12 Pubs of Christmas!

Christmas Eve in Queenstown- the orphans unite!

A Berry Merry Christmas!

As Navidad is fast approaching we've been busting out a few Christmas carols. Today Choi and I assembled the tree while I taught him choice lines from A Christmas Carol such as "Bah Humbug" and "God Bless us, everyone. We found a few Korean songs on Youtube, but this was easily our favorite result.



I kept asking Choi if everyone in Korea could sing like Angels, and he just giggled and turned red, so me thinks that's a maybe.

Brett came in and put on an Aussie classic



Brendan, from Ireland and living in the hostel with us, says this is the greatest Christmas song ever written, yet says he's heard it so much that he'll happily go the rest of his life without hearing it again. It gets a decent amount of play here and is obviously a staple in Europe, but I shall admit, I've never heard it before. So it's wonderful and new to me:



And Cam and I fall back on our personal favorite snap shot of Christmas in the US of A: Robert Earl Keene's 'Merry Christmas from the Family'



So as we head out in tanktops and jandals (that's Kiwi-speak for sandals), we're sending the love!

Cam's thoughts

I have successfully hacked Molly's blog and thought I would fill you all in on what I've been up to. Queenstown is flipping sweet as! Life is good, working at the golf course is a super cruisey job and my game is significantly improving. Finally moved into my official room at the hostel, which is coming along nicely, and I have a proper bed and everything now. The town is really fun to go out in, but it is rather expensive, its a lot like Aspen in that its very touristy and thus everything is way over priced. Even Subway footlongs are like 10 bucks! I haven't done anything else too exciting but I really want to try bungie jumping soon. The place where bungie jumping was invented is like 30 minutes away so I might try that one, we will see. Were missing everyone this holiday season and its really odd having Christmas in the middle of summer, but its all part of the experience.

Sad News Bears

Two really sweet French guys who we used to live with died in the lake the other night. It's really rocked Queenstown and everyone is very upset.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4433901/Two-die-in-awful-tragedy

Hambone, Hambone, where ya been?

Everyday it's a-gettin' closer
Goin' faster than a roller coaster

But seriously, again apologies for the spaced entries into this intimate travel diary. Much has happened, an epic narrative best told in pictures. Unfortunately, Dinonysus has taken a back seat, as moving usually loses him for a few days and he's getting a tad bent out of shape.

Cam and I have moved out of the house to the hostel, or rather what will become a hostel in a few weeks. Right now it is a work zone with 7:30 drilling and dusty air that hasn't been an awesome combo with my current cold. But it's really quite fun, like a big constant slumber party.

Hostel life, and the living's easy

Remember, remember the 5th of November... or so I've been told. I've never remember the 5th of November before, much to my dismay. This is a holiday that I strongly support, as it involves mass amounts of fireworks to celebrate an outlaw. Welcome to Guy Faux Day! A sinister plot to blow up the British Parliament has resulted in legalized fireworks for 3 days of every year here in NZ. Our neighbors, Kiwi to the core, bought a ton of combustibles and hosted roman candle battles (sorry mom! In our defense, everyone has on eye protection)

Hey BCD, let's blow shit up.

Also notable, my friend Chrissy came to visit on the tail end of her Australian studies with her friend Angie

Angie, Moi and Chrissy, can't imagine why they made us wear helmets...

A whirlwind 36 hours, we did a trail ride to the very locations where parts of Lord of the Rings was filmed. Geeking out! We got sweet helmets with bills, or as the locals say 'peaks'. My horse was huge, I could not have conceivably gotten on him without a mounting block. His name was Bob, short for Sponge Bob. He was a good sport but had a long face all day...

Helmeted Me and Big, Beautiful Bob

His size was especially advantageous when crossing streams. Everyone else was hoisting their gum boots (our given riding footwear, they're basically galoshes and a staple in Kiwi culture) Bob was a mellow fellow who went with the flow, and I'm pretty sure the Scottish women in our group were jealous.

Chrissy and Angie also motivated Cam and I to do something I swore that we never would... go to Minus 5, known to most as "The Ice Bar".
"Everybody, chill." -Mr.Freeze

The bar is named such because it is kept at a chilling minus 5 degrees Celsius (sidenote: I have had some minor adjustment troubles with the metric system) It costs a cool (pun intended) $31 to get in full price, but because we did the pub crawl, our admission was waived. Well, how do you adequately describe a 10x10 freezer with sub-par ice sculptures?... I think I just did. That said, because I'd been so set against the gimmick of it all, it was actually a lot of fun to pose for pictures, wear the jackets and drink from the cups made of ice. Chrissy got a drink called Pedros Passion.

My latest adventure out of Queenstown was down to the south tip of the south island, The Catlins, I rolled three friends from work, all from the lands of some of my forefathers and foremothers: Ireland. We cruised around checking out petrified forests, seals, light houses, penguins and the bottoms of beer bottles (what can I say? They're Irish!) The Catlins was an anomaly because I'd say it's the most beautiful place I've been so far in NZ, yet it was incredibly uninhabited and unexploited. We walked on a sunny beach at 11 in the morning as the seals rolled around, not another soul in sight. Twas nuts.

Darwinian Stand-off

One of the most interesting things I learned this weekend actually had nothing to do with nature or Kiwis or beer bottles, but rather a morsel of Irish culture known to most as "Tinkers". The politically correct term for a tinker is "A member of the traveling community". They are unique to Ireland because they originally took to the road during the famine. So, unlike other gypsies of the European persuasion, they are resented for abandoning the land, or more harshly "Losing the faith". They have unique accents, with words like boy becoming "ba". They remind me of the mythical leprechaun, as you can never trust them, you can always spot them and they don't quite fit into normal society. Also, although the girls dress like proper skanks, they are very adamant about waiting for marriage for sex, and their weddings are huge affairs, fit for any late night MTV programming to air.

Back to roadtrip. I saw many things I'd never seen before, and here are photos of the two most notable. I should mention it was a full moon, leaving us howling and prowling, we finally ended up on a beach at about 1 am kicking a football, er, soccer ball around. There was so much light from the moon and water from the South Pacific that there was actually a rainbow. I know you can't see it as well in the photo, but look closely, I swear it was there.


I also saw a penguin in the wild, something I've never had occasion to do in land-locked Colorado.



Yes, the sunglasses are new.

I feel I've run too long, but I suppose it's only because I haven't updated in forevs. So stay tuned, there's more to come.

In case you were wondering, New Zealand is still breathtakingly awesome.

Out.

New ADDRESS

Send mail to The Adventure Queens (Janine, I love that)

Adventure Queenstown Hostel & Chalet, Level 1, 36-38 Camp St, Queenstown, New Zealand, 9300

It's all in the hips, it's all in the hips

Today Cammy and I went to the driving range, his place of employment. I don't know how well you know me, so you may or may not find this surprising, but this is the first time I've actually hit a golf ball. I'm not counting putt-putt obviously, although I consistently outplay Smother. But if you've ever seen her on the castle drawbridge, you'd know that's not a feat.

Fortuna spun the wheel of fate, and we stumbled upon the perfect Dinonysus club, so he got to come too. Too bad he sucks at golf and spent more time in the sand than David Hasselhoff.

When we got home last night we found Choi passed out on the couch. He'd been drinking and locked himself out of his room. Video to be posted someday when I have unlimited internet!

Making a home from a rented house

So Cakes and I have lucked out majorly with the living situation, present and future.

As of right now, we still live in the awesome house. Johnny, our resident Ferg Burger employee, took off for Thailand the other day and we had a most excellent BBQ in the backyard to send him off. The view from our A-frame is striking, I wish the picture could really show the full lake/mountain panorama. In the picture you'll recognize your favorites, then we have Brett in the cast, Johnny in the mank, Rhiannon in red and Choi peeking out behind me.

Choi is a Korean version of Tyler Watson, thus I love him:

In a few weeks we are moving to the heart of Queenstown to become live-in staff at Brett's hostel, as if Cam wasn't already a cheap-n-easy kind of girl, we'll now have a significantly less expensive accomodation.

Oh yes, and dryers aren't common here so you line dry everything, which at moment I feel to be quaint. Perhaps in a few months I'll feel differently...

For Tyler, Forever Ago

I've gotten really tall.
(Puzzle World in Wanaka, a Cammy delight)

So, via Cameron (who has been spilling everyone's secrets as of late) I hear that Tyler is not satisfied with my blog.

How many times must I apologize? I'm sorry times 6.022 to the 23rd power! I'll try to be better...

Here's the poo, take a big whif:

(anyone know that movie reference?)

Cameron and I are established, productive citizens of Queenstown, NZ. We live in a glorified boarding house with a crazy landlord. Our housemates are as follows: Bret, a talkative Australian in his 30's on the verge of opening a hostel in town. He lives in a room with Choy, a South Korean who wears Buddy Holly glasses and vacuums at a local high school. Choy and Bret like to bake chocolate cakes and pizzas, they're a funny friendship. There's also a couple, Rhiannon from Wales (yeah, cool name) and Hayden, the only Kiwi of the house. There's 3 girls downstairs, and a Welsh boy named Johnny, he wears a New Moon hat sometimes.

Cakes is working at a golf course, proshopping and shagging balls and playing in his spare time. as for me, I've gone back to my roots for the moment, I'm lifeguarding at a very, very nice pool. I love the CCoC, it was great and all, but this pool has slides and a lazy river, so I'm most excited. I am in talks with more exciting jobs (bungy company!) but they're not hiring until December, so for now it's good to get the bills paid.

The night life is great in Queenstown, and Fergburger- allegedly the best burger in NZ, if not the world* is open all night and there's tons of live music and fun promotions. BUT, I've noticed a gaping void in my heart, you know, the one where karaoke usually sits. So I am scouting locations, I know it must exist somewhere.

*I am not sold, I think I've watched too much Man vs. Food to be impressed with the size of the patties and variety of choices which usually astounds the common customer. I am not sure if this is grounds for shame or pride, but I'm leaning towards shame...

In the downtime, Cameron and I went to Milford Sound with Tiny. Amazing views, we got to drink water from a glacier and saw wild dolphins cruising through chilly waters. Smother requested a picture of Tiny, and just to be rebellious, I've included a hybrid of Tiny and Smother, I hope it's to your enjoyment.

Halloween is coming up, and our neighborhood is hosting a party. But I don't have a costume yet! My brain is working overtime and me thinks I am going to knit one, so stay posted.

In closing, a picture of a beautiful mountain:

I have tons of photos like this, because New Zealand is one big beautiful mountain range, kind of.

SEND MAIL

Love, hate or otherwise:

40 Avalon Crest
Queenstown, Otago
New Zealand
9300

Throw in some Tapatío if you really love us!

Something wicked this way comes...

Wicked AWESOME that is. And that something is summer. The sun has come out to play, and thus Cammy and I went to Frolf with our new friend, Tiny. He's a cool 7 feet tall with a booming British voice; yes the Hagrid jokes have been thrown.

But here's my point, internet is scarce here and limited and it costs mucho money, to my dismay. So for the moment I'll tell you, my loyal readers, this: Cakes and I have taken up residence in Queenstown at the most spectacular little A-frame on a quaint little dirt road with fun, young neighbors who made a Canadian thanksgiving dinner last night. Can you tell how wonderful it all is?

Job interviews are in full swing, we're on the verge of employment, I can feel it.

Also, I owe a post about where we've been, which is everywhere.

So stay posted...

Thoughts on Food, Food for Thought

Sorry to be so behind on the blog. Wireless internet is not readily plentiful, most places either don't have it or use Zenbu- a system which is wearing thin already. They give you vouchers for a certain amount of megabytes, and then you have to get new vouchers all of the time.

But this post is not about Zenbu, it is about something much more vital to the human condition.

Sustenance.

Having spent this last summer eating a decent amount of Mexican food, I developed quite the taste for Tapatío, and really just spice in general. Let me be the first to tell you, there are 4 bottles of Cholula on this whole island, and they are in Mari McIver's kitchen (to be praised in my next blog post). They've traveled from a US CostCo.

In the grocery stores here, there's Tabasco, which I think we can all agree is NOT a flavorful, wonderful, deliciousful sauce which I want to put on everything.

Speaking of grocery stores, we cannot walk past the Vegemite section without Cameron singing Men At Work. Luckily, we found some vegemite in Mari's kitchen to give the ol' college try.

I'm glad we didn't spend money on it. It's a yeast extract, if that gives you any idea of how not flavorful, wonderful, deliciousful it is. When I had pneumonia as a youth, I had a medicine which I had to use via inhaler every four hours. Vegemite tastes like a salty version of that medicine.


It is not meant to be spread like peanut butter or honey, here is the portion breakdown. A common rookie mistake is to spread it on thick. I had this knowledge and did a light spread on the corner of my bread, even then eating it was to my own dismay.

Peanut Butter, Vegemite and Honey- the recommended dosages.

Mari and Dave, again they will be introduced in the next post as I play catch-up, took us to a Kiwiana themed school benefit lip-sync show. It was AWESOME. Let's just say there was some Monty Python, some Gaga and, to my delight, Islands in the Stream. The platters here contained the authentic kiwi food of meat pies and bland sandwiches on white bread- this is what I've been told was all there was before international cuisine came on the NZ scene.

A woman came dressed as a national dessert, popular here and in Australia. Smother used to make it, I'm not sure where she got the recipe, maybe from an Oprah magazine...

Meet Pavlova.



Perhaps the most riveting food I've found down here is based in a childhood fantasy, one involving White Witches and lamp posts and a fawn named Mr.Tumnus and 2 sons of Adam and 2 daughters of Eve, and a great big Lion and a lot of other stuff. Now if you had any sense as a child, you read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe- it's a great book. And if you had a keen mind like mine, you like to immerse yourself in the story and create it in your mind. So maybe you were with me in my young confusion as to WHAT THE FLIP IS TURKISH DELIGHT? C.S. could have used any other food, and I could read the book with a calm mind. But Turkish Delight? What is it? What color? What texture? Even the movie did little to demonstrate anything about it. Well guess what is surprisingly prevalent down here...



The poor man's meal down here is canned spaghetti on white bread. Haven't gone there yet, but I'm not opposed.

Hanging With Mr.Cooper, or rather, our grandparents

We had the most relaxing stop-off in LA with Grandma and Grandpa Doell. After a summer of endless work (or rather, work and play) it was really great to just have absolutely nothing to do for a few days. The weather was pristine, the pool was a crisp 90 degrees- just how I like it,
and Cameron's chess game was really on point. I wouldn't know, but he went to the local library with Grandpa for Chess Fridays and they stayed for 5 hours. Yes, you read correctly, 5 hours of public library chess, so I should hope his game was on point after that.

Anyone who has ever been to my grandparents house knows that Grandma Doell always greets you with a chocolate cake. Accompanying this cake is usually a rendition of "If I knew you were coming, I'd have baked a cake"- the only other person I've known to tout this song was Lindsey Foat after she'd had a 1/2 shot of Jack Daniels and a few Keystone Lights during the Warpath of SB2k9. (please refer to videos on my facebook page)

This bowl is also a mainstay at the grandparents house, although I assure you, I was not grumpy at all. I slept well, ate well, and lived well.


Billy and Bre also drove all the way from San Francisco to give me a nice sendoff karaoke on my grandparents player piano. Talk about great friends, and also I got to finally meet Bre's parents, a dream I've held for a few years now. A little known fact about the Martins is their love of humming birds, they reckon they have about 75 buzzing around, and I might say this is an under-estimation.

Too Busy Bullying

I'll do a better post in a few days. For now it's pool and sunshine and shooters in LA with Grandma and Grandpa Doell.

...and keeping Cam in line. I set up a self-timer and told him this was a Dinonysus picture.
Poor sap never saw it coming.

Family Send-off Dinner, bro!

The Doell Patrol reconvened in its entirety last night for a good ol' send off barbeque. I can't remember the last time we were all home together, and I think Smom really liked it, except that everytime she laughed it hurt.

I offered Ryan some ICE cream with his brownie.


When he started to chug the Ice, Smother yelled out "Wait! No! He has to drive home!"

The Mollyolithic Era

I am transforming the blog into a photoblog featuring my new friend, Dinonysus. I picked him up at The Phylum Feast, Darwin's 200th birthday party. Ever since, he's been a constant co-pilot in the car. So when it came time to drive 18+ hours by myself, I knew I needed someone else to take pictures with and of.
This is our publicity photo.


Echo Resevoir in Nowhereville, Utah. I ate Tuna Salad while Dino stretched his bones


Ever since the Mormon influence in Prop 8, we have been decidely wary of Utah. This is how unimpressed we are with the 'Great' Salt Lake.

Rushing to cross the boarder to hangout with my Smother.



I was coming down off of some 5 Hour Energy shots so Dino had to pose solo for this one.

Back in Blog

I am the Lord Voldemort of blogging.
I've been laying low.
I've been bidding my time, padding my bank account and planning my next assault on the world. And now, the dark lord shall rise again, this time with an obediant Wormtail along for the ride.

Is this too cryptic? I feel as one of my 8 subscribing blog readers you should already know that in 2 weeks I shall be going south of the equator, and pretty much south of most places, save Antarctica. A little island known to most as New Zealand. And I shall not go Amelia Earheart on this one, this shall not be a solo flight. I have my trustee co-pilot, who has accompanied me on many adventure, including that of being born: Cameron "The Cakes" Doell.






What freaky twin thing?









So an intimate update: what have I been doing with the past 9 months of my life? Curing cancer? Auditing Goldman Sachs? Earning my PHD is underwater basket weaving?

No.

I have been the happiest.

After Costa Rica I returned to a frigid Colorado winter without a clue of what to do with my time, let alone my life. So I did a move motivated by neither logic nor love, jst the desire to not stagnate in my Smother's house. I up and moved to Tahoe City, California, USA. I moved in with 4 Maine-iacs, loaded chairlifts at Squaw Valley USA and snowboarded pretty much everyday. Truly, Tahoe is my people. I've found really great friends, we call ourselves The Filthy Animals and have a great time. The flow of life is just my pace, no one lives here out of obligation. Therefore, everyone is so content with their lives, that it lends itself to a very happy vibe.

I took this photo on my daily commute one day. Yes, I was LTD.








My summer job has been mainly working at Front Street Pizza. Imagine this, me and 7 Mexican men slinging pizzas. Free Spanish lessons, I'm possibly more fluent than when I was in Costa Rica, although I now have a filthy vocabulary. The main one I work with is Omar, a big guy from Durango, Mexico who maintains that we were meant to be together. I deflect his affections by claiming to be a lesbian, or as he says a Tortilliera, a tortilla maker. I've taught him the English word for the tortilliera, scissoring. He recently bought a really nice brand new Dodge ram truck and got asked out by a tortilliera, so he thinks he has the power to change.

I am part of a bitchin gang of girls, we call ourselves the Filthy Animals. It's an exclusive crowd, a wolfpack comprised of 4. There's Lauren Lobes Badbiggs, she's pretty much the toughest vegetarian you'll ever meat. (Intentional spelling, ah c'mon.) She's from Newport, but oddly is nothing like the show Laguna Beach; she reads Vonnegut and drinks Jim Beam and she has a keen fixation on Trader Joes-right down to the shampoo. Kerry's from Southern California too, and same deal, defying the image that MTV spoon fed me during younger impressionable years. Kerry has a big, mean dog (read: adorable and docile) dog named Bear- he likes to dress up for theme parties. She makes some really bomb food, and if we're talking explosives, her mojitos are so good they'd be the equivalent of at least an atom bomb. Karen's nickname is High Life on the softball field and she sews a mean sweatshirt. My favorite thing about Karen is her love of karaoke, no matter the setting or crowd, Karen's bound to be jamming.

So in this mountainous nirvana I have wanted for nothing... except money. But I said it once and I'll say it again, feeling good is good enough for me. In the quest for happiness, I think New Zealand is a clear next step. Cammy and I don't know what to expect, and for all I know it'll fail and I'll be back in a month. But let's be real, I won't let that happen.

On Friday I shall drive the 18 hour shift home to Colorado to see my bruised up Smother. She recently had a rough bike accident, and before you ask, not motorcycle. Bicycling. and then I'll fly to LA to spend some days with Grandma and Grandpa Doell. Ultimately, we'll hop on a loooooooooong flight and touch down in Dunedin. Wish us luck.