Around The World BABY!

AROUND THE WORLD BABY

2007-08-30T13:04:00.001-07:00

ITS OFFICIAL: Around The World... We did it. Well, I thought I was going to return to Egypt to teach kite surfing lessons at a hotel in Dehab and Rhett already had a flight home from Dusseldorf Germany in a little over a week, so we split up in Spain. Rhett went up to France and toured Europe and then flew home. I went over to Portugual then back to Madrid and Switzerland where I stayed with the Kaufmanns again. From there I headed over to Austria and Hungry then came back to Switzerland. While I was searching for my flight to Egypt a really cheap flight to Vegas popped up and I couldnt resist. My moms family was having a huge family reunion in Utah and both my mom and grandparents were bummed I wasn't going to make it. (I was planning to be back in Egypt) So when I found the flight I called my dad, asked him when they were driving through Vegas... bought a ticket for an arrival that same day and showed up on the Tropicana Offramp in the heart of Vegas. My Mom freaked! She thought that I was in Egypt still and then here I come running off the side of the freeway! It was classic... So I'm back. We just both wanted to say thank you to EVERYBODY that helped us along the way. You made our trip the amazing experience that it was... Now its our turn to show the hospitality.. so come visit us!!

VIENNA LISBON
LISBON
MADRID
MUNDAKA

The End....for now

2007-06-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

This is Rhett this time and for me, the world trip is finally over, but there are plenty of photos yet to share. After Austin and I left Switzerland we headed to Barcelona, Spain. It was Saturday, so the first thing we wanted to do was find where the church was. Upon our arrival we found the local members were having a party for a couple that would be getting married in the coming. We were warmly welcomed and well fed. After church the next day, we enjoyed some of the sights of the city before taking a night train to Bilbao in the Basque part of Spain (also where Mundaka, a famous surf spot, is. Sadly, there was no surf while we were there). After spending an entire day at the beach and sleeping under a bridge by the beach, Tuesday morning Austin and I parted ways. I got to take the camera, and I left Austin in Spain to go up to Paris and haven't seen him since. In the next 9 days I went through 7 different countries on night trains, stopping for a few hours during the day to see different sights.

Lisa and Mary K. gave us quite the send-off. We were fortunate enough to get to attend the Temple in Bern, Switzerland.

Bern is a pretty neat city.

This is the view of the beach we were at all day from under the bridge we slept under. It's fun to see the sun rise.

Paris had some sweet stuff. This is me at the Arc D'Triumph

This poor guy's head must have fallen off or something...

In Munich, Germany I had the opportunity to attend Dachau, which is where the first Concentration camp was built. It was definitely an eye-opening experience and I'm glad I got to go.

In Munich they also have a big park that's bigger than New York City's Central Park. There's a river that runs through the park and at a particularly fast flowing part, some of the locals managed to create a standing wave using wooden boards and ropes. It was really neat, and no, sadly, I didn't get to try.

This is the Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary. It's one of my favorite buildings in Europe.

This is how I spent most of my time. I read the book sitting in front of me- October Sky- twice in about 10 days.

Zurich's a neat city as well.

It's hard to know what to say at this point. I've had the opportunity to cram a lifetime of adventure and excitement into 6 months, and I owe it all to my best friend Austin. Even with all that we've been able to show you on the blogspot over the past 6 months, there are scores more photos to be seen and stories to be told that we'd love to share with anyone willing to listen. I just want to say thank you to everyone helped us along our trip, we couldn't have made it without you. And Austin, thanks for inviting me along.

Switzerland Temple

2007-06-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Can you believe they let us in? Bern Switzerland...

Hermanos para Vida... Odale Vato

2007-06-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

Canyoning

2007-06-14T23:37:00.000-07:00

Sorrz, no pictures to prove it... but yesterdaz we spent the money to go canyoning through the alps! Probably the funnest thing that we have done yet... We spent like an hour and a half down in this canyon literally jumping into small pools between crevaces and fliping off of waterfalls and repelling down waterfalls, and climbing behind waterfalls. We were all geared up in wetsuits and booties and life jackets and helmets... We would have pictures to prove it except they were like 50 bucks... So sorry... but you can go to this website and see what we did...

http://www.outdoor-interlaken.ch/en/summer/canyoning/#

Well... it was a blast and we love you guys...

Love Us

Switzerland!

2007-06-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

So far Swityerland has been a different storz. Oh man… so on our train ride from Milan Italz to Bern Swityerland I overhear a girl talking about Portugal and I asked her how she liked it. I found out she lived in swityerland (in bern where the temple is) for two zears and asked her if she knew where the Mormon Temple was… Well, haha, she turned out to be LDS… Kenzie is her name, and her mom Mary Kay and her friend Lisa were all on the train. Kenzie lives in Grindelwald (a small town right in the Alps) and married a guy from Swityerland and Mary Kay and Lisa had just finished a cruise in Europe. Thez were in Milan shopping and heading back home. Well we started talking and one thing lead to another and next thing we know we are in their car going home with them! Haha, thez are seriouslz so fun! Thez live litterallz IN THE Alps! We couldn’t believe their hospitalitz especiallz because of how dirtz we were having slept in the woods and not showering for like the past 5 dazs! Haha. But thez are great. We spent todaz hiking to a lake up in the Alps… it is amaying… Probablz the most beautiful scenarz I have ever seen….

Bode! The cutest kid in Switzerland! (Kenzie`s boy)

Ladies eat your hearts out

There are seriously waterfalls and flowers and snow all over the place!

Lunch in the Alps...

Outside the front door... the coolest house ever! Kenzies husband Mandel builds Swiss houses... (the house is behind us... not that shack)

Me Kenzie and Lisa

Kenzie Me (Bode on my back) Mary Kay Rhett Lisa

Their were more mountains behind the clouds...

talk about a mirror lake...

Yeah...were buds

Italy

2007-06-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

So this keyboard is a little different, and im too lazy to try to change my mistakes... the z is a y and the y is a z… so just get used to it… haha

Well, Italz was prettz sweet. We took the ferrz from Athens and got in to Bari Saturdaz morning and then took a train straight to Rome because we wanted to be in Rome for church sundaz morning… Well Rome was backed and once we got there…there was no room for us in the inn, or anz hostel… We sat next to a member of the church, we think, mazbe less active.. but he told us where the church was and got the elders on the phone with us and thez explained how to get to the church… So since we couldn’t find anz accommodation in the citz and we had no place to staz we just decided to head up towards the church and see what we could find. Well… we found a park about a quarter mile from the church, and it being like 9 or 10 we just decided to find a place in the park… Well the park was closed, but the woods right next to it were open.. so we roamed around and found an old square building. So we just climbed the tree next to it up onto the roof and made camp. We were a little dirtz for church the next morning but nobodz seemed to mind. That night we just slept behind the church on the ground… We saw the citz and bought tons of Gelato… oh man… so good…

Sara hid a treasure for me..

The Elders singing downtown... Rhett went and joined them while i went around talking to people with another Elder. The singing was in Italian, thez sounded good!

Ferrz from Greece to Italz

Our Camp on the roof

Treasure hunting

Nachal Yehudiya

2007-06-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

So we heard of this hike in the middle of the Galilee by some kids we met on a bus and decided to go check it out. What we found was unreal! Its this 4 hour hike down into this canyon in the lower galilee. The Jordan River runs through it and you just go explore down this canyon. There are tons of waterfalls and pools and the trek requires you to climb down waterfalls and swim across these pools to keep going. You have no choice but to get completley wet. We got there too late the first day and couldnt hike and didnt want to spend money to go back to town and find a hostel... so we just slept in an Israeli park... Yup, we made our beds in the middle of some tunnel slides on a playground. Probably the worst night sleep either of us have ever had! Haha, but the next morning was well worth it!!

oh ya.. we are in greece

greece

Israel

2007-06-06T21:22:00.001-07:00

Israel was a lot different than we thought it would be... at least what I thought it would be. I imagined a third world desert country with bombs going off everywhere. Man was I wrong! It is gorgeous. Beautiful people everywhere with beautiful scenery. We caught a bus up from the border of Egypt and Israel into Tel Aviv (the capital) then made our way over to Jerusalem. Once we got there we found a cheap hostel in the middle of the Old City of Jerusalem. Its crazy! They have a Christian Quarter a Jewish Quarter a Armenian Quarter and a Muslim Quarter all in the small city. All types of people clash in this small area. Its pretty nutts. Our hostel looked like it was hundreds of years old... We arrived Friday so we spent Saturday (the sabbath) at church and then Sunday we went down to the Dead Sea! Talk about trippy... No matter how hard you tried you would just float there! It was unreal! We spent the day down there then just came back up Jerusalem and prepared for our next adventure... NACHAL YEHUDIYA! I'll try to upload those tonight when we get back!

The Dead Sea

The Old City of Jerusalem

Jerusalem Center BYU Brach. The students were up in Tiberias for the Weekend

The Garden of Gethsemane

Golgotha

The Garder Tomb

Egypt

2007-06-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

Egypt! We arrived in Cairo and found a cheap hostel. (Our cheapest hostel was $1.75 each per night!) That night we took a boat ride on the Nile River and then the next day caught a subway out to the Pryamids. From there we caught a bus out to the Sinai and snorkeled the Red Sea!! The coolest thing ever! Then from there we caught a ride up to the Israel border! Check it out. Sorry the order is a little Whack...

Rhett and the Red Sea

This picture is cool because there is just a little hole in the middle of this reef off the coast. So Rhett just jumped down into what you would think would only be a foot of water... then disappeared... Pretty Cool..

I think this guys name was Ali... if not, what could fit better?

Pryamids in Giza

We take what we can get

I tried to steal this guys camel... but then got a little spooked cause I couldnt get it to slow down! I had to just aim for a hill so it would finally slow down....

Tianaman Square and The Great Wall

2007-05-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

So Mel from New Zealand and Carley from Washington D.C. (La Nae's little sister) and Rhett and I went all together from Tian Jin to Beijing and then up to the great wall. The Cheungs put us up on Saturday night in Tian Jin... it was so nice! (Thanks guys!) We had a blast at the wall!

Yeah, we took a zip line off the great wall of China!

It was fun.. (Incase you couldnt tell)

They hooked two of us together to go faster... This is Mel and Carley

Great Wall

Rhett

Court Yard of the Ancient City

Sweet Picture.. Thats Rhett

Tianaman Square

Heaveny Gate of Peace... Or something.. Entrance to the Ancient City

Rhett Carley Mel Austin

China...

2007-05-31T07:32:00.000-07:00

More China... While we were there we met Vivian, definatley my most favorite Chinese person that I met. She was soo funny. She spoke perfect English and was a Chinese Native, so she would translate for us to all the vendors and random Chinese we saw...

This girl just liked Rhett and wanted his picutre

Vivian on the Left Translating for Me

Shang Hai Skate Park... Biggest skate park in the world and its free and EMPTY!

Vivian taught me how to ask a girl if she had a boyfriend in Chinese... So I would do it just to amuse her... I never really knew what they responded, but it was all just for fun anyway...

"The Bund" - Downtown Shanghai

Pearl Shopping

This Lady Made your Peals! (well put them on the bands...)

I had a crown cheering for me... Asian investors checking out the area come in groups to see the skate park. They have never seen skating before and didnt realize I was far from great... Hence the applause after my run..

So here's a funny story: This girl we met in McDonalds. We had just got off the train from Shanghai to Bejing and went into McDonalds for breakfast. We were planning to met our friends from New Zealand at the airport in like 5 hours. We werent sure we'd be able to stay with them because of room in their house but thought we should at least go and met them at the airport. Well, I noticed this Chinese girl "Jing Jing" looking over at us... So since I didnt know where the heck we were on the map I decided to go ask her if she knew where we were. Well, one thing led to another and she turned out to be very very helpful. haha. She ended up taking us all around Beijing for the day. She bought us drinks and taxi fare and a game of minature golf, and even our bus ride up to the airport! haha. When we got to the airport and met up with our friends we found out they didnt have room for us. So.... we called Jing Jing. Sure enough she had us sleep at her and her brothers house! haha. She bought us dinner, and paid for some of our taxi and even bought our train ticket the next day down to our frineds in Tin Jian! Haha.. we have no idea why she was so good to us... and no matter how hard we tried to turn down her hospitality it wouldnt due. She just payed and payed and payed! haha. Who would have thought we'd get all of that from a random girl we met in McDonalds the same day!

This is us eating dinner with her brother and friends. It was really good...

We hitched in the back of a moving van...

Zhouzhuang

2007-05-31T07:16:00.000-07:00

So Wayne and Sherry decided to show Dirk a good time while in China since he has yet to really enjoy himself. So they took us to this little water city outside of Shanghai. It was pretty cool. It looked like I would imagine Venice, only dirty stinky and full of asians...but...it was still way fun!

This guy would hunt fish with those birds! He had like 4 out in the water and would smack the water and the fish would dive in and come up with fish in their beaks... it was sweet...

After the Trip we all got foot massages

Pearl Necklaces??

2007-05-18T07:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody. Well, we're trying to make a few extra bucks to get us through Europe, and are looking for some feedback from whoever looks at this. We are wondering how happenen pearls are these days... There are a few pearl shops here in Shanghai that our friends here know about that sell pearls for pretty cheap. We're wondering if we send home some necklaces or bracelets with Dirk, if anybody would be interested in buying them? They have all sorts of shapes and colors, and we'd probably sell them for around $30-40US back at our house in Huntington. Our friends have lived here for 12 years and are certain that the pearls from their contact here are real... they've had them appraised back home. I donno, just curious if anybody would be interested... You can let us know by posting a comment on this blog... Just click where it says "comments" it might have a number infront of it depending on how many comments have already been left... Ok, thanks!

P.S. You have by Tuesday to let us know, cause thats when Dirk comes back... Love you guys

Shanghai

2007-05-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Haha! Dad is sound asleep! We are staying in probably the nicest hotel that we have ever been in our whole lives! It sure is good to be with ole Dirk. Who would have thought we'd ever be hanging out in China together! Still no mustache but his hair is sweet. He was rockin the wave right before bed... We enjoyed all we can eat buffet tonight and stuffed ourselves. (its not that often we get all we can eat!) He has to go to the factory tomorrow morning so we are going to go explore and see what we can find!

Shenzhen to Shanghai

2007-05-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

Holy Hell! So we are cheap...okay we admit that. Here is an example of just how cheap... So we we caught the subway from Hong Kong, to the China border.. 5 bucks each. We walk into China and go to buy our 30 dollar tickets on the "Hard Seats" on the 18 hour train up to Shanghai to meet Dirk. Well... while in line, we were told that the seats for 30 dollars were sold out, but we could either go the next day (wouldnt work, cause we had arrangments for that day) or we could pay 20 bucks more each for better seats that weren't sold out. So we were bummed.. and kept asking for the 30 dollar seats... Finally, two tickets popped up on the screen that said 30 dollar! So we were stoked... but the guy started laughing...then the lady behind him in the booth started laughing. Then the people in line next to us started laughing. We asked what was so funny and they said that they would sell it to us, but we wouldnt have a seat...we would have to STAND the whole trip! Haha... So we figured.. might as well... ! Little did we know it would freakin suck! But really, it was awesome. We got to stand for like 3 hours, until I was so sick of standing I just sat on the floor in the middle of the isle and made everybody walk over me. Its not like everybody just sits quietly.. people are constantly up and about walking around. And there are tons of other people too standing the whole way. So the train is packed. And we are the only white people. Not in the whole car, but on the whole train! Seriously. So after a few mintues of me in everybodys way, the train lady brought out buckets for Rhett and me to sit on. This brought a loud uproar of laughter from all the Chinamen who we had yet to even see crack a smile! haha... After my butt fell asleep from sitting on that stupid bucket I just said forget it... and layed in the side of the isle on the floor! We hardly got any sleep at all and were probably the most uncomfortable and cranky we'd been the whole trip! Wayne Shmerler (sorry wayne, dont know how to spell that one) picked us up from the train and he and his wife Sherry treates us like Kings with our own beds and Pancakes and eggs! We crashed for 9 hours all day at his house! Lets just say on the train to Beijing we definately are either buying seats earlier.. OR, we are kicking some asian out of his seat!

When I moved to the floor the lady behind me stole my bucket

These kids were so cute. Rhett was showing them footage of us surfing Fiji on our Camera and they were freaking out...it was so funny. Like 5 Chinese guys were up and looking at it...

This is Wayne and Sherrys place... Nice. The trees you see are the border of the Shanghai Zoo. They used to be able to hear the lions and tigers roar at night!

Hong Kong

2007-05-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Every night at 8 they have a light show off the buildings in the harbour...pretty cool

I just sat here for 3 hours with the Ipod looking at this view... I couldnt get enough

This is a view from Victoria Peak... Way up on a Mountain overlooking Hong Kong... Probably one of the best views the whole trip...

Hong Kong

2007-05-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

Well, first off, let me just say that we had a blast in Thailand! The Judds are amazing and we had so much fun! It definately would not have been the same with out them and our hard core gaming and tennis matches! Thanks David and Iris! We found some tennis courts here in China, David, and I'll be practicing to make sure I secure another victory!! haha... Well, the flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong on Srilankian Airlines was pretty good. We arrived in Hong Kong and went straight to our hostel... A room with 12 other people...not a pleasant experience coming from the luxory we had in Thailand and New Zealand! It was alirght none the less... we had a good view perfect for waterballoonage... So it just so happened that the Perrys, (the family that was all too good to us up in Chang Mai Thailand), were in Hong Kong the same days we were! So we teamed up on Friday and adventured through Hong Kong. We must have walked further that day than we have in a long time as we roamed the city, seeing the sites! Saturday we went to the temple and did a session. We helped the youth with baptisms for the dead right before the session and got to do some chinese names! That was pretty sweet trying to pronounce those names! Then Sunday, Mothers Day, we went to Church and got hooked up with two outstanding meals from the amazing ward members there. Came home and secured some connections in Mainland China...

Us with David and Princess Pinky

The same plus Iris

Hong Kong Temple

With the Perrys

McDonals, we found the Elders and brought them along

This was the tram ride up the "Big Buddah"... the coolest views through the Hong Kong Mountains. Spectacular!

I wonder what they're advertizing

Happy Mothers Day!

2007-05-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

2007-05-08T04:04:00.001-07:00

HAHA! I forgot about some of those! Keep em coming Mel!

NZ Randoms

2007-05-08T03:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, i found random pics of you boyz here in NZ...

1. Austin watchn' tha dragon dancers at the Auckz Chinese Fest '07

2. Rhett with tha harbour boyz at tha bomb-fire in Piha

1. Hsn YSA at the rafting trip in rotorua

2. YSA chill'-laxn' in the hot pool in rotorua - austin has fond memories here - ask him bout it!

1. Tha boyz with b-unit (bryton)

2. Austin (the master ninja) and his lil' ninja apprentice katelyn (bishop's lil girl)

2007-05-08T02:39:00.000-07:00

Haha...Thanks Mel! So before we left New Zealand I taught Mel how to post those pictures cause I couldnt be bothered having them all emailed to me and sorting through them to post. I didn't know if she'd get around to posting them but she did! haha. Seriously that night was SO fun! Rhett and I wouldn't get very scared so we would just act like we were... and then we would kind of get scared... We scared the girls more than the people who worked theredid. Its like Knotts Scarey Farm but way worse because its mostly Islanders that work there and they are scarey and they have no rules about touching you. So they would grab your neck, and legs and stuff...oh man, it was awesome. We lost our voices from screaming so loud. One guy with the chainsaw chased Rhett and Mel down some forest path and when I caught up to them Mel was running so fast and was so scared she tripped and fell into the trees! Haha, it was hilarious. Real midgets chained up and dressed like clowns and everything. The real deal! Thanks again guys! We had a blast!

A Haunted Playground....

2007-05-08T01:44:00.000-07:00

Prior to the boyz leaving NZ, we (mel and shonnie) wanted to give them a thrilling farewell - so we took them to "SPOOKERS" a haunted playground - perfect for the boyz!; their were screams, a heck of a lot of running, a fun night for all. Here are some of the pics of the eventful night out. We love yah boys, and i'll see you in china!! Melz.

1. 'hmm, tomato sauce - just one lick'

2. 'all of us at the 3D vortex - mean man'

1. 'us tryn' 2 escape the hackn' butcher'

2. 'that's a bit 2 close of comfort shonnie'

1. 'rhett got done over by this crazy chick'

2. 'rhett & austin tryn' get some action'

1. ' come on mate, i now you want 2'

2. 'a perfect occupation for you boys'

LOP BURI

2007-05-07T05:03:00.000-07:00

Imagine yourself walking down a normal city in Asia. Flea markets, buses, trash, and people everywhere. Wild dogs roaming the streets and all of a sudden you see something out of the corner of your eye. You think its a bird up on a street sign, but when you look, its a monkey! All of a sudden your eyes wander and you see hundreds of monkeys all over the streets, the signs, the buildings....EVERYWHERE! Haha, well, thats Lop Buri. Given the name "Monkey City" known world wide, this dirty little monkey infested town brings in thousands of tourists each year. This year it brought us. It was so rad! These cute little monkeys everywhere just waiting to pick your pocket. Every seen the movie Monkey Trouble? Well they ain't lying. If you let those monkeys on your back for a second they'll have their hands in your pockets and around your neck shyst'n whatever they can get their hands on! The only thing is supposedly some of these monkeys are infected with rabies, so one bite and you're off getting a very unpleasant shot. I think that makes most of the tourist keep their distance from them. I guess they don't bite... but if they do, its their aggresion because of the rabies so you better watch out!

The van ride from Bangkok. Two and a half hours... 3 bucks each.

The pride and joy of Lop Buri

This guy would jump off the wall onto my backpack then jump back to the wall. Then I'd move a little further and he'd jump again. Then a little further, and further... It was sweet

They seriously are everywhere

You can only see three in the picture, but I had 5 monkeys on me! I was just praying I didn't get bit! haha

When you get too many on you you just start spinning really fast and they jump off! Thats what I had to do. They stole a tooth brush out of the side pocket!! haha It was Kevin's bag... Sorry man... Oh ya, the guy behind me had two on him and was freakin out so bad he didn't realize they stole his necklace and sunglasses! Haha, it was so funny. Some Thai guy was chasing the little theif trying to get the glasses back. I saw him the next day in Bangkok and he had his glasses!

The ruins in the city are pretty cool too...

This is like the central where all the monkeys hang out and people come and feed them and stuff....

One almost bit Kevin earlier so it was a little sketchy. The bigger ones are more violent...

Bowling and Bangkok

2007-05-07T04:48:00.000-07:00

You can't really tell in the picture, but the ceiling was like a few inches above our heads... Kind of funny how small they are here.

We went bowling with the YSA in Bangkok. This was my team. We sucked. Half of them had never bowled before. Rhett won the tournament bowling like a 145...

Downtown Bangkok

Thai Lunch. A plate of like sweet and sour chicken is like 70 cents... And its SO good

Break'n in Thailand. They got nothing on you John.

Check This Out!

2007-04-30T04:38:00.000-07:00

We rode with the Judd's to their office today and while we were walking there, I looked to the side of the road and saw this guy. Austin wanted to eat him once they told us that Thai's eat these things.

He came from the same island King Kong came from.

The Subway system is pretty sweet in Bangkok. By the way, Monday is yellow shirt day in Thailand.

Look guys, I'm healing!

Aint gotta lie to kick it? Pshh

2007-04-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

YEAH... Madi's got my back. Whose lying now?

Thats for calling uncle austin a liar mom

2007-04-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

Chiang Mai

2007-04-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

So really its not fair... Seriously. I don't know what we did to get hooked up so much and have so much fun. I think its Rhett and his righteousness! Well, we caught the midnight train to Chang Mai on Friday night. It was nice. We had our own beds with curtains for privacy. We pretty much just stayed in our beds the whole time reading and sleeping. It was about a 14 hour train ride, and we were glad to get off. Once we arrived in Chang Mai we teamed up with some gals from England and went off to find a place to stay. The place they were staying was a little too pricey for us ($14 a night). So we found a place for like 3 bucks a night that was way ghetto and dropped off our bags and went out to explore. We decided to rent a scooter and we went around the city and up to a Wat, or a buddhist temple, on the top of this mountain over looking the whole city. It was super fun, and we enjoyed weaving through traffic and climbing the mountain road. On our way back we decided to find the church and once we did, we changed hotels to a place right by the chapel. The Elders told us of a good burger place and we both ordered huge bugers and sandwiches. SO good. We took the bike back and went to bed. We were exhausted. Sunday morning woke up and went to church. Church was good, in Thai, but we had translators to dish out some English for us. At church we met the Perry Family. One of the coolest families ever! They are from Sandy Utah and honestly just decided to take a year and move to Thailand to play and do whatever. Tom (the dad) served in Thailand on his mission so he spoke perfect Thai. Well, we met at church on sunday and next thing we know we are all off eating family dinner together and out exploring waterfalls and hill tribes out in the boonies on sunday afternoon. It was awesome. Monday they took us to an Elephant show where we got to ride Elephants through rivers and jungles! Then we went to the snake show and watched these gnarley thai guys dodge deadly snakes! SO scary! After they dropped us off we went to a Muay Thai Boxing Match downtown. It was awesome. It lasted from about nine to midnight and we saw a few really good fights. The 90 pound fight was just a couple of kids pissed at each other and going at it. Then the main fight was gnarley... two Thai guys were both really good and really aggressive, with lots of good combos and knockdowns it was really entertaining. The best part was watching the betting Thai crown go nutts when the guy they were betting on was winning. They would scream and yell and punch and kick the air. It was so funny. After the fight we just went home to bed. The next day the Perry family took us up to Pai, about 3 hours north east of Chiang Mai, and we rented scooters/motorcycles and went off exploring in the Thailand mountains. Oh man, it was SO fun. Rhett had a couple gnarley crashes and Christa the daughter fell once, but other than that we were all safe. It was funny cause when Rhett was test driving his bike right at the beginning his bike was in second gear, not first...and it was semi automatic, so he gave it some gas, but it would really go, so he really goosed it, just thinking that the throttle was weird, and WHAM! Off he went! Right into a wall! He knocked half of it over! Haha, it was pretty funny except for how he tore his arm up. Its was pretty gnarley and his arm looks gross. Then he and I were racing up this small mountain road and as soon as we were coming down a truck came around the corner and I barley made it past, but I forgot to tell Rhett not to use your front brake to much in the dirt and BAM! Over he went again. Poor guy! haha...his knee got jacked that time. That was his first time riding a motorized bike of any kind so it was pretty funny. The trails were pretty tough too. I almost lost it a couple times, and once coming down a hill tried to downshift to 2nd but the bike stuck in neutral. I couldn't slow down with my brakes fast enough and was honestly just about to fly off the cliff into a lake before at the last second I jammed it down into first and slid out of it. All in all we all had a blast and were dead tired. The next day we all healed and I went swimming with Kevin at the public pool. Then caught the Midnight bus back to Bangkok. Now, we're at the Judds again planning out our next adventure. It was just so awesome that we got to meet the Perry's and end up feeling like family going off on adventures together. They are so awesome... "Nun Le Ti Cow Pood!"

Rhett's Knee

Rhett's Arm... You should have seen the wall! Seriously, he smashed it!

The picture isn't as cool as the view. You could see the Mountains through the trees... it was quit a sight

Monks

Dinner last night before we left. Kevin and Christa. Kevin doesnt have down syndrome, he just was pulling a face. haha

Okay, we were sitting right where that snake got out! They would like throw them at us. I dont know.. I was freaked. The snakes kept getting out too... The whole time during the show they would remind us that one bite with some and we die... But not to worry cause they take us hospital...

Muay Thai Boxing...The blue shorts guy actually won despite getting knocked the .... out

Pai motorcycle trip

We found this waterfall pool place. SO fun. You could slid down the top of the rocks into the pool. We had a blast. There are more falls and pools in the rocks that you cant see...

Elephant ride.... 12 bucks

"One bite...he die...mos dangawus cobwa in Thailan"

Look at those fangs

The elephant would take off the hat and put it on your head...

Washing the beasts. Dude, we serisouly heard one roar louder than any lion or tiger you would ever hear. It was nutts!

Elephants are amazing... Here the were all playing harmonicas in their trunks and dancing around by moving their heads and feet and waving their trunks..

The soccer ball flying through the air was kicked by that elephant. They had a soccer match. It was sweet.

Ya, they even can paint. Our was painting a tree, some painted elephants and flowers and crazy modern art.

Another waterfall we went to on Sunday

Scooter ride!

Buddhist Wat

View of Chiang Mai from the Temple

A Day with Graph

2007-04-20T03:51:00.001-07:00

Tonight We are leaving for Chang Mai. This is us buying our tickets at the train station with our buddy Graph translating for us. That's probably not how you spell his name considering "ph" doesn't make an "f" sound in Thai, but oh well.

That same day Graph took us to see the Grand Palace. It's a really pretty Buddhist temple in Bangkok. They let you borrow pajama-type pants if you have shorts on (which we did because it's really hot here) because shorts are inappropriate. Luckily we weren't wearing our matching tank tops.

I'm not sure exactly where we were at, but Graph wanted to take a photo of us at this spot. If you can see the statue behind us, Graph told us that it's the guy who helped bring Parliament and democracy to Thailand.

Next Graph took us to the 8 story mall where we ate and then saw a movie. During the previews they played this sweet Asian Pop Music Video, so I had to take a photo.

Family Home Evening in Thailand

2007-04-16T09:00:00.001-07:00

Well, the Judd's have been too good to us here in Thailand. We went with them to the international ward yesterday. It was pretty cool seeing members there from places like Madagascar and Sri Lanka. Tonight we went to the Senior Missionaries' Family Home Evening. It was really neat because there were 8 senior missionary couples, and then me and Austin. So we kind of stood out, but it was still fun.

Austin making friends

This is the view of Bangkok at night from the 20th floor apartment the Judds live in.

This is the same view during the day. If it weren't for all the smog , you would see a lot more buildings in the distance.

Thailand New Year!

2007-04-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

So every year for three days Thailand celebrates its New Year... Anciently, part of the celebration included a ritual where they would pour water on eachother as a sign of hopefull prosperity for the year to come. It started with the King, and would trickle down to the people... Presently, it is a huge waterfight with millions of people! The streets are covered with millions of people loaded with waterguns, buckets, water bottles, and bowls of some sort of pastey substance that people would wipe all over your face... So all day, you just walk around getting into waterfights with little kids to old grandpas. It was hilarious. They didn't know what hit them when Rhett and I would come at them with a huge water balloon. Hardly anybody knew what they were. They were party balloons filled with water, so they were to heavy to throw, cause we would have just knocked everybody out. So we would pinch the balloon and then kind of snap our wrists and send heaps of water flying through the air... Haha. People would be scared, then laugh, then run. It was awesome. We had the time of our lives!... In between our wars, we stopped for a lunch of Pad Thai and Fried Rice and sodas, costing about $2.50 each...and we each got an hour authentic Thai Massage. Man, those women might as well be WWF champions by how they were folding and bending our bodies! But oh it felt good. An hour massage costs about $6US. Haha! I seriously used to dream of this stuff when I was a kid...

Tons of people everywhere

Yeah.... I donno.... They're Asians....

The two behind me just douched my face....

Whole families come out to play

You got no choice but to take it...

Haha...Look at this Old Man!

Okay... Combo Shots. #1

#2

#3

#4

#1. Haha, Rhett chucked this one....

#2. Amazing...

Hahaha... I just nailed this lady with water and she turned around with this look on her face!

#1

#2

PS-

2007-04-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

Rhett can't access his hotmail account from the computer here, so please resend any emails any of you might have sent to him in the last week to his gmail account, rmbillen@gmail.com . Thanks.

A FEW MORE RAFTING PICS

2007-04-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

THESE ARE ALL OF US...

Easter Weekend

2007-04-13T02:10:00.000-07:00

Bay of Islands to spend the weekend on Urapukapoka. A sweet little Island just off the mainland. Oh man, it was soo fun. We didn't really plan it out that well, we just got a bunch of stuff and threw it in a few cars and a trailor and headed out. It was funny because I would often make the comment about how white trash we were, and it was so true, but it was so fun. Our tarps and tents would be blowing over in the wind, and our site all messy cause we were out having fun most of the time. We would run out of gas for the stoves and the neighboring campers would donate gas and food. The real way to camp. We took Brads boat out and would fish, and spear fish, and snorkel, and surf behind the boat. At night we would all lay around looking at the stars telling jokes and making fun of eachother(mostly of Brad). We caught so much fish we didn't know what to do with it. Chloe and Brad saw a hammerhead and massive sting rays. It was beautiful. We camped from Friday afternoon till Monday afternoon. Well, we left Friday afternoon, but because everybody pulled an all nighter thursday night, we didnt leave with enough light on friday to make it to the island, so we just slept in the cars and shipped over to the island the next morning. It will always be an adventure to remember.

Fishing

Becky bit off a fish head and Rhett wore it on his nose

More Fishing

Brad and Becky, with Chloe and Rhett in the background

Sunrise

We camped in the bottom right corner. See the blue tarp? Thats us...

SYDNEY

2007-04-13T01:48:00.000-07:00

So we had quite the farewell in Auckland. It sure was bitter sweet. More bitter than it was sweet. We were excited to get on with the trip but sure are going to miss everybody we came to love in New Zealand. It was like a party at the airport with the Crouches and the Vos Family (another family we got close with) and a few friends... We had bought the Crouches some sweet gifts that all had personal jokes and ate lunch in the airport with everybody. It was so fun. The best part was Ole Brad Crouch (the Pops) crying his eyes out because he loved us and was going to miss us. We miss him already and the rest of the family. We love you guys! Anyways, after the goodbye we were off to Sydney. We ended up having to buy a visa and once we got there caught a train into downtown to kill some time. It was funny, because we had a few friends in New Zealand that were going to hook us up with somebody in Sydney but we thought, well we'll only be there a few hours so we won't bother. So we are sitting downtown in the harbor and Rhetts like..."It feels kind of weird going somewhere and not getting hooked up.." Well right after we said that, we looked over and there were the Elders! They were out street contacting. So we called them over and chatted for a bit, then I called at some guys sitting next to us, and asked them if they had ever talked to the missionaries before, and introduced them to the Elders. Then the Elders went over and taught them for about ten minutes, and I guess the lesson went good cause they sure were happy and offered to buy us dinner. We declined again and again, but finally gave in. They took us to get Kebabs.... Its like a greek burrito. Oh man, it was the greatest thing I have ever eating. Rhett and I couldn't believe we almost turned them down! The Elders were way cool and we walked around a bit street contacting with them, then took the train back to the airport about ten. We sleep on the airport benches and in the middle of the floor with a sheet. Probably the worst night sleep I've ever had. The flight to Bangkok the next morning was nice, and we arrived bright eyed and bushey tailed. Kind of.

Oh ya, I shaved my head

The Opera House

The Harbor Bridge

IF YOU FIND YOURSELF SHOOTING A CHICKEN... WHAT CITY MIGHT YOU BE IN?

2007-04-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

BANGKOK! Hey we made it, we are at the Judds! Its Amazing here in Thailand, and we just bought little girl deodorant for like a buck and got attacked by little kids with water guns. We are going out to buy supplies today and attack the streets tomorrow! Iris and David live on the 20th Floor of a big complex with a pool and tennis court! Yea! We are super excited. We love them already! We have more pictures to post from New Zealand that we'll do later. We'll update soon, dont you worry....

Rafting Trip

2007-03-31T23:55:00.000-07:00

Some more pictures from the rafting trip. These arent the offical ones from the professional photographer. If we can get our hands on those we'll post them, but these are pretty cool. Rotorua New Zealand. The largest commercially rafted waterfall in the World...

Mel, La Nae, Rhett, Mark and ME

The falls, bigger than it looks!

Some of us weren't so lucky...

More Random Pictures!

2007-03-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Austin got to be the bartender for this Dinner that the Elder's Quorum of the YSA ward put on for all the sisters in the ward.

I got to be a waiter. These are all BYU Study Abroad Students. Behind me is the setup for the band that played. It was sweet.

Another picture from our roadtrip up north last week. This is at Haruru Falls.

This was my favorite photo from the roadtrip home from Queenstown, taken from the car as we were driving by.

2007-03-28T06:22:00.000-07:00

Look at this girls KNEE! They have a Womans Rugby League here..... You should have seen the other girl!

NZ North Country

2007-03-24T07:10:00.000-07:00

So a couple of our friends just so happened to have a few days off of work. We were all bored texting eachother trying to decide what we should do. Finally, Melanie came up with the idea for a little road trippage to the North Country. It was super fun. We all packed in Chantelles 4x4 Mitsubishi Montero and I got behind the wheel and drove us about 10-12 hours to the very northern tip of New Zealand and back, in 2 days. Wow. Talk about jam packed full of fun. From 90 mile beaches, to majestic shorelines. From massive sand dunes, to heards of sheep on the roads. From skurfing in sewage water, to off-roading... the fun here seems to never end and it wasn't letting up on this excursion...

Austin Rhett and LaNae. Tip of New Zealand...Cape Ranga?

A picture from the drive back from queenstown

Ah Mazing!

2007-03-18T03:45:00.000-07:00

Lake Matteson, one of the Mirror Lakes

Mt. Cook

This is from the "Shot Over". Jet Boats that fly through the canyon walls. Twin Supercharged V8's on a tiny little boat speed next to canyon walls over 4 inches of water... And throw 360's out of nowhere... It was out of control...

Lord of the Freakin Rings

Queenstown Arial Shot. This is the most amazing city ever. Its like the action/adventure capital of the world. You can sky dive, bungie jump, canyon jump, whitewater raft, river surf, helicopter ride, jet boat, rocket swing, and tons of other stuff all out of this one city. This picture is from the top of a Mountain where there is a restraunt and louge and gondula...

This is an action shot during a 360 on the jet boat. You can tell I'm spinning by my hair. Both pictures...same 360. Sweet as

You were right Don... Unreal!

2007-03-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

This is Queenstown. Gollum hid in this cave in one of the Lord of the Ring Clips...

There was a huge Asian Festival downtown Auckland a few weeks ago with tons of entertainment. Entertainment including this contortionist chick. This clip doesn't do her justice... One time she was litterally sitting on her head while spinning frisbees on both hands and feet. I couldn't do anything but watch in horror, let alone catch a picture. Sorry...

This is our Raft for the excursion down the rapids. We have tons of pictures that we'll upload later. Be excited is all I have to say...

We stopped at this Wild Life Park in Christchurch. You could feed the Giraffes out of your bare hands. It was mean as...

okay...the computer is being retarded...We'll upload more in the morning...

2007-03-18T02:48:00.000-07:00

Well, we are alive! Sorry, to make everybody worry. We have honestly not been home for over a week... So much has been happening its crazy! But come on...Honestly, have a little faith. Where to begin? Hey, we are actually curious who looks at this thing. So leave us a comment by clicking on the comment part of the blog and let us know who you are. Don't be bashful...

So Rhett and I were planning on going to the South Island the whole time we were here, but never seemed to find the time with everything going on, and all the stuff we were doing... We had decided to just not go, since time was almost up, and we figured the north island was sweet enough. Well, after reading an email from Jeff Billen the Big Kahuna and talking to some of the locals here who said it was probably one of their most favorite places on earth, we decided, ahh, we might as well! So we made a few phone calls, talked to a few people, and we were off! We left Auckland Sunday afternoon at like 3pm, and drove straight to the south tip of the North Island, Wellington. There we were supposed to stay with Brendons family, but didn't get to his house till like 1am so we decided to just drive to the parking lot of the Ferry, and sleep there for the night. At 7am we hopped out of the car, hopped onto a Ferry for 3 hours, which took us from Wellington to Picton, on the south island. As soon as we arrived in Picton we drove straight to Queenstown, getting there at like 10:30pm. We stayed with some friends of the Crouches. Ashley and his sister lived in this big Cabin and owned a Pizza Place in town. We went in one night for some free pizza, and were pleasantly suprised with how good Venison Blueberry Pizza tasted! We stayed in Queenstown Tuesday Wednesday, and Thursday morning at 8 am we were back on the road! We drove straight to Picton, only stopping this time in Christchurch to visit a WildLife Park. With wild Lions and Tigers and Cheetahs! We got to feed giraffs and be less than 1 meter from a wild rhino. Sweet as. From Picton we slept in the car in the ferry parking lot, and caught a 5am ferry to wellington. From Wellington back up the way we came, making it home Friday night to Auckland around 7 or 8pm. Holy Hell that was a lot of driving! Well, you might be asking yourself...Why didn't you stay longer? Well, the answer? Becuase today, Saturday morning, we had a river rafting trip with the YSA here, that we couldn't miss! We were supposed to meet up at 6am this morning to leave for Rotorua, but somehow Rhett and I didn't wake up until about 8am! Haha. We were pissed, then we laughed, and drove the 3 hours down ourselves to meet up with everybody. The river that we charged was a 5 on the River Craziness Scale, and has the biggest waterfall drop commercially rafted in the world! 10 meter drop! Ohhhhh MAN! It was like the coolest thing I've ever done! Rhett agrees! We were on the river for lke 45 minutes, where within that short amount of time we hit 3 falls, and tons of rapids. It was awesome! We just got home from that and are exhausted!

So today was our "last Sunday" here in New Zealand, and the singles ward that we have been attending had us bear our testimonies as like a departing testimony in sacrament meeting today. It was sweet. They really love us, and we love them! The funny thing is that we thought today was our last Sunday, cause our original plan was to fly to Sydney on saturday. But to our suprise, The Crouchs have announced their love for us, and told us they were paying for us to stay two weeks longer! They paid for our ticket change and us to stay! Haha, we love it, and we love them! So we told everybody bye at the singles ward today, and now we are going to stay 2 more weeks! haha, Looks like we won't be going to that ward anymore! haha.

Where's Old Zealand anyway?

2007-03-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

A sweet little cave behind the Bridal Viel Fall. I had to hold it up so it wouldn't crush my head

Rhett, I think I dared him to climb it, or maybe he just did. Anyway, the company sure was impressed. He was up there for like 5 minutes while everybody ran to get their cameras.

Nothing like a road trip. Haha, if I die on my trip...will somebody blowup this picture and hang it like a flag over my casket? Mainly just Rhetts face...

The surf trip, Gisborne New Zealand. The little guy is ole Daveski

More falls on the way to Gisborne. Thats a lot of water aye

We would dive off this rock and swim underneath the water and follow the noise to where the waterfall landed. Then we'd pop up right underneath the falls. It felt like hands punching you right on the head and top of the shoulders. It kinda hurt, but man was it fun!

I like this picture cause the water drops and the jungle and waterfall and the sky and clouds all in the background.

I like this picture because Rhett looks very handsome, and muscular...

2007-02-28T22:26:00.000-08:00

A huge Ray. We caught it, and cooked it, and ate it! Not really

A little underwater shot

Cathedral Cove, Coromandel New Zealand

Road Trippin'

2007-02-28T05:30:00.000-08:00

Our apologies for not having posted anything for quite some time now. In our defense, we've been quite busy for the past week and haven't stayed in one place for more than a couple nights. It all started last Wednesday when we made our way down to Hamilton, NZ where the temple is. Aunty Linda Wishart had done us the amazing favor of asking some of her friends, Uncle Ken and Aunty Naomi Strother, who live down there to let us stay with them. Upon arriving Wednesday afternoon and receiving the warmest welcome I think we've ever received, we sat down to some lunch. After a quick shower we headed over to the Temple which was 5 minutes down the road for the 2:30 session.

The Hamilton, New Zealand Temple

After our temple session we came back to the Strother home, where the family was starting to show up for the party that night. Once everybody was there, they performed their beautiful family song and the feast began. My favorite was the NZ treat pavalova- basically sugar and egg whites that are cooked and then have cream and strawberries on top. It was probably the sweetest thing I've ever tasted. After that we went down to the music room at the Church College (High School) where most of the family teaches. We had no idea that any family could have so much musical talent. Our favorite was the 9 year-old bass player/drummer who was a grandson of Ken and Naomi. He and the family entertained us with classics like "Brick House" and "I wish" by Stevie Wonder. They were amazing. Sadly, the party eventually had to end. Thursday morning we woke up to a great breakfast (and sack lunches to go) prepared by Aunty Naomi. Austin and I would just like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the Strother Family as well as Aunty Linda for your kindness and charity. We said our goodbyes and headed down to Raglan, one of the most famous left point-breaks in the world. Luckily, we caught it on a good day.

No, that's not one of us, but it is the spot we surfed. The sets were much bigger- a little bit overhead- and you could get 20-30 second rides.

On the road again.

Bridal Veil Falls

Sweet Fireside

2007-02-20T02:42:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share a quick experiance we had tonight. We heard about a YSA fireside in Auckland City tonight and we also heard that the speaker was really good so we decided to go down. We took some BYU students with us who are studying abroad and got there nice and early to get a good seat. Well, he came with his wife, and she spoke first expressing her love for everybody. Then he got up to speak, and we were all shoked because he didn't have a talk prepared or anything. He just had a bunch of ushers out in the congregation with cordless mics and he said we could just ask questions, and he would teach and testify based off of our questions. He said we could ask whatever we liked, and he'd do his best to answer. It took a while for people to get up the courage to ask a question infront of a few hundred other single adults, but once a few brave souls got up the nerve people started to catch on. The ushers would just hand you the mic and once the person in front of you finished, you'd stand up and ask the question. It was amazing. I finally got the chance to ask a question. I asked. "As an Apostle of the Lord, you are a special witness of Christ. What is something that you learned recently in reference to Christ that you feel would be benefical for us to hear?" Oh, did I mention the speaker was Elder David A. Bednar from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! We were sitting like 8 rows back and got to spend 2 hours with him, just asking questions and hearing him respond. He was amazing. So humble and meek, yet bold, wise, and powerful. Some of the questions asked I remembering thinking, how on earth is he going to respond to that, and then, as if he had already known what the question would be weeks ahead of time, he would deliver the most beautiful and exact answer. It was unreal. His humor coupled with his love, charity and infinite wisdom was out of this world. It was truley a sweet experiance to sit so near, and learn from the feet of a real life Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. No different than Peter, James, and John. It was a good reminder that this really is the church of Jesus Christ, set up the same way His original church was set up, led by Him through His Apostles alive on the earth today. I could feel His presence and knew that Elder Bednar really was a Special Witness of Him. . . . . Can this trip get any better? Seriously?

P.S. If you don't really understand what I'm talking about, or if I struck a chord of curiosity, Check this out! www.mormon.org

The GHOST SHIP

2007-02-18T20:44:00.000-08:00

So the Crouches told us that we could take their kayaks and paddle around the harbour. We were stoked cause they said that the paddle was "absolutley beautiful". Well, the view was pretty, but because of our "Tongathathon paddle from heaven" it wasn't anything "absolutley beautiful". So after about 7 minutes we were pretty bored. So we decided, among other things, to see if we could paddle around and climb up some of the bigger boats and do flips and gainners off them without getting caught. From there, we couldn't believe what we saw. It was this huge old abonded ship. It was immediately tittled The Ghost Ship as we headed towards it to see how we could climb it and explore. After two paddles around the ship we decided the only way to get into the Ghost Ship was climb the anchor chain, pirates of the carribean style. So we tied our kayaks to the anchor chain and climbed. Rhett was the first up, while I stayed back to take some pictures. Once we got on, we spent the next hour climbing and exploring. It was so funny... while we were down in the second level, Rhett went off ahead, and saw a small doorway that lead to a room. While he was opening the door, he called back..."This is probably where they keep the dead bodies." Then, as he opened the door I heard him scream/laugh out and say, "Austin! Check this out!" I thought for sure he'd found a dead body! Not quite a dead body, but he did find a huge bottle of POISON! haha, for real, we got pictures to prove it! It was pretty funny. Who has bottles of poison laying around? A Ghost Ship, thats who. After a few more rooms we jumped off, and paddled back. Brad had let us drive his truck and trailer down to the harbour. It was way nice of him. When we got back we went out to a Joseph Smith Musical performance put on by the YSA. It was really good. A few of the kids living here were in it. We were really impressed. From there, just church and surfing, and the usual feasts, movies, card tournaments, and late night scripture studies. We'll keep you posted on our upcoming adventures...

A THREE STORY YACTH

THE GHOST SHIP

RHETT

THE GHOST SHIP

This is Papa Crouch, Mum, and Becky. Becky just got home from Japan for a year and got the fam some outfits. They are so funny. Brad spends most of his free time finding ways to make fun of Rhett and me. We love it! And he loves the witty insults shot back at him by US.

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls

2007-02-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

This is how we spent our Valentines Day. Yeah, we have no girlfriends, but at least we have each other...and Dave-Ski!

The water was super cold, but it felt nice after we went numb

Pretty Nice, Huh?

Aucklizand

2007-02-15T17:09:00.000-08:00

Well, Rhett tried for like 2 hours last night to upload some pictures and it just wasn't happening. I think he is going to try again sometime soon, so this will just be a filler to let everybody know that we are alive and kickin. The past two weeks of our lives have pretty much been one huge party. Let me give you a typical day. We wake up around 10 or 11 and eat breakfast, study the scrips, lounge around... Around 12 or 1 somebody will usually come pick us up, or we'll go out by ourselves for a surf at one of the local beaches. We'll get home around 5 or 6 and eat a feast with the Crouch Family. After dinner we'll have a pool party, and visit with all the random people in the house. From the pool we'll usually make our way to the pool table or the dinner table for our competative pool or card tournaments. From there we'll have our daily desert of pie and icecream and watch a movie until about 2 or 3 in the morning. After the movie we'll have family scripture study with whoever is still somewhat coherent. Then off to bed and up the next day for another day of who knows what. We've met some of the coolest kids ever that have really taken us into their little "group". The other day we went to some of the coolest waterfalls, and hikes we've seen yet. (I think Rhett will post some pics) We had a planning meeting yesterday and planned out the rest of our trip here in New Zealand. We honestly need more hours in the days and days in the weeks for all that we want to do before we leave. Surf trips and campouts and temples and lakes and dirtbikes seem to be our upcoming events, but don't worry.... you'll be the first ones we tell! Well, we love you. Yup...

Gayna Crouch says...

2007-02-15T01:13:00.000-08:00

Thanks for sharing. Austin and Rhett are great guys and we feel really lucky that Brendon brought them home for dinner. They make us laugh so much!! We feel pretty special....Austin has the best pillow hair at breakfast. Which makes us laugh even more and Rhett has an infectious laugh which we really enjoy being infected with.Rhett and Austin bring laughter and happiness where ever they go. Heavenly Father knew we needed them.

2007-02-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

2007-02-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

Gainer off the Warf

Matt Vos, little brother of an Elder we met in Fiji! Crazy huh?

Climbing up the warf from the ocean

Piha (good surf beach)

-Jono! The funniest kid I think I have EVER met!

2007-02-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

-You can't go wrong a Nissan SUNNY BABY! This is what gets around New Zealand for the next month!

-The Famous Crouch Mansion!
(Where we are staying)

-Our Room! Yea ya. I sleep on the matress and Rhett on the Bean Bags. We got our own T.V. and gamecube and everything!

2007-02-08T19:23:00.000-08:00

-Us at Bethels, a long right hander! We scored some sick surf on some crapy boards! Hey, we match too...that means... the locals fear us and we rip. Well...Rhett does

-Teach him to snake me!

-This was like a river that led out to the ocean....

-Thats almost as good as the speedo shots eh?

Auckland New Zealand

2007-02-05T17:04:00.000-08:00

Its kinda cool getting picked up from the Airport by a General Authority! Elder Baxter and his family has been SO good to us! They live in a condo that over looks a beach with islands and harbours all around. We had our own room and the amazing cooking that comes with a mother of several children. Our days have been somewhat uneventful as far as adventure goes since we've just been trying to track down places to stay and cars to rent. Lots of research on the interent and making calls to find the best deals. Sunday we started off with a nine o'clock chuch meeting with the Baxter family. From there we met a bunch of the young single adults that shipped us all over to the "singles branch". About 30 kids probably but real friendly and happy to see us. From that ward we went to yet another ward with a kid named Brendon Ahwong, (who served in the same mission as Will Younkin in Sydney). He is way cool and is living in Auckland with the Crouch family. We met Brad Crouch the father of the home at church and was invited over for dinner that night. Sunday dinner was a blast with this Crouch family! They are the best! They're as crazy as I'll get out, and its one of those houses where there are always things going on and tons of kids coming in and out. We were about to leave midnight sunday night, and got offered to stay in their home for a week or so. We were stoked cause they are the funnest people ever and was no way we could turn it down. So here we are in the Crouch mansion surroned by fun loving people! Their adorable daughter Chloe just turned 16 yesterday and we had a blast with all her little friends in the pool and in the house. They loved our American games like "sharks and minnows" in the pool and "the rap game". The only problem is their bloddy accents make it hard to rhyme off them! haha. But they loved the games anyway. Here's Chloe, she'll give you a shout out!

hey hey yo!!! well im chloe an az uz already no i turned 16 yestade. it was frikin mean azz wit deez grazy americans....uz guys have the badist games out! we ate a crap load o food an dammit!! i must have gained a tonne.. Austen iz a crak-up aye. an hes the man at that busta rhyme game thats so gonna carry on ova hea in kiwi land.ummmmm wot elz kan i sae. these wiggers r soft stumikd..but they do eat like a tongan. we all n-joyd cake for brekfast. ohhhh Rhett is tthe man at piano but i fully owned him in pop an like hip hop song's so u need 2 train him up if he gonna beat me n-e time soon. an this is for Cory......X........hahhaahhahaahahahhaa bro u no im jokin but aparenty u r the mann...... so keep up the good work!!!!!..peace out aiiit!. holla bak if uzz want cloclo_nutsprincess@hotmail.com.

HAHA That girl is so funny! I told her about you Cory. Anytime you want a New Zealand hunnie come on out! Oh ya, just so everybody is clear. In New Zealand they say Hell and Damn and Damnit like its nothing. Everybody at church was saying it and Rhett and I were like...uhh what? But they later explained. So she is innocent. But "pissed" or "bugar" are like pretty bad swear words. So when pissed came out of my mouth everybody freaked! It was soo funny. It still slips out every once in a while but they understand! We're just here then we're off to who knows where. Loving life and this Kiwi hospitality! Well, we love you all.

The view from Elder Baxters house

Me and Chloe

The Pool party, playing sharks and minows

Catching Up

2007-01-30T18:39:00.000-08:00

We know it's been a while, so hopefully the pictures will make up for the fact that it's been almost 10 days since our last post. As you can see we've been busy. Suva was a fun town, too bad our camera didn't come until the day we left for Yanuca, otherwise we'd have some pictures. We did get to attend the temple there and it was a really neat experience. Wednesday was awesome, we went to a place called Loci-I-Suva with some sweet LDS kids we met. It was this park that had all these pools out in the middle of the forest that were connected by series of waterfalls. We went to the biggest, deepest pool there and it just so happened that there was a rope swing that hung from a tree-limb 30 ft. above the water. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun swinging off the rocks that sat about 18 ft. above the surface into the pool. Austin had the great idea of climbing all 30 feet of the wet, slippery rope to get up to the limb only to find himself exhausted by the time he got there. As he began sliding down the rope back towards the water, he had a bit of a bumpy ride at the end due to all the knots that were in the rope. He's in good shape, but he's still got some of the marks from his rough ride (the photos of which might be considered inappropriate by some). That night the family we were staying with took us out for pizza and it was the best we'd ever had- not because it was all that good, just relative to what we've been used to eating. Thursday morning we split up and Austin went back in Nadi to grab some surfboards while I headed into downtown Suva to get our camera from customs. Too bad they had to confiscate the beef jerky that was so thoughtfully inlcuded (thanks anyways, mom and dad), but we certainly enjoyed all the goodies and especially the camera.

We arrived on Yanuca late in the afternoon last Thursday. It takes about 30 minutes by boat to get to the island, and another 20 minutes to get from the island to Frigates. We welcomed the primitive living conditions- electricity only provided from 6-8 pm by a gas-powered generator and a cold water shower consisting of a 50 gallon barrel full of water attached to a spigget - upon finding that they provided us with much needed mosquito nets. After an amazing dinner (they fed us like kings at this place), we could hardly sleep with the anticipation of surfing Frigates Pass. As you can see, we had the time of our lives. We didn't take any photos on our first day out, but that was okay because the best day for surfing was saturday-which also means it was the most crowded day. Our camera's sweet because these pictures are really just frames from videos we took that you can pause and save as photo documents. Anyways, Sunday we resisted the temptation to surf and had an intimate little sacrament service, followed by a visit to the village where we went to the Methodist church. We received a warm (both in spirit and in temperature) welcome from the villagers and from all the flies. Monday we surfed for about 4 hours and then came back to pack up and head back to the mainland. We missed you out there Steve-O, it was just us and one other guy that was staying at the same resort as us. We then hopped on a bus to Sigatoka (SING-ah-TOE-kah) where we heard there was a beach break. That night we stayed at a home-stay dorm in the local village with our weed-smoking buddy Chongs. We went to surf tuesday, but it wasn't very good and after 45 minutes we'd had enough. They had these cool sand dunes there that we regretfully didn't get any pictures of. Then we hopped on a local bus to go back to Nadi. Too bad we didn't know it wasn't an express bus that takes a straight 1 hour course over the paved highway and ended up having to take the 2 hour course that goes over all the dirt roads through all the local villages between Sigatoka and Nadi as if we were on some off-road safari. It was a fun experience though, and somehow the boards made it without getting too dinged for them to charge us any extra. Now we're just hanging out in Nadi and we'll be leaving for Auckland, NZ on saturday. Well, until next time, we love you all. Take care.

PS- Brit, your emails crack me up! Keep them coming!- Austin

Yanuca Island

2007-01-30T18:17:00.000-08:00

-Yanuca Island. This picture was taken from the boat that shipped us out to Frigates

-The Jungle Hike on our way to church. Rhett and "Batman" in their church clothes

-A view of the Village on Yanuca Island. The big building (the biggest in the village) is the church house.

-Our shower/bite of death from this highly poisonous spider!

FRIGATES PASS!

2007-01-30T18:01:00.000-08:00

-Austin

-Austin

-Rhett, Look at that physique!

-Austin

-Rhett

-Rhett dropping in on one of the bigger sets of the day

FIJI

2007-01-21T14:45:00.000-08:00

Well, we finally got a few pictures posted from our adventures in Tonga and we hope you like them. We are currently in Fiji trying to make arrangements for this island we're going to go stay on called Yanuca (pronounced yah-NU-thah) where they take you out to a reef break called Frigates Pass. Anyways, the past week has been a little on the uneventful side, but still fun nonetheless. We took the ferry back from Vava'u last Wednesday and arrived back in mainland Tonga on Thursday morning. Since everyone we knew had either already left Tonga or was busy working, we mostly just hung around, relaxed, and made preparations to leave for that Saturday. Saturday evening we flew into Nadi, Fiji, where we stayed at a cheap backpackers place. Early Sunday morning we took a taxi into Suva and made it in time for 11:00 Sacrament Meeting. I was surprised to see that they had a piano, but no one who played for Sacrament meeting. So when I went to go get some practice in after sacrament (the first time I've touched a piano since we left) there were some Fijians who were excited to find out that I could play. So we went through some of the hymns I could play and cross-referrenced the numbers in the English Hymnal to the Fijian Hymnal and got everything read so i could play for the 1:00 sacrament meeting. Meanwhile, Austin made use of his charm that has proven to be effective on people who don't even speak much English and found someone who not only gave us a ride back to the couchsurfer we're staying with in Suva, but also fed us dinner. Dinner was a sweet experience. Fijians are just as hospitable as Tongans, and this family treated us like royalty. My favorite was the Kava. After dinner, some of the Father's friends came over to talk some business and to socialize over a bowl of Kava. Austin chose not to join in, but being my first time I couldn't resist. Just so you know, they take the kava root and pound it up into a dry, powdery pulp. Then they take the kava powder and put it into a porous bag and soak it in a large specially made wooden bowl with water. Once the water has become murky enough that it just looks like dirty pond water, it's ready. We all went outside on the balcony and took our places around the large wooden kava bowl. They offered me the first drink and I accepted. With a couple of claps and a "Bula Vinaka!", I swallowed my first little bowl full. Kava doesn't have a whole lot of flavor, but it leaves a slight numbing effect on your mouth. Everyone in turn had their own drink and then came some socializing. Since it was all in Fijian, I spent my time watching intently as the man directly across from me began rolling some brown, dried out leaves in a carefully ripped shred of newspaper. As he smoked his little joint I noticed that whatever he was smoking had a sweeter smell than normal tobacco, so I asked what it was. All they told me was that it was Fijian Tobacco, and who knows what that really means. Anyways, I already had 5 little bowl fulls when they pulled out some more Kava pulp and reloaded the sack to get a little more flavor when I decided to quit. I just felt a little tired afterward (it takes more than 5 bowls of kava to give me a buzz, i guess). So here we are at Tim's house (the couchsurfer guy) and we'll soon be on our way to couchsurf with some of his friends. Until next time, we love you and hope all is well. Keep Smiling! (that's for you, Dad)

TONGA PICS

2007-01-20T23:39:00.000-08:00

Me and "Richie" Probably the cutest kid in Tonga.
- Yeah, he's only 2 years old and like 30 lbs.

And they called him "Handsome"....
-They were just mocking me, I'm too small for Tongan women.

Hokie Pokie Baby

Probably like 30 feet high!

SOOO cool

Swallow Caves

2007-01-16T14:23:00.000-08:00

This one goes out to the Big Billen Kahuna! Hey, you guys should google earth this place. It gets more and more slendid everyday! I donno if it will come in, but you should try. "Vava'u Tonga" Look it up!

We couldn't believe it...for $10 USD we could rent kayaks for half a day and paddle all around the islands! We asked the lady where a good place to kayak would be. She responded with "Oh, the Swallow Caves are nice, but they are far and especially with the rough seas it would be too hard and too far." That was music to our ears! When asked for directions or a map or something, she simply said, "Oh, just once you get out of the harbour, go that way", and she pointed behind us towards the sea. That didn't really help, but we were set out to find these "swallow caves" Our first attempt to even get out of the harbour was proven unsuccesfull we paddle the wrong direction for about a mile to find there was no outlet! So back the way we came, along the island shoreline. We didn't mind, we enjoyed conversing and remembering our homemade kayak trip from Laughlin to Havasuu we did as young men. We decided that with the wind to our back we could just float down the shore out of the harbour. We'd hold our paddles up in the wind and convince ourselves that we were sailing. When we put it to the test, and Rhett lowered his "sail" I left him in the dust. Once we came arond the first point we were awed with the scene before us. Islands all around us, with lush green jungles that continued all the way to the cliffline shore. We'd paddle in shallow blue/green water along the island shore, then island hop to a different island with dark deep blue waters underneath us. We stopped once to hoot and hollar at large gathering of enourmous bats! Hanging upside down from a large tree, flying out for bugs then flying back into their tree. They must have had at least an 18" wing span...maybe even 2 feet! They were so cool! Our path....(hahaha, there is some guy in the computer lab with us, with headphones on singing computer karaoke out loud to Hotel California and Eric Clapton! Haha, he's butchering it!) Anyway, our path lead us to the Tongan beach resort where we got out of our kayaks and went into the bar to ask for directions to the caves. They showed us on the map that we were about a mile and a half away! The bar tender then showed us the point we had to paddle to. It looked far, and the gap between us wasn't protected by any islands. It was all open seas from here on. We'd come this far, so thought we might venture. Every paddle was challenged by the wind, blowing her white capped seas in our faces and over our kayaks. We thought the paddle would never end, but once it did, we realized it was undoubtedly worth it! We found the rocky cliff shore intimidating as the strong ocean currents and swells collided up against it. Once we paddled around the point, we found the first cave! A small cut in the cliff about 4 feet wide, that led into a bigger opening. The top was somewhat open with shrubbery growing and webbing out across above us. We enjoyed the rest and the sights for a few minutes, but had a felling there was more up ahead. As we exited the first cave saw our prize. Another larger cave right next to it. "Swallows Cave!" Oh you guys, probably one of the coolest things I've seen. The cave was amazing in and of itself, but the water and the sunbeams were what made it awesome. Since the bottom of the cave was somewhat deep, the water had the coolest color to it. It was like a dark dark blue, but at the same time, it was clear and clean. If you looked through the reflection you could see the rocks and reef below. Then in one room of the cave, the sun must have been at the perfect height in sky, because you could see a little pocked of water illuminated. The water in that spot was like an array of different colors, that would ripple with the water. You could look at the spotlight, then follow its rays out the top of the cave where the sun was shinning through it. We just layed on our backs, looking up and watched the swallows chasing bugs up 30 feet above us, and listened to the rising tide enter and exit the cave. It was heaven! The paddle back sucked. Something about hell on earth. I prayed for the wind to die, but Rhett realized some poor fisherman was probably praying for wind, so we decided that we should pray for strength to get home. (I secretly prayed for a boat to come pick us up, but everytime I saw one, and paddled my brains to flag it down, it either was going the other way or couldn't speak english) So we toughed it out like real men, and proved our manhood to the ocean. Haha, everytime I would get near Rhett I would hear him singing some random song at the top of his lungs, and "Disco Inferno" would gladly get out of my head, and I'd sing along with Rhett. I was the kind of experiance we thrive off of. We finally got home, and did the math. About 18 miles in 6 hours of pretty much non-stop paddling. We would have done it faster if it wasnt for that bloody wind! Anyway...thought we would make you guys jealous and share that little experiance!
We love you!

Mountains, Caves, and General Authorities

2007-01-14T15:30:00.000-08:00

Hey, this is Rhett coming at you this time from a crowded upstairs internet cafe full of tongans and the smell of B.O. So a lot has happened since we got off the boat, so this will just have to be a few of the highlights of the things we've done. First of all, we're staying at this Backpacker place that's pretty sweet. We stay in a dorm-style room with 2 frenchies- a bro. and sis. named Vincent (ven-SAHN) and Clemence. There's a warm shower and a full kitchen and a refrigerator that's open for all the guests to use and we've been surviving on Oatmeal and canned peaches for breakfast and Rice and pineapple for dinner with in-between snacks of crackers, watermelon, and best of all- Hokey Pokey ice cream!!! (found at your local Wholesale Foods market). The Elders have been our Taxi service. We just ask if we can ride along wherever they're going to see the rest of the island. It is amazing here, much better than mainland Tonga. Friday the Elders took us and the frenchies to see the highest point on Vava'u. On the way, we picked up two brothers- a 14 year old and 16 year old- to be our tour guides. They didn't speak much english, but we managed. On our way there the road kinda just disappeared into a dirt path. There was grass and leaves from tree limbs coming in the windows of the van and we bounced up and down and side to side making our way to the hike. Finally we arrived and started up the trail. We were in sandals, but felt better seeing the 14 year old was bare-foot going over the metamorphic rock and dirt. The smell of coconut filled the air as we made our way towards the top being shadowed by the tropical treetops. 15 minutes later we're at the top, a breathtaking view of the entire island and all the surrounding islands. All you can see is green and blue, island and ocean and sky.

Saturday we made our way to the veimumuni caves- a destination we spotted on the map that was within walking distance of the place we're staying. We made our way, again with our French friends, a found ourselves facing a hole in the side of a cliff that sat right on the ocean. There were a few local kids inside the cave and heard what seemed to be the sound of swimming coming from inside. Upon further inspection we see that this isn't just a cave- it's an underground freshwater lake! So we dove in as fast as we could. We couldn't figure out how it was freshwater considering we could hear the ocean waves crashing into the rocks just on the other side of the cave, but it didn't matter. We couldn't help but feel like some underground lake monster was gonna get us, then we realized we were 21 and 22 years old and could kill whatever would come after us. It was definitely an adventure unlike any other either of us have experienced and we'll probably go back before we leave.

Sunday we attended a tongan sacrament meeting and luckily sat by a tongan who served his mission in Hawaii and spoke good english. After sacrament he told us about a fireside that would be at the stake center that night for the young adults. That night, as we were walking to the stake center, our luck began as the elders passed us by and gave us a ride. We found a seat in the back of the crowded open-windowed building, fans blowing full speed overhead. We were the only palangi's in sight and definitely stood out like a sore thumb. After a few locals spoke and bore testimony, the guest speaker was introduced- Elder David S. Baxter of the quorum of the seventy, first counselor in the Area Authority Presidency. It just so happens that this man happens to be a close friend of James Canon, someone Austin was companions with for 6 months of his mission. And here we were on a remote island in the south pacific hearing him speak. He gave a great talk on the good and the evil that's in the world and how important it is to know the difference between the two, especially when using the internet. After the fireside, Austin went and approached Elder Baxter while I went in search of refreshments (oatmeal and rice gets a little old). What I found was a room set up with tables and tables of different dishes and plates of food with a table set up next to it lined with chairs for special guests, most likely Elder Baxter I assumed. So I got a drink from the drinking fountain and met Elder Baxter as he and Austin were talking. Turns out he lives in Auckland, NZ, which is our next stop after Fiji. After we exchanged information, we started to make our way home from the fireside. Just as I began telling Austin about the spread of food I saw in that room and was expressing to him how much a wished we'd been invited to eat with them, one of the Tongan Stake Presidents comes after us. "Please, won't you join us for some tea before you go?" he says. "Uh, sure, yeah that would be great!" I say as we make our way back. I could hardly contain myself and wasn't able to stretch my cheeks far enough to smile as big as I wanted to. We got to sit down right by Elder Baxter at the table. The only other ones there were 11 different Tongan Stake presidents and priesthood leaders. We along with Elder Baxter had first choice over all the food. After stuffing ourselves on the tongan dishes (Austin's favorite was the lobster pizza), the women brought out huge bowls of ice-cream over some type of pineapple cake. It was amazing. But honestely the best part was just getting to be there, food or no food, with Elder Baxter and those great men and feel the spirit that was with them, as well as getting to experience they're senses of humor. Tongans are the best. We love you all and hope to hear from any and all ove you as often as possible.

HOLLAH!

2007-01-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

Whats up guys! This is Austin... Rhett will be joining in a sec. His explosive bowel movements have finally been tamed! Haha, he has turned out to be quite the cook! Brewing up all sorts of tasty meals. He cooks and I clean. Works for me! Thanks for the emails everybody. It costs money to use the internet here in Vava'u so we are trying to be thrifty with our usage. But Shauna and Fronky, thanks for the shout outs! You too rach! John, Rhett has been ravished like 5 1/2 times already since we got to Tonga! Haha! Half because I jumped in the 6th time and regulated on some Tongan sista's if you know what I mean. I may be a scronny "palangi" but watch out when rhett is getting ravished!

Ok, Well we gots a lot to say. First off, Monday night, before we left, the whole Uata family had a huge birthday celebration dinner for one of Naite's cousins Stephanie. She was turing 14, so the had the whole family over and we were invited (of course). The food was soooo GOOD! They had, sausage, and BBQ chicken, tortillas, salsa, salad, juice, chocolate cake, ice cream, SWORDFISH!, and even TAPATILLO! No choranchula...but it was still a treat. The two highlights of the night for me, other than the food, was first when the whole family started off the night singing a tongan hymn. It was soo cool. They sang so good, and harmonized like motab, and it was just a neat experiance all of us sitting out on the patio of this house in the middle of the Tongan jungle, surrounded by palm trees, and banana trees, and shrubbery of every kind, hearing this family sing. Wish you guys had my eyes and ears that night. The other experiance was talking with Naite's brother David. He is an extraordinay man. He has accomplished so much thus far in his life. He worked for Boeing in the states, and then was recruited to the vietnam government to do some work there. While he was there, he developed some online management system that ended up awarding him the technological invention of the year in vietnam. From there, he came to Tonga, and while the people have been trying to establish a democracy for 22 years, and been somewhat unsucessful, he comes and after 2 1/2 years, he'll have it accomplished. The reason why it was so neat for me, was because his whole focus in life is the love of Christ. Everything he does, he tries to revolve it around Christ, and His love. He is so giving and charitable. A good reminder to all of us.

Tuesday at like 4pm, we hopped onto the ferry that takes us to Vava'u. The ferry is a little different than I'm sure you imagine. The boat is like 200-300 feet long, and would in no way, meet the standards and requirements to even haul freight let alone passengers in America. There were probably 300-400 passangers, that all sat on top of this deck, covered in rust, with no covering except the small room that sat maybe 30 people, and the lower level that was already jammed full. The loud diesel engine exhaust coming out the top of the deck on both sides left a dull low rumble in the air. What we thought was a 14 hour cruise through the islands, was really a 17 hour rollercoaster! The swells were huge, rolling the boat back and forth all night! The best part was that while everybody else had to sit out in the element and smell the exhaust, Rhett and I had our own VIP suite! Haha, the Uata Family has a room with fans, and beds, and tables, that the family uses whenever they ride! And of course, we got hooked up! We felt kind of guilty because we had it so good! We even had our own bathroom and shower! It wasn't luxury compared to America, but compared to what everybody else had...it was great!

OUR SCHEDULE

2007-01-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

JAN 20-FEB 3: FIJI
FEB 3- ???????: NEW ZEALAND

TONGA

2007-01-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

Rhett was just about to update this blog, but his explosive diarrhea says otherwise! Haha, we were walking away from this flee market, and he's like, "Guys, I gotta go" (Guys=Austin and Uliti, a cousin. Liti speaks good english and is so rad, he's been our tour guide and become a good friend.) So Liti is like, alright, let me call a cab. Rhetts like, No, like right now! So he ran in the bush and did his duty! So we went and got him some toilet paper and he was greatly pleased. Since then he's been going pretty steady! Haha, but he'll be alirght. If not, I'll just give him a little blessing.

Man have we been having some fun! First off, the second day we got here we were out in the sun for like 6 hours! The tongan sun is brutle and Rhett's peeling forehead can witness to that! He looks like a burn vicitm...hey, he is a burn victim! This coast line that we went exploring down was amazing. It was on the north shore of the island, and had a low overhanging cliff with waist deep water that ran all the way down the side of it. There was a current pushing north with the winds, so that when we got sick of walking we could just wade....lazy river style. Anyways, Liti all of a sudden warned us of black and white snakes that are deadly to the bite. I figured that there was nothing poisonous in Tonga. The funny thing was that Rhett went off in some cave off the shore a few yards, and he looks up and BAM! There was one of the snakes just sitting right over his head. Rhett has an eye. Let me tell you. He can see everything! Look a crab! A fish, a starfish! What is that? He sees it all! A good companion. Ok he's back! Here Rhett...Sorry guys, you just never know when that diarrhea's gonna hit. So let me tell you about Austin's injury. We went out to this island just a little way off the coast with a bunch of the family that's hooking us up and it was just us there. Right off the coast of the island is this old sunken ship that's completely rusted, the top of which sits about 15-20 feet from the water. So naturally we had a good time diving and flipping (and Austin gainer-ing) off of it for a while. Then we moved on to the rope swing that hung off of a coconut tree right by the shore. At first we were just swinging out of the tree over the 6 inch deep water coming back onto the sand. Then Austin wanted to try swinging into the water, so he had me pull him as far and as fast as i could on the rope towards the water. He let go over water that was hardly to his shins and lands first on his feet and then on his back. He gets up quickly, smiling, as if nothing happened. Then he looks down at his aching foot to see a flap of skin dangling from his heel with blood pooring from his wound. When one of the Tongans saw it, he went and grabbed some leaf and folded it up, put it in his mouth and chewed it into a pulp. Then he pulls it out and puts it in his hand and squeezed the saliva-leaf juice into Austin's gaping laceration. "ah, that stings!" he yells with a smile on his face. The tongans were proud that he didn't cry or moan. So I've had a good time dancing the past couple nights while Austin's had to stay at home, poor chap. Yesterday was sweet. We checked out some of the sights like the King's Tomb, then went to the blowholes. It was seriously so cool. 4-5 foot swells were coming in and crashing into the rocks and through holes in the rocks sending water 30+ feet into the air while we stood on the cliff and watched. Don't worry, we have some pictures. This place is amazing, even if it is 3rd world conditions, there's no surfing, and pigs eat dead dogs.......yeah, that's not even a joke. Well, we love you all. Noko'o!

ATTENTION- NEW EMAIL

2007-01-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to tell you to send all your emails to surfuholic@hotmail.com. That includes any emails you've already sent to austinwalk02@aol.com, just be sure to resend those because it takes to long for us to open them here in the good 'ol Kingdom of Tonga. AOL sucks! Where's TOL when you need it?

We were wronga about Tonga!

2007-01-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

Well, we dont have much time here. The Internet is way slow, and everybody needs to use it. We'll update and post more pictures once we get to Fiji. But lets just say Tonga is way way different than what we assumed it to be. Its a total third world contry trapped in poverty, with marshall law declared because of politcal unrest and the people trying to overthrow the government! But its okay, because we are with the wealthiest most popular and respected families in Tonga! They are like the Tongan Mafia....for real! And second of all, the Tonga women love RHETT! They call him handsome, and he was getting numbers shouted at him at the Tongan dance we went to last night!! haha, it was so sweet. You are supposed to bow to girls to ask them to dance, and once a song is over everybody has to leave the dance floor. The lights are on, and you have to wear church dress. And its hotter than a mother! But man was it fun. I think i embarresed some girls when i went and bowed for them to dance. Other than getting our freak on with some Tongan hunnies, we've been exploring the coast line and dodging deadly snakes. For Real! The people are amazing and have been treating us like kings, with free rides, food, accomidation and entertainment. Their humor is like at an 8th grade level, so they love all of Dirks jokes that I tell....seriously its sooo funny! Anyway, keeping it real in Tonga, this is Austin Signing out!

2006-12-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

Macho? Guapo? Immigrante? Its hard to find words for this picture