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Published: April 13th 2007
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March 17/07
Waking to find the sky a beautiful green colour, I realized that this had been a sign that St. Paddy has come to visit the great country of New Zealand, in order to dispense his justice to the livers of unsuspecting drinkers. After carefully reading the instructions on the back of my beer bottle I felt confident I knew what needed to be done. This was truly an awesome day as kids played bongos in the street and Irish jigs could be heard out of every pub window... Suffice it to say we made Queenstown and St. Patrick very very happy that day….. Sadly though this was to be the last party for Ryan Lutz and I in this country as he was heading on to bigger and better things…
March 25/07
Now that I was on my own again I had decided to make one of my dreams come true. With cash in hand and a sparkle in my eye I made my way to the north island to a little place called Raglan that was renowned as one of the greatest surf spots in all of New Zealand. Yet what really made this
place shine was the hostel I had booked there… Nestled in the heard of a rain forest, Kaorie lodge was one of the most relaxing places in all of NZ. Scientifically engineered by professional surfers and hippies, it encompassed all that was relaxing… from numerous hammocks located outside of each room to weekly poker tournaments, and even a plush sauna that melted away the stress created from doing absolutely nothing.
Yet this hostel was not only a relaxing spot but also a surf school, allowing me to cheaply rent a board and wetsuit each and every day I made it out into the crashing surf. Now I gotta admit that in the beginning I really sucked at surfing…finding myself more often then not at the bottom of the sea floor after falling off my board. But with each day I actually made some significant progress, and by the end of the second week I had reduced my board size by 2 ½ feet and went from a beginner foam board to the beauty of fiberglass.
What I really enjoyed about my time at this place was the routine I got into. Usually waking up around 10, I would
read for a couple of hours (and to think I used to see that as a punishment). This would be followed by one of my classic breakfasts (eggs eggs and more eggs). After that, if I was so inclined I would muster up some energy and maybe talk to some of my friends I made at the lodge and then watch a rugby game or a movie. Then with board in hand I would head to the beach and surf till the sun started to set… following this I would make myself a huge dinner and end each and every day talking to the latest travelers who would arrive by bus each afternoon. Now that’s what I call sweet.
April 9/07
Now I had always hated small spaces… they freaked me out… so what better way to deal with this then to go on a 5 hour journey into some deep dark caves? Make sense to you? Makes sense to me! Dubbed ‘black water rafting’ this company takes group of up to 8 people into the Waitomo caves located only a few hours from Auckland. With all our gear in order our first mission of the day was
to get into the caves themselves, which happily involved us having to repel 110 feet into a vertical shaft. Now at some points this shaft was no wider then myself which was good as it prevented me from looking down into the darkness below me… and suppressed my mind from wondering why I had ever signed onto this thing in the first place. Following this we made our way to a flying fox… a sort of zip line that took us over a huge hole… This little ride was made all the more fun as everyone turned off their headlamps when you did it. Now much of this cave system is filled with water, which normally wouldn’t be a bad thing, but sadly this water was so cold that a full body wetsuit did little to help. But luckily we were given an inner tube which allowed us to float down one of the passages to witness hundreds of feet of hanging glow worms.. made all the more spectacular when we turned off our head lamps once again and just floated in silence. Our journey then took us to the part I had worried about the most, but sadly turned
Thats right
All you have to know about this pic is that Wiggeret and I lost a bet and had to wear these outfits to the bar that night out to be far less frightening then I had imagined. On our hands and knees we pushed our was through pitch black holes no wider then my shoulders, even coming to an area where the water level came up to our chins making for a sweet claustrophobic environment. And finally our day ended by climbing up 2 waterfalls with no lines! Which was a lot of fun.
well thats all she wrote for the time being....
catch ya on the flip side
- Ryan
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McGoo
non-member comment
Your routine - Sounds familiar
Re your Karioi Lodge routine - Wake up at 10am - Read the newspaper till noon - Have a breakfast for champions - Communicate and network -Watch some television - Play in the water till dinner - Eat big and drink lots. Sounds just like being at home. Look forward to blog #10. Brian