New Zealand in Photos: Part 1

These photos are long overdue, and there are still some in reserves.

Back in February, Sergio had a wedding in outside of Auckland, New Zealand, and I took the opportunity to travel with him and second shoot at the wedding. We spent half a week consumed in wedding activities and the other half getting lost around the greater North Island, roaming from our base in Stillwater between beaches and towns, only limited by my terrible driving on the wrong side of the road. Here's were some highlights:

A view at the winery where we stayed.

The beach at Orewa, the town nearest the winery.

Driving on the right side of the road on the right side of the car was something I never got used to.

A typical view on the roads around Stillwater.

We ventured to the west coast of the North Island to see some beaches famous for their beauty and rip tides.

The view above Piha.

Touchdown.

The view from our feet.

The rock at Piha.

Here's a lot more from Piha.

We drove a little further south to see a less frequented and allegedly more dangerous beach (note the correlation) called Karekare. Apparently Eddie Vedder nearly drowned here surfing. The walk down the stream to the beach was just as beautiful as the beach itself.

Sergio walking into the ocean.

Looking back from the beach.

We took a trail to a waterfall where we learned a scene from The Piano was filmed.

I jumped into a small waterfall pool along the trail and Sergio was convinced it was an old pterodactyl nest. He was probably right.

The falls.

Sunset at Orewa.

Driving into Auckland. The "big city" of the north felt a little bigger than Tacoma but smaller than Seattle. Maybe more like Bellevue if it had a port.

I'll post Part 2 when I grab the rest of the photos from Sergio.

A Long Road Trip to Little Stanley, Idaho

Last weekend, we drove 22 hours roundtrip to attend the wedding of a friend in Stanley, ID. Yes, 22 hours. We saw A LOT of Washington, Oregon and Idaho in a short period. We left at 3 a.m. on Friday and arrived at beautiful Redfish Lake Lodge at 3 p.m. (We lost an hour to the timezone change). The lodge, and "greater" Stanley, ID (population 63) is a gateway to the Sawtooth Mountains and some great river and lake recreation. I don't think we ever got over the drive-time hangover, but the scenery, sun and good company kept us rallying through the weekend.

When we arrived at the lodge, we went straight for the dock.

Wearing glasses on the dock is totally trendy.

Redfish Lake Lodge is like the Disneyland of Idaho. Kids were everywhere!

At the recommendation of a friend, we went to the Stanley Baking Company for breakfast before the wedding. GOOD CALL.

On to the wedding at Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch.

I can't take Amanda to a wedding without catching her double-fisting beers.

Two can play that game.

It was nice catching up with our friends Mat, Whitney, Doreen and Kenny (left to right).

Here comes the bride.

The view wasn't bad.

I just think the dress pattern in this photo is fun.

How to end this blog post? Like our trip back, with hot springs.

Meet Rufus Ballew

Rufus is my dogphew, or Nina and Jeff's new dog. His talents include sitting, staying, laying down and playing dead.

Paint By Number, Part Deux

We've painted nearly every square inch of the inside of our house (Paint By Number, I Wish) and, labor aside, that has been an ongoing task of color choice. Now we're taking on the outside of the house.

We've wanted to paint the house from the start. I almost didn't buy it because it was such an eyesore. The new color should bring a vast improvement to corner appeal and moreover seal the home from pests. Dealing with possums once was enough. I don't want to have to punch bees in the face.

Over the past three years, we got the interior colors about 60% right the first time. We replaced the kitchen from oak stain to yellow to brown back to red mahogany stain, the guest bathroom from baby blue to tan, and I'm tempted to change the mud room from red to navy in short time.

Oh, and on the subject of all that painting, I am NOT painting the outside of the house. I'm taking a break and leaving this very visible task to a family friend that we're hiring. All that prep, all that painting. Oy. I'm gladly taking on a fence replacement project instead.

Compared to choosing those interior colors, choosing the paint for the outside hasn't been an easier process. We need to be at 100% the first time, so we've belabored the color selection process. The back of our house is now a checkerboard of green swatches.

We started with greens that were more blue than yellow and weren't impressed by the first couple colors we tried. They looked too much like turquoise. We went back to the paint store and tried a couple more colors that leaned toward browns and yellows and they were a lot closer to the "olive" that we'd been looking for. Of course, the colors weren't called olive, they were "Cress Green" and "Woolen Vest."

Still, after staring at those colors after a couple of weeks, we wanted to try a couple more just to be sure. Leave it to my wife to throw me off and pick a bright blue out of nowhere, which ended up looking more like bubblegum.

The other colors, including one called "Sweet Annie," were close but didn't make the cut. In the end, "Cress Green" was our choice (or it is for now!). The home should be painted by the third week of July, so stay posted for pictures! This is Cress Green in sunlight and shadow with the trim, "Morocco Sand," in the middle.

Because we're in a bit of a waiting game now, we threw down at the local farmer's market for a couple of flowering dogwood trees for our exterior yard for instant gratification. They're young, but they'll grow!

The Slow Recovery From Sunburn at Elevation

I'd say windburn did the damage to my eyes and face, but windburn is just technically a sunburn.

As I mentioned in my earlier post about climbing to Camp Muir, conditions were not great. Our preparation wasn't either.

No one wore suntan lotion, which was of course the greatest of errors. No one thought about it during the day because we were under heavy clouds and getting nailed by mixed precipitation most of the climb. Though most of us brought sunglasses, no one brought glacier glasses (which give greater coverage) and the sunglasses weren't cutting it in the rain, snow and high winds that blasted our faces and left the open skies and sun at Camp Muir to fry us.

Shortly after the climb, I felt that my nose got a burn, and that didn't really surprise me because it was the only part of my face not covered by my hat and hood. Otherwise, everyone felt good at the end of the day, and Amanda and I went out for sushi that evening to celebrate our achievement and reload on calories.

When I woke up the next morning, it was a different story as illustrated by the Day 1 image. I could hardly open my eyes and only did so when I needed to walk around and orient myself. I "took pictures" of my surroundings in between blinks and kept my eyes shut to settle the stinging. Amanda had a decent sunburn, but that was all. Scott also dealt with one eye swollen shut (lucky!) that required some steroid eye drops. The rest of our party was relatively unscathed besides sunburns. I guess I just had the most sensitive skin out of the bunch and couldn't handle the double-dose of UV coming through the clouds and bouncing off the snow.

Amanda nursed me back to health with homeopathic treatment, prescribing regular icing on my eyes, aloe vera and emu oil -- oil rendered from the fat of an emu, greasy and shiny -- on my skin , and vitamin E oil on my lips. I ended up going to the Urgent Care on Day 3 just to see if I could speed up the recovery process with some good drugs and prevent infection for my blistering skin. The doctor gave me a steroid cream and a dose of pity.

After my skin tightened up from the steroid cream, I peeled like a snake for a couple days and finally started feeling normal again. My eyes weren't irritated and I regained elasticity in my face. I mostly felt like an idiot for the week because I know I have sensitive skin and have a solid couple decades of sunburn memories that serve as reminders, but the excitement and anxiety for that climb blinded my better judgement.

As you can see in the Day 8 picture, I'm back to normal. I'm thankful I can see and make expressions again and am especially thankful for having a patient and tolerant wife!

Now, you'll have to excuse me as I need to head to the drugstore to pick up some suntan lotion. It's looking cloudy outside.