Live the Life you Love

To everyone who reads this religiously, or in leiu of the news or as a procrastination tool, I sincerely apologize for my lack/poor quality of posts lately.  The good news is that it is because I have been having a lot of fun, and of course working really hard the past couple of weeks.  My last pay check was 86 hours in 2 weeks, and the second best part (the $$ being the first), is that I really love work.  I work with the greatest people ever, I serve the nicest people from all around the world, we have live music and quiz nights, and I have been learning to make yummy coffees and bartend.  It's quite the dream come true.  AND while I am not working I am dancing, responsibly enjoying cocktails with friends, laying on the beach, and hanging out with the best boyfriend ever.  THIS IS THE LIFE.

A few things that stand out:

• Spending the day on the beach of Lake Wakatipu with Jeff and Sophie (my most amazing American bestie), eating ice cream and playing football. 
• Going out on Sunday to celebrate a co-workers birthday only to be a table away from Elisabeth Moss (Peggy on Mad Men) (Sophie has a pic!)
• Brainstorming for Jeff's Mom, Sister Laura, and Brother Tom's visit to New Zealand in 4 weeks!!  We are so excited, and we want to take them EVERYWHERE! so we must strategize and choose wisely.
• Playing frisbee golf with Jeff and some work friends, and tripping over a root, and taking off a nice chunk of toe! AND performing really poorly at frolf.  It is so nice to be able to drink beers and play frolf in the middle of the park though.
• The weather can vary from day to day, and last week it was cold enough for snow to fall on the really high mountain tops!  It was breathtaking and made me very anxious for winter here.
• Jeff and I have been spending alot of time pondering whether to buy season passes for snowboarding or not.  Input is welcome!
• I have been going to basketball everyweek, playing for Hilton's team Blue Thunder (not nearly as serious as it sounds) and we won last week! wahooo! Although, no one is as competitive as Jeff and I.
• Joining the event center gym, where they have this amazing pool with waterfalls and a lazy river (and actual workout stuff too) and an adult hot pool... I can spend hours there without breaking a sweat hehe
• Jeff is training for the Routeburn Classic, which is an annual run of over 30k up the mountain and back down.  It is going to be pretty intense so he has started training rpetty hard already.  You can click on the link to read more!

Sometimes I feel like life moves way too fast here, but its a good fast, the kind of fast I was looking for, and not the fast I was feeling at home.  Here I don't read as much as in Nelson and I find myself watching weeks wiz by and wondering where days have gone, but it's not because I was doing laundry or watching tv or sleeping, it's because I am swimming in the lake, hanging out with new friends, dancing on tables with Sophie, or eating ice cream with Jeff.  Sometimes I feel like I don't see Jeff a lot because he works days and I work night, but we have so much fun when we do hang out.  I can't wait to have life a little more settled so we can do some of the awesome hikes around here and get some proper pictures, but for now I will post some on my flickr and possibly on facebook.

Hope everyone is well at home, and I love hearing from you!!  Miss everyone, and hope you are keeping warm as February begins!

Cheers!

Rain, rain go away!

It has been raining hard here in Nelson since Tuesday afternoon (It is now Thursday night).  At first I thought that Nelson Kiwis were just afraid of the cloudy, wet days, but I soon realized why they are so frightened of the rain.  When you are living in valleys and along rivers a little rain goes a long way.  The rain, which would be harmless in Delco, PA, has caused really bad mudslides that have blocked roads and ruined homes.  Here is a link to some pictures, but I hope to get some of my own tomorrow Flood Pics.  We aren't in any danger, but it has been awful for some Nelson residents, and Jeff hasn't had work for 2 days because of flooding of the orchards.  The rain has slowed, and hopefully will cease tonight, so everything can start to return to normal, and Summer can come!

So i mentioned before I took pictures of Nelson last weekend to give readers a glimpse of what the streets are like.  On my Flickr site there are pictures of the view from our house and views of the Port of Nelson, and all of the beautiful bodies of water that surround us, but these following pictures are of the several streets that intersect each other to form the "city centre".  (Note: These pictures are taken during a Christmas parade, the buildings, not the pirate, are there all the time)

Very cute eh?  With about 40,000 people, its sufficient.

It will be a little sad to leave this place behind.  Jeff has his basketball team and I have my yoga studio, and we've met a lot of people who we really like here.  The only thing making this place worth leaving is the promise of more beautiful things to come!  These include the 4 day Heaphy trek, spending New Years touring down the west coast, and making our way to Queenstown!  Queenstown is often deemed the adventure capital of the world, and has the second tallest bungy jump in the world.  We hope to get into Queenstown in a few weeks, and find a place, a job, and settle down for a couple of months at least.  It has been described to us as a tourist town, and "kind of like a ski town, like Veil or something".  It has affordable living accommodations for a couple, although we have been warned that most things are quite expensive there.  Apparently every turn offers a beautiful, new view.  Queenstown is located a bit south of the middle of the South Island and is on a very large lake,  Lake Wakatipu.  We hope that Queenstown offers us another side of New Zealand, because if we love it as much as living in a coastal town, we will be right at home.  If you want to see/know more this link will take you to the wiki page: Queenstown Information.

When talking to a friend from college, he mentioned a book about nutrition he had been reading, but "recommended with caution".  I was very interested considering he, knowing my background, felt like he should caution me about the books contents.  I found it at the Nelson library (score!), and the first couple of pages I realized where the caution was coming from.  The book is called "The China Study".  It came out in 2007, but I had never heard of it, and what it has to say could be quite disturbing to many.  It's core message is that a whole foods, plant-based diet can not only prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer, but reverse it, and that animal proteins (meat, eggs, milk) should be avoided.  It's hard to swallow really, but it is backed up by hundreds of peer-reviewed articles published in some of the most prominent scientific journals in the world.  It has convinced me enough to try a somewhat vegan diet, and it has been going very well so far, with switching my milk to soy products and eating meat about 1-2 times a week, and loading up on veggies.  This book isn't really about me though, it is about a message that can benefit anyone who reads it.  It has led me to some other great books, such as "Anti Cancer", written by a University of Pittsburgh student/employee.  I don't really want to talk about how it has effected me, but I do want to recommend both of these books (especially if you know someone suffering from either of these), but with GREAT CAUTION.

It's dinner time, and I'm starving, but hopefully the sun will emerge for the weekend, and we can do some more birding and hiking in Nelson before we leave!  Missing everyone and all of their delicious Christmas cookies!!!