Finally Some Photos From the First Week

Children's Art Project - www.artcambodia.org

A Relaxing Snorkel Trip

Kate taking a snack break

Bayon Temple - Can you spot all the faces?

Jungle Temple ruins - where Tomb Raider was filmed...sorry, no Angelina Jolie.


We said goodbye to Tyler and Amber today, and start the next phase of our adventure tomorrow... Vietnam!

Short but sweet...
We have not been stopping long enough to upload photos to the blog yet...we are trying to squeeze every moment we have left with Amber and Tyler. So I am sure once they fly out on Friday we will have more free time on our hands. We took our snorkel cruise out today and really enjoyed it. The weather has been beautiful for us so far. This is their "cool" season, yeah right. Blaine wants to go to the Snake Restaurant tonight...your glass top table has live snakes underneath it~not my idea of a relaxing dinner...we will see who wins out.
The day after tomorrow we will catch the bus back to Pnohm Penh so Amber and Tyler can catch their flight back to Bangkok then onto Japan and finally L.A. Blaine and Tyler want to throw a few hand grenades before he gets on the plane though.
I am beginning to relax a little with the mosquitos...if DEET is harmful for you though we are going to be in trouble. We cover up with long sleeves/long pants once the sun has gone down and try to eat under fans at restaurants for dinner. We moved into our beach bungalows at Queen Hill "Resort", very authentic. Last night was our first night to not sleep in an air-conditioned room and we actually did just fine. We slept under our mosquito net and burned mosquito coils. So nice to wake up, walk out on the porch and see the ocean spread out forever! Let the good times keep rolling...

Life in Cambodia, Sihanoukville

Happy Chinese New Year the Year of the Ox! We are definitely celebrating true Asian style...fireworks, dragon parades, etc. We have had some amazing sunsets, delicious grilled fish, local beer (Angkor) and lots of humidity. Just returned to hotel after a game of Uno with Amber and Tyler at sunset at one of the beachside restaurants. None of us wears a watch, we don't know the date or day of the week. Sounds like vacation. It was nice to get out of the bustling/smelly city of Phnom Penh and out to the warm ocean breeze. We are renting scooters tomorrow to explore the area and the next day we are out on a day trip to snorkel and visit a few islands off the coast. The boat trip picks us up from our beach bungalows, feeds us breakfast and lunch on the islands, snorkel equipment and fishing gear included (8am-4pm) to visit 3 islands all for the price of $15 U.S.! Sign us up!

P.S. I actually think Cambodia has faster internet than New Zealand. Unbelieveable.

Cambodia

We made it safely to Bangkok and on to Siem Reap, Cambodia. This place is truly incredible. The people are great and everything is really cheap. The last two days were spent visiting the temples of the Angkor region. Amazing sights and wonderful people.

Next, on to Phnom Penh and then Viet Nam (somewhere).

Last Post from New Zealand

Sun rising or setting? =view from our house (well, ex-house pretty much)
It has been a week of lasts for us. We are really tired of saying goodbye...actually we have been following Blaine's grandmother's suggestion and saying 'see you later'. Some of our friends we will hopefully see within a year or two but for many of the friends we have made here it is unknown.
It is so hard to believe it is over. We packed up our NZ life in 4 boxes that are somewhere in transit on their 84 day journey over sea to get to the U.S. (not to mention that our US life takes up an entire enormous storage unit).
2 1/2 years has flown by.
It is totally bittersweet for us...we are so sad to leave this place but SO happy to be back close to family and old friends. But bear with us for a little while when we get home while we go through our 'withdrawal' phase...it doesn't mean we aren't happy to be home.
We fly out today in 7 hours to Melbourne to stay with some friends overnight and then onto Bangkok, Thailand to meet up with our friends from L.A. (Amber and Tyler) who will be travelling with us for 10 days in the beginning of our Asian Exploration. The country order is as follows: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo and Singapore. This, however, is subject to change at anytime. We are going to aim to post photos and quick synopses on this blog whenever we can but not sure how often that will be...
Please pray for our health and safety...Blaine is of course not at all worried but I am a nurse and have obviously been reading too much. Wanna have a look as well...visit http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/regionSoutheastAsia.aspx
But don't look too long b/c it might make you crazy like me.
Oh and pray for my mom b/c she thinks we are trying to make her go mad with worry on purpose. Mom-we aren't and I blame it all on Blaine.
No, we are going to be fine! And I feel like there are going to be some interesting stories when we return...

Hello, Goodbye~beatles

The pictures from above were taken on our last hike in New Zealand. We decided to hike to Mueller Hut, situated on Mt. Ollivier (the 1st moutain Sir Edmund Hillary climbed) b/c Blaine's cousin, Tommy, had suggested it. It was a 1,000 meter climb from Mt. Cook Village past the Sealy tarns, through a boulder field, up a rock scree slope, to climb through snow at the top and cross over the saddle to the hut. Gorgeous views for the climb out over the Hooker glacier and Mueller glacier. We shared a room filled with bunk beds with 3 other couples-from Israel, Germany and France. So as we got dressed in the morning there were 4 languages being spoken simutaneously. Interesting to say the least...but everyone commonly spoke English (which we were grateful for). You had to trudge through the snow to the outhouse (the small red building away from the hut-pictured above). Just to note: it is summer here and there was plenty of snow around. The hike up took us around 3 1/2 hours and the hike down about 2 1/2 hours. The only negative of the trip: Blaine got a ticket from the speed camera for going 66 km/h in a 50 km/h zone. $120 well spent for such a memorable weekend away!

Well, we leave 1 week from today and move away from New Zealand. Hard to believe that 2 1/2 years can pass so fast. Blaine and I worked our last day this past Friday. We are officially both unemployed (although Blaine would rather refer to himself as retired). There have been some sad goodbyes already. We are really going to miss this place. The golden question has been: "when do you guys think you'll be back?". Who knows the answer to that but the way we have answered has been "as soon as we can make it". New Zealand has most definitely changed us. And I believe there is no place like it on Earth.

Now, onwards for our next adventure....

Happy New Year's!!!!!

we had a great time in Sydney...fireworks were amazing