Highlights from New Zealand in pictures!

Before I begin, anyone who reads this needs to understand one thing first. I LOVE NEW ZEALAND! I dated a guy after my freshman year at BYU (7 years ago...man I'm gettin' old) who had just returned home from serving a mission in New Zealand and Kiribi (a small Pacific Island). He told me stories about the places and people he met and I fell in love with the country and have since then wanted to go and see for myself. I can't quite describe the excitement I felt when we started to fly over the east side of the South Island on our way to Christchurch on the west side. But I was like a kid in the toy store (wait...I'm still kinda like that now...) It was my dream coming true and I wanted to take in and experience every second of it! We were only there for 4 days and I'm already plotting for my next trip over there, because there NEEDS to be another one. :)

Ok so here we go...

I took these pics from the plane as we flew over the South Island. First you start with the majestic, snow covered mountains, that diminish into green farmland, and end in the Pacific Ocean.

Our first night there we went and learned about the Maori culture and watched a performance of traditional Maori dance...including the Haka (go Cougars!). We got to try the women's dance with the Poi balls...its a lot harder than it looks! I bought some Poi balls so I could get my groove on back here in the states. :)

Eve kept whackin' me with her poi balls.
After our Maori experience we went on a gondola ride up to a really fancy restuarant for dinner. This was on the way down...I was freezing!

The next morning Brooke and I went on a "running tour of Christchurch" as we tried to find a grocery store to buy some cereal and milk for breakfast. I'm sure we ran about 3 miles trying to find the store...but again, it was a great time!

This is a piece of the Twin Towers from 9-11. New Zealand was the first country to come to the aid of the US and President Bush thanked them by giving them these remains. That's pretty cool. Oh my gosh!!! Fruit Loops in New Zealand! I was one happy girl! :)

Later that day we went swimming with dolphins in the Pacific Ocean off the coast. The country side on the way to Akaroa was incredible! It was a little gloomy (and really cold) but it was still amazing!

Here we are in our wet suits! I loved that dang thing...If I could wear black neoprene everyday I would. :)

On the bus on our way to church. It was pretty cold so we had to bundle up under our church clothes. So ya know...just changin' on the bus on the way there. :)

We met a family in the ward that was from Oregon and they invited us over to dinner Sunday night. They invited us all back to visit sometime and I am definitely planning on taking them up on that offer!

So I started to feel sick Sunday night and had to stay home all day Monday with the flu. Wouldn't have been that big of a deal, except that the freakin' swine flu scare was in full effect in New Zealand and Australia. I missed out on the ATV adventure on the coast so I could stay home and sleep all day, trying to bring my fever down. I went down to the front desk and asked what a good fever reducer was that I could go buy at the store and the lady working started to freak out and told me to go to the quarentine office immediately. Are you kidding me? I just walked away shaking my head. The Sydney Airport had body temperature sensors in customs and if I had any sign of a fever, I would have been quarentined in Australia until they ran tests to determine if I had the swine flu or not. That was NOT going to happen since I was going to graduate on Friday! So...home I stayed. :(

Anyway, I LOVED my time in New Zealand and just got a taste of what that country has to offer and I can't wait to go back!

Here's a little highlight from my trip to Sydney, Australia...in pictures

DAY 1

Brooke and I on the gondola ride that took us to the top of the Taranga Zoo in Sydney. Behind us is the Sydney Harbor. What an incredible view! Anyways, Brooke is the whole reason I finally got to go to Australia in the first place. I talked her into doing her last physical therapy internship there so that I could come visit after. Worked like a charm : )
And PS...I LOVE the Zoo!!

Kangaroos like to roll over and scratch their bellies...just like me!
Wanna be a wallaby?
All of us girls and some chimps. Chelsea (Brooke's old roommate), Me, Brooke, Hannah (grew up with Brooke in Brawley, CA), and Eve (Hannah's roommate). We are quite the good lookin' bunch.
We took a little harbor cruise to get to the zoo and this was on the way back in front of the Sydney Opera House. Way cool!
We went to they Sydney Aquarium too!
This is a Dugong. Brooke likes them "big and chunky" HAHAHAHAHAHA!! And I like to randomly make dugong faces...
Me just bein' me :)
And I thought my mouth was big! (the boys don't seem to mind...hahaha. j/k)
DAY 2

So in true, Brooke-like fashion, she and I went on a literal "running tour of Sydney" and these are some of my favorite pics from that. And I have to admit...I love'd every second of it. It was a great way to see the city.

We started from our downtown hotel and ran across the harbor bridge. This pic must have been taken on the way back across...check out that sweat!

So that's the bridge we ran across and back, then we went around part of the harbor on our way to the Opera House. And of course, I had to work it with the pole ;)
It's a good thing I had been taking the stairs at my internship (all 24 flights) so I could rock the Sydney Opera House stairs!
And we ran through the Botannical Gardens. Beautiful.
Haha. Look what I found (Brooke did not appreciate this moment like I did...)
Takin' a break for a quick game of chess in Hyde Park
And the physiotherapy (that's what the rest of the world calls physical therapists) clinic that Brooke interned at.
So after our morning fun run of 4-5 miles through the city of Sydney, we went to the beach for a 2.5 mile hike along the coast. We went from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach and the view was absolutely incredible the entire way! Here is just a taste of what we saw

How cool is this!! I wanted to take that sign home sooo bad! But I'm sure they would have stopped me in customs...
Sydney seriously had some of the best signs in the world! Just tryin' to do my part...

Hooray! We made it to Bondi Beach!
We did a little shopping along the beach...

Then jumped in the water! It was sooo windy and cold! But we are hard core girls. No messin' around :) And unfortunately, we didn't get any snorkeling in this trip...but that didn't stop us from havin' fun!
Later that night we went to the Sydney temple and did 50 of Chelsea's family names. We were there the same time as a Samoan group of youth. There was this one girl who kept asking us to talk so that she could hear our "American Accents" and thought that we were the coolest things next to bread and butter (or bread and veggiemite in this case...). What a great experience!

DAY 3

We took a 2 hour train ride out to Katoomba and went and saw the Blue Mountains. The mountains are covered in Eucalyptus trees that give off a blue gas into the air and that's what gives the blue hue to the mountains and their name. I thought that was pretty interesting

This range is called the "Three Sisters". Apparently these sisters were a bit promiscuous and their dad turned them into rocks for their own good...
And another fabulous sign in Australia. If you can't read the sign it says."Please take your rubbish out with you". Brooke just tryin' to do her part...

We hurried home from the mountains and went and saw The Nutcracker at the Sydney Opera House. It was pretty amazing being in the Opera House. Me, being the band geek that I am, absolutely loved the music from the orchestra and the acoustics of the building. Incredible. I also was pretty spent by this time. 3 days of non-stop action was starting to take its toll on me and I was ready for bed! (Brooke, Chelsea, and I shared the king size bed...that was an experience all in itself...good times)
And that's pretty much the run down of our adventures in Sydney, Australia. I've always wanted to go to Australia and I'm so glad I took advantage of this opportunity to go. Even though a good number of my witty one-liners went unappreciated and I had to share a bed with 2 other girls...I had the time of my life! :)

Sydney Adventure: Departure

I did everything right. I had everything packed in a carry-on so there was no chance that my luggage would be lost. I got to the airport ridiculously early. I was ready to go. I was supposed to leave SLC at 8:48pm and had a little more than 30 min to get to my connecting flight at LAX to take me to Sydney, Australia. Then someone threw a snowball that just kept growing...
First, our flight was delayed. I didn't have much time for a flight delay. Heart rate starts to increase. I guess one of the flight crew had called in sick and we had to wait for another attendant to come in. there were 2 of us with connecting flights to Sydney and they let us know that we would have approximately 10 min to make it to our connecting flight. We would have to book it. LAX is huge! Ok, I can do that. I was undefeated in the 400m dash during the regular track season of my junior year of high school (10 years ago)--I can totally make it to this flight...
Then. Then I realized that my carry on luggage had to be checked at the door because we were flying in a small regional jet and it wouldn't fit in the overhead storage bins. This was a problem because I'd have to wait for my bag before running through LAX to catch my next flight. Shoot--Heart rate going even faster. I have no way to contact Brooke in Sydney if I miss my flight to Sydney. That's not good. So I ask the United Airlines attendant at the desk if there is any way we could fit my bag on the plane with us. nfortunately that wasn't going to work. Way to go carry-on luggage. But--the nice man who puts the door checked luggage on the plane told me he would put my bag on last so it would come off first and be ready at the door when I got off the plane in LA. Love this guy!! Then, the lady at the desk upgraded my ticket for my inconvienience. Love her too!! Heart rate starting to return back to normal. Too bad my long, 14 hour flight to Sydney couldn't get upgraded...
So things start to look up--except that I still only have 10 minutes to get on my next flight.
Since I had recently had a first class experience, I was excited and ready for another one. Endless snacks, real glasses, plenty of leg room, TV--WRONG! All I got was the "premium snack pack" (pretzels, nuts, and funny tasting cracker things), 1 cup of Sprite in a plastic cup with way too much ice (more like cup of ice with a hint of Sprite), and no movie or tv. I did have plenty of leg room as you can see. Yes, those are my legs fully stretched out. : )
After we boarded the plane and got settled, I met my friend, Brandon, who was about 7, lived in LA, and had been in SLC visiting his mom who is a member of the Salt Lake Roller Derby team. He liked to go surfing, has only been to Disneyland twice, and likes the Steelers football team (sorry Cardinals fans...Go Cards!) Brandon was having a tough time leaving his mom behind and a few tears had escaped from this brave little dude so I decided I would talk to him a little bit and try to help him take his mind off of it. I remember crying in Grandma's kitchen when I was a little, little girl as i would watch my daddy turn on the running lights to his blue, Ford truck and drive away after he dropped me off from our weekend visit. So I could relate to the little guy. This is Brandon after our little chat (I seem to have this affect on a lot of people...)
We finally land at LAX and the other guy, Dillan, and I take off running down the terminal to our next flight. You should have seen me!! I could have come straight out of a movie. My backpack kept coming unzipped as I was waddle-running through the airport pulling my little suitcase behind me. Not my most athletic performance. Good thing I decided to wear my running shoes and not my flip flops! Miraculously I made it onto the plane with 2 minutes to spare! I've never been on a plane that big before and was just in awe as I walked down the aisle to find my seat wondering how on earth something so big was going to get up in the air and carry me over 7500+ miles of ocean to Sydney...Ok. Now I'm ready to go. 14 hour flight and I'll be in Sydney--I made it. WRONG AGAIN! Our flight ended up being delayed 80 min due to some problem with the #3 engine. Great. Just what I need. An engine proplem when I'm flying over THE PACIFIC OCEAN FOR 14 HOURS! Just Fabulous. Take all the time you need...
So while I'm waiting for take off, still catching my breath from running from terminal to terminal to try to catch my flight on time, I overhear the conversation of the man and woman sitting behind me. Apparently they had just met and were discussing different "sexual talents" they have (I don't think these talents are what the Lord had in mind when giving the parable of the talents...), brothels around the world (this girl was apparently well traveled), and the fact that the girl was no longer wearing a bra...OH MY GOODNESS PEOPLE...WE ARE IN PUBLIC! ON AN AIRPLANE...YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!
Once we got into the air (finally) my flight itself was rather uneventful. I think I slept for a total of 10.5-11 hours with frequent changes in position. I was only mildly impressed with the functioning of the neck pillow I had purchaces for $12 back in SLC. I think I'll gift that to my sister when I get back--she has a shorter neck, might work better for her... My internal clock woke me up for each meal thank goodness. Flying makes me hungry. Dinner was pretty tastey. I must have been sitting next to Brooke when I ordered my meals because it was the "low fat" meal option complete with sugar free cookie. I never would have ordered a sugar free cookie on my own...EVERYBODY knows that! I missed out on French Toast for breakfast too...dang healthy omlete... I won't be making that mistake again anytime soon.
Brooke picket me up at the airport--so good to see her! As we were walking through the airport, I was stopped by 2 television reporters who wanted to interview an American about the "swine' flu and how it had affected my travel. It hadn't really affected my travel at all (although ironically it would on my way back to the States...but that's a story for another blog...). The first reporter really wasn't interested in what I had to say and walked away while the second one humored me and coninued the 2 minute interview. 10 minutes in Australia and I'm already a celebrity! Right on!
We took the train into the city (Sydney) and walked to the hotel. We didn't wait around long once we got to the hotel to get our day started. I took a quick shower and off we went!
To be continuted... *wink wink*

Wake Up Call

We've all been there...Something wakes you up before you intended on waking up and it just goes down hill from there...

This is my story.

A physical therapy clinic that I had interviewed with two weeks earlier flew me back down for a clinic visit and had put me up in a hotel for the weekend. I set my alarm for 8am Friday to get up and go for a run and get ready for my day in the clinic...

RING RING RING RING RING!!

What the heck!? What time is it? Who the heck is calling me at 6:45am?? What is going on? So I crawl out of bed and stumble over to the desk and pick up the phone to hear "Goodmorning, this is your wake up call" I DIDN'T ASK FOR A WAKE UP CALL AT 6:45 IN THE A-M!! Grrrrr!!!! Ok...1:15 left to sleep before I have to get up and get ready. I'm going back to sleep. WRONG! I crawl back into bed and finally get comfortable and I have to pee. That might be one of the worst things ever...when you have to get up and go to the bathroom when you are all comfy in bed. Ok, get up. Take care of business. Get back to bed. Sleep...Wrong again. Now I have hunger pains shooting through my poor little tummy. GOSH! So I toss and turn for a while and finally get the pain to subside. Ok. 50 minutes left to sleep. Sleep...Are you kidding me? The drapes are just far enough apart that the wonderful Arizona sunshine is shining in on my not so smiling face. Get up again. Close the drapes. Crawl back into bed. Toss and turn for a little bit. Re-adjust the five pillows surrounding my head for the 8th time. Sleep.

30 minutes later... Beep Beep Beep Beep.

I hate it when that happens.

First Class Experience

This is a great story, just under rotten circumstances. Easter weekend my sister and I took last minute flights to Washington because my grandma was close to passing away and we wanted to have a chance to say goodbye. I'm not going to go into any more detail than that right now other than she past away a week later. But no more tears and on to the good stuff.
So my sister and I bought these last minute flights and rushed off to the airport. This was my sister's first time flying with assigned seats (we're generally Southwest girls) and I was being the helpful big sister that I am and taking the lead onto the plane. Well, I went to turn right and find my seat, 3C, and found myself in for a surprise. I looked up at the seat numbers and the first number I saw was 20C. 20C? What the heck happened to 3C? I stood there for a second or two longer and finally had to ask the flight attendant what happened to 3C? She politely pointed and directed me to the left. That's right...to the left. When I looked up and saw first class I thought there was some big mistake...How on earth did I end up with a first class ticket? I checked the name...yep, Alison Merritt. I checked the seat number again...yep, 3C. That was me! So I sit down and my sister sits down behind me. Oddly enough, I just couldn't get comfortable. Not because the seat wasn't nice and big and plush, but because I still didn't think I belonged up there. I didn't know what to do with myself honestly. :) My sister ended up sitting next to this cute, 29 year old military guy and just got her flirt on all the way to Seattle. I on the other hand ended up with this spoiled rotten, teenage boy next to me who had the audacity to wake me up to point out the train we were flying over, read over my shoulder out of my National Physical Therapy Exam prep book...aloud, and climb all over me to get out of his seat and to the bathroom. The flight is only 1:45 long! HOLD IT!
Anyways, besides that little blemish, my first class experience was a hoot! Did you know they actually serve your drinks in real glasses in first class?? Its nice. And that beverages are ENDLESS! And the snacks are endless too! And I'm not talking about packages of peanuts either...I had an entire Twix bar and a BANANA! Yes, a banana, and I was sooooo excited about it! And it just kept getting better because they played an episode of The Office too!! Which worked out perfectly because I just put in the FREE earphones, turned up the volume, and drowned out the unappreciated noise coming from the seat next to me. I had to be careful not to laugh out too loudly :) . The pillow and blanket were a nice touch too. I would have cuddled up and slept, like I always tend to do on my flights, but I didn't want to waste a minute of my first class experience once I figured out how everything worked.
So that was my little taste of what first class feels like and I think I could get very used to that :)
Don't get me wrong, I love the coach experience...crowded walkways, jam packed overhead bins, the infamous "middle seat", the guy whose body flows out of the middle seat and into yours, the package of stale peanuts and the plastic cup so full of ice you only get two sips of sprite out of it, and the bump I get on my head everytime I attempt to stand up and exit the plane from the overhead storage bin. I mean honestly, who doesn't love all of that!

Proof Katie and I sat up in first class: Check out the REAL glass and FREE earphones!

Stairs, Stairs, and More Stairs

My last internship is at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah. It's the new hospital that was opened a year or two ago and is lovingly referred to as "the Death Star". Inpatient rehab is up on the 12th floor of the hospital and is where I spend my final days as a graduate student. Well, one of the rehab docs apparently had this brilliant idea to create teams and race up and down the 24 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS from the main level up to the 12th floor. That's right...there are 24 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS...not 12...don't let that fool you as it did me.... Well, there are enough crazy people who work on the 12th floor that there were 5 teams of 4 people each who participated in this ridiculous challenge. I was lucky enough to be recruited to one of the teams which included Adam, the PT manager; Kasey, one of the OTs; Courtney, one of the PT aides; and myself. Adam tends to underestimate me on occasion and that's how I got myself recruited to his team...to prove myself (what's new? haha). I had no idea what I got myself into...
Ask me when the last time I walked up more than one flight of stairs was before I did the challenge? Yeah, I don't know either. So needless to say I went in a little untrained after returning from Arizona two days before. Not the smartest thing I've ever done. Adam and Kasey took the 2 downstairs legs which left Courtney and I with the 2 upstairs legs. Their reasoning was that they had more weight to help gravity get them downstairs faster. HA! I suckered Courtney into going first so I had more time to freak out and wonder what the heck I had gotten myself into...
Adam came racing down the stairs and tagged my hand and off I went...
The first adventure I ran into was the mysterious 3rd floor. You can't get to the 3rd floor from the public elevators or the staff elevators so I just thought it didn't exist. Oh but it does and that added 2 flights of stairs to my ascent that I wasn't prepared for. I had to run down this little hallway and up a different flight of stairs on the 3rd floor. As silly as it sounds, I was afraid I was going to get lost and let my team down. But I managed and now know that there IS a third floor that you can't get to from the elevators (the number 3 isn't even on one of the buttons...). Then things were going pretty well until I hit the 8th floor. Almost wanted to die, but I still had 4 floors left to go...which translates into 8 more flights of stairs. I decided I would take the 2 flights up to the ninth floor walking up while still skipping steps with the idea that it would be a little rest break and I could bust out the remaining 6 flights of stairs up to the top. WRONG!! Once my legs stopped...they stopped. It was like running through quick sand to get them to move again. I was so mad at myself for stopping! And thinking about how I was going to be the slow putzy one on my team...the intern who couldn't make the cut. Fabulous. I finally made it up to my last flight of stairs, where I officially wanted to just keel over and die, and I literally had to swing my legs around from my hips to get up the stairs and tag Kasey's hand because they just wouldn't move. My legs were done. And that was that.
Our team ended up coming in 2nd only to the other therapy team, so I guess that's ok. But the best part was my time for going up. I honestly thought I had blown it for my team and that my time would be horrible. Believe it or not, its really easy to lose track of time when you just keep going up and up and up and up and up and up and...I'm sure you get the point. Anyway, I ended up racing up 24 flights of stairs in 95 seconds!! That's pretty much AMAZING! My time was the fastest "up" split for the girls and the 3rd best time overall. I was only behind 2 of the OTs who both ended up throwing up at the top, one of whom missed work for the next 2 days and the other who needed supplemental oxygen to recover. Racing up that many stairs tears you up! It took me a good 30 minutes to get it all back together, but I neither got sick, nor needed O2 for my recovery. So really...who's the tough one here? : )
Moral of the story...I'm going to take the elevator next time : )