Clapton+Jameson+Guinness= AWESOME!

-->
So in Ireland, they suggest getting to the train station 30 minutes before departure to make sure you don't get caught in a last minute ticket line. What they don't tell you is that your “train at 9am” is apparently Gaelic for a bus at 8:30am. Yep, the ticket AND the departure board says Train from Kent (Cork) to Dublin at 9am. We got there at 8:25, and when we asked what time the train would allow us to board (keep in mind it still said Train to Dublin departing at 9am), the women at the ticket window looked at me like I was crazy and said I better hop on the bus because it was about to leave. I'm just going to chalk this up to a cultural difference. Long story short, we were dropped off at a train station a couple hours away and pulled into Dublin an hour or two after that. We checked into our B&B, which was great, and then took off to the Dublin O2 to see... Eric -Mother F'n- Clapton. First, the O2 might be the best venue I've ever been to. It held about 20k people, but felt very small. We were in the back (we quit our jobs to travel the world, we're on a budget!), but we could see him and the band with no problems. This guy is in his late 60's, has been touring since 1963, and can still rock the house. He sounded incredible. He played for 2 hours, which felt like 30 mins, playing Wonderful Tonight, Bell Bottom Blues, Layla, ….. As we are told only Americans say... it was AWESOME!

The next day we followed up Mr. Clapton with a run through Phoenix Park, and then a tour of the old Jameson Distillery. It is a beautiful building which houses all of the old distillery equipment, a nice restaurant, and bar that is pretty hard to pass up. Yours truly was even picked to be part of the whiskey tasting panel at the end where we were able to taste the difference between a popular scotch, American whiskey, and of course Jameson Irish whiskey. Remember (please read following in Irish accent), Jameson Irish Whiskey is the first whiskey in the world to be TRIPLE distilled to ensure purity and taste, a process that is still used this day that even Mr. John Jameson himself would be proud of. I am now a certified Jameson Whiskey taster complete with diploma.

After the distillery, we took a tour of Trinity College and the Book of Kells. If you are in Dublin, make it a point to stop by and see the Book of Kells. I can't imagine anyone not being impressed by the detail of the writing and art inside the books. You have to exit through the Trinity College Library, which could be it's own tour. We followed up Trinity College with a night out at Temple Bar, listening to Irish music and trying to understand what the locals were saying. The next day we did a walk through St. Jame's gate, had a stop at the Guinness Storehouse and did some final exploring of Dublin before we geared up to head for Galway.

THE HOMELAND! County Cork, Ireland: the land of a thousand “pales”

-->

So, after a 23 hour flight (we did it in business class, so it was SICK!) we walked off the plane in Cork to see a welcome sign reading Colin and Kelsey (VIP's!). It was cousins on my dad's side, Noreen and Anne, who we were meeting for the first time. We had only had a couple of email exchanges, but some how when meeting them, it felt like we had known each other for years.

As everyone probably knows Ireland is as green as it gets. As most everyone also knows, it gets this green because it rains... all the time. There is almost no chance of being sun burned, PARADISE! Anne was so kind, she took the entire day off of work and drove us around County Cork, where my ancestors are from. She showed us towns all over the county; Bandon, Innishannon, Timoleague as well as others I will never get close in spelling. Some of the highlights were seeing my Great Great Grandfather's Grave (I think I got that right), the Murphy farm (side note, thank you Anne McSweeney for setting this up as I know they are not part of your side of the family) which is still operating and in the family after 5 generations, and also seeing the McSweeney farm; which at one point was a one room house that was 27'x17' and housed 14 people, unbelievable. Thank you to the Murphy's and to Nellie May and Aeman for having us over. Also, Aemon showed me around the grounds (where I almost put my foot into a pair of rain boots with a dead mouse and then was snuck up on by the biggest cow I've ever seen), where my great grandmother would have been working, which was very cool. After the tour of the County, we got prepared for the main event; a good ol' fashion Irish Gathering!

So, let me set this up by saying we gave Anne and Noreen less than 5 days notice that we were coming to Ireland, let alone when we'd be in Cork. I think by the time we gave them our final details, it was actually only 3 days before arrival. They told us they were going to try and put together a gathering of the relatives for us so we can meet everyone, but weren't sure how many people would be able to make it on such short notice. Totally understandable. When we arrived, Anne and Noreen apologized because “not as many as they hoped” could come that night, due to the 48 hours notice. Well when we arrived at the hotel that night, about 10 relatives were there waiting to meet us. We were impressed and honored at that. Well over the next 3 or 4 hours, another 10-15 relatives came out to meet us, all in all I think it was just shy of 25 people. We spent 4 hours getting to know distant cousins, hearing stories of when they had met my aunts and uncles back home, the time my parents came out, took us over the family tree, and of course we had some Murphy's Stout together. It may sound strange, but this was without a doubt one of the highlights of our trip. Thanks for making the time everyone.

The next day we had planned a tour of Blarney Castle and a few other parts of the county. Well after a 23 hour flight, then staying up for another 12 hours and drinking into the night with Irishmen, we may have slept through our 8am tour. We didn't stand a chance. I don't think we got out of bed until noon. We made the most of it by seeing Cork City, which is beautiful. We capped off that night with a dinner at Noreen's home with her family and Anne. A special thanks to both Noreen and Anne for hosting us and showing us an amazing time. We will never forget it.

Next stop Dublin!

week 2 of Campervanning... I love this thing.

well - we are officially hooked now. we love, love, love spending time in our van taking in the scenery, stopping to see cows and sheep, sip on coffees, find a beautiful lake or pond that are colors we never knew existed, and sometimes to just simply breathe the fresh air. it's been such an amazing experience that i begin to think it is something i will want to do once a year in different places. i can feel my energy levels rise, and smiles coming out of me when we are in nature, enjoying the world in all its simplicity, and eachother. week 2 was just as amazing as week 1 (although truth be told, we do fancy the South Island a bit more than the north... just a little more depth to the scenery). but week 2 experiences made it hang right up in the top 10 things we've ever done. since we are soooo behind on our blogging - im just going to recap these amazing times and let the pictures do a bit more of the talking.

christchurch - we're back!!!
we made it back to christchurch just in time to grab a delicious meal at our favorite pub, Pomeroys. Our waitor rememebered us, and glady sat us at our table getting us some drinks. We told him about our adventures over the past few weeks and he thought it was "magic"... he also thought the soup we wanted to older was "magic" along with the fact that we were heading to a rugby game... it was "magic". We got a little wild that night, found a spot for our car behind our pub (which was actually very safe) and woke up early the next morning to go for a run in their Gardens - which were stunning. It was Sunday so most everything was closed and the gardens were packed with people out for walks, birthday parties, and picnics. We then headed over to a local bar where they actually provide an awesome double decker bus to take people to the local rugby game... so we decided to treat ourselves to a hilarious bus ride, our first rugby game, and some hot dogs and beer. Needless to say, it was a blast although Col was a bit disappointed in the excitement level of the game... which i have to agree with. Us bloody americans are so used to big hits, and exciting play by plays from NFL that rubgy felt a bit slow. Granted it was our first game, so we will absolutely be giving this another shot. We then treated ourselves to a night @ Pomeroys, this time in their bed & breakfast and wished eachother a happy anniversary while listening to our wedding song, watching our video, and thinking about how freaking lucky we are. Tears, smiles, and snuggles were all shared.

After that we were off to Blenheim - the winery region of the South Isalnd. We drove up the coast, which was stunning (so calm like a lake full of giant rocks everywhere) - we stoppped in Kiakora to check out the view from their lookout point, saw some nuns, then headed down the hill and were on our way. We passed tons of seals racing, and jumping out of the water along the coast and then finally came to our adorable campsite in Blenheim. We grabbed some bikes and headed to the local wineries. we noticed, funny enough, we seemed to be following another couple who were riding similar bikes and looked a similar age... we coincidentally followed them from the first little fudge shop stop (where we had bomb rollo fudge) from wineries 1,2,3 then to the grocery store where we finally met them - another couple staying at the same place as us from Wisconsin. our favorite winery was the last one where the pourer offered colin an SF Giants jackets she had, and we enjoyed some of our favorite white wines (for 2 people who dont like white wine). Our favorite part about the other wineries, specifically the champagne one was that this guy COULD NOT get over the fact that there were no deadly animals in NZ, he was just so disappointed. we told him - hey buddy... be grateful you dont have to watch out for bears in your campsites. we then headed back to the site - and had a great time with our new Wisconsin friends & another couple we met who had been traveling for 2 years all over. they were for sure our inspiration and we loved having conversation with the 6 of them late into the night. towards the end, a crazy old new zealnder wandered over to join our conversation and perhaps killed the mood too much with talk of war and a lot of other stuff that i couldnt understand. we did go to bed happy that night though after meeting new friends and woke up early the next day to head to our next stop... lake taupo.

Lake Taupo was incredible. The town is just lovely - very Arrowheadish to me... small and quaint, but warm and full of watersports. We drove around, spent sometime at their local library and then grabbed our swimmers and headed off for a hike that we were told had some thermal pools. well thermal pools it had, with a lot more to offer. the views along the river were beautiful, and we enjoyed our 2 hour hike having good conversation, and looking forward to all the things we were going to do next. we saw the beautiful Hukka Falls in the middle and then ended it with a relaxing dip in the HOT thermal pools, they were boiling and so cool! Later that night we cooked up some dinner and camped in a bit of a valley of a campsite, and woke up to quite the view. That next day we sped like demons down the road, so excited for our next adventure... HOBBITON!!!!!

Now, I am not a huge Lord of the Rings fan - gasp! Yes, I saw them and thought they were beautiful and imaginative and scary - but lets be honest, that was a while ago now. And we did just watch the Hobbit to get a feel for it, and the moving was delightful with a terrible "ending". So we were excited for this - but also just sort of doing it, just to do it. Well - thank goodness we did it! Being involved in production I was prepared to be underwhelmed with a touristy make up of a set - but oh boy was I wrong. The set was amazing, as was the stories that went along with it. It was awesome seeing all the Hobbit holes (like 40 of them) that were scaled differently for different scenes and different types of people - so you could stand next to one which was built at 90% scale and be a hobbit or stand next to another built at 30% scale and be a wizard. They told us about tiny detials that were a must for Peter Jackson such as the following:
- he made PA's climb to the top of the clothes lines on hills every morning and night that they shot to put the clothes back up there so that there would be actaul foot prints on the ground to show their tracks
- it was filmed on a giant sheep farm, with thousands of sheep but he wanted his sheep to look more "ancient" so he shipped a whole bunch in from the UK
- for bilbo's 111 birthday party he wanted everyone to have real beer, but not be drunk so he asked some companies to make 1% beer for him, and when they said no he went and bought his own brewery... brewed it for those scenes... and called it sobering thought
- he talked the NZ government into making the airspace around his shoot prohibited for all airplanes- and if they flew in there they would never be able to fly ANYWHERE in NZ again
- the 2 gardens they have on set actually produced food that they served to everyone
- each hobbit had a mailbox that was actually associated with their job/occupation - there was even one that has beer painted on their b/c he was the town drunk
- and lastly they built the green dragon tavern that we got to end up at and have some local cider and beer... and the tavern was intricate and gorgeous
Hobbiton was a huge success - we loved every minute of it - and can't wait for COURT & RY to go!!!! you're going to love it and we thought of you guys the whole time! We drove along the coast that night, found a beach, stared at the most amazing stars we'd ever seen, and slept their before our next stop - Auckland.

Auckland was a beautiful little town along the water- we had such a good time here. Our first day we found a cute campsite outside of town, and then headed to the wharf to catch the ferry... in our true Murphy fashion we just barely missed it and then headed to a bar to wait for the next one. yup - you know how this goes... we missed the next one, the next one, and the next one. but this time it was actually concious - col wasnt feeling well, and there is nothing that will take care of a sore throat better than a beer and a warriors game for this one. and low and behold - without even looking, we stumbled up a great bar, with an awesome bar tender playing the warriors game. after seeing the smile on his face, i knew we could pass up on the wineries of wehikeke island and just enjoy our dinner plans out there after we watched the game (which was a victory of course). the ferry took us to this stunning winery called Mudbrick (another Kristen Ewing recco - thanks lady!) - and we had a private wine tasting and incredible meal... what a dinner. I'd say it was the best we had there - but the next day we went to dinner at this awsome Thai place with our new friends Mark & Kate. One of our best friends from SF (and college), now an LA girl, set us up with some of her favorite people. The intro via email included calling us Irish bunnys, beards, and sparks - thanks Mao! They came and got us and we had such a wonderful meal together, talking about traveling, volunteering, NZ, NY, Ireland and much much more. They were so wonderful to take us to dinner, and we can't wait to see them again when they visit the states - hopefully soon!!

What a wonderful way that was to end our time in NZ. We have so many memories that we will treasure forever. We know we will be back, as that place gave us a feeling we will never forget. We're so grateful for the beaches, lakes, mountains and glaciers we saw, the delicious food and wine we consumed, the kind and admirable people we met, and mostly the simple moments we got to spend together. We love you NZ! Now its time to visit the homeland... Ireland, here we come!