"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" ~Immanuel Kant

And that's what we did this weekend up in Breckenridge: We'd planned and imagined our trip to New Zealand and created the perfect adventure which will begin in 32 days. Yes, you read that right... 32 days! At the 30 day point, we'll all make countdowns for our desks and slowly start removing all of our personal possessions from our cubicles, in case we never come back!

The meeting kicked off with Brian wowing us with his amazing yoga poses, mixed in some tunes, some brews, and of course some hostel bookings.

Amber and David flew in from California and Texas, so we had the group in full effect, except for John who was extremely busy drinking Cooderbears and watching basketball at an annual March Madness Mancation. Definition: Cooderbear 1. Noun- An alcoholic drink made with Vodka, Kahlua, half and half, with a splash of Coke. 2. Noun- One of your good friends or bugaglugs Abbreviations: Cood (pl Coods), CooderBizzle, CooderBeeps.

Here are the planning highlights:
- Booked lodging at a school house hostel in Okartio (populations 40!) on the drive from Queenstown to the 2nd big hike up north.
- Created a packing list with a MINIMUM of 1 pair of travel underwear
- Executed complicated mathematical equations about how many tents we need to bring
- David sulked about how he's missing the first week of the trip (It's not too late to change your flight buddy!)
- Laughed nervously about the possibility of bungee bumping

Then the girls of course needed to go shopping, and picked up some sexy hiking 'zip-off pants' for the trip while the guys watched basketball and ate hamburgers... whoa that sentence was so stereotypical, well except for the 'zip-off pants'.
We hit up some disco tubing at Keystone that night, and then danced until the wee hours of the morning to the musical genius of ConHair, a local Breckenridge legend.
Sunday morning started slowly, however breakfast at Amazing Grace proved to be the best decision ever. Superfood Burritos and homemade Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches around the wood burning fire concluded the Tramping for Treatment planning weekend, and soon we were all off to different adventures. Mine thankfully included crying tears of joy over a MSU basketball victory, but others included some skiing, I-70 traffic, and airport drop-offs.

All of our plans (except the 1 pair of travel underwear) are pretty flexible, and as Kyle would like to say, "We'll play everything by ear". But one thing's for sure: I have never felt this excited or privileged to go on an adventure with such an amazing group of friends. I can't wait to laugh, play, drive on the left side of the road, and hike with all of these Coods!

Until next time, which will be even closer to our departure date,

j