Have you ever seen the movie Horrible Bosses with Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, and Jason Sudeikis? Well I’m living that movie, times ten, pretty sure.

My current boss would be most like Kevin Spacey in this scenario...

*Disclaimer – This post is only about how ridiculous some of my boss’s demands are. I do not want to kill him like they do in the actual movie. (Taylor had me clarify that before writing this)

Today I almost up and quit my job on the spot. It was that bad of a day. Or maybe the bad days are just piling up and I’ve been holding it all in too long?

Let’s rewind a moment to my walk to work this morning. Ethan had been telling me the past couple of days that someone had been calling his phone asking for me. When I was first looking for a job, and I didn’t have my own phone, I would put Ethan’s international number on all my resumes. So we both just assumed that it was a follow-up from an earlier job application, because, well, what else could it be? I rang the number up as I was walking to work this morning and was greeted with an automated message telling me I’ve reached ANZ Smart Choice Super and could call at a more convenient time or press one for an operator.  Well, I never applied for a job at ANZ Smart Choice Super. Plus, ANZ is my bank, so I figured out pretty quickly that it wasn’t a job offer.  Had it been a job offer, and perhaps I might’ve made an appointment for an interview, I don’t think I would still be employed at my current job.

It’s just absolutely ridiculous, and hard to keep a smile on your face, when your boss:

1)   Gives you a list of things to do, tells you to get started, but then continues to give you lists on top of lists of things to get done, all while not letting you work on the first list, then wondering why you haven’t finished anything. – It’s no wonder they still have “to do lists” from February that haven’t been done yet…

2)   Keeps asking for a “round of coffees” when the first two rounds are still sitting there on the table untouched.  OR, has you make a coffee for someone who you literally just asked if they wanted coffee or tea, and they said no. – I’d rather work on those lists than make coffee that won’t be drank/drunk…

3)   Makes you take your “breaks” either with them, talking about work, or typing up the day’s notes. – Noooottt quite sure that constitutes as a break. And no, I'm not getting paid for this work during "break" time…

4)   Doesn’t allow you to talk to your co-workers, even after you’ve triple checked your tables and made sure there’s nothing else to do.  – I’m sorry I want to get to know the people I work with and just possibly become friends with people who live in a different country than me…

5)   Tells you on a daily basis that you look tired, or “hungry,” or that you need to fix your hair after you JUST DID.  – What does it even mean to “look hungry?” I know for a fact that I don't look anorexic. And these flyaways don’t just lie down when I ask them to…

6)   Expects you to work fast AND quiet, like when you’re polishing the dishes or cutlery. – You can’t have both, you can only choose one…

7)   Has you sit across from them at a table while they go through mail, and instead of throwing the junk in the rubbish can themself, which is on the seat between the two of you, hands it to you, says “destroy it” and makes you put it in the trash instead. – The rubbish can is actually closer to you, and I could be working on those lists from earlier…

8)   Tells you to print two to three copies of everything, then put them each in separate manila folders; only to lose it within the next two days and have you reprint and copy everything all over again. – And no, I don’t need to make myself another copy, because I still have the first one…

9)   Tells you he will only give you one evening off, out of the three asked for, to watch the boys’ last soccer games of the season. And then he proceeds to schedule you anyways on that day they told you you would have off. – Yeah, I threw a fit on that one, and got that day off, again…

10) Cusses you out because you were trying to help another waitress take out food for a big table of twelve, on a very busy night, because they had been waiting on food for forty-five minutes. – I thought this place was all about good service? Sorry for trying to deliver that…

The boys actually had to have a sort of “intervention” with me when I got home this evening because I’ve been so moody these past couple days, and it was all because of work. I know it’s not fair to bring that anger home, and drop it on the boys; but it’s really hard for me to get out of a bad mood once I’m in it. But it’s nice to know that the boys care, and notice when I’m unhappy. They’re definitely good guys, and they gave me some good advice.

My parents have always said that there will be teachers, and coaches, and bosses that you don't like in life; but sometimes you just gotta suck it up. And I’m no quitter, and I only have six more weeks of putting up with this. I can do this.

Basically this rant comes down to one thing: having a horrible boss really makes you appreciate the good one’s you’ve had in the past (even more than you already did).

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." - Corinthians 4:8-9

XO - Cristin