7th, Sun, and Sand- The Proper Way To Start A Summer

Hello there, Everybody!!

I would like to apologize for the lack of blogging lately!  Although it's only been a little over a week, it feels like it's been much longer.  As some of you know and others do not know, I returned home from NZ quite safely last week.  I was home for a total of two days before I was gone again, this time with my lovely family at The 7th Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps.  I re-joined with the corps after 5 months of being away.  Let's just say that I knew about 50 counts (i.e. 20 seconds) of the over nine minute show.  I had a lot of learning to do.

I rejoined 7th on Thursday June 30.  It took me exactly 4 days to have the show learned.  Granted I did not have it as learned as I usually would at this time (for example I don't know my entire dot book like I usually do), but I know the work and I can march the drill.  That's pretty freaking good if I do say so myself.  I even managed to perform in both of the weekend shows- the first in Lynn, MA where we scored 63.900 and the second in Bristol, RI where we scored a 64.500. 

The main thing I want to say about this 5-day experience (we also did 3 parades on July 4th) is that I am so super proud of my corps for all of the hard work they put into the weekend and the entire season so far.  This show is amazing!  I also want to commend myself (I can do that since it's my blog) for learning an entire drum corps show in 4 days.  It wasn't easy, but it was my goal and I am quite proud to have achieved it.  Now my next goal is to have it learned like I would in a regular season.  Hopefully that won't take too long either.

After finally returning home for a decent period of time (3.5 days) I will say that I am happy to be home.  I do wish that home was a little closer to NZ than 9000 miles, say 0 miles, but it'll do for now (laugh mom, it's a joke).  It's still hard to believe that I won't be rejoining all my sweet as new friends in the fall for another primo year at Massey, but alas it is not to be.  I will instead have to concentrate on the important things, and the things that only matter for those crazy enough to consider it (aka drum corps). 

Also in the near future I will have a beautiful niece to concentrate on.  Hopefully she'll be here any day.  I'd like to be home on the day, but at the same time, my sister-in-law is already 2cm dialated and I don't want to prolong the pain.  Speaking of nieces and nephews, here is a lovely little video of my nephew that I took today at the beach.  He appears to be a little upset at how sandy his feet are...

Like a Kid in a Candy Shop

4/26/11     Dunedin -> Bluff

If you don’t already know (I’m not sure why you would) we are, as a group, terrible at planning things.  The ultimate result of that, at this stage in our trip, is no set plans on hostels, activities, food, or travel times.  Our general idea for the day today was to tour Cadbury World, their factory in Dunedin (Pronounced Duh-knee-din if you were wondering) or to tour the Speight’s Brewery.  After that we were to hit up the steepest street in the world, then drive to Invercargill/Bluff, find a hostel or campsite and hang out in town the rest of the day.

As general plans go it was a good one.  We did our tours, I went for the chocolate (obviously).

After that the chocolate group wandered the city for a while waiting for the beer group.  Once reunited, around 11:30, we drove across the city to find Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world.  We found it.  It did help that we plugged it into the GPS, but whatever.  This street just looked unrealistic.  And, of course, us being us, we walked all the way to the top.  Once there, due to the grade, you couldn’t see the actual street, just the very end.  It was just insane, I can’t really think of a better word.

Jesus, Rabbits, and Eggs. Happy Easter Everyone!

4/24/11     Franz Josef -> Wanaka

I would like to start this day off by saying Happy Easter!  I didn’t even realize it was Easter until someone said it to me.  And even then I doubted it.  How could it be Easter?  It’s so early!  And it’s autumn, not spring.  Confusing!

But anyways, we started out early again this morning, 7:30 am.  We headed out along a very twisty road to hit up Lake Matheson.  Due to the cloudy weather we did not “catch the perfect mirror reflection of Mt. Cook.”  But we did spend an hour or so walking around the lake.  It was still pretty, despite the clouds and brief rain.

Most of the rest of the day was spent driving.  We stopped at the Gates of Haast (which is a bridge) and checked out the river.  I have seen so many rushing rivers in the past few days and yet I’m still amazed at each one. 

After regaining the road we traveled up and over the Southern Alps, leaving the west coast behind.  We were soon captivated by the beauty of Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea and stopped to take pictures of the latter.

Highway to the Danger Zone

4/21/11     Westport -> Lake Mahinapua

There was plenty of driving today, but I feel like there was even more stopping.  We began the trip with an hour and a half hike down the coastline.  We began near a lighthouse and ended just past a seal colony (yay seals!).  Everything in between was beautiful.

Our next stop was a little scenic overlook with a huge view.  From there we drove about another 10 minutes to a small track down to the ocean.  On the walk down we encountered two huge trees, literally in the middle of the path.  It was pretty cool.  Down by the water was awesome as well.  The waves were coming in really hard and it was nice to just sit and watch.

 About 15 minutes down the road from that stop we stopped again, this time at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes.  This place is amazing.  It’s about a 20 minute trek, but the scenery and the ocean make it a 30 minute trip, minimum.  There is no way anyone can just walk straight through without pausing to check out this force of nature.

Māori Tour pt. 2

Continuing on now from the previous blog, which you can find here... Maori Tour

After getting wiped out by a very sneaky wave in rugby, we changed into our bathing suits and went swimming!! ...in a waterfall.  We walked maybe five minutes up the road from the beach to a pretty little waterfall. 

The water was absolutely freezing, but I was determined to touch the rocks under the waterfall.  By the time I got out there, aka after my lower half went numb, there were only five of us left in the water, everyone else having bailed.

Fear us, we are strong women!!  As soon as this picture was taken though, we got out too.  No need to turn blue or anything.  It seemed almost planned that as feeling was returning to my lower half Staci began a little weaving tutorial.  We each cut a flax stem and proceeded to make a very simple... thing.  I don't recall the name, but it was supposed to represent a flower.

The Freak Flags Fly High

February 8, 2011

Our fourth day in Fiji, and our last.  The day began as any other but developed into a night I will never forget.  The day began as the previous two, with wake-up occurring via drum.  After breakfast we went our separate ways.  I hooked in the help of Travis and together we took out a kayak to a portion of the island that was visible from the resort, but unreachable from the beach.

Once we reached the area, we wandered for a while.  I picked up a nice collection of seashells, though the best ones were occupied by hermit crabs.  And trust me, there were a LOT of hermit crabs.  It was almost disappointing.  Anyways, from there we headed straight out to the ocean. Yeah danger!  We decided to attempt to take a look at the rest of the island.

After seeing that there was nowhere else for us to explore safely we headed back to the island.  It was a little rough there for a while, but we found our rhythm and made it into shore safely.  As we pulled up to shore, we were called to lunch.  After lunch it became picture time.  We took pictures of everything and everyone.  Though we had only been on the island for three days, it felt like much longer.  Granted, we weren’t saying goodbye to each other, but we were saying goodbye to paradise and those who reside there on a daily basis.