long white clouds.

i've neglected you.

and for that, 

i am sorry.

buuuut. i'm back now, and that's all that matters.

right?

right.

hokay team, here's the deal.

i still have a ton of australia pictures to share. 

and that will happen, one of these days. i promise.

hold me to that.

but right now i'm packing up my life yet again

and preparing to move into my apartment at furman university in greenville, sc.

lots of scheduling, getting things organized, worrying about my schedule, setting up a work schedule and trying to fit in seeing everyone before i leave nashville again.

i'm hoping to keep this blog up over the next semester and beyond.

but it's focus will (obviously) shift from travelogue to more inspiration, thoughts on life, etc etc.

i hope you stick around!

catch you on the flip side!

love,

christian.

home.

"oh home, 

let me go home. 

home is whenever i'm with you.

ah, home."

(home- edward sharpe and the magnetic zeroes.)

well folks, 

it's 3:33 on monday afternoon,

i'm sitting in the auckland airport

waiting to hop on the very large aircraft 

that will deliver me to san fransico in no less than 15.5 hours

(but since i'm flying into the past, it will be only 3 hours of actual time passed.)

(and yes, it took my a nice long while to compute that).

since we spoke last i've been running around like a crazy person.

3 weeks in australia.

incredible.

played in sydney and melbourne

drove the great ocean road

almost hit a kangaroo

conquered the outback (and alice springs) by myself

saw ayers rock, fulfilling a life long meryl streep "cry in the dark" fueled dream

sailed for 3 days in the whitsundays

swam with sharks and stingrays

snorkelled the great barrier reef

collected my luggage

played in auckland for 2 days

and now i'm heading home.

pray they don't weigh my carryons, 

and i'll be home before you know it!

love love love!

pictures to come soon,

so keep checking back here.

lots more stories once i get home!

c

OZ.

well friends.

i left christchurch for good.

after one of the best nights out 

we packed up on friday 

and melissa and i shipped out

with our sights set on tauranga.

we probably said goodbye to our friends frost and ryan 

at least five times each

and we pushed our departure time to the last possible second.

but we made our ferry

and spent the last two days in the car

having ridiculous adventures

that only the two of us could manage.

these include, but are not limited to:

jimmying open the sunroof and not being able to close it.

going 40km per hour up hills because the van refused to go out of second gear.

8 + hour driving stretches.

swiping a parked car... in the rental car parking lot.

(don't worry, everyone had full insurance. not even an issue.)

lord oh lord.

but now we're at our friends place in tauranga until tomorrow.

when melissa will go WWOOF 

and mike and i will drive towards auckland,

drop off the rental van

and then fly to aussie for our grand adventure.

we have ZERO plans

save for our plane tickets,

so lots of flying by the seat of our pants is in the near future.

pray we have places to sleep! 

love love love!

christian.

(i probably won't have internet for the next few weeks, so expect lots of wrap up blog posts when i get home to america on december 8th! )

rafting.

after we spent the day in rotorua 

we drove to a campsite just out of town for the  night.

it was right on a lake and we got to play with 

kayaks, trampolines, swings, and a grounded boat.

so so fun and we all turned into four year olds 

(as if that wasn't the case every day...)

the next morning we woke up to go rafting!

melissa and i had already been on this particular river,

but it was so fun we decided to do it again.

the kaituna is home to the world's tallest commercially rafted waterfall...

and i finally have pictures!

(we didn't buy the pictures the last time we went and we were all kind of disappointed at our mistake, but i think it definitely paid off to have the pictures of all my favorite people in new zealand on the river.)

we stayed with some friends in auckland.

this is pretty typical of our family:

ryan and mike have pinned down melissa to tickle her

and frost has me in a surprise bear hug. 

lord oh lord, i do love these people.

and then. 

to further prove my point about all of us being raging four year olds

when frost, mike and i ended up with a few hours to spare in the auckland airport

we did what all normal, twenty-somethings do.

we played shaky face.

you get your subject to whip his/her head back and forth

and take a series of pictures

because at least one will end up looking like these beauties:

 

off to study for my last exam in four and a half hours.

have i mentioned the stunning lack of motivation?

it's crippling really.

see you on the other side!

love love love

c

riot house.

i always tell the girls 

never take it seriously

if you never take it seriously

you never get hurt

and if you never get hurt

you always have fun.

and if you ever get lonely, 

just go to the record store

and visit your friends.

 

zorbing.

while we were in rotorua we decided to try out zorbing.

zorbing is basically a giant hamster ball that they put you into with a little bit of water and then throw you down a hill.

it's awesome.

and it started in rotorua, new zealand.

oddly enough one of two places you can do it in the US is in tennessee...

good ole pigeon forge.

lord oh lord.

it was so so so fun.

morgan, melissa and i decided to go together.

best. decision. ever.

you drive up to the top of this hill and then they squeeze you through a little opening in the ball

and you all stand up and start to push yourself down the hill

about 2.7 seconds in your feet slide out from under you

and you all tangle up 

and slide around

and scream 

and laugh 

and threaten to pee

until the 45 seconds (a loooooong 45 seconds) is up

and you are met at the bottom 

and plopped out onto the grass.

here are some pictures to illustrate.

post zorbing we headed into rotorua proper and posted up in the government gardens

the afternoon was full of rolling down hills, eating a yummy picnic and tackling one another.

what else is new?

 

(note the height difference between me and frost please...)

then the boys decided to climb some trees.

and we headed towards the pretty flowers.

well.

now i must go study.

although i'll admit, finding motivation has been QUITE the struggle.

pray i make it through to thursday and don't fail.

please.

love love love.

c

 

wine tour.

hokay.

more pictures from the road trip were promised. 

so here they are!

(i promise i'm not using this blog to avoid studying...)

post gypsy fair we remember why we were in napier in the first place

and that was for wine.

hawke's bay is new zealand's prime wine making location

and we were determined to get us some tastes.

so mike frost and i volunteered to be designated drivers

and we all piled into the cars and headed towards the vineyards.

frost and i putzed around while the rest of the crew nodded and made the appropriate interested looking faces while the wine makers droned on until they were poured samples to taste.

winery no. 1: 9 wines are sampled... the car ride starts to get interesting.

winery no. 2: we meet the world's nicest cat.

winery no. 3: frost and i stay outside and chow down on pb&j's. the first bottle is purchased.

winery no. 4: frost and i are making bets on how many bottles they will emerge with.

winery no. 5: pick up lines are bought out. and butchered.

winery no. 6: the lady starts handing out water, frost and i load everyone into cars and drive our sleeping passengers towards lake taupo and then to rotorua.

a successful and hilarious day ended in a hostel in rotorua where everyone rallied and we tried out the geothermal hot tub.

recap.

hello hello hello!

so sorry i've been absent.

lots and lots to share. 

i've spent a fabulous week on a farm called treehugger organics.

it was full of weeding fields of garlic, epic tank top sunburns (hot. pun intended.), planting 2,560 red onion seedlings, burgeoning chaco tans, incredible food, the best homemade fish and chips EVER, home made craft beers, three adorable jack russells, caravans, jamie oliver cookbooks, watching fried green tomatoes with girls from germany, canada and northern england, home made honey, sweet tea and so many more wonderful things. 

it truly was a lovely week.

i'm exhausted

and my wrists have never been more sore.

8 + hour days

and 8am wakeup calls.

but i wouldn't trade it for the world.

the farm was lovely.

but now it's back to christchurch for four (!!!!) days 

full of packing, two exams, and far too many goodbyes.

then it's back up to auckland in another campervan with my lovely friend melissa

for a week long roadtrip of terrible country music, some hiking and long talks

before i drop her off at her own farm

reconnect with mike

and sail off to australia until december 4th.

then i fly home on the 6th and i am back in franklin for december 8th.

phew.

what a month this promises to be.

more pictures of the last road trip coming soon soon soon

(probably in like 20 minutes..)

love!

christian.

gypsy caravan-ing.

hello dear friends.

i'm back in christchurch for a few days.

i've spent the last week touring the north island 

with five of my favorite people.

now i'm back in the city until monday morning

when i'll be hopping on a bus 

and heading about three hours south to a little town

called st. andrews

where i will be spending a week on an organic farm

playing in the organic gardens, working with bee hives and doing general farm work,

then it's back to christchurch for some exams.

would you like a run down of my week?

i thought so...

we left christchurch around 4 on friday

and drove up to picton to catch the inter-island ferry at 10pm

we arrived on the other side of the cook straight at 1 am

and decided we were alert enough to drive five hours to napier.

we fell asleep in our campervan and car just as the sun peeked over the beach 

that stretched out in front of our parking spots.

so we slept for a few hours and woke up

to sweaty sleeping bags and foggy windows.

so we bailed on the cars and cooled down in the water, 

played some frisbee, ate some pb&j's.

then we headed into town to find the information center.

on the way we spotted a gypsy fair.

it was a huge group of gypsy caravans parked and out to play.

we wandered around in heaven for a few hours.

rainbows and flowers and peace signs in face paint for the girls,

jousting competitions for the boys. 

everyone ate snow cones, i had three bags of cotton candy (you think i'm kidding.)

and we sat in the warm warm sun and listened to our new friend frank

play wonderful bob dylan, cat stevens, and grateful dead covers.

my soul needed to dance,

but try as i might i couldn't convince anyone to join me. 

we watched a fireshow of small children 

and then gathered up our things and ran away to the wine country.

we had a blast.

such a wonderful wonderful way to kick off our trip.

i have tons more pictures 

so i'll probably break them up activity by activity.

wine tour is next!

but off to bed for me.

it's 4 am ( i must be lonelyyyyyy. name that song) and i couldn't sleep

so i figured this was a productive use of my time.

but now the eyelids are drooping

so it's off to bed for me.

see you tomorrow!

c

 

wow.

i really have no words for my trip.

it was the most incredible week ever.

i struggle to think of a better week i've ever had.

people i love

doing the most wonderful activities.

i'll give you the full down

with TONS of pictures 

as soon as i aloe up, sleep hard and long, and collect my life.

watch this hysterical video while i'm away.

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

 the little blonde buzzed head kid is my favorite!

he reminds me of my cousin philip.

what. a. mess.

love!

c