Go Broke or Go Home (or stay in Queenstown)

To all of our avid blog readers, this is the YOLOers final post. Christine, Nick and Caitlin head back to the US on May 8th while Maggie has decided to extend her stay in Queenstown until July. Fortunately for all of you, we give you this post as all four YOLOers reunited for one final Hurrah.

Christine, Nick and Caitlin picked up a Campervan in Wellington for the last week of their stay in NZ. This is as pimp as the yoloers go…Caitlin likes to call it “Pimp my Yolo.”

Nick takes a steamy bath at hot water beach. Here you can dig your own geothermal spa. Normally they charge ten dollars a shovel, we opted for the FREE dust pan we had in our campervan.


Next stop was 90 mile beach. Basically a whole lot of beach and a whole lot of sand. This poor stingray died a terrible death as it was eaten by a shark…actually we don’t know because we found it on the beach when we drove up.


The Yoloers conquered every terrain, including the desert like sand dunes on the tip of the north island. Again, we chose not to spend the ten dollars to rent a board for sliding down and ran down them instead. This may be the end of our trip but we are still cheap.

The Yoloers thought their luck had ran out when their campervan broke down on the side of a barren highway. With no cell service, Maggie and Nick went to the nearest house to just use the phone. Not only did they allow us to use their phone, the Ferris family also entertained us for the 8 hours it took to get a new camper. They taught us how to ocean fish, cook fresh mussels from off the beach, and how to be an all around kiwi. They even gave us dinner and dessert! Not to mention a nice parking spot at the school next door.



Christine and Aidan Ferris celebrating their successful mussel collecting. (Maggie helped too).





We have come full circle, made it back to Auckland, and have taken the final Yolo photo on the same bench where we took the very first group shot. Oh what seven months and strong UV rays will do to you.





We have had a lot of fun and these past seven months have been an unforgettable adventure.
We hope you have had as much fun reading the blog as we have writing it. We leave you with this word of wisdom.

YOLO. (for life)





And now for the good stuff… the best of YOLOers (our Superlatives)

Top 5 Best Jumping Photos














































Top 5 Most Heinous Photos



















































Top 5 Things You Didn’t Know

1. At our Xmas party, Maggie passed out before midnight, while attempting to take a ten minute power nap. Her nap turned into a 12 hour comatos slumber where party goers proceeded to decorate her with santa hats, ornaments, and garland (she was still wearing her cape too). The best part is at 10am when Maggie awoke, she found herself literally adorned with Xmas ornaments. She stood up, startled, but couldn’t get out of bed until she removed her hat and her cape. The first thing she said was “Hey, where’d everyone go”

2. On Election Day, in attempts to be patriotic we wanted to eat American food, and found our local Dennys. After having eaten dinner (not at Dennys, cause that’s gross) we walked to Dennys and decided it was a good idea to order two desserts- the snowball and the hot fudge cake. All you need to know is Caitlin didn’t make it out of the Denny’s without losing her dessert (and dinner) in the Dennys bathroom. Even internationally, Denny’s still maintains its reputation.









3. Nick and Christine’s first exposure to the Dux de Lux social circle was the 80s party. In full 80s gear they went to the party, made friends, and drank a little too much. Christine came home to find Nick passed out, in full 80s gear, up against their gate. Minutes before, he had pressed every single apartments call button (except our own) mumbling “Those F***ing burrito B***** won’t let me in! Christine attempted to get him in the house, and only managed to get him this far





4. Nick crashed the camper before it broke down. He ran it into a pole in a gas station. After the camper broke down, the rental company had bigger things to worry about (and the camper may or may not have broken down when Nick was driving as well).


5. We still haven’t found Chris Ward. We have your shoes you Welsh schmants wearing thief.

Solo Yolo: Nick's Chapter

As Christine returned to work after our South Island Adventure and Maggie moved to Queenstown to work for a different Dux de Lux, Nick followed Caitlin’s lead and made the leap over to Oz on the first of March.

Immediately upon landing in Sydney, Nick was in love. The first days of life as a Sydneysider involved loving real summer (and humidity), exploring every neighborhood and enclave, and cursing Christchurch for stealing away months he could have been loving Sydney.





YOLOing makes it to Sydney! In front of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge, even more amazing in person than one can even imagine.




Many things are different for a naïve NZ Yoloer in Oz. Take random city birds for example. Meet an ibis. These birds are about 2 ft tall and love eating Hungry Jack’s (Aussie Burger King) almost as much as the YOLOers love Hungry Jack 40 cent ice cream cones. (We realized Hungry Jack’s cones for 10 cents cheaper than McD’s and we’ve never been back, cheap is one adjective a YOLO prides themselves on)




Upon coming to Sydney, Nick somehow managed to pick the absolute shittest hostel in all of Sydney. Even though he had to dodge trannie prostitutes outside the front of it and fall asleep to them making deals in the alley way (only $5 for a ‘pull,’ what a deal!), he was still able to make some friends while Solo Yoloing. Meet Lee and Adam, two Brits who started Nick’s bad habit of partying in Sydney till dawn. This is the three of us at Darling Harbor.





Nick’s Solo Yoloing went on a temporary hiatus when Caitlin and her mother flew into Sydney. Nick said goodbye to poverty for a few days as he was once again adopted by the Pegnim family and ate meals that weren’t instant as well as enjoyed the good life by spending hours sitting in Sheraton Hotel bar remembering what air conditioning was. (Thanks once again to the Pegnim family!) Nick, Caitlin, and Mom Pegnim all attended Sydney’s Gay Pride Mardi Gras. This is a picture of the “Furries” float. If you are unfamiliar with this fetish, just imagine what they must like doing while in those costumes and you’ll get the picture.

After Caitlin left Sydney, Nick spent a couple of days with the Brits at the Sydney ocean suburb of Manly soaking in the rays followed by yet another long weekend of consecutive days of partying till dawn (as Nick recalls why he’s such a city boy). After two full weeks in Sydney, it was time to conquer more of Aussie!




Nick took an overnight train to Melbourne to visit his friend Mel, whom he worked with bartending at the Dux in Christchurch. Caitlin eventually had to say goodbye to her mother and her life of luxury as she rejoined Nick on the homeless-wagon in Melbourne. Here is Nick, Mel, and Caitlin getting their drink on (as always) for a hot time hitting up the Melbourne nightlife.




One of the many cool bars Caitlin and I bar-crawled through was Croft Institute, a medical themed bar full of beakers, test tubes, and even hospital beds in the “Department of Female Hygiene” (aka bathrooms) which Caitlin found upon entering. But to get to such a cool bar, one must first know where it is. Croft Institute eluded the two Yoloers for a bit because you first had to go down two long sketchy alleyways. You can barely see Nick looking in the rubbish bin in the alleyway because that’s exactly just how dark and scary the alley really way. Totally worth it though.






Easter Down Under is pretty crazy as you can see. We may or may not have gotten a little carried away in Target over the vast amounts of chocolate in all forms (Eggs, Bunnies, and even Rugby Balls).




You don’t want to mess with the Yoloers, we’re thugs, clearly. Caitlin and Nick in jail after being ‘arrested’ during their tour of the old Melbourne Gaol (the un-american way of spelling jail apparently).




Nick and Caitlin love their alcohol. Especially on St. Patty’s day… and when their friend Mel is behind the bar and making whatever they want for prices that should be considered stealing (because it may or may not have been depending on how you look at it)




Just a picture to prove that Nick and Caitlin did more than just go out at night. Melbourne is beautiful and super modern. This is the train station. Crazy undulating roof. In addition, Nick and Caitlin tried to stalk down swimmers since the Swimming World Championships were being held in Melbourne. The closest they got was some tool kid with a swimming lanyard who didn’t even know what it meant, so yeah, they crashed and burned there.

After Melbourne, Caitlin left Nick yet again to fly to the Gold Coast where she met up with Christine and Kate. Nick trained it back to Sydney and then later flew up to the Gold Coast to meet up with the girls. Reread the previous blog post about the Gold Coast to get the chronology right. Nothing more to say about it but here’s another picture of how gorgeous Surfer’s Paradise was.








Nick returned to Sydney and rediscovered his love for it. He has also subletted a flat in (pictured above) in Bondi Junction for the remaining time in Sydney. The flat is basically the UN with foreigners from all over renting rooms. Nick currently shares with a French guy named Flo who has long wavy hair and is very surfy. Very Maggie Corr if you ask me, alas she is in Queenstown… Below you will see the amazing 5 story and 2 building Westfield Bondi Junction complex, so huge that Nick gets lost in and full of too many tempting buys.



Did I mention I live in Bondi Junction… as in Bondi Beach?



Bondi Beach, huge beach and even bigger waves.

Since returning on the 1st of April, Nick has been hanging out with his Aussie friends, Rob, Adam, and Laura, that he met his first two weeks in Sydney. Knowing Aussies is good because they make you dinner, take you out on the town, bring you to house parties, have cool accents, let you sleep over, introduce you to all things Aussie, laugh at your pronunciation of words, and take you on road trips! This is Nick, Rob, and Adam in front of Metz Gorge in “bush New South Wales.”



Life as a Sydneysider has been pretty sweet for Nick. Long nights of dancing, Aussie friends, beautiful beaches, and more fun than he ever thought he could have on his own. He’s already decided he will be returning one day to live here again. He will be reunited with X and Caitlin this Sunday, April 15th and 3 days later with our other American Christchurchers, Katy, Maggie (Hughes, not Corr), and Noah. Then its back to the cold of kiwi-land when he flies to Wellington April 25th.

Hopefully Maggie Corr will make an appearance with the rest of us on the North Island of NZ before we all head home (May 8! So soon!) and we can recapture the brilliance that happens when the 4 of us blog together. Until then, this will have to do.

Solo Yoloing Nick Style: Check

YOLOing ourselves into poverty.....YoBroke

After a brief hiatus, the yoloers were reunited (well 3/4 of them) when The Yoloers Australian adventure finally kicked off. Christine, Caitlin, and Nick met up in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast to enjoy two weeks of surf, sun, and parties. Kate, our friend from ChCh, became an honorary Yoloer by scraping up the cash to join us on the first leg of the trip. We also met up with Died and Parker (two fellow L-towners) and Marc and Kiel (two ChCh friends). When the Yoloers come to town, everyone wants to be there (except Maggie). Yes, we are really this popular.


A typical YOLO photo. Notice only three shadows because Maggie is too busy working in Queenstown to join us in Australia.


Nick and Kate were the hottest things to hit the beaches of Surfers Paradise, especially when they busted out their sweet boogey boarding skills.


Visiting Dreamworld amusement park, we stopped into the petting zoo. No trip to Australia is complete without petting a kangaroo. Granted this was in a small caged setting where the kangaroo is clearly on sedatives, making this far from an actual kangaroo encounter, but who really cares when you get to pet a kangaroo.

A group trip to Dreamworld to celebrate Caitlin and Marc’s (left corner) birthdays! A day filled with riding roller coasters, experiencing the world’s tallest free fall, and finding the only store in the South Pacific to sell peanut butter M&Ms makes for the best birthday celebrations.


When your budget is cheap and you need to get around, you try and see how many people can fit into the back of a camper van, with luggage in tow. Seeing that none of us are Aussies, it is almost like we are transporting illegal immigrants, hence Kate’s festive hat.


After a fabulous time in Surfers Paradise, once again the Yoloers parted ways. Nick flew back to Sydney while Christine and Caitlin joined Parker and Died to travel up the coast. This is Caitlin and Christine’s new home! Actually the “home” would be a tent next to this, but this is the mode of transportation for the four girls (and what Parker and Died sleep in). Our tent was a budget purchase from KMart, resulting in it being about two inches too short for Caitlin. When you travel cheap, some sacrifices must be made.


Our first stop was Frasier Island. We booked a trip where we were given a 4WD vehicle, 8 other people, and some camping supplies and told to have at it and explore the island. On Day 1 we visited Lake Mackenzie. This is one of the most gorgeous lakes in the world, notice the crystal clear water. Wish you all were here…..



Hurrah for YOLOing! Died, Parker, and Christine jumping for joy at Lake Mackenzie






Our life for three days. No showers, and lots and lots of sand.









Another stop on Frasier Island, Lake Wabby. Wait, you don’t see a lake? That’s because you had to walk through the desert to get there! No joke, an actual desert. No trees, no water, and piping hot sand. Once over the sand dunes, we hurled ourselves down the sand hills into the lake.







Our traveling companions on Frasier Island. What do you get when you combine three brits, four irish lads, and four Americans? Team 1- the best group to ever travel a 4WD around Frasier Island. With these companions there is no way you would get eaten by a dingo (because did we mention that there are man eating dingos on the island. Yes, MAN EATING….ever hear the saying “the dingo ate my baby?”….mmhmm).


After leaving Frasier Island, we drove our trusty van up the coast to the WhitSunday Islands where we traveled on a sailboat for three days and two nights around the islands. Caitlin, Parker, Died, and Christine taking in the sun on the boat. We don’t have many photos from this trip because we actually didn’t do much on this trip. You know your trip is going to be bad when you leave three hours late, arrive to the island in the dark only to walk through the abyss without lights to a “resort” (aka eroding shit hole), you learn the captain and the cook are dating because they have lovers quarrels that make the cook cry while chopping tomoatoes, you don’t get to see the most famous island because of “bad” weather, and the scuba instructor is a crazy swede whose favorite drink is red wine and tobasco sauce. This was only a few of the things we experienced on this boat. We are currently in the process of getting our money back.

Died, Parker, and Christine on their introductory scuba dive in the Whit Sundays. Even though times were bad, you still have to YOLO.








This blog was written by Caitlin and Christine, who are about to head furthur north up the coast of Australia before driving back down to Sydney to meet up with Nick. Maggie is still MIA, but we heard she’s doing well, working hard, and courting the Queenstown men.

PS. Caitlin wanted to mention, that although she didn’t do a solo post, she had a fantastic time traveling New Zealand and Australia with her mom. And no, this is not because she got to stay in hotels every night and didn’t spend a dime.