Tales of the beard, part 2

This is probably more to show off the awesome Milford Fiords behind me, but alas, you can see the stubble taking shape. Its good. My face is looking a little chub these days anyhow.

Into the Kiwi

Well our vacation officially started yesterday morning, and I must say Queenstown has been more than up to the task as a superb ball roller. I have never experienced any kind of flight landing like it. We basically touched down nearly on top of a mountain before a field opened up just in time, got off the plane old school style (right on to the runway) and entered a smallish yet stylish structure that had the size of a small office building but still a functioning airport. After a half dozen wows and a quick look at brochures we boarded our Super Shuttle for Queenstown proper.
As one would expect a mountain town in the twilight of its winter season to be, it is cold, cold, cold. But it is also beautiful beyond words. Think Grand Tetons in overabundance. The ski bum, mid-20 travel hungry and career indecisive culture is rampant but so is genuine warmth amongst the masses. Our hostel has their groove down pat and we have found staying there so far to be a fairly painless yet still memorable experience. We have stayed so far with two guys, Damien and Benjie (from Australia and England respectively) and they are both good guys. Benjie as I have recently found, just cracked 3 of his ribs snowboarding today and is on the edge of coherency, loaded up with morphine and codine. Yikes!
Our adventures so far have included a fair amount of walking, including a two way, rather strenuous hike up a mountain to avoid high gondola fees (plus we just had a gondola ride in Keystone! Thanks R and K!), my very own and very first luge ride in the midst of gorgeous mountain top vistas, a famous eat in at Fergburgers which never seems to be devoid of at least 75 people at any given time (apparently in the top 3 things to do in Queenstown) and an all day tour to the Milford Fiord’s, which I cannot begin to tell you how gorgeous that was. The pictures can only do so much justice. Suffice it say, New Zealand, in aesthetics, has more than lived up to its reputation. This particular tour included the comedy of our driver Mangee, encounters with dolphins, seals and wild penguins and new friends made in an Aussie couple, Laura and Andrew.
As it stands we have been pleased as punch so far with everything we’ve experienced. Assuming I can work out an ominous email I received from Travelocity regarding our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Amman needing to be adjusted, we can fully enjoy without worry our LORD OF THE RINGS TOUR tomorrow.  Till then friends!

Landing in Queenstown

It's stinkin cold here!! And gorgeous!

Tales of the beard, part 1

In leau of Kris and mine’s decision to leave razors behind, we thought it best that I at least start with a clean shaven face. Lord knows, at the end of 6 weeks my face with resemble the unkempt of the jungles and islands we spent 6 months surrounded by. So here is the start of the beard photo diaries. From 12 to bum, one day at a time. Enjoy!

This Day in History, Or Was It?

This needed to be mentioned. I am feeling very weird about this whole International Date Line thing. Apparently August 10th just totally blew by us. As it stands, we did not experience 8-10-10. Like some weird universe vacuum or 24 hour human being suck portal, we failed to exist on August 10th. When the scholars looks back on that day and remember the things that happened (I’m sure SOMETHING happened) I will feel this strange void in my mind and soul. I was 28 on August 9th and I am now 28 on August 11th. But August 10th? I was nill, a non-exist in a plane full of enigmas. I don’t know. I’m sure I’m being dramatic but the whole thing strikes me as odd. Kris worked with a guy on our last trip who did the same Pacific trek and apparently THAT day, the one that got away, was his birthday, so he just totally missed his birthday. Completely. We’re in the middle of the twilight zone and nobody else here seems to care. I may never totally come to grips with this but I guess I have nothing else to say.

1 ½ down, 12 ½ to go

So here I am, in the middle of possibly the biggest plane I’ve ever been on. We are somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and we are closing in on Auckland, New Zealand. We successfully navigated LAX, the goofy futuristic retro club pod we had lunch in and our way out of the US. I really had my reserves about a 13 hour flight (plus 2 more to Queenstown) but as I didn’t know, Air New Zealand is actually fully prepared to make that long of a flight absolutely bearable! In fact, this may be one of the most pleasant flights I’ve been on. They give you 73 FREE options for movies , the food was not half bad and on top of it all, free wine. Who does that? I’m sure the flight attendant was tickled pink OR considered me a nice cheap American tourist when I had to ask, first, if the movies were free and then if the wine was free. What?? Is that really such a ridiculous question? International flying is ok by me! (Or so I say now. Ask me after 10, 12 more flights….) I suppose it hasn’t been total roses. Ask Kris how much she’s been enjoying the man in front of us who apparently needs to clear his sinuses about every 30 seconds. You know that guttural noise that’s made when you’re snorting back ammo for a big loogie? Yeah, that seems to be this guy’s MO. He’s doing it right now, as I type this. Of course, it’s about 10 times more pronounced when you’re in the delicate balance of trying to get any type of sleep on the plane that you can. The guy across from me has stinky feet. He just does. I would like to think that that is something you can be pretty self aware of and not, for example, rest your feet on the head rest, or any other position that keeps them lateral with everyone else’s sniffers. But I digress. Kris is currently writing in her journal which I imagine would make for a much more coherent and amusing blog then this, but we both agreed that the blog was mine to upkeep so you’re stuck with me. Till later folks. I’m gonna take advantage of more free movies!

Moving forward, looking back

Here is my official apology for what I suppose has been an unforgivably long time since I have written anything for this blog. Who knows, maybe everyone has given up and I am now more or less writing an online and public diary. Oh well. If you (the proverbial you) are still holding out hope and still checking the blog, well then your luck and day has come. This is a start of a new dawn for the Tale of the Thulson Gypsies. With our international trip and next stages of life now fully in the present, I will give my best sum up of the gap in time and then freely allow myself to engage you in our present. The rest of the contract became a lesson in patience, gratification where we could get it, excitement (understatement) for the end and possibly, less and less tolerance for being there. But as it stands, we are still grateful for the opportunity, the money we saved, the wonderful friends we made in the process and the chance to interact with so MANY COOL ANIMALS!! I’m serious. In our 6 months on the Valor, we held a or posed with a parrot, dolphin, crocodile, spider monkey, stingray, turtle (large and small), plenty of fish, sea urchins, eel and even caught glimpses of a barracuda (cue chugging guitar riff…) Down the stretch, I was a fill in Musical Director for 5 days and, in very fitting fashion, Kris claimed employee of the month again. Still these things did not give us the proper gusto to want to be there any longer then we had to and, truth be told, July 11th was a GREAT day. And with the sunny but worn out ports of Grand Cayman, Isla Roatan, Belize and Cozumel behind us we were able to focus on our summer, our travels and our time with family and friends. The next weeks were a perfect opportunity to reconnect with our families, the first being spent in MN with hers, which included spot on meals, good card games, movies and the relaxation that summer-not-on-a-ship brings. Kris’s parents as always were the perfect measure of hospitality and care. The next week, we got a chance to fly to San Diego with my whole immediate family and spend a week in a beach house as part of my Dad’s grant and sabbatical. Spending a week falling asleep and waking up to the crashing waves was awesome as was the chance to swim, bathe, beach-play and visit several local attractions with my entire family. I think everyone was grateful. Then after a week and a half of nose-to-the-grind-stone last minute planning and enjoying Denver, we made our way to the mountains for Kris’s good college friend, Ruth’s wedding. It was a great weekend, a chance for Kris to get to see so many of her good friends, a chance for her to once again prove her mettle at getting the job done (she was Ruth’s personal attendant) a chance for me to start probably my 30th dream for a career ambition (wedding and overall business photography. Seriously I had a blast with my new camera!), and a chance to realize Mark Yamaguchi’s a pretty stinkin funny guy. So many, many props to Ruth and Kyle for, I don’t know, getting married in a really cool way and really beautiful locale. Congratulations to you both!! And so here we are, a mere nights sleep away from the start of our next big adventure, where the Thulson Gypsies hit international waters and prove that, though they may be bumbling tourists, the worth of it all absolutely justifies any embarrassments or social miscues along the way.