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The Waikato River
I took a mountain biking trip with my Buddy Diego, and these are a bunch of pictures from it. I'm getting really crappy at keeping up to date on these blogs. It's been almost two weeks since I wrote the last one, but I'll try to get caught up. Umm, let see, alot has happened in the last couple weeks.
Last Thursday, I did one of the must-dos of any trip to New Zealand, and I went sky diving. I jumped from the height of 15,000 feet right over Lake Taupo, and it was surreal. Alot of people are really nervous when they go up, including a couple people on my plane, but I wasn't at all. The girl sitting in front of me was fidgeting and completely nervous, freaking out almost, and I caught myself yawning. The views were amazing though, especially from the plane, when you the time and mindframe to take it in. The area I am is really beautiful, with the lake adn tons or mountains taking up all the land as far as you can see. It was pretty sweet to look at. You have to do the skydives in Tandems, meaning I was attached to some professional, who for me turned out to be some Hungarian dude who was pretty cool. The most
surreal moment is just sitting on the edge of the plane that high, looking down, and saying to yourself: "F*!#". I mean it, you look down, curse, and then fall. At first, there is no wind, no feeling whatsoever, almost a feeling of weightlessness, but then you feel the wind fly by you as you go from 0 to 200 km/h in 8 seconds. We did about 8 flips over and over, and then straightened and free fell for about 60 seconds. It was like a roller coaster ride on steroids. You seriously don't even have time to notice you are falling. After this surge, he released the parachute, and the trip immediately went to complete and utter tranquility. Complete peace, and silence. It was so weird, and this was the point from which I really took in the scenery. The whole trip was worth the $300 they charge to do it, and I would advise anyone to try it.
After that, I just relaxed for a couple days, and during that time, to completely contradict my relaxing, I hectically attempted to buy tickets to the Monday, May 5, Foo Fighters concert in Auckland. It had been sold out
for months, but the NZ version of Ebay had tickets for the concert boing at 60% of face value, and I thought what the hell. There was another American staying at the Rainbow Lodge, and he promised to go with me. I bid on about 15 pairs of tickets, it felt like, and finally got 2 tickets for $90 which would have cost $200 straight up. It was sweet, but the one large problem was that we didn't have a way to get to the concert. Buses were ridiculously expensive, and it's not like we have access to cars, so we decided to hitchhike, or more correctly, I decided to hitchhike, and told him if he wanted to come, he was hitching with me.
He finally agreed, and spent like an hour Sunday night making this cheesy sign that said Auckland or noth. Monday morning, I woke up at 8 to go, but Mike didn't get out of bed until like 9, so we finally started walking to the northern limits of Taupo at about 9 45. It was drizzling, and we posted up on the side of the road with me taking the first sign holding shift. I
stood there, getting rained on, with no action, for about 10 minutes. During this time period, Mike became extremely pessimistic. He was standing there, pouting, saying that this was never going to work, and I told him to shut up and be patient, and that it takes time, because apparently my two previous hitch hiking experiences had made me an expert. We switched, and he took over, still moping, and about 5 minutes later a guy pulled over and said he was going to Auckland. We hopped in and talked with the guy the whole way there about everything under the sun.. he was very interesting, and it was cool to talk to actual kiwis who didn't meet a lot of travelers. Also, he said he picked us up because he had hitch hiked around Australia when he was younger. He was only going to south Auckland, and we were heading to the central business district, so he dropped us off in a southern suburb called pukekohe (i think?) and we caught a train into town. We walked to the arena, and found ourselves standing outside it at 3 30, 4.5 hours before the concert was set to start. I
Stupid
Diego forced me to pose for this picture remember thinking, "That was way easier than I thought it would be."
We hung out down town until the concert, went in, and snuck down to as close to the stage as possible. There was a huge mosh pit, and when the Foo Fighters came on, it went nuts. In fact, the whole arena went nuts. I like going to concerts, and I believe I've been to a bunch of good ones, but I don't think I've ever been to a concert where the crowd was this loud. They LOVED the Foo Fighters. And to be fair, the Foos are probably the biggest band in New Zealand. Dave Grohl said it himself, that every year or so when they go to NZ, that is the best, loudest concert of the year for them, and I believe him. Talking about Dave Grohl, he is probably the best front man I have ever seen live, and most people reading this probably know about what my friends call a slightly homosexual preference for Adam Duritz of Counting Crows. He is unbelievable, and his energy fed into the crowd and back and forth. They played every song that I had ever heard of,
which is a bunch, and they came on for a three song encore. They were just stupendous, and anyone who ever has hte chance to see them should. I will. Seriously, going into the concert, they were a band I liked, but afterwards, they jumped into my top 5 favorites, and
Times Like These has become one of my favorite songs. Simply amazing, and I uploaded some crappy videos I took of the concert so you can see.
Monday morning, we got up and caught a train back to Pukekohe around 11, and started walking towards the northern highway that runs from Auckland to Taupo, Highway 1. Everyone we asked said it was just a little ways farther in the direction we were headed, but the walk turned out to be a 4 mile, hour long uphill trek. It sucked, and spirits were low until we stopped at an organic fruit ice cream shop and ate. We were on the side of the entry ramp for about 40 minutes before we were picked up by a guy going south to Hamilton, which is about an hour in the direction we were going. The moment this dude picked us up, he went
The Holy Grail
2x tix to Foos off, talking about literally everything, giving us a complete history lesson, most of which I already knew, and he did not stop talking until he dropped us off. Obviously, he picked us up so he could talk, and it is interesting to see why people pick hitchhikers up. The guy from the day before picked us up, I think, because he had hitchhiked but also because he had a long, lonely drive ahead of him, and we were company. Anyways, the lecturer dropped us off in the middle of downtown Hamilton, telling us to take what I knew to be the wrong way, but only argued passively because the guy was giving us a ride. Hamilton is about the size of Erie, and we were on the wrong side. We wandered around randomly, not finding any hint of where the hell Highway 1 was, but then started asking around and realized we could take a couple buses to the Southern tip of Hamilton and hitch hike from there. This whole travesty, which turned into 3 buses, a missed bus, and a bus full of high school students (They use public transportation to get to and from school in NZ) before
Mount Doom
This picture was taken while I was talking with my parents on the phone on Mothers day, from outside my hostel. we found ourselves on the side of the road at around 4 o'clock. I had to be at work at 6, so I was a little worried, but oh well. We waited there for maybe 10 minutes before we were picked up by a girl heading to Cambridge, which is about 15 minutes south of Hamilton. She was driving a pink bug, and Mike was excited as, so we hopped and got a ride to the next town. Mike likes to think she picked up because she wanted him, but I doubt it. Anways, she dropped us off in Cambridge, a quaint little town that reminded me of small town America, and about 15 minutes later we were picked up by a guy going to Tauranga, who could take us til the road to Tauranga and Taupo diverged. We gladly accepted, and were dropped off as sunlight faded in the middle of no where where the two highways split. We were slightly worried, but were picked up about 5 minutes (not even) later by a guy heading to Taupo. I talked with him about everything under the sun the whole way while Mike slept, and I ended up getting to
Hitching
On the Road, in the rain. Fun. work only 45 minutes late. All in all, it was a cool experience.
Since then, I haven't really been doing anything, just hanging out and trying to save money because I leave Taupo on Sunday the 18th. I work 5 nights a week, and the $250 paychecks will be nice to boost my bank account, which right now stands at about $1800 total. The experience of hitch hiking really changed my future plans. I'm going to Tauranga to meet up with a couple friends and hang out until my birthday, but after that I have decided I will hitchhike my way around the whole Northern Island, seeing all the parts, and see how long that takes me. After I have seen the entire Island, from Cape Reinga (The Northern Tip, where the Tasman Sea branch of the Indian Ocean collides with the Pacific Ocean) to Wellington (The National Capital, on the southern tip of the Northern Island, and where I will see if I can register to vote at the US Embassy). While I do it, I will sightsee as much as possible but will try to conserve money at all costs. As I do the trip, I'm going
Well, that was easy.
That was waaaay easier than I thought it was going to be. to try to blog as much as possible about the people I meet, the things I do, and the places I go. I'm also trying to find a way to go online and use a website to track how I travel around, which would be cool to see.
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Cyndy Patton
non-member comment
Great Blog!
This was a great segment, Jeremy! Love the pictures, love the concert description and love the skydiving experience - don't think I could do that, even though your words were inspiring and inviting...I think I'm too chicken for that! Funny, I was thinking about commenting on the 'hair' but thought I'd let that go....until YOU brought it up. I think your mom should send you some hair ties...yer gonna need them soon! Write again soon. It's great to hear from you! Cyndy