New Zealand

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12-2-07
This is the first day of the round the world trip at least sort of. More correctly this is the first day outside the United States.

I left Honolulu at roughly 10:00 PM on November 30, 2007 and arrived in Auckland on December 2, 2007. It seems weird doesn’t it? It was almost December 1 when I left and once you cross the International Date Line the day moves forward.

Midway through the flight the guy beside me started moving like he was having a seizure, but I think he was just having a bad dream. Someone with him across the aisle grabbed him and woke him up and everything was fine. Upon entering Auckland airspace I noticed there were lots of clouds and I expected it to be a really bumpy ride in, but surprisingly it was quite smooth. I wondered if it was a fluke or if it was just the Kiwi air. I asked the stewardess when we got off but he said they expected it to be bumpy too and went on to say that is why they fixed breakfast so early.

At the airport I had to go through all the customs stuff and security checks. This airport even had a biosecurity check which included x-raying of all your bags. I think whenever your flying to these relatively small islands they check that kind of thing more closely. Even on the Hawaiin Islands it seemed they looked at that more closely but not too this level. I guess once you get a critter on these islands it can change things forever and forever is a long time. Look at the mongooses running all over the place there. They have no predators and thus live pretty much unchecked.

I jumped on a bus at the airport after getting some Kiwi cash . I rode the bus to downtown Auckland with a lady from Boulder, CO, one of my favorite places, She was probably in her mid twenties traveling alone for a month in New Zealand. She is taking a kayak class in southern New Zealand. I want and have done a lot of things but some things just do not interest me such as sky diving, bungy jumping, para gliding. Mainly the things that involve extreme heights I do not like.

She thought the driver would tell her when to get off but the driver ever did and then when asked said she was supposed to get off aways back. The ticket said to get off at the 4th stop but there was nothing indicating the stop. She jumped off and started walking back in the direction the bus just came. I went and talked to her after that episode. The driver was not very friendly and actually quite rude. She told me when to get off for the hostel I was going to.

I was there at about 8, but could not check in until noon. They were going to charge me $5 to leave my bags there so I said I would just come back at noon. I went and had breakfast as I was hungry again I guess it had been over 3 hours since my breakfast on the plane. I was really really tired to as I probably only slept 3 hours on the plane. I ate a breakfast sandwich at Burger King and noticed how they all the American Nostalgia like Marilyn Monroe pictures, pictures of old cars and their advertisements back then, Coke signs and of course a Route 66 sign. Just like Americans know more about the Sound of Music which was filmed in Salzburg, Austria; Europeans know more about Route 66. Everyone likes nostalgia!

After breakfast I went to an internet café sent out some emails for couchsurfing request and drank some coke to keep myself awake. I made it back to the hostel about 12:30 and there were many people checking in and therefore had to wait. The hostel cost if expensive at $28 as is everything else here in Auckland and it appears in all of New Zealand. The tv here appears to be the same as in the states.

I got checked in and headed to my room and met two Irishmen in the room. To date they have not been my favorite people and these two did not help my thinking in that regards. There was a German Guy that did not speak good English and the one told him to not use the top bunk above him because he said the bunk is not good. This guy just did not want anyone creaking the bed above him. The other Irish guy told the German guy there was nothing wrong with the bed the other guy was just messing with him. He even pulled out parts of the bed as if it was broken. I told the German the bed above me was available which he took.

I slept a couple hours and then went to the Esquire coffee shop where they had free internet with a purchase. Very cool. I went back to the hostel and met another couchsurfer at Starks a coffee shop near a concert venue where Queen music was being played in a musical.

Eve arrived just after the concert ended and we sat around and had a couple dinks. Eve is married and has a young daughter. She is very courteous and I enjoyed talking to her. She helped me design an itinerary, which made me feel better as I really did not have a game plan yet for New Zealand. We said goodbye and I went back to the hostel. I tried to find a place to type, but really did not find any quiet places. At about 11 I gave up and decided to go to bed. The German guy was there, but no one else. Good night from New Zealand. Where is that you say? It is near Australia? Where is that? Get a world map. There’s a big world out there!

12-3-07
I spent most of this day going on a free tour sponsored by a company called Stray who provides lots of different New Zealand tour options. The are geared towards the backpacker crowds so they find cheaper things to do. They give you a free tour then give you a shameless plug about their trip. The tour left at 10:00 and we got to see most of Auckland from the bus. Actually the bus looked somewhat like a truck. Actually the first thing I thought of was a farm truck. The drivers said the truck was a German fire truck. It was quite funny and drew lots of weird looks by the people we passed on the street. We started out by going to the Space Needle like thing where people are hung off this 800 ft structure and then let down at a rate of 60 mph. The people are extremely excited that do it but it is $100 to do which is out of my price range on this trip. We were approaching a famous person’s house in Auckland, he was a coach for I think Auckland’s Rugby team and as we drove by he was outside without a shirt doing something. The local people made a big deal about it. This area was what the locals referred to as the Beverly Hills of Auckland. We had lunch around 12:30 which they provide, but only consisted of a bratwurst and small drink. A grill pops out of the side of this bus like truck thing. They fixed onions for the brats as well. It was pretty good. We played Frisbee and kicked the soccer ball around. I was amazed by all the single women and men traveling alone. I bet there were 6 women and probably 4 men and maybe 3 couples. After lunch we were given the cheap plug and headed to the highest point in Auckland to get a good view of the city. From this point you got a great view of the City. She said this City is the fourth largest urban sprawl City in the world although I never once felt like the sprawl was crazy. There are several ups and downs in the landscape so a lot of the City I was not seeing.

The tour guide had some great stories about all the crazy Kiwi adrenaline stuff and pranks. Normally the pranks had to do with tricking someone into thinking they were going to die. For example one guy was told to hold onto this bar and do as many chin ups as possible. This bar was connected to a bungy and then there was somehow another bungy connected to his body. Well the guy was told the bungy around his feet was not fastened and then he was pushed and told to hold onto the bar as that was the only thing connected. They said the guy came up with the whitest face of anyone they had ever seen and he had still held onto the bar. Another guy did not want to go so they tied duct taped him to a chair and fastened the bungy to him. They tied a rope to the chair and something else in such a way that the chair just teetered on the edge of the plank. They let him sit there for about a minute and then they cut the rope one strand at a time until he fell off. These Kiwis are crazy man. You can also with dolphins. She told some amazing stories about dolphins. One story, a family including some very young kids were out swimming and all of the sudden this whole school of dolphins circled them making all kinds of crazy racket. This went on for a longtime. The father finally decided he had to do something about it so he swam away from them and two of the dolphins swam with him making the same racket. He motioned to another person to come out to help them and the other person when swimming out with a snorkel saw a great white shark circling under the family the reason for the dolphin’s antics. Another time a dolphin kept around this one lady incessantly. The lady asked the skipper why is the dolphin staying with her and her only. The skipper asked her if she was pregnant? She said no way could she be pregnant. The lady came to the skipper about a week later and told him that she is indeed pregnant. Evidently the dolphins could here the two heartbeats. The guide said too there are lots of incidences of male dolphins trying to mount female swimmers as well. I asked her how the dolphins can tell males from females and she just said they can. Interesting stories to say the least.

We headed back to the hostel and I decided to get the tour for $360. All this does is gives you transportation to most of the touristy spots all over the North Island. It also guarantees you lodging at several hostels during this very busy time, but you have to pay for those at a cost around $23. Most things are expensive here anyway and I really did not think I could save much money over what they offered. They also provide cheap food options like one day you chip in and they barbeque, which is something I like to do anyway. I have lodging in Wellington and that is where they drop you off as well. I think it will be fun. I am going to cheaper countries like Vietnam, Argentina and Peru where I should save some money which will help get the daily cost down some.

I got off the bus at the hostel and went to book the trip when the tour guide came up and handed me the camera. I had left it on the bus. The camera is $500 so that was nice to not have to buy another one of those.

I was beat and went back to my room at roughly 3:30 to take a nap as I felt spent. After 40 minute nap I showered grabbed some nachos and a beer and typed for awhile. I really wanted to see the museum in Auckland, but am going to pass on that this trip. They have some neat Polynesian stuff from what I hear, which is something I missed out on the Hawaiian Islands, and am now going to miss it here as well.

I messed around for awhile on the internet and did some typing. It was nice to be out doing something today. I never feel right if I am not seeing things. Yep I am in Auckland, New Zealand. Who would have thought I would be here? Not me!

12-4-07

I got up bright and early and went down stairs to the reception desk around 7:15. There were a few other people there some of which I recognized from the day before at the Stray tour. One lady named Stephanie was looking for breakfast and I walked with her to get the food, since we had some time before the bus left.

We got back and jumped on the bus. There were several people on the bus that had been on the Stray tour the day before. One lady named Stephanie as well, was really hung over and had not gotten any sleep and looked the part as well. There were two Mexican women on the bus who were not signed up to be on the bus. I felt sorry for them, but really did not know their situation.

On the way we stopped at store to get supplies. I grabbed a cheap Christmas tree which most people seemed to get a laugh out of it and seemed to like. We traveled for about 3 hours total before arriving at Hahei, where several of the people went kayaking and I went hiking and did some snorkeling. Gemstone Bay is along the trail to Cathedral Rock. I was the only one there and only snorkeled for a few minutes for a couple reasons including there was no one else there, the water was cold and the fish were not the bright color that I had seen in the Hawaiian Islands.

I hiked up to Cathedral rocks and snorkeled there for a few minutes, but you could not see anything there so I just sunbathed for awhile. There was really no sun so I just laid there and rested. It had been a very busy and hectic day. I had not slept much the night before, because I knew I had to get up early so I slept with one eye open sort to speak.

The Cathedral Rock was pretty cool. Basically it is a rock off the shore probably 100 ft. and probably 50 ft. tall. It was cool, but not a really awesome kind of thing for me. The people that had rented kayaks were there as well and the tour guide had fixed some tea for those in the kayaking group. I was glad I had not taken the kayaking tour as it didn’t look that awesome to me. I have kayaked before so I didn’t really feel like I was missing out too much. I walked back towards the hostel where we where staying and took a few pictures on the way. It is a pretty cool place. I liked seeing the islands off the coast a lot. That was very cool.

Back at the hostel we had a barbecue. It was pretty good and we all ate too much. I think everyone expected to have their dishes done for them, but that was not the case and I ended up doing them for most people. It was alright and I jokingly told everyone that I needed to clean the dirt from underneath my fingernails anyway. The dorm room where we slept, there was about 10 people in a very confined space. That’s hostelling. At approximately 10:00 pm we left to go to Hot Water Beach which is a place where there is warm and sometimes hot water that comes up through the sand. What you do is dig a hole in the sand and let the water seep in and then sit in it. Some of the pools had extremely hot water coming in where you could not stay in the water for long as it would burn you. It was hard to get the pits dug deep enough to get much water on you. About 12 inches of water in depth was the most you could hope for. We stayed there for about an hour and then headed back to the hostel.

It was a good first day and I enjoyed the people I was with. They all seemed pretty nice, cool and considerate. We all turned in around midnight. Good night from Hahei, New Zealand on the east Coast of New Zealand.

12-5-07
We got up and had a quick breakfast and headed out at 8:00. We left and headed for Raglan, which is a famous surfing town in New Zealand. I was not going to take surfing lessons again as I just took them in Hawaii. I was just going to hire a board which cost $35 an hour. Nothing is cheap in New Zealand.

We pulled into Raglan around 3:30 and stopped to get groceries. Raglan has no McDonalds and does not allow any chain stores like that in their town. That is pretty cool. After about an hour stop there we headed up to the hostel. The hostel is up on the hillside just outside Raglan. They have a hiking trail there, a observation point and a zip line that I wanted to try. Time is really of the essence here. We had an hour before the bus left to go surfing so I hurried up and hiked the trail, which they said would take an hour, but I was able to do it in about 40 minutes. The trail really had no great views but it was neat to see the bush. It is a very dense vegetation and it appeared quite tropical. I met up with the other people that were hiring a surf board as well. It was raining off and on and we were all losing our enthusiasm to surf. It was rather chilly as well. Finally the people taking the surfing lesson showed up around 3:30 and we jumped in the van to head to the surfing spot.

The waves looked great for learning on as they were a little bigger than the ones at Waikiki in Hawaii which I really had a hard time to get up on the board as it seemed there was not a natural wave thrust. You had to create your speed by paddling hard in Waikiki. We rented our suits and boards and were on the water a little after 4:00. I surfed with a nice lady from England that had surfed previously. She had more experience than did I and was really fun to surf with. I do think tall people have a little bit of a disadvantage over short people as they have a higher center of gravity. I was able to get up about 10 times which was a great accomplishment as the second day I surfed in Waikiki I could not get up at all. I feel like I could become passionate about surfing and hope to do more of it in the future. I got out of the water around 6 and the rest of the group said we were leaving. I did not like the fact that we only got to surf for 2 hours after having rented the boards for 3 hours but that’s the way it worked out. What are you going to do?

We got back to the Hostel and sat in the sauna for awhile. It was almost time for dinner so we took a quick shower that had horrible water temperature. It startedd out cold then went to hot and then back to cold. It is amazing how some stuff works in hostels or does not work in hostels. It seems though really no one complains. Hosteler and backpackers are pretty resilient and that impresses me.

I headed to the dinner, which the hostel provided for $10. I sure did not expect things to be this expensive. A lady ask the guy serving food about drinks and he said you have to get the cups that was just arms length away from him from the shelf. He made her walk around the bar to get the cups. They seemed pretty lazy to me and I was glad to get away from them. I am not sure if that was the laid back attitude that I heard this part of the country was famous for or what, but I call it not being very hospitable. I went back and got me glass and asked Paul, who was in line just behind me, if he wanted a glass as well. He said yes he wanted a glass as well. I got one for him too hoping the surfer dude maybe noticed. I do not have much patience for people that lazy and not willing to help out their fellow man. Surfs up dude. They work hard enough to just get by is the impression I get. Anyway this was an interesting place. I enjoyed the hike here and the surfing was great. I am not sure the surfing is always this good as the person that took us to the beach said the swells were better than normal today. I have since talked to folks that said the waves were not that great when they were there so I guess we were lucky. I loved it there and was tempted to stay another day, but decided to move on.

I talked to a lady that was waiting to use the phone about the Christmas tree and she said someone had fell into it which is why the legs were break. I made a big deal about it and told the designated sheriff, that she needed to investigate the matter more closely as there was a criminal act perpetrated.

We sat around and hung out until around 11:00 and called it a night. Again another early start tomorrow so hit the hay. Man this vacation is starting to wear me out. Good night from Raglan, New Zealand.

12-6-07

In Raglan we got up and I ran down to the observation point and ran to the zip line in the rain. Those were two items I had not done and wanted to. The zip line was a lot faster than I expected and was pretty cool. Observation Point was not that great even though the view was pretty cool it was not a great photo. It was cloudy and raining as well so there is only so much positive impression you can get in that circumstance.

We got going again around 8:00 and headed to Waitomo Caves. I was hesitant to do any activities on this day but decided to go ahead and do Haggas Honking Holes. This turned out to be a good move as even at the price tag of $135 it was 4 hours of bliss. There are 3 rappels or abseils as they say in the brochure and several areas where you are crawling on your hands and knees. Probably the funniest part was the 2nd abseil when you have to go down with a waterfall all around you. I went first in the group as I did for most of the things. There were two guides one went first to “catch you” if you fall just kidding and the second went last to help us through. On this abseil at the bottom there is a small area where you stop and have to crawl under this small rock ledge which is not even visible when standing and then spin yourself around on your “bum” as they call it or your butt and point your feet down this chute where you slide a ways as instructed by the instructor down below. I got to the bottom and the instructor told me to tell the people coming down what to do. Each person had a different reaction all of which were of extreme shock. Comments like, “Are you serious”, “No Way”. This was the hardest I had laughed in a long, long time. The third person came down and said, “Where’s Paul?” Paul was the person that came down after me. I was thinking this whole time I wish there reactions were on video. I was disappointed when the last person came down as I was thoroughly enjoying watching the reactions. I was thinking the whole time I should be telling these people to remember exactly what they just said as I wanted to write down there comments as I knew I would forget them. I will remember there reactions for a long time as each person showed extreme concern. Our whole group really did well. Even the first abseil, which was probably 50 meters the whole group did really well. We were all very scared when we were told to swing out over the opening with only the rope holding. Ian one of the two guides essentially ran down the ropes in the location where we abseiled. I actually felt myself worried about Ian as I watched him run down the ropes, but I suspect he has done that maneuver a several thousand times. In several locations we had water about halfway up our body as we crawled through the water. The water filled our boots completely and I dumped them out several times. Most people left the water in their boots as the water was warm which helped keep them warm as the cave was a little cold. It was funny a Dutch lady made the comment that Naughty (our bus driver) said he made it through this cave and she said he couldn’t fit through some of these openings. I told her that was not nice and she no she was not being mean she was state the fact that the physical dimensions of him and dimensions of the opening would not result in him fitting. I laughed at her factual comment. It is true though you can not be a lot over weight and still make it through this cave. As we went through these narrow passages in water I kept thinking about the fact that it was raining outside. I was thinking don’t these caves fill up with water? I had asked this question of the guides earlier, but they said no need to worry. They said it takes a week of rain before the water starts trickling down into these caves. I had seen a caving show once and these guys had constant communication with the service because if it started raining on the surface they had to immediately come out. We finally made it out of the cave and it was raining very hard. We exited probably 100 ft. from where we entered. It was a great experience and the $135 seemed well spent.

From there we jumped back into the bus and headed to the Maori Cultural Event where we met a guy that built a building to honor his parents. How much of this was done for economic reasons and how much was simply done indeed for his parents I will never know. The guy, probably in his 70’s, seemed quite sincere and our driver (Naughty) really geared us up to respect him and his culture. We all were very serious and really did respect what he was doing. I actually think we were respecting him and his traditions more than necessary. He had people come in who I think were family and the men did several combat type maneuvers with there spears. They asked for a volunteer and I got up and did a few moves with him. They were late fixing us dinner and finally got it ready. They had mutton which is sheep and I really liked it even though there was lots of fat on the meat, which I cut off. There really was not enough food for everyone and we all took less than what we would have liked to have.

After supper they divided the men into one group and the women into another. The men had to take their shirts off and do a dance called the Makah. A big part of the dance I believe is to intimidate your opponent. I had to call out a word as part of the routine as did two other people. The women had to do a dance as well. After some practice the we came out and did our dance and were asked to do it again so we did. The women then had to do there dance twice as well. It was quite fun. A child of probably 4 years laughed at me every time I had to say the word as I was obviously saying it differently from the way it is supposed to be pronounced. It was neat to see the hysterial laughter coming from the kid at my expense.

A lot of people sat in the dining area for awhile afterwards and had a few cocktails until around 12:00. I went in and got my bed ready and did some typing. Our bedroom was the big open area where we had our performance. They had cushions around 4 inches thick that we used for beds. I stacked about 4 on top of each other to try and act like I was taking a lot more than necessary mainly trying to stir some pots but only a couple people said anything. I typed for awhile and then went to bed. Another busy day with lots of neat experiences. It would be neat though just to do nothing one evening but I do not see that happening anytime soon. Good night from the Maori Cultural Experience location near Rotorua, New Zealand.

12-7-07
There were about 20 people in that room and really only one person snored, which I thought was pretty cool. Everyone is pretty young though with myself being the oldest at 38. There is another guy that is 35 and a couple people around 30. Most though are in their early 20’s and most are female’s traveling alone, which really surprised me.

Breakfast was continental. I had a couple pieces of toast, but that was about it. I was not overly impressed with our stay here, but it wasn’t bad either. It was just ok for me. We left and headed to Rotorua. Near Rotorua some of the group were left off and went rafting while the rest of us went into Rotorua. This was one of the activities that I didn’t feel like I was missing out on something. In Rotorua I walked through the nearby Park and was impressed by all the thermal pools there. I also walked through a nearby Maori Village and thought it was rather poor in looks. There were several thermal pools in there village as well. In one spot I saw 4 spots where boiling water was surfacing in the driveway. It looked a little dangerous with regards to kids burning their self. In a couple locations there was smokestacks coming from the ground to the surface and it appeared to be lots of steam being evacuated. It seemed like maybe they could have harnesses this energy a little and made electric or something with it. This is definitely a very amazing place. I went back to the hostel where we were waiting on the others and did some typing and grabbed lunch at a nearby subway.

Around 1 we headed to Taupo, which lies nearby a huge crater lake. It is a very vast lake and Taupo is town that just feels to have a lot of energy and feels youthful. It feels like a ski resort town or a town like Moab, Utah. I like the feel. We checked in and I was not getting a real good vibe from the folks working there. Not sure why. I think I need to get back to couchsurfing as I feel a little less stressed when doing that as I do not feel like I need to constantly be on guard like I do when I am at a hostel. A lot of hostels are fine and no worries more so your rural hostels, but the big City ones you best be on guard.

Some of our group wanted to go out and dance which sounded good to me. I like to dance but have not done so in quite some time. After a couple drinks we headed out. The place we went to was not too busy and we danced for awhile. One of the ladies in our group wanted to show me how to dance correctly. I was a little offended by that to be honest. Why can’t a person just go out and dance and not really care whether or not your in rhythm. When I go to dance it is about just cutting lose and not worrying about a thing. Maybe she wanted to help me out I do not know but it kind of put me in a bad mood. I danced for awhile longer but then decided to call it a night as it was after midnight already. Back at the hostel I really did not feel like sleeping at all as I had drank a couple Red Bulls and had all kinds of energy. I decided to just sit in the hall way and type for awhile as that is the only place I could find an outlet. A couple ladies from California came in ½ looped and sat down beside me. I had talked to them earlier and they wanted to talk awhile longer so we talked for about ½ hour. They are college students who are studying marine biology in Australia. This seems to be a common thing to do as I met other folks on this trip who were doing the same thing. After talking to them I resumed my typing. After about 15 minutes another lady walked in this time from England. I had met her too and she sat down to talk. She actually had some great travel planning ideas and helped me out quite substantially. It was now around 3 and I decided I would try to sleep. I had signed up for sky diving the day before and was wondering if we would have it the next day. Good night from Taupo. A very long day is in the bag.

12-8-07
I do not think I slept a wink last night. Those 2 Red Bulls really hit me hard. I suspect I to day will not be too hard as it seems the first day after a night like that is not too bad although cognitively I have a harder time remembering things. Tomorrow though will be difficult. On this day we head to a couple geothermal pools and then to the Rotoriro Crossing at Rotoriro National Park. The driver Naughty kept saying how this is a nice hostel and would be a good place to spend an extra day. With this Tour group you have the opportunity to jump off and on the buses as you want and stay up to a year in a place with your ticket still being valid. It is a pretty good deal I believe.

At the first thermal pool it was actually a manmade pool. We did some swimming and had a breath holding contest. Tom a guy from England won as he was able to hold his breath for two lengths of the pool. I held mine for about 1.5 lengths. I had pneumonia a lot when I was a kid and my lung capacity if greatly reduced so competitions like this or really hard for me to be good at. In college when we did the lung capacity exercises the instructor was really surprised I did not have larger lung capacity because I am such a big person. Oh well there is a heck of a lot worse things I would have wrong with me.

The thermal pools were nice and we enjoyed our swim there. It cost like $6.00 there which was not too bad. From there we continued on to another waterfall like pool area and swam for awhile. This was a really neat place to swim and everyone enjoyed it immensely. The water was very warm and the driver had the women try and flip their hair back with a stream of water coming off their hair. The women enjoyed trying to do that and it was quite fun for everyone as the result was often quite silly.

We left this waterfall geothermal pool and headed for the Park Hostel. On the way we stopped for a couple pictures of the Rotoriro crossing and it was indeed quite the amazing mountain. More on that tomorrow when I do the crossing. At the hostel we got checked in and it indeed was very nice and very modern. They had a great big commons area with a fireplace etc. I really liked it and the people seemed nice. I got my stuff together and headed out for a hike as did many other people. I couldn’t find my camera so that concerned me a little although typically it shows up so I was not too concerned. Be person that we picked up here at the Park Hostel named Ammo had lost 3 cameras on her trip so far so I didn’t feel too bad.

I hiked with a Clare a lady from England who was a teacher and is now becoming a Bobbi (policeman) in London. She is very athletic and played soccer at a college in Florida on scholarship. This hike was a 4 hour hike and she had not brought any water. I gave her a hard time about that as she was the type to give a hard time to. A person talks to her more like a guy than a woman. We made it to the waterfall. After several hours of hiking. This hike was much more challenging than anyone expected. Clare and I were the only ones who made it to the actual Fall everyone else settled for the lookout location.
There was one location where you could see the valley and the Fall that was quite nice.

We headed back at a pretty fast pace and Clare seemed to be getting tired. I continued giving her a hard time about not having water, which continued into the night. After a tough hike out we made it and headed to the whirlpool for awhile. Naughty ran hot water into the whirlpool as the water in their was not that hot. A Finnish and German lady got in the whirlpool as well.

After the whirlpool we all had a couple drinks and went to bed. Tomorrow is the Tongoriro crossing. A lot of the group that I had been traveling with the entire time was moving on as they were not staying for the crossing. This was rated as the number 1 day hike in New Zealand by lonely planet so of course I would be staying an extra day for this hike. I would miss those people that I had gotten to know pretty well over the course of the last 5 days but I would meet new people. That is life in the backpacking world. You kind of become attached to people and then they go on their way as do you. Most of the time you do not stay in touch either. Good night from the Park hostel at Tongoriro Crossing National Park.

12-9-07
I got up at 6:00 as I needed to be out ready to go by 7:15, which was the time the National Park buses picked you up to transport you to the trailhead. The cost was $30, which I thought was plenty high. They said the money is used for road maintenance. It was a little cloudy out and I wondered if the crossing would be on. The maintenance guy that I spoke with said he thought the hike would be on. I fixed some pancakes and was prepared to offer them to others, but the few people in there declined the offer.

I got my gear and waited at the door and at 7:15 the bus showed up and took us out there. We had a couple more pick-up stops and then headed to the mountain. There were clouds forming in the mountains that looked a little ominous. The driver said it is our decision whether we wanted to go. He said they will take us back to the hostel if we want. I was with Clare (UK), Tom (UK) and Jacqueline (Netherlands) for the hike. Clare is a really gung ho athletic woman and of course said lets go. We had several different hiking abilities and Clare was out with Tom in the lead and I kind of stayed behind them for awhile but then caught up. Jacqueline was the only one with proper rain gear, but was the slowest hiker. I talked to Clare for awhile and it was obvious she was getting cold and wet. She kept trying to say she could make it, but I told her the farther up on this mountain we get the worse the weather is going to get. We trudged on in the now rain while before it was more like a heavy mist. I had a $3 poncho on that was not not doing much good either. I was not really cold though although my shoes were very wet. At a porta pottie I gave Clare an extra dry shirt I had and she put on a dry one she had. I finally told her I was going to go back down with her. She said for me to continue on, but I told her I was wet too. Another man nearby said he was heading back as well and I suggested for Clare to go with him and I would continue on as I really was not cold. After another 30 minutes or so of hiking the rain got worse I could not see anything and I met Tom who said he was headed back. I thought I could do this hike no questions about that, but I am not seeing anything. I wondered what the point of completing the hike, but not seeing anything and the wind and rain was picking up and I was wearing a $3 poncho. I decided I did not need the bragging rights and decided to head back. In talking to other people I was about ½ way through the trail at the point I was at. I didn’t realize I was that far or I probably would have continued on even though the weather was getting worse.

When I got back to the bus Clare was there still and soon Tom arrived as well. The bus then took off and after about 4 minutes of driving turned around as the driver got a call more people were waiting. Jacqueline was one of those waiting and she mentioned me telling the driver to wait for them. I told her I had forgotten about her still coming down. I really had no idea how frequently the buses picked people up and had no idea how long it would take for her to get down. Regardless I ended up feeling a little bad for not mentioning her to the driver.

We made it back to the hostel and Clare agreed to fix some lunch if I would wash dishes. I provided the pasta and she provided the sauce. I enjoyed teasing her and she enjoyed giving me a hard time as well. She is a very competitive person as am I at times.

After the late lunch we just hung around for a couple hours. I had decided not to wait around another day in hopes of the weather improving as the forecast for the next couple of days was not good. There were some people I was talking to in the Hostel were planning to hike the next day, but they all seemed realistic that it would most likely not happen. It seemed the rest of the day went by pretty quick. Around 5 the other Stray bus group came in and I met Morrie. He was the next bus driver I would be riding with. He had dreadlocks and I was not sure what to make of him. Several people that had rode with him before said he was cool. I had been trying to track him down for a couple hours and saw him walking near me. I had just logged on to the internet and had 40 minutes worth of credit and was about 10 minutes into that credit already. I asked him my question and he began talking and I felt rude telling him I was on the clock here so I didn’t say anything. When Morrie finally left I had 3 minutes of credit left. I really didn’t mind though as he seemed like a really cool man even with dreadlocks. There are a lot of stereotypes out there people! The rest of the night I pretty much just hung around with the folks there drinking a few beers. I met an African American man named Dennis that I really, really enjoyed. Clare really liked him as well as did Jaqueline the Dutch Lady. He is some sort of engineer with the Amtrak. He had spent a lot of the day playing Chess with Ammo, the British Lady I had just met. Jaqueline, the Dutch Lady, said she saw Dennis talk to a Dutch homesick girl and he really helped her. He made her feel not so homesick. Jaqueline is obviously a big fan of Dennis. Finally the activities shut down around midnight. Man this drinking and socializing every night is wearing me down. I want just one night where I do not feel like I have to go out, have a few drinks and socialize. I am a quiet person after all, that enjoys being alone. I am a recluse. I am going into my cave now and have some alone time. Good night from the Park Hostel at the Tongariro Crossing.

12-10-07
My last night at the Park Hostel was bitter sweet as I really liked this place. But all good things must come to an end including this trip unfortunately. But not yet! Morrie and I headed out as well as the rest of the gang most of which were knew. The new gang included Ammo (short for Anne Marie), Carolyne (an Irish Lady), Martina (a French Lady), Monica ( a Chec Republic lady living in London) and several other new faces. We took the back rodes to Wellington as Morrie is from Wellington and knows this area quite well. He showed us his Mom’s house and we walked into her back yard. Monica really thought this was funny and I thought it was cool as well. I miss a little having a back yard. Morrie’s mom had several things planted there including poppies something I fondly remember my grandma having in her yard. We spent some time driving around Wellington and getting some nice views. This is a really cool city and it reminds me of Bergen, Norway. After several site seeing stops we headed to the hostel which was a big party place and in my view was all about making money. They gave you a ticket for a free meal which included a $4 upgrade. At the bar they pretty much told you that the free meal was very small and you needed to get the $4 upgrade. Naturally everyone did just that and you ended up getting a $2 meal for $4. The portions were really small and it was rice with a red sauce and a couple chunks of meat that you got. Truly ludicrous I felt. I wasn’t feeling well so I left at a couple drinks and typed for awhile. I could here the other people still in the bar area doing some sort of contest. I found out later they were having a dance contest and pool contest. The Stray bus I was on was competing against another bus. We won the pool contest and they won the dance contest and some reason they had a tie breaker dance off I think which the other team won. I was a little frustrated by the level of noise in the bar inside the hostel. I thought the hostel should at least keep the noise down after a certain time in their own hostel. I can understand a nearby bar but thought a bar inside the hostel itself is ridiculous. Oh well that is hostelling.

I talked with a lady from Scotland for a long time before going to bed. She was sick too. This cold seems to be going around. Good night from Wellington, New Zealand a very nice place!

12-11-07
I actually slept pretty decent last night even with the loud music and the cold. I had put my right ear plug in so deep it was with some difficulty to remove it which really helped to drown out the sound. I normally have much more difficulty getting the ear plugs in and normally they fall out during the night. Also the cold seemed to be getting better. Unlike the cold I had in Germany I seemed to lick this one much quicker.

Most people in the group was taking the ferry across, but I was flying. Morrie had told me about the flight option, which is what he takes when flying from the north island to the south island. The cost is $62 for people on the Stray buses which is only $5 more than the ferry so I decided to do it. The airline actually picks you up at the hostel and takes you to the airport. They arrived on time at 9:45 and had me at the airport a little after 10:00. The guy who drove me to the airport also checked me in. It was pretty cool seeing a small time airline operate like this. There were only 12 people on the plane and you could tell this was the first time on such a small plane for most of the people. It was a single prop plane and it really reacted to the couple spots of turbulence we encountered. The wings seemed to move around 90 deg in opposite directions. I felt under my knee cap and it was wet from perspiration. I was a little nervous. In the land of the adrenaline Junkie I was feeling like this was just another one of those crazy rides New Zealand is so famous for.

The view from this puddle jumper was awesome. This was the first time where I felt really awed by the beauty. There were amazing fjords all around the top of the South Island. We began to descend and I was concerned as I was not seeing a runway, but then as we got closer I did see what appeared to be a single lane road that I thought must be the runway as we were getting very low. We were banking around this mountain and almost still in the turn we touched down on this one lane road. The pilot drove the plane to a spot by this barn and we all jumped out onto the grass. The luggage was moved onto the grass by the staff and we just picked our luggage up. From there we were shuffled to another van that would then take us into Picton where I needed dropped off at the ferry terminal where most people on the plane needed to be taken as well. While waiting to get in the van there was an asian tourist who asked the pilot if this was the plane he needed to get on for the flight to Wellington and the pilot said yes. The passenger then asked if he was the only one to be on the plane almost in a scared voice. The pilot said no there are a couple more people.

The plane ride was quite exciting and just contributed to the New Zealand experience. The van drier dropped me off at the bus and I had beat the ferry over. I met my knew driver nicknamed “Digger.” He appeared a little younger than the other drivers and seemed ok at first glance. The people from the ferry got on and it was almost a reunion in a sense. I sat in the back, which is where I had been sitting on all the other buses. We had a back seat club going on the north Island but on this bus it was so big and so few people everybody just sat wherever. I put the Christmas tree in the back seat the best I could as there was not really a good spot to put it. On the other buses we were able to put it right in the front of the bus which was quite good.

Everyone else jumped on that I had gotten to know from the other us rides and we were on the road again. This was a really clean bus but really bumpy. I found out later they just took the frame from another truck, I presume like a 1 ton truck and put a passenger area on the frame. It seemed similar to riding in a farm truck back in the day.

We drove to Abel Tasman from Picton where we were to spend the next couple of days. This was a place to kayak and hike. I of course as going for the hiking as it was free. Kayaking is just not something I am going to pay top dollar for as I can do that at home. The accommodations were quite nice and I was rooming with Monica in a small building which the camp appeared to have about 12 of. Some people slept in a tent which had cots inside. Monica who I stayed with is the Chec Republic lady that never stops talking. I have a blast teasing her. Her English is so good that she is able to tease back, which is unusual for someone that is speaking there second language. Most people from the US probably thinks maybe there is funny business going on with a guy and a gal rooming together but it is more like a brother and sister staying in the same room. This is the same thing for dorm rooms which are almost all unisex as well as bathrooms. I not once have noticed any nudity in all the places I have stayed. People in the US for some reason are really uptight about guys and gals sleeping in the same room together and using the same bathroom facilities. The idea of a unisex bathroom was a big part of the show Ally McBeal even.

Digger fixed some supper and we called it a night. Some of the group had went to the ocean to see the phosphloresence (sp) glow in the ocean but I had not heard about the people doing it so I did not. It is lights out from Old MacDonald’s Farm, the name of the campsite where we stayed, on the outskirts of Abel Tasman National Park on the South Island of New Zealand.

12-12-07
I got up around 7:30 and got some breakfast and essentially ran to the Aqua Taxi. Several people told me the night before that it was a 10 minute walk. Well I left 20 minutes before 9:00 which was when the boat left and ran the entire way and got there 5 minutes before it left. Most people had prior reservations so I was lucky to get on. It was kind of funny as the boat was attached to a tractor and you simply road in the boat being pulled by the tractor to the dock. The tide was in between being high and low so they actually drove the tractor way out on the sand beach in the water and simply launched the boat whenever it was deep enough to float. Several other boats were doing the same thing. Once we got going it was kind of funny listening to the people talk about planning the boat, and running in shallow water as they obviously did not have a clue what they were talking about. I talked to two people that were from Alaska. It amazes people from all over the world keep telling me how Americans do not travel. I meet knew Americans everyday. They are just wanting to find something to complain about America. Yep next time we let the Germans take over the European Continent is what I am thinking. What have you done for me lately?

Once off the beach and into deep water the driver opened it up a bit and we did a lot of banging with the boat on the waves. We first went to a place called split apple rock. Yes it looked liked a split apple. Not the most creative name but it did describe it to a T. The driver said he has seen the tide change as much as 10 feet here in just a few hours. Tides are amazing to me and I believe that is something needing more research into to harness that energy.

From there we drove up to Seal Island again appropriately described due to the fact that seals inhabit it. It was the time of the year when the Seals have pups so we got to see the little critters trying to get around and nursing. Who does not like baby animals? From there we went on to a couple stopping points and I got off at Awarora Bay. When I had originally purchased my ticket the lady ask me what I was doing from that point and I told her was walking back to the Park Entrance. She said that is a long hike. I told her I knew that it should be about 16 miles if my map scaling was right. She acted like well good luck with that. The boat driver kind of responded the same way. On flat terrain I can usually do 3 miles per hour while on hilly terrain it is about 2 miles per hour.

Anyway I got off there and headed out. After hiking about an hour I had to cross a small river that I knew I was going to have to do since I was doing the trail at high tide. The map I had indicated this would be the case. It really was not much trouble as all I had to do was take my shoes and socks off and wade the 24 inch deep water. I continued walking barefooted on the beach as it feels good on my arches. I really was not encountering many other people. The whole Abel Tasman coastline consist of beach inlets. In one location they call it Anchor Bay as it is a good place to anchor a boat over night. I thoughy about having my sailboat there. It would be great.

I felt like overall I was making good time. I stopped at this big beach and talked to Anna for awhile she was from the hostel. She had come with Nicole another German lady from the hostel. I did not really trust Nicole much as she seemed to be traveling on a very tight budget. She always complained as well. I had mentioned couchsurfing to her and told her how I liked to surf with the older people, meaning people in there 50’s and 60’s and she said it is good for me to be with people my age. She is about 26. I was thinking lady lets go hiking and then we can talk about ages. Anna said Nicole took the ferry with her a ways up the line and they walked to this point while Nicole walked on while she stayed there to sunbath. Anna was going to take the ferry back while Nicole was saving money by walking back. I looked forward to this old guy passing Nicole on the trail. I continued on and stopped to eat at one location for about 10 minutes. A little ways past there I saw Nicole sitting on the side of the trail resting. As I walked by her I asked her if she was ok and I sped by. Later that night she told another lady that told me that I practically ran by her. Nicole then told me I was walking so fast I could not see anything. I didn’t say anything just thought man does this chick ever smile or say anything positive? I do not get her. Yes the views change so dramatically while your walking along a coast line. Most Islands off the coast I would see for several hours giving plenty of opportunity for viewing and photos. Walking too fast that I could not see anything. Give me a break lady!

After making it back Monica had fixed some pasta that we all ate. Monica said she did not think I would be getting back until it got dark really late. Nicole walked in about an hour after me to my delight. She was always looking to mooch off people as well. She was beginning to remind me of the guy from Prague in Norway. Why not earn a little more money before traveling. They both obviously have the potential to do so.

The pasta was really good and afterwards we went down to see the owners of a nearby café as they were from the Chec Republic and Monica want to meet her people as Monica referred to them. We had some desert there and Monica wanted to stay awhile longer and talk to them. We stayed around for about ½ hour and Monica still was not ready to go. The people she was talking to were really drunk and smoking. Monica said for us to just go and she would come back later. We began walking back and I ask Ammo what kind of read did she have of those people and she said not very good. As we walked back we went round and round about going back and finally we decided to go back. There was 4 of us in the group and we all actually walked back. I didn’t even think Monica could find her way back as she gets lost easily and I think is a little naïve in trusting people to much. I just layed on the porch nearby the café while Ammo hung out with Monica. Monica did not have a clue why we were there. Jacqueline and Caroline decided to go back and I stayed there waiting for Ammo and Monica.

Finally around 12:00 Monica was ready to go. Later Monica and Ammo agreed one guy was really spaced out on something. At one point during the walk back there was a sign where you could walk around it on a road and the roads just came back together about 100 feet down the road. I was walking down one road and Monica and Ammo walked down the other. Monica made the comment that I was lost and that I would end up going to a different farm than where we were staying. I laughed to myself and went back over to the road they were walking on. Monica never had a clue that these roads connected again about 100 ft. on the other side of that sign. I am 95% sure she would have really struggled finding her way back. It was a good thing we went back as those guys didn’t come across as being very cool and she would have gotten lost.

We quickly called it a night once back. Good night for the last time from Abel Tasman. Tomorrow we are heading to Barrytown! This is supposed to be a party night. Not really wanting a party night as it seems like every night is a party night these days on the Stray bus. It is a good way to get around New Zealand but I wish there was less pressure to party. It seems like they have lots of party offerings which I feel like I need to take part in.

12-13-07
We slept fast and got heading out around 9:00. Man we have sure been stringing together several rainy days. At least today is a travel day so not missing out on a whole lot. Just had one really bad rain day and that was for the Tongoriro crossing. Everything else pretty much did not miss out on anything.

Most of today was spent on the bus. We did stop in one location to see the Pancake Rocks. They have a real nice blowhole there as well which I only saw one time do it’s thing. It’s thing at that time of the day however was not as impressive as it is on the postcards. I am sure the tide size and wave size plays a large factor in the amount of blowhole size. Why they layers of rock are like they are, scientist do not really know. It was an interesting stop and the hour we spent there was quite nice.

The Barrytown hostel was a little bit of a dive. I did like the bar though and wish I felt a little better as I would have loved to drink some beer. We were having a costume party that night as well. They had all these costumes under the pool ping pong table which was right in the bar. One of the table tops was a chunk of wood with natural indentations where you could squeeze up into which I thought was neat.

I fixed some pasta which took forever as everything was electric and it took a while to get the pasta cooked. The lights would flicker when you turned on the electric oven. You get the picture. The theme for the costume party was cowboys and indians. I was an Indian. It turned out to be much fun and I had a good time. I had a few drinks but not many. We played a drinking game called Ring of fire that I liked a lot. At one point I had to walk around the table and say, “I am a little girl.” We all had fun I think. The one Japanese person had a pink dress on which made him look very funny. He was a really nice and it was neat meeting him even though his English was not too good. It was neat seeing a Japanese person traveling outside of a group which is how they normally travel. I went to bed around 12:30. It turned out to be a fun night even though I was dreading it a little as I really did not want to party.

Good night from Barrytown, New Zealand. Yes I know you do not know where that is located. I do not know either.

12-14-07
We got up around 8 and headed out about 9 on our way to Franz Joseph. Again another rainy day. We stopped a few times on the way, but did not see anything spectacular. I was excited to see the glacier as I really have not seen any of this magnitude. This one is actually expanding as well. It moves down the mountain about 3 cm a day. It is situated in a rain forest as well. This night I was sure to get some sleep as there was no reason why I had to go out.

We arrive at Franz Joseph in the afternoon and I immediately ran into Scott and Clover a couple I had traveled with quite a bit earlier on this trip and at Abel Tasman. They had gotten a cold probably the same one I was just getting over. Really this cold was a pretty wimpy one in comparison to the one I had in Germany over the summer. That was brutal and maybe the worst one I have had in my life. I think it actually was the flu. I always enjoy talking to them. Scott actually is blogging on the same site as I and his nickname is “Whiskey Spoke”. I look forward to checking that out. Scott is a geologist and I am not sure what Clover does? Both are very bright people. After talking to them for a few minutes I made some supper. This is kind of a ski resort type area. High energy and a feel of youthfulness. I liked it. After supper I went to my room and typed for awhile. Around 8:00 someone was knocking on my door and come to find out it was Syria (sp) the Finnish lady that I had traveled with in the past. She wanted me to go out with them to a bar. I really did not want to but she was very persuasive so I went along. We stopped and had a drink at one place then went off to another. The night air was quite cool and I was wishing I had more clothes on. We went to the next place and went inside to have a drink. Cathi a lady I traveled with on the North Island was really drunk. I talk to Lindsey a lady from Scotland that I just met. She was a little older than most of the group and was a physician. She smoked and went outside to do that so I talked to her out there for awhile. Drunk Cathi came out and Lindsey and her talked about rings. Cathi took hers off and showed Lyndsey but then dropped it and it went between the cracks on the flooring. We asked her about the ring hoping it was nothing special but then we learned it was her grandma’s engagement ring. Unbelievable, this was getting to be like a tv situational comedy. Lyndsey went into action and seemed to take control of the situation. She got a cell phone for light and after several minutes passes thought she saw it through the cracks. After considerable effort she was able to round up a clothes hanger. She and some of the staff at the bar had spent probably 30 minutes looking for the ring by now. We were right in the doorway to the bar and people were stepping over the people laying on the deck trying to snatch the ring. Drunken suggestions were being throw all around. One lady wanted to rip up the decking boards. The bar workers said there will be no boards being ripped up. I finally decided to leave as it was already around 11:00 at night on a night I didn’t even plan on going out. I headed back and called it a night. I fell sleep wondering if they ever got Cathi’s grandma’s engagement ring. Unbelievable. Good night from Franz Joseph Glacier.

12-15-07
I got up around 7:30 and went downstairs to make some breakfast. We had to be at the glacier guide place at 9:00. I typed for awhile and had breakfast got my stuff together and headed to the meeting point for the glacier hike. I had never hiked on a glacier so I thought this would be a unique experience and something I would not have the opportunity to do just anywhere. The cost was around $140 and they supplied boots, coats, pants, crampons, shoes (yes they had my size) and ice axes. Actually they did give you ice axes while on the mountain, but said they are mainly just for photos no ice rescues would be necessary. It was partially sunny on this day so I felt lucky as it had been raining a lot. We got our gear together and headed out to our transportation to the glacier. The bus was full which was not surprising for a day that was sunny after several cloudy days. There were about 7 people from our group doing the hike. It had been raining a lot in recent days so I was concerned that the glacier might be more unstable but I needed to just trust the guides. They usually hike this glacier even in the rain as it is often raining here since this glacier is in a rain forest, which is a unique feature of this glacier. This glacier is actually advancing and it moves down the valley about 3 cm a day. I was concerned there would be a really slow person in my group, which might slow us down and reduce the amount of glacier I got to see but when they divided us up into groups they said the first group would be a more aggressive group so I hurriedly jumped into that group. We headed out first and crossed a few streams just walking right through the water, which resulted in several people getting their feet wet immediately. I was able to jump on a few rocks and avoid getting wet. At the base of the glacier we all put on our crampons. It was quite cool how they fastened to your feet and I was excited and nervous about getting on the ice of the glacier. The guide had steps formed on the glacier with a rope as well to help make things safe for us tourist. The crampons seemed to really dig into the ice and I felt very stable and secure. We spent the next 3 hours climbing around the glacier. The guide performed track maintenance as went along which resulted in a lot of maintenance. I didn’t really think I was getting good pictures but the photos turned out okay overall. I tinkered with my color settings on my camera quite a bit trying to get the blue of the ice to be more prevalent in the pictures. I also did a couple black and white photos one of which really makes me look like Ali G or Borat however you refer to the guy. We stopped for a lunch one time while our guide looked for more safe areas to travel to. The guide was quite good I thought and really worked quite hard. We got what appeared to be ½ way up the glacier then began our descent. When hiking glaciers you have to hike through the certain passage ways. You can just hike straight across it as there are crevices and jagged ice all over the place. It really must be done quite cautiously. The crampons really do a heck of a job and I do not think I slipped at all. Everyone was really tired including myself. Even though we had not done that much hiking. I felt really tired as well. After getting back to the guides office we turned in our stuff. Ammo, the English lady, had forgotten a couple items on the bus but was able to get through the check in without anyone noticing. She is a very nice lady and a lot of fun but she always seemed to be forgetting something. I liked her as some people go through life afraid to put their self out there, but not Ammo. She is always out there.

On the way back to the hostel we stopped at the hostel bar and had a couple drinks. I had a Radler beer which has a lime flavor already in the beer. You could drink a lot of those in a night. I had two beers was already feeling a little loopy. We headed back to the hostel and I called it a night pretty early. I had partied enough in recent days and was needing a break from partying. Good night from the Franz Joseph Glacier.

12-16-07
I got up around 7:30 headed downstairs and made some breakfast got my stuff packed and was out waiting on the bus at 9:00, the time we were scheduled to leave. It was pouring rain outside and looked like a terrible day to be heading to trek on the glacier which a few people were doing. I guess that is what happens when you are in a rainforest which is the case here. The kitchen actually had a water on the floor of about 25% of it. In hostel world though people just make do and walk through it. It is an amazing community really.

Digger, our driver, pulled up with the bus at about 9:15 the first time I can remember any driver being a little late. There was only about 7 people on the bus now and we headed out. On our way to Makarora, our stop that night we stopped at a couple places, one being an old abandoned mining town and an emerald pool which we hiked to. The rainfall though had the stream so stirred up there was virtually no emerald color to the water. You actually had to cross a swinging bridge which was about a 100 ft. in length, which was a little scary to me as the bridge really bounced up and down. The maximum limit on the bridge was 5. This area I believe is a rainforest as well as there was lots of moss growing on the surrounding trees.

We continued on and the views were absolutely amazing. This is what I had come to see. It seemed like ever since the Franz Joseph Glacier the views have become amazing. The views reminded me of Norway and Austria my two favorite places for nature.

We made it to Makarora a camping area where we stayed in a-frame buildings. The lodging was really nice. I actually swam in the pool there where the water was pretty cold. I was amazed at the local kids that were there swimming. I assume they assume this temperature of water is normal. The mom of the kids got out right away. The filter system was not on in the pool so I wondered how clean the water really was as essentially the pool was just a concrete pond. I do not think there was chlorine in it either, but it looked ok. The water was cold though so that probably helped decrease bacteria from growing some. I swam for about 30 minutes and then got out.

I decided to have the dinner they offered which was $10. I had the mutton which is something I have grown fond of. This is old lamb. I do not like the fattiness of the meat but the flavor is very good. It has a certain sweetness to the dark meat reminded me a little of squirrel. The meal overall was just ok.

There was supposed to be karaoke but really no one wanted to do it as I think everyone was tired of partying so much. After the meal went back and hung out in Ammo and Carolyne’s A-Frame where some people did have a few drinks and essentially talked about nothing for a few hours. I was one of the first to leave as I was doing laundry as well. This place actually had free driers as well for the laundered clothes. After doing the laundry I hit the hay. The A-Frame had a dividing wall and I was the only one in the back room which I really liked it. Matt, Nicole and Anna were in the other room. The showers here were very good as well. Good night from Makarora. Tomorrow we push into the holy land. Queenstown, New Zealand adventure capital of the world!

12-17-07
Today is the day we reach Mecca, I mean Queenstown. I really had no plans with regards to what to do so it was going to be a nice day of just sitting back and enjoying the view, the attitude, the energy and watch other people doing crazy stuff. At least that was the plan. You gotta have a plan!

After a quick breakfast we got going and then the question was ask by our bus driver, “Who’s bungy jumping today.” My pulse accelerated and I said, “ I thought that was tomorrow.” He said no it is today. I nervously ask how much and he said it is $135 with the Stray discount. I thought about that for awhile and came to the conclusion that this was going to be the best opportunity I get to do a bungy jump. Digger said this is the place where bungy jumping began. A.J. Hackett the founder of the craziness made available the first bungy jump here. I raised my hand and said I will do it. There were 2 other people on the bus as well who were doing it. It was neat watching all the other people deal with there fears. We were all scared. The German lady Nicole, commenced asking all these crazy questions; Matt, a English guy tried to maintain his coolness even though when you talked to him he admitted he was scared; and I tried to maintain a state of humour about it all. I stated this was as good as day as any to die knowing good and well there would not be any problems. I told them I was going to go down in a blaze of glory. I knew it would be difficult to maintain that humor when my number was called and I was told it is time to jump. I enjoy challenges like this. Mind over matter it what this is all about. Getting the right perspective is what this was all about. I know more than anyone that the human mind can rationalize anything. I was now trying to figure out how to rationalize jumping off a bridge into a canyon with a rubber band attached to my feet. My strategy was to just remember this is very safe and just be crazy and have fun. I continually told myself if something goes wrong I am going to have hell of a time right before then. This all seemed to help. I ask the driver how far to the jumping location and he said another 2 hours. Damn as I wanted to do it right now so I could quit thinking about it.

We stopped and had a lunch in an area where they had some huge fruit in this shopping area! I really was not hungry but decided to eat something anyway. Of course the only thing that was on the jumpers minds were the “jump.” The German lady did not eat anything I do not believe but Matt and I did. Somehow I ended up spending like $15 for my meal. You can spend a lot of money in a hurry in these coffee shop like areas.

After about 30 minutes we jumped on the bus and were headed to Bungy spot. We had about a another 45 minutes. The scenery was absolutely amazing as we were in the Lake District and there were amazing mountain lakes all over. This helped take my mind off the task at hand.

We pulled into the Kawara (sp) Bridge Bungy Jump Location. This is where it all began. There were lots of cars there but mainly spectators. I do not like being a spectator but on this day it would have been better on my cardiovascular system if I was. We were introduced to a man who talked about Bungy Jumping and then showed us to a room where you watch a film about Bungy Jumping. Matt had said earlier that they show you film that calms your nerves. We watched the film which last about 10 minutes and I still felt as nervous as hell. I said out loud,”that was supposed to calm your nerves?” not expecting a response as it was said in a sarcastic manner. The man came back in and ask for questions. As I said earlier people try to come up with all these crazy reasons why they can not do the bungy jump. One person told me that people get detached retinas which I laughed at the person when I heard that. I ask the guy about getting detached retinas and he kind of laughed too. He said if you have a diabetic condition where your eyes are weaken there is that chance, but for a otherwise healthy person you will not have a problem. They then funneled us into the next room. The German ladies questions were ramped up to another level. She spent I bet 10 minutes asking questions. In the end though there was nothing she could come up with to prevent her from Bungy Jumping. She had no out. I was kidding her earlier in the day and she told me that if I keep teasing her she could and would become a real bitch. I had no doubt in her ability to become just that either so I quit talking to her. It was all quite funny, but then again I was nervous as well. One of the people in our group who was not jumping asked to see my hands to see if they were shaking, They were not and she said not too bad. I told her I am good at not allowing other people to see me sweat as I am nervous as hell.

We walked along the bridge and I suddenly was at the jumping location. I would have liked to walk longer. There was about two people in front of me and within about 3 minutes they were tying my feet together. They had weighed me in the office and wrote the number 97 on my hand which means 97 kg. The guy said the ropes are in 25 kg increments so I was on the heavy side of my rope. They make fine adjustments to the length of the rope depending on where you are at in the weight category and whether you wanted to touch the water. The guy ask me if I wanted to touch and I told him I was not sure. He tried to encourage me to do so I said get me close. He said ok and said when I get to the bottom to reach back for the water. He said if you dive out a way from the platform I would be less likely to touch the water. I planned to jump a way from the platform. I asked him if he was sure he had everything right and he said yeah he thought he did, but this was his first day on the job. I laughed at that comment. He said to get up as I was sitting as he wrapped my feet. Nicole, the German lady, yelled over to me, “Dave, Rock Star” which was what I told her I was going to yell when I jumped off. Digger our bus driver bet me a beer I would not do it. The guy told me to get farther out on the edge of the platform essentially my toes were now at the edge of the platform well over 100 feet above the canyon river. He told me to smile at the camera and wave to your fans, the 100 or so people watching us crazy folks. He said ok here we go, “ 5,4,3,2,1, Bungy” That seemed like the fastest count down in the history of countdowns. I raised my arms to the sides in preparation for a swan dive, started leaning forward and yelled out, “Rock Star.” I can’t really remember what was going through my head as I hurled threw the air with the ground speeding towards me but I do know a few things. There was absolutely nothing in the world that mattered to me at that moment than what I was doing. I could have naked, there could have been a nuclear bomb exploding a few feet from me, Jesus himself could be in the boat that picked me up. None of this mattered I was completely in the moment. That was cool. My dive was pretty good as I felt I was diving pretty straight down. Finally after what seemed to be several minutes I could feel my acceleration change from a positive acceleration to a negative acceleration or a deceleration and I could feel myself coming to a stop so I reached out and sure enough I hit the water which came up to my elbows. I also felt my head partially hit the water. And then all of the sudden I was flung upward back up towards the bridge. I felt like Peter Pan as I could fly I could fly!. As I reached the peak of my acceleration back up I could feel my back arching and I yelled “Rock Star Again.” Followed by a holler. Again there at this moment in my life nothing else mattered. It was completely about what was happening to me in these few seconds. I did not care about being cool, or how much money was in my back account or what people thought of me. I was in the moment and that was cool! I then hurled back down to the canyon but this time everything seemed a little slower and the intensity of it all was decreasing more and more with each bound but I still felt so alive. The boat came over to pick me up and they told me to grab the pull as I hung there upside down. I wondered why the people did not tell me earlier how this all worked but I guess they figured I would forget anyway during the craziness of the jump. They were probably right. I grabbed the bar that they thrust toward me and the folks up above continued letting me down. In the bottom of the rubber raft I thrust my arms upwards as they undid the bungee and I hollered. Again it probably will look really dorky on the film but none of that mattered at that particular time. As I said I was in the moment at that particular time.

As I got back onto land it felt great. I had conquered my fear and did something pretty cool. I ran to digger who was holding my glasses so I could see again. Matt was next up and you could tell he was scared as well. He jumped though and I had gotten a pretty cool picture of him. Nicole was next and she got it done as well. She was the most nervous but got it done. We all got our pictures taken together. It was a great day and we all felt like we had accomplished something. We had conquered our fears and jumped off of a bridge with just a rubber band connected to our feet. Good for us and I encourage all people do it and no it will not cause detached retinas!

We jumped on the bus and Digger gave me the beer he owed me and Matt had one as well. A celebratory drink! We were soon driving into Queenstown. I felt like my pilgrimage to Queenstown had been reached. There was no marching band or flag corps but just the same I was visualizing them my self. I saw lots of high energy adventure shops. The bar at our hostel was called Altitude. Very cool! The hostel here actually was very nice. I was really concerned that the Base Hostel here would be like the Base Hostel in Auckland but it was actually quite nice. The three of us bungy jumpers were all in the same room. They ask me if it mattered what bunk I had and I jokingly told them I didn’t want the top bunk because I was scared of heights. I took the top bunk anyway but attached a string to my foot just in case I fell out of the bed. Just kidding.

We went down stairs and had a beer and met up with Jacquelyn from the Netherlands, Carolyn from Scotland, and Syria from the Netherlands. Ammo from England, Monica from the Chec Republic stayed in Wanaka another night so they could do there skydive. Jacquelyn said a helicopter evacuated them off the Franz Joseph Glacier as it had rained hard and the river had gotten to large to pass. She said it was awesome and the helicopter ride was the best part of the hike. She was really excited about the helicopter ride as were we about the bungy jump. I have been tired for a long time now and I didn’t not feel like hanging out late into the evening. I exchanged contact information with Jacquelyn and went to use the computers for awhile. I went to bed about 10:30 after talking to the California girls for awhile who were staying in my room as well. They were students studying abroad in Australia, and as a lot of students do was in New Zealand for a few weeks now that school is out. Good night from Queenstown. That has a nice ring to it!

12-18-07
I awoke around 8 and headed down for breakfast and some typing. I was not in a hurry today and just took my time. Before I knew it it was already 10:00 AM and I felt like I needed to get going. I headed for the grocery store and grabbed some water and food and started hiking to the trailhead. It was tempting to jus take the Gondola to the top which would get me through the really steep stuff but decided to hike it. This is the way I work these days. By hiking to the top I saved $10 or you can say I earned $10. Man it was a really strenuous hike and I “worked” quite hard. I only met one other person who was hiking up the trail. Surprisingly it was a Asian lady. At the top you reach the skyline lodge area. Here they have a restaurant, a luge ride, the Ledge Bungy Jump and Swing and of course a gift shop. This place has a really nice view. This is a must do if you are in Queenstown. I wanted to watch some bungy jumps but there were not a lot of people doing them. I talked to a Dutch couple who were traveling with two kids, which I thought was quite nice. They were unique as most people do not travel with kids as young as they have as they were probably only 4 and 5. I enjoyed talking to them. We watched a couple bungy jumpers. At this bungy jump they connect you by your waste which for me would not be as thrilling but at this bungy jump there is not water below you just the forest floor making it more scary. In this location you run off the platform after the operator counts you down. One lady would not go after 5 countdowns they disconnected her. The operators do not push you. At my jump location however they keep there hand firmly against your back making it harder for you to move to the safety farther from the ledge. Another lady got around 4 countdowns and would run forward only to stop a few feet from the ledge. She finally did go however but did jump pretty much straight down as if to lessen the height a little by going down instead of jumping up or even out. I talked to a family from Washington DC and there daughter who was probably 13 was doing it. I asked her what she was going to do and she said she did not know. I told her I yelled, “Rock Star.” She seemed really excited and as she walked to the platform I mentioned something to her Dad about her apparent confidence and her dad said yes that girl has moxy. It seemed to be bragging a little I thought. I was getting ready to take a picture of this girl and they gave her her countdown and she took off running with no hesitation and jumped up in the air and did a somersault in the air which absolutely floored me and I forgot to snap the photo as I was astounded. From the somersault she got in a perfect dive straight down when I managed to get a picture of her. The best jump I have ever seen just happened by a 1 year old from Washington DC that had no prior bungy jump experience. She had to have done some sort of gymnastics or diving or something to be able to pull that aerobatic maneuver off. She came back with her little brother extremely excited as do all bungy jumpers. I told her to strike a pose and she confidently gave me a thumbs up with a partially twisted body which even seemed to make the picture come alive in 3 dimensions. I guess as the saying goes it ain’t bragging if you can do. Her Dad was right this girl does have moxy! I told her little brother, who appeared to be about 7 that he can not let her sister show him up. He said I tried but I am 2 kg too light. I told him he best get to eating and he said yes I am going to and he said I have to gain that weight by Jan 2 when they leave. It was a funny response but the kid did not exude the confidence his older sister did. I suspect this kid is going to have a lot of living up to do following in the footsteps of his sister.

I again felt rushed as I have been sitting around here relaxing watching all the craziness and have not begun the hike to the summit of Ben Lomonds mountain. Consequently, I started hoofing it. The hiked seemed to be all up hill and it was quite grueling. This trail was supposed to take between 4 to 6 hours, which normally I could get it knocked out in about 3 but not this time. It took me I thing the full 6 hours. The hike to the summit was quite demanding and I had to stop several times. From the top you could see down on Queenstown which didn’t appear as crazy as it does when your in the town. Mother Nature can do that to a place. Mother Nature always wins in the end. Don’t mess with Mother Nature. I spent probably 30 minutes there enjoying the view and had a snack and then headed back down. I was the last person to summit the mountain that day and I suspect only about 20 people did that day based on the number of people I met coming down the mountain on my way up. It is definitely a beautiful hike, but you need to be in good shape to do it. Based on the tourist information folks though this is the best hike in Queenstown.

I got back to the hostel around 7 and Nicole was getting ready to go to Fergberger evidently another must do in Queenstown so I told her I would go along when asked to do so. I had planned to cook some pasta but I figured I better go out and eat since this was my last night here. I had a venison burger that was quite good and I am glad I went. We had went back to the hostel and had a beer and again talked to a couple people that we knew from prior groups. Again I did not feel like partying too much so I went to bed after messing around on the computer. Another good day of travels. Good night from my last night at Queenstown! Tomorrow night I sleep in Brisbane Australia. Gd’night Mate!

12-19-07
Even though I would have liked to spend more time in New Zealand it is something cool about arriving in a new place. My new place this day would be Australia. The land down under with kangaroos and the most poisonous animals in the world and of course vegemite sandwich.

I got up around 8 and had the front desk call me airport taxi which cost about $10. After about 2 hours of working on the computer jumped in the taxi and was wisk away to the airport. At the airport I was already hungry at 11:30 for dinner so I had some spaghetti. Let me tell you this is not Italy. The meal was pretty bad overall. The flight out of Queenstown was pretty uneventful with the occasional bump. The mountains looked much smaller from the air. Jumped on the plane and before long we were touching down in Christ Church. This City I wanted to visit, but there was not enough time. Consequently it got missed. Gotta have a reason to come back as I frequently say when leaving the country or after failing to see something that another person says is neat. From what I could see flying in though, and at the airport, it did not look that great. Just a big City but I suspect there is a lot to do and is probably a very nice town.

We left there and I was on my way to Brisbane, Australia. On the way I will never forget the shore line of New Zealand as we left it. I thought well goodbye New Zealand you have been very good to me! Maybe I come back! Your very beautiful!

On the plane they served a meal with the option of Chicken or shepherd’s pie. I understand shepherd’s pie is quite common in Australia. I like learning about things like that in a country. The flight lasted a little over 2 hours and soon I was landing in Brisbane in late afternoon. I was to meet my couchsurfing host at the Southbank train stop at 6:30. I made it there without much trouble and had about 2 hours to kill so I walked around. I could not get my phone to work so I used a pay phone to let Trudy know I have arrived. She picked me up right on time and we headed to her place in Kedron. She is a woman who had to grow up fast in life having a teenage pregnancy. She is doing very well for herself though and is a great mom. She has had a couchsurfing person staying with her since June but he is off traveling currently so “his room” is vacant. It was cool how she referred to him almost as one of the family. I was tired and simply used the internet for awhile and called it a night. We had discussed what to do tomorrow. I mainly just wanted to rest but felt like I was dissing the City by not doing anything and sort of insulting my host so I told her I was definitely going to do something tomorrow just wasn’t sure what. That is the thing about couchsurfing the people are always wanting to show you around their City, which is a great thing but at times it is nice to take a day away from the “vacation” or travels. Good night from Brisbane, Australia. This seems to be a very livable City.

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Photos

Queenstown, New Zealand
This is the adventure capital of the world. Maybe the most beautiful place in the world as well!

My Ali-G Look
This is me hiking the Franz Joseph Glacier on the South Island of New Zealand.

Bungy Jump
This is a young girl about 11 from Washington DC that did a flip as soon as she jumped and then got into this perfect dive. This was her first bungy ever. I was floored. She must be into Gymnastics or Diving.

Let the Crazieness Begin
A guy jumping off the Sky Tower in Auckland.

Reminds me of the Tree I photographed in Maine a Year Ago!
Man I have been on the road that long?

Auckland's Urban Sprawl
This City has the third largest urban sprawl behind LA and Beijing.

Stray Bus
I joined this tour group. They took me all over the North and South Islands of New Zealand. Most buses were nicer than this one.

Hahei
Northeastern New Zealand.

New Zealand's Christmas Tree
This tree blooms red flowers right before Christmas. They call this New Zealand's Christmas Tree.

Near Hahei - Hot Water Baths
I bought a Chirstmas Tree and carried it with me for about a month. Here it is at night while we soak in natural hot water baths. You dig these baths in the sand on the beach yourself.

The Promised Land
You travel the north and south islands on a pilgrimmage to Queenstown which is on the southern end of the South Island. This is the adventure capital of the world.

Abel Tasman
A park on the north end of the south Island. Near Picton. I hiked this one day.

Surfing in Raglan
I surfed with this lady from England one day. She was much better than me.

Waitomo Caves
This is a picture of us before we did the caving adventure called Haagas Honking. Of all the things I did in New Zealand this may have been the most fun. A German lady, 2 Americans and the rest are English. I saw lots of English travelers in New Zealand.

Waitomo Caves
The group after our caving adventure. The guides are on the right and left of the photo.

Traditional Women Maori Dance
These were people from our group. The lady on the right is from the Chech Republic, the lady on the let is from the Netherlans and the lady behind them England.

Hanging with the Maori Gang
We spent one night here sleeping on the floor of this building. We spent the night learning the culture of the original New Zealanders are Maori People.

Trying to Impress some Maori Woman
It didn't work!

Big Kiwi.
Members of our group.

Rotorua Hot Water Pools
All over this town Rotorua, there are these hot water baths.

Rotorua Steam Vents
The residents in this town had vents to exhaust the steam from the ground.

A sign in Rotorua
I had to change my habits for the day.

Raging River
I think this is near Taupo but not for sure.

Pools heated by the natural thermal waters.
The guy holding up his arms is from southern Oregon and has blog on this same sight. Search for Whiskey Spoke. He and his girlfriend were great to talk to.

Some folks in our Group.
This is near Tongariro National Park. They say the hike hear is the best day hike in New Zealand. It was raining two hard the day I was there and only made it half way before turning back.

New Zealand has lots of sheep.
This is near Tongariro National Park!

Dutch Girls Near the Dutch Store.
We stopped near this store and I asked these Dutch Ladies to pose for a picture. I bought some Stroopwaffles, a Dutch Cookie, in the store.

Our Tour Guide
This guy was really good and is from Wellington where he is pictured here. Wellington is my favorite Big City in New Zealand.

Frodo was Here.
Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand and one scene where Frodo is hiding from the guy on the horse was filmed here in this park in Wellington.

Our Tour Guide's Mom lives Here
Our tour guide took us to the home where he grew up. It was pretty funny.

Small Plane Flight
I flew in this small plane from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island. It was loads of fun as you carried your bags yourself once landing from the plane.

Bumpy Ride
I took this plane from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island. It was a little bumpy but not bad. Easy to check through security here!

Another view of airport.
The Japanese guy pictured here was hesitant to even get on the plane alone. It was funny.

Abel Tasman
They pulled these water taxis as they called them into the water with these tractors.

Split Apple Rock
The Kiwis do not put much effort into finding creative names for things like this.

I started Hiking here at Abel Tasman
Not the most welcoming place to start a hike.

Speed Bump Sign
Not spending a lot of money to have these signs made.

Cooking Something Up
These are people I was traveling with for about a week in New Zealand. Very nice people.

Fun on this Bus
This Chec Republic lady was painting this English guys finger nails as he slept.

Punakaiki on South Island
This place is known for it's pancake limestone rock formations.

Costume Night
One night we had a costume party. Sorry I am not in this picture.

A good Sport
This Asian guy was a good sport and allowed me to take this photo. He was hysterical!

Barrytown Costume Night
This is the bar where we had our costume night. It was a fun night.

Sitcom Material
This English girl took her ring off after a few beers to show another lady and dropped it into this crack. We ask her if it was a cheap ring that she got at a carnival or something. In tears she said it was her grandmothers wedding or engagement ring. They got it back after several hours of labor.

Ice Axes Required!
Not really they gave them to us to stage photos!

Back Seat Bandits
I sat in the Backseat most of the time as well and saw these guys with these shirts and took a photo.

Obvious vans of Mr Van Gogh!
You think any pot smoking has ever takn place in this van?

Crazy Maze
It was hysterical watching people trying to get out of this maze!

Cheaters Never Win
I had to cheat to see this sign as did most people. Very difficult maze.

45th Parallel
For you surveyor types out there!

This is where I did my Bungy Jump.
The site of the first commercially offered Bungy Jump.

Help with Fear
You see lots of signs helping you deal with your fears. I was not afraid though! :)

Kawarau Bridge
The first commercially offered bungy jump. Who do you think is hanging upside down in this picture?

How do you spell RELIEF?
Safely completing a Bungy Jump! I told tehm to get me close to the water and they did. They put the top of my head and my arms into the water. It was great!

These are 3 Relieved People!
A German girl, an English guy and me!

5 - 4 -3 -2 -1 Bungy
This is how they count you down. They will not make you jump but they firmly put their fist in your back so you can not step back either!

Entrance to Bungy
It's either put up or shut up at this point. Time for talking was over!

Christmas is coming.
Advertisement for Christmas Dinner at the Hostel!

Queenstown!
What a beautiful place!

Leaving Queenstown!
What a beautiful place!

Leaving New Zealand
This is the last thing I saw of New Zealand on my way to Australia. This is a very special place.