Hi guys!

We're in Te Anau and starting the Milford Trek tommorrow which will be pretty fantastic. But, today is a quite rainy grey day, so, we are currently in the library. Dana is getting a library card so she can check out an action-packed dan brown novel and read it on trail and hopefully not get it dirty because we have to return it after the tramp, obviously.

Anyway. I think that libraries are pretty great places and have spent the morning reading the most recent issue of national geographic (how about that India, eh?) and books on dreams (I had one where a witch wanted to turn me into a canadian goose the other day, which Dana and I both agreed was quite bizzare and in need of serious attention. Apparently, though - after some research - there isn't really anything to worry about. Although - can you believe it - traditionally witches frequently have goose side-kicks. Bizzare).

In addition to all the new things we have been learning, we also just spent the past weekend and a bit in Queenstown. Queenstown prides itself on being the Xtreme tourist spot, with canyoning and bungee jumping and jet boating and lots of things that aren't really quite up our alley. It was funny because it was the first time we really felt like tourists (or tour guides, or something weird like that) the whole time we've been here and spent a good 30 minutes of one evening guiding a huge indian family to a restaurant they couldnt find (which was fun, and funny, and very do-gooder-esque).

But, anyway. Queenstown was beautiful. We applied to a couple of jobs there and all the people working were very nice (much nicer than all the people traveling through there, who all seemed like rich football (or respective sport in their respective country) players who were looking to be radical and extreme but weren't really, or something like that.

But. We might work in a chocolate store! That serves gelato and fudge and tons of desserts, and, that would be fun.

And I had the greatest conversation with a nice old man on a park bench early one morning when I was waiting for an internet place to open and he was waiting for an appointment and we talked about the environment and philosphy and printers and elections, etc. It was quite nice. And, speaking of. Its the eve of election day for you guys. Which is exciting, firstly. And, secondly, you should make sure to get plenty of sleep tonight and to rest up for it.

Besides that we booked a lake house next to the lake in Wanaka for four nights during thanksgiving and are inviting our quite ecclectic mix of new friends from across new zealand over for a big feast that thursday. I think that thanksgiving (beside this upcoming tramp in like, the most amazing place with the most amazing scenery, etc, on earth) is what I am most looking forward to right now.

To be honest, the prospect of a nice clean bed and room to myself and nice pillows and my own bathroom and my own personal space without snorers or gross pillows or a freezing cold tent at night (it is, we promise, still a bit cold to be sleeping in a summer tent right now in new zealand. trust us, we know, we've been doing it regularly)

Really. Be thankful for your pillows. And that, hey, if you wanted to, you could even have two to prop your head up if you wanted). They are quite, quite miraculous.

Ok. Dana hasn't come back yet and I can't imagine that it takes this long to get a library card, so, I am going to go find her and see what she's reading, etc. And I'm going to eat a granola bar because I'm hungry even though I'm pretty sure I shouldn't eat in the library. (I'll be careful! And, I'll hide in a corner or something so no one yells at me)

Alright. Cheers!
-Tatty

I uploaded pictures to our photo site from our tramp up Mount Aspiring, so go check them out at http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=AE1B7E2C649&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

also, comment if you read this! happy halloween!
-d

so. a lot has happened since we last updated. Its strange how much fuller your days become when you aren't working all the time.

After our beautiful retreat to Taylors Mistake and a quite adventurous weekend enjoying christchurch to its fullest (we walked through a cute craft fair outdoor market, watched a parade, happened upon the opening speeches / events for the international squash tournament, which was apparently happening the next week, and ate some pretty good Japanese food). We laid a bit low for the next couple of days while planning the next move and then decided it was time to leave for Wanaka, our next adventure.

We left Friday morning and it was the most amazing spring weather and the most beautiful drive. The town itself surrounds a clear blue lake and is, itself, surrounded by terribly picturesque mountains. It is a cute ski town and dana couldn't stop talking about how much her dad would like it (and should retire there, so she could visit).

Anyway, after exploring the town we decided it was time to finally start tramping and did an overnight jaunt to a hut in the mountains. It was incredible. The walk there was perfect spring weather and we had an ideal view of Rob Roy glacier. We stayed in a nice hut and woke up early the next morning. The weather wasn't too ideal (a bit of wind and rain) so we figured it would probably be a good idea to head back down to the car instead of adventuring too much in the mountains.

In retrospect, this was a great decision because during our walk back to the carpark there was an ubelievable ammount of wind. We probably couldn't have walked at all if it wasn't a tail wind, and itstead we just stumbled and laughed lots and worked to keep ourselves balanced and held our arms out lots. We also enjoyed the sheep and had copious ammounts of fun working to communicate and make friends with them, despite being unsuccessful in most of our attempts to even get close to them at all.

Anyway. After the tramp we drove back to Wanaka and decided, once again, that it was time for our next adventure.

We left this morning for Queenstown and are planning to spend the night at a campground and use the next couple of days to prepare for the Milford Tramp, which we are starting next wednesday.

We'll keep in touch and upload the pictures shortly!

well, the past few days have been quite eventful.  we finished up our soul-sucking jobs selling ugly towels and duvet covers and valances (don't even get me started on those stupid things), and finally had some time to explore and adventure around Christchurch.  We went to a beach called Taylor's Mistake on Friday with our friend John who is from Canada.  We walked along the coast and saw lots of sheep and beautiful turquoise waters crashing up against lava rocks - you know, typical New Zealand gorgeous.  And, since I have now figured out this whole blogging and picture uploading thing, you can see it!

The Beach

 John and I imitating sheep (baaaa!)

(Because we don't have enough pictures of the two of us loving each other)

After a while walking along, we stumbled upon a deserted summer village, a

ccessible only by boat (or our path), and it was all miniature and hobbit-sized.  So, we were sketchy and peered into the windows and found miniature beds and chairs and refrigerators inside miniature houses, and dubbed the town Hobbiton.  

peeping toms

The quaint little seaside village

John and I are ready to enroll in the Hobbiton School

So, trying to format this post and integrate pictures was incredibly difficult, so I hope you all appreciate it.  You can see more pics on the photoworks site, the link is in the last update. So, I'm going to try another update with pictures again in a bit - there are more stories to tell, and more photos to share, but I can't deal with formatting any more right now.

xoxxxx

- dtrain 

Hey!

http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=AE1B7E2C649&cp=ems_shar_alb_pml&cb=PW

Go here!

Its our photos!

Hi all!

So, we have been plagued by guilt for not having updated more (really, we really have.  Christina, we have talked so many times about how we need to email you.  really.  we need to. - and we have a great postcard that we are waiting for the right time to write.  yikes.  and my parents because you always send me such nice emails and the same for dana's parents.  and we talk about how if we were to go see kanye west it would be fun to send widji people a postcard from the show and how funny our bosses at work are and tyler because you always send so many silly facebook things that make me smile and.  really.  my point is, i guess, that we talk and think about you all tons and we're sorry for not being too good about updating. BUT, happy distraction so you wont be too mad at us... I am uploading pictures from the trip so far at this very moment!  so, you will no longer be in the dark.  And, more than just long boring paragraphs that you are mostly interested in but sometimes get bored with during the middle of long sentences and too verbose descriptions and too descriptive details about things you dont really care about so long as we're okay.  Well, more than that, you are about to become so illuminated - so completely aware of - everything we have seen and done thus far.  Or, at least, you will get to see a bunch of pretty cool pictures of it.  So, that's exciting.)

Anyway.  We left off at Christchurch, where we still are.  And, yes, we did begin selling bras.  In fact, we have fancy name tag-style pins labelled "bra-fitter", which we think is kind of funny.  But, more importantly.  We are staying in Christchurch for a total of three weeks - until the 27th - working just about everyday.  Last week was our first week of work - and it was a LOT of work.  On Tuesday we got to the parking lot at 8 AM and spent the day unloading trailers full of bras and underwear and towels and bathmats and cushions and sheets and valances and duvet covers (etc) until 6 that night.  We did this for the rest of the week, until the expo opened on Saturday (one of my favorite memories was when we were unloading a gigantic trashbag full of underwear that split open all over the floor and one of the other workers, a bit uptight backpacker, scrambled around picking it all up.  It was, certainly, something I never thought I would see in my life, and it was quite funny).

Anyway.  We spent the weekend working 9-6 at the cash registers.  Some of it was fun and rewarding, but most of it was a bit tiring and monotonous.  Our bosses are quite nice though, and we get free coffee every morning, and during the week (this week) it is only 10-6.  And... we get tomorrow off.  (We think we are going to make pancakes in the morning and then spend the day at the beach, maybe doing a bit of a short walk.  It will either be that or going to go to the "cookie time" factory if the weather isn't nice enough for the beach).  We work again this weekend and then through next week and weekend, and then are planning to do quite a  bit of traveling and tramping and adventuring around the rest of the south island.  We are hoping to be in Dunedin for Halloween and  Wanaka for Thanksgiving, but, really, who knows.

Anyway.  Though life has been a bit dull (ha! as if our lives could be dull at all) here, we did go see Blackalicious last Saturday, which was a fantastic show.  And, we are in the process of watching the Saw trilogy, which gave me nightmares but which we also highly recommend.  And, I got bangs.  Real ones.  

We have also made quite a few nice new friends, including a pair of german blonde girls who are also working selling bras and remind us a bit of ourselves that we hope to do some tramping and traveling with after we finish our stay in Christchurch.

And what else?  Tonight was a night full of Indian food, a silly movie, and soy ice cream - after a day full of cash registers and refolding pillow cases.  

We only have seven minutes left to update, so here goes:
Wellington was the greatest. The Botanical Gardens are incredible.
The ferry to Picton was sweet - we got to drive our car on it, and then we watched She's the Man on a bigscreen tv (which we both took as a very good sign), and ate really yummy chocolate covered almonds. and espresso beans. mmm.
Then we stayed at a hostel in some small town with dolphins and seahorses painted everywhere. Then we drove along the coast and saw seals chilling on the rocks and watched the turquoise waters crash all little mermaid-like. Then we got to Christchurch and got temp jobs selling bras and earning $14 an hour. We're pretty much awesome.
- the girls