Crispyhouse

Starting to get more advanced with this blog thing as I have added a brand spankin new feature to the site. Now there are more photos than ever!! I know aren't you as excited as I am to escape the photographic doldrums of the single photo I use to encapsulate every post? I know I am so new for this fall I have added links to picasa web albums. Just click the link beneath the post photo and it will take you to the gallery of photos, you can even view a slideshow. Sweet huh? I'll work on updating old posts and everyone know as I go, but for now enjoy the barrage of pictures!

Had to get out in this wonderful Vermont foliage. I have decided to go in true tourist fashion and be a shameless leaf peeper. This hike was a bit more than expected when we decided at the peak of Mt. Hunger that White Rock summit wasn't that far away at all and we should make it a two peak day. My legs now remember what that choice entails. Regardless a great kickoff hike to get out in these woods again and get dad to sully his pristinely clean hiking boots. 

Whoa I didn't know that I was coming back to the last throws of summer! Went over to NH to pick up the truck and snagged a couple of hrs on the boat with dad. I think that completes my trip from Lake Wanaka to Squam Lake one week and one half of the world, same obnoxious glasses. No worries there will be several more lake excursions before winter but for now I gotta find a job, bummer.

Well the sadness has come I have left the dear adventure of New Zealand and returned to the bustle of good ol' America. I'm partway along right now, taking a few days to lay low in LA before continuing my trek back to the homelands of the East Coast. The goodbyes in NZ were hard and it is a place that I already miss. While it was not the most successful or smoothest of trips it is going to be a special one always. The grandeur of the land and the kindness of the people encouraged me to explore and the friends I met along the way opened my eyes to so many more doors. I leave behind Dave and Amy with an unfinished expedition, the hardest part is that we won't finish together as we set out, but overall this too will work out.

Now that I have had a few days of perspective to look back at my time in the south south pacific I am realizing that I did far more than it really felt like. Almost every week was a new adventure, a new traveling challenge that always paid off with a beautiful vista or a crazed event. I am wiser and more confident after my season abroad, almost more importantly though I have learned to value my sense of wonder. The ability to remove your logical thinking and appreciate something for its standalone beauty without needing reason or purpose. A continuing sense of wonderment mixed with unquenched curiosity keeps me moving and discovering new people places and myself. Thank-you New Zealand it has been an influence that will happily shade me for the rest of my life.

There are so many incredible beaches in this country every turn presents a new private cove and perfect settings for evenings on the beach. this one is called Giesepies beach and is on the west coast. Was a great place to rest after a hard day visiting the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. Its the trips out of Wanaka that have let me fall in love with this country. Every time i visit another place there is so much beauty and peacefullness.

A few weeks ago Dave, Amy, Katrin, and I went skiing at treblecone. It was the first time that it had snowed here in over a month. An absolutely whopping 15cm! So it was a kiwi powder day, and in fact with the tussock grass that is planted all over the slopes on these mountains, they don't need nearly as much snow for the terrain to be really skiable.

There were still a few grassy spots but overall it was a wonderful day. I was in a great mood as I jumped off of almost anything I could find. There were so many natural terrain features to play with, small cliff drops and great gullies. We even did a short hike up to the summit to get some fresh powder turns. It was the first day in New Zealand that I felt like I had skied hard. Today I woke up sore in the back and felt good that I was tired after an actual workout on the hill.

The day warranted an apre beer of course so we sat on the lodge deck and looked out over Lake Wanaka and the Southern Alps. It was a beautiful mtn to ski on. Not the most challenging of terrain but loads of fun and the views were a constant reminder of how much beauty we are surrounded by in this country.