Why New Zealand?

New Zealand...

 Home to two of my favorite guys. They like to rock the party.

I'll be honest.  My main reason for doing this is to get out of the "real world" and just sit on the beach for an extended period of time.  Like for a year. I also want to experience what it is like to get off of the tourist track and really spend some time living in the real New Zealand. Maybe we'll learn how to do some useful things, like grow a successful garden, or how to properly peel and eat a kiwi.

Apparently you have to specify kiwifruit.

I lived there in 2003, and yes, I feel super old now that I realize this was ten years ago. Holy cow.  I went with Rotary International, and lived with four different host families over the course of the year.  It was really interesting, and was my first experience out of the country (because northern Mexico doesn't really count, as those of you from around here know). I really recommend student exchange, especially in high school.   Tell your friends.  So when I was there before, I went to school, made friends for life, learned about another culture. I did travel a lot, including a kayak/camping trip for P.E. class, and a two week tour of the South Island with other Rotary students.  I went bungy jumping, snowboarding, para sailing, milked a cow, sheared a sheep, watched Lord of the Rings, pretty much the list of anyone who goes to NZ "needs to do".  I have great memories of my year there, but only as a 16 year old.   

This was ten years ago. And I think we all look the same!

I have always wanted to go back, and so after our wedding in 2009, Chris and I went for three weeks, and did all the tourist-y things.  I got to show him everything I had talked about before, the scenery, funny accents, introduced him to my former families, show him my school, and even made him jump off a bridge.

 

This one made me laugh.  He's afraid of heights. Ha.

So we've obviously seen a lot of the country.  But I just always have this pull to get back there.  So when we decided that we would do something crazy and move away, NZ was the only choice for me.  

The visa that we are going to be applying for is called a Working Holiday visa, where basically we stay in the country for up to a year, traveling and seeing the country while being allowed to work in seasonal and part time jobs.  Anything from fruit picking, cafes, hostels, temp. office jobs, etc.  This is exactly what I was looking for, so I can get the tourism work experience I want, and at the same time do what anyone wants to do: just hang out and enjoy being together in one of the prettiest countries in the world.

My passport is currently being renewed, since my last name has changed since our last trip.  As soon as that comes back in the mail, we're buying our plane tickets and getting the visas processed.  

One of the things I want to do is work in cafes.  The cafe culture in NZ is super hip, and all the lattes look like this:

   

No Venti white chocolate mochas or caramel frappuccinos in sight. I'm looking

 forward to this.  So much.  Sorry, Jillian. 

I found an awesome website called Help Exchange which connects host families with helpers (us).  Basically the idea is that you help out on the family's farm, around the house, whatever they need, for a few hours a day in exchange for room and board.  It's really interesting and not just home and farm stays; there are B&Bs, hostels, and holiday parks too.  It's a great concept, we'll be able to learn a lot and save a ton of money at the same time.  In NZ alone there are over 1,500 host profiles to choose from.  We made our little profile on the website and have already been contacted by three families inviting us to stay.  Pretty nifty.

The biggest decision I have to make now is Where will we live?  I want to get the most out of our year, and I know that we will probably move from town to town fairly often, but where to start?  April is going to be Autumn in the southern hemisphere, so do we spend time in the Northland, by the beaches and enjoying some sunshine and warmth and rural lifestyle?  Should we try to get jobs in the city and rent a room in a house? Or do we head to the South Island and work at a Ski Lodge or restaurant in Queenstown or another busy winter town?  We're open to suggestions.  

So... why are we doing this?

Good afternoon, everyone.
Ok.  So first of all, I just want to say that we are not writers.  If you're looking for a travel blog filled with eloquent and lengthy tales of people we meet, destinations only we have discovered, and the emotional and personal revelations we have on our travels, you may want to visit Lonely Planet or other such internet websites.  This one's gonna be a lot of photos.  And some words. Sorry for my writing style.  Sarcasm comes of super well when written down.  

However.  If you're here as family or friends (which you probably are, who else would read this!) and want to keep up with where we currently are living, working (or not working), and what we are eating, then Welcome!  Here we go.

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January 29

Weslie

Time left until departure: 9 weeks

So a bit of back-story for our journey here.  We are currently living in Albuquerque, under the old cliche of "20-something college graduates living in my parents basement."  Almost literally- no basements in Abq but we are in a room on the lower level by the garage.  I've got my business degree and am currently using that to its full potential by working at Starbucks; six years now, not including brief stints trying to be an adult as both a real estate agent (in 2008. I picked a great time to do that. Thanks a lot, economy) and call center insurance claims rep.  Riveting.   Chris is halfway through with a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering.  Sounds fancy, yet has been stuck in this loop for years:

That, plus the lack of other grown-up things like having kids and owning a house, we realized that this is a good opportunity to do something stupid and adventurous.Shout out to Jo, currently kicking butt as a Captain in the Air Force, for planting the seed for this idea.  She came to town to visit, and we were chatting about how someday we'll run a hostel in Colorado together when we're old.  Later that afternoon, I thought about it and realized its an awesome idea.  Seriously, Jo- we are realizing this dream someday.  So the idea started that I need to get to know all about this backpacker hostel-running thing.  Of course, I have exactly no hotel experience.  To nobody's surprise, I picked New Zealand as our destination since I lived there for a year already and we went there for three weeks after we were married.  In my classic style, the time it took for me to hatch a seed of "Hey, we should go overseas for no reason" to finding a host family program and a visa that could take us there for a whole year, took about 30 minutes.  This was in October.  Unfortunately, Chris let me know that being irresponsibly spontaneous takes months of planning and saving.  He's good that way.  I'm more of this:

So I guess we even each other out.  

We decided that Chris should probably get a job to help contribute to this. Anyone that knows us does not need any explanation to this situation.  I also decided to find a second job.  Serving jobs would probably be the best for my schedule, and a good way to make some money quickly.  We took the alcohol licensing class  and 48 hours later, I was hired as a server at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen.  I have no serving experience and the menu there is huge so training was pretty intense, but I didn't have to repeat any sections and was on the floor in about two weeks makin' that cash.  We decided that in addition to my steady Sbux check, I would need to pull in about $200/week in tips.  So far its working out well, I got lucky with a restaurant where the average per person bill is around $35.  Most nights I bring in at least $75 and I work four nights.  

Until yesterday, Chris still couldn't find a part time job to help out.  Even tried to get him a job at other Starbucks stores but no dice.  Finally, he put on his applications that he has three years of college experience.  Which I suppose he does, technically.  He got three interviews the next week.  He ended up taking a job yesterday at a call center in Rio Rancho.  Good pay, and a training program of six weeks which leaves him three weeks of actual work before we leave.  

9 weeks to save all the money we can to fund our travels.  Plane tickets are currently $1300 each, return, which we have managed to save up already, plus enough to maybe buy a small car when we get there.
Once we realized that we could actually make this happen, its getting exciting.  Sorry to all of you that I see on a regular basis, I'm sure its all I talk about. 
And in typical Rouse fashion, Chris just says, "It'll be interesting."
Yes, babe. It will be interesting.