The Day after Thanksgiving Celebration in Queenstown

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Coco-Cola???–Nope Irish Stout from McDuff’s in Dunedin

Week 15 Day 99 Queenstown

45.0311° S, 168.6625° E

October 25th…The Day after Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Celebration!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Hopefully you are all with friends and family. I am lucky to say that all the way across the world from my home I will be celebrating Thanksgiving with both my family and friends!

Tom and I are spending Thanksgiving with our friends Steve and Kevin from Seattle who are also on their own Around the World Adventure!

Our Thanksgiving feast might be slightly unconventional, but then again so are our lives right now.

We will spend our Thanksgiving Friday (your Thursday, we are celebrating with our fellow Americans!) playing the good ole American game of beer pong, streaming American Football over the internet, and feasting on the best Lamb sausages, Wattie’s chili beans, and eggs NZ has to offer.  Who knows, we might even go crazy and eat some Cadbury Chocolate.

Despite our unconventional Thanksgiving, Tom and I have both realized more than ever this week that we have a lot to be thankful for!

Since I last wrote, we wrapped up our time in Dunedin, had our car battery die twice :/, Tom released his digital product The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing, we changed our travel itinerary adding Indonesia to the mix, I nailed down a month long job in Jakarta, and I taught at another studio, Bikram Yoga Queenstown!

Sand Fly Bay

Sand Fly Bay

Sea Lion at San Fly Bay

Sea Lion at San Fly Bay

Friday after my long Thursday I slept in until 9, waking up to practice Bikram at 9:30, Yin at 12, and Teach at 4.

Tom continued to type away.  A common thread from last week which continued until Monday evening around 11:00pm after he finally shipped his product and finished the marketing work.

Leaving Tom to work, I headed out to Sand Fly Bay with Steve and Kevin after I finished teaching.

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Spooning Sea Lions

Sand Fly Bay is home to a colony of Sea Lions, and a colony of Yellow Eyed Penguins.

The Sea Lions are easy to spot.  You can often find them resting on the beach.

Something I did not know is that Sea Lions only come to shore to sleep, allowing their muscles to relax from all the diving they do for food.

The Penguins are not so easy to spot.

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The view from the penguin hide

We hid out in the Penguin hide from 7:30-9. We didn’t see any penguins, but we did see an awesome sunset! 20131122_201055Penguins have a daily pattern. They leave for Sea in the morning to go out and gather food for themselves and the young ones resting in their nests this time of year. They return in the afternoon around 3:30 or 4, and then ones with young head back out and return from their second run around 7pm or a couple hours before sunset.

We were hoping to catch some of the late ones, but when the sun finally sank down, we gave up. 20131122_202145 We headed back into town to meet up with Tommy, hoping he would be ready for a break.

He was! Tom was very grateful and ready to take a break. We all headed out to check out Dunedin’s local brewery, Speight’s, one of the largest breweries in NZ. 20131122_233317

Our beers sitting by the fire

Our beers sitting by the fire

The beer was ok.  Speight’s is NZ equivalent of Anheuser Busch.  They serve it everywhere and most of the beers taste the same, but the brewery itself is pretty cute! It’s full of refurbished wood furniture, has large wood tables and chairs, and has a warm fireplace.–A must in  a cool, windy, rainy city like Dunedin!

Saying good night and goodbye to Steve and Kevin (They were headed to Queenstown to hike the Routeburn Great Walk before meeting us in Queenstown for Thanksgiving!) we headed home both exhausted from the week and ready for some sleep!

My scorpion is progressing and getting more stable!

My scorpion is progressing and getting more stable!

Saturday morning I got the day off!

As much as I love teaching, I always love a day off when I’ve taught every day!

I slept in until 9 and lounged around watching movies until 4 when I finally got moving for the day to take yoga! IMG_20131124_210618

Following yoga, Tom and I went to church at St. Joseph’s Cathedral.

Following church, we hit the town with some Yogis from Dunedin for Mexican at Del Sol!

Sunday I taught my last classes in Dunedin at 10 and 4, chilling and relaxing in between as Tom typed away.

It was also Sunday when our car battery died for the first time.  I headed out to check the car in the morning before teaching only to find it dead.

Luckily Donna  (The Dunedin Studio Owner)  had some jumper cables and there were no cars parked on either side of us making the problem a quick fix.

Tom putting in the final finishing touches to The Complete Guide To Pay What You Want with the help of Donna's Cat!

Tom putting in the final finishing touches to The Complete Guide To Pay What You Want with the help of Donna’s Cat!

Monday morning, I took class before we had to pack up our things and clear out for a new teacher coming in.

Donna, knowing Tom had a deadline, kindly let us chill at her place as Tom completed his final finishing touches on TCGTPWYWP!

When we got to our car, we realized that it had unfortunately died again…we must not have run it long enough on Sunday. :/

The second fix wasn’t so easy as we were sandwiched between two other cars on a hill.

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Luckily we found 2 nice gentlemen to help us back our car out into the road where we got a jump!

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Car good to go, Tom buckled down and got to work!

His finishing touches were completed around 7:30, but uploading was the tricky thing. Tom and I sat with fingers crossed saying our prayers that the product would fully upload in time for the deadline! 3 1/2 hours later upload hit 100%!  TCGTPWYWP was complete!!

To celebrate we drove in the dark to the Moeraki Boulders where we made a quick dinner around midnight and fell asleep to wake up and see the sunrise over the rocks! 20131126_055013Normally, you have to pay $2 a person to see the boulder, but because we got there before it opened we saw them for free!20131126_055351“Local Māori legends explains the boulders as the remains of eel baskets, calabashes, and kumara washed ashore from the wreck of Arai-te-uru, a large sailing canoe. This legend tells of the rocky shoals that extend seaward from Shag Point as being the petrified hull of this wreck and a nearby rocky promontory as being the body of the canoe’s captain.”-Wikipedia 20131126_055711   20131126_054929The Moeraki Boulders provided a great environment for a photo shoot.

20131126_054901So we took photos!!

Lots and Lots

and Lots of photos!

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It was a great sunrise even without the boulders!

IMG_20131126_122659After checking out the boulders, we booked it to Katiki Point to try one more time to see penguins.

We lucked out! Within 1 minute of being there we saw 2 waddling toward the water! Overall we saw 4 penguins!

Tom and I can now leave NZ happy…Just don’t remind Tom about the cave…!

At 7am our day was complete!  What to do next? I could tell Tom was itching for internet and I was itching to do yoga, so we headed back to Dunedin so I could do Fiona Caird’s first Bikram class and Tom could see how TCGTPWYWP was doing.

Without the pressure of a deadline Tommy was able to practice with me!

Fiona taught a great class! Following class, it was finally time to really leave Dunedin.

I bet the studio thought we would never leave!

For the record, Dunedin has some amazingly disciplined and dedicated yogis.  Donna can crack the whip, but she always has a smile on her face and the her yogi’s focus and concentration are amazing!

We loaded up in the Getzya and headed to Queenstown where we will wrap up our stay in NZ.

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Clutha River

The drive was surprisingly way prettier than I thought it would be.  Although I don’t know why I am surprised, because everyone has said the entire South Island is spectacular.

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Kawarau River and Lake Dunstan merging to become the Clutha

The biggest town along the way was the town of Cromwell, known for their giant fruit sign!

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We finally arrived in Queenstown, around 7:30 pretty grateful to be down with Road Tripping through New Zealand and happy to be spending our last week in one place chilling.

Queenstown is the perfect town to chill.

Queenstown Thursday Afternoon

Queenstown Thursday Afternoon

One of our last pics with the Getzya...Tom's a good man to live out of a yogi's car (Can you see my yoga clothes drying in the window?)

One of our last pics with the Getzya…Tom’s a good man to live out of a yogi’s car (Can you see my yoga clothes drying in the window?)

Not only are the views spectacular, but the liquor laws fit Tom’s and my style perfectly!

Apparently you are allowed to walk around with open containers, which makes the town one amazing bar!

Tom and I have been able to scope out a parking spot in a lot right in the heart of town that is only $2.50 a day and allows for overnight parking!

Wednesday, I headed up town to take yoga at Bikram Yoga Queenstown, while Tom headed to Redrocks, a bar/cafe in town with amazingly fast, free, unlimited WIFI.

Following class, Tom and I took advantage of the sun walking through town people watching.

The town is full of all kinds of people, but especially travelers!

Happy couple chilling near the water.

Happy couple chilling near the water.

There are happy couples honeymooning.

20131128_170958 Asian Tourists in large groups on tours

20131128_131220Sky gliders floating down from the mountains.

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Locals Chilling drinking in the park.

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And more locals/travelers drinking in the park. Everybody drinks in the park!

I had to teach a class at Queenstown Bikram yoga, so I couldn’t partake in the fun, but Tommy and I did enjoy an awesome nap under a tree by the water.

Before heading to class, I went with Tom to Redrocks to get him situated to work while I taught class and look who we ran into to:

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IMG_20131127_201625[1]STEVE AND KEVIN!

I left the three Resistance Members to their business and headed up to teach some yogis.

Bikram Yoga Queenstown may not be a big studio, but the yogis listen and the scenery outside of the studio can’t be beat!

After class, I hung out with the boys longer until we were starving then we went our separate ways to get food and settle into our separate miniature Asian cars for the night.

Thursday morning Steve and Kevin headed to Milford Sounds to explore while Tom and I settled in for our first chill Thanksgiving celebration.

Mucking around by the lake

Mucking around by the lake

I took a power yoga class while Tom did some work before heading to the lake to muck around.

We enjoyed chilling by the lake doing more people watching splurging for Thanksgiving and enjoying delicious ice cream cones!

Later in the afternoon we took a walk through Queen’s garden enjoying the lake from a different vantage point.

 

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Queen’s garden is also home to some really big trees!

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Big Tree #1

Big Tree #2

Big Tree #2

Thursday night we wrapped up our mini Thanksgiving celebration with passes to Minus 5!

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Tom and I had picked up a hitcher-hiker in Abel Tasman who happens to live in Queenstown and works at Minus 5!

She more than repaid the favor by getting us into the spendy club where we both got to enjoy a cool cocktail from an ice glass!–literally made of ICE!!!

update on Tom's beard

update on Tom’s beard

I’m wrapping up this post for the week, so you’ll have to wait until next week to hear about our traditional football streaming, beer bong, and sausage, bean, and egg feast!

Also stayed tuned for our first adventures from Down Under!

We fly to Sydney on Sunday!

I hope you are enjoying your holiday.

Thank you all for reading this week, before you go I have a couple questions for you!

Since I enjoy writing these posts and do spend quite a bit of time writing these each week I want you to enjoy reading them!

I've still got rainbow toes!

I’ve still got rainbow toes!

What kinds of posts do you like the best?

What info do you want to know more about, Tom and I are looking to redesign this site a bit as we expand the territory we’ve covered.

How do you think we should group together the info we include?

Would you be interested in sample itineraries?

Travel hacks to keep things cheap?

Best places to get beer for cheap around the world?

Yoga studio location reviews?

What information do you think would be helpful for you and what information do you think might be helpful for someone else?

I’d love your ideas as we head to Australia next followed quickly by Indonesia!

I’d appreciate any feedback you’ve got for me!

So Leave it below!  Thanks!

Comments 3

  1. Mommy

    Your Mom would love to see more of your beautiful face in up close shots. And where’d the boulders go? One sunrise you were taking lots of pics with them; the last one they’re not there? You should include a map with animated, little dots showing your route. Then again, I don’t want anyone stalking you that close. Then again, again, you’ll be gone by the time you post where you’ve been. right?! You should categorize your topics for folks to link to what interests them. Adult Beverages; Yoga; Sunsets; Animals; etc. 🙂 I love you!

  2. Aunt T

    Hello darlin’ travelers!
    I’m not sure if you see my comments–since I am soo far behind following your posts. I, too, was curious about the boulders??!!? I like your Mom’s ideas about categories. I LOVE maps. I have been googling New Zealand and places you’ve been. Sample itineraries–cool! Love you! Aunt T

  3. Pingback: Tom and Courtney Down Under

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