And we’re back!!! I know it has been a LONG time since my
last blog post, but as most of you know I have spent the last 3 weeks in New
Zealand and Australia having the time of my life. This will go down as my
longest blog post by far but I promise it is worth the read. The trip exceeded
my expectations in every way and it is surreal being back in Doha after another
once in a lifetime trip. The catalyst for making the trip was to visit my
“friend” Kristal, and go on what ended up being an 8 day first date. My journey
officially started on June 6th at 4:00am…
Contrary to popular belief…Qatar is NO closer to New Zealand
than New York or DC. To get there I needed to fly to Dubai, to Sydney, and
finally over to Auckland with a total travel time of around 24 hours. Once I
arrived in Auckland I was surprised by Kristal at the airport and things were a
bit awkward at first, but we got past that. Now luckily I don’t get jet lag,
because from the moment I landed it was nonstop in New Zealand. The first night
we went out and I was able to meet a lot of Kristal’s friends and got to see
some of their favorite places in the city. The following day we took a ferry to
Waiheke to visit some vineyards and then came back home for my first rugby
match. We got to see the New Zealand All Blacks play host to France and the
game was just amazing. Sell out crowd, fast paced game, and by the end I kind
of understood what was going on.
After a quick Auckland weekend, it was off to the south
island for a road trip. We flew from Auckland to Christchurch, which was about
a two hour flight, and then rented a car to drive down to Queenstown. The car
we rented was called a campervan. It wasn’t an RV type like you might expect,
but more of a pimped out mini van. It had a DVD player, full bed, tables, lawn
chairs, stove, sink, refrigerator, sound system, dishes and utensils, a can
opener, a vegetable peeler, really ANYTHING you could want. We were doing a
“relocation” for the company so we only had to pay $1 per day for the van and
got a full tank of fuel (which would have been about $150). All we had to do
was make sure we were in Queenstown within 3 days which was no problem
considering it was only a 9 hour drive.
On our way to Queenstown we made several stops. There was
our first night in Geraldine, a sleepy town where everything closed at 6:00pm.
We had our first home cooked meal together. There was the picturesque Lake
Tekapo. There were bouts with fog where we couldn’t see anything for hours.
There was LOTS of story telling. There were frosty morning hikes at Mount Cook
to Lake Hooker (yes, Lake Hooker). All to the backdrop of snow capped mountains
and one of the most random road track sound tracks you could find.
Once we finally made it to Queenstown I was blown away by
how beautiful it was. Similar to a ski town in Colorado, it sat on a massive
lake surrounded by mountains on all sides. There was a small town with shops
and restaurants along with TONS of adventure and outdoor activities. While we
were there we hiked to the top of a gondola ride, did a 134 meter bungy jump,
and organized a corn hole tournament at a local bar.
Some of you may know corn hole as bags, or bean bags, or
whatever you want to call it. But it is the ultimate tail gate pastime and
Kristal and I were PUMPED when we saw a bar that was hosting at Corn Hole
tournament at 8:00pm on Wednesday night. So what do we do? We enter our team
name, Corn in the USA, for the tournament and wait to get started. Well, the
staff organizer never showed up so they were going to cancel it. Around 9:00pm
I asked the bartender what was going on and he said there weren’t enough teams.
I looked around the bar, saw plenty of people, and asked if I could just
organize it myself. 1st prize $50 tab, 2nd prize $25 tab.
Easy enough. We got 11 teams to enter the tournament but Kristal and I lost our
first game because this guy Jim just couldn’t miss. Luckily we scored enough
points to make it into the playoff round and that’s where it got interesting.
We caught our stride and swept through every team and won the whole tournament,
much to the frustration of the locals who play every week. It was an amazing
night which included our tab totaling $2.50 and followed up by dancing till the
wee hours of the morning.
After Queenstown was over we had one more day back in
Auckland before I left for Australia. Our last night we stayed in a beautiful
Hilton hotel right on the water. We sat on the balcony reminiscing about the
trip and then finally met up with all of Kristal’s friends for one more night
out. The next morning was bittersweet as I did not want to leave Kristal but
Australia was calling. So I hopped the bus, went to the airport and flew off to
Sydney!
I was only in Sydney, at first, for two days. I met up with
two of Kristal’s sister’s friends who were doing a law internship there. We
caught fireworks at Darling Harbor, visited a college town, crashed into some
waves at Manly Beach, got chased by dogs in a dog park, and wandered around the
city. It was a great first introduction and I wish I could have done more since
it rained my last days in Sydney!
My main purpose of going to Australia was to dive at the
Great Barrier Reef. Cairns is a small city on the north east coast of Australia
that is the best access point for the reef. I flew there from Sydney and set
myself up for a great trip. Australia was the first time I had traveled by
myself and I actually enjoyed it. I stayed in hostels, got to meet great new
people, kept myself busy with activities, and got to do whatever I really
wanted to. The dive trip I chose was a two day, one night boat called the Rum
Runner. There were 13 people on the tour, with 4 staff. We took the boat about
3 hours to the outer reef and were completely surrounded by water. Over the two
days I did 4 dives in total and some snorkeling as well. The Great Barrier Reef
was everything I could have expected and more. Each site we visited got
progressively better and the last site, Thetford Canyon Reef, was one of the most
amazing things I have ever seen. Dozens of coral reefs 15 meters high, with
thousands of fish, massive schools, sharks, and more all teeming on the reef.
You could swim in between the reefs as if it was a canyon and explore all the
different parts. I felt incredibly lucky to have been able to go diving there
and the pictures really can’t do justice to the colors, diversity of sea life,
and feeling of being right next to all of it. 
After Carins, I flew back to Sydney for my last two days and
Kristal decided to come out and join me. Hey…Auckland to Sydney is a lot closer
than Auckland to Doha. We had some big plans (Bondi Beach, Blue Mountains,
Opera house, etc) but the weather got in the way of all of them. So we did
wander through the streets in the rain, went bowling, visited Margaritaville,
and ultimately ended up just hanging out at our hostel all night. But the
following day (our last day in Sydney) we went down to Circular Quay, where the
Opera house is, and walked around all day. We visited the opera house,
botanical gardens, the Rocks neighborhood, and a few markets. The rain held off
most of the day justttt until we had to leave for the airport. Kristal’s flight
was at 6pm and mine at 6am, so I decided to just head to the airport with her
and camp out. Nothing like spending 12 hours at the airport before a 14 hour
flight!
After Kristal left me to head back to Auckland, I had
endless time in the airport. The airport closed and there was a specific
waiting/sleeping area that we had to go to. It was PACKED with travelers
waiting for their flights. With almost 100 people. Eventually I got onto my
flight back to Dubai and made it home to Doha!
Ok. So if you have made it this far, I commend you. This is
an obnoxiously long blog post but its hard to capture the best three weeks of
your life in a few paragraphs. The only story from this trip that really
matters in the end is me and Kristal. As most of you know, Kristal and I met in
Doha 18 months ago, I was crazy about her, and have not seen each other since.
We talked regularly (mostly Skype and GChat) and this trip was a chance for us
to see if there was any real chemistry between us. The 8 Day first date? Could
not have gone any better. I actually exclusively recommend that first dates all
be 8 days. Because at the end of it, you either know this is the person you
want to be with or that it will absolutely not work. Fortunately, we found out
we wanted to be together. Truth be told, the first two days…prettyyyy awkward.
But once we got past that first Auckland weekend we clicked and could not have
had a better time together. We are strikingly similar in many important ways,
but also very different in others. By the end of our new Zealand trip we were
wildly in love with each other and not quite sure what to do about it. What did
we decide? We are exclusively dating from across the world and going to just
try to figureeeee it out. The plan is to see each other every 2-3 months in
different central locations and we hope she is able to move to Doha in the next
year. Neither of us really understands the whole thing, or how it works, why it
works, or how we can feel such a strong connection. But we have nothing but
confidence in our relationship and I could not be happier to be with her.
Kristal has started getting all the facebook friend requests and messages from
my friends, so feel free to join in the welcoming!
Unbelievably, my next adventure is next week! I will be
heading to SE Asia for 2 and a half weeks in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
This adventure features none other than Sarah Marr and about 4 other friends.
It will be hot, it will be sweaty, but I CAN’T WAIT to get there and explore.
Will have some more updates after that trip which brings an end to summer
travel and I start getting ready for the school year! Until then!!!
P.S. You all probably heard about the new Emir of Qatar. Here is a transcript of his speech from this week:
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