I informed my boss today, Gordon, that I will be leaving the YMCA of the Rockies to pursue new opportunities that have been presented to me after receiving a work visa to live and work in New Zealand for up to one year.

Resigning from my job was quite hard to do as it was first job I ever resigned from, one that I procrastinated with over and over again, but knew it had to be done and couldn’t be delayed any longer as I wanted to give a month’s notice before my final leave date of Septemeber 24th, 2005.

The Y was my first ‘real’ job out of college. I will miss it and the people I came to know during my time there. It was a great place to work and gain experience, and I hope to carry that all on with me. And who knows maybe it’ll even be a place I came back to down the road like so many other people have done.

The parents, girlfriend, and I decided to give Long Peaks a run for its money today. We successfully summited the 14er by 11:00 in the morning after leaving a little later than anticipated from the trail head around 4:30am. The hike was great and weather fair apart from the wind being exceptionally strong from the keyhole on through the trough and narrows.

I was especially excited to do it because it gave me a chance to test out the backpack I’ll be taking to NZ. The pack worked out very well and felt like it rode on my waist for the most part and stayed off my shoulders. I gotta give credit to my Mom and Dad as well for making it to the top. There’s many people their age who wouldn’t be able to conquer the mountain, but they did, and I’m impressed.

Here we are on top of the mountain at 14,256 feet! Check the Photo Gallery for pics from this trip.

The one month countdown begins, and I’ve already gathered everything I need for the trip……..it’s possible I’m a bit anxious…….

I finished getting everything today on the list actually. My final items included a sleeping pad, sleeping bag, cooking/drinkig cup, and few other things….the rest of the stuff I was missing, rain pack cover, stove, etc… will be borrowed from my awesome girlfriend! Yer the best Rach! =)

Now the waiting game begins………did I rush things?…..

We’ll be meeting up in New Zealand later on at the end of the year though, which’ll be great to see her again. She has time off for Christmas break and will be spending it with me! We hope to do a couple tramps (Get your mind out of the gutter! – trekking + camping = tramping) while we’re there like the Queen Charlotte Track (recommended by Susan Stalfort back at the Y), bungy jump (even though Rachel is against it =D), possibly zorb, see some glow worms, of course catchup(!), and whatever else comes along. We’ll just have to see!

My New Zealand address is as follows:

Andy Collins
#3136
Travellers Contact Point
87 Queen Street
Auckland
New Zealand

Purchased from the BackpackerBoard at http://www.backpackerboard.co.nz/index.php that will allow me to recieve mail anywhere in NZ using one postal address.

My phone is as follows:

970-372-2741

It is local to Estes Park and can be called for free by anyone in the 970 area code. It will even ring down under if I’m online so I can answer it, or you can leave up to a ten minute message. If anyone else is interested in using something like this I used a company called Skype, http://www.skype.com/. It’s fairly simple and cheap, it will only cost 2.5 cents to call back home from down there.

Two years ago today I was flying to Peru…….Man how time goes by so quickly, and can change so many things in a short amount of time……

South America is really the reason why I want to continue traveling today. (Corny joke coming up) I don’t know if I got bit by the travel bug down there or what. It was just such an awesome and memorable experience that I hope to keep doing it for years to come, and encourage everyone else to see the world as well! There’s no better time then the present, so get out there and just go for it!

If anyone would like to check out my scrap book from Peru go to the Pics page and click on the album labeled ‘South America – Scrap Book’ to see it.

Today in my office building we had a going party. Granted I’m not officially done with work until the 23rd, but we had to have it early so my boss would be able to attend since he’ll be gone the rest of week and all of next. It was nice, everyone brought dishes from home to share which were really good…maybe to good even because the big joke of the day was “Andy, hate to say it, but maybe you should leave more often so we can have food like this all the time.” I don’t know what they’re talking about though, I mean the food up at the Ruesch is delicious! And we get that all the time. I also received gummy worms from Meg! I’ll for sure be taking them with me on the long plane ride over.

Gordon and I had our goodbye as well. It was very simple, he basically said thanks for working for me, shook my hand, and walked out.

Next will be a desert extravaganza held on my last day of work that everyone will be invited to.

On another subject, Rachel (The GF), recieved word last week that she and everyone else will for sure be helping out in the cleanup of Hurricane Katrina that left most of New Orleans in shambles.

Just when you think you have everything you need for a trip something else comes up……….then another……….and another…………..

Many of you might be wondering if I am going into this little adventure blind or not. Yes, I am going by myself, but I do have a couple contacts in New Zealand.

One of which will even be picking me up from the airport. I told them I could take a bus to where they live since the flight arrives at 5:00 in the morning, but she insisted upon picking me up. Which will a great help I’m sure, and she said I could stay with them as long as I need until I get my bearings straight. She just emailed me again today since I’ll be leaving, or rather arriving soon and attached a picture of her and one of her daughters so I’ll know who to look for in the airport.

It should be nice to know someone from the area for many reasons. I know it was in Peru even though our host family there spoke no English at all. And this family seems very nice and giving too.

The picture above on the left is of Kerry and to the right is her daughter Paige.

Well, the final day of work finally came and went. It was hard during the last week or two for sure. A month notice was a nice gesture and gave the Y more time to find somebody to replace me, but I would recommend the two week notice for anyone else. It’s just so hard to keep the motivation alive for that long.

Anyway, the last day was great. Had a nice lunch followed by a desert extravaganza party back at the office. Thanks to everyone who came by! It was nice to be able to say goodbye and felt good to be moving on at the same time. The Y will definitely be missed! (Bye to all of those who couldn’t make it, and sorry to anyone who’s computer I didn’t get to.).

After work some friends and I headed down to Boulder to hit up the Rio, drink some margaritas, and play in the Pearl Street fountain one last time. It was a fun night!

Okay, so maybe I was the only one who played in the fountain, or the only one not quick enough to dodge the random up spurts.

Ahhhh!….I’m finally here in New Zealand. It was a long trip over, but well worth it. I flew out of Denver at six o’clock at night on Sept.28, had a couple hour layover in LAX, and had a direct flight to Auckland from there (12.5 hours) arriving at six o’clock in the morning two days later.

Immigration went rather well, only had two minor holdups with the customs man. First he wanted to confiscate my beer, but I wouldn’t let him. Not that he had any place too, he was just thirsty is all. I refused to give it because I would have hated to brought it so far only to have it taken away. It was a six pack of Fat Tire for my host Mom, Kerry, because she missed having it from when she was out here. Next he was upset because I didn’t have an address of where I was staying my first night. He was like, “well, would you let me into America if I didn’t know where I was going?” I responded, “Perhaps, I didn’t think much of it. I mean I know the name of the town I’m going too, Orewa, and didn’t think of it since I’m being picked up here at the airport.” So as he stamped my passport, he looked at me all seriously like and said, “next time do your homework mate.” I said, “will do” and went on my way.

I had a warm welcoming as I walked out into the greeting area by Kerry and Paige. Paige was real cute and had made a ‘welcome to New Zealand Andy’ sign all done up and waved it around. They’re both very pleasant and nice as is the rest of the family who I met later on. They showed me around and took me to downtown Auckland to get my work permit/immigration papers situated, try marmite (awful by the way…quite salty…similar to vegimite they say…), see the wharf, get a bite to eat, and then they took me up north to show where they live in Orewa and surrounding areas. The land is lovely and seems to be surrounded by water no matter which way you turn or go. The home is nice as well, actually really nice. I’d say I’m staying in the best room in the house. It sits atop the house with it’s own private bath and balcony which overlooks the city and a nearby bay (I’ll have to post some pics as soon as I get to a faster Internet connection that isn’t dial-up.).

I’ve also been staying busy by getting setup with a bank account that has a ‘cashflow’ card(like a debit card I’d say, but with more fees), IRD number (like our SSN), meeting the rest of Kerry’s family, Pen(25) her daughter, Derrell her husband, and Glen(22) her son, and looking into buying a car. I think it’ll be best to buy an older vehicle to beat around since I’ll be here a while traveling around rather than dealing with buses and other means of transportation. I’ll prolly be able to sell it for close to what I bought it for when I leave too. All in all, sounds like the way to go. Best get going now as I can smell supper cooking upstairs.

Oh yes, I think I’m adjusting quite nicely to the time change. NZ is about six hours behind Colorado and a day ahead.

Take care everyone!

P.S. – Paige says, “It’s been great having Andy here, and I hope he stays here a long time cause he’s a good friend. Oh! And hi to everybody out there!”

And Come Back Another Day!……..

This is the most water I have ever seen fall out of the sky. For the last two days there has been a constant flow of rain with light letups at times. The winter can’t seem decide if it wants to turn its job over to Spring quite yet. It’s all right though, I’ve still been getting out on walks with the host family even though we come back absolutely soaked.

I’ll be heading up North soon. I booked a ticket today with a company called Magic Bus (www.magicbus.co.nz) that provides transport throughout the whole of New Zealand. The route I booked runs from Auckland to Paihai/Bay of Islands and back. The nice thing about it all is you can get on and off as much as you’d like
along the way, where you like. So I’m looking at stopping off in Opononi on the West coast to do a bit of tramping in the woods there and perhaps boogy-board on nearby sand dunes. Then head over to the East coast where the Bay of Islands are to see that and Haruru Falls.

First off, thanks to Heather and Ken who hosted me for a night last night up at their place in Bayly’s Beach, just outside of Dargaville. I came to know them through Kerry and Darrell and was invited to stop by for a night on my way up North.

Plans changed, and I decided to skip over Opononi and the sand boarding since the wind won’t cease on the West coast, and prolly wouldn’t have made for an enjoyable experience. And just came straight to Paihia. Staying in Bay Adverturers Backpackers at the moment. A backpackers is where you buy a bed for the night that is often times in a shared room with 3-5 others, and then there’s a shared kitchen, living area, and other amenities. There are peeps from all over here. I’ve met people from Taiwan, Austrailia, Germany, England, and Argentina.

It’s a bit daunting being completely on my own now. I’ll have to break my shy-shell and become a bit more outgoing to meet people.

Paihia is in the Bay of Islands, which is exactly as it sounds, a bay filled with islands. It’s quite beautiful too, still cloudy, but warm and no wind. Looks to be a few easy hiking trails in the area that I’ll hit up in the next couple days before I start heading back down the coast.

Here’s a picture of Helen and Ken from Bayly’s Beach.

Back in the greater Auckland area again. Had a nice trip up North to the Bay of Islands where the weather was a bit nice.

I came to know quite a few other travelers passing through the area, but as all things come to an end we went our separate ways. I might meet up again with a kid named Alex from the UK later in Queenstown though.

Also did a few hikes up there which included the Paihia(Pie-here) lookout that takes you to an aerial view of the bay, the Haruru Falls trail which went through a great mangrove forest where the trail turned into an escalated boardwalk through the mangrove trees that are constantly in 1-2 feet of water, and checked out the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. The Treaty Grounds is where modern New Zealand was essentially born. There was s native Maori meeting house that decorated stunningly, a native Maori war canoe (the biggest one ever built supposedly), and great views of the area. I didn’t exactly plan on going to the Treaty grounds…just came upon it on the way back from the Haruru Falls trail trying to take a shortcut and ended up in the middle of it all, and some how bypassed the $12 dollar admission fee. =/

Now I’m back in Orewa looking for car at the moment. Decided I do want the freedom and flexibility that would come with it rather than sticking to a bus system. Stayed a backpackers called Pillows last night, but checked out this morning cuz it was kinda shady….and a man prolly in his 40′s looked to be living in the dorm I was in….and the other guy in there I never really met…he showed up sometime in the middle of the night mysteriously…I dunno, maybe it was the gloomy weather and the rain that put a damper on the place, but either way I didn’t feel comfortable staying around….and think we may have been treated pretty well at the backpackers in Paihia. So I’m back at Kerry’s house for the moment until I get a car and can continue on with the travels. They’re prolly regretting ever treating me so well since I showed up at their house again! =)

The magnificent view from the top of the Paihia Lookout trail on to the town and bay below.

…than cruising down Highway 1 listening to TLC in a new set of wheels…Life is good. =) Especially when you got a ’91 Toyota Corolla to roll in.