WOW, No internet in the South!

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Hello and sorry to you all,

I have been away for quite some time and christmas is upon us. People are hopefully done all there exams by now. And now you can all relax I hope. Christmas is a great time of year, sit by the fire on a cold day and drink so hot chocolate...Except when you are in NZ. Everywhere there are advertisements for swim wear, and commercials which say "christmas on the beach". Dear god this place is weird.

I guess I should sum up where we have been for the last little while. It appears that everyone thought that we were dead or something, but if fact, it's not true. We have been pretty busy actually and we have seen some amazing things. Lets start, shall we?

We took the ferry over from Wellington to Picton and stayed the night. As most people have told us, picton would not exist is there was no ferry. I can understand that, it was mostly filled with old people. We had a relaxing evening watching war of the worlds and Return of the King. We had a great sleep and made our way down to Kaikoura the next morning. We made it and had some horrible weather waiting for us. Dan and I were both car sick when we got there, but thankfully not "that" sick. We went for a bike ride around the city and almost saw some mountains. But not really so we kept moving. The only bus out of there was going to Christchurch and we said "heck with it, lets go".
We arrived is the biggest city in the south and found a place called around the world backpackers. We found our way around city pretty well and checked out the internet and mailing facilities. We decided to move on because we were kinda sick of the city life and as dan would say "I want to see mountains, Michael, MOUNTAINS!". So we headed for a little town called Methven. We assumed it would be like any other city so we called ahead to book accomidation. We arrived realizing that we were the only people at this hostel. Oh well it was a peaceful night. We found out that the Edoras film sight for Lord of the Rings could be accessed by car. We right away decided to rent a car and drive there the next day. After about an hour, we were overwhelmed by what we saw. The day wasnt perfect but we still loved every minute of it. We had the urge the next day to go BACK to Christchurch and of course this appealed to me, because that was the day king kong came out. We saw, were blown away and gamed for a while. We drove back to a place called Rakaia gourge and campd the night. We made it our mission to camp near the Edoras sight and we did, at a place called Lake Camp. Perfectly named for us. We had an awesome night which concluded with some tim tams... Nevermind. Cookies should not be mentioned. We then realized during the night, that dan left his gold necklace in Christchurch the first time we were there, and we so we had to go back for it. It was good though, because he did find it. We went back to Methven for the night and took the bus to Tekepo the next day. The weather was more amazing then we could ask for. The views were insane and we threw down a camp for couple of nights. I now have a fairly nice tan, as well as the other two boys. One of the nights as well, I was able to go to watch the stars from an observatory and man was it a clear night. Seen stars that many people will never see unless they come down south of the equator. We had the idea of going to Mount cook the next day and staying the night. What we didnt realize is that Mount Cook is a Village! We got there, our bus left, and there was nowhere to stay that wasnt less then 150 a night. SO we wanted to get the heck out of there as fast as we could. We tried hitch-hiking but that failed and finally got a shuttle to twizel. The city of twizel shouldnt even be there, except that it was built for the builders of the hydro plant and was just left there. The only reason I was there, is because the biggest battle in Lord of the Rings was filmed there. The Battle of Pelenor Fields. I went on the tour the next day and even though the weather wasnt that great, I still really enjoyed it. The boys were still sleeping when I got back and the weather was even worse we decided it was a sloth day. Which are needed on a trip like this, or you go insane. We left Twizel today and made our way down to Wanaka where we decided to rent a car again. So here we are, homeless except for the car, but free to go where ever we want. We shall see where the road takes us.

Until next time.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Mike

(I dont want to check for spelling errors.)

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Comments

[The sis]

bahhh
Christmas is in 4 days. I don't want to think about it, due to the fact you are not here for it. Have I mentioned I miss you? Should see my msn...my name and picture clearly state how much I miss you boys. So much. Glad things are going well and that you boys get to see beautiful mountains. I'm jealous. The pictures are gorgeous! Love you always.

[Dan Hynes]

WOW
Hey Mikey, You guys are definitely having quite the journey. I just spent the past half an hour getting caught up with your postings (I have been too busy with school to be an avid reader, my bad). Envious of all the sights you are seeing, camping near Edoras and various LOTR associated sight-seeing, you three are rapidly climbing the ranks to the top three fans of the saga. I gotta go for dinner, but I subscribed to both your BLOG and DP's, so you'll be hearing from me more regularly. Paaaaaaace homie, Dan Hynes PS: If a Maori warrior puts an olive branch between you and him and is brandishing a spear, for God's sakes pick up the branch and give it back to him. (That is the extent of my knowledge of NZ). Later buddy.