The Kiwi Experience

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Hello everyone, apologies for the long delay between blogs but the Kiwi Experience doesn't give the boys much time to type. Since Lake Taupo Dave and Jord have been up to quite a bit, finishing of the North Island in the capital of NZ, Wellington. There they reunited with J-mo and friends for a night out on the town and some interesting times in even more interesting bars. Ask for details when they get home in a month. The city is very nice though, small, clean and very Kiwi. The boys walked through the government buildings and museums (all free, fantastic) as well as the nightly concerts in the city gardens (again free-what a place!) before taking the ferry across to the South Island.

The first stop there is a small community called Picton where there isn't much to do for the under 85 crowd, but, like most of the country, there was specatular scenery all around. A few antique shops later and they were on the bus again to Christcurch, but not before stopping to admire the seals that live down the entire coast. Christchurch is another major city in NZ with a strong English influence and they boys were lucky enough to be there during the work street performers festival. After catching a few shows they decided to burn their degree's and tour the world doing an interpretive dance routine. Maybe. The boys also decided to book their bus passes in Christchurch on the Kiwi Experience, well known to be an informative and culturally enriching tour company. Wellllll actaully they showed up hungover into the travel agents office where she politely suggested that they seemed to be the Kiwi Experience types. Whatever that means. With that done Dave and Jord left the next morning to see what the big green buses were all about.

Within five minutes of boarding with 45 other backpackers making their way around NZ, the driver Dylan had everyone speed dating, stopping for photos and keeping them entertained with possibly the driest sense of humour the boys have ever heard. The Kiwi Experience is a fantastic way to meet people though and by the time everyone went out to the small town pub (think Thorsby Hotel) that night it seemed like everone was old friends. Also, as an interesting side note, Canadian Club is actually cheaper in NZ that Canada, go figure. The next day was spent driving down the west coast to the small town of Greymouth where the group was informed that they were spending the night in a small pub in the middle of nowhere owned by an 84 year old local legend named Les. And that it was a theme party and everyone was to dress up as a pimp or prostitute from their own country. After deducing that the majority of the bus saw Canadians mainly as lumberjacks, the boys decided to go with that and invest in some denim and toques for the night. Hopefully the pictures will be up soon and Dave and Jord would like to apologize to their dads for what they are about to see. It was a great night though and nobody will soon forget the emotional and physical damage the boys costumes caused.

After a much too early morning everyone again boarded the bus and headed further south to Franz Josef glacier for the famous glacial hike. The boys agreed that it was actaully a pretty amazing experience, putting on crampons and going on an eight hour hike up one of only three glaciers in the world that comes down to sea level through a temperate rain forest. Squeezing around walls of ice, going through tunnels and trying not to fall down a crevasse is something they won't soon forget. Or the well deserved hot tub with the group after. The boys also experienced one of their proudest moments on the trip as well, as duing one of the bus rides driver Dylan gave the passengers his very own pub quiz for a $50 bar tab and free bungy jumping video. All of the useless knowledge amassed over the years finally paid off as Dave and Jord scored an amazing, phenomenal, astounding 38 out for 42 on their way to an easy victory. No big deal. They would also like to let their families know that all those years of university paid off and that it was money well spent.

This bring the boys adventure into Queenstown, the self proclaimed adventure capital of the world. This was where the boys experienced possibly the scarriest experince of the trip, jumping off the 134 meter high Nevis bungy jump. The video speak for themselves, but lets just say it was without a doubt the craziest thing either has done. Dave's in unfortunately rated 18A due to language and Jords highlights what happens when the upper body tries to jump and the legs just buckle. Good times. Today they took a day off and travelled to the fjords off the coast known as the Milford Sound. There are ferry rides through the fjords and inlets and the boys took many pictures, but its hard to capute how majestic the scenery really is.

One more highlight of Queenstown is the 60+ bars in a 10 minute radius, so it is safe to say that there have been quite a few nights out with the rest of the bus, and tonight is no exception so until next time, play safe and have fun.

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