fall flying

Get ready for a bit of a long post... it was a big day...

What's better than a beautiful fall day? A beautiful fall day in New Zealand!!

We woke up and while the runners were on their way to the half marathon, the rest of us decided to take a nice hike up Mt. Iron. I think we chose best. 

making our way uphill

the thinker? or the stinker?

special erin

Then it was back on the road to Queenstown for our paragliding adventure. woohoo!

first glimpses of queenstown below

First things first in Queenstown: Fergburger. Best (falafel) burger EVER! really.  We finally figured out what all the fergburger hype is all about... and it certainly is pretty great.

first time EVER that a random person has spelled my name correctly!!!!

yum yum yum

food comas

Full bellies. a little walk around town. {I found a precious little design firm right down town. obsessed. dream job? yes.} some rugby warm ups. And then to top off the afternoon, some paragliding. 

We met up with the company and drove up to Coronet Peak (the ski resort). Only 2 could go at a time, so while we rotated, we waited at the landing pad and hung out- which was pretty fun too! frisbee, celebratory summer ale beers, and watching people fly through the air.  Pretty great afternoon.

All suited up and strapped in, I ran off the mountain and lifted into the air! Coolest feeling ever.

from the start

in flight

bird's perspective. i could get used to this.

coming in hot

Great success!! So when's round 2?

we made it!

ahh so happy!

And tomorrow is Erin's 21st birthday!! So we decided to give her a weekend long celebration.  Besides the cakes, Lindsey and I found a photo printing store downtown and printed out some b-e-a-utiful pictures of our dear friend erin.  We originally thought of putting those faces on tshirts for everyone to wear at midnight. Instead, the prints were so expensive that Lindsey and I just whipped them out with the clock struck 12 and pinned them onto ourselves.

we almost stuck erin's face to the statue. so tempting

I <3 Queenstown. and these girls!

 

We bought some bubbly in celebration and sat along the water laughing, watching the ducks swim around, and popping bottles.  What a great start to the night. 

great friends!

Crashed some "B" themed costume party...

best buzz costume ever- the wings even had lights on the ends

and when the clock struck midnight, beautiful pictures came out!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIN!!!

another epic weekend

So, you may be beginning to think I am the boy who cried wolf with all these epic adventures... but really, I've just never experienced stuff like this!! 

Friday, we (Erin, Lindsey, Cory, Katie, and myself) loaded up in the cockroach and hit the road for Wanaka. It was a cozy ride, but we fit just nicely.

Erin's birthday is on Sunday!! The BIG 2-1! So, Lindsey, Katie and I baked some cakes for the road trip last night. And, we managed to keep them secret until a pit stop birthday break!

happy birthday, erin!

 And what would a road trip be without a stop for ice cream and epic lake photos??

the cockroach! adorned with her new "E"- which is still there

Lindsey and I got a little too excited for the ice cream

 

another lake-flashing photo...

And when we finally made it to Wanaka, how bout a celebratory dip into a quite cold lake?! Did we have bathing suits? no, but like that was going to stop us!

best place ever!

And to dry off, we just basked in the sun and watched it sink down.  This place is unreal! {i know, i know, i say that about everywhere here...}

We sat under the stars and just talked life. How neat is that?!

love yall!

Good luck to the runners tomorrow morning!

rolling in the deep

So the bad weather that was supposed to hit all weekend finally struck us today... 

But first, we had a great flat breakfast complete with some new friends we met just yesterday. How bout some eggs and home fries? homemade biscuits? Oh so good. 

All fueled up, the GGG set out on a maiden voyage in the newly acquired cockroach out onto the peninsula to Portobello for some sea kayaking. 

Well we made it! And decided to head out onto the seas despite the thunder and ominous clouds all around us...

Sooner or later, the hail came in. oh yes, hail. we turned around.

Nothing like a good adventure, eh?

So to be nice, the company gave us a good boat ride in the bay to see some wildlife! 

a feeding frenzy complete with schools and schools of fish, seals, and albatross! so cool!

wet and coldddd

Happy Sunday!

hyde st

What do you get when you combine thousands of scarfies together with lots of booze and costumes? The hyde street keg party! Might as well be a holiday here the way everyone treats it!

So every house on hyde street chooses a theme (i.e. smurfs, baywatch, out of africa, anything but clothes, etc.) and then provides a keg. As the newspaper said, "sources have confirmed about 10,000 people will attend the party." [Ok, now by sources, they failed to mention that it was actually just facebook.] The popular thing is to drink a goon [boxed wine] before noon. And supposedly people started the festivities a little after 5 am. 

So our version of the day: a fort/sleepover in the living room all together Fri night. 

Wake up to all too excited people ready for hyde st. {they looked more like creeps than nerds...}

nerd joshy

 Lindsey and I glittered and face painted (of course) and also crimped our hair. {Erin had a field trip :( but she ended up coming to hyde street anyways!}

Started with mimosas of cheap bubbly cider and gas station orange juice. And ventured out to the masses of people at Hyde street!

lindsey, erin, cory, and me

In a forecast of rain, rain, rain all weekend, we were lucky enough to have some sun-shining hours to bask on hyde street with all the chaos.  

The day ended with a roof caving in, somebody falling off a roof and apparently getting hurt pretty badly, and some afternoon showers to put a damper on it all. Check out some great pictures here.

and the aftermath...

we survived!!!

no idea what this means

** photo creds go to Lindsey and Katie **