Aotearoa!!

I have arrived! Everything about this place is magical. :-) I could almost hear the sheep from the plane. It's colder than I expected. The high today predicted to be 16 C and the low 9 C Mayhap it's time to find me some long johns. 

I think it's trying to say, "Welcome traveler! This is what you look like right now." 

Made it to Fiji!

Screaming babies on the plane and narcolepsy? A great combo. :-) Onward to New Zealand!

Fences

Hey Craig,

Had a garden question. 

 What is the wildlife like around the garden area. Are there animals that would eat delicious new plants? I'm trying to decide if we need to put up a fence. 

Hi Summer,

Yes there are quite a bit of rabbits so we are going to train you on the 22 so you can shoot them and provide dinner. ;-)

This is going to be fun. 

What your baristas want to tell you but never will

Anybody who has ever worked in the service industry, whether they are jerks or the nicest people you've ever met,  has a list of things that annoy the living shit out of them. When I was working in the coffee industry several years ago in Hawaii I asked a few of my friends to write down a list of their pet peeves about customers. You should have seen their eyes light up. It was like giving a pyromaniac a gallon of gas and a box of matches and telling them to go have a good time. I ran across two of them today and still found it amusing so I thought I'd share.

Steve's list
1. Ya, ya, ya, I know...Nonfat, sugarfree, vanilla latte, extra hot, with 2 pumps and no foam. And are you looking for a publisher?
2. You know, you can tell a lot about a person by the coffee they order. High Maintenance? Probably...
3. I do not get paid enough to listen to you bitch.. Let me find someone who does get paid enough.
4. Seriously? You've been standing in line for 5 minutes and still don't know what the hell you want?
5. Yes...people like you are the reason you stood in line for so long. Know what you want and have your money ready.
6. Tall is bigger than small. Where did you go to school?
7. "Sugar-free caramel" is an oxymoron you ignorant ass.

Heather's list
1. A large, nonfat, caramel latte is NOT NONFAT.
2. I am a barista, not a tour guide.
3. I am a barista, not a restaurant connoisseur.
4. I don't set the prices just to piss you off. In fact, I don't set them at all.
5. Just because I work at a coffee shop doesn't mean that I'm not smart.
6. Just because I work for minimum wage doesn't give you the right to make inappropriate comments about me.
7. I know exactly what you're doing when you order your cafe macchiato iced in a medium cup.
8. You have no idea how much I want to spit in your drink when you talk to me like that.
9. If I were as mean as you are there WOULD be a loogie in your drink.
10. Don't use the fact that you haven't had YOUR coffee yet as an excuse to be an ass.
11. Listen when we repeat your order back to you. We do it because we know you are bound to change your mind.
12. We repeat your order back to you so you know how riddiculous you sound.

Yeah. That's happening.

So I leave a week from today and I am more than a little stoked. Perhaps the 14th is not quite so epic as the 11th but whatever. The number needed some pizzaz so henceforth it will be set aside as the start of epic journeys. So let it be written, so let it be done.

Let me introduce you to the place I will be going to. And please, let's reserve our jealousy until the end.    Ladies and gentlemen, New Zealand. 

It's a farm. With cows. Baby ones too. 

Look! A river runs through it!

That's 700 acres of untamed beauty.

This is Craig. Owner and CEO. Man with the best office view ever.
Please take note of his stockings. I'm more than a little excited to meet him .

So yeah. If you need me I will be planting a garden near Napier, going fishing in the afternoons and learning how to shoot. It's about time I got ready for the zombie apocalypse.

3:30 AM

I have learned in my 27 years of life that nothing good happens after 2 am. Well it is currently 3:30 am and I am still up. What's worse is that it is now Monday morning and I get to wake up in 4 hours to go to work. Shit.

My mind is racing because the government did something right and processed my passport in record time. I don't know why I'm surprised. I paid them enough. But here it sits next to me and I am completely jiggered. I wasn't planning on starting the ticket buying process until later this week when I assumed it would arrive. I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around this sudden change and calming down an ego who is currently freaking out.

I am excited. And nervous. And well, a myriad of other emotions. As I stand on the edge of the precipice that is my next adventure I am contemplating:

1. The Amazing Race and why I didn't follow through on submitting my video.

2. My dreams of becoming a children's book author and why I never seriously pursue it.

3. What I hope to gain from this journey.

4. What I have learned up to this point.

5. What I had for dinner that has kept me up this long.

It's lame. And awesome. I'm dreaming a lot right now, and for those of you who have heard some of my dreams, that can be a pretty wild adventure in and of itself. My brain is cataloguing and problem solving around the clock and there is very little I can do to slow it down. I don't want to slow it down. It needs to do it's thing, but seriously. It's 3:53 now and it's MONDAY.

I've decided to set out on my adventure on September 11 because, thanks to Americans and their phobias, it is a super cheap day to fly. *At this point I would like to pause and say hello to Big Brother because I've no doubt triggered some sort of homeland security alarm by using "Government, passport, ticket, nervous, precipice, follow through, September 11, Americans, fly, Big Brother" and now "Homeland Security" in this post. I'm glad you're here. My name is Summer and I'm just a 27-year-old who is in the middle of a dynamic quarter life crisis. Feel free to follow my adventures anonymously.  You might just find that you like the stability in your life, a lot. Ah heck, tell your friends. Terrorism, Al Qaeda, bomb and Bin Laden for President. Tomorrow should be a good day at the office for you. You're welcome.

So back to it, September 11 is the magic day in theory and it's coming up fast. I got to do something I've never done before yesterday. I entered my home city into Skyscanner and then selected "Everywhere" as my destination. THAT was liberating. The world is my oyster bitches. I sure hope I come out a pearl.

And that's all for now. I'll perhaps elaborate on my crisis at some other time, but for now I'm going to give sleep one last shot. Happy Monday everyone. I hope you had more hours to prepare than I.

Traveling

So I'm getting ready to travel and I'm pretty stoked. I sent my passport off for some upgrades last week and now I'm just sitting here waiting... Where will I go? What will I do? Will I get stranded? I hope so. Adventure is out there and I intend to find it.

One thing I love about traveling is the advice that comes in before you go. Every tidbit has it's own story that confirms it's validity.

Here's my list so far:

1. Drink Water. Unless it's brown or has things swimming in it.
2. Know what poison Ivy looks like. It's a bitch.
3. Try all of the things!
4. Listen to your instincts.
5. Brush up on military time.
6. Know how far your lodging is from major sites.
7. Don't ask what's in it. If it tastes delicious just say thank you.
8.  Travel until you get home sick, and then stay a few more weeks.

What would your advice be?