Tongariro Crossing

5 brave souls and I (25 opted out) decided to hike the Tongariro Crossing, a 8 hour hike through the mountains. We experienced rain, straight up mountain/rock climbs, volcanic desolate areas, rain forests, grasslands, lakes, beautiful landscapes, gusts of wind that almost blew us over, once in a while rays of sun, and achy legs and backs. All in all it was a great day and we were so glad we decided to take the chance and go for the adventure!the sign before we left....

by a waterfall at the beginning of our hike

mt. doom (lord of the rings)

we only hiked up to that ridge on the left but man was it a hike! from 800ft to 5,400 ft!

we were basically walking on a couple of dormant volcanos that could erupt at any sec...ahhhh!

for you Lord of the Rings buffs....run Froto run!

(where he ran before getting to the gates of Mt. Doom)

the view of where the "gates to mordoor" (sp?) were in the Lord of the Rings

at the emerald lake (near the top)

the clouds opened up as a peep hole to view the lake

towards the end of the hike...behind the mountains is lake taupo (where i sky-dived over)

a hut along the way...lunch break (soggy cheese and tomato sandwich, delicious!)

thought this was a cool pic

we did it! 6.5 hours later!

robert (canada), karl (norway), me, anne (netherlands)

ps. I added a couple of videos on the stikam...i hope they work

pps. thanks everyone for all the comments...i love to hear from you all!

mom/dad....please don't have a heart attack!

12,000 feet

45 sec free fall
@130 mph

awesome views of lake taupo and the mountains

......priceless

i think the five of us has a death wish!

what are we thinking?

Steve...harnessing me in...I hope he knows what he is doing!
(I go all the way to NZ to jump out of a plane strapped to a guy from Chicago!)

there the plane goes....will the parachute open???

on my way down....

the landing!

happy to be alive!

mom, send "steve" a thank you card for bring me back down to earth safe and sound!

ps. I have a personalized dvd of the whole experience

....so there will be a viewing/celebration (i am alive) party when I get home :)

Hello from Raglan NZ!

This hostel was the best hostel I have ever stayed in! It was in pretty much the rain forest but had a killer view of the ocean. The first night we had dinner at the hostel and a wonderful chef cooked us delicious baked chicken...yum yum. The hostel was just done up so nice and they had so many activites to do. They had a zip line, basketball, pingpong, different trails to walk on and a rope course! I could have stayed here a week but could only squeeze in 2 days. A couple of girls and I decided to go on a "bush walk" and as you can see from the picture....the trees here are enormous! haha

just lying on a hammock on the
deck right outside my room

a little walk along the hostel's path, "sunset boulevard" brought me to "inspiration point".

How lovely!

auckland

hello and goodbye from Auckland.........

heading out into the "bush" today so to get a better helping of the "adventure capital of the world"!

view of Auckland atop a volcano

one of the dozen piers in Auckland...at the end of the pier is the Hyatt!

finally pictures from fiji!!!!

ok....so finally here are some pictures from Fiji.

enjoy!

view at the Beachouse

jumping off of the waterfall- don't know why I held my nose...it was only 5ft deep??

anyone want to take their valentines date to a candle light dinner at Mickey D's??

a lil more Beachouse

a traditional fijian fire walker

last night at the beachouse....just chilling on a beeched boat looking at the most stars I have ever seen in my life!

ps. I tried adding video of the beachouse but the file size it too big...i will try to find another way....foley, any suggestions?

bula!

Well..... Bula (hello) to everyone and thank you all for your posts!

I am alive an doing amazing in wonderful Fiji (except maybe a little sun burnt-the sun is sooo strong down here...i guess it is due to the whole "hole in the o-zone" thing??? (damn global warming)

I have had such an awesome time here, I wish I had more days :( The Beachouse was a great place to stay and had a ton of stuff to do.

I have gone horseback riding on the beach and up into the mountains-beautiful views. Afterwards went to our guides village and shared a over ripe coconut with him and his kids. It is actually very good when the coconut sprouts...the fruit is kinda spongie and sweet.

I met some cool aussie surfers that rented a car so last night 10 of us piled into it and went to an authentic fire walking ceremony and drank their sacred drink, Kava (made from some weird type of root??- I guess if you drink a lot of it, it is a muscle relaxer and makes your mouth go numb....dont worry mom, they only gave me a "low tide" helping of it)

Today, two Montana guys took me and my roomate, anja (norwegian) to this beautiful waterfall. it was so muddy getting up there we were walking fijian style (no shoes) all the way up to it. Man, those fijians have feet like leather!!

Other than that I have been just lounging around the beach getting some sun and going for swims in the ocean. the water is unbeleivably warm.

Sorry i dont have pictures posted but the computer wont allow it....ill try to post some pics in NZ tomorrow.

i hope everyone is doing awesome and goodbye from Fiji!

ps. thanks foley for updating my blog...much appreciated, keep up the good work!
pps. Danny- I have your postcard written and ready to be mailed...now all I have to do is find a post office...look for it in the mail :)

Fiji or Bust!

Text messages have been sent and the family has been notified that Kristen is in fact alive and well on the the Fijian Islands!

Posted by Jonathan Foley

January 16, 2006

Kristen: let me know if you don't want me to do this...

christmas vacation...

what a great trip to florida...
fun
sun
&
family

fort myers, florida....

our first adventure took us into the swamplands...
we rode an airboat with a driver that had no front teeth and an accent only his mother could understand! he took us all through the narrow ways in the everglades (40mph on an airboat=crazy fast) and tried to lure the gators out with marshmallows (who knew?) at the end of the adventure we all got the opportunity to hold an alligator....jonathan was very skeptical :)

we also took advantage of the 80 degree weather and headed out to ft. myers beach. it was def a world away from the cold weather in chi-town! bayleigh did great all vacation and he especially loved to chase the seagulls that got to close to our beach chairs....what a great "security" dog :)

after we tanned at the beach, we took a stroll down the ft. myers pier and watched the sunset. it was a great end to a great day!








what a bunch of "crazy fools"....

new years eve...fort myers style

the streets were closed off, the booze was flowing, the music was playing
and the ball dropped, ringing in the new year....2007!



















"dancing queens"



















visiting family in atlanta, georgia

quote of the trip...
"america... what a beautiful
country" -grandma heil




















football all stars...

danny winding up...

action shots...