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Published: March 17th 2007
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Well well well..look who it is
Now I realize that it has been some time since you have heard from the globetrotter, but I have been on a fact finding mission over the last few weeks trying to discover the secret of happiness. I have succeeded and will sell this secret to anyone for a monstrous fee.
Feb 28/ 07
Our journey begins in the far off land of New Zealand where an auspicious young man and his sidekick decide to check out the small university town of Dunedin. Though I was not sure what to expect when I first arrived, I quickly came to realize that it would be a place to remember. Our first order of business was to check out the local Cadbury factory which was a dream come true. Not only did we discover the Cadbury secret* but we also discovered the origins of the wee race known as the oompa loompa’s* (*on a side note we neither discovered the Cadbury secret nor the origins of oompa loompa’s). The one downfall of this place was that the smell of chocolate was so overpowering that I almost didn’t want to eat the free chocolate
we were given… emphasis on 'almost' as I did in fact fill my face with chocolate.
After our little adventure Ryan and I headed to the Speights brewery, to take part in one of the best brewery tours I have ever been on, and that is saying a lot. Our guide truly made the trip unforgettable as he told us countless tales from his past when he worked at both the brewery and a local famous hotel. This man actually got to serve the queen drinks one night, though sadly he managed to serve her the wrong one. Once the tour came to an end we were then taken into an in house pub and allowed to serve ourselves as many drinks as we wanted within a 40 minute window...which we greedily took advantage of. This kicked off an incredibly night where we met a huge group of people that we were to run into several times during the following weeks…which is always cool.
March 1/ 07
Now to prove that my existence does not solely take place in an around the bar community, I decided to take a wildlife tour. The booking agent had promised us
that this one would be great as much of it took place on private property, and thus would be free from the mobs of people I knew wanted to see these animals. Our tour started with a first hand look at an Albatross nesting area. Though much of it was closed off to tourists, we were still able to view these huge birds as they circled overhead. After a nice Albatross burger j/k, we made our way to a fur seal and hooker sea lion colony. Though I try to cherish all animals found in nature it becomes slightly more difficult to do so when one pukes right in front of you, as was the case with one of the hooker sea lions that morning….but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. Even with this little incident I still found some good as we witnessed some yellow eyed penguins returning from the sea, after an afternoon of fishing.
March 4/5/ 07
Finding ourself on a tour bus traveling the south island Ryan and I felt that we needed a little adrenalin rush… thus we were presented with a full day of whitewater rafting which included 1
class 5 rapid (rapids only go up to class 6). For less then $160 we were given 1 nights stay in a beautiful cabin in the middle of nowhere, 3 huge meals, a ride to Christchurch and a full day of rafting. Now I must say I was a little nervous before our little tour of duty… not only would we be facing some huge rapids but my dad had long ago told me of his terrifying experience on his rafting trip, which was nothing short of chilling. Once we got suited up we spent our first half hour out in the water practicing our procedures for falling out of the raft, as well as rowing techniques, and even how to brace for impact if anything were to go wrong.
Without going into to much detail, all I can say is that the rapids were sweat, though the class 5 rapid turned almost disastrous for one group, as I will explain. We had all had to exit our rafts and proceed to the highest point along the side the rapid in order to strategize how we were going to go through it. Our rafting instructor had told us that
we had to be flawless going down it as we could get caught in some eddies that would keep us pined underwater in the glacial fed river. This little tidbit of info got the old ticker going as we were then sounded into action and told to return to our rafts. Proceeding behind another raft we quickly got pulled into the current and started our decent down the water… but no sooner had we entered the worst part of the rapid as we then watched in horror…and some amusement as the raft in front of us got lifted up onto its side with all on board holding on for dear life… though the boat quickly dropped to its upright position, it now had one less crew member … luckily we were able to find her safe and sounds a few seconds later near the end of the rapids. Unhappy that we had not flipped our boat, our instructed ordered us to flip it, which seemed like a good idea at the time untill I found myself trying desperatly to swim away from several eddies behind me. Now I had never been caught in a eddie before but being pulled upstream
towards a large rock is not a feeling I would like to feel again. After this little debacle we did a few rock jumps into the water…one more then 30 feet high, and then finished with a little swim down the rapids which was a lot of fun…though the water totally zapped my strength.
March 8
Feeling a little lazy today I had decided to take an 8 hour sail around Able Tasmans beautiful coast. Our boat of choice was a 33 foot catamaran. Though there were no real highlights to the day it was just great to sit with a box of wine in hand and sleep in the brilliant sun, which luckily didn’t burn me, much to my amazement.
March 9
Our bus driver had warned us, local kiwis had warned us…even total strangers had told us of the fate awaiting us in a town dubbed Baz Vegas or Berrytown. What were they warning us about you ask? Well this place consists of literally nothing more then a single bar… so its clame to fame is making sure that you never forget that bar as long as you live…. The theme for that night
was cross dressing…sadly they had many dresses and wigs for the boys… There will be no pictures on this blog from this night…and I will never speak of what went on unless paid…enough said.
March 11
I am now in Franz Joseph…a town based at the foot of a large Glacier. I had wanted to come here for some time and luckily I was not disappointed. I had initially signed on to a party of 8 individuals who would climb with rope and ice picks up the face of the glacier, but sadly my place was taken. So I had to settle for an 8 hour hike through the glacier which turned out to be a great adventure. This glacier on average moved several meters a day and thus every path created during the day disappears by night and must be remade, which was amazing as the scenery of ice would be compelty different from day to day. This glacier also receiveved 290 days of precipitation a year and therefore had a reputation as been an extremely wet environment... and that would be true for this day as well. Now I had never sat out in torrential rain
for 8 hours before but now happily I can say that I have… though I would never want to do it again. All in all I had a great day and would really recommend that everyone come and explore this area.
Well I am tired of writing so enough from me... the end.
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Todd
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Oompa Loompas
I'm sad to hear you didn't see any of the little orange guys, but I'm sure before you went you played a few high notes on a flute as you got your admission ticket! Looks like you are having an awesome time, keep up with the photos... they are awesome!