Great Expectations

It is hard to believe it has been over three months since I last sat down to blog. The past few months have been a calamity of adventure and heart tugging struggles, as we waited out the wet, cold dregs of winter. Sorting through the contrast of fun vacations, constant rain, ailing family, and work struggles, the past few months has opened our eyes wider to realise our reality; we may be living in a beautiful and amazing place, but we are not immune to the the plague of homesickness.

Many people say it takes a lot of guts to do what we did, to drop everything, and start fresh in a place where we knew no one and had nothing. After experiencing the last eleven months away from home, exchanging new adventures for absence at important events and the company of  those close to our hearts, I think it is the being away that takes the guts, not the leaving.  Being far away means you can't hop a plane home whenever you feel you really should; time change means you have to plan your phone calls instead of calling when you really want, or need to chat. (sometimes taking up to three weeks to actually co-ordinate the call). While we are still enjoying our kiwi experience, and consider ourselves lucky to be where we are today, we have come to realise what a great place we come from, and what amazing family and friends we do have in Canada.

While we came head on with some new struggles in the past few months, we were also met some new adventures that reminded us how special it was to be in New Zealand. In late July, we made our maiden flight to New Zealand's infamous South Island. Since we started mentioning the prospect of living in New Zealand well over a year ago, we have been met constantly with rave reviews about the beauty and charm of the South Island. Even people who hadn't even been to New Zealand would want to tell us about how they had "heard" of how amazing the South Island was. In fact, we had heard so much about the greatness of this illustrious place in the New Zealand landscape that it was starting to get a bit annoying hearing about it. Finally, it was our chance to see for ourselves what this place was all about, and whether it deserved it's sparkling reputation.

Queenstown mountain views

The winter escape could not have come at a more appropriate time, as we both needed a break from  routine, stress of work, and the rain. We were looking forward to seeing the snow. We packed up the ski gear and boarded a plane to Queenstown, a town known as much for its adventure tourism  as for it's stunning beauty. We did not even have to land on the runway before knowing that all the reviews we had heard would be accurate. Flying through the snow capped mountains we landed  on one of the most beautiful runways we had ever seen.  We stepped out onto the tarmac surrounded by greatness of mountain and blue sunny skies, which was a lovely change from the wind and rain we had left behind in Wellington.

Queenstown is quite simply a beautiful, quaint city with the cool, laid back feel of a skiing hot spot. The mountains  surround you everywhere you go, and right in the middle of it all is a crisp blue lake that captures the reflection of the snow capped peaks. The air was cool and crisp and,  in a way we both could not quite explain, it smelled like home. It had been a relatively mild and wet winter, so the snow was where it should be, in the mountains, leaving the ground at the base snow free and easy to manoeuvre. Para gliders soared through the sunny skies air at leisure, and we felt that we had finally found the New Zealand that everyone had been talking about.

Trent in Queenstown

one of the best things about being half way across the world, is hanging out with people who used to be half a world away



luging down the mountain

 We spent most of our week with our good friends Lee and Mark, who had flown over from Perth, Australia to join us. We spent our days skiing, sight seeing, racing wheeled luge carts down track on the side of the mountain, cruising around the Lake Wakatipu, dining at Rata, a restaurant owned by one of our favourite Masterchefs,  and enjoying the surroundings.


Oh, and we also jumped 109 meters off the side of a cliff.

The Canyon Swing, named the world's highest cliff jump, has been attempted by the likes of celebrities, an 80 year old man, and the entire English football team. It basically consists of a 60 meter free fall, followed by a 200 meter "swing" into a narrow canyon with a rocky fast moving river below. Each jumper gets to choose a jump style that they will use to  take off the platform. These styles range from from backwards, upside down, hands behind your back, strapped to a chair, or anything that you can create (http://www.canyonswing.co.nz/). The experience was an interesting one; absolutely terrifying as you stood on the platform looking down the the river below, followed by a huge rush of adrenaline as you plummeted to the ground, then suddenly a moment of peace as you hang at the bottom of the canyon taking in the beauty of your surroundings/started to breathe again. Trent, Mark and I all lived to tell our tales, while a pregnant Lee stood back and cheered our work/stupidity.

So happy I'm still alive..

 

Trent plummeting towards the river

We returned from Queenstown to several weeks of pouring rain and high winds, exactly the type of weather that quickly kills a post vacation buzz. To be honest, August was a tough month. The reality of our distance began to set in as we sat back, and sat out of important family gatherings, a wedding of our close friends Barb and Chris, and being around to play a supportive role for family when they needed it. The weather was horrible and the stress of work and commuting was taking its toll.  The contrast of our travel adventure the month before was stark.

 

Slowly we began to pull ourselves out of our rain soaked state and make some steps towards shaking ourselves dry. The first thing we did was enrolled Huff in an dog agility class. Following our trip to Queenstown, Huff seemed to be falling victim to a bit of loneliness herself  (she was missing her Canadian dog friends!), had become a bit naughty. We felt that  maybe a bit of formal training was the answer. Huff and I go to class for an hour every Wednesday,  and she has now learnt how to successfully run through tunnels, fly through a hoop and soar over jumps. She is in the "B" group  at class, which contains the slightly less agile dogs or ones who have a mind of their own, but she is still doing great given the first time she ever saw an agility tunnel at the Ottawa Canine School she ran the other way!  It has been a lot of fun and she is really excited to go each week. We just won't expect her to bring home any agility trophies this year.

Huff prepares to soar through the hoop at agility school

While Huff was learning to soar through the air, we were sticking ourselves closer to the earth, trying to colour our thumbs green. Gardening in New Zealand is part of the kiwi way of life. Everyone has a garden, and we wanted one too.  We agreed to start a co-operative veggie garden project with our friends Kim and Andy. Since they already had beds set up from the year before, we decided to share the work and the rewards. In September, we planted tomatoes, beans, peas, strawberries, potatoes, capsicums, and lettuce, and now are patiently waiting the results. I'm also secretly hoping for a giant and a beanstalk.

 

Today we changed our clocks and "sprung ahead" towards warmer weather and brighter days. We move towards the summer with a new frame of mind, able to acknowledge the goals we want to achieve here in New Zealand, while understanding that we cannot achieve these goals without a bit of sacrifice. A friend recently said, " don't let your dreams be dreams", and it reminded me to continue to go confidently towards mine. Nothing good ever comes without a little bit of challenge, sacrifice, and commitment, even though we may have the greatest of expectations that our great adventures will be nothing but perfect. We hope you all know how much we love, miss, and think about you often, and hope you will continue to travel with us on our wonderful adventure here at the bottom of the world. 

 

We will keep dreaming and hope you will too. The next great adventure may be just around the corner.

Mark, Lee, Trent and I smiling after surviving our big jump