Driving in Middle Earth

We opted to rent a car and drive our way through New Zealand. This is hands-down what I would recommend for anyone going on a trip here, especially for a first time. The country is compact, so most driving distances between major highlights are easily done in a few hours. Plus, as Ben accurately put it, the scenery you pass is a destination in itself. There was literally not one moment (except if it was dark out) that you couldn't be happy and usually awed just looking out at the countryside flying by. In fact we took a lot of our photos either out the window of the moving vehicle, or by pulling over every five minutes at some insanely gorgeous lookout.

Ben used Google Maps when we got back to calculate the total travel distance. Including the ferry ride between islands (which we technically didn't drive) and the trip out to Milford (which we didn't drive ourselves but rode with our kayaking group), we went over 3000 kilometers! This equates to about 1900 miles, or the distance from Los Angeles to St. Louis. Either way you put it, we covered a lot of ground! Here's our trip map:


View Larger Map

Though we had a blast in our cheap little rental cars, a word of warning! Driving in New Zealand is not for the faint of heart... and probably also not for the easily-carsick-ed.

First of all, though major cities Auckland and Wellington have short sections of multi-lane interstates (motorways, as they call 'em) surrounding the urban area, almost all other "major" roads are little more than a two-lane country road. In fact, go but a little further off the beaten path and you'll quickly find yourself on a gravel lane!

Glenorchy

Then there's the driving on the other side of the road (from the other side of the car). This is actually pretty easy on the open road. In towns it just means double checking each time you make a turn! The most annoying part was that the blinkers and windshield wipers were on reverse sides of the steering wheel! Probably every single time I went to make a turn I first turned on the wipers.

But more challenging than the opposite-side stuff is the fact that a LOT of New Zealand is mountainous. So sometimes you're driving on straight roads beside the mountains.

Near Punakaiki, facing the Southern Alps

But a lot of times you're driving on curvy roads through the mountains.

Coromandel Peninsula

Sometimes really REALLY curvy roads.

Road to Queenstown from Wanaka

Also, New Zealand is crazy about the one-lane bridge. They'll put 'em anywhere! And sometimes they are long!


When you encounter a one-way bridge, you get a helpful "give-way" sign. A red arrow means your direction has to wait for oncoming traffic to clear. A black arrow in your direction means you have the right-of-way... or maybe in this country it is the left-of-way?!


Don't forget that New Zealand (like everywhere else except here) is on the metric system. This means you drive in kilometers not miles! On city roads the speed limit is almost always 50, which translates to about 30 mph. On the open road, the speed limit is almost always 100, which translates to about 60 mph. But you try going 100 kph on hairpin turns around the side of the mountain. Actually, don't. It's impossible.

There's lots of road construction so be sure to follow those signs too... like this one, where apparently you can choose your own speed.


So there's some challenges to driving in New Zealand. But it really was an amazing way to see the country. And the very best part? Even a wrong turn ends in reward.

The end of a wrong turn, somewhere in the North Island

New Zealand

I've sat in front of this computer for about 15 minutes, just staring at the Blogger screen and trying to figure out how to sum up my trip. And the only conclusion I've come to is that it won't fit.

It wouldn't fit in our cameras (though we have 3000 photos as evidence that we tried) and it won't fit in my blog. New Zealand is, in comparison with the size of the world, such a small place, but it won't fit in here. The extraordinary creativity of God is bursting from the seams of the place, His glory revealed in lakes vast and mountains ancient, in the carving of a landscape by water, wind, glacier, volcano, earthquake, time. We were rendered spectacularly speechless around every turn.

So rather than try to come up with an eloquent and succinct summary that would end up being overwrought and insufficient, I'll just share some stories, and of course, some pictures! Let's start with this one.

This is a kauri tree. A teenager kauri tree, in terms relative to some that still exist in parts of the North Island. Some of the largest-growing and oldest-living trees in the world, the kauri were almost completely cleared from logging and fires in the 19th century. About 4% of the forests were spared and are now fiercely protected. In the far north, where we didn't have time to go, there is one giant specimen believed to be over 2100 years old: a tree from before the time of Christ. There are records of others, bigger and older, that existed before the massive deforestation, including one that explorers estimated at nearing 4000 years old. There are a few groves left in the Coromandel Peninsula, which we drove through, and thankfully this one and its twin behind it there were right by the road.

Also thankfully for all you fine readers, we'd been kayaking and Ben was still shirtless. Hands off, ladies. Hands off.

Lots more pics and stories to come!

I Should Probably Start Packing.

Just kidding, I've started. I mean, nothing is actually in a bag yet, but, you know, I thought about it. We've got a good 15 hours before we leave for the airport, and who would I be if I wasn't a raging procrastinator? So we'll get it together here soon.

Tomorrow I'll be on a plane to Los Angeles, and tomorrow night we'll be on the plane to Auckland. Toss in a little time travel and we'll be landing down in New Zealand on Tuesday morning. I am excited but at the same time I have that strange surreal feeling I get before any big trip or event, where it just won't seem like it is actually happening until we get on that plane! I am praying for safe travel and that this trip is just really awesome for Ben. He's worked so hard over the past year and so REALLY hard over the past few months that I just can't wait to unleash him on NZ and see him enjoying life.

Just pretend this is me and Ben.

We are going to be gone for two weeks (or as I like to count it, two episodes of LOST) and we'll be a bit off the radar in lots of the places we're headed. We will be trying to snag internet from time to time and hope to post some pics and updates from the road.

What do you mean they're missing two weeks of our show?! Don't they know this is the final season?!

Well let's be honest, those bags aren't going to pack themselves. I've done my stalling, and I'm getting on that plane tomorrow whether I'm ready or not. But since I'd prefer to have clean underwear and my glasses (what else does a girl need?) I'm off for now... see ya in a couple weeks kiddos!

My Traveling Man

Most of you readers know that Ben travels a lot for his job. Not all the time, mind you, but every other month or so it seems he has a burst of trips that take him all over. This weekend he's off to Vegas, which is fun, but I'm most excited about his next trip. We just found out that in two weeks he's off to...

Yep! Ben will be taking his first overseas trip, flying into Tokyo and then headed for Yamaha's headquarters in Hamamatsu. He is accompanying his boss to document some cool new developments for the company. I'm thrilled for him - what a cool opportunity. And, okay, I'm a little jealous that I can't come - though to be honest, what would I eat? I certainly don't envy the 13 hour flight he'll have to take to get there. But hopefully he'll take lots of pictures and have many interesting stories to share. NOT the kind of stories that involve him getting detained by customs. The last thing I need is my husband stuck in Japan. Methinks they might be a little less easy to persuade than the Canadians...

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

My Thanksgiving weekend was a little non-traditional. Since Ben's ability to take vacation time is somewhat limited, we decided to take advantage of a sure-thing-four-day-weekend and get out of town. Just the two of us. It was our first trip like that since our honeymoon three and a half years ago! So while we forfeited our typical trip home to St. Louis to see family, we tried to incorporate some of the Thanksgiving standards like food and football...

Thursday we left Nashville and headed east towards Asheville... you wouldn't believe the confusion that caused people when we told them about our trip, since those two words obviously sound a lot alike! We occupied ourselves during the drive by listening to all the songs on my iPod in alphabetical order. When we got bored with that (around letter D) we switched to listening to episodes of Arrested Development, which was quite entertaining.

We arrived after a twisting and turning drive through the mountains to our destination: the Inn on Mill Creek, a bed & breakfast in Black Mountain, NC. We would highly recommend it if you are interested in staying in that area! It was really secluded... so much so that instead of a street address we had to put the longitude/latitude coordinates into our GPS to get there! Dave & Brigette, the innkeepers, were really great and so helpful. Plus Dave's breakfasts were delicious!

That night we had a proper Thanksgiving dinner at another local B&B that has a restaurant. There was turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, pumpkin pie - the works. We definitely didn't miss out in the food department!

Over the next couple days we had fun exploring Black Mountain and Asheville. While in the area we visited the famous Biltmore Estate, the largest private home ever constructed in the United States. It was built in the late 1890s by heir to the Vanderbilt fortunes. It was interesting and beautiful, although crowded and a little touristy.
We had more fun taking silly pictures outside on the beautiful terrace as the sun was setting...
We had a fun day in Asheville after we finished at the Biltmore. We googled "best burger in Asheville" and were directed by our GPS way across town to a hole-in-the-wall joint called Burgermeister. No, really. We were a little skeptical as we wove through some sketchy looking parts of town, but we ended up in a neighborhood called West Asheville, full of funky shops and cool finds. And Burgermeister delivered. If you know me, you know I am not a big red meat girl. No real reason - I'm not offended by the eating of cows, but I just prefer chicken. But when you go to a place called Burgermeister and it is advertised as the best burger in town... well, you know what they say. When in Rome...

I swear to you after eating this delicious burger I could feel my body respond, thanking me profusely for the intake of iron. I felt stronger... I now had the strength of a grown human and a bit of cow. (Ahem, Dwight Schrute reference.)

After we rolled out of there and stopped at some of the shops, it was cold and icky and rainy and we decided to go see a movie. Ben oh-so-graciously accompanied me to see Twilight. I loved it even more the third (yes, third, don't judge me!) time around and to my surprise and delight Ben said he liked it too! Most of that can probably be contributed to the fact that he likes ME and is a good husband, but still. I'll take what I can get, and if he says he liked it then I'll believe him!

Saturday night we holed up in our room and watched the OU-OSU game. It was a nail-biter at times but my Sooners were victorious, winning 61-41. With their win, the three-way tie for the Big XII South was in place, and I had to wait until Sunday afternoon when the BCS standings were released to find out that OU was officially headed to the conference championship game to face Mizzou! I know a lot of people were disappointed in the way things turned out and believed that Texas earned the shot at the title by beating OU on neutral ground in the Red River game. Of course I disagree and would argue that OU's margin of victory in defeating ranked opponents is enough merit. But either way it is decided now and I am ecstatic that we will get our chance to win the Big XII and go to the National Championship game! Boomer Sooner!

As if all that wasn't enough excitement, we ended our Thanksgiving weekend by rushing back to Nashville through awful rain and traffic to get to the Ryman Auditorium in time to catch the Jason Mraz concert.

It was a fun show - very high energy and lots of crowd interaction. I was especially impressed with Lisa Hannigan, who was his opening act. She is an Irish musician probably best known for her vocals on many Damien Rice songs. She has a beautiful voice and played lots of interesting instruments in cool arrangements. But once again my concert experience was slightly marred by an annoying drunken person. This time it was a hippie dippy lush seated next to Ben... well, seated isn't the right term, considering she spent the entire concert dancing awkwardly and flailing around spilling beer on people. She also was trying to hang all over and sort-of flirt with Ben, for which I served her up a few dirty looks laced with the clear message of "Keep your damn drunken hands off my man." Ugh. Ben handled it nicely; he has lots of experience with that sort of person from his many stints at Bonarroo!

Anyway, aside from that it was a fun show and a great end to a rather nice holiday weekend!

Ciao from Roma!

Ashley & I are in Rome right now, having some fun! So far we have seen the Colloseum, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, the basilica and Vatican museums, the Sistene Chapel, and the pope. For reals! I will blog a lot more when I get home but just wanted to throw up a couple quick pics of our travels!

Ash & Me at the Roman Forum

Piazza Navonna at Sunset

Me at the Colloseum at night.

My illegal pic of the Sistene Chapel.

Tomorrow we leave for the coast where we will visit Sorrento, Capri, and Pompeii. Ciao!

Music in the Rockies

Hey all, just so you know while I am gone I am writing a blog about my time at Music in the Rockies for my work's MySpace page. Check it out here: www.myspace.com/gospelmusicassociation.

There are pics too!

Miss you all and see you when I return.

Amy J