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Published: August 6th 2007
Alright, how's everybody? Good! Good! Good! Now, as your father probably told you, my name is Matt Foley, and I am a Motivational Speaker! Now, let's get started by me giving you a little bit of a scenario of what my life is all about! First off, I am 35 years old.. I am divorced.. and I live in a van down by the river! Now, you kids are probably saying to yourself, "Now, I'm gonna go out, and I'm gonna get the world by the tail, and wrap it around and put it in my pocket!!" Well, I'm here to tell you that you're probably gonna find out, as you go out there, that you're not gonna amount to Jack Squat!!" You're gonna end up eating a steady diet of government cheese, and living in a van down by the river!
- Chris Farley as Matt Foley (Saturday Night Live, 1992)
One of the classic SNL moments, eh? This entry will update you an how a few things have changed in my travel experience and current approach. As Emeril would say, I've decided to kick it up a notch. First in the literal sense...I'm now up in the North Island of New Zealand. And secondly I've decided that my travel experience so far had been a little too luxurious and have changed up my mode of transportation and my type of accommodation. But before I get ahead of myself...
After chilling out in Picton for a couple of days, I hopped on a ferry to take me across the Cook Straight to Wellington. There's nothing particularly remarkable about this ride other than that (in what seems to be the typical way things happen on the road) I'm where I am now due to the people I met on the boat. While boarding, I was walking next to a girl with long dreds who was carrying a guitar...she certainly appeared to be a fellow traveler, so I said "Hi." This is how I met Esther, a 24 year old German
View of the Coast
A view of the East Coast from the road.who is the only person I've met so far who has a bag smaller than mine (The funny thing is that her bag was mostly filled with non-essential things...harmonica, fairly large juggling sticks, LED thingies on strings for swinging around...more on that in the photos, etc).
Esther ended up meeting a couple fellow Germans, Vera and Anna, on the boat as well and upon arrival in Wellington, we all decided to search for a hostel together. The time hanging out with them all was entertaining, but the more significant result was that I decided to take Anna up on her offer to travel the North Island together in her newly purchased car.
A quick note...I previously have mentioned how one of the primary modes of transportation for NZ travelers is to hitch hike. Another common practice is to purchase a cheap car and sell it to the next traveler in a few months (or whenever you need to leave). In this case...Anna paid $750NZ (approx $575US) for a 1980something Mazda Familia. Due to the cost of petrol, it's common to find a travel mate or two. In this case...me.
So this brings me to my second 'kicking
So is it the new Blues-Mobile or what?
Anna - "It's got a crap engine, crap tires, crap suspension...is it the new Blues Mobile or what?"
Me - "Fix the cigarrette lighter" (truly...it doesn't work...which means that we can't use it to charge my ipod) it up a notch.' Travel and accommodation on the North Island. I haven't hitched, bussed, etc since leaving the South Island. I've gone Mazda-style for over 1000kms in the last week. As for accommodation...(this is the part where a certain percentage of my readers solidify their belief that I've completely lost it)...that's been Mazda-style as well. Yup, that's right, I'm living in a van (car) down by the river (beach). We drive where we want each day and stop when the time seems right. Usually the time seems right when we're at a cool beach or scenic lookout area. There's much to be said about this type of travel:
* Saving approx $20NZ per night on hostels is nice.
* Spending approx $20NZ per day on petrol cancels out the niceness.
* The rule that one fills up as much space as one has is completely true.
* I now have butter as part of my diet again because I can actually keep a stash of groceries in the fridge (trunk) for more than 2 days. It's cool enough at night that our food basically stays cool all day. I love this.
* The freedom to go where we want
Cooking With Class
Yup...a gas cooker on the floor of the Mazda...with two pots stacked b/c we were almost out of gas. when we want (rather than being restricted to bus timetables or the whims of my hitch-hike ride givers) is cool. I've taken many more photos as a result.
* I didn't meet another traveler for a full week...from the time leaving Wellington to the time we went out on Saturday night in Rotorua a week later.
* I love not having to pack & unpack my stuff every day.
* This is the only time in my life that I wish I was 6 inches shorter. I don't think the recliner seat in the Mazda Familia was made with the intention of me sleeping in it. It's not horrible...but it's not exactly my queen size bed either.
* Never did I think I'd be glad to have some crummy 2W speakers sitting on the dashboard hooked up to my iPod. Though they're nice to have...they don't exactly go up to 11.
There are a few things that, as a result of this, I can no longer say:
* I've never driven on the wrong (left) side of the road
* I've never driven from the wrong side (right) of a car
* I've never operated a gas-cooker on the
Out on the Town in Rotorua w/ Anna
My classy grey t-shirt and hiking pants. Apparently this is what made me look American. floor of a car
* I've never gone 7 days without talking to another American. (This streak was broken in Rotorua when a girl came up to me in a pub and asked what nationality I was. Apparently she had a $2 bet with her friend that I was American based solely on appearance. Apparently being the only dude in semi-hiking clothes at a pub on Saturday night was the telling sign. The streak was ended because she was from Arizona. My first American accent in a week.)
* I've never driven on a proper roundabout. These freaking things are everywhere here. They're not really complicated, but between the gear shift being on the wrong side, the turn signals on the wrong side of the steering wheel, and figuring out to whom I should and shouldn't yield (or "Give Way")...it was a bit of an adventure the first few times.
* I've never been pulled over by the police in a foriegn country. I'll let your imagination wander on that for a while before I explain.
All in all, it's been a welcome change to the routine. Though I enjoyed meeting a group of new folks every night in
My Bedroom
Looks a lot like my living room, kitchen, and dining room. the hostels, I've also enjoyed having some level of continuity to the last week of my life. So maybe I'm nuts for getting one step closer to fitting the actual definition of a bum...but I think it's been a fun change of pace is well suited to what the North Island has to offer. All that to be said...I don't think it will take too long before I'm ready for some space and a TV room to chill in for a day or two.
So speaking of what the North Island has to offer...
Wellington is the capitol of New Zealand and is the largest city I've seen in 6 weeks. There's nothing all that remarkable about it, other than that it was nice to be in a larger city for a few days. I had also been put in contact with a cousin of a co-worker from Motorola who is a semi-local Wellingtonian. She's been living there for a while and it was cool to hang out with someone who actually knew something about the town (and by "knew something about the town" I mean "knew some cool non-touristy pub to hang out at") rather than just
Room With A View
What the Mazda lacks in space...it makes up for with its great views from the bedroom. This was the beach where we spent the first night. A nice view to have while chilling for the evening. continually wandering around with other travelers who also don't know anyone/thing in town. I also ran into my first blatant George Bush litmus test in Wellington. In general, I haven't gotten much (if any) flak for being American surrounded by non-Americans...but I had a German roommate who took all of 5 seconds before asking me if I like George Bush. Not exactly the most open minded way of getting to know someone, eh? He ended up being a cool guy, but perhaps not the best at introducing himself to Americans.
In my last post I indicated that I was on my way north to Mordor (Tongariro National Park) and Mt. Doom. This is sort of the case, but like Frodo & Sam, the Black Gate was too imposing and we're taking an alternate route and will hopefully (weather pending) be entering from a different direction sometime next week.
To this point, we've cruised up much of the east coast and have come back down a tad to Rotorua. So far I'd say it's a completely different country...largely in the fact that this feels more like an actual country rather than an oversized tourist attraction. There are Maoris (native
Surf-city...Here We Come.
The waves were crummy that day...but then again...we're crummy surfers. (This is the last photo ever taken of the wetsuit I'm wearing) New Zealanders) everywhere and the presence of us tourists seems to be the exception rather than the norm. I've never seen so many rolling green hills, small green mountains...or anywhere near the amount of sheep I've seen in the last week.
I haven't been bungy jumping, ice climbing, mountain biking, or any other adventury types of activities. We've been driving around, doing short hikes, and basically taking in the views and experience of driving where/when we want. The one 'activity' that we did was to rent (hire) some surf gear in Gisborne. The waves weren't great, but considering that I've surfed 2 days in my life and this was Anna's first...small waves were a good thing. Was a fun day...but soured when my wetsuit got "swiped" (meaning that I forgot it was on top of the car when I drove 200m to the shower and it fell off somewhere along the way...by the time I went to look for it, someone had claimed it...oops) while I was showering. Let's all collectively cross our fingers in hope that my travel insurance covers this.
Sadly, this isn't the only extra charge I've had in the last week. I seem to
Archway in Rotorua
The last photo taken prior to my run-in with the Rotorua Police. have entered a period where my brain is only semi-functioning. I also "lost" one of the adapter plugs for my power converter used to charge my batteries. So I bought a new one...only to find the original 3 days (and 500km) later. And the one that has really ticked me off was the loss of a Jade Maori necklace. I've been keeping an eye out my whole time in NZ for a particular design of their traditional jade hand-carved necklaces...and finally found it in Rotorua. Two hours later it was gone from around my neck. Not a life-changing amount of money, but combined with the other unnecessary charges and the fact I had looked for this specific design...I was rather bummed. Oh well...life goes on, yes?
Anyway...I suppose those are the highlights for now.
Until next time...
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To clear up the comment about the police above...after arriving in Rotorua on Saturday night, Anna and I drove to a spot with a nice view for dinner and then headed back into town. On the way, I stopped to take a couple of photos...then we started to drive around town to look for a few pubs. As
Anglican/Maori Cemetery
Again a fun mix of cultures. This is a burial site in a Maori village. In the 1800s, they were converted to Christianity, but maintain a lot of the Maori culture/art/symbols/etc. Shown here by having both a Maori protector and an angel. we were slowly driving the dark streets looking all around us for signs of night life, I suddenly noticed signs of police lights in my rear view mirror. I pulled over, turned off the car and reached to turn off my headlights...only to realize that they weren't on in the first place. Turns out the officer noticed the same thing and that was the reason for pulling me over. "Uhh...I'm sorry about the lights, officer. By the way, do you know of a cool pub in town?" He told me to take a bit more care and let us on our way. Even the Kiwi-Cops are super-nice.
Another thing...when I go from computer to computer, my photos vary in how light/dark they are...so I really have no idea how they look for you all. I don't have the ability to edit them at all, so I hope they're coming through ok.
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Und so, ein Bier oder noch ein Bier, gute Freundenin, im Auto schlafen, im Wasser spielen, Spazier machen=eine Reise das ausgezeichnet ist!