the Zambezi rivet canyon...

...and it was a tasty lunch too!

London airport lunch with erica

a mini day gone by.

sleep. that was all I managed to do on the flight to London. read 3 pages of my gossip mag, and didn't even bother to start a movie. all systems shut down. long overdue much needed.

arrived in London, and my friend erica was waiting to meet me at the gate. erica and I booked onto this trip months ago through very different circumstances, and only realized that we were on the same trip late this summer. small world. we are on different flights, but traveling through the same places along the way.

with only time to kill, we took busses all over heathrow, and found a bar to park at to get a bite to eat for lunch, and have a few beers.

I know the travel fatigue will set in at some point, but so far, these mini days are treating me well. left sf late at night. slept. spent a short afternoon in england, and it is night again. 1 more beer, and I should be set to sleep some more on the way to Johannesburg.

I arrive in Africa tomorrow morning... and I think I need all this transition time to prepare me for the physical climate and culture shock! just thinking about it makes me sleepy.

happy Saturday all... I am on my way to Sunday. :) (in Africa!)

Sent from my iPhone

the journey has begun....

the day, hell the week, has been beyond nuts. managed to get myself packed in a frenzy (after 4 hours in the car dropping the meow meow off in Sacramento this am!), and ran out the door like a bat outta hell... made it to the airport. bags checked. taking mt first deep breath in a while. many things I wish I had time to do before setting off to Africa, but doesn't matter now! first leg, 11 hours to London. will give me some time to wrap my brain around it all. or sleep. not sure which I need more at the moment.

for now, three more bites of this overpriced sandwhich, n off to board the plane. see ya later San Francisco. sigh.

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sure tastes like vacation to me!

...less than 24 hours to go!

....I JUST finished all the work i can do, and I am OFFICIALLY ON VACATION! Woot. woot. I think a celebratory beer is in order? yes. yes indeed. maybe 2. lot's to do before i go, but from here on out, it is about vacation. :)


This is where I am going:
http://www.bbxrafting.com/pages/destinations/africa/zambezi

making the list...

... no time to check it twice! getting on a plane headed to Africa in 49 hours, and I'll be lucky if I manage to get on the plane with clean laundry! so much to do before I go. very surreal to be headed to Africa.... I can't quite get my head around it. the almost 30 hours of travel time to get there will give it a little time to sink in. maybe. at this rate of chaos, I may just sleep the whole way. wishful thinking?

so... where am I going you ask? Africa! heading down there for about three weeks. the first 12 days, I'm joining a group of 9 others, one being my friend Lori who talked me into the trip. I'm flying into Victoria falls Zimbabwe, and we will be spending a lot of time rafting the mighty Zambezi river, exploring the magnificent Victoria falls, and a nearby wildlife preserve. after the 12 days of everything being taken care of, Lori and I are thinking bout venturing into Zambia to a mire remote wildlife preserve. we haven't planned anything yet... and I really look forward to Making it up as we go along. we will see what happens!

I am planning to keep up the blog as much as possible as I travel... so check back often! send me comments! :)

-girl wandering (again!)

summer vacation

finally made it out of work tonight at 10pm... but email have been
sent, priorities and tasks conveyed, and I am on vacation! they got
it, and even if they don't, this time around, i couldn't care less. it
is good for all for me not to be there for a bit. obviously, much
needed time to get away.

walking away. off to live life. be me. get dirty. wander. I have a big
agenda for the next two weeks, but I would be just as happy to stray,
hide, and do jack shit. with my skin in the sun, and toes in the water
(sunscreen in the tats, of course. ha).

got a lot to think about. or not. where am I going, what am I doing
with my life. typical shit.

for now, this beer tastes good. the lists can wait another 5 minutes.

last views of NZ

hit the duty free shops, and spent the last of my NZ currency on
candy, food and beer. wrote the last postcards, and did a little
blogging (was determined to finish before I left... but didn't quite
get there!). boarded the plane out if Auckland late afternoon for the
long flight home... and it was kinda fitting that my last views of NZ
were of waiheke island, where heather and I had started our travels
almost three weeks before.

I'll be back. for sure. :)

flying up over the south island

hearher and i made our way to the airport in queenstown the next
morning, and began the long journey home. we parted ways, and were on
separate flights back. we both flew fron queenstown back to Auckland,
with some amazing views traveling back up the south island over the
mountain ranges.

in this pic, the franz Josef glacier (the ine we hiked) is on the
left, the fox glacier is just in front of the plane engine in the
center, and mt cook (highest peak in NZ, I believe?!), is on the right
side. stunning, even from the air!!

last bits of our last day fading away....

remarkably glowing remarkables

the remarkable mountains surrounding the lake in queenstown.

happy girls. :)

queenstown put on quite the sunset for our last night

I think the only reason we managed to leave the hotel that afternoon
was because we needed to return the rental car.

car retrunes successfully, we wandered queenstown for a bit and
settled into get some food and drink.... the reality that our trip was
over was setting in. really went by faster than any other trip I have
taken, and left me wanting so much more time in new Zealand. such an
awesome sampler trip... but barely felt like I scratched the surface.

after our happy hour, we wandered the lakefront, and we so thrilled
with the amazing subset show that unfolded in front of us. couldn't
have asked for a lovelier parting gift. :)

finally... a proper hotel!

heather and I discussed the paceof our trip quite a bit before we
left... and made some of our lodging bookings, and left others to book
along the way. I dint remember our reasoning at the time we did it...
but it was quite delightful to roll back into queenstown the afternoon
of our last day. and have a proper hotel to check into to relax,
shower, reflect, and repack. one last time! my stuff totally exploded
everywhere, and I took a ling decadent shower while heather took a
little nap. pretty surprising, but I did manage to pack all my stuff
back into the bags I came with. was pretty good bout not buying too
much along the way!

token sheep pic!

look mom... sheep! everywhere.

sheep butts.

unlike the deer, the sheep noticed us right away, turned around and
hearded away from us. got a lot of pics of fuzzy sheep butts. sheep
really are everywhere in NZ, and I gotta say... I had many delightful
lamb dishes in our travels. yum. (sorry cute fuzzy sheep, but you are
yummy).

back to queenstown through the rolling countryside

it was amazing, by the time we made it over the mountain away from the
sound and the rainforest... the pouring rain had slowed to a drizzle.
by the time we were back across the lake in the water taxi, rain had
cleared up all together, and there was blue sky peeking through. the
fiordlands are rainforest indeed!

we said goobye to our new friends, and even passed along a bunch of
the food supplies we had to others just starting their travels, and
set off back towards queenstown.

hadn't taken any of the token new Zealand farmland photos yet... so we
scoped out some happy livestock along the way. didn't hurt that the
sky was moody and dramatic against the vibrant landscape.

this pic of a deer farm. mammals are not native to NZ, and they are
primarily raised on farms. weird for me to see a Herd of deer just
hanging out. when we stopped, they all turned to stare at us, and a
few brave ones even moved the group in our direction a little. nit
quite enough for the iPhone, but it was interesting how interested in
us they were!

bye bye doubtful sound

we boarded the bus to head back over the mountain, and our lovely
boat headed back out into the sound. kinda puts the scale of the
surroundings into perspective... the boat was intimate, but relly not
that small, and it looks totally dwarfed floating in the sound.
awesome overnight adventure. beautiful place!