The Last 16 Months

Our second summer in Queenstown was pretty uneventful (relatively speaking). We were there during the busy season and I was able to jump straight back into work on the river, so that kept me pretty busy the whole time. Every summer is a bit different as some people had left while others had come to take their place. This time we gained another Czech, a Welshman, and a Brazilian, while lost an Israeli, Irishman, Frenchy and American. Playing in a river and getting paid for it continued to be a dream job for me and I loved every bit of it, though the weather was pretty poor most of the season which resulted in high water levels which isn’t the greatest. Meanwhile Steph was pretty much stuck inside most of the time, as it rained almost constantly the first few weeks we were there. She was not working, so had plenty of time to make dinner for me (not) and plan her big solo adventure - a week in Italy and a month with her parents in Montenegro - all without me! More on that later. Probably the highlight of that summer in New Zealand for me was a three-day hike I took with a couple of friends from work. We did a hike called the Gillespie Circuit - not one of New Zealand’s famous “Great Walks” but that just means it’s cheaper and not as crowded, not necessarily lesser views.

I would have said my last day in New Zealand was a major highlight since we took the cast from The Biggest Loser down the river as a race for one of their immunity challenges on the TV show. I was pretty much positive I was going to get on TV and kept telling people this would be my "big break," but as anyone who saw the show knows, I got cut. They somehow edited out almost every visible evidence that those jokers had any guides in the water with them at all. It was pretty impressive, but equally disappointing. Shame. Anyways, it was fun to be part of the production and I got to meet Rulon Gardner - Olympic gold medal wrestler.

Actually my whole last month in New Zealand was pretty special for me, mainly because Steph was gone on her big solo adventure (wondering if she’ll edit that out). Taking the ferry from Italy to Montenegro was still the cheapest and most logical way to go, and since she loved Italy last time, she carved out a bit of time for herself in Rome. I actually don’t know too much of what she did, so maybe she can elaborate, but I know she was sick for part of it, met some other girls traveling solo so had somebody to see the sights with, and she took a cooking class of which I have hardly seen any benefits from.

Steph making pasta

Tivoli, near Rome

Steph loved her month in Montenegro with her parents. It was good to see them again and maybe even good for her to get some time away from me, though I can’t see how that would be good. She loved meeting her parents Montenegro friends and helping out with the kids of the local Roma community.

Steph and her dad with the Roma kids

Steph's mom with some cool young italian guy she met over there. is that a leather jacket?

After our month away from each other, we planned to meet back in Georgia within a day of each other and to finally get “real jobs” again and settle back into professional life. Well, obviously that didn’t happen. I got a temporary job in Fort Collins, Colorado with an engineering firm, so we packed up the miracle that is the Jimmy and headed west, young man. We only spent about 4 months in Colorado but loved it. Initially we stayed with my sis and her husband Michael, but they were leaving for their own around-the-world trip so we found a room in the basement apartment of a couple that Michael teaches with. The couple was great but we really fell in love with their kids. While I slaved away in the office during the day, Steph would play with little Kellin, Jacqui and Ginger (our dog). Steph’s brothers came and stayed with us for a few days on their way to Oregon, which turned into a few weeks after they hit a deer with their car less than a day after leaving us. All was good though - more people for Kellin and Jacqui to play with. It was sometime in Colorado when we hatched the current life plan that we are currently carrying out - another summer in NZ and then move to Australia to work in the high-paying and booming engineering field down there.

Steph with her buddies Jacqui and Kellin

Ging loves the snow

So we went back to New Zealand, our third summer! Hard to believe. We got to spend some time with family back in Georgia before leaving, then with family in Vegas on our way. Of course we couldn’t help but throw in a short holiday in Fiji on our way across the pacific. Hey, we needed a vacation! We visited some different places than we had been at last time and particularly enjoyed our stay with Bobo on his farm on the island of Ovalau, and then having a whole island resort to ourselves for 5 days.

Steph's favorite place in the world - a tiny sand island surrounded by reefs

Ovalau Island

Ovalau from our private island Leluvia

saw lots of sea snakes

this cat "Whitey" followed us around everywhere. I liked it but Steph wasn't so happy

The last summer in New Zealand was of course another good one. This one was a bit different as we didn’t have to be far from family - in fact we lived with some! Michael and Taylor were in Queenstown for the summer in the middle of their around the world trip, so we shared a 2 bedroom apartment for the summer. Michael trained up on the river with me and Taylor got a job in town selling trips around the South Island but mainly at Milford Sound. This summer Steph worked in the “shop” - booking people on river surfing and canyoning trips. It was a good job for her though was a bit stressful when the shop manager quit on her second day and left just Steph and one other girl, Mairi, to run the shop. It turned out well as Steph and Mairi became fast friends and did a great job in the shop. This summer was the opposite of last summer on the river - instead of high water conditions we had very little spring rain which meant the river was low all season. This worked out well as we could run our low-water section of river, which includes a grade IV rapid and a really good standing wave where we could do what we do best - river surf!

this is me playing on the wave

This is what I am supposed to be doing - catching clients on the wave:

Somehow we didn’t get up to too much this season, or at least it didn't seem like it. Mostly just work a lot and enjoy our time in and around Queenstown. There were a couple free(!) campervan trips we took to Christchurch at the beginning of the season and a few camping trips nearby and Steph even joined in for two "full moon" midnight runs down the river. Some of the guys from work got together to run a pretty mean-looking grade 5 rapid on a couple occasions (search "citroen rapid" on youtube to see it). Our biggest trip was down south to the Catlins to swim with some dolphins and to Dunedin where Steph could finally do some of the shopping she had been craving. Steph’s job allowed her to do pretty much all the activities in town (more than me), so she did a lot of jet boating, rode some four-wheelers, jumped off the canyon swing, went paragliding, and lots of other cool stuff. I did a few of them with her, though she didn’t come when I went with a buddy for a 143 meter (470 feet!) high bungy.

coolest bench ever - that's Mt Cook in the background

kayaking on Lake Wakatipu

So that brings us to today. We left Queenstown yesterday, spent the night in Auckland airport, and are currently on a flight to what’s known as the Little Red Dot - Singapore! We are excited about being back in Asia - we have been dreaming of Thai food ever since we left! I’ll let our travel plans reveal themselves as we go along, but just know we have a month in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand so stay tuned!