Happy Holidays!! The New Zealand, Tahiti and California edition

Thursday, December 26, 2002
I try to write once a week or so... but it’s been a month since my last newsletter! I’m still alive and well and currently in San Francisco spending Christmas with my friend Carla’s mother. We spent the Thanksgiving holiday back in New Zealand with people from about 6 nationalities and some of them didn’t know the meaning of Thanksgiving so I told them all about the Pilgrims and the Indians! We ate chicken and lots of apple pie.

Also, once up on the north island of New Zealand I did a whole bunch of extreme sports. I bungy jumped from an 80 meter bridge, did my third tandem skydive, abseiled down into a glowworm filled cave where I went rafting, took a gondola ride up to the top of a mountain so I could self-propel myself down the luge! Last but not least, I FINALLY did Fly-By-Wire. Fly-By-Wire is this ride (sport?) where you get into this little tiny open cockpit plane attached to a wire. They pull you up the side of a cliff about 100 meters and let you go. As soon as they let you go you start your engine and you go flying around the valley! It’s great!

After New Zealand, Carla and I took off for Tahiti. We spent a week at Club Med in Bora Bora with Carla’s Mom (thanks Suzanne!). We had a great time lounging on the beach and soaking up the sun and atmosphere. We made friends with the kitchen staff, and one night helped them plan the Club Med Christmas dinner… not exactly what they advertise in their brochures, but we had great fun!

After we said goodbye to tropical paradise we headed off to Los Angeles where my sister Caroline met us at the airport. She’ll be spending 3 weeks with us. We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway taking in the scenery (and the Hearst Castle) and headed up to San Francisco where we spent Christmas. We’ll stay here until New Year’s and then spend some time in Washington, Oregon and Canada until we take off for South America!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope your holidays have been fun and have a Happy New Year!

Love, Alison