#this was literally one of the most gorgeous scenery i’ve hiked in

[lordendsavior]

Vestvågøya, Lofoten, Norway

[lululawrence]

As a non American can you explain why are there 3 concerts in Ohio? Is it a really big and populated state? Or else Louis could've done 1 bigger venue.

Djebdishdisvjdvsh

Sorry. I had to scream a little in the car because listen 😂😂😂 when the dates were announced I wanted a single show in Ohio. We get passed over all. The. Time. So often. So I first saw cuyahoga hills and was like…. Why there??? Nothing is there??? 😂 but OHIO! And then I saw Cincinnati and I was like… Cincinnati too???? Okay! Hitting the northeast corner and southwest corner of the state! Cool! And then Columbus too??? Like I legit texted @londonfoginacup asking like HOW MUCH DOES LOUIS LOVE US THAT HE IS GIVING US THREE OHIO SHOWS? Like we have to go to all three to show him Ohio loves him and this wasn’t a mistake right??? 😂

Which we obviously did. But we were just as surprised as you, I PROMISE YOU.

That said, there’s a lot of reasons why he could have chosen three shows here.

One: Ohio has three major metropolitan areas in the one state, which is pretty rare outside the super large and populous states. He’s hitting the three major markets and since he seems to be trying to hit even the smaller areas that don’t get much attention with this tour, it makes sense for that alone really.

Two: Location. Ohio is a state in an area of the country called the Midwest, but we are located in a pretty central area. This could explain it as well, because he’s not going to Kentucky (the state south of us) and I don’t think he’s going to Pittsburgh? (The closest large city east of us, he played there last year on Valentine’s Day hehe) which means they’ll be looking for shows to attend closeby, and Ohio can offer that. So while he’s also hitting Indianapolis (closest large city west of us) and already hit Detroit (another large city in the state north of us), he’s also not playing West Virginia (another state that borders us) and… yeah. Lots of people in that space who will be needing a place closeby to see him.

Which brings us to three: Population. We aren’t the MOST populous state or anything, there’s a reason people get us confused with Iowa and Idaho lol but, that said, we are the tenth (or seventh??) most populous according to the google search I just did lol different sites disagree, but when you consider there are fifty states, that’s still a good showing lol considering we have so many other populous areas surrounding us that the concerts would also draw from, that could have also been a contributing factor.

And lastly four: SCENERY. Listen. Ohio gets shit on a lot for being a “boring” state or a “flyover” state (aka no one comes here as a destination) and it pisses me off lol every single person I’ve ever brought to Ohio has been surprised when they got here because there was so much more here than they thought and parts of the state are GORGEOUS. I mean did you see the flyover view that John Delf did on Instagram of the cuyahoga falls venue??? That’s actually in a national park and it is just stunning there with gorgeous hiking and waterfalls and shit in the near vicinity. It’s amazing. And the venue he played tonight in Cincinnati was literally right on the Ohio river that creates the southern border for our state, and it had a view of one of my favorite bridges I’ve ever seen! PLUS!!! Tonight there was a full moon, and it was right above the bridge and Louis got to look at us AND THE BRIDGE AND MOON THE ENTIRE TIME. How gorgeous is that??? Like look at this shitty photo I took. Incredibly beautiful.

That’s from the railing that was only a short distance behind me and the sound guys for the concert so. Not shabby, right?? Now the venue in Columbus is right downtown in what we call the arena district because the arena where our hockey team plays is right across the street and the baseball stadium is next door and the new soccer stadium is in the area now too, so it’s got loads of venues and restaurants and shit right there and Kemba is one of the best indoor/outdoor venues in town now. I’ve seen several shows there over the years, and it’s great every time. It’s got good sound, a good setup, and the staff is always fantastic so while it’s maybe not the coolest venue, I do love when artists I enjoy come there. Not sure of the appeal on Louis’ end, but ¯\__(ツ)__/¯

So, taking all of these points into consideration, it does make a bit more sense… but three does still seem like he just felt like being overindulgent to us and show us extra love 😂😂 as emmu said, I guess Louis loves us best hahaha

We are just kidding, please don’t send me hate lol

I honestly also do not know why he chose to do this for us, but it makes travel plans a lot easier for us and I’m really fucjing thankful haha I’ve mostly been worried we wouldn’t be able to fill the venues sufficiently but so far so good so here’s hoping Columbus shows up too haha Heaven only knows parking and driving in Columbus is a fuck ton easier than doing so in Cincinnati 😂

[honhonluigi]

Didn't get to ask this before, but... Welcome back! How was your trip?

Thanks! My trip...was a fucking rollercoaster. I had no clue it could be so damn freezing in the desert in late April, but now I know. I flew to Utah in the US to visit my sister. We took my parents and her boyfriend and bounced around some national and state parks there. I did Angel’s Landing at Zion, hiked around some Hoodoo formations at Bryce Canyon, saw the Arches, went to places like Dead Horse Point. Hiked a slot canyon in Capitol Reef. Drove through and camped in Monument Valley during a dust storm. Then we rounded it out with a trip to South Rim of the Grand Canyon (North Rim was closed for the winter) where we did a small section of the Rim Trail until my dad hurt his leg and we had to catch a bus back. 

Like I said, the trip was a god damn rollercoaster. There were times when really good things happened, vs. when really bad things happened. 

I loved all the sights that I saw. It was absolutely gorgeous out there. I got a really interesting book about every known death in the Grand Canyon. I saw a ton of different kinds of wildlife and plants and that was super interesting. 

But, for the most part...I hate driving and it was a road trip. I was pretty much stuck in a car upwards of 4 hours every single day and it fucking sucked. I love camping, but I’m not big on road trips. We did more driving than camping, so that bummed me out. Because of all the driving, we didn’t do nearly as much hiking as I wanted. Like...3 hikes overall maybe? I really wanted to push my physical strength to the point of collapse on this trip but instead I just sat in a car the whole time, driving to various overlooks. Angel’s Landing was the best part, because it was incredibly challenging both physically and mentally. (It’s a long free-climb up the ridge of a huge sheer, narrow rock cliff and I’m deathly terrified of heights. Seriously. If you doubt how horrifying this hike is, look it up on youtube or google images.) That was hands-down the best part of the trip, because I love a challenge. And we hiked one long but not challenging trail in Bryce Canyon. But other than that, it was nothing. I really love hiking and physical activity outdoors. I’ve been stuck inside all winter and I was looking forward to letting out my pent-up energy. But I didn’t get to. 

Not to mention, my sister pretty much ignored me and talked to her boyfriend the whole time, so I was really lonely. Plus, as I said, it was freezing fucking cold all the time. I know “desert is hot in the day and cold at night” and shit, but it wasn’t even warm during the day. It got up to 50 degrees. That was it. And at night it was below freezing. Which to people who are bigger than 5′2″ and weigh more than 86-90 lbs max I’m sure that sounds like pleasant hiking weather, but I have the physique of a chicken bone and I was fucking freezing the whole time. So even in the hikes we did, I couldn’t enjoy myself because it was too cold. Especially because the 50 degree high was at 3-5 PM, and we started our hikes at like...7 AM. So it was still cold. Either I was too freezing to have fun, or I was waddling around in three giant coats, which also wasn’t fun. We had to wake up at 4 AM one morning, and then at like 6 AM every day after. I was used to going to bed at 4 AM so that hit me hard, plus I have insomnia, and both my parents snore really loud. Plus like I said, in one place we camped, the area was hit by a dust storm and all I could do was sit in the parked van from 5 PM to bedtime. That was super boring. Also, my stupid mother insisted that we pack only five outfits for 10 days, but then wouldn’t let us do laundry while there. And she insisted that I pack summery clothes, so I had two emergency pairs of warm pants and guess what I had to wear for 10 days straight? Yuck. I was dirty and disgusting literally the entire time and I hated it. I mean, I can hack it. I’ve been in the wilderness before. But that doesn’t mean I enjoy wearing the same sweaty, dusty pants for 5 days in a row. Then my sister decided to split off early from us and do Bright Angel Trail in GC, but told us that we shouldn’t follow her because we would slow her down. (We still weren’t accustomed to the high elevation yet and got out of breath super easy) So we didn’t. Even though I really wanted to hike into the GC and check out Phantom Ranch or Hermit Camp (which is a different trail but point being, I wanted to hike in the Grand Canyon!!) So instead my parents and I did Rim Trail, which is beautiful, but is flat and mostly paved, and that’s incredibly boring terrain for an experienced hiker looking for a challenge. Then we had to cut it off early because my dad hurt his leg. And in two of the places we camped, on freezing nights, my sister said we “didn’t have time” to make a fire. Which is a really nice way to raise morale and relax after a fucking freezing day of hiking. Then I would go to sleep in the back of the van in a tiny sleeping bag every night, and wake up shivering cold several times in the night because of the freezing temperatures. 

So...as you can see. A huge rollercoaster. I was constantly bombarded with beautiful, amazing scenery and unique wildlife. The sights I saw and places I went were monumental. But every circumstance surrounding those sights was horribly unpleasant and disappointing and almost ruined it for me. Plus I got super fucking sick on the plane rides there and back. 

[smolbeandrabbles]

The Outdoor Type - Malcolm Bench x Reader (Vertical Limit)

Author’s Note: I kinda hope you forget you ever gave me this idea and that I asked if I could write it... What can I say, I like surprising you from time to time - as much as I love telling you what I’m currently working on and sending snippets 🤷‍♀️

I literally found this song googling “Songs about mountains / hiking” when I was trying to make him a playlist. So, all of this is just really perfect timing. The Stars Aligned-!

Disclaimer: Vertical Limit Characters not mine - as the idea to put Ben in brown contacts wasn’t, but brilliant job guys! 🙏 / Gif not mine / lyrics not mine 

Premise: Malcolm wants to take you on a nice summer hike in the Great Outdoors... There’s only one flaw with his plan, you’re afraid of heights. And you haven’t told him yet.

Words: 1483

Warnings: N/A 

______

Always had a roof above me Always paid the rent But I've never set foot inside a tent Can't build a fire to save my life I lied about being the outdoor type I've never slept out underneath the stars, The closest that I came to that was one time my car Broke down for an hour in the suburbs at night I lied about being the outdoor type. Too scared to let you know you knew what you were looking for I lied until I fit the bill god bless the great indoors I lied about being the outdoor type I've never owned a sleeping bag let alone a mountain bike I can't go away with you on a rock climbing weekend What if somethings on tv and its never shown again Its just as well I'm not invited I'm afraid of heights I lied about being the outdoor type ---

You probably should have said something to him long before now. Maybe you’d even wondered to yourself many times how the heck you’d even ended up dating Malcolm. He lived his life scaling the world’s tallest mountains and hiking outside. You were much more the ‘stay at home on a Saturday night cuddling on the couch and watching movies’ type. Also, and perhaps the most pressing issue right now, you were afraid of heights. But when Malcolm had so enthusiastically mentioned that the weather was supposed to be lovely this weekend, and he’d found the perfect place to take you walking, (Notice he said ‘walking’ not hiking) Malcolm was so excited. And you guessed that even hiking wasn’t mountaineering, so you’d agreed to go with him. Especially as it was the first time he’d ever really suggested it, you felt you owed him that much. When you started the hike it wasn’t too bad, the incline wasn’t steep, and Malcolm walked beside you – idly chatting to pass the time - and you felt comfortable and safe. There were a bunch of reasons you’d never told him of your fears; mostly because he had a brother and the two of them were usually going on wild and crazy adventures together, you never really thought you’d factor into it. Also, because you were partially scared that it might effect your relationship and he wouldn’t want to be with someone who wouldn’t enjoy the same things as him. You didn’t always believe the phrase opposites attract.

Although as the paths got thinner and he had to walk in front of you, and you continued up the trail without a sign anywhere of descending again – you got decidedly more nervous. And you couldn’t really ignore the fact that you could see nearly all the way to the bottom of the valley if you stepped just ever so slightly to the side. Malcolm was still talking to you over his shoulder, but carrying on as normal – nothing was phasing him, obviously. And you wanted to be brave for his sake; it wasn’t like there was any quick way back down to ground level either. But eventually you got shaky and had to pause, taking deep breaths. Because the last thing either of you needed up here was you to have a panic attack. Malcolm breezed on, still calling cheerfully behind him – until he realised you weren’t responding back, when he turned around to check on you. Now about 100 meters behind him, squatting and breathing hard. “…Wh…Y/N!” He called back, “You okay-!?!” When you only responded with a head shake, he was suddenly alert; “Oh shit!” and jogged back down the path to you; “Babe! Talk to me-! What’s wrong-!?” He knew all the dangers and guessed up here, if you weren’t used to it, there could be slight altitude sickness. You covered your face embarrassed; “You’ll hate me…” “What? Are you kidding-!? Me!? Hate you?!” He scoffed, knowing that just wasn’t possible, “Babe, come on – what’s wrong? Cuz I’m not gonna stop nagging ya until you tell me!” You could feel yourself going bright red under your fingers; and you mumbled it – “I’m scared of heights.” There was a few seconds silence, before he laughed, and hard. And kept on laughing - until he realised you were serious; “Wait-! Shit really!?! Why didn’t you SAY so you idiot--!!” Malcolm crouched down and then sat, taking your hands away from your incredibly flushed cheeks; “Why did you let me bring you up here-!?! I know I’M stupid, but you’re the smart one!” You bit your lip; “You were so excited and happy I just… I wanted you to be happy.” He sent his eyes heavenward for a minute; “And risk your health-!? No, no, no!!” but he chuckled again at the irony; “Oh god! Scared of heights! This is… Oh god!” He wiped tears from his eyes; “Wait until I tell Cyril-!” “DON’T YOU DARE!!” You pushed his arm, making him laugh more at your embarrassment; “Aha! It doesn’t stop you being feisty-! That’s good to see-!” “It’s not funny!” Malcolm grinned, “No, maybe not. But if I can get you to focus on anything else, you’ll feel a little better… look you’re shaking less already…” He took your hands in his; “I’m not mad at you – and I certainly don’t hate ya. Hell, you’re probably the only girl in the world that’s gonna put up with my lunacy.” You weren’t going to let him know you’d agree, but you couldn’t help but grin. “AHHHHH!!! That’s a smile!” Then you laughed, “HA! I knew it!” “Mal-! Stop!” But he’d brightened your mood by just sitting on the pathway with you to calm you down, and you couldn’t do much more than thank him for that. He grinned, threading your fingers before leaning forward to kiss you. You accepted his sweet kiss, before pulling him closer by his jacket. “Oh?” He raised an eyebrow smirking, “Even when you’re panicking about being so high you can’t resist me?” You shook your head; “God, you’re infuriating-!” “I know!” Malcolm winked cheekily, “But at least I don’t pretend to be anything else!” You giggled again and brushed your lips to his again. “Well, you are right there.” He let you sit with him and hold his hands until you’d calmed a little, and then Malcolm stood – pulling you gently from the floor. You kept your eyes focused on his, voice calm. And suddenly he was a guide on the side of a technical mountain – not a sunny summer hike. “It’s okay to be scared. Come on… take my hand, we’ll make it back together okay, keep your focus on me…  I’ve done this 100 times… Nice and slow. One step at a time.” You gave a nod, squeezing his hand tight. He was strong and steady, and you let him lead you slowly to a shortcut, where he could get you back down in the shortest possible time. But every so often he’d stop and turn back to you to make sure that you were doing alright. And sometimes it all went to your head again, and you would pull him back to pause for respite. But Malcolm was, for once, a saint – and he stood looking out over the gorgeous scenery for as long as you needed to rest for, the way the sun glittered over greenery and lakes stretching for miles before you. Even if you couldn’t exactly ‘enjoy’ it with him, he was glad you were there and holding his hand. But still, he couldn’t help teasing and joking with you; “This is just a ploy to stay with me out here longer isn’t it?!” “Oh absolutely. Yeah. Can’t get enough of this mountaineering thing-!” “OH!? K2 next?! Or Everest, I mean it’s less technical-!” “MALCOLM!” You weren’t exactly impressed, but he only grinned “Oh, I think I could kiss that annoyance away-!” “Will you just get me down first-!” He indicated to the path; “What do you think I’m doing-!?” As you continued to make your way down the trail, and you were closer to the valley you’d started in, you allowed yourself to admire the view. It was sure beautiful, even you had to admit. Of course this made you dawdle, and had Malcolm turning back to see why you were tugging on his hand this time. “Oh. You can admire it now, huh?!” You scoffed, turning to him; “I don’t know if that’s really the view…” He was taken aback, and almost blushed himself “M-Me-!?” Malcolm’s eyes flew wide, and then he blinked; “OH GOD! It’s made you delusional-! Oh! There’s no hope!!” He pretended to lament and pulled you to him, so your face was buried in his neck, and he embraced you tight; “Don’t look-! Don’t look-!” “MAL-! I’m gonna push you OFF this damn trail in a minute, LET ME GO!”

His laughter filled the air again as he pulled back, but keeping his arms around you; “You are okay though, right?” “Better. Thank you.” “Oh. You’re welcome, anytime. I mean I would say that I-” You clamped a hand over his mouth, “Hush. Don’t ruin it.” His brown eyes widened in humour, but he didn’t even mumble into your hand. Holding his own hands up to appease you. You removed your hand, and replaced it with your lips; “I love you Malcolm, but God help me you’re an idiot-!” He laughed at your compliment; “Really? I think you should be thanking him! After all, imagine being stranded out here without me-!” You sighed; “Without you I wouldn’t be here.” “Oh no. That’s on you, for not telling me!” You tipped your head, musing your predicament for a second “Maybe you’re right.” Malcolm placed his hand over his heart in shock; “Oh, certainly delusional-!” “Oy!” You pushed him again, “I said maybe!”

---

Thank You For Reading! 😘

@menndelsohn​ @3134045126​​ @happyskywhale​ @wltz-bby​ #MendoTagSquad

[anastasiaskarsgard]

TO THE ANON THAT ASKED FOR A SMUTTY CHEATER BILL STORY HERE YA GO. I INITIALLY DELETED THE REQUEST BECAUSE I DONT CONDONE CHEATING BUT THEN I THOUGHT, ITS FAN FICTION. NO ONE TAKES IT SERIOUSLY AND IVE GOTTEN A FEW REQUESTS FOR THIS SO HERE YA GO.

Here’s part 1: https://anastasiaskarsgard.tumblr.com/post/188138288236/this-is-a-really-involved-request-so-im-breaking

And here is PART 2

Warning!!! Smut 18+ mature content.

As we pulled into the parking lot, everything hit me at once. I had literally witnessed my dog get murdered, the man I thought was perfect was Satan himself, I have no belongings, I don’t know anyone but Randi here. But then I remembered all the good like I was free, I’m not dead, I have the best friend in the whole world, I already found a job and got paid a lot for basically getting to be near the hottest guy ever and there’s photographic evidence, and literally the world is my oyster. I even get to go to Canada! Hayden Christensen lives there! I look over at Randi and can’t help but laugh when I see her sassy face. She is not a fan of feeling sorry for yourself. “Sorry, I’ll stop. They’re happy tears! I swear! I’m so happy I have you, and we’re going on this adventure. I’m just grateful.”

“Wow. Don’t cry Bitch. You’ll fuck up your make up.” my best friend joked.

I chuckled, and gave her a hug, then stood straight out of the car and let her lead the way to see if everyone had gotten a table together in Mortons.

We found everyone taking their seats. I took the closest open seat next to the photographer and Randi sat between Andy and Bill across from us. I didn’t want to look at Bill and have Randi give me shit, so I read the entire menu like 3 times to avoid looking up. We all ordered, and then Andy had the idea for everyone to introduce themselves:

“Ok since everyone is from all over the place, let’s do a fun little ice breaker. I’ll start. My name is Andy, I’m from the beautiful country of Argentina and I’m a Director as I’m sure you all know, let’s be more original, I know! Name your fear! I’m afraid of drowning.”

“My name is Randi, I’m from Kalamazoo Michigan, I’m an artist and I’m afraid of flying.”

“Ok hi everybody! I’m Bill, I’m from Stockholm Sweden, I’m a human and I’m afraid of being alone.”

I giggled like an idiot, froze and looked over at Randi, who was smiling at me, shaking her head. Dammit.

“My name is Barbara and I’m Andy’s sister, and I am afraid of creepy crawly things.”

“I’m Maria from Brazil, I am photographer and I fear bad lighting and flaky models. Thank goodness for Liv appearing like magic and save the day.” She smiled at me warmly and squeezed my hand.

I felt everyone’s eyes on me, and could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I couldn't bear to look at Bill or Randi, so I stared down in my lap and could feel my face heating up. “I’m Liv from Las Vegas, I guess I’m a model for now and I’m afraid of being a failure, velociraptors, roller coasters, centipedes and public speaking.” I chuckled uncomfortably. I ramble when I’m nervous.

“I’m afraid of velociraptors as well,” Bill laughed. “Jurassic Park ruined me as a child.”

Everyone laughed heartily at Bill’s expense but I felt appreciative of him making my ridiculous fear seem more credible and drawing attention away from my obvious nervousness. I snuck a peek at him and he winked at me playfully.

I didn't know what to think of this beautiful man. My initial reaction to him had been negative. He seemed like every other snobby Hollywood type, complete with crazy girl problems, but as the day progressed, he surprised me over and over with how genuine he seemed to be.

As lunch went on, Randi and Maria were talking technical terms, so Bill and I looked at each other and just smiled and shrugged our shoulders. It wasn't like we were being ignored, just everyone except us was wrapped up in their own conversations. I was content with that too, but then an ice cube flew into my cleavage.

My eyes shot open and I observed a very amused Bill trying to contain his laughter but not doing a very good job.

”I promise I’m not an asshole. I have just been trying to get your attention since we got here. So how long you been in LA?” He asked me like i was the most interesting thing he’d ever encountered.

”What time is it? Less than 24 hours.”

His eyes went wide and he choked on his drink a bit, then began to laugh at himself . ”wow, and you already booked a major job? Who is your agent? Are you an actress or just gorgeous... I mean a model.”

”you are super smooth Bill. I’m kidding! Don’t pout you’ll get wrinkles.” I had to give him some shit. “I don’t have an agent because I don’t have any interest in fame at all.”

He looked impressed by that for some reason. ”so what brought you here?”

”Randi is my best friend, and I needed a change of scenery.” I said making sure to avoid eye contact. I knew I was just being paranoid, but I felt like he could look into my soul, with the intensity he was looking at me with. I’m a terrible liar, so I’m convinced if I look at him, he’ll see I’m not being honest. I didn't want to mention the literal hell id escaped to be here.

I could still feel his gaze on me, and I caught Andy looking between us with an unreadable expression. He's a director so he probably can read people really well.

Shit. I’m probably just being my normal neurotic psycho self. No one probably gives two shits about me, and this is all in my head. These people are famous and successful. I’m just another one of the millions of girls that they encounter in LA.

Maria tapped my shoulder. “Hi honey, can you switch seats with your friend? I want to show some my work?”

I smiled and agreed, but the butterflies in my stomach were going crazy as I took my seat by Bill. He was texting so I got my phone out to play a game or two. Suddenly I felt Bill’s leg press up against mine. I looked over at him, but he just continued with his phone, but was clearly smirking. Just then The food arrived and I was famished, so all other thoughts were abandoned.

“Wow! You eat real food!” Andy exclaimed.

“Oh it’s not fair! Liv has always eaten whatever she wants and doesn’t gain a pound.” Randi whined.

I blushed feeling all the attention on myself again. I wanted to fade into my surroundings like a chameleon. “I like to eat.”

I looked at Bill and he was off his phone but I could tell he was watching me as he ate.

“What?” I asked finally, when he didn’t stop looking at me.

“You’re very interesting.” He said.

“How?” I scoffed.

“Well for starters you’re drop dead gorgeous but you don’t like being the center of attention. Am I right?”

“I wouldn’t go with drop dead gorgeous, maybe conventionally attractive. There’s not really anything wrong with me, but there’s nothing to write home to your mother about either.”

He chuckled. “See? There you go again. You’re humble and funny too.”

I could feel my face burning so I excused myself to go use the restroom, but Bill said he’d show me where it was since he needed to smoke and make some calls.

I was fully aware where it was, but agreed and figured I’d let him show me. He turned before we reached the bathroom and he opened a door that appeared to almost blend in to the wall, revealing a very plush, luxurious bathroom with a large vanity.

“Oh my gosh is this like the Secret VIP potty?” I asked. I had always heard about secret lounges and VIP cool stuff so I was ecstatic to actually see one. I probably seemed like such a dork but I didn’t care.

“Something like that.” He said following me inside and locking the door behind him. I turned around to tell him there only appeared to be one toilet, when he took a couple steps and closed the distance between us and kissed me, pinning me against the wall.

He pulled back and looked down into my eyes, “I’ve wanted to do this since I saw you.” He said deepening the kiss again.

I stepped aside to move out from under him and caught my breath. “Your girlfriend though!”

“It’s over with her. It’s been stale a long time” He said as he wrapped his arm around my waist. “Don’t worry, I'm sick of her. I much rather have you. Do you have a boyfriend?” He pulled me against him again and my God the man was so good looking.

“Nope. I’d have kicked you if I did, I’m not a cheater.” I couldn’t believe his lips were on me. I tried to think and get ahold of myself and be rational, but as he kissed down my neck and groped my breasts, it was getting hard to remember why this wasn’t the best idea ever.

“. Listen, you’re very attractive Bill. Like best looking guy I’ve ever seen attractive, and I’m flattered, but we should get back. They’re gonna wonder.”

“This dress is killing me though, and youre so so beautiful.” He groaned lustilly, as he slowly slid my dress’ strap down, continuing his way down, kissing down my throat to my chest. He exposes my breast and looks up to make sure I wasn’t going to object, but when I just bit my lip, he placed his mouth on my nipple, suckling at my breast. He releases it with a popping sound, and slips a hand under my skirt, rubbing me through my panties, as he sucksin a breath through his teeth, before going for my other breast. This motherfucker is gonna kill me. How can one man be so hot and what did I do in a past life to deserve this shit? Seriously universe? How do I carry on knowing his tongue was on my nipple?

He hiked my skirt up to brush his fingertips across my folds. He bit my bottom lip and then pulled his hand out from under my skirt, and sensually tasted his fingers before leading me to the large round cushioned ottoman at the vanity, trying to get me to sit.

“What are you up to? You’re - this is so bad.” I tell him as he pushes me down lightly as he kisses me passionatly.

He looked deep in my eyes. “Please let me taste you and make you feel good. I don’t expect anything from you and I don’t do this type of thing ever, but I’ve honestly never wanted to see what someone tastes like more in my life.”

FUCK. Who in the hell could say no to that?

All I could do is nod, too shocked to fully comprehend that this was really happening.

He got on his knees in front of me and I couldn’t help but admire his gorgeous features. As crazy as it sounds, he had the most beautiful bone structure; severe and angular, yet it was offset by his big green eyes with their long sweeping lashes, luscious plump full lips, and adorable perfect little child-like nose. His hair was silky and thick and he smelled like mint and soap.

I watched as he pulled my underwear off and placed them in his pocket, before leaning me back with one hand, as the other lifted my dress. He bit my inner thigh gently, but still sent a thrill up my spine causing me to visibly shudder.

“I haven’t even started yet,” he smirked up at me cockily, before pressing his mouth to my sex before I had time to reply. I’d had my pussy eaten before, but nothing like this. There was no sign of nervousness or insecurity that some men display when they go down there. Like you can tell they’re not sure what the fuck to do, but Bill was sure of himself and seemed to genuinely love doing it. He was so enthusiastic and it felt so amazing. I never had done something like this in my life, and wouldn’t even kiss on a first date, yet here I am. I was scandalized and aroused, and so close to an orgasm it was shocking.

“You gonna cum for me baby?. I love how you look right now.... Cum on my face.... please?” He pleaded and pushed another finger inside of me. I couldn’t look at him. It was all too much.

I let out a moan as he moved his fingers and tongue in such a combined effort, that I reached out and gripped his hair, pressing his face against me as my release crashed down on me, violently shaking me, and making everything go white, as it wound down. It was seriously one of the most intense orgasms I’ve ever had, and it took me longer than a polite amount of time to realize I was still holding his face, and immediately released him”I’m so sorry, I didn't realize I- .”

“Sshhh.” He said chuckling and came up and kissed me deeply. “Can you taste yourself on me?”

I nodded shyly, looking away to break eye contact. He was so intense and I wasn’t sure what he would want me to do to return the favor.

He put his finger under my chin and pulled my face back over to look in his eyes. “You’re beautiful.”

I looked back at him, waiting to see what he did next. I was surprised he wasn't taking his pants off, but was too shy to try and take them off myself. I really wanted to though, and that surprised me. I wanted him to fuck me and wasn’t going to think about it, just do it. Like Nike.

He stood up and helped me to my feet, and helped smooth my dress out. He pulled me into another kiss and I could feel how excited he was.

“Let me make you feel nice now.” I mentally scolded myself for saying something so not sexy but just looked up at him with my best doe eyed look.

“You’re so cute. Don’t worry about me, just yet. I don’t want a quickie in a bathroom with you, I want like a bed and many. many. hours. I want to impress you.”

“I’m fucking impressed Bill.”

He chuckled and bit his lip, and you could see the wheels turning. “I really want to fuck you but I also don’t wanna be too long and full disclosure, Andy threatened serious bodily harm not to touch you. Said you’re a heartbreaking man eater.”

“Randi advised me to avoid you because you’re a foreign actor that’s too good looking for his own good. You’re obviously a monster.”

We both got a good laugh out of that.

“What’s your phone number?” He asked taking out his phone.

“I don’t currently have one. I need to get one. I lost mine yesterday.”

He looked at me incredulously. “If you don’t want to give me your number it’s ok.”

“No. Take Randi’s number, that’s the phone I was using earlier anyways, that way you can call, cuz I don’t have a pen or anything.”

“How about your email, and then you can send me your number when you get it. Randi might catch on if I call her phone.”

“You’re so smart! You’ll see me in a week on your new movie too.”

“Really? That’s the best news I got all day but if you think I’m waiting a week to be inside you, you’re insane. Now go, just say I went to smoke and make calls if they ask where I am. I’ll give it a couple minutes.”

I gave him my email and walked out the door to go try and act like the hottest fucking thing to ever happen in my life, didn’t just go down. When I turned the corner, I nearly threw up and cane to a screeching halt. I met eyes with the estranged exgirlfriend. I didn’t wanna seem weird so I smiled and sat down to finish my meal, since turning around and running the other direction might bad. I mean as far as I was concerned he was single, so I had no reason to feel guilty of anything. And I didn’t plan on admitting that happened to anyone, so not telling her was totally fine. She tapped on my arm and I cautiously turned to her.

“Did you see Bill by chance?” She asked politely.

“He said he was smoking and making some important calls when he left the table earlier.”

She laughed a little and rolled her eyes, “that man and his cigarettes! I blame Hemlock Grove for turning him into a chainsmoker. He’s probably smoked two or three in a row.”

“All this talk about smoking makes me want one, I’ll go find him. Excuse me ladies.” Andy said, as he quickly walked towards the exit to find Bill.

“He’s probably going to warn Bill that I’m here. We got in a fight earlier and he can be such a brat. Watch when he comes back, he’ll pretend like nothing happened.”

Maybe she didn’t realize he really was done with her. She had a funny accent so I assumed she’s Swedish too. He was probably her only friend out here so I couldn’t help but pity her.

“Between silent treatments and smoking, Bill would be dead by morning.” Randi said with a mischievous wink.

“Oh if you could see his hissy fits, they’re the worst!” She enthused. “Anything in his hands he’ll throw and if it’s something like a sandwich or drinks and won’t hurt you, he’ll throw it on you. But then if I try and ignore him, he’ll lay on me like a big dead weight until I speak.” His girlfriend said, laughing hysterically. Everyone joined in telling stories of past boyfriends that were grown men, having varying degrees of tantrums, but I just sat silently. My ex story wasn’t funny.

Andy and Bill came back and I could feel an anxiety attack creeping up on me.

I looked up and Bill was staring at me and I looked to Randi and she had a puzzled look on her face. In an effort to not give anything away to her, my eyes shot back up to Bill.

Bill looked furious. He seethed animosity and I just looked down at my plate to avoid that glare. I wasn't sure if I was the cause or she was, but I desperately wanted to run out of the place screaming and looked at Randi again pleading with my eyes to go. She seemed to catch on and I tried to keep it together.

His ex got up and rushed over to him. Just as I looked up, she planted a soft kiss on his cheek. My eyes narrowed involuntarily as he glanced over at me, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from him. His girlfriend grabbed his face and kissed him right on the lips.

I felt like I was going to throw up. Tears threatened to spill but I held them back as I stared at my lap. I kept seeing Bill’s eyes as he looked up at me from between my legs. Flashes of him pinning me to the wall, or oh my fucking god! My underwear are in his pocket!

My pussy is on his face too and he just kissed her.

He seemed so genuine, but he was an actor, what did I expect. Faking Feelings and emotions was how he paid the bills. I couldn’t believe how stupid and guillable I was! He probably got off on this shit. Poor woman. I was exaggerating when I’d said he was a monster but goddammit I was right!!!

”Ok thank you for inviting us and I can't wait to see whoever is going to join us in Toronto, but Liv and I must be off for an important appointment and then packing.” Randi said her goodbyes as I walked around the table and stood beside her, keeping my back to Bill.

”Bye everybody. I had fun” I said Sweetly and then I turned on my heel and walked past Bill without a glance.

”See you two in Toronto.” Bill called after us, and even though I refused to look at him, I could feel his eyes burning into my back as we walked away.

[ofcloudsandstars]

Day 2

I feel like this was the most intense day because it was the day we went to explore the town center and I really cant describe every shop we went into.

The main street is lined with like older stone buildings, some painted vibrant colors and some just old stone. Something about the aesthetic of the town is very fairy-like and full of art everywhere. There were alleyways with murals of forests, the goddess, planets, mandalas, animals, mushrooms etc. Everywhere you looked there was art painted on to something and statues of gnomes, mushrooms, fairies and the goddess. If it wasn't colorful, then it was old stone and medieval-ish. Its a really small town so there was just one street of lots of shops but it was nothing but back to back magical stores some with specialty focus like a magic book store, a magic herb and aromatherapy store, a magic tool emporium store, a magic crystal store, a robe and cloak shop etc.

There was this BEAUTIFUL crystal shop with BIG fairy energy I went into. The shop owner was very fairy-like herself. Actually a lot of people in the town either had strong crone shamanic vibes or fairy vibes. There were so many magical old ladies in shawls, cloaks and sweaters of different vibrant colors with sparkling hair tinsel laced between their silver locks that would be tinted different pastel colors cause they no longer needed to bleach their hair. A lot of people wore hair tinsel actually and had lots of sparkly piercings and crystal jewelry. There were a lot of shoulder-cats, pentagrams, wooden STAFFS some with crystals on the top. It was the first magical town I've been to where people were just unapologetic about being a witch or pagan. I mostly loved all of the older women there who had such intense energy and were just free to be themselves.

Anyway back to the crystal shop (Named Elestial by the way) which I am sure throughout the week I dumped an embarrassing amount of money on, they color coordinated their crystal collection in a beautiful way that my libra self couldn't handle. I got so much stuff and some crystal planchette for my ouija board since my friend that's a medium suggested it could help use it since usual planchettes can be hard for the spirit to move. I got a smokey quartz one since it's protective but further in the week I got a cotton amethyst one that looks beautifully ghostly from another store. There was this gorgeous herb, candle and aromatherapy shop we went to called Starchild. You can smell it down the street and I took pictures I will post cause describing it won't do justice. They played the most FIRE sound tracks you'd imagine hearing if you went to a forest rave. They had oils for every sabbat, zodiac sign, druid tree, plant you could imagine. Their stuff smelled incredible. They had massage oils for every purpose even sexy ones that were like called things like Exctasy (that had st. johns wort in it) or Love Potion No. 9 which had herbs in it that I never heard of, except like Damiana of course lol. They had these INCREDIBLE hand made candles that literally looks like something out of a fanatasy movie. I bought many. They had candles for zodiac signs and planets too. Just imagine candles of many shapes, sizes, textures (I got frothy candles that look like some goblin shit lol) colors. They had a huge library wall of jars filled with herbs you could buy by the ounce. Also a wall of books on herbs and green magic as well. I'd highly recommend that shop!

(Not much more to read but I’d thought to add a read more out of consideration for people scrolling)

We went through this goddess corridor which has a walk way with crystals embedded into the walls of the corridor. There was a goddess temple which is free to go in and you can ask the priestess to smoke cleanse the hell out of you in her dark chamber. There was a MASSIVE tapestry dedicated to the goddess of Avalon which is the local goddess they honor as she is the personification of the land which Glastonbury resides on. In that courtyard there is a huge statue of a dragon outside of the library of avalon which I wasn't able to visit unfortunately.

We went to the Green Man shop which was owned by a really sweet pagan woman who told me all about her house she lives nearby where she can watch the barn owls swoop over the fields in the summer and family of deers in the winter that come to her window 😭 I got so much stuff in that shop. First of all its so cute inside like everything is green with ivy garland hanging from the ceiling so you feel like you're inside a bigass bush. And its very earth-witchy like I got a pentagram with a stag on it, a black notebook with a silver pentagram on it, tons of cards with beautiful pagan art like one with golden leaf with a crowned owl (probably stolas lol) and a few yule cards. They also sold lots of cauldrons and incense. Everything was SO CHEAP. Also every shop had an insane amount of rainbow-color coordinated walls of incense sticks. I never ran out of insense sticks.

Other shops that were note worthy that I visited throughout the week was this beautiful home store that sold indian furniture that was SO CHEAP and of INCREDIBLE quality. The nature of the community was so supportive of one another and not greedy that they don't see the point of upselling their stuff though they have incredible things to give out. The town and community is so small we kept seeing the same people over and over so I guess its also wise to not fuck people over lol. Anyway this store is beautiful when you pass it at night all the lanterns are lit up and it adds to the beauty of the main street.

There was also this CAMPY fucking witch shop called the wonky broomstick in this old building towards the end of the street that sold like spooky bar soups, had a huge smoke machine cauldron in it and sold silly incense like Pixies Dance (I bought it) Dragons Breath (I also bought it) Mermaid's Blessing (you already know..) and tons of other campy things like colorful grimoire journals and candies inside of cauldron pots. It was perpetual halloween in there and also had some harry potter merchandise. I think the English economy really benefitted from the harry potter years lol but you can tell though some tourist shops were still trying to market with it, its starting to die out. There's also this really great bookstore thats next to the haunted tavern which sold really great books on magic and spirituality for super cheap. I got a book about healing yourself when no one else can lol. 😢

After the shops we walked up to the Tor which was SO BEAUTIFUL like I was ASTOUNDED by the walk itself and how beautiful the countryside is. I felt like I was on some hobbit adventure as we walked through open fields with cows grazing around us or horses nearby (thankfully behind a fence cause they can sometimes have no chill) coming up for a pat, and the hills curved in a way that you can see forests rolling around you and the tor high up in the distance. I felt like I needed a cloak. There was a man nearby hiking with his puppy near us that spooked the cows around us so he had to carry his naughty puppy lol.

While climbing the hill I got this insane realization that I have been dreaming about the Tor and glastonbury for years. Its one of the towns along with London that I've been having dreams about since I was 15. Glastonbury came about later though like I was having dreams about it when I was probably 20?? I remember thinking of it as a sweet and peaceful escape and I remember the town my dream world cooked up being really small and in a way underdeveloped from the cities I was used to. I think if I were to live there I would be happy but be a bit isolated cause that’s what my dreams showed me. I have so many dreams of me climbing up on the steep hill of the tor and looking at the patchwork quilts of towns around me. When I was up there it was like something CLICKED like a place I kept visiting and didn't know what it meant, finally meant something. There's a town nearby in my dreams thats still very spiritual and earthy but a bit more down to earth and Expensive and snooty that I remember I was trying to find a way to move into. It has a lot of big houses and beautiful alleyways and cobbled streets so maybe I need to look at the towns around there and figure it out. I have a feeling its not Bristol though I feel like I need to check that place out too. (Actually it could be Bristol?) I just know now that the dreams I had are about real places I need to see and I thought those dreams were just fantastical since they were beautiful towns with magical people and castles But those beautiful towns with castles and magical people actually exist in real life.

The tor itself was beautiful. We took a lot of pictures and stared at the scenery. I felt like I was in my element cause I love air. There were birds all around us. We watched the sun set burn behind the clouds as we walked down the steeper way.

[sarakuper]

Zion National Park, Utah (again!)

Stop #34, Nov 3-6

For our second time in Zion on this trip Sean and I had a truly unforgettable experience as we completed two bucket list hikes. If my only mother knew what I was doing, she would have killed me…. but don’t worry Ma! We did it all very safely and came back in one piece. 

We arrived Sunday afternoon at the same dispersed camping site we stayed at back in July when we visited the first time. This time we camped at a spot higher up with views overlooking another beautiful canyon.  We set up camp, cooked dinner, played Kaluche (yes, I won.. again!), and mapped out our next day. We talked about doing Angel’s Landing, a very popular and difficult hike, about 5.4 miles long, that challenges anyones fear of heights. This hike boasts incredible views of the Zion Canyon and the need to use chains to climb all the way to the top of Angel’s Landing. A large majority of the hike is your typical, but also gorgeous, steep hike with several switchbacks. The last quarter of a mile (sounds short, right?) is where you risk your life holding onto chains and climbing up a steep and narrow cliff. 1-2 feet off the “trail” in either direction and splat, you’re dead. Honestly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It’s such a popular trail, people are basically waiting in line to climb to Angel’s landing! On average one person per year dies on this hike, but thousands of people hike it each year. Possibly hundreds of thousands. While we were discussing the possibility of this hike, Sean was unsure he would do it. He doesn’t fear many things (or at least doesn’t show it), but his fear of heights is real.

Monday morning came and we started our accent. Several switchbacks later we reached Scouts Lookout which is a plateau just before the risky climb to Angel’s Landing. This area was super crowded, and Sean and I were thinking “Let’s climb to the top and then come back here for lunch”. Angel’s landing is literally 0.5 miles away, so I thought this would be quick and we’d be eating lunch in no time. I also thought the portion of the hike we did was pretty much as risky as it gets… maaaaaaan was I wrong. 

Here is where the chains just begin. It was so crowded in this area, but we are so close right? I thought it was just around the bend. We started using the chains and I turned back to Sean where he shook his head at me. He didn’t need to use words; I knew this meant he wasn’t coming. I nodded back and continued on thinking to myself “this will be quick!”. Well, I got around the bend passing a large majority of the crowds, and there it was.. the scariest view I’ve ever seen. Reality set in as I actually saw the treacherous 0.5 mile hike ahead to the top of Angel’s Landing. At this point I thought “I’m already here. I made it this far. I’m doing it.”. 

A few minutes into the climb I made friends with the people immediately ahead and behind me. Most of them also came with a parter that stayed back at Scout’s Lookout. We encouraged each other and thought out loud “holy shit this is so dangerous and sketchy”. I don’t have a particular fear of heights, but I couldn’t even look to the right or left of me. All I could do was look down at my feet and the immediate steps ahead. I was terrified. This is where I thought to myself… if my mother knew what I was doing…  

I wanted to turn back. I was actually thinking this hike is so freaking stupid because of how dangerous it is. How is it possible that its crowded with hundreds (and maybe thousands) of people doing it each day!? There was no turning back now. We scrambled up the entire way, using the chains to pull ourselves up and to hold onto for dear life. But I did it. I made it to the top. I was so shook, I barely took any photos. I sat down and stayed down feeling the comfort of the ground below me. After the first set of chains I had to put my camera in my backpack because I needed it out of the way during the climb. One of the girls I climbed with forced me to get up and take pictures, and so here they are. 

I was very anxious to get down and be reunited with Sean. This “short” climb took way longer than I expected and I had already been gone for an hour. So, with most of the same people I climbed up with, we began our decent back to Scouts Lookout. I thought the way down would be way worse for 2 reasons; 1- navigating around the uphill traffic. There was NO room for two way traffic, and the large amounts of people doing this made it extra dangerous. 2- going down you are looking directly at the cliffs beside you. You are looking at how you will fall and die if you misstep. So yeah, thinking about the downhill made me even more scared. But as it turns out, and I’m not sure why, the decent back was actually less scary than the way up. I made it back to Scouts Lookaut and found Sean, immediately running into his arms for a huge hug. I wasn’t sure if he was worried about me because I was gone for so long, but he gave me a huge smile and high five. He actually climbed up to a different viewpoint and was watching me climb up and down through his binoculars. He was very proud of me and also felt reaffirmed that he didn’t do it because of what he saw through the binoculars and because of what I shared about it. This might have been the craziest thing I’ve ever done and I will never do it again. But damn I DID IT!!

After the hike into the Grand Canyon my legs were absolutely fried. I was very excited that after completing Angel’s Landing my legs and body felt strong and were not aching in pain. I guess the South Kaibab hike to Skeleton’s point was a good warm up hike after all! 

That afternoon and evening we prepared for our next adventure, hiking to The Subway from the bottom up. We rented water shoes and socks from a local rental shop. A few days prior I inquired with the Wilderness department at Zion about a getting a permit to do this hike. It’s a non maintained trail in the backcountry that takes route finding, scrambling, and hiking through water to complete. I tried to get a permit for this hike back in July but was denied because they reached the maximum number of people to permit for that day. Looking back I’m so glad I was denied then; I was not a strong enough hiker to complete this challenge! Looking at the stats this hike is 9.1 miles and 1,500 feet in elevation gain. I’ve completed hikes with more challenging statistics, so I was confident that I could do it. But this hike is a lot more technical and complex than that. And no matter how much we read about it, I didn’t realize how challenging this hike actually was until we were there doing it. 

The trailhead was almost 1.5 hours away, and so we hit the road before 7am to get a decently early start. We started the hike on a normal path for about 0.5 miles before completing a very (and I mean VERY) steed downward climb to the river. Once we made it to the river we placed neon rope around the area as a marker so we knew where to get out of the river on the return. We didn’t see a “trail” at this point, so we hiked through the river upstream. As long as we follow the river we will make it to The Subway.

After about 30 minutes navigating around rocks and trying to not to slip, we realized we were moving very slowly. We needed to find the trail so we could get a move on. Sean found the “trail”, which came and went every few minutes. We crossed the river, climbed, and jumped over large rocks and boulders to make our way through. It felt very strenuous, and was taking much longer than a typical hike. This gave me a serious appreciation for maintained trails where all I needed to do was “follow”. But Sean was our guide that day, and when I wanted to turn around because it was too hard he gave me the tough love I needed to make it to the end. It was me who wanted to do The Subway so badly anyway! Well, after 4 hours (yes, it took 4 hours to go 4.5 miles!) we made it to The Subway. And WOW, this place was absolutely spectacular. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

We took enjoyed the scenery, took photos, ate lunch, and began our hike back in hopes to make it back for Jaxon before sunset. It turns out the hike back was a lot easier and went by much faster. Maybe that’s because we actually found the “trail” and did a lot less hiking through the river and scrambling compared to our way up. Oh, and did I mention there are dinosaur tracks right along this trial? Seriously! They are very hard to find, but with our AllTrails map we were able to spot them!

We made it back to the car around 4pm taking us a total of 7.5 hours to complete this hike. We were proud of ourselves as we left the trail feeling very accomplished! I could never have done this hike without Sean and am grateful for his ability to navigate us safely and push me  with tough love and encouragement when I needed it most.

What an incredible two days we just had. What an amazing 4 months its been.

We have another week of traveling in the trailer and visiting national parks before we begin preparing for the next chapter of our trip. Once we get to Denver on Nov 13(ish), this amazing part of our journey will come to an end.

I’m feeling very grateful for all the new places we’ve seen, experiences we’ve had, and for the time me, Sean, and Jaxon have spent together just us in the small quarters of our trailer thats become our home. It will be hard to say goodbye to our mobile home, but significantly harder to say goodbye to Jaxon. That is something we are really not looking forward to; my heart breaks just thinking about it.

Thanks for reading, love you all.

[theworldisspinning]

Last month I went to Utah and it was literally so much fun! I made it my goal this year to finally get my butt to a national park and I went to three during our trip. I have traveled more internationally than domestically, and I also made it a goal to see more of the U.S. and am so fortunate that I went to Hawaii and then Utah this year!

I went to Utah initially for Devoted Workshop, a photography workshop in Zion. It was 3 days and I got to learn alongside a bad ass group of gals. The shoots were incredible and it was honestly one of the best experiences! Zion National Park is absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, the views out in Utah are unlike anywhere else.

On the last day of the workshop, Campbell flew into meet me. I wanted to explore more of Utah, so we had a plan of him coming down and us heading to Moab. We spent the first day he was there still in Zion exploring the national park and walking around everywhere. There are tons of small hikes you can do (we were too scared to do Angel’s Landing) so we just did those all day! It was beautiful. We stayed in a super cute AirBnb that was pretty close to the national park on a farm.

The next morning, we stopped to get breakfast at a really cute cafe and then hit the road for Moab! We stayed at Under Canvas Moab and went glamping. Literally it was the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in and we got breakfast delivered to us each morning. It was the best staying there! Campbell hates camping but when you’re sleeping on a king sized memory foam mattress, what is there not to love?

That evening, we got our engagement photos taken by the incredible Autumn Nicole! Her work is mind blowing. We went to Dead Horse State Park and the views were absolutely insane. We had such a fun time shooting and the pictures came out better than I ever could have imagined. I’m obsessed!

The next day in Moab we spent all day at Arches National Park! We did tons of hikes around the park, including Delicate Arch which was my favorite. We got so tired by the afternoon hiking around in the sun that we headed back to Under Canvas and took a nap. Then we went into Moab for dinner and walked around the town!

Our last day! Our flight was at 11pm so we had all day. We spent the morning doing a few hikes in Canyonlands National Park which was gorgeous. It was a ginormous park! We went to Mesa Arch and the views were insane. I was scared to get too close to the edge though! Afterwards, we headed towards Salt Lake City since that’s where we were flying out of. We did this hike to these hot springs which was a lot of fun and change of scenery from red rocks. Except it was so hot outside, we could barely get in the water!

Following the hike, we went to In n’ Out and then walked about the city. Salt Lake City was just okay, so we didn’t walk around for too long until we decided to head to the airport.

Overall, southern Utah was a 10/10 and I already want to go back to explore and shoot more!

Exploring Utah Last month I went to Utah and it was literally so much fun! I made it my goal this year to finally get my butt to a national park and I went to three during our trip.

[aoibaratraveler]

UK Road Trip Week 4

Ok, so I was actually semi productive with this, this week and finished typing it out on Tuesday morning but then my tumblr app stopped working on my phone and then when I tried to use the browser on my phone it uploaded all weird. So I am finally able to upload this from a Starbucks on the bf’s laptop.

Day 22:

I woke up feeling lucky to have done Snowdon a day before because torrential rain came down all night and seemed to persist well into the morning and afternoon and looking at the forecast for the next month...well, its bleak. I did, however, feel much better after a good night's sleep and even though I am a bit sore, I think that I am more than ready to do another hike or scramble like Snowdon because I just enjoyed it so much. If the rain does let up then I would love to do Scafell Pike in England and Ben Nevis in Scotland, the tallest mountains in each. Soon after we woke up, we decided to head to Llandudno for a walk along the coast and to get some coffee but after charging up for a bit and grabbing some pasties from the local bakery, the bf had the grave misfortune of having half his pasty stolen by an aggressive seagull. In fact, most of the seagulls in this town were rather aggressive, one of them swooped down at my head while I was eating my pasty. After this unfortunate event though, the bf's mood took a dip so we decided to leave and head to Betws y Coed where we would be meeting up with T, the bf's friend later on. It was certainly a cute little village but because of the torrential downpour, we couldn't explore much and so we retreated to a hotel for some Welsh cream tea and to have a safe shelter to watch the rain. After a couple of hours T showed up and we attempted to go on a walk to a nearby lake since it seemed to have stopped raining but not even 10 minutes into our walk and it came down hard again and we were properly soaked. Luckily, it was warm rain so I didn't mind it too much. We retreated to T's car where T and the bf reminisced on their uni days. The rain seemed to let up a bit so we took a chance and explored the other side of Betws y Coed where there were a cute train station and a rhino made of metal that encased bottle caps to promote recycling. Near the station there was a lovely little suspension bridge with a backdrop of a field scattered with sheep and a forest. We played poo sticks there for a couple of minutes and then decided to head to a restaurant called Olif for Welsh Tapas and we were very happy that we did because not even a minute later the torrential rain came back which didn't seem to let up for the rest of the night. It was great timing for us. The Welsh Tapas was delicious, we thoroughly enjoyed the croquetas which was a breaded ball of melted cheddar cheese, potato, and leek, yum. We ate, drank, and were merry for a couple of more hours before heading to a nearby nature reserve to pitch up for the night; the rain still coming down with a fury.

Day 23:

Today was a bit disappointing only because we really just couldn't do anything for there was torrential rain for most of the day. We set off from the spot we were parked and drove through the gorgeous valleys that gave off an almost ominously beautiful atmosphere to it because of the rain. We made a stop near Tryfan, a cool mountain that is mostly a scramble that the bf had wanted to take me on but because of the rain he couldn't. We tried to wait out the rain for a bit but to no avail so we retreated to a Starbucks for a few hours and read. When we got hungry we decided to leave and we grabbed some Chinese takeaway before heading to T's place to stay for the night. I got to play with her gorgeous border collie so not a bad end to the day.

Day 24:

Today we initially had plans to meet up with another friend of T's but he bailed on us so T decided to be our tour guide around Snowdonia. We had a delicious full breakfast in her town and then set off to a town called "BeddGelert". It was a lovely little town that had a beautiful nature walk and river and where the legend of Gelert is said to have taken place.

"According to the oft-told legend, Llywelyn, Prince of Gwynedd and the most powerful man in the whole of Wales, had a hound called Gelert. In some versions of the tale, the dog had been given to Llywelyn by none other than King John of England. One day Llywelyn went hunting, leaving Gelert behind to look after his infant son. When Llywelyn returned he found his tents in disarray. There was no sign of his son and Gelert, when he jumped up to greet his master, had jaws stained red with blood. Instantly assuming the hound had killed the baby, the Prince drew his sword and ran the dog through. Only then did Llywelyn discover the unharmed baby lying beneath its upturned cot and the body of a wolf that had tried to kill the child, in the corner of the tent. The faithful Gelert had defended his charge and killed the wolf. The hound was buried with great ceremony and, legend says, prince Llywelyn never smiled from that day onwards." (https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/entries/e6f11332-ae6f-3364-96a4-1af14401369b)

We had a long stroll around the river and then had coffee and cake at a cafe. We decided to get three cakes and split them; chocolate fudge, coffee-walnut, and carrot. They were scrumptious but personally I liked coffee-walnut the best. Afterward we drove to a place called Black Rock Sands--in English, the Welsh name is supremely hard to pronounce. It was a vast, sandy beach with an outstanding view of the mountains. There were a few really cool caves that we were able to explore because the tide was low. I imagined how cool it would be to swim in these caves and I hoped that maybe someday I'll get the opportunity. We then climbed on top of a cliff edge to get a better view. It was awesome. I wanted to walk across the cliff but T said that if it was closed off then we may risk being able to get down while the tide is low so we made our way back down and walked some more along the beach. After our walk T remembered one more cool place that she wanted to show us which was an ancient Celtic forest within Snowdonia National Park and was surrounding a lake. This forest had so many traits to it that made it feel like you were walking inside a forest straight out of a fairytale, from the most covered slate walls to the ancient trees to the lush green nature enveloping a fallen over tree to the misplaced plant life like bamboo trees. It was such a whimsical walk that felt almost therapeutic. It was nearing 17:30 so we decided to grab a bite at the pub outside the forest but were quite disappointed with the portion sizes they gave us of the chips we ordered so we set back to T's town of Blaenau Ffestiniog and purchased some more (which ended up being too much) chips and a couple of spring rolls that were the size of paninis from a local Chinese takeaway. We ate our takeaway next to a lake for a bit...before being attacked by midges so then we ran to T's car to finish it off. We felt properly full of grease after this so we went for a short walk around the lake (by now you can guess that Snowdon National Park is just full of picturesque lakes, mountains, and forests and is very much the scenery that I've been craving to see all year). We then headed back to T's place, said our goodbyes to her and her lovely parents and dog and then set off towards Conwy to pitch up for the night.

Day 25:

I'm so pleased that I've been able to see so many castles on this trip. Last time I lived in England, I hardly saw any although I saw a few castles in mainland Europe during my 2 month backpacking trip before starting my university exchange in Preston. This past year as well I don't think we saw any castles. We started the morning by driving back through Conwy and having a look at the medieval castle there. I unfortunately didn't get a photo though. We then began our drive out of Wales. We did, however, stop in a place called Prestatyn before fully leaving to nip into a Tesco's and use their facilities and get some caffeine. Here, I had the most ridiculous experience. I've dealt with some, let's say not so knowledgeable customer service people before in supermarkets in the UK but this took the cake. I decided to buy some Redbull and in the UK red bull is age restricted to people aged 16 and over (any energy drink is). But then there is also the think 25 policy here where customer service employees ask to check ID for anything age-restricted if they think you look under 25. This is completely fine because even though I am 25, I'm well aware that I could pass as 18 or younger so I always have my ID on me when I buy energy drinks. The thing is when I pulled out my Canadian driver's license that has my photo and age and everything that a normal ID has and which has been accepted literally everywhere else I've gone to (which is what I told her), the checkouts girl (who looked to be my age or younger) rejected it and refused to sell me the Redbull. I couldn't believe it! At first she looked at it and then immediately showed it to her associate who then said she would go and ask the manager about it. She gave me the absurd reason that because she had never seen this kind of ID before or don't get them often in the store (what do you mean "them"? Foreign ID?) that she needed to check that it was legit...I couldn't believe what I was hearing...so essentially because my ID was foreign and she'd never seen it before, she questioned whether it was real. Well, I've spent some time working at another supermarket here called Sainsbury's and we were taught that as long as the ID has their photo and age and looks like ID then it's acceptable. I said that to her (although didn't mention that I had worked at Sainsbury's) and she just kept giving me the most condescending look and said "you'd be surprised what people could fake! And I can't sell you this item if you are underage" ...well she showed it to her manager and she said that even the manager said they couldn't accept it! I tried to remain calm and reiterate that, that just can't be right but she stuck to her guns and said she couldn't sell me it. I went to tell the bf what had happened and he was equally shocked and angry on my behalf and said I should try and argue it so I decided to go back in, directly to customer service and ask to speak to the store manager myself. The customer service woman herself agreed that my ID should have been accepted but said I should be flattered that they thought I look younger than my age...that isn't the point though? I know I look younger than my age and I'm always happy to show my ID (I don't look younger than 16 though) but the point is that checkouts people (1 of which was apparently the checkouts manager!?) refused to accept my official, government-issued Canadian driver's license because it was foreign to them which is really just due to them being ignorant and clueless more than anything, but that's unfortunately how a large portion of the UK is now...when the manager came, he agreed that my ID should have been accepted. Vindication. So, feeling a bit petty, I went back to the same checkouts girl, asked her which manager exactly she spoke to because I had just spoken to the store manager and he said that my ID was completely fine. She gave me another stupid excuse but I just thanked her as a way of saying "fuck off" in my own way without actually saying it. She never apologized. I then used the self-scan machine right next to her but the coward that she is stormed off and got her friend to authorize my red bull instead while she grabbed a basket and aggressively threw it right next to me to pretend she was putting it away. I gave her a smile on the way out and felt victorious but still in complete disbelief at how unprofessional that whole interaction was. We then drove to the top of a hill that had a gorgeous viewpoint of the entire city that wiped away the frustration of that whole event. We drove to Preston from there and had German doner for dinner and then to the Forest of Bowland AONB to chill for the rest of the evening (my favourite AONB so far).

Day 26:

Waking up in the Forests of Bowland was spectacular with the mountains on one side and the sun on the other, it was beautiful. We drove through such gorgeous valleys and fields, it didn't feel like the England that I'd been living in for the past 11 months. I was overjoyed to have the opportunity to see it but a bit sad that I was missing out on sights like this all year. Once we'd driven through the forest, we filled up on petrol at ASDA and freshened up in their washrooms. We then headed into the city of Lancaster where we first had dessert for breakfast at a place called Kaspa's (oh my I'm going to be working off a lot when we get back home). From there we ventured off and walked around the city and up to the Lancaster castle which served as a prison for some time but now houses the Crown Court and is open to the public in some parts. I was pretty tired owing to having a restless sleep the night before with the storm being easily audible from inside the car. At about 5 we decided to set off towards the lake district and Scafell Pike. This drive was probably just a bit more amazing then the one we had this morning. It was absolutely stunning, the bf had to pull over so I could take more photos but my camera most likely doesn't do it any justice. Just absolutely breathtaking and just what you want to end the night on before going to bed.

Day 27:

Ahh! Scratch what I said about need 2 1/2 to 3 months for the UK and Ireland (well I suppose you can do if you want to take your sweet time), we have covered so much ground and expect to cover a lot more by the 31st, so this trips need at most 2 months and we reckon if we were to do the whole of Ireland then we could probably do it 10 days but we're still saving that for another time. You know those days when you feel like you did a lot but didn't really accomplish anything? This would have been one of those days. I don't know, I guess it was because of the rain as well but the bf and I were also feeling pretty grumpy all day and were short with each other a lot. We had parked just outside Scafell Pike hoping that maybe there was a chance we could wake up and the weather would be great for a hike but it had rained all night and it didn't look like it was going to let up in the morning so unfortunately, we had to give up on the idea of hiking Scafell Pike at least at this part of the trip. The bf told me it always rains in the Lake District and that it's hardly ever sunny but I was really hoping that I would get to see the lakes in all their glory. There was nothing around (except for the lakes and mountains of course) so we decided to drive 15 mins North West out of the lakes to a small seaside town called Seascale. It was very quiet there and we found a small, family-run cafe that served breakfast, cakes, coffee, and tea. We managed to freshen up there and made a new plan for the day which was to drive to Windermere, Grasmere and then watch the Liverpool game somewhere. Well, when we got to Windermere, it was absolutely packed with tourists and still raining which just made us more grumpy. The bf and I don't do well in big touristy crowds. We walked around for a bit and then the bf got more coffee but we quickly gave up on trying to enjoy ourselves since it was just so noisy and busy and the visibility of the lake was horrendous because of the rain and honestly I was just really bummed out about not being able to see the lake properly. So off we went to Grasmere. It was a tiny village but really cute. The reason we went to Grasmere was because of the gingerbread shop that's been there for hundreds of years with an old recipe that claims to make unique gingerbread that is crumbly and gooey. Well, let me tell you that, that claim is not unfounded. There was a big line outside the shop too so you know they're popular. They weren't mind-blowingly delicious or anything but they were yummy. After that, we were at a loss of what to do. The weather was miserable so we couldn't really do anything outdoorsy which is also sad because half the point of this trip was to explore Britsh nature and wilderness and do a lot of hikes but we're in the second half of this trip and that seems unlikely to happen now. Especially since I'm kind of running out of funds for this trip now. We debated whether or not to go to a hotel for afternoon tea but it was getting too late for that. We settled on just cutting our losses and leaving the lakes early. We decided to drive straight up to Glasgow. On the drive up I could really feel how burned out the bf was getting and I started feeling really guilty. I'm used to roughing it up for long periods of time but I don't think he is. I mean we've both been grumpy today but for different reasons. I'm sad this trip isn't going as I hoped it would because of the weather and not being able to save up enough this year and he's just tired and growing more and more irritable as the days go on. I booked us a night's stay in an Airbnb for the day after because we both need to do laundry anyway and he just needs a good night's sleep. Once we got to Glasgow, we watched the game (Liverpool won, yay!) and then we drove up to a country park to pitch up for the night.

Day 28:

When we woke up it was rainy and windy so we decided to head to a nearby shopping mall from the country park to charge up with some coffee. After a couple of hours there we drove into Glasgow for some sightseeing. This proved to be a bit difficult because we soon found out that Glasgow is an outrageously expensive city with exuberant parking charges. It took us a while to find something, but after around 45 mins of driving around we chanced upon a car park that was behind a pub that looked to have absolutely no parking charges or restrictions and seemed to be somewhat of a mostly unknown free car park. After double-checking that it really was free we set off to explore the city. Glasgow is really cool. It has an interesting mix of old school buildings and historical architecture as well as more modern ones with a TON of incredibly artistic graffiti on the side of buildings everywhere . We walked around for a while and tried the famous deep-fried Mars bar which I thought was yummy but it wasn't to the bf's taste. We were still hungry so we grabbed lunch at a place called Bread Meats Bread because I heard that they do great poutine and boy was I right. The poutine was massive and absolutely delicious with tons of gravy and cheese curds, probably the best poutine I've had in the UK. We also got a pastrami sandwich and a fried chicken grilled cheese melt that were both oh so good and served in some pretty spectacular toast. After exploring more of what the city had to offer which included a Tardis propped up in the city square and a statue of a colourful laughing child. At around 4 we decided it was time to head to the Airbnb that we booked for the night but not before stopping in Morrisons to grab some instant noodles for the road. This Airbnb was lovely, clean and just what we needed to have a proper charge up. We took the rest of the night easy, did our laundry, played with the host's dogs and had a shower. The host, herself, was also really friendly and was into all the same fandom as us from Marvel to Doctor Who to Game of Thrones to Harry Potter. The tv in our room was also massive so we watched an episode of Doctor Who before calling it a night.

[fandomindulgences]

“Get to Know Me” Tag

Tagged by @kaykaykaboom

[Answer 20 questions and tag 20]

Name: Kristyn, Pokeri (Pokreatia, Pokii)

Zodiac: Aquarius

Height: 5′3.5″

Languages you speak: English and a little bit of Modern Standard Arabic

Nationality: American

Favorite fruit: MMMM, I tend to love tropical fruits the best, like mangoes and bananas!

Favorite scent: FRESH BAKED GOODS ARE NICE, YES. Melon- and citrus-scented things are nice too!

Favorite color(s): PURPLE. Sky(e) Blue is nice too~ ;Vc

Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate: I LOVE all kinds of teas, and a good, creamy cup of hot chocolate!! I love the smell of coffee, but I’m not all too fond of the taste.

Favorite Disney princess: THAT’S A TOUGH ONE, I like so many!! I feel like I relate to Belle most of all, but Mulan (although technically not a princess) is so super kind and a super kick-butt hero???? Rapunzel though, what a precious, happy-go-lucky babby, I love her ghjuyktyjnrg. I FEEL LIKE I’VE MISSED SOME FAVES, but they are ones off the top of my head!

Dream trip: HNNNGH, I’m not entirely too picky on the location, but as long as there is beautiful natural scenery to hike through, particularly through lush forests and gorgeous lakes, maybe some old ruins to explore, temperate climate, a warm, clean bed to sleep in, and delicious new foods to try, I’d call that a Dream Trip~ (Although, if I had to choose, Japan or Ireland would be really nice!!)

When was your blog created: This blog here is a side blog to my main (which was created back on Jun 5th, 2014 for the sole purpose of ranting ghtrfrbth), but this blog specifically was made Oct 22nd, 2014!

Last movie seen: Howl’s Moving Castle

Favorite candy: MMMM, I do love some good milk chocolate??? My favorite used to be Fastbreak candy bars, those were so good...…. I’m always down for KitKats, Twix, and 100Grand though.

Favorite holiday: Christmas and Halloween are both pretty great~!! >8V9

Put your playlist on shuffle! (Ah man, I hadn’t listened to my own playlists in literal years, I’ve been too obsessed with other’s playlists and soundtracks ghyujrtebrgfnte-- BUT OKAY, TIME TO WHIP OUT BOTH “Random Assortment″ AND “Random Assortment 2″, AND DO A HALF-AND-HALF THING!!!!!)

From “Random Assortment”:

song 1: “Little Talks” by Of Monsters and Men

song 2:  “Happy” by Pharrell Williams

song 3: “The Reason” by Hoobastank

song 4: “So Cold” by Breaking Benjamin

song 5: “Citizen Soldiers” by 3 Doors Down

From “Random Assortment 2″:

song 6: “Nageki no Mori” by Ayane

song 7: “Foreigners” by Yuki Kajiura (from the .hack//SIGN OST 1)

song 8: “D-technoLife” by UVERworld

song 9: “Hero’s Come Back!!” by Nobodyknows

song 10: “Cendrillon” by Megurine Luka & Kamui Gakupo (Vocaloid, I have several versions of this song on this playlist ghygjrn)

My Weebness really shines through in “Random Assortment 2″ ghujyktyrntg--

Tags: WHOMEVER WANTS TO DO IT

[lvfit-blog]

Maui Travel Guide

I live in a really beautiful place. Southern California has nice beaches, stellar hikes, eclectic neighborhoods and palm tree lined streets. So it takes something spectacular for me to be in awe. While in Maui, I found myself stopping to look around and comment on the beauty at least 15 times per day. And I am not exaggerating. The beaches, the plants, the palm trees, the sunsets - everything is gorgeous. 

I went to Maui about three years ago, but we spent most of the time at the resort (if you’ve been to the Four Seasons Wailea, you understand why). So this time we made a point to get out and explore more and it made for the perfect combination of adventure and relaxation. The gym at the Four Seasons is perfect if you want to use equipment without leaving the gorgeous surroundings, so I had no problem getting my fitness on (had to with all those fish tacos, glasses of rose, and dessert every single night ya feel me?). The cardio equipment is in an open air part of the gym and there’s a sundeck with TRX, medicine balls, pull up bars, mats, foam rollers and bands, so it’s the perfect spot to squeeze in a morning workout. I used the gym almost every day, we went to a yoga class, and did a workout on the beach!

RESTAURANTS

Morimoto at the Andaz Hotel: This hotel is a really beautiful location for the restaurant. As you walk down the staircase at night, you pass multiple infinity pools that glisten in the moonlight. There’s a sleek sushi bar, indoor seating, an outdoor bar and an outdoor terrace. We sat on the terrace with curved, upholstered seating (super romantic and comfy) and a view of the ocean and pool. 

I drank sake (I don’t remember which one), and we started with the hamachi tacos, which were delicious - a crunchy shell with the perfect amount of hamachi and avocado inside. Then we ate  the sea urchin carbonara (a little heavy for my taste), braised black cod (insanely delicious), shishito peppers, seafood toban yaki (also ridiculously good - so much lobster, crab and yummy scallops), and a full plate of sushi. This was definitely one of the best meals of the entire vacation. (appetizers range from $16-$30, main courses from $35-$62)

Coconuts: One of my friends read about Coconuts prior to our trip. It turns out that it’s a chain restaurant and there’s one in DTLA now! Trust me, I’ll be checking it out. They’re known for their fish tacos that include slaw with coconut milk. Two tacos come in an order and they’re massive - don’t let the pictures on the wall fool you. The flavors are delicious and each taco includes 17 different ingredients including the fresh fish of the day, cheese, tomatoes, coconut milk coleslaw and mango salsa. I want to go back just for these tacos. Plus, they have beer on tap - my rec is the Bikini Blonde. ($12.75 for an order of fish tacos, around $5 for a beer)

Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice: I’ve been to Hawaii four times, but for some reason I was still under the impression shave ice was the same as a sno cone. I was wrong. Hawaiian Shave Ice is so creamy and soft. Ululani’s signature way is to put a layer of ice cream on the bottom and then the shave ice on top. I went with macadamia nut ice cream to get super Hawaiian and chose strawberry, pineapple and coconut flavors on the shave ice. It was honestly one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted in my entire 31 years of living. Again, I am not exaggerating. And I love food. Especially dessert. (around $7/$8 for a medium)

Monkey Pod: Monkey Pod is one of those places that you keep hearing about when you’re in the area, but aren’t quite sure what to think. Every time we asked a local or someone working in the hotel where to go for dinner outside of the Four Seasons, they said Monkey Pod. But they also told us it was a little like a sports bar, so we weren’t sure what to think. Finally on the last night, after hitting all the restaurants on our list, we decided to try it out. It was super casual with a fun bar and cute outdoor patio (where we sat). We ordered the lobster pizza to share as an appetizer (pretty good, although I’m a red sauce person, so it wouldn’t be my first choice), and I got the fish tacos (see a pattern yet?). I will order fish tacos anywhere they are offered, especially in Hawaii. The tacos were great - the mahi mahi was blackened and full of flavor and they were topped with a spicy salsa, avocado and jalepenos. YUM. They’re known for their strawberry pie, so you know we had to test it out. It had a filling that was similar to cheese cake, but less dense - the strawberries on top were to die for. (pizza -$27, fish tacos, $24)

BEACHES

Makena State Park: 

Big Beach: This is my favorite beach I’ve been to in Hawaii so far. Just like it sounds, it was huge, with sand the color of that macaroni and cheese Crayola crayon, and water so clear and turquoise that you can see to the bottom even when you’re in five feet of water. The waves were gnarly and there were tons of locals surfing and skimboarding. There’s usually a Jaws food truck in the parking lot selling fish tacos and burritos. I tried the fish burrito for a change - it was really fresh and the salsas were full of flavor. Should’ve gone for the tacos though. 

If you walk to one edge of the beach, there’s a rock you can climb over to get to Little Beach. Little Beach is a nude beach with LOTS of interesting scenery if you know what I mean.

Turtle Beach in Paia: We went to Paia Town our first full day in Maui. It’s a cutie little eclectic hippy town with lots of shops and restaurants. I recommend stopping by just to walk around and get a Shaved Ice at Ululani’s. If you go right past the town, there’s a beach with tons of locals and their little kids surfing and some massive turtles. It’s definitely worth seeing and spending some time on the beach. 

OTHER: 

Snorkel with Kai Kanani Sailing: We researched several different snorkel excursions and we chose this one because we wanted to be around other people (there were about 25 of us on the boat) and be on a nice catamaran. The excursion took us to Molokini Crater and Turtle Town. Molokini had super rough water, so it was difficult to see anything, much less snorkel. We took a boat ride to Turtle Town expecting to see turtles, but there were only three on a nearby beach. Overall, we were a little disappointed in the lack of visibility and the lack of turtles, but the boat was great. The staff was super friendly and knowledgable and the food was pretty good. They provided snacks throughout the trip and a lunch after Turtle Town. I also like the fact that it was BYOB - we brought some champagne (literally the only group that took them up on the booze offer) and had some drinks - post snorkel of course. (around $200 per person)

Nap in a Hammock: This might sound simple, but I was in Hawaii 10 days (5 in Kona and 5 in Maui) and didn’t get in a hammock until the last day. They are everywhere, and are perfect to lounge around with a book or nap in the sun. (FREE)

[purplesurveys]

678

The City You Live In

What city do you live in? I’m not gonna give away where it is exactly, but I’ve repeated on other surveys enough times that it’s very near Metro Manila – a stone’s throw away, even. That should narrow it down for ya. What was your first reaction when you saw it? I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a reaction. I was around 3 years old when we moved here from my dad’s family home in Tondo, so I couldn’t care less. Is it pretty or ugly? I wouldn’t call it ugly, but some parts are just normal, boring, and a little too suburban for my liking. But the part of the city that’s up the mountain is gorgeous – they’ve got the scenery, the nightlife, and the restaurants and bars. The drive is always worth it, even though it’s situated pretty far from the metro. Are the people there nice or mean? Filipinos in general are nice, there’s no question there. Are there a lot of churches? The entire country is predominantly Catholic. There are churches everywhere, regardless if we’re talking about my city or not.

Is it surrounded by mountains or hills? Mountains. Part of the city itself is atop a mountain, but in general it’s surrounded by mountain ranges that extend until Quezon province, I think. What grocery stores are there? Brands you wouldn’t know of, so it wouldn’t matter to name them. We have both independently-owned groceries and ones owned by national conglomerates. If you remember, what was the first restaurant you ate at there? I have no clue, man. Safe to say it was a fast food restaurant though, as they’re the most accessible ones. I’d say McDonald’s or Jollibee. Have you lived anywhere else in your state/province, etc? From 3 to 10 years old I lived with extended family in a duplex in a certain subdivision. When I was 10 – and around the time my mom got sick of the alcoholism issues that run in my family – we moved to our current house, in a subdivision just right next to our old one. So we did do some moving, but there was very little distance involved. Is there a lot to do? Around my area, no. Like I said, all the fun stuff can be done in the higher portion of the city, the part that needs you to drive up a mountain. That part has all the cool bars, pretty restaurants that offer the view of Manila’s skyline, cute coffee shops, a museum, a georeserve, and resorts and resthouses that similarly offer great views. Is there a river or lake? I don’t think so. At least I haven’t seen any of them. Are all the lights pretty at night? Oh the view of the skyline is pretty fucking fantastic. Here’s a usual view I see when Gab and I feel like having dinner in one of the city’s restaurants (that I got from this blog):

How many McDonald's resturants are there? Oh way too many. I live in an urban area, so there are McDonald’s literally 5 to 10 minutes away from each other. Are there any tourist attractions? There’s a number. Interest in the area has been growing and there are more and more people who visit the city to visit our museum, hike on our mountains, go to bars for the view, etc. What's the name of the nearest city? Cainta.  If it snows a lot, does it get gross in the spring when it melts? No seasons. Is food or gas expensive? Nope, it’s fairly cheaper because it’s neither in Metro Manila nor a business district, and it’s those two qualities that usually bump up prices. Is there a lot of light pollution? Definitely not. You can see the stars at night, which is a far cry from what you experience in Manila. Is the news good or horrible? It’s relatively a peaceful city, so not a lot of bad news come out of it. What's the newspaper called? I’m not aware of any local newspapers that we might have. Is anyone building anything right now? Yeah, there’s a new Starbucks being built in the main road leading up to the top of the mountain. It’s so weird cos it’s surrounded by so many bars, I dunno how it’ll fit there lmao. What's the main road(s)? If I give it away, you’ll know the city. Any birds like to hang out and scavenge? As far as I know, no lmao. What would you like to see in your town (restaurants, etc)? A Frankie’s, Mama Lou’s and Yabu hahahaha. But considering a big portion of the population aren’t really cityfolk, there’s a small chance for these restaurants to ever penetrate my city. What do you think would happen to it if everyone left and never came back? The town proper would definitely deterioriate, but the landscape wouldn’t change and I think it would even prosper, considering the road leading up to the mountain has always been preserved and it’s still very green. Do bands come there for concerts? Never, we don’t even have a stadium/arena lmao. Almost all concerts are held in Metro Manila. Is it very active in summer? No, as we don’t have any beaches. The place is really known for its chill views and nightlife more than anything. Does it have a cool name? No fun nicknames that I know of. Do people work on the roads a lot? A lot of work was definitely put into it 15-20 years ago. As I said, the place was originally a mountain so in the first place it wasn’t even conducive to vehicles and general travel – it was nothing but a dirtroad. But because people visited more and more through the years they really had to renovate it, and now it’s the highway we know and drive through in the present. Are there any other cities with the same name as yours? I don’t think so. What's the temperature there now? 32C, according to my weather app. Bold/X what your city has! More than two McDonald's Starbucks "Restaurant row" (a street with restaurants lining it) – this, but make it bars. A college A small but good restaurant A street named after someone Downtown More than 5 banks A hospital An expensive neighborhood Hot guys/girls – ??? An outdoor ice cream place

[fireladybuckley]

Wifey Mountain Trip 2017

So I know Jules (@outside-the-government) already posted some photos and stuff but I want to post mine as well <3. She covered most of the actual camping stuff, and I want to cover that but mostly all the wildlife and scenery!!

Starting with the vehicle we rented... a Hyundai Tucson.  It only had like 3000km on it.  Pretty damn smooth ride.  It was FULL of our stuff though.  Like we literally wouldn’t have been able to fit more than a couple of grocery bags more.

Our first stop before Banff.  Lac des Arcs, it was beautiful.  There are huge outcroppings of shale and we found actual fossils in them!!

Shells!  And Horn corals!  And there were tons of other kinds of fossils as well!  It was so exciting, its the first time I’ve ever seen fossils outside of a classroom!

SO MANY FOSSILS 8D

This is Edgar.  He’s a raven that was continually checking out all the campsites.  We decided it was his job to patrol.  We saw him all four days, doing his rounds.  Such a cutie.

Our campsite and cozy tent.  We could have stayed for WEEKS, it was so amazing. <3

On our first evening we went for a little walk behind the camground.  I hadn’t slept at all and we’d been going since about 6am, so I was EXHAUSTED, so we didn’t go too far.  I liked this little path though.

This was the first night.  Pretty smoky in the distance, but we couldn’t smell it much, thankfully.

We went for a bit of a hike/walk first thing in the morning, over to the Hoodoos.  They lost their caps years ago and are just sandstone columns now, constantly eroding.

This beautiful bird had a very strange call, not one we recognized.  I figure out the breed though, this is a Clark’s Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana)

Some of the mountains surrounding the Hoodoos area.  I love this last one, with the obvious striations (layers).  You can see so much of the geology and how things formed in these areas, as someone who’s just recently taken a few geology classes, it was absolutely fascinating.

The smoke was pretty bad in the distance that day.  I’ve altered these images as much as I could to see through the haze, but this was as good as I could do.  I’m a little sad because it was one of the coolest peaks we saw.  Still pretty though!

Another stop we made.  It had a whole little walkway dedicated to the the Wildlife Crossing bridges around the Banff area! (as seen below)

Edgar busy inspecting our neighbour’s campsite after they’d left for the day.

Random mountain pic.  Love the way this one is formed, and according to Jules it has a very interesting geologic history.

Hearty camping breakfast!  Scrambled eggs with cheese and taco seasoning and sausages, with bread and peanut butter and toast.

Cutie chipmunk that was watching us closely.  <3

Time to play find the birb!  These little sparrows are EVERYWHERE in town, hopping around.  They’re pretty tame and super cute.

Cutie under a directions sign

*gasp* Rebel!

Found a bunch of Pikachu stuff in one of the candy stores, so cute!! 8D

This squirrel was in the tree above our tent and chattering angrily nearly nonstop.  Apparently we offended it.

Bow Falls.  The Falls are quite small but loud!

Climbing ohhhh so high! (she was actually like 1-2 feet off the ground xD)

Beautiful Bow River just beyond the falls

Bow River still, love the colour!

In front of the falls!

Up to my shins in the water... its VERY cold, glacier fed.  But it felt kinda nice for the couple of minutes before my feet went numb because it was *really* hot!

Couple of random mountain shots :)

This is out at Cave and Basin Historical Site.  There’s some walking trails that goes through some of the natural sulphur ponds/hot springs and you can see all the fishies and the rare Banff Springs Snail  in some of them!

I found a garter snake skin on the path!  Unfortunately we didn’t get to see an actual snek but this was cool too!

Small falls from the hot springs.  The white stuff under the water is a type of algae that thrives in waters with high sulphur content!

Just two biologists in training loving the hell out of these pools <3

Hard to see but there’s a bunch of fish in this picture.  This little pool is barely a couple of inches deep, very warm and full of sulphur.  So amazing!

The rare Banff Springs snail (Physella johnsoni) in its natural habitat!  This little snail lives only in the few hot springs in Banff National Park

An adorable spotted sandpiper (Actitis macularius).  He was doing a bit of a courtship dance when we saw him but I think we scared his prospective mate away.  Sorry dude :(

So on the last day, we went to the Calgary Zoo on our way home!  It was so exciting!  Unfortunately my camera battery died partway through our walkthrough so some of the pics aren’t as good, as they were taken on my phone.

There were tons of these cool statues at the entrance but I love elephants so much so I made sure I got a shot of this one <3

Penguins!

I love this quote so much.   “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors: we borrow it from our children.”

More penguins!

Big horned sheep!

The best exhibit! <3

Flyin’ with Hedwig.

Baaaaaaa.

Yes, we laughed at this tree.  Yes, we are five years old.

Walked into the aviary to see this gorgeous guy staring down at us.  He’s a Great Grey Owl and there were 3 of them in the aviary.

So gorgeous.

Hedwig!  Beautiful snowy owl.  They’re a lot bigger than I ever realized!

A male elk with the velvet on his antlers starting to peel off.  Kinda gory, but not too bad yet.  He was very handsome.

Cute little groundhog stuffing his face.

The most gorgeous mountain lions/pumas/cougars.  There were two just crashed.  The one sitting up was mildly interested in a magpie that was hopping around, but it was ultimately too lazy to get up lol

Hippos!! I’ve never seen a hippo up close before and I couldn't believe how enormous they were.  They don’t really look it in the pic but MAN they were huge!

Me with a lion statue outside of the “African Safari” exhibits

Cutie meerkats!

First time I’ve ever seen giraffes in person.  They were so amazing!

Zeeeebra

This African Crowned Crane takes the prize for best hair cut

Very, very sleepy lionness.  There was a male and another female as well but they were well hidden.

Ostrich!

Snow leopards!  One of my absolute favourites!!!  I love the tail just hanging there.

Better pic taken a little while after the first.  The one on the right is Leika and the one on the left is Karesh (I think).  Pemba is not pictured.

It was boiling hot so we stopped for ice cream.  SO HOT.

Awesome chameleon in the rainforest exhibit

A seagull attempting to blend in

I can’t remember what this little guy was called, but he was so colourful!  Amazing!

Some awesome shubbery art advertising the Land of the Lemurs exhibit.

I know some of you have already seen this, but on the way back through Calgary, we stopped to have dinner with @youre-on-a-starship!  She is a total sweetie and I can’t wait till we hang out again!

I love my hat.

Annnnd that’s pretty much it!  It was epic and I miss the mountains so much already my heart kinda aches.  Can’t wait until we go back.   Tagging a couple people I know would probably be interested to see this... hope everyone likes it though!!

@mccoymostly @star-trekkin-across-theuniverse @fandomheadrush @thevalesofanduin @bkwrm523 @yourtropegirl @emilyymichelle @secretgaygentdanvers 

@queercapwriting - not sure if you wanted to be tagged but this is the trip I sent you a message about, with my girl <3  It was amazing! :D

[beckyandrick]

Hanging coffins, a sunrise in the clouds, hiking and strawberries - Long weekend road trip

Our first Philippine road trip was 2.5 years ago when Kai was just 3 months old.  This past weekend as the world leaders decended on Manila for the ASEAN conference - the resulting public holidays and 5 day weekend was the perfect excuse for another one!  The Cordilleras (a mountain range in the middle of Luzon, the largest of the Philippine islands and the one we live on in Manila) has been on my Philippine bucket list for a while to see the famous ‘hanging coffins’ in Sagada and the gorgeous green rice terraces in the area.

So Saturday morning, we got on the road early and headed 6 hours north to Baguio.  Well, it should have been 4 hours, but with lanes already closed for ease of travel for the ASEAN delegates, traffic took a bit longer.

Luckily the traffic cleared soon out of Manila and the drive was gorgeous!

Baguio was our first stop on our road trip 2.5 years ago.  It’s cool (60s F / 18-20 C), surrounded by pine trees and a quiet respite from smoggy Manila city life.  We decided to again stop in Baguio on our way to Sagada to break up the trip and re-take a photo from our first trip.

These two were pretty excited to be out of the car.  ;)

We stayed in Camp John Hay, which used to be a rest and relaxation hill station for the US Military.  It’s a great spot to stroll around and yes, do all the touristy things as this is a major Filipino tourist attraction.  :)

We got going early the next morning to get into Sagada by mid-afternoon.  The road to Sagada is known as one of the most dangerous in the world and isn’t advisable to take in the rainy season.  After having seen the retaining walls in various states of construction/repair, and the crazy, windy road (the map of the road is basically one long squiggle), I completely understand why.  Luckily we had perfect weather without a drop of rain as we’re nearing the end of typhoon season.  But wow - 5 hours on this road and we all felt like we had been in a washing machine!

Good thing the scenery was worth it!  The farming terraces were super impressive.  Some of these mountains were incredibly steep.  I couldn’t imagine planting and harvesting basically looking over a cliff!

Finally we arrived in Sagada.  We stayed in little inn in the middle of an orange orchard just outside of town called Rock Inn.  After being in the car for another 5 hours, Kai was pretty excited to run around the gardens.

It was an early night as we had a 4am wake-up the next morning.  One of the most famous things to do in Sagada is to see the sunrise at Kiltepan peak.  So, before 5am the next morning we were trekking up the side of a mountain with our 2 year old and a few hundred of our closest friends to see the sunrise.  It was quite the event up there!  Literally hundreds of people in the dark, vendors selling coffee, local filipino breakfast foods, etc.  

We honestly didn’t exactly know what to expect, and wow were we in for a surprise.  As the sun started to come up, we realized we were overlooking mountain peaks just poking through the clouds that lit up in a fire of colors as the sun came up.  I’ve never seen anything like it...just amazingly beautiful.

This kid was such a trooper!  She was excited to see ‘mr. golden sun get out of bed’.  :)

Next stop on our agenda was a hike to see the famous hanging coffins of the Igorot tribe.  The Igorot tradition is to bury their dead in coffins, nailed into the mountains high above the ground to be closer to their ancestral spirits. While there are few remaining traditional Igorots today, the practice is still followed, albeit on a much smaller scale than in the past.  Tourism is a big deal in Sagada so is very organized.  We registered at the tourism office and got our guide for our 3 hour hike...the first one with Kai riding on daddy’s back in a hiking backpack!  First stop - coffins!

Kai was asleep 5 minutes into the hike.  The 4am wake-up clearly wore her out.  We got lots of looks and comments from the other hikers around as we trekked with our zonked-out kiddo.

She soon woke up as it got interesting - a bit more technical that I planned on for our first hike with her in tow - but Rick was a champ navigating the river crossing, bouldering and steep, slippery slopes!

I think Kai’s favorite part was the waterfall at the end.  She so badly wanted to jump in once we saw some young guys jumping from the top of the falls into the pool below!

We wrapped up our day by stopping at the Sagada weaving workshop (understandably no photos allowed as the women worked) and Sagada pottery where I tried my hand at making a bowl...harder than it looks!

We found a cute little pizza restaurant just outside of town and had an early night after a long, busy day.  The next morning we headed back to Baguio, but not before stopping at the highest point in the Philippine highway system for an obligatory photo and at the famous strawberry farm (Baguio is the strawberry capital of the Philippines).  

We arrived back at the Manor at Camp John Hay just as they were about to kick off the Christmas season with a grand tree lighting ceremony.  The Philippines takes their Christmas season seriously with the season starting in the ‘ber’ months (that’s right...September and yes I have heard Christmas music on Sept 1!).  This was our view from our balcony of all the lights.  It was really well done but I couldn’t help but feeling like we would see the Griswolds at any moment.

We had a great long weekend exploring more of the Philippines.  I love a good road trip.  You just see so much more of a place that way and there was plenty to see on this trip - from the gorgeous mountain scenery to people going about their daily lives which I still just love to see.  

Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost

[helenaalyssa]

10 things you cannot miss in Bali

Spend all day lazing at a beach club

Did you really go to Bali if you didn't spend the day chillaxing at one of their Insta-famous beach clubs. There's a number of popular beach clubs in Bali from Potato Head and Ku De Ta in Seminyak to Jungle Fish, Ubud. Luckily I arrived in Bali just a few weeks after the opening of Canggu's hottest new sunset spot, La Brisa. The mesmerising gypsy-like decor, tasty cocktails and idyllic sunset views will have you relaxed for an entire day and you'll want to get there before everybody else discovers it! You can check out my full review of La Brisa here.

Watch the sunrise and sunset

Arrive early to Seminyak Beach and secure your spot on the colourful comfy bean bags, and equally colourful umbrellas. A cute and romantic spot with gorgeous lanterns to grab a bite and a cocktail as you watch the sun go down. There's even a little band that comes out and sings acoustic which really sets the scene, they also ask for requests!

After taking in the gorgeous sunset in the West, head to the East to catch the sunrise at Sanur beach. You'll have to wake up super early for this one. Named as the “Sunrise Beach” and one of the best on the island for catching the sunrise, Maya Sanur is the perfect hotel located just steps from the beachfront. 

Sample some of the local food

Bali is home to some delicious food spots and amazing fine-dining restaurants. Eat Street in Seminyak was one of my favourite places to find the best places to dine, that were fine-dining worthy with amazing menus but don't break the bank. Chandi, Batik and Sea Circus on Eat Street along with Black Orchid in Sanur and Ubud and Moon Rabbit in Badung were my favourite dining spots. For more in depth info check out my Bali Guide!

Immerse yourself in the jungle scenery and rice fields

Ubud is like something out of a jungle fairytale, there's so much greenery and jungle to see, the perfect location for those Instagram worthy moments, I even made a little video you can view here. If you've ever seen pictures of Bali on Instagram, it's more than likely the layers greenery in the Ubud rice fields have popped up somewhere. One of the top attractions in Bali and a "see it to believe it" type of place, the trek down the steep steps is well worth experiencing the luscious palm tree overhead and you can stop off on the way down for picture opportunities. It does get quite busy and hot from all of the walking so the best time to visit would be early morning. Tegallalang is also famous for the Love Bali sign, this is just on the side of the road, to the right of the fields. There is a small charge to take a photo here and to enter the rice fields. 

The Bali swing

This place is famous for its swing that is hanging between coconut trees, high atop a hill, which offers you spectacular experience. The view of Ayung River, a mini waterfall, rice fields and Mount Agung makes your swing ride thrilling yet addictive. Zen Hideaway is a perfect place if you are looking for serenity and peace, as the rooms here are semi-open, enabling you to enjoy the fresh air and view of Ubud.

Climb a mountain at sunrise

Climbing a sacred active volcano during sunrise is a bucket list thing to do whilst in Bali. You will see it advertised on all of the tour guides that you walk past in the towns, due to the volcanic scares that were happening with Mount Agung whilst I was in Bali it was out of bounds. As well as the lack of time (no, two weeks is nowhere near enough in Bali) I didn’t get to hike up Mt Batur either, which is right now the safe and only option in terms of a volcanic mountain hike.. The trip starts very early, like 2am and there’s a tricky hike to the top in time for the sunrise. It looks like an unforgettable experience.

Shop the markets of Ubud

There are so many markets in and around Bali which sell food, clothes, souvenirs, bags, you name it. My favourites were the markets in Ubud, there’s just so much to look at. Be weary, majority of the shops pretty much sell similar or the same things and make up prices on the spot so be prepared to haggle.  My driver said they usually start at a price 75% higher than what they are willing to accept!

Visit a Waterfall

The idyllic waterfalls in Bali are a beautiful location to spend a couple of hours. I went to the Tegenungan waterfall, which is in Ubud, but I have to say it was a little disappointing, quite muddy and dirty. I’ve seen a number of other waterfalls in Bali along with secret waterfalls which look a lot more striking, particularly the Nungnung Waterfall and Git Git Waterfall.

 Get with the culture and visit some temples

Visiting temples in Bali is something you’re not going to want to miss. There’s a strong sense of culture and an air of calm at the temples and the different locations and architectures are each so unique. You have to wear a sarong to visit most of the temples; you can either bring your own or rent one on arrival. 

The Pura Ulun Danu Beratan Temple is one of the most famous and significant temples in all of Bali, as well as being one of the most photographed.  Located in the centre of the island, it sits on a calming lake up a winding mountainous road against a dreamy mountainous back drop, I visited on quite a cloudy day so unfortunately the fog up there was really thick.

You may have spotted Lempuyang Temple on travel pages on Instagram, one of Bali’s oldest temples and a highlight due to being place 1,175m above sea level with 1,700 steps to climb to get up to the peak.

I also visited the Tirta Empul Holy Spring Water Temple which is close to Ubud. The energy at this sacred temple is remarkable; the spring water is used as holy water for various religious ceremonies.

Go and visit a spiritual healer

As such a spiritual place, there are many spiritual healers in Bali, some real and of course there are always some fakes out there. After Eat, Pray, Love a lot of people had become quite sceptical as well as a lot of comments and reviews floating around online on the authenticity of these healers, I think when it comes to visiting a spiritual healer, I think the best recommendations come from the locals.

I visited Agus Sihman who is an intuitive healer and spent just over 2 hours with him cleansing my energy with a flower bath, a ton beautiful flowers involved in the session, incense and even a little gift afterwards. I strongly believe these experiences are what you make of them, I don’t take every single word literally that I’m told but it definitely makes you think about your energy and attitude and Agus gives you tips and rituals which can improve your life if you act on and continuously work on there. Be prepared to pay a price, my session cost around $100, which I think is a little high, but an unforgettable and refreshing experience nonetheless.

[tirsaroundtheworld]

New Zealand - South Island

Well well, it’s been a long while since my last post! No worries though, I didn’t get stuck under a pile of snow or freeze to death - I’ve had the best time! After the most horrible journey one can possibly imagine from Bali to Queenstown, involving issues with everything from visa and onward flights issues to long delays to intense questioning and searches- all during the night - the stunning approach to Queenstown and the reunion with my favourite partner in crime made up for it. Oh how good to be back together after over two months! We have been crossing the South Island of beautiful New Zealand in the most literal way since.

After the happy reunion in Queenstown we met up with our wonderful new friends from Amsterdam, who we first met in Mongolia, then spent new years eve with in Japan and then met again in Thailand. We followed them on their tight schedule along the West Coast up north via Abel Tasman National Park and Blenheim’s wine-heaven to Picton, where their ferry to the North Island parted us after three super fun and exciting weeks.

After that we made our way back and further South, driving over almost each of the South Island’s highways. These highlights happened along the way of the past few months down under:

# Lucky enough, Lodewijk had arrived in Queenstown a few days before me and stayed with a couple who happened to sell a family-car-transferred-to-ultra-basic-campervan; just what we needed! Unfortunately the garage wasn’t in tune with this fast pace: it took 6 days from my arrival to get our Warranty of Fitness and pre-purchase checkup done. It then took another 10 minutes in the post office to register and the Mitsubishi Delica Spacegear was rightfully ours and ready to rumble. Luckily Queenstown had enough to keep us entertained during the wait: we soaked in its beautiful views while walking through the cute streets, beautiful harbour and lushy botanical garden, stuffed our faces with the fabulous hamburgers of Fergburger on four consecutive days, celebrated travelerlife with our friends in their super luxurious motorhome, made a trip to beautiful Glenorchy and collected all we needed for the roadtrip. # As soon as we were roadready, we made our way to the beautiful Milford Sounds. As we arrived in the dark, we were in for a surprise; when we woke up we found ourselves surrounded by endless majestic, lushy rockformations dotted with countless waterfalls and partially hidden under a mystical blanket of clouds. It was stunning! We went on a boat trip to get up close with the breathtaking sounds, quite a warming up to New Zealand’s beauty! # One of New Zealand’s most popular activities is tramping - trekking and camping. There are a number of ‘Great Walks’ in the country along completely stunning paths that usually take several days to complete. Now that it’s winter, many of the huts along the paths aren’t open for camping or sections of the walks are closed because of the conditions; limiting us to only go on one day walks or just parts of the great walks. The first proper trekking we did was along part of the Kepler track - following a path through different types of bush and past several Lord-of-the-Ringsy scenery before reaching the stunning Manapouri lake. A great first walk! # One of the most beautiful places that we’ve seen on the South Island is the West Coast. Also referred to as the Wet Coast, and for a good reason.. We had to dodge the occasional intense shower but hey, nothing new for us Dutchies. Apart from the simply stunning coastal scenery, we especially enjoyed the beautiful Pancake rocks, formed by the sea and its tides, the close encounters with the cheeky indigenous Kea birds and the a ma zing Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. Unfortunately the weather didn’t allow us to take a helicopter ride up to the glacier for a walk, so we had to do with admiring the blue mass of ice from the ground. Tough life! 😂 # From the West Coast we made our way up north, via the stunning Nelson Lakes National Park where we enjoyed an indoor campervan picnic admiring the rainy view, to Nelson, a proper city at the northern coast of the South Island. We planned just a short stay in Nelson to stock and fuel up before entering the more remote world of Abel Tasman National Park, but ended up needing more time to visit the Leonardo DaVinci expo at the regional museum, wake up with some New Zealand style Dutch oliebollen from the weekend’s farmers market, shopping, playing minigolf and eating the best falafel so far found in New Zealand (twice 😏). # Once in Abel Tasman National Park, a large, forresty park, dotted with deserted sandy beaches, clear blue sea and other hidden gems, we got a watertaxi to drop us at beautiful Anchorage bay. From there, we followed the end section of the Abel Tasman Coast Walk back to where we started, taking a detour to find Cleopatra’s pool, hidden in the forrest. At the end of the day we had walked for about 6 hours and mainly seen all different types of bush! In hindsight it might have been better to take a walk more to the north, or to rent some canoes and observe Tasman’s beauty from the insanely blue water. Live and learn! 🙃 # After our proper work-out in Abel Tasman National Park we figured we deserved a drink, and what better place for that than the beautiful Marlborough wine region, famous for its delicious Sauvignon Blanc! Based in boring Blenheim, we visited 6 different vineyards to taste their variety of wines and our absolute favourite was Peter Yealands. Not only did we looove their all organic and delicious wines, there’s also a self guided tour around their completely stunning vineyards; right at the cliffs to the sea with amazing views all around and crawling with the cutest Babydoll sheep on land mowing duty. Wine will never taste the same! 😂 # And then we were on our own. Our plan was to follow the east coast to Christchurch, but an earthquake had already shattered that plan over a year ago (how did we not know this?!). That meant a detour and an extra stop in Nelson for that divine falafel before we made it to Christchurch. This interesting city was largely destroyed by a series of heavy earthquakes in 2013, but didn’t lose its positive spirit. Even though the effects of the earthquake can still be seen around town, the people picked their lives back up, built a very cool mall from colourful containers, completed a half collapsed cathedral with perfectly printed cardboard and filled the gaps of destructed buildings with pieces of art. Such an interesting city! Another big plus of our time in Christchurch was of a different kind: for many tourists Christchurch was the end of their trip, so campervans had to be returned and the little fridges and wardrobes cleared out. And all the 'left overs’ were left in the camp kitchen or presented to us at our van! After a few days there we left with unopened bags of pasta, kilos of rice, different herbs and spices, fruits, fresh bread, bottles of wine, local beers, pillows, wine glasses and even a heater. Our time in Christchurch was definitely worth it!! 😂 # Right under Christchurch is the beautiful Banks Peninsula, a gorgeous piece of land that is formed long ago by two volcanic eruptions. We followed the Summit Road to get from the end of Christchurch to Akaroa - the peninsula’s main city- which, as the name suggests, took us along the edge of one of the original craters. We were blessed with one amazing view over the rugged land and bays with crystal clear water after the other; this is hands down one of our most favourite places on all the island! # We had already found out that our favourite thing to do in NZ is just to drive around and soak in the amazing beauty and insane views around each corner, again and again, and the scenery on the way to Lake Tekapo once again proved that. Unfortunately, it had been raining a lot and before we knew it we got stuck in the mud while exploring a possible camping spot in the wild. Oooops. Nowhere near civilization we were bound to try and try, stuffing branches and other debris from the forest under the tires, until we finally managed to get out of the mud, turn around, dive right back in and get out again at the other end. We aged about 10 years in that hour, gotta love adventure! And a different campsite for the night. # Absolutely the best way we found to admire Lake Tekapo is from the summit of Mt John, where the cute cafe with viewing deck enabled us to sit back, secretly eat our own lunch and sip on some green tea while soaking in the seriously eye-popping view over the snowy, hilly landscape completed with the bright blue lake. Wow! # Just when we thought we had seen the most beautiful thing on the island, we made our way to Aoraki / Mt Cook National Park. Already the drive past the stunning Lake Pukaki, which bright blue colour was completely covered with mystical mist when we first drove past it on the way to the park, got us reconsidering our favourite view. But then the sun broke through the near constantly present clouds while we hiked between the mountains through the Hooker Valley until we reached the terminus of the Hooker glacier, with views of crystal clear springs, snowy Mt Cook and floating icebergs in the impressive Hooker Lake. Yet another most beautiful view in the world! # After all that time in the mountains, we made our way to the beautiful beaches of Southland. This not at all touristy area is marked with stunning cliffs and rockformations, trees that are blown away by the heavy, salty winds and a lot of wildlife. Between the picture perfect lighthouses, driftwood filled beaches and grassy dunes we got up close with some smelly sea lions lazing around, spotted a variety of birds and, most specially, watched a couple of super rare Yellow Eyed Pinguins get back on land after a day out in the sea, wiggle ashore and retreat to their hidden nests. Wow that was really cool, even though we were quite far away in a camouflaged viewing hide not to disturb the beautiful creatures in any way. Another absolute highlight from our time in Southland was our day with Ian, the fun local we met in a bar in Colac Bay. After a drink in that bar, we got invited to his farm the next day where we got to help out with marking the new born lambs with orange hearts, re-arranging the fields and feeding the cattle. Even though we managed to mark the wrong lambs and probably cost more work than we made up for, we had a great day! Big thanks to Ian, such a rockstar! # Our next stop was in Dunedin, the 'Edinburgh of the South’, a surprisingly lively city at the east coast. So far, we hadn’t seen any entertainment after 16.00, but here were actual youngsters and students and bars and all! Nothing crazy still, but we enjoyed to be in a city again. We visited the beautiful Toitu museum, crossed all down town tracking different pieces of streetart, walked up the hilly shopping street and bought delightful treats on the Saturday morning farmers market. Lovely! # Under Dunedin is another peninsula; the Otago Peninsula. We were hoping to find some Banks-like views, but no. The road to the end was no where near as spectaculair as Banks’ Summit Road, it rained all day and the clouds prevented us from seeing any views at all. We went to see the world’s only mainland breeding place of the majestic Royal Albatrosses at the end of the peninsula, which is really cool, but probably during naptime; we barely spotted any action. You win some, you lose some, right? 😂 # We were definitely winning again when we got back up to Wanaka! We had been ready to go snowboarding for weeks, but the weather on the slopes hadn’t been good so we moved on twice before there finally was a good forecast. Not even just good; great - three times a charm! So we got ourselves gear and liftpasses and drove up to Treble Cone, where we had the best day trying out the not really fresh but still nice New Zealand snow, shredding almost alone along the quiet slopes, absorbing the sun and admiring the to die for view. Soooo worth the wait!! And as the good weather kept on coming, we went for another day on the slopes - this time at Cardrona, where it was possibly even better. The snow was fresher, the slopes were wider and their was a lot of freestyle jumping going on in preparations for the Winter X Games that would start soon. Another fantastic day, we looove New Zealand! # From Wanaka we made our way back along the stunning Haast pass to the West Coast. Instead of moving straight up north from there, we decided to make our way all the way south to the end of the line at Jackson Bay first. Just as the rest of the West Coast, the drive to get there was stunning! Jackson Bay itself was a bit sleepy, but functioned as a great place for a picnic with view on its natural harbour - the only one on the West Coast! Moving back up north from there was possibly even more stunning than the first time as we had great weather this time. Bliss! # By now we had tackled almost all main highways on the island, except for this very exiting one; Arthurs pass. Ofcourse we couldn’t let that happen, so right after Greymouth we took the exit and left the West Coast for a 'slight’ detour into the heart of the country. Our intention was just to drive through the stunning mountain pass untill we reached Arthur’s Pass village - but heavy heavy rain prevented us from properly enjoying this scenery so we decided to continue to Christchurch for the night. And it was a good choice; we got lucky with free stuff at the camping again and we woke up in bright sunshine. In the end we got to enjoy every bit of the drive back to the West Coast, from the majestic, rocky Castle Hill to the impressive viaduct in the mountains and its views to the magical world of Kumara’s Glowworm caves and to the satisfaction of ticking this one highway off the to do list. 😜 # Back at the West Coast we decided to go to the northern end of the line too. The very last stop all the way up the West Coast is Karamea. Most of the crowds (that are extremely limited in winter anyway) do not come up there, so we found ourselves between a bunch of retired New Zealanders that semi-permanently parked their huge housebuses at the cute Karamea Domain ground, ready to kick off the whitebaiting season just around the corner. The atmosphere was however fantastic and we had a lot of fun joining the oldies in their daily gettogether before dinner. Moreover, Karamea is at the entrance of the beautiful Kahurangi National Park. Along the Heaphy Track, another one of the great walks, we made our way to the beautiful Scott’s Beach, which we shared with no one but a cute little seal. Then we walked practically every short walk in the absolutely stunning Oparara basin, where we were blown away by beautiful natural arches, caves, rare blue ducks and other natural treasures. W. O. W. Those ends-of-the-line work for us! # Even though in a straight line it would only be around 75 km to the Northern tip of the South Island, there is no direct road there. From the West Coast we had to drive all around Abel Tasman National Park to reach the northernmost point of the South Island; Farewell Spit. The drive is worth it though, we passed some seriously contestants for 'most beautiful view’ and made several stops in the Golden Bay before we reached the end. Especially the walk, or more like climb, we made through proper Hobbit scenery to find the well hidden Harwood’s Hole and adjacent view over the valley took our breaths away. We ended the day with a simply perfect sunset at Wharariki Beach with its iconic arches on the shore, life is good! # The last drive we took on the South Island was probably our favourite; it took us right into the Malborough Sounds along the so called French Pass. We had attempted to take this drive after saying goodbye to our friends, but the sky was crying at the time so we didn’t see a thing and returned. This time though, it was perfect. The sky was almost clear, the gravelroad wasn’t as bad as can be and the scenery was amazing. Dramatic views of bushy, green sounds popping out of the sea, exotic emerald waters and fields with lambs all along the way. No picture would capture the beauty of this place as it is, but I tried anyway. 😜

And then we reached Picton.. After 2 amazing, breathtaking and overly satisfying months, some very dear new friends, the most unefficient route, 2 flat tires, a new waterpump, a completely new wardrobe and a new pile of memories it is time to get on a ferry for the next part of our New Zealand adventure; on to the North Island! 🇳🇿⛴🌏