Taupo Skydiving!!!

SKYDIVING! WOOOOHOOO!
Alana’s perspective:

Um, wow! That was the most amazing rush ever! 15,000 feet up with a free fall for :60 seconds. So much fun! There were four of us on the plane ride up and I was the last to go. The scariest part was watching the other three people fall out of the plane and just disappear from sight. One second they were on the edge of the plane and the next… you couldn't even see them below and the next person was on the edge.

Suzy went second. All of a sudden she was just gone. And then I was at the edge of the plane, legs tucked underneath and head back waiting to fall. You really have no choice at that point. You are just pushed to the edge and then, gone… falling and falling and falling. It goes so fast. The :60 couldn't have been more than :15. It was so amazing. I was spinning all around just watching the entire northern country of New Zealand. You really could see the whole coast to coast north country. Not that I was looking too much… most of my fall was me screaming and giggling and trying to focus on everything that was happening. Sensory overload for sure! But then, Peter (my instructor) pulled the shoot and we stopped. Not really stopped but all of a sudden you are no longer falling, just floating instead. Everything kinda goes into slow motion and you just float your way to the ground. Of course we were still spinning and gliding fast, but nothing compared to the free fall.

I watched Suzy’s blue parachute land a few miles below mine and then I was landing too. It really all happens too fast and then we were back inside watching ourselves on video falling again. Haha. I am not sure which was my favorite part. I loved the fall… so exhilarating, but the floating after was awesome as well. I want to go again!! Here is a bootleg version of my video. I didn’t think of taping the movie until we had already watched suzy’s… but she will have the dvd for anyone that wants to see it. And it is a good one! Her instructor was really funny.

I will let her tell about it… if she ever jumps on to blog about it. hahaha...

Ubud, Bali to New Zealand

Ubud is great. Very artsy and cute. We wondered around until we came upon a monkey sanctuary. Monkeys everywhere. All over the road and the trees. It was really fun.






For all you Eat Pray Love readers, we did stop by Wayan's Cafe. Very cute. We didn't eat there and I am not sure if she was actually there but it looks like it is doing very well. She actually has a cafe in Lombok and Gili as well.

We are in New Zealand now!!!
Tomorrow SKYDIVING! AAAAHHHHH
and check out the beautiful sunset over lake Taupo...

:)





oh and happy valentine's day.

Kuta Lombok & Gili Islands

WOW

Pure paradise.

We rented a scooter today and drove around the whole city of Kuta. It was amazing. Easily the best beach we have been to yet. Hardly any people and perfect clear water and white sand. OH but the sand is actually make of little circle shells. Kinda looks like miniature dip and dots. It feels awesome on your bug-bitten feet.

I would say to any surfer that wants to take a trip anytime soon... this place is your true heaven!! BUT, don't come in rainy season... it rains, a lot. There isn't much to do if you don't have surfing in mind, but we have been enjoying it nonetheless.

We have about every other day without rain. It is a nice escape from the extreme heat, but you always want a lot of sunshine when you are in tropical places.

Check out the dark clouds. Storms are a brewing!

We spent three nights on the Gili Island Trawangan as well. It was beautiful. We found our favorite restaurant called the Blue Marlin and had delicious Kebabs from the grill every night. One meat and one seafood. We know we should have explored other places, but they were so wonderful we couldn't pull ourselves from their restaurant. ymmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

We stayed at the Lumbang Cottages Bungalow. They were sooo cute. Anyone that travels here (which everyone should) should stay here. They are off the beach a little bit, but cheaper that way. We loved every part of them. Our own outside shower covered by bamboo. Animals all around. Goats, cows, roosters, cats, cats and more cats. It was awesome!

We met some fun people on our snorkeling trip to the other two islands: Gili Meno and Gili Air. The water was pretty turned up from all the storms so we didn't get to see much of the reefs. OH and we found out that the fisherman use dynamite to kill massive amounts of fish at the same time. They actually drop it into the reefs. How awful!! Coral lines the beaches and while it is beautiful, it is sad to know that the reefs are being destroyed to kill the fish.

Indonesia!!

We made it to Bali. Stayed two nights in the crazy Kuta city. It was a lot of fun. One day full of rain and the next full of sunshine. it is pretty dirty there though. sad to see all the trash on the beach. we met a bunch of friends and actually went to dinner with a big crowd. YAY for making friends. the locals here are very very nice and pretty much everyone speaks English. we are having a great time.

yesterday we took the fast boat over to the Gilli Islands. The waves on the trip over were so big we thought our boat might capsize. ok. not really, but they were really huge throwing us around everywhere. it is still a little stormy here. their weather is off this year. usually the storms are done in early January. hopefully they will be done by tomorrow.

we are staying in a really cute bungalow called Lumbang Cottage Bungalow. It is a great place for anyone considering the Gillis Islands :)

We <3 Singapore

We are at the airport on our way to Bali. It was rainy today, so we decided to just head to the airport early. With three hours to play around before we leave we grabbed some food and headed down to the main lobby to watch some tv and waste some time. What are they playing on the big flat screen tv for everyone to see you might wonder!?! Nothing other than the National Championship game!! We saw the orange and blue on the screen and immediately started cheering. We got to watch the entire 4th quarter and low and behold... THEY WON!! Can you believe it! A month later and they still won the game :)

Singapore rules!!
To Bali we go...

Sentosa

Today we were at the "Southernmost Point of Asia"

A little man made beach called Sentosa. And this man definitely made this beach very very nice! Eventually this will be a big amusement park but they are still building a lot of the amusement. We were again the ultimate tourist taking pictures with every sign and of course the cool palm trees that hung out over the water. It was a little freaking climbing out on the palm tree as you could see all the nice jagged rocks right below and balance was easy to lose, but we made it back to shore safe and sound.

One more day in Singapore and then off to our beautiful Bali! Get ready for a ton of beach pictures. Flowers, beaches and sunsets. Photographers in the making!

Singapore Sling

We spent our day walking around the Botanical Gardens here in Singapore. Very nice way to spend the day. The weather was perfect, a little overcast so it wasn't too hot... but no rain. And the best part about it... more flower pictures!!!

We had a great suggestions from a friend who used to live here to check out a restaurant for lunch. It was down in Chinatown so we got to see some of that part of the city as well. We have been all over the place here. The best part about it is, the country is so small we can practically walk anywhere we want to go and get there within 20-30 minutes. If we are too lazy or it's too far away they have an amazing bus system that we have become pretty good at as well.

After our second day here, we still believe this is the cleanest city in the world. They have white buildings that are the purest white we have ever seen. No sign of pollution or litter anywhere. The only downfall about that is, there are fines for everything. Smoking, chewing gum, spitting on the street, eating on buses... and it just goes on and on. I guess that is how they keep it so spic and span!

We actually got ourselves all dressed up last night. Well when I say dressed up, we took showers and applied a bit of mascara. haha. but it felt great to be out of our travel clothes and not looking and smelling like rats for a night. We went to the famous Raffles hotel to have the famous Singapore Slings. They were totally over priced and very very sweet... but "When in Rome" right. We realized how spoiled we were at all the other countries before this. Drinks there start at like 10$. We are so used to getting them for 50cents, it's hard to get back to reality with money.