Frances Watch (you can write to Frances at frannyj7@hotmail.com)

Friday - April 2, 2004 1:16 AM That’s awesome really sounds good i was worried about going straight to gw we met some people from Christchurch yesterday and they’re letting us stay at their houses in Christchurch and show us around. and one of them lives in gore and is as bee keeper and is going to take us bee keeping? and wild bush pig hunting were not too sure about the last part so well see. but sounds cool otherwise. were just glad that we finally met some people from here. Its been good bc weve been in small towns where you cant really meet people

Monday - March 22, 2004 10:42 PM Hey, well were in wellington and were looking for an apartment for about 3 weeks. itrs really nice here and so pretty. we went to tongariro yesterday and did a hike to these fallls and it was absolutely amazing i mean there was the volcano in the background and it was so obviously a volcano w the concave top thats kind of singed looking it was so cool and we took, maybe 5000 pictures of it. and the falls were really pretty too greenish blue water. Thats where they filmed some of lord of the rings the volcano was mordor and the falls, i dont know but they were something. oh yea and in the middle of this huge national park was a hotel (le chateau) and it was HUGE i don’t know who stays there bc theres nothing else there but the cast stayed there and thom was really excited. We picked up a couple of Swedish hitchhikers yesterday too and one was a journalist and doing an article on hitchhiking in nz and he took a picture of us so were going to be in a Swedish newspaper haha! famous i know i give you my permission to sell my stuff on ebay. anyways so im really excited for the rest of the trip and today were figuring it out and we bought a road map and a lonely planet so we can know where we are. oh yea while were there, theres a balloon festival! yay maybe we can ride in one. and theres alll this other stuff like an Ella Fitzgerald tribute concert and i think its all free. and by far the best ting weve done yet is make a honk for hobbits sign that we put in the window of the car b/c here theyre so obsessed w/ the lotr stuff and weve gotten sooooo many honks ! very exciting. and weve made a few others, "the babys yours" , "come here often" etc... its too much fun we almost seek out traffic jams b/c its too funny, what people do back. we also made one that says he hates nz, nzers are really nationalistic, w/ an arrow pointing t thom and his # on it toooo funny the reactions!!! but now we have to throw it away damn. well i think wre going to see that building w/ the HUGE golum on it so talk to you later

Sunday - March 21, 2004 5:21 PM hey, abseiling is like repelling but its straight down and you dont go up first and so your just kind of sitting in the air in your harness and lowering yourself down with a rope. i think you can just download ocean color scene on winmx or something their big in the uk but im not sure if its color or colour so try both. theyre like a more instruments beatles. o and i completely forgot to tell you that one: i bought a ticket back to cairns to see Daniel [her brother going to Aus on a school trip] but dont tell him im just goring to knock on his door. and 2: on our way back were stopping over im tahiti! for 3 days in a nice hotel on the beach. we wanted to go to fiji but that wasnt possible but im so excited. today were in lake taupo and its beautiful like everywhere else here. but were going to tongariro national park and maybe doing a couple overnight hikes! theres a volcano one where theyre not sure if its dead or not. and theres a few mountains with lakes on top of them. well see. weve been looking through our tramping book thats just hikes in it and weve picked out some the shortest is 2 days and the best one and longest is5. a bunch are in the south island if you wan tto do one with us. they have amazing campground and hiking facilities, they have huts along all the trail, pretty much that, most expensive one is 5 a night and the cheapest is free, anyways some have beds, kitchens, showers, bathrooms etc.. so you dont actually have to camp if you dont want to but i think were going to switch off b/c we dont have a stove. well, off to mt. tongariro! tah

Thursday - March 18, 2004 9:04 PM hey dad, Well moms leaving today and its been lots of fun. we went to rotorua,to the mud baths and springs. and the buried village ,its like pompeii. and then we went to waitomo to where the caves are. iwas pretty sick and we went abseiling 100ft down into the cave then ziplining through the dark and the glowworms were so pretty. then we went tubing through the glow worm caves and THEEN we went free rock climbing up 3 water falls. oh yes so much fun. But shes leaving in about an hour and then were off to the impact world tour to see a breakdancing and skateboard show. hows everything? still cold? or getting warmer? oh yea sad to say i had a dream about this bungy thing it was that i decided just to jump right away and not wait but apparently i didnt wait long enough and well they hadnt secured the other end and i hit the bottom not fun. love you , frances ps-download ocean colour scene i think youll really like them

Monday - March 8, 2004 6:20 PM
Well any new adventures? ...hmmm well we have 2 boards now and we found a good learning spot to practice but its so much harder on the short real boards. Yesterday I got a couple of "cheese graters" a very visual name for being dragged along the sand under the wave. it really hurt but I'm ok and i always seem to be the one to not follow like the "what not to do example" this time i was don't ride a wave that is too steep and crashes right on the sand. Everyone promptly stopped after that. Just got tickets for Edgefest, its like the HFStival of Auckland.

Sunday - February 22, 2004 9:34 PM
Thanks for sending me the itinerary. Its surprising that they're not going to Sydney I've been kind of planning on that but i m going to try to fly into cairns. Well I'm sorry to say that i just read an article and Nevis is no longer the highest bungy in NZ its now this one called parabungy and its off a hot air balloon over a lake and its 170 meters!!!!!!insane. the guy writing the article interviewed the guy that created it and he had a really hard time convincing people that it was safe so that he could get a license and then the interviewer said that he had never been on a bungy so 15 mins later the bungy guy called him and made him come and jump he said that on the way up he finally talked himself into it and told the guy that he was ready and the guy was kind of shocked and laughed and exclaimed, " well were only 1/3 of the way up!" hahah too funny! Well that's funny and you know what else is funny, well ill tell you. Were being left alone at the farm for the week and they didn't want to leave us b/c they didn't think that we were responsible enough to stay and finally they let us and guess what?! We lostthe pigs! Well we've got one back now and the other is still wandering Pukekohe and it's really sad actually b/c they are like dogs to her like she's taught them to sit etc... we feel so bad.

Wednesday - February 18, 2004 6:53 PM
Sounds awesome. We want to see all those things. Thoms getting a book of the places that Lord of the Rings filmed b/c all those places are practically deserted and gorgeous. its good that we have a car b/c we can go everywhere that the buses don't go which is everywhere. they suck, the transportation here is horrible but i suppose after lord of the rings and whale rider etc... that will change fairly soon. We were discussing bungy today while working and were all terrified and i told them your theory and they all agree for now haha well see how it goes when we get there.

February 17, 2004 9:22 PM Pukehohe, New Zealand
Subject: RE: Bungy
That's the sprit dad! Sounds good to me I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life but that's cool! I hope we get to test out a new rope and distance than maybe at least one of us can get a free t-shirt! hey very good. Well we've got our car now so we have a lot more freedom and are planning quit a few trips to the near beaches and such. The cars a piece of crap but it'll last i think and so does Thom and Charles (who's a car man) so i feel good about it. I'm designated driver for now b/c Annie and Jules are learning stick hell of a way to learn, on the right side and left of the road but hey, and I've found its pretty easy to drive on the right side partly b/c we've been in Australia so we've gotten used to seeing the cars on the opposite side in fact when i see cars in movies on the right it looks wrong at first. well the farms good and the owners are going out of town for 5 days and were to be left alone running the farm and etc.. Sounds like a lot of responsibility but its really not we just munch and feed the pigs but we are just the people to manage to burn he whole farm down during all the rainstorms. We leave here in about 2 weeks and then go up to ninety mile beach and the bay of islands etc.. Then we get mom and take her to Pukekohe and show her the farm and then get Thom and then off to Waitomo and Rotorua where all the cave tubing is, lazy river in a cave, and the thermal beaches and rivers. Cool well cant wait till you come Thom can't wait to meet you b/c i told him that you used to be a pro boarder... haha no i told him that you are learning and so he's excited to teach you some more.

February 4, 2004 1:29 AM Subject: Re: ZEN Warning, long answer.
WHOA! Thanks dad. That was intense and so is Zen!

February 1, 2004 11:52 PM Subject: ZEN
OK one more thing who is Phaedrus? In Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance it's all he talks about right now. And its hard to understand the philosophy b/c he's building on a philosophy of Phaedrus but i dont know who he is. PS- samurai is awesome go see it now

February 1, 2004 11:40 PM Subject: Superbowl!
We went to the sports bar near us and watched the game. Great game who were you guys rooting for? We cheered for the Pats just b/c its close and we've been there more but Carolina did awesome and some of their plays we just had to cheer the bar was fun b/c a lot of people actually went and it wasn't just Americans and the bar people took our picture b/c we were the only girls there by ourselves and they're putting us up on the wall... we're famous! We also saw last samurai yesterday and it made me miss aikido b/c I recognized a lot of the moves and style they even used the jo and the wooden sword thing we've used it was cool and I've recruited Annie to come w/ me when i get back. It was really good today I think we are going to see Goodbye Lenin and 21 grams in a row b/c its cheap Monday at the independent theater. Well were off to say goodbye to a bunch of friends form Perth they leave tomorrow so talk to you later.

1/28/04 We go to this river lagoon everyday that's outside of the university here, which is gorgeous. Now its raining like a hurricane. It like dc here b/c you can set your watch to the raining time! except its like a full on thunderstorm w/ the most amazing lightning that I've ever seen everyday at 5! And today we went to the museum after the lagoon, that's made from the river
water. The museum has a cool exhibit on the circus and one on sea turtles. But as a special exhibit they had the top political cartoons from Australia on exhibit they were really good and obviously a lot about bush so we could actually understand who they were talking about and also a lot about the relationship b/n Howard and Bush which were hilarious. One had Betty Ross
in her rocking chair and she was replacing the cross in the aussie flag w/ the us flag. They were really cool and it was cool b/c they were the originals. I also just finished the funniest book called Me talk pretty one day by, David sedaris where he observes that the French have milk too buts its in a box and can sit outside on the shelf for up to 5 months at which point it turns to cheese and then is simply moved to a different section of the grocery store...hah! Hilarious you really should read it. Now I'm on to
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

1/27/04 I had my first run in w/ a true Aussie spider and let me tell it was HUGE! We were at the pub at our hostel and i went to go change b/c we were going out and I'm looking in the mirror and there it is on the ceiling above this girls bed i screamed soooo loud and ran as fast as i could to get backup (Annie) who is terrified of all bugs especially freakishly huge furry ones w/ like 18 eyes! WE got back and that's when the Battle of Brisbane began. That thing could run and we used all of our roommates' shoes and forks etc. very appropriate we thought like payment for our services. and we were in there huddled together and i think the whole hall thought that we were being stabbed b/c we screamed bloody murder every time it moved and then, dad, we
lost it and could not find it i was on the top bunk where it used to be w/ the flashlight trying to look over the edge b/n the wall and the beds and it was terrifying! we were on the hunt! Then in the other corner i saw it run up the wall and i screamed and Annie and i dashed for that top bunk and we were so close (HUGE, dad, HUGE) and then Annie got real close while i held her hand and flashlight and dad the thing was so big that its eyes reflected the light back like those things on your bike or on the highways you know?! and then she got its leg w/ our mates shoe and it fell and after about oh...15 minutes of screaming we looked over the edges and there it was on the wall below staring up at us, so i went down to try i\and chase it back into position where Annie could smack it again and I'm throwing everything i can get at it but it wasn't moving and then it fell backwards on its back
twitched and then did that spider rigor mortis thing where it curls up and it died... It BLED to death if that's possible it was that big. Whew well we went and got all our new friends to show them the kill and this guy picked it up and showed everyone our trophy. Anyways here's a picture of it on this website its called a huntsman spider.
http://www.geocities.com/brisbane_spiders/Sparassidae.htm

1/25/2004 Were in Brisbane now and its raining. that sucks but at least were not at the beach. Noosa was awesome and it was absolutely gorgeous! We were in a room of only Americans. it was so funny our first night we went around the room you know telling our place that were from lets see it was Texas, New Hampshire, Virginia and us. We are convinced that they hear the accent and"lets see American eh?! put em in 27" exactly. it was so much fun though and we are still w/ the two from VA they're on they're way to Sydney to work at the fish market. And they love comedy and we just tell stand up skits back and forth its awesome they say to download Ben Reagan I think they say he's their favorite. Well i finished Omerta and then I read mark twain's The diary of Adam and Eve, its really good and hilarious, its written as a diaries of them separately and Adam complains b/c Eve wont shut up and she takes all the names for things and he doesn't think they're scientific enough etc and Eve had a baby and just told Adam that she found it so he's convinced that its a kangaroo very entertaining. And now I'm reading a clockwork oirange very intense beach read I'd say I'm only 20 pages into it and 3 rapes have happened one of them was 10 so its really scary but good.

01.17.04 We leave Airlie soon and I'm ready to go b/c there is nothing to do here but sit on the stoop and chat w/ the neighbors. its so cool, our hostel, its all cabins in like a rainforest w. porches and everything its so cute it feels like summer camp for 20 yr olds. but other than that there's nothing here. And there's no beaches. Sucks. Yesterday we met these Koreans they were so polite listen to this... they came up, we don't know their names keep in mind, we were just eating at the picnic table
and they came and asked for a picture so we thought that meant to take their picture for them but they stood posed behind us and their friend took a picture it was so weird! And then they left no names nothing and then 15 minutes later they came back so shyly and asked for us to be their friends! Dad we almost cried it was so charming! And so we said no we couldn't do that for them no just kidding we told them to sit down and we exchanged cultural stuff and then they left for their bus it was so nice! They are Chong Wen and Su Wong I think they said that I have an excellent ear for their language! Yay! too cool. it was very interesting and i really want to go to Korea now. so yea that's what were doing. We read a lot here b/c its so hot and there's not much activities for us to do so now I'm reading Omerta (Mario Puzo), so good can't put it down, but obviously not as good as Godfather, and
a Tree Grows in Brooklyn (no idea) but its good. They take place in the same place and they are so different. I don't know what to read next but we spent like 3 hours in the bookstore yesterday and it was overload I had 50 books on the list by the end.

01.16.04 We rented a underwater camera at the reef off our boat it had flash! But were really stupid and forgot to bring it on the dive but we have pictures of Nemo and his dad we saw them and freaked out! And they were throwing bread off the back of the boat and these huge fish were jumping out all around us so we have pictures of that. The guides kept trying to scare us by throwing bread next to our heads and the fish would well yea they succeeded several times! There was one huge green one, you know straight Discovery Channel, the ones that are too lazy to close their mouths and just are oafish.. WELL one of the guides was cleaning the boat and he hugged it and was scratching its side like a dog and afterwards it wouldn't leave him alone. Hilarious. Now were in Airlie and we just did our sailing trip it was so cool being on a big sailboat and sleeping on it. It's been raining a lot here b/c were in the wet season now but somehow we got really nice weather for our first day and then it only rained once that night and we slept on board awesome and then it rained all day the next day but that's ok b/c we saw all the cool stuff the first day. I kept trying to recruit the crew to play pirates with the other boats and go over in the dingy and try to capture the boats! I got to do a donut in the boat it was called the Southern Cross it sailed a lot in the Americas cup and i think won a few times i don't know but its a really famous boat. We broke in our tent at mission beach and there was a hurricane pretty much that night it was a nice way to check the rain fly and sturdiness and let me tell you its sturdy excellent!
Snow? Sledding? Kinda miss the sledding! but I'm not complaining b/c its so nice out here!

01.12.04 Went diving and it was awesome and we pet the inside of a giant clam and i was almost gone b/c every time you touch the inside it kinda jerks closed and trust me everyone is lucky that you can't scream underwater b/c it scared the crap out of me b/c i was the first to touch it. We picked up a sea cucumber thingy, a real looker although i think it is the ugly stick! but it
was the weirdest feeling thing ever! anyways it was awesome.

01.02.04 We just got to Byron bay after our surf trip. We were in the middle of nowhere in a beach house. We got up at 7 every morning and went surfing til lunch and then went back after lunch and surfed til dinner and then partied on the beach all night. It was a long week but it was awesome and now were in Byron bay which is so nice. Tomorrow we go to Newcastle we just decided
that and this girl on the trip is letting us crash on her floor for a night and she's going to show us the university there and such. Anyways for New Year's we were at the beach house and the brought down a karaoke machine to the beach it was so much fun.

12.28.03 Off to Brisbane for five days of surfing.

12.18.03 Today is Jules birthday so we went to a casino and won 50 cents on the slots well not really the slots some game that looked like them and every now and then a staff member would come by b/c we were obviously confused and they
really just played the game for us. But anyways we also saw Spanish Apartment which was hilarious and reminded me a lot of people that we have met here its a good movie to see when traveling its hilarious and yet again we were the only ones laughing in the theatre. Tonight's our last night in Melbourne its kind of sad b/ i like it here but I'm excited for Christmas ion Sydney and our surf trip right after it'll be fun. We spend New Years in a beach house outside of Sydney w/ our surf trip crew and its going to be awesome.

12.12.03 We're buying our tickets to NZ when we get to Sydney. We're going to buy a camper w/ this guy named Tom whose from England. We met him in Cottesloe and we went to the tree top walk w/ him and he's the one who hates Americans but he's changing his views b/c he loves us. Anyways we've kind of been traveling w/ him every now and then and he met us here in Melbourne and he took us to the surfing museum today and the very first quicksilver store, Awesome! you would have loved it don't worry i wrote down a bunch of surfing movies that were going to rent when i get back. It was really cool though b/c there was an artist who wrote fake letters b/n a surfer boy(14) and his dad and they wrote o surfboards and they were hilarious. i took pics too and ill show you. Anyways tom is going to Auckland, NZ on Wednesday and living there until we get there and working. He is going to buy a cheap car or camper and were going to drive all over NZ so that we don't have to pay for accommodation, which seems to be our biggest expense. AND there is a lot of stuff in NZ that we can only really see if we rent a car and were not old enough so its going to be awesome and i cant wait. Were going to go to NZ beginning of Feb. and travel the north island shortly and then really explore the south island b/c we hear its 10 times better. So that's the plan right now and when i have exact dates ill tell you and you come and maybe by then i can teach you how to surf. After our surf trip we might buy some really cheap boards for the east coast and Nz but not sure yet cool huh! We go to Sydney on Friday.

12.09.03 On Thanksgiving we went to the BBQ next door and there was a pushup contest, which I won!, anyways that mean that I got a free surf lesson and Annie and Jules came too. The second wave came and the board flew up and the tail hit me in the back of the head and I blacked out for a second and it looked like jaws had hit but the instructor told me just to go lie down on the beach. So I did for a while and I had the worst headache that I have ever had in my life! But all was fine and I got back in and tried again for the last half hour and I got up every time. I should have gotten stitches but I didn't and now I have a big scar to show for it and I couldn't lie down on my back or sit back in a chair for a while. But it's all good! And it was so much fun, surfing, and it was just a given that I would get hurt b/c I hurt myself doing everything! yay! Also about my wound I was talking to our guide, who surfs, and I told him and he said I was hardcore and most surfers when hit like that have to go lie down for the rest of the day and he made me show my scar to the rest of the bus!

Now I m in Melbourne we spent 3 days in Adelaide and its a city and is nice but a city is a city is a city I guess you know? Anyways from Adelaide we took a tour on the great ocean road it was 3 days. It was awesome we saw, wild: koalas, emus, kangaroos, wallabies, parrots(the aussie equivalent of a pigeon weird!) We did a hike in the Grampians that was only 2.1 kms but it was one of the hardest hikes I've done in 28 C and straight up the cliff to a place called the pinnacles. It was the most amazing view and the hike was through a canyon...gorgeous. We swam in a waterfall and the water was orange from the roots, cool. The coastline was awesome and now were in the Melbourne beach town, St. Kilda, its really hippie/ San Fran town and it looks great were right on the beach again and the shopping is looking good, the book stores are amazing and its going to be hard not to go crazy window shopping. Anyways, were going to be in Sydney for x-mas and new years and were told that its crazy for it and we almost didn't find a hostel b/c were stupid and decided that we, the goddesses of booking and organization, would be able to find something, needless to say yesterday when we were looking for stuff on the internet we almost settled for the $40 a night hostel in the boonie suburbs w/ only a hose w/ cold water as a shower and no linen, the $40 was for the ability and chance(of a lifetime) to sleep on a cot! yay we found a hostel and booked it immediately in Collaroy, a beach suburb on the tram and it sounds like the place in Cottesloe and it has great surfing beaches and free surf boards. Anyways we're going to meet a American hating English friend that we drove to the tree top walk w/ and the 40 hour train ride w/ love him!

12.07.03 Got to Adelaide Friday, not as nice as the little beach at Cottesloe. Adelaide is a city like any other city. Leaving Monday for Melbourne which we hear is like a huge Georgetown w/ lots of music and etc. Were going on a scenic bus along the great ocean road along the coast. nvinced. To get here we went on the Indian -pacific train and it was a 2 day ride through the outback it was interesting b/c there was literally nothing to look at but red clay and an occasional bush. But we stopped in a town called Cook that gets their supplies from the bi weekly train and they have a store of souvenirs for the train people. and thats the towns income. We went to the treetop walk. The SWINGING tightrope-like 45 meters in the air treetop walk, that one.
We're supposed to go to Sydney on the 20th and we'll be there for Xmas and new years and were having an OBH reunion b/c everyones going to be there!

11.19.03 Hey dad, Its been raining the past few days so its forced us off the beach and into
fremantle and Perth for sightseeing. We saw the maritime museum which you
would have loved its right up there with the air and space in the mall but in
WA. Hanging boats and interactive learning stuff. It would have been
expensive if we hadn't passed for 12 yr old backpackers! it was great. Then
we went to the fremantle cultural art museum which was nice but kind of sad
compared to home and we went to the aboriginal history museum in Perth and
Australia is exactly like america. The colonists kicked off the indians and
couldn't handle the land and destroyed it w/ cattle etc...
Then we came home and went to the pub next door. we've met a lot of people
but we are by far the youngest. Julia met an english guy that looks exactly
like Frodo from lord of the rings so we promptly set up and account at the
video store and rented 1 and 2... can't wait for the 3rd! Love Actually
isn't out yet so we are advertising it to everyone here... and adding that
we can see the future.
PS youre getting a post card soon

11.14.03   I just got to perth and its 10 in the morning on nov 14. The plane ride
sucked but it was the coolest plane in the world. Double decker w/ video
games and 6 movies w/ screeens on the seat in front of you! It was awesome
and 14 hours. We stayed in a hostel in sydney overnight and walked around
the darling harbor n syd. It looked exactly like baltimore inner harbor. Now
we're in perth at the ocean beach backpackers hostel. We got a little tour of
perth/fremantle in our shuttle ride here. We were dropped first as we pulled
up the driver said to the rest of them that they could see the best beach in
fremante right in front of them annd then drove off to send them to their
inferior beachfront hostels. hehe
ps- every movie here is american and pretty much on time but not much
chinese movies, even in china town,Syd.

11.13.03 Spent the night in Sydney; up with the dawn and off to Perth, arriving Friday 8AM local date/time

11.12.03 Over the Pacific, arriving Sydney today 2PM here. Local day & time: Thursday, 8 AM.

11.11.03 Off to LA, lunch in Santa Monica, back to LAX and on to Sydney 10:30PM

11.11.03 Flying out of BWI Tuesday 11/11 to LA>Sydney> Perth