i'm alive

so....i kind of gave up on blogging once i left nz. i didn't feel the need to keep ppl updated on my life. but i am alive. isn't that wonderful? i think it's wonderful. i love being alive.
well - i was sure to keep myself busy with a quite full on schedule. i left nz in early april and it pained me so that i cried. that is big for me. it took everything i had to not run from the runway back into the airport and ask john kapa to take me back to heather's house and stay there forever, but alas, i flew to sydney. which was exciting and fun and rainy. i somehow ended up in king's cross by myself (that's the redlight district ps) but i was never scared or worried, the flying foxes and giant spiders did a much better job of that. but i think the highlight of the trip was the 1st day we were there adn were lugging ALL our luggage down the street and up the hill to a member's house where we were stowing it. we looked ridiculous...we found a shopping cart that was broken and that just made things worse but no worries....we prevailed.
then it twas off to fiji. tropical paradise. scuba diving and private white sandy clear water beaches. everything ws cheap, we'd catch toads adn gekos in the resort hostel thingy. delicious food and cake for $1. we were livin the life....
then home again home again. sure enough i called it....my family had signs at the airport and my mom cried. (2nd time in my life i've seen that.) they gave me cafe rio and had yellow ribbons all over the house....they are so funny.
4 days later - to their dismay it was back to moab. my one true love....otehr than nz of course. they are pretty much tied.
it was my 2nd yr working as a guide for world wide river expeditions. i am now a white water captain (aka guide 1). i feel pretty cool. this meant i was always in cahrge and we had some pretty crazy stuff go on. dislocated jaw, finger cut straight through, missing duckies, multiple rescues due to high water. it was a high water yr and we were loving it. we could do over 15 miles of water in nearly 2 hrs without paddling or rowing....the daily was actually fun. westwater was unrunnable because the rapids were flushed out and all it was was nasty eddies. cataract.....73,000 cfs (imagin 73,000 basketballs passing 1 spot in 1 second....that's how much water there was.) 40 ft waves. 25 ft and below were considered the small ones. oh man! thsi was the year for guiding.
i love moab so much!
i actually got a real commercial trip. yes! off the daily. i tl'ed a deso trip. 5 days. i was training christa. i've only done deso twice, both training, this meant i've never rowed the entire thing before, never done a real commercial trip - i swamped cat once last yr. - don't know where to camp on deso - which is a MUST KNOW - and....i'm tl??? nicki said i'd be ok. i had a map. and all the food and gear....so i gave my dear sister - lisa - my free trip and she helped me out. trip of a lifetime. lisa, christa, and i! oh my dear goodness it was FANFREAKINTASTIC! i LOVED IT! and our passengers were AWESOME!!! we made t shirts, and ran around naked on the beach, and had a talent show, and had great food, and played in cow swim, and had great camp spots, and danced, and got attacked by mosquitos the 1st night....yuck....but it was fantastic and above all.....GREAT weatehr and NO wind. oh yeah, in the canyon where god invented wind there was none.....beauty.
anyway....i also had a wee moab flingy-spell. his name was derek and he was from FL - i don't do long distance, so it ended when i left for home. but it was fun while it lasted. he's a great kid. good friend. twas a fun adventure.

ummm....now i'm back at byu. working hard, or pretending to do so. and really hating school and provo. if anyone needs an adventure call me. cuz i always do!

the men in my life

i know that BYU has a strict policy of no dating on study abroads, but that doesn't mean i have no men in my life.
have you calmed yourself? i know you are probably all jumping for joy at the thought of me having a man in my life further more two.
Well i'm sorry to burst your bubble but Clarence and Elroy aren't human. sorry.
I'll start with how i first met Clarence, for it was he that lead me to Elroy.
It was a fine Tuesday Morning (not the shop) i got up, ran 9 miles, then Katie Jo and I biked out to Anderson Park to go hedge jumping.
-they have this incredibly thick hedge that you run and jump into and you bounce off.
i had been before and we discovered we could crawl inside and then up the trunks and
branches of the hedge and get on top. we call it hedging. -
Anyway, we arrived and there he was. about 10-12 feet high, green, strong, pokey and covered in BYU students. (Clarence is the name of the hedge. He is Steve and Wayne's 2nd cousin, twice removed)
when we arrived people were already there and on top but this time, i decided to be "hard core" as kids call it these days and climb up Clarence's face. I was about 8 or so feet off the ground when i got stuck in a hole. so i side climbed to get out and i began my ascent when my hands slipped from Clarence's grasping branches and fell. down down down i went and i landed. BOOM! at first i thought i was fine. then i collapsed in instant pain!
i rolled my ankle bad. the pain ceased not after too long. so i RICEd. and it brusied and swelled up real nice. it didn't even look like a foot. so i named it Elroy.

bivys and new zealand spainiards

have you ever heard of a bivy?? it is short for bavawack. have you ever slept under a bivy? cuz i sure have. i thought i knew a lot about tramping. that was until we started going survival style...kinda. aka, no tents. the 1st night we built our bivy, pretty good for amateurs. i stayed nice 'n roasty toasty. in fact, i was sweating. could be the fact i was nicely nestled between jakapo and tony (dont tell byu, but it twas for my survival here.) but anyway, NZ is not like Utah where you can almost always plan on no rain, and if it does rain, you can throw a tarp over you and be fine. it rains, a lot. needless to say, it rained. and our bivy proved true. a few people on the edges got a wee bit wet, but that was it. night 2 we were all dry. and covered in frost in the morning (the outside).
to go alongside my survival tramping trip we had no trails. bushwacking thru the NZ bush with only a map, a compass, and the knowledge we have gained to guide us. no help from the instructors. it was fun! and that is that. we tramped through the bush, (the BLM would be furious at what we did) i have to say we fell through trees, broke trees, etc. but worst of all was the spainiards. these evil plants that look like flax and you think would be nice. but oh no, no sir. they draw blood. evil......evil.....
but having said that. the trip was great! i couldn't have done it without the aid of group B, a map, 1 tube brace, 1 ankle brace, and a dang good pair of hiking boots!

The Routeburn Track! this is me and Jakapo on a bridge admiring the beauty all around us. isn't it incredible??? this is before it started raining....











Routeburn. It started raining shortly after we began...but that just added extra beauty, and funny memories, but unfortunately, less pictures

So it rained, and rained, and rained. Did i mention it rained. ps: i was keeping my feet warm next to the stove.

The end. It was still raining ps. we were daring and went out for a pic in our dry clothes....

Climbing in Wanaka. This was probably the BEST thing i've done in NZ thus far. 3 days devoted to climbing! it was SO GREAT!
Climbing Tombstone in Wanaka.

The view from the top of pitch 1 Me ascending pitch 2

70 m abseil from the multi-pitch....ps this is ramsay, not me...sorry.

Logan teaching me the ways of the shears...yes, i sheared a sheep. and it was great!

Well, i'm LOVIN NZ and having the time of my life! i hope that everyone else is having a swell time back home doing whatever you are doing. let me know how you all are!

EXTRA EXTRA!!!!

so i kinda forgot that i had a blog.....sorry all. i promise pictures soon ok.
so i went on routeburn. it was amazing. absolutely beautiful. unfortunately i don't have a lot of pictures because it rained....the ENTIRE TIME! no joke. it prolly started drizzling 10-15ish minutes into the hike, we got to the hut and it started pouring. it poured all night, all the next day (which we spent in tents) and all the next day. literally 72 hrs of rain. anybody ever experience that on a tramp? it is great. glad thing i had all my handydandy rain gear. quite honestly my feet were the driest things on me. go gortex boots! but since it was consistant rain i just plumb forgot it was raining. and then there were waterfalls EVERYWHERE! absolutley stunning. i wish i had one of the undersater digital cameras likey dougie and skyler. too bad. but the trail was simply a river/waterfalls. i actually did scale a waterfall. i don't think i'll ever feel wet again. not even when i'm in the ocean.
i also had the greatest experience of my life! we went on a 3 day climbing trip in wanaka! it was SO FUN! i learned to lead climb and i can lead like a 5.7 or 5.8ish. more like a 5.7. it's not too hard but still. i was proud. especially cuz i haven't really climbed since like oh i'd say october...i've done a little indoor stuff here and there and a few days of indoor here but that's it. so i was proud. and my instructor, john kapa, let me and 2 other boys and 1 other girl do a climb on tombstone called the classic. anyway, it's a MASSIVE crack! and it was SO FUN! i felt special! cuz i was 1 of 2 girls allowed to place gear while leading. the 1st to lead. (others got to learn to lead on gear i placed). oh man, i sound so cocky. but it was just a REALLY big deal to me! and to make matters bettter john kapa invited me and 2other boys on a multi-pitch climb for the last day in wanaka! it was SO AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL! i LOVED it! seriously. that 3 day trip has been the best part of my new zealand experience. no joke.
and to tack on a few other cool things. i sheared a sheep yesterday! it is hard. they are huge! and funny looking! and heavy! and strong! and you have to pin them between your legs. it was fun, but difficult. hard hard work. and let me see. oh yeah, i made some poi balls at enrichment last night. i'll teach you when i get home. and for enrichment katie jo and i made homemade chips and guacamole. i don't think i've seen anything disappear quicker except that time we went to denny's at 2:30 am for ally rick's birthday and alarie elyssa and i split that apple crumbly thing.
anyway, gotta split! bye!

such is life

well, i'm into the routine, or shall i say "ritual" of life now. nz is great and i love invercargill. nothing too special has really happened.
basically this is my life.
i naturally wake up between 630 and 7 and i go on a run for 30-60ish minutes
then i read
then i get ready for school (which = put on swimsuit/stinky clothes), i make lunch and eat breakfast
then i ride my bike 15 min to school
then i either go kayaking or surfing. i just had my kayaking test, so we're done kayaking now. i can go through grade 1 rapids. go me. i LOVE surfing! it is my new passion in life! for real. i've now been 3 times. the biggest wave i've hit is probably 5-7 ft. the first time i dropped down a face i wrecked, but not hard. it was really windy and rainy, and my board smacked me in the face when i was carrying it to shore. i couldn't hear out of my right ear for about 15 minutes. oh well. it was so fun! haeree (my friend) and i dropped down 2 or 3 good faces. but mostly we were getting MASACRED by the giant powerful waves. i took my first wipeout. it wasn't hard to fine the surface cuz it was pretty shallow and there were no rocks or reef so no ouchies, but i was discombobulated when i got up. i was like whoa, where are the waves. oh there they are and i paddled right back out and kept going. oh and one time i rode all the way to shore so i jumped off and went to jump on my board and all the sudden CLUNK! the wind had picked it up and smacked my noggin w it in the 2 seconds i was off it. goose egg. hehe.....
isn't my schooling ruff???
we started our rockclmibing unit yesterday. we were just at a ropes course. i did a nice overhang climb. (lisa you would have been proud) it was prolly a 5.10 i think. they have a diff rating system here they said it was like a 14 or 15 and they said that's like a 5.10 i dunno. but i did it! yay! it was fun! i can't wait to get back into climbing again.
anyway. that is school monday-wednesday. on thursdays my morning routine is the same but i have family recreation for 3 hours. i have to sit in a classroom for 3 hours! life is ruff! oh adn on tuesdays i have the history of the church in nz. it is so good! evening class. my sunday school teacher/branch pres' wife, jenni ngahooroo, teaches it. and we learn a lot of maori culture and how that all sets into our church coming and being successful here. (my branch pres is maori so we learn WAY cool stuff! jenni is pakeha (not maori).)
on top of all that i have to get 70 hrs of service for my internship. i have 32.5 hrs. we've been chopping wood to sell for orpahn's aid, a great organization, if you want info on how to contribute to orphan's aid let me know. i'm in charge of all the projects we do with them. and we put together a party for the branch. that was REALLY fun! there are some pics of that on facebook under pics of me (i didn't take em. haeree did) and we're painting that playground, cleaning up a cemetary, working w the ymca, just lots of stuff. it is really fun.
then of course i have church, going out of town and playing!
speaking of going out of town, i'm going on the routeburn track tomorrow. 3 day backpacking trip. it's kinda posh. they have toilets and huts and water. i'm stoked cuz i don't have to pack a waterfilter or pack out my toilet paper. so that will be loverly.
but yeah, all is well. i love nz. if i think of any other funny stories.....well, perhaps i'll just let you read my journal when i get back. i'm much better at writing in that than on this.

Brief Overview of the Trip

Ready for Blackwater Rafting! - Waitomo and i think this beach is in Greymouth...

Waiting for the ferry at Wellington.....and look at the size of our kiwis!

ps mom: these two are a bit of the beauty that is found in Queen's Park, Invercargill

This is part of the playground that we are working on. It is almost done. it looks SO MUCH better now! seriously, the tagging was wretched! it hurt my soul to see primary kids reading and writing these types of things.

Lake Alta, the Remarkables - Queenstown

happy birthday to me! bungy jumping 134 m (440 ft) in queenstown! next, to make my birthday BETTER we went river boardingand finally...my new passion in life....surfing!

100 Things??? Really????

so, i honestly don't think that i can think of 100 things about me......wow.....beth, i must really really love you.

1. I currently live in New Zealand

2. I LOVE to dance

3. i LOVE to surf, it is my new passion in life...

4. i am very stubborn, strong willed, and bull headed

5. i have a herniated disc in my lower back

6. my favorite foods are grilled cheese sandwhiches dipped in ketchup, mashed potatoes and gravy, maverick frozen yogurt, black beans (and anything with them in it), jello (hold the carrots please), oatmeal, raisins, pineapple (and all fruit basically) and funfetti cake

7. i sound like a cow getting slaughtered when i sing....children cry

8. i have downsized my shoe collection to 60 pairs of shoes....i have a fetish....

9. i have a phobia of snakes

10. i am a riverguide

11. i LOVE the outdoors!!!

12. i am attached to my nalgene at the hip

13. i have only endoed on a mt bike once, scooters and longboards are a different story

14. i am the clumsiest person i have ever met

15. i have loads of sweet scars because of number 14

16. i am a spaz

17. i LOVE to ski!!!! i have a great disdain for snowboarding, but not the ppl

18. i never pay for sunglasses, i find/mooch them

19. i love to travel, and i have a wonderful plan to accomplish that...but i can't tell you here

20. i have a guilty pleasure of the love of peeling skin off ppl and myself

21. i don't believe in doing my hair or wearing makeup

22. i am a liberal

23. i am a treehugger

24. but i drive a jeep....but i want a subaru or...soobahroo (as they would say in nz)

25. i am the youngest of 3 girls

26. my name is katie, but i usually go by kpax or some form of that because everywhere i go, there are katie's, must be a good name...

27. i go to BYU where i am a therapeutic recreation major with a dance minor (emphasis in modern)

28. i like to spin in circles and get really dizzy and then try and go kartwheels

29. i am using dial-up internet right now this very moment.

30. i am a firm believer that laughing is the only proper way to get a 6 pack....and by doing wheelbarrow races, lots and lots of wheelbarrow races, which usually end and are intertwined with laughter. but the question is, which burns more???

31. i am born and raised in utah

32. with that said i'm a mormon and dern proud of it baby!

33. i almost always have some form of wrap or scarf on my head becuase i don't believe in doing my hair

34. i daydream a lot!

35. i am a packrat

36. i am easily entertained and distracted...shiny.....

37. i hate vacuuming and sweeping, they are my least favorite jobs. people tend to take advantage of me by making me clean out the fridge or scrub the toilet becuase it gets me out of vacuuming...

38. i hate any meat from a pig

39. i deeply wish to drop out of school and bum my way around the world for at least a year

40. i got chastized by my mother for even sounding number 39

41. i have no musical ability

42. but i love music!

43. there were way more sheep on my side of the road than on marcie's on the way to kayaking today, there and back....(we even switched sides...)

44. i am a firm believer that new zealand has the WORLD'S BEST ice cream...sorry italy, but gelato just aint cuttin it no mo'

45. i cannot bring myself to shop at harmon's because they compete with smith's and i was raised shopping there.....and reams, utah's cheapest groceries!

46. my favorite movies are moulin rouge and beauty and the beast i could put the movies on silent and quote them word for word

47. i'm typing this on a nz computer and it keeps telling me i spell things wrong because i don't put u's in words like favorite or color.....favourite colour.....looks wrong.....

48. i have never had a cavity

49. for some weird reason i automatically wake up at 6:45 every morning....it's really odd

50. i am half way done......this is taking forEVER! ha! for-evvver, forrrrevvver, forever......sandlot, another favorite, along with hook and the italian job and stranger than fiction and pride and prejudice, and empire records, and gladiator, and ok i'm stopping now...

51. my favorite words are gastrocnemius and incognito

52. i am training for a marathon, but i really don't like running that much. but it's my thinking time, so i guess that works

53. i love to create things.....wiht my body....i'm a dancer

54. i love wearing tights and spandex

55. i love dressing up and going places just to see how people look at me

56. i LOVE cafe rio!!! costa vida tastes like it came out of a toilet bowl....

57. i am a terrible bowler

58. i love that for school today i went kayaking, and yesterday i went surfing, and the day before that...i went kayaking. life is ruff. i love that all i do is play and i get grades for it.

59. i am still very much a child. especially lately.

60. i love to climb trees...or anything, especially rocks

61. i love my niece, she is the cutest thing in the world, i wish i had another one....hint HINT!

62. i had a cactus once (from my niece) and it stayed alive all semester, until we had a party and someone knocked it over and i didn't know and he died. his name was rustin...i was very sad

63. emotionally i am a rock. aka, unless i'm happy i show no emotion. i think i lack the capability to cry

64. my sister lost my orange baby blanket when i was 9. i'm still kinda bitter, because i am the onl child without a baby blanket.....

65. i love to play games! especially interactive games when you have to move around. like wack-a-mole!

66. i love to cook

67. i love when my mom cooks cuz she is better than mrs. weasley (according to my flatmates, i quite agree.)

68. i won't lie, i'm a big harry potter fan

69. i don't eat chocolate

70. i am slowly but surely kicking the habit of gum....orange trident.....sniff sniff...how i miss thee

71. i think that the 2 most important inventions of our time are toothbrushes and tampons.

72. i LOVE my family they are the COOLEST people in the world

73. i also LOVE the clines i guess that counts as family....but, ah.....they're amazing. we may be a little ruff aroudn the edges, but i'm sure once you are able to look past you'll fit right in. that is,unless you are a corporate bum in a neatly startched suit that sits at a desk all day counting your money....you may not fit in so well, but we will love you anyway

74. i love to help people, and see changes in their life for the better

75. i secretly want to be an archaeologist

76. i am fascinated by cultures that aren't my own.

77. i love not having a cell phone. it is such a beautiful thing. i think i am going to use mine very rarely when i get home

78. i love driving manuels. i don't intend to ever purchase an automatic

79. i have messed up hips, but i try to pretend i don't

80. i have never dyed my hair

81. i love to play ultimate frisbee, rugby, volleyball and soccer

82. unfortunatley, i really really suck at volleyball and soccer, but i've gotten a LOT better at volleyball

83. if you ahven't noticed, i'm a TERRIBLE speller. is speller even a word??

84. i beat my sisters/mom in boggle for the first time over christmas break

85. i believe that valentine's day should be celebrated in one way and one way only. by making valentines, making valentine's boxes, giving valentines in your boxes, and making and decorating sugar cookies and just having a blast of a time. like childhood

86. i refuse to grow up, i'm a lot like peter pan except i'm a girl, i can't fly, don't live in neverland (although i'm pretty close right now) but i have fought i pirate once, but i think it was just a crazy bloke dressed up. oh well

87. i hate batman. superman through and through

88. i've only cried in 3 movies in my life (that aren't church movies) and one tv show. hotel rowanda, saints and soldiers (random), and beauty and the beast (i was sick, and i chastized myself for crying.) oh yeah and i cried in season 2 of 24 when jack bauer had to call kim (his daughter whom i loath entirely) and tell her he was gonne die. (my mom cried too!)

89. i am having trouble thinking of anything else

90. i love to swing

91. i have a deep passion for writing on other people's driveways late at night with chalk

92. i LOVE to color. i have a coloring book and crayons with me and all times

93. sweedish fish are the BEST candy in the world

94. i can eat my body weight in reeces pieces

95. i think america needs to convert to the metric system

96. bill nye the science guy is a genius. i really want to meet him. he looks a LOT like my old principal from middle school

97. i got sent to the principal's office on the 2nd day of kindergarten.

98. i hate cats

99. i love sleeping under the stars. (i only sleep in tents when i have too.)

100. I"M DONE!!! if you read all of that you are amazing and i admire you, you are a much stronger person than i am, i am farrrrrr too impatient.

happy birtday and some

i quite like new zealand birthdays. cuz i get 2. it's a day ahead here, so i have one here, and then i call home the next day, and it's still my birthday! it's great!
for those of you who weren't on the line when i spoke of my birthday, here's how it went down...

Feb 15 - midnight (so technically Feb 16, aka the day i came forth from the womb of my mother)
we were in Queenstown, the Adventure Capital of the WORLD!!!! and we were in a ritzy hotel cuz we knew a guy that knew a guy and we got a wicked deal. anyway, at midnight all 33 ppl (34 including me) and mark's (my professor) 2 boys came over and we had the longest spanking train of my life. 35 ppl long. i had rug burns from ppl traping me in their thighs while i was hastily crawling for my life. and they don't have funfetti cake in nz, but that did not stop kathy, katie, megan and haeree from giving me funfetti cake. they made normal cake and cooked sprinkles into it and the frosting. aren't they great? i was SO EXCITED! let's give them a round of applause everyone. round of applause.
anyway,
Feb 16 - so at 2 in the morning we heard a huge fight, spied, and had to talk to the cops cuz we spied. lame. lots of blood. i'd rather not talk about it....
so, i bungy jumped, in new zealand, on my birthday. it was so wicked! it is the 2nd highest bungy in the world (2nd to south america). it is 134 m long. that would be 440 ft for you standard ppl. i fell for 8.5 seconds (count it out, it's long) and i just jumped like pocahantas (thanks to my roots) and just soard downward. i was falling SO FAST! the ppl on the other side of the gorge waiting could hear me screaming. that is, until there was too much wind in my mouth to get sound out. but it was incredible! big adrenaline rush. did i mention it's form a shack on a wire in the middle of a canyon? it was tight.
next, i river boarded. they stick you in a wet suit, give you flippers, a lifejacket, and helmet and a boogy boarda dn take you down the Shotover River. 7 km long. the 1st 5km are straight rapids. i'd say it was like unto boogy boarding deso. (if you've ever done deso) and the last 2 km were just fast drifitng where we hung out w arno (my large german guide that i love) and hugh (my english hot guide that i love as well) and there was this rapid called "Man Eater"and i know why. cuz they have you angle your board 45 to the right or left or straight down and kick like you've never kicked before. anyway, ppl get kinda bunched up so to say, and....well. we'll say i got pushed outta formation. went stright thru man eater's center. i went up, and went down (under) where it spun me around and spat me out. it was SO FUN! and sure, i git a rock or two cuz i got spat out onto the side of the river, but that's all good. it was fun. and nic saved me anyway. it was so great! best bday present EVER! big time rush and fun! and there were tons of whirlpools you could paddle bakc into and play in and dive under rapids. it wasso great! and after int he smooth area they had a jetski and pulled us ona sled behind it until we were whipped off. and i got to go 1st cuz it was my birthday! and we cliff jumped 8m and 12m, and there was a HUGE rope swing and a HUGE slide that you stick your board ona nd go downa nd skid across the river and then the jet ski comes and gets you and takes you back the the ladder so you can go again and again and again! it was SO GREAT! you fly across that water. and the best thing, is hugh made us fresh vegetable soup...straight outta the tin. they didn't seem tined, but they probably were. big inside joke from the previous day. but it was great! i'll post some pictures later. but this honestly was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!! not to mention i was in nz! but part of the river really looked like utah. i was very surprised. but the water was cleara nd blue, not brown and or flimy murky greenish gray.
so yeah, i am 20 now. no longer a teen but not yet 21. the year of limbo. i believe it is going to be a very good year. or at lest it has been thus far.

life in invercargill

ummmmm......i don't remember the last report i made.
but i LOVE invercargill! it is SO FUN! my homestay is great! her name is heather and she is the sweetest old lady ever! she is so sweet, nice, caring, funny, and just lovely. she is taking good good care of me. we hang our clothes on the line. i think that is fantastic. plus it makes my clothes smell really nice. the food here is really good. i eat a LOT of vegies and fruit! it is great! especially cabbage. and rhubarb over ice cream! i ride EVERYWHERE on my bike. i am going to have thighs of steel when i return. there are great parks EVERYWHERE like every block. no joke! we play a lot of rugby and ultimate. sometimes we ride our bikes 12 miles to the beach. and then 12 miles back. the ice cream is FANTASTIC! i've never had such grand ice cream in my life! carmel rocky road and then also banana. it is great. i run everyday. except for sundays of course. umm....school is going. i have 1 real class on thurs and fri from 9-noon. we learn about the importance of recreation and the family. and play games. mon tues wed we have outdoor classes. we started kayaking on tues, and wed was waitangi day (national holiday) i went to a maori party in the park, and got invited to specail tea where they gave me lemonade cuz i don't drink tea. leamonade = sprite here. i was sad. i miss lemonade......sigh.....anyway. today, we had adventure base learning. aka the most AMAZING ropes course of my life! it was SO fantastic! and i'm kayaking tomorrow, they're stickin us in the river. yay! and wed i'm surfing! i LOVE life! and to make matters better there was a bagpipe compettition in the park on sunday that was utterly fantastic, and we're going to queenstown this weekend. and guess whatelse is this weekend....guess....my birtday! i'll be in queenstown. the ADVENTURE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!! and since i'll be gone. my homestay and katie jo and jane (the girls i live w. jane is cool, she is from new calidonia. katie jo is from highland, not quite as cool.) anyway, we're recelebrating on next sat. so 2 birthdays! yay!

pictorals!

so, this first picture is a wee example of the hilarity of the signs in nz! you should see their traffic signs. i would live here just to pass by them everyday. like high speed, low iq. it's great. the 2nd pic, well that was my first taste of nz. just off the side of the highway (aka widny mt/sea road) i love it!the Hamilton Temple. We were passing through on a Sunday, so we didn't actually get to go...oh well. I still saw it. and underneath we have zorbing. i'm in that ball w/ ben and julia about to run over all those people laying on the ground! the kiwis sure know how to have a rockin good timethis is me climbing a vine. you can't tell, but i am at least 12-15 feet in the air.In Rotarua we went to a Maori thing-ma-gig. it was amazing! anyway, this is the cheif. only about 5 people from our group of 40 got the chance to do this. it's how they greet one another it's called a hongi, not to be confused with a hangi which is when they cook food underground with hot rocks. but seriously, one of my trip highlights!Megan Merrill and I on the hike through Mordor at Mount Doom. i kid you not, it started smoking while we were up there. no biggie though.we stayed in these nifty places called holiday parks. many of them were right on the beach. in greymouth (the day before the 10 hour drive) was our last day on the coast so we took full advantage. and yes, this is me.and these are my girls. we have left to right, marcie glad, kpax, haeree kim (pronounced heddy), katie merrill, kathy jones, and megan merrill....i don't know where jacquie was....this is why you are all jealous....and this was a random lunch stop. i don't know it's name. we picked up a hitch hiker named judith from germany and then stopped at this random lake where we got tuna! first time no pb&j in about 2 weeks! it was so fantastic. i love tuna!this is our family photo. these are all my girls and my "dad" we were all in the same van...ramsay is the driver. so we call him dad. we went to the catlins the other day and swam with wild dolpins! coolest experience of my life. there was one a foot away! highlight of entire trip thus far! these are my girls. megan merrill, haeree kim, kathy jones, jacquline secore, katie merrill, and me - kpax

well, i hope you all enjoyed this wee slide show. there will be many more to come!

much love,

kpax

new home in aotearoa

greetings from aotearoa!!! (that is maori for nz ps. it means land of the long white cloud. apparantly there was a long white cloud over nz when the maori got here about 2000 yrs agoish) anyway. i have arrived in my final destination of invercargill. the very bottom of the southern island if you like to take a gander of where it is. but my new mum here in invercargill's name is heather and she is fantastic. ashe takes great care of katie jo and myself (yes my roommates name is katie as well.) but nz has been fantastic. so many adventures. we drove a lot. but that's ok. i''ve seen this entire country in about 2 weeks. i've spent a lot of time in a car, on the beach, hiking random beautiful places in mountians, streams, glaciers, etc. we were in christchruch for the world busker festival. that was really fun! if i were to live in nz and not in the country in a small cottage and lie as a shepherd w my own sheep adn cows and grow my own food then i would live in christchurch. it is a beautiful and fabulous city. anyway invercargill is great. it is grogerous and small. the beach is right close and there is an awesome parka nd tons of fun things! it is about 5 yrs behind the times but you can't find anything like what you find here. i am safe and having fun and getting tan. i'll post pictures when i can!

welcome to New Zealand!!

well all. i'm here and i'm safe. i nearly didn't make it out of the airport bc dad gave me mace and that is apparently illegal in nz but that's ok. i'm here! it is GORGEOUS! like another world! no wonder they filmed lord of the rings here. i highly suggest coming here. for real. if you come got to waitomo and go blackwater rafting. it is incredible! i heart it! but wanna know what's the best. my chaco tan is returning. oh yeah. summer in january! i feel bad you are all so pasty....oh well..

it's almost time!

well all. 8 days and counting....