Nelson Here We Come!
Two couches, three chairs, a table, pots and pans and plates and silverware, a mirror, a desk, a phone, and answering maching, computer speakers, a blanket, and a bike...$100.
Spending summer in New Zealand...priceless.
First of all, Happy Holidays to everyone! We hope this finds you happy and well, preferably enjoying some fun in the snow.
Although we're beginning to miss family, friends, and snowshoe racing, we're very happy at our new location in New Zealand. Since the last post, we made our way up the West Coast of the South Island. This is NZ's most remote and wild area, and it's pretty sweet. Steep rainforested mountains rise from a sometimes turbulent sea and culiminate in huge glaciers and snowy peaks. In a couple of places, glaciers go almost all the way down to the sea itself. It's one of a few places in the world where glaciers are right next to rainforest. We took advantage of this at the Franz Josef Glacier and went on a tour that took us up and onto the glacier. It was pretty neat; glaciers always make me appreciate the enormous power of nature.
We were happy to take advantage of some nice running and hiking on the West Coast. Miles and miles of pristine forest, mountains, and rivers leave many other yet untouched possibilities.
From the West Coast, we headed northeast to Nelson, a Boulder-sized city right on the coast at the base of some hills. We had been very excited to see Nelson, and it lived up to all of our expectations: great trails for training, sea and rivers for paddling, three national parks down the road, cute city center, large enough to provide jobs and community activities but small enough to feel like home. In short, we like the place so we decided to stay.
We're renting a small apartment near town, and Amy already has a job selling clothes (Travis is looking for one as well, but keeps getting distracted by the great running, biking, and paddling opportunities here...). Back to the credit card add above. Our apartment was unfurnished, so we needed to get some stuff to survive in there pretty quick. Luckily, Nelson has a great program that allows people to bring stuff that would normally get dumped to a center that re-sells the items on the cheap. So, we got all of the items listed above for $100NZ. Our apartment is set and we saved a bunch of stuff from going to the dump. Amy's new bike is particularly sweet: it's neon green and says "Rocket" on it. She speeds down the street daily to and fro.
In one other news bit, please send your thoughts out to our friend (and Trav's teammate) Danelle Ballengee, who slipped on ice running in Moab and fell 60 feet, breaking her pelvis badly. Nellie spent two winter nights out there before her dog, Taz, led rescuers back to her. Thanks to Taz, the rescuers, and Danelle's neighbor, who called her parents after noticing her lights were still on, and good luck to Nellie as she recovers at the hospital in Denver.
That's all for now, and have a great holiday season!
Lots of love,
Travis and Amy
Spending summer in New Zealand...priceless.
First of all, Happy Holidays to everyone! We hope this finds you happy and well, preferably enjoying some fun in the snow.
Although we're beginning to miss family, friends, and snowshoe racing, we're very happy at our new location in New Zealand. Since the last post, we made our way up the West Coast of the South Island. This is NZ's most remote and wild area, and it's pretty sweet. Steep rainforested mountains rise from a sometimes turbulent sea and culiminate in huge glaciers and snowy peaks. In a couple of places, glaciers go almost all the way down to the sea itself. It's one of a few places in the world where glaciers are right next to rainforest. We took advantage of this at the Franz Josef Glacier and went on a tour that took us up and onto the glacier. It was pretty neat; glaciers always make me appreciate the enormous power of nature.
We were happy to take advantage of some nice running and hiking on the West Coast. Miles and miles of pristine forest, mountains, and rivers leave many other yet untouched possibilities.
From the West Coast, we headed northeast to Nelson, a Boulder-sized city right on the coast at the base of some hills. We had been very excited to see Nelson, and it lived up to all of our expectations: great trails for training, sea and rivers for paddling, three national parks down the road, cute city center, large enough to provide jobs and community activities but small enough to feel like home. In short, we like the place so we decided to stay.
We're renting a small apartment near town, and Amy already has a job selling clothes (Travis is looking for one as well, but keeps getting distracted by the great running, biking, and paddling opportunities here...). Back to the credit card add above. Our apartment was unfurnished, so we needed to get some stuff to survive in there pretty quick. Luckily, Nelson has a great program that allows people to bring stuff that would normally get dumped to a center that re-sells the items on the cheap. So, we got all of the items listed above for $100NZ. Our apartment is set and we saved a bunch of stuff from going to the dump. Amy's new bike is particularly sweet: it's neon green and says "Rocket" on it. She speeds down the street daily to and fro.
In one other news bit, please send your thoughts out to our friend (and Trav's teammate) Danelle Ballengee, who slipped on ice running in Moab and fell 60 feet, breaking her pelvis badly. Nellie spent two winter nights out there before her dog, Taz, led rescuers back to her. Thanks to Taz, the rescuers, and Danelle's neighbor, who called her parents after noticing her lights were still on, and good luck to Nellie as she recovers at the hospital in Denver.
That's all for now, and have a great holiday season!
Lots of love,
Travis and Amy
posted by Amy and Trav at 11:46 AM
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