Oh Life… Learning how to dream BIGGER!

Goal setting… I’ve never been one for writing out goals, for saying this is what I want to achieve in this amount of time and with the help from these people and by doing this. Why not? I guess I always have thought that doing this is a really great idea, but I’ve also been some what of a spur of the moment planner.

I mean how many people book a flight to New Zealand the month before they leave for 7 months? (Not actually knowing at the time how long they are leaving for?) Clearly not a lot of planning (and goal setting) went into that! Without a doubt, and especially looking back on it now. New Zealand had a MAJOR impact on my life and who I am as a person, it was the drop in the bucket that I needed to start the ripple moving and to change my future and to start on a major path of enlightenment and self development! The longer I’m home from New Zealand the more of an impact that it seems to have on my life. Ya I’ll admit taking a helicopter to the top of a glacier and hiking around on it for an hour with people from 5 different parts of the world was pretty cool at the time. But when you look back on it… it’s a better memory to have then I ever imagined it would be at the time I was doing it. I think that is one of the most amazing things about life. You never know when your creating a memory that’s going to help shape who you are as a person!

If your Dreams don’t scare you they aren’t big enough!

I wanted to spend some time today, focusing on setting goals for my self and dreaming big, and really helping my self to get some direction. My favorite saying right now is, you can’t hit a target you can’t see. Or if you don’t know where your going any road will take you there. We only have one life, and its short, I want to get the most out of it that I can. I am going to live my life! 

Todays problem…. Where to start… (I guess this just was my “start”) … now to keep the momentum going!

Miss you heaps NZ!!!

New Zealand was amazing. Definitely one of the best choices I have made in my life. I’m home now and have pulled off a great surprise with some even greater reactions from some of the people that have always meant the most to me in my life and always will! The last few weeks in NZ were great met some more awesome people went on a great fishing trip, swam with dolphins and even jumped out of a plane! Life is good!

Here I am now at some god awful time in the morning wide awake… must be morning in NZ or something I think I’m still feeling the effects of jet leg and really wish I could sleep right now! Reality is setting in and I’m starting to realize I really need to figure out what I’m going to do with my life. I know a lot of people say I’m young and there is no fun in that… But you know what that’s not me and who I am. I know that I want to do certain things with my life and feeling like I have made a great effort to be the best I can be is part of that. I’ve got this far in my life with relatively little effort. I think it’s time for me to get serious though. What am I really going to do with my life???

I remember when I was taking Marketing in Niagara I always joked that I would become an educated bum. But right now at this crazy time in the morning I am starting to believe that this may be truer then I knew. My thoughts tonight keep taking me towards law school… is this a possibility? I’ve always know I have what it takes to do whatever I really want, and often said that if it wasn’t for the guts and blood I would be a doctor. For some reason lawyer just seems to have escaped in the past from my ideas. But why? It fits with everything that I’ve wanted from a career. Well at least as much as I know about it, it does any way. I have never really looked to seriously at it. I’ve got to pick something to get serious about. Is law going to be me? My future? Is it something that I could get serious about and make a career out of? I’m thinking of specializing in real estate law or something related. I guess will have to see what the future brings. I’m still going to need to find something to take me though the summer!

Looks like a great day to jump out of a plane…..

A few things have happened since I left you all last. I’m currently writing this in National Park while I wait for my bus to Auckland. I got on intercity to Dunedin on the 10^th of April. Got on Stray on the 12^th and headed up towards Welly. Stops on the way include a night at Mt. Cook the highest mountain in New Zealand. A night at Rangitata (as stray no longer stops in Christchurch), and a night in Kaikoura which I think was my favorite stop. A few of the girls off the bus and I went fishing and had a great time, Sea Perch, Sharks and Crayfish (Rock lobster… ummm yummy!!!) The next morning I also did the dolphin swim where we were with a few hundred dolphins in the water it was pretty amazing!!  From there we arrive in Welly. I spent two more nights there and have decided that Queenstown was definitely the place for me… wwwaaayyy to many people in Welly, it also had that city smell and its simply just not as pretty!  Everyone off the bus took off and headed up to Aucks on the 18^th. I was on my own. Which one mission left to complete in New Zealand!

                I’ve now learnt the hard way it’s a VERY hard thing to do to book yourself on a bus to stay at a hostel that you don’t know anyone at and know that you are only doing all this in preparation to chuck yourself out of a plane in the very near future. It’s really not a natural thing for your brain to deal with…. the jumping out of a perfectly good plan part especially.  But it was great and I did it! There is a video I’m sure you will all see to prove it as well! Photos can also be found on facebook!

                So now what? Whats next? Well I’m sure by the time you all read this blog you will know what the next move was. So I’ve written this on the 20^th of April… but I’m not posting it till today! So glad to be home! I’ve missed you all loads and can’t wait for the near future good times to begin!

Ps…. Those in NZ still reading this… You are all AMAZING people and I’m so lucky to have met any single one of you let alone get the option of meeting so many of you absolutely amazing people! I hope that I get the opportunity to cross your path again! Live your lives and enjoy every moment! Thanks so much for all the good times!! You all rock!!

I don’t know what I want so don’t ask me……

…….cuz I’m still trying to figure it out. Don’t know what’s down this road I’m just walking.

Right so I’ve made it to Clevedon and tonight will be my third night sleeping here. My last week in Queenstown was super! After my awesome long weekend I continued to stuff my face for the week. Hey I was going to work on a horse far what did I care? I would work it off and I really don’t think horses care. So Tuesday was leftovers from the BBQ (mentioned in previous blog). Wednesday was mine and Collette’s super hot date night! She had swung a really amazing dinner and Hauka show for herself, Tash and I. Tash decided not to show though. We went up the gondola to have buffet and watch the show it was a perfect last week in Queenstown thing to do. We even got the photos that you get from the Gondola! Oh I should probably mention the best part! It was all FREE, because Collette works on photos at the gondola. Trust me this was super cool because it’s a pretty high end place with a much more high end view. Thursday I had Tash over for dinner since she couldn’t make it out the night before and cooked her a real shit supper as I was trying to eat up everything in the house before leaving. We went for drinks and met up with some people and had a good but chill night.

Friday was my last day at work, and I actually got a surprising amount of work done. Then as the good group girls do on a Friday night we headed out for drinks starting at Harry’s about 5:00 (one of our goodbars). Really what would my last night in Queenstown be if it wasn’t a 8 hour drinking shift? Love you girls we all had a really great night and of course Ann and I went to Ferg on the way home right after our sneaky dash out of Bardeaux at about 1.  

Saturday, Plane leaves at 1, should be at the air port for about 12:15, wake up approx 10:00 with about half my packing left to do a room to get ready for Rochelle to move into and a full ferg left to eat in the fridge (probably should shower and straighten my hair too). I think Ann and I left the house at about 12:15 to head to the airport. We did have to make an emergency pit stop and my bag was the last one on the plane. But not before I paid the fee for it being overweight. My mind was not capable of making any decision on what was heavy and what wasn’t that morning. About 20 minutes after paying the $50 fine and about 10 minutes after sitting down on the plane I realized how stupid it was to pay the fine. All I would have had to do was take my new jeans that I had bought to wear on the farm out. Given Ann some of the food that I brought with me (because I was unsure what the food situation was going to be when I got there) and I would have been well under the limit! %@##@!!!!...... Whatever!..... So I can’t decide which is worse when on a plane hung over, the kid screaming behind you because its ears are popping and it doesn’t know what going on or the turbulence. Let me tell you this may have been one of my shortest flights but it was also one of the worst.

Get to the farm around 4:30 find my room, change and head out to help them finish feeding for the night. Luckily by this time the hangover seems to have subsided. Tess is my “boss” the head groom and rider. Absolutely lovely girl she’s 23 from Vancouver and has been around horses forever. She mentioned that she also spent some time working with Jay Hayes in Ontario. I also met Kevin who is living in my house with me and doesn’t really speak English. So I helped them finish up and come inside. The place that I’m living in the “grooms house” is really dirty. I don’t think anyone has cleaned in here well ever.  I had an absolutely horrible sleep that night mostly because it was ssoo humid out but also I think the reality of what I had just done was setting in. We started work at 7:00 the next morning feeding mucking stalls and turning out the horses. I quickly come to discover that these people love to blanket these horses and they need a different blanket for outside than in. They also need their hooves picked about 3 times a day.

The panic is starting to set in by now, my mind is going at a hundred miles a minute and horses pick up on this quiet quickly. I have no car here I was told there was one we would share, apparently it broke down.  Fine whatever I can handle that it was probably standard in this country any way.  Tess asks me if I can tack up “Lesbos” a real fancy horse with a real attitude I got nervous she bit at me and I cracked. By this point complete panic is setting in. What am I doing in New Zealand, stuck on this farm working 6 days a week for next to no cash, stuck in this little shack house with people that don’t speak English. Even on my day off I’m not going to know ANYONE to go visit or hang out with. I can’t stay here. I’m NOT staying here. By this time Tess has come back and can see something is very wrong with me, Megan the owner’s daughter who had also picked me up from the air port is also with us by this point. I had a complete panic attack and had to go for a walk and chill out.  I got through the rest of the day ok had made the decision I will give it the week and when we were done went almost straight to bed. I was still thinking like crazy before bed and I don’t know what I’m going to do next.  I got through today really well would even maybe go so far as to say I enjoyed today the weather was great and the work was a little easier now that I knew some of the horses names. I still think I’m moving on at the end of the week.  Will see. I’m just a girl trying to find a place in this world.  

We danced all night without a care, no place we'd rather be….

It does seem that I managed to pull of the almost perfect last weekend in Qtown! Grabbed a Fat Badgers pizza for dinner on Wed. Left work early on Thursday for Paddys day and met Collette at Pog Mahones for a Guinness in the sun! She had been there for a few hours already with some of her also Irish workmates. From there we headed to her place for a few and then back to town for some fun.  I also met up with Sonia again who I hadn’t seen since I left Nelson so long ago! Friday morning Sonia and a couple of her friends and I went for breakfast at Fergburger. 

                We had a little house warming party at our new place on Friday night. Turned out to be a real quiet night after the antics everyone got up to the day before, but was still good. Played a couple drinking games, and had a laugh. It was basically the roomies and Bobbie and Andy who use to live in my room before I moved in. They had been running a lodge in Japan since I had moved into the room in Dec. (Japans ski/snowboard season).

Saturday afternoon Ann, Bobbie and I headed out on a road trip to Balclutha. It took us about 2.5 hours to get there. Ann use to work down there and one of her friends was moving to Oz. It was a really really good night Cluther is a “small town” of about 4,000 people. Bobbie who was with us was pretty much a celebrity. She must have ended up telling her story about being in Tokyo during the Quake a million times.  We has some really amazing Kiwi’s put us up for the night and I think we had been adopted to stay at 3 other people’s houses for the next night. Although we didn’t end up staying and headed home the next day. Not after heading out to the beautiful Catlin’s area for fish and chips. It somehow took us about 4 hours to get home. It was early to bed that night for some much needed rest.

The next day I managed to book myself on for a FREE Skippers Canyon Jet Boat ride that I had won at Red Rock the night Toni and Kate were leaving town.  The trip was really great! It takes nearly an hour to get form Queenstown to where the boat is and, not because it’s very far away but, because you head up a windy road which turns into a bit of a goat track on the way there. They tell you loads about the history of the canyon and show you a few of the spots where some of the Lord of The Rings stuff was filmed. It also just so happened we drove by another film crew on the way in. These boats are basically Jet ski’s only bigger and can turn on a dime and pretty much go anywhere in the water. The drivers like to head full speed into a rock that may have a jut out that goes just over your head and pull a full 360 just before hitting the rocks.  They also took us up to see the Pipe  Line bungee which shut down about 10 years ago because they built the Nevis which was higher. The full trip took about 3.5 hours and I’m really glad I did it!

Once I got home again I had to get ready real quick as we all headed over to Claudia’s for a BBQ. It was a great afternoon the sun was shining and we had loads of great food on the BBQ. Garlic bread, curry rice salad, pasta salad, steak, pavlova with strawberries, chicken, and more! It was really great to have such a chill afternoon with such a great group of people. We even finished with a game of Cranium, although we weren’t really playing by the rules and it is still a little clear who actually won.  Not sure there is anything I could have changed in the weekend that could make for a better last weekend in Qtown! Even the weather was great all weekend! Sunshine and summer time!

Blog4NZ

If I leave here tomorrow would you still remember me

I’m as free as a bird now, and on my way to start another new ADVENTURE! Ssoo ….I didn’t see this change coming. I’m leaving Queenstown in less than two weeks and I’m having a lot of mixed feelings about it. I’m obviously excited to get out of my comfort zone again and try something new. But doing physical labour for 6 days a week and long days is making me a little nervous. I have had “desk jobs” for the last… well I guess… as long as I can say I’ve been working real jobs….  I’m going to work on a horse farm which claims to be the #1 breeding farm in NZ.  45 Horses and I’m feeding them, brushing them, tacking them up ect. Should be a blast!

I’m a little worried that I’m going to be stuck on this farm with the same small group of people for at least a month probably longer! Not something that would usually worry me as there really aren’t many people that I don’t get along with. Well none that I can think of really. But, these are horse people and horse people are always a little nutty! Guess I’ll have to wait and find out!  

I’ve also made some pretty good friends here in Queenstown! The girls that I work with at the office have been great and the only thing that has kept me doing accounts payable! My flatmates are really great too as you know we JUST moved into a new place and it was starting to have a nicer feel to it then the last house! I’m going to miss everyone from NOMADS also! Its all part of travelling though I knew it would happen sooner or later. I guess I just thought that it was going to happen later rather than sooner.

 

A reason, a season, or a lifetime! I know I’ve experienced some of each in Queenstown!

BUT IT AIN’T OVER YET!!

Can’t wait for our Paddy’s and long weekend adventures everyone!! What a high note to leave on!