Bad Bad Day

This has probably been some of the worst few days I've had in a long time. I was given a new brief on Monday ( for a product brochure using pictures we had taken in our digi camera class weeks ago and I chose a hairdryer....really regretting that now). I had a hard time shifting back into school mode for one and then we had our anniversary on Tuesday and I never really got good thumbnails done and I have learned a very vailuable lesson off this....GET GOOD THUMBNAILS (planning). On Thursday night, the even before it was due), at 10:30PM when I still had practically nothing, Mike said, "You're like the most organised person in the world, how did this happen?" as I was a sure stress cadet by that point and he then had to deal with it (yes I was an "it", no longer a human). So Mike suggested I start from the beginning and actually do real thumbnails at that point. I did finally sort something out and from 12-1:30AM I got it laid out...but I will never be happy with this one. Luckily, it ended up not being due on Friday but things did not go smoothly in lab when I tried to print my fine work. THEN, I go outside to get my bike and go home and try to recuperate from the stress of the assignment and my bike is GONE! Yep, it was stolen. Just that morning I had thought, " Man, I love my bike", no joke. Mike had specially picked out all the components on it and our friend put it together for us in Taiwan. It was such a nice bike and in truth, capable of much more than I ever did with it. So yes, it was worth a whole lot...the most expensive thing we own well next to Mike's Bike. We went to the Police and filed a report and then filed with our insurance (which we got for the bikes mostly) and now we wait a couple weeks to see if it turns up ( ha!) and then see if we can get anything for it. Sadly, because it was from Taiwan and completely hand chosen from parts straight out of the factory and unbadged, everyone just thinks it's dodgy stuff. I just want my bike back. It is just a material thing but like most things, now that it's gone, I miss it. She was good to me. I bike everywhere and she will be missed. (she was also very pretty, for a bike)

3rd Anniversary Hooray

Yesterday we celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. Mike got me some lovely flowers. We went to yummy Thai and then saw "The Prestige". I can't believe 3 years ago we were all partying in mom and dad's little Deming garage to the Mariachi boys. That was fun. As I type, Mike is on the phone with Immigration sorting out my Residency Status and we are in the midst of our initial plannings for the future. Green Card for him, Visas for me...it's all quite a process. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to refine our options and start making it happen.

Happy Birthday Stevie Ray

A word out to my dad!

Something random

On December 18th, a friend I knew in middle school and high school (Kendra) cruised through Christchurch and we spent several condensed hours of catching up...we hadn't seen each other for many many years. It was so great to connect with someone from back home. Made me really miss people who know a little of my history. It was great.

Christmas Eve traditions...

As is tradition is the Larson Family, we made hamburgers and rootbeer floats on Christmas Eve. I love this tradtion and I especially love how you can actually use the BBQ here. Good times.

Christmas Day

Mike and I stayed at the Cammocks the night and we all slept in sufficiently until it was just time to get into the prezzies.

Christmas Pix cont...

and a few pix to show the Christmas Day Festivities. That's me in my new dress that Mike bought me. Mucho lovo. That's me with our good friend's daughter....Bubbers. Love her. Liz and Pete hosted a yummy BBQ Christmas Day and the Pete got us all water guns as you can see cute little Digs ( real name McGregor) trying to get us through the window.

Some of my favs from the trip

The Abel Tasman

After a 6 hour drive we made our way up to the trailhead and got ourselves out of the car and ready for the trek. Due to the fact that it stays light until 10PM, we began at 7:30 and made it to our beach to tent on around 9. I loved being close to the ocean and hearing the lapping waves. It's been so long and the sand that gets everywhere. I also took our tent that we had yet to use and it proved to be quite the handy little tent. The trail was very well groomed and wasn't difficult at all. The air was warm and a bit more humid and it was just beautiful.

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Abel Tasman continued...

It is such a beautiful place. Golden beaches, Emerald Water, and a really well groomed trail connecting all the little bays here and there. It's a very popular area to kayak in because you can just go from bay to bay amidst the emerald water. It was gorgeous and sunny and wonderful. We opted to leave after 3 days and get back to the car so we could drive around and they could show me more of the area. I loved it. I thought I had seen beautiful NZ but it just keeps amazing me. We drove over to a town called Takaka that lots of potters and craftspeople nestled into galleries here and there. It was great.

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Top of the South Island

We got ourselves up and headed up to the tip of the South Island which is called Farewell Spit...it's this pretty amazing beach that curls out into the ocean for miles. Jonelle and her husband, Tom, had camper-vanned around the whole island for 6 weeks with their new baby so she directed us to this beautiful beach (that was extremely windy) but amazing. I couldn't take the camera out because the wind would have whipped it away. She also had some ideas about campgrounds because we were in the need of one. After popping into a pub and getting directions from a bunch of drunks, Jonelle was sort of sure where it was. Quinny's Bush it was. It was quite the campground with skate ramps, dune buggy courses, flying foxes, BMX platforms, and lots of little fire pits all over...turns out there were also crosses on the trees and notes by showers with pictures of Jesus. It was full of families and there were tons of kids. We didn't partake of any of Quinny's camping delights, but we did find a nice spot to cook up our instant noodle packs and set up the tents for one last night.


Here's a sampling of what we saw and also a peek into the pain of Lucy's sunburn. This was day 3 of the burn. She was hurting but NZ does have a burn time of 10-12 minutes and this was the beauty of 2 hours. Ouch.

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Heading home via the West Coast

After the night at Quinny's Bush we began the journey home via the West Coast. It is more times than not, that it is raining (torrentially) on the West Coast but we had AMAZING sun, as we did on the whole trip. We stopped at Punakaiki which has these really cool Pancake rock formations. The whole west coast is gorgeous. The beaches are much like the Oregon beaches and it always feels prehistoric to me with all the ferns and foliage. Here's a few pix.

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