Hang Gliding

If you enjoy watching people do stupid things (and who doesn't), here's a video of my attempt at hang gliding in Queenstown, New Zealand. Before Chris and I decided to try this, I would have considered myself a coordinated, calm human being that can follow simple directions. This does not appear to be the case. I can't decide if I'm elated or embarrassed that this was all caught on tape, so until then, here are a few things to ponder:

1. I immediately forgot what to do with my feet. Thanks for taking charge, Mr. Instructor Man.

2. Grabbing the steering bar is an apparent no-no, so of course, it's the first thing I go for.

3. We landed in a field full of sheep poop. Lots and lots of sheep poop.

Kiwis in the Outback

Wow. We only have a month left before our big adventure ends. I can't believe it. In this time my brother-in-law had gotten married, two of my best friends have had babies and my brother is well on his way to graduating college, yet it's gone by so quickly and Chris and I can't believe our time here is coming to an end.

We are both quite sad about leaving - I have grown to love Sydney, and Australia in general. I don't even notice all of the peculiarities and differences any more. Chris and I each have our daily routines, and we have established a nice rhythm of living. We know that we will always look back fondly upon our time here. Anyway, the point of this post is to let you know about our upcoming travel plans before we come home - I don't know if I'll have time to update this one more time so here's a pre-trip rundown...

We leave for New Zealand today for two weeks and will be living in a campervan(!) while we tour around the South Island. New Zealand in winter is supposed to be breathtaking, so we are going to do as much as possible while we're down there. For those who are interested, you can look at a map and see exactly where we're going - NZ isn't very big, and according to our friend Ryan, has "about three roads" so you should be able to plot our route quite easily. Our rough itinerary is Christchurch > Akaroa > Arthur's Pass to Punakaiki and Okarito > down the West Coast > Helihike Franz Josef or Fox Glacier > Haast Pass down to Wanaka > Te Anau > Milford or Doubtful Sound > Queenstown. We're going to ski the Remarkables for 4 days before coming back to Sydney. Afterwards, we are flying to Alice Springs for a 5-day outback safari. I am SO excited about this. We are going to sleep in authentic bush swags under the stars (I hope the creepy crawlies don't want to get intimate), see Uluru at sunset, hike Kings Canyon, take guided Aboriginal bush walks, and generally experience the vast, amazing outback desert. I just might try a witchety grub if I'm feeling brave. We then fly to Fiji for 7 days, where we're staying on an itsy-bitsy,
teensy weensie island called Navini. It only takes 20 minutes to walk around the entire thing! We'll be very isolated - no resort-y activities, just a couple of palm trees, some great snorkeling, and the ocean. Sounds like heaven.

Needless to say, we are cramming as much as we can into the end of our adventure. Sandflies, bush tucker, campervans, bring it on. Actually, I hope we can handle the campervan. I'm a little nervous. It's big. We have a shower and toilet in the thing. It could get interesting. All of our Chicago friends - we will see you soon for some end-of-summer fun! Hope you all have enjoyed the (sporadically updated) adventure as much as we have.

Love, Anne and Chris

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Hi. Chris here. In case you faithful readers didn't know, it's been Anne writing all this time. Well, now that my three-month sabbatical has started I figured I'd sit down and read this blog, maybe even write my own entry because I've got a couple of things to report. To start with, I got a speeding ticket in the mail. My first ticket ever. In Tasmania. You know how some people surmise about "a good way to go" and whatnot? Well, if I were to say, I want my first speeding ticket to happen like here's how it would go. I know Anne already wrote about this, but I'll recount. We're in Tasmania on our way to Freycinet in our rented Toyota Camry. Anne's in front, Gerhard in back. We're driving along, all is well. All of the sudden, I realize ... CRAP! I forgot my license. No biggie, says Gerhard, we won't get pulled over. He also offers to drive, but the problem is, he's not on the rental agreement and Anne can't drive because she's never driven on the left side of the road before (Anne here - this will change once we're in New Zealand. I will conquer my fears!) Anyway, I better carry on. At about this time, we'd been following a big, slow truck for awhile and a rock kicked up and smacked the windshield right as another big truck passed in the oncoming lane. I had no idea who kicked the rock up but I knew I wanted to get away from all trucks. So what did I do? What any responsible person would do. I kept my distance from the truck in front of us, waited for the next "overtaking zone" to arrive and went into the passing lane. Just as I was passing the truck, Gerhard says "slow down, that was a police we just passed." So within a 10-minute span, I realized I forgot my license, a rock chipped the windshield of the rental car, and I passed a cop going 134 KPH in a 100 KPH zone.

As for the other thing to report, I pooped next to Stevie Wonder in O'Hare Airport on our way home to Kansas City for Jeff's wedding. Long story short, I was in that one handicap stall with a broken door latch in terminal 1 near gate B11, and his entourage knocked hard and inadvertently busted in on me. I know I know, what was I doing in the handicapped stall, especially after seeing that one episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry David used the handicapped stall and when he came out, a guy in a wheelchair was waiting and yelled at him? Well, stall 1's door was shut, someone had majorly miscalculated in stall 2 (mookie stinks left there curling over the lip), stall 3's door was shut, so who wouldn't choose the spacious one with the sink! Anyway, the latch failed when they knocked. I was mortified ... and star struck. So Stevie had to use the stall next to me, while I got to hear his entourage speculate and laugh about how on earth the scenario in stall 2 could've played out. Take that, Larry David.