A Truly *Unique* Experience

Two weeks of sisterly bonding....
With a touch of competition....

Two Bealls, Two Islands, Two weeks

I've almost caught her....if you can expand this picture, it

is worth it for the intense look of concentration on my face
Barmuda, home sweet home, fav bar in NZed.

No matter the season

The result of visiting 25 wineries in two weeks

4am wake up to fly from Auckland to Queenstown,

arrival at first winery 10:02am

Look at that form!

Notice how I am beating her up the mountain?

Beach time a la San Diego!

Storming the vineyards on bikes, what a duo

Just another awesome day at another

picturesque vineyard

Apologies for the delay, I've been trying to get my chin above water this week, more on that in my next post. Also, just a warning that these next few blogs may be a bit dry, I can't quite muster my normal rip roaring humour with my mind so full

So where to start - Allison's visit was truly an amazing race. Now while I set up our trip on this blog with an Amazing Race mention, I didn't actually think/plan that it would work out that way - but it was full of planning on our feet, arguing over map reading, adventurous pursuits, and lots of competition (sometimes with other people), and even those sisterly bonding moments, you know when they get kicked off, and there are tears, and they talk about how much they learned from each other and the experience - yeah we had those. And the one thing we did not do, which we had actually planned - videotape any of it. So here's a few of the highlights since it won't be making it to network television -

Daring Adventures -Of all my visitors thus far, Allison is by the far the biggest adrenaline junkie of the lot, and definitely came wanting her fix. While not adverse to adrenaline, I don't typically seek it out. Considering it was probably going to be my last visit to the Adventure Capital of the World (Queenstown for the layman) I figured I should get on board. We decided paragliding would be a happy medium of adrenaline pumping, sans bungee (which I refuse to do) experience, but the weather worked against us. Instead we fit in about five more wineries and a little time on the luge...., later in the week we squeezed in whitewater rafting, a waterfall jump, and a jump off the roof of a boat. I think Allison was also helping me get over some of my long held fears, most importantly jumping off high ledges into water. I had sworn never to do this again after cracking a rib after jumping 60 feet or so and landing angled too far backwards - but with Alli Beall's support I did it twice in her two week visit, and I made a bit of progress on another fear - ledges without a railing. Pretty soon I'll also be able to sleep with the lights off

Physical Training - Miss Alli Beall is also the most outdoorsy of my visitors thus far (I'm sure I'm going to hear about this comment now) and we definitely packed in the outdoorsing with two Great Walks, kayaking, ocean swimming, river soaking, Sounds exploring, Hot Water Beach almost soaking, and more. We also crossed off two hikes that I had been wanting to do - the Tongariro Crossing (argued to the be the "best one day hike" in NZed) and the Abel Tasman track which goes along the northern coast of the South island through forest and out into deserted beach coves. Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip, and definitely one of my favorite hikes in NZed. It was like we were on our own little SisterMoon with beaches to ourselves for kilometeres

Wearing a helmet - I'm pretty sure that I have not worn a helmet since I was 15 and I used to hide my helmet in the bushes when we would ride over to boys houses. Well in my sister's two week visit, I managed to squeeze my ginormous head into a helmet three times. Just a little evidence of the extreme sporting activities we were getting into - like the luge

Hot Weather - Like the true California girl that Allison is (my Dad loves to remind us that we're California girls, especially me, as a way to convince me to come home) she brought the sunshine and the beach weather. I had been warned that New Zealand wouldn't get hot until at least mid-December and even though I arrived in summer it was never actually hot enough to go in the ocean or lay on the beach. Literally within one day of Allison landing it was like summer just all of a sudden appeared in full awesomeness, and beach laying in bathing suits and swimming in the ocean became my new reality. Thank you Ulix, for the gift from home!

Competition - So in case you aren't familiar with the Buffalo Bealls, we're sort of a competitive lot, and always think we are right. This doesn't always go well when you combine more than one of us in tight quarters. After a few squabbles with each other (mostly over map reading), we managed to direct our competitive spirits against anyone and everyone else that we came in contact with, including the innocent group on our sea kayaking trip who thought they were out for a leisurely stroll, while Allison and I were paddling to ensure no one would pass us. Or when we were doing the Tongariro Crossing and counted who we beat back to the bus and what the age of said people were. Or when we were finally playing dominoes (an NZed first for me, thanks Allison) on a boat, and Allison kept accusing me of cheating. She also accused me of cheating at cards, citing that our youngest brother and I make up our own rules to card games ....And of course we couldn't leave competition to just innocent bystanders or amongst ourselves on our little holiday, but Allison also wanted to compete with Stephanie on number of wineries visited over a two week trip - and yes she won with a grand total of 25. Needless to say, I probably never need to go to a winery again as I've now been on about 80 tastings over the course of my year here. I also was always happy with a $3 bottle of wine and my visitors and good ol delish NZed wines, have now turned me into a reluctant wine snob

Bargaining - Shortly after Allison landed she asked me if Kiwis bargain, to which I replied, "No, this isn't India". Well I quickly ate my words because through Allison's visit I realized that while Kiwis don't bargain in the traditional sense of the word, if you ask for a discount with a logical argument of why you should get one, Kiwis are so nice that they usually agree. For example, our rental car was supposed to be $55 a day, ended up getting it for $30 a day cause I mentioned I had gotten that rate before = Kiwi bargaining

Eating and drinking - And of course as expected, we had some awesome meals and many bottles of superb wine. Some of the meal highlights included making ourselves a little steak dinner with roasted kumara and sauteed spinach, all for a grand total of about $20, or when we ate so much prosciutto and blue cheese as a snack that we couldn't eat dinner. Or our Thanksgiving dinner at the Ambassador's where we were in pain for a solid 24 hours following. We got so over eager with our wine purchasing, that I ended up with 10 plus bottles as a result of Alli Beall's visit - luckily I have a few more visitors on the horizon so these will not be guzzled alone, don't worry. Thank you Allison for reminding me of our adventures each time I open a bottle.

Networking - Allison is one of the best networkers that I know, and one of the few people I know who actually enjoys it. On our little trip, she managed to get three job offers in NZed and I somehow handed out 8 business cards (while on vacation). I won't attribute this all to Allison's visit, but I will say she's made me look at networking in a whole new light.

Bike riding - Finally!!!! And yes bike riding while wine tasting is awesome, except that you're limited to how many bottles you can fit in your saddlebag, which actually may be a good thing for us.

Night tramping - in an effort to finally get someone to see the glowworms, and while the night tramping part was awesome (including getting lost and Allison slipping in a muddy pit) the glowworms were anti-climatic

Ferry crossing - Finally got a visitor on the ferry from the South to North Island. Cruising on the Interislander...

Still failing at -

-Getting visitors to experience Maori culture. I've realized that unless you shell out some cash, I can't give you a fly by Maori experience. It requires spending more time than an Amazing Race agenda allows. Although on a night out in Taupo, Allison did get hongied by a random Maori dude, cost = free. This may have been the result of my handing my business card out to them prior....Networking = free hongis

-Taking anyone out in Wellington, I mean its hard to leave our flat after being on the road and frankly the view makes you want to just hunker down

And a few things that I realized through Allison's visit:

- Allison noted that I had lost my "baby softness". Now as noted previously my family has always sort of thought I was a weakling or going to cry in the corner at any moment. I'm glad that they can start to see that I will be okay in the big wide world by myself, but I hope I haven't become a total meanie?

-Hills, I guess I'm used to them. Allison has always been the athletic one, but I've now found a sport/activity I could be better at - walking up hills.

-I miss you Allison, Thanks for coming around the world to visit me and for a totally unique two weeks!! And as far as the Amazing Race goes, I'm now sure we could kill it, although I'll be doing the map reading