Balding (but Happy) Early On

From Peter:

Just a quick note. We are going to soon be in "tax-free" zone.  The weather is getting really hot . . .. .so I decided to shave my head.  Attached is a picture for your enjoyment.

If you are wondering, I am staying very busy and so far I am having a great time.  The comraderie is great, the sights never get old, and the mission is going to be exciting.  Stef, how is the time off before the next tour?  Mom how are you enjoying the summer off?  Dad, hjow are you enjoying mom?  (that was a weird question . . ) and Chris, you will soon have an aunt closer to home to help out with the kids!!

Clark, is this still your email.  I have this one saved my my last deployment.  If not, Christian, can you please call clark and get his new address, or forward this to him for me.  Also, if it's different, please give me his most current email . I would like to keep him up to date on stuff.

I miss you guys.  Also, the other picture is of me in my jet right before taking off for the airshow in France.  It turned out to be a blast.  The announcer of the airshow was able to link up our radio communications to the crowd.  So what ever we were saying in the jet, the crowd was able to hear.  I wonder if the Frenchies were able to understand us???  Anyway, for good measure, when I did my "high speed sneak pass" I said "boooonnnnjour"

OK, miss you guys.  Talk to you soon.

A Diary of Stefanie's Updates

From Stefanie:
April 27, 2010
Hey Guys,
Now that training is over and all this information has been drilled into my head (and dreams too!) I would like to give you a taste of what I can do...
Are you ready? READY FOR THE ADVENTURE OF YOUR LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND?! 
-- Day 1-3  Queenstown: Welcome and settle in. Take a few cruisy days in this atmospheric town-laid back cafes, art-house cinemas, boutique shopping...all within walking distance of our centrally located Hostel. 
Now...if you're feeling a bit more adventurous I'd like to show you a whole other side...the Adrenaline Capital of the World! Queenstown, the home of bungy and famous world wide for the wildest and craziest bungy jumping drops imaginable! If you want to do the highest here it is - 134 metres (440 feet) above the rugged Nevis River!
Or try the The Nevis Arc: The World's Highest Swing! Located next to the Nevis Canyon... Swing Forwards, Backwards, alone or with a friend. You will be suspended high above the valley floor and be released or release yourself. Experience a massive rush of adrenaline as you find yourself accelerating through the valley at mind blowing speeds in a 300 m Arc!
How about skiing and snowboarding? Some of the best ski resorts are easily minutes away with group rates available that are absolutely unbeatable! 
Queenstown also has gondola rides, horse back riding, luging, caving, hiking, and some scenic cruises to delight...Lord of the Rings buffs? Take the tour and visit the scenery straight from the films! 
-- Day 4-5  Franz Josef: Glacier Hiking! That's right, we get to go hiking on a big chunk of moving ice! Strap on your crampons, gear up and try to stay warm as we squeeze through tight blue ice crevices and ice waterfall terrain!
On the drive to Franz Josef we'll make some interesting sightseeing stops: we'll take a forest walk through the Kahikatea trees (the tallest trees in NZ dating nearly 200 years old!) and we'll also hike to the shore where if we're lucky we're going to see Hector's wild dolphins...the world's rarest dolphins who often visit these shores this time of year!
-- Day 6-7:  Nelson: This is our prime sky diving destination spot! Get ready to fling your body 13,000 ft from a plane and parachute down the mountains! 
We also have a full day of activities included here: sea kayaking the prime coast of NZ's Abel Tasman's National Park; quad biking (ATV 4 wheel drive!) the pristine forest and hiking the shores, up the mountains to spectacular viewpoints of the island's terrain!
-- Day 8:  Hold on tight as we take a ferry from the South island to the North island, this ferry is 3 hours long, but sweet as with a built in cinema, restaurant, game room, and lounging area...quality comfort travel...as long as the weather cooperates! 
-- Day 9:  Wellington, we have the opportunity to do something really special here. We get to visit the Te Papa museum, the icon of NZ's history and culture, whose Maori name affectionately translates to 'Our Place'. We have the privilege of a private viewing, before opening hours with our guide to really get a feel for all things NZ.
-- Day 10:  We travel to Rotorua...but first! We make some interesting side trips to the Greenstone 'Jade' Factory for an education about the Maori art of stone carving; Punakaiki-the famous pancake rocks, which we'll see on a wild and windy day to really see why Mother Nature is the boss!; then Foulwind's Seal Colony-a local hangout spot for NZ wild fur seal bachelors as they groom, fight, and beach out within an arm's reach of the hike to the shore!
-- Day 11-12:  Rotorua, full days of included activities here, including white water rafting Grade 5 rapids! Paddle your heart out and try to stay warm as we paddle 14 drops, including 2 waterfalls (one of which is a 7 meter drop!) This is the world's highest commercially rafted river in the world, and we have the best guides taking us out today! 
After the rafting, we're going to Hells Gate, an active geothermal park reserve where we get to soak our muscles in warm mud pools and heated baths, with a local teaching us about Maori lifestyle and how the Maoris traditionally lived off these geothermal hot spots. 
We'll spend one evening getting up close and personal with Maori culture- in our Tamaki Brothers cultural dinner and show. Enjoy a traditional Hangi feast, with our meal being cooked in the Earth (pacific islander style), traditional songs and dancing too! Learn the Haka and scare the crap out of your friends when you go back home! 
-- Day 12-13:  We travel to Waitomo. But with some pretty fun stops along the way...strange and yet undeniably entertaining we will stop and partake in a Gumboot throwing festival---yes, you heard me right Gumboot throwing...Then we'll stop at a truly magical place the Kiwi Encounter, a non profit working hatchery and nursery--we'll get up close and personal to these cute little birds, NZ's national icon, and learn why they are so dangerously endangered. That being said, no touching! If you want to hug a real Kiwi, hug our local guide Lina! 
And right before we rock up into Waitomo...we're going to try another NZ oddity: Zorbing! That's right! Like a hamster, we're going to lock you and your friend up in a bouncy plastic ball and tumble you down a hill....safely! Only Kiwis could come up with such good, ridiculous fun! 
-- Day 13:  Waitomo: here in Waitomo we have a real treat...Black water rafting! Imagine inner tubing in complete darkness, in a cave, with the only light showing the way coming from the magical world of Glow Worms. All lights off as we abseil 40 meters in the heart of a black cave, and tube our way through an underground river and learn all about these magnificent creatures! 
-- Day 14:  Auckland: catch your breath for a free day in NZ's vibrant city, the most multi-cultural city in NZ and home of the Sky Tower! Excellent place to shop til you drop for all those last minute souvenirs for loved ones back home.
-- Day 15:  We'll part ways as the group flies home, back to America, back to Canada and back to the UK. I'll be flying back down to Queenstown to pick up my next group at the airport and start the tour...all over again!


And that's it...that's exactly what I will be doing, back to back, for the next 3 months. Not bad for someone who's never seen it before, huh?




May 1, 2010
Hi Guys,
Oooooohhhh...so much to update, where do I begin?! 
I guess we'll start with Thursday. Thursday I took a walk around Sydney city with prima Ale and her baby Daniel. We started off with a quick lunch at the Sydney Fish Market, a series of warehouses with all the fresh daily catches overlooking a harbor. We bought a dozen fresh Pacific rock oysters (raw, with lime of course), fried calamari, and some fish Kebabs (dipped in sweet chili sauces.) I'm pretty sure this was the first time I have eaten raw oysters, and I loved it! The sky was bright blue with big puffy white clouds, the weather was warm and all the sail boats were anchored in the harbor...it was just a fantastic outdoors meal! (Fighting the sea gulls for my calamari was a pain... geez they really are obnoxious out here!)  


After that we wandered around Darling Harbor and snuck a peek past the Sydney aquarium and wildlife world, then took a ferry from Darling to the Circular Quay harbor (home of the famous Opera House.) The ferry was fantastic (even better than the sunset harbor cruise last week because the views of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge in the sun were just incredible!) 


At Circular Quay we hopped on the trains back to Ale's house and I packed a rushed bag for a weekend in the bush! Two trains later and nearly a 2 hour journey, I arrived in Windsor to start my weekend reunion with the high school group I led in Thailand last winter. Of course, the 18 year old boys wanted to meet up and go straight to the pub. And that we did, drinks on them the whole night and some embarrassing videos of me singing Karaoke to Ace of Base's "All that she wants." All in all they were very well behaved :) 


I am seriously impressed with Aussie hospitality...I have never felt so welcome as a foreigner before! The boys (Brendan, Gilly and Pat) & their families have opened up their homes, become tour guides/chauffeurs, offered me food and drink for free. It's just incredible how polite everyone has been! 


Anyways, Thursday night ended without drama and Friday morning the boys took me to the Blue Mountains world heritage parks. The mountains and the valleys turn blue because the oil from all the Eucalyptus trees mixes with the mist and creates a blue tint. They boys taught me everything they knew about Aborignial myths and folklore surrounding the mountains and told me great legends of the Rainbow Serpent who carved the Australian landscape that Aboriginals still believe today. We took hikes, scenic railway cars, gondolas and drives through the parks and it was massive! We stopped for lunch in a local park and took a break from all the sightseeing to teach me rugby...and I'm pretty good at it too! 


They also took me off the beaten path to a local spot, where we hiked through massive bush to a look out point called Glenbrook, and watched the sunset mix with the blue mist...we told ghost stories and scared ourselves to death as we hiked out of the bush in near dark back to the car! **I keep forgetting---all of the world's deadliest animals live here...gotta be more careful and stop letting high schoolers make all the decisions!**


Today (Saturday) I've moved in with Margie, one of the high school teachers who came on the trip. She's taken me in and showed me around her village, Hawkesbury. It's all farmland out here and she took me to her dad's farm (45 acres!) who raises all sorts of strange animals: chinese silky chickens and alpacas to name the strangest. I got chased by a herd of alpacas today since he thought it would be funny to hand me the food bucket (city slicker that I am and all that!)



Margie's an artist, so her home is filled with antiques, paintings and sculptures. She's taken me to a few local art galleries, mostly Aboriginal, and also took me to the oldest church in Australia for Devonshire 'High' Tea: scones, teas and biscuits. It's all farmland out here, but it's got the flavor of English countryside...and culture, definitely! It's strange though, because the oldest church in Australia was built, by and for, the first generation of convicts who were kicked out of England and sent overseas to serve their sentences...these Aussies are so proud of their convict heritage it's hilarious! 


Margie's partner, Peter is a great character too. He's a Vietnam war vet who lost his leg. He's into model building, so the house is decorated with model sail boats, air craft carriers, planes and trains he's been building for years. His latest project is a massive life-size replica of a Super Marine S-5 plane built in 1927 (a forerunner for Bristish Spit Fire which they say won the Great War.) In his garage (between the two antique Jags) he's got the guts of a plane being built and I keep thinking...this is Peter and Dad's idea of a playground! His friend helps him build it, and he's another vet (Navy) and once they got wind of our family and the military background they couldn't get enough story sharing out of their systems. Hopefully in two years time they'll finish the plane and have it ready for displays in museums or air shows. 


I must have said something right, because Mom and Dad you're invited to stay here with Margie and Peter if you ever come to visit me in August. You would LOVE it out here! They have a huge property, overlooking the valley and the lowlands, and in the early am you can see wallabies hopping around their back yards foraging for foods...so cute!


Tomorrow is the high school BBQ. All the kids and Margie have put together this Thailand reunion tomorrow, and the kids are great...they're all so excited about introducing me to their parents! It'll be great to see them and spend the day with them and for some reason they're insisting on me sticking around until Monday morning to visit them at school. Margie's arranged it for me to come by and speak to the kids, and also help out with recruiting for ISV's high school program that's hopefully happening again this November from this same school. (Who knows, the politcal mess in Thailand seems like it's only getting worse these days.)


Monday afternoon I will be back in Sydney city and back with prime Ale where she's promised a visit to the famous Taronga Zoo, and pancakes in the oldest district known as the Rocks overlooking the Sydney harbor...yumm.



May 20, 2010
Hi!  Been out of touch for a while, but that's because the madness of another ISV tour leading season has officially begun.  Everyone's been wound up real tight, especially since the groups are being cancelled out of Thailand this year and we're picking up the slack here in New Zealand.  (Can not believe how lucky I am that this change of country happened to me...if I were in Thailand right now, I'd be out of a job!)


I'm in Wellington right now. We took a 20 minute flight to get here, on one of the those really small and terrifying planes with propellers that look like a strong wind will just knock the wing off.  On the tarmac, I stepped one foot onto Wellington soil and was immediately knocked down by the wind...flat on my ass, in front of everyone.  Yes that's right, the local nickname here is 'Windy Welly'---haha, I get it now.


Wellington is the nation's capital at the stepping point between the North and South Island....the mountains up the West coast of the South island were once connected to the range up the East coast of the North Island. So Wellington, is located in a natural tunnel--where winds travel between the mountains, channeled through Cook's Strait (waters separating the islands) creating a powerful 'funnel' action of mother nature!


We're on site inspection now, so I'm driving a rental car with Nikki (my boss) and Lina (fellow Kiwi tour leader).  It's been ok, Nikki is a real pain in my ass and she's got some serious control issues. She's on a power trip, and it drives me up a wall. Lina is nice, and we get on well enough which is good because we might lead a couple tours together.


So far I'm going solo, and my first tour starts in less than a week--52 people all by my lonesome, traveling through a country I barely know!

We started our tour in Queenstown (bottom tip of the South island) and have worked our way up the West coast: mountains, lakes, wineries and gold mining history. I finally hiked a glacier--Franz Josef! It was awesome: ice tunnels, crevasses, blue waterfalls, and ice climbing...I'm hooked! The only other glacier in the world that leads into a rainforest is in Patagonia, so it's pretty special.

Today we were in Nelson, kayaking around the Abel Tasman Bay. I saw wild NZ fur seals and Pukekos---flightless birds related to the Kiwi. Most of the indigenous birds are flightless because they had no natural predators and were not evolved for the need to fly away. The only native mammals to NZ are two species of bats: short and long tailed. All other animals have been introduced by European settlers in the 19th century, with some pretty devastating effects.   


...The sheep...70 million sheep in this country...you can't throw a stone without seeing one. It's getting annoying every time we get held up in 'stock traffic' when herds of sheep sit on the roads and refuse to move no matter what you throw at them!


I'm learning Maori- history, legends, myths and most importantly the language. It's confusing hey, with words spelled like Aotearoa (a-yo-tea-yah-row-ah) "Land of the long white cloud" and the true Maori name for New Zealand. Ihenga (I-hee-na) and Arawa (adi-wah) and Ngati Tuwharetoa (nati- too-farry-to a) are tribal names, hangi (hawng-ee) traditional foods cooked in the earth on heated stones,  and hongi (hong-ee) the Maori greeting.


Our bungy jumping operator Priel is Maori, and my first day in Queenstown she grabbed me and pressed her nose to my nose for a good few seconds. I flinched as I thought she was kissing me, then remembered this was Hangi---the greeting. That's gonna take some getting used to.


Tomorrow we're off to Rotorua to white water raft a class 5 rapid off a 7 meter waterfall...in freezing cold water...wish me luck!  Tonight I gotta get back to work---late nights and early mornings are making me sick again---but unless I get all my history and information (and pronunciation right!) Nikki's going to fire me.




May 26, 2010
Some cool videos from the Maori cultural dinner we go to: hakas (traditional dances) by the local maori tribe. the war haka (the second video) is famous for the NZ All Blacks rugby team do it before every match against their enemies.


Really cool to see in person---if you look carefully you'll see the dancers bulging out their eyes and sticking out their tongues: the eyes mean for intimidating their enemy, the tongue literally translates to "after I kill you I'm going to eat you!"


Maoris, despite how fun loving and gentle they are today---they were an island nation of cannibals the first Europeans were greeted by back in the day.





May 27, 2010
Zorbing and white water rafting!
haha check it out!!!!

June 3, 2010
So...Nelson, New zealand--- the sunniest spot in the country! I've stripped down a couple layers here, down to thermals and shorts and only one long sleeved shirt :) Woohoo!


Last night was a huge travel day from our glacier hiking capital (Franz Josef) up the western coast of the South Island to the famous Golden Bay. We stopped at a greenstone 'jade' factory to learn why this stone is so precious to the Maori tribesmen. Greenstone can only be gifted, to buy one for oneself is considered extremely bad luck, and to receive it as a gift means you've become someone quite important to your people, your tribe, your family. They believe that greenstone holds the power of past ancestors, and every piece carries the mana "power/ life force" of its previous owners. They are in dress, costume, tools and most often as a sacred symbol of rank for warriors. 


After that we stopped at the Cape Foulwind NZ fur seal breeding colony again---I will never get tired of seeing baby wild seals playing in the sun! 


And on to Nelson, our kayaking, quad biking and sky diving destination!  We had a huge drama last night, our catering company completely failed me and I suddenly had to shop, buy and cook dinner for 54 people...pizza, salad and pasta...I pulled that together in just under an hour, and I'm quite proud of that! My group is awesome, patient and understanding so we all got involved and had a great bonding fest last night. 


Today was another day though, and a damn good one if I may add! I went kayaking for the full day. After a beautiful 2 hour hike through forest, ferns and coast lines, and while kaayking around the bird sanctuary of Adele island a group of wild seals swam up and around our kayaks and we even spotted NZ penguins, incredibly rare to catch a glimpse of!  


After kayaking, straight to our sky diving operator. I got a great video and over 100 photos taken of me! SKYDIVING! I can't find the words to explain the rush or how beautiful it is to sail through the air at 13,000 feet!  Hopefully the pictures say it all :)

Peter's Mediterranean Cruise

From Peter:
A quick sea story...
As we transited the straits of Gibraltar, we set up a little prank for our new guys.  We had the NCIS agent on board generate a briefing about "the renegade monkeys"  The idea was to scare up the new guys and force them to stand a "watch" to be on the look out for these monkey as we transited the straits.  The story was that there was a large population of Moroccan monkeys that were aggressive, violent, and rabid and that they would be a threat to any ships that passed by.


I guess the straits are still about 5 miles wide at its narrowest point, but the agent said there was this telephone wire that connected Africa to Spain and that the monkey would climb the wire and drop down on the ships to try to snatch anything they could find.  So we put our new guys in full battle attire (helmets, gloves, float coats, and sticks in hand) and they had to roam the decks while we transited the straits!  It was hilarious.  Anyway, just something to keep us and the rest of the ship entertained.


Nonetheless, the sights were breath taking.  The North Africa coast and southern coast of spain are very mountainous.  No sandy beaches.
OK, gotta go now.  Miss you guys and love you too.


-Peter

Baby A in 3D

From Jessica:

Here are a few pictures of our ultrasound today in 3D.  It is only of Baby Girl A. Baby Girl B was too squished by her sister to get a good 3D ultrasound.

They are both healthy and growing fast.  They doubled in size in just 3 weeks.  They are both now weighing in at 10 ounces and measuring in the 70 percentile range for size.

I asked the doctor if I was eating too much late night ice cream and he said to eat an extra bowl at night and they will keep on growing to be big girls.