Photos: http://s216.photobucket.com/albums/cc311/rtwilli4/
So Wellington was pretty crazy. I met some wonderful friends that I will never forget and plan to see again in the future. People from NZ, Virginia, Montana, Maine, Czech Republic, Ireland, England, Wales, Aussie, Chile and so many more.
I met Scott at the backpackers in Wellington. At this point I was not sure what my plans were. Cameron and Nate had already left for the South Island and I was trying to figure out where I was going to go. I thought about Fiji again, or maybe another Pacific Island. I thought about Aussie as well. Since I already had a ticket to Thailand, this would end up being the end result but I wasn't sure what I was going to do before Thailand.
Scott had planned a trip in the South Island in a rental car. We had already become great friends at this point and so I decided to go with him. Wow, I'm am glad I did. The South Island is probably the most beautiful place that I have ever been. Not a single thing I did or place that I went was even worth trying to describe. Pictures will show you but this is another one of those things that not even pictures can do justice.
We drove down the west coast, which at the time I thought was the best drive in NZ...until I got down even farther, then I realized that the south part is probably the best drive in the world. The first half is on the coast, with rocky ocean and sandy beaches on your right, and huge bushy hills and mountains on your left. We made it to Fox Glacier, which is in the one percent of all glaciers in the world that are actually getting bigger. We did a 7 hour hike on the glacier, which was like being on another planet. Huge walls of ice everywhere. I felt like the Bear Grills from "Man vs. Wild" and did feel the need to speak like him a few times. The glacier is advancing quickly, because of the heavy, wet snow that the top of the mountains get. At the very top of the glacier, it snows up to 40 meters per year. Yes, that is over 120 feet, and over 1500 inches. For comparison, the best ski resorts in Colorado and Utah get between 400 and 600 inches during a GREAT season.
On the glacier, we met Simon, Nina, and Anja; a group of German travellers that we would hang out with in Queenstown and Milford Sound. This is probably my favorite part of traveling...meeting random people and traveling with them, learning about their lives and cultures.
From the glacier, we drove down into the Southern Alps of NZ. The sun was out, and very hot for the first time all spring. It was melting all of the snow and there were waterfalls EVERYWHERE. I think I saw 250 waterfalls in the course of a week.
We passed a few mountain lakes that were so clear and blue that it seemed fake. There were giant snowcapped mountains rising out of these lakes, straight up into the sky. I think we stopped the car every thirty minutes pretty much any time we drove anywhere. I couldn't stop staring at the scenery. And it changes so much. I saw Northern Louisiana, then the west coast of California, then the mountains of North Carolina, then the vastness of Montana, then the sharp peaks of the Rockies....all in a few days.
Every place we stoped was beautiful. We got to a town called Wanaka that overlooked a lake with Mt. Aspiring in the background. I almost told Scott to leave me there so I could find a job and live there. When I do come back to New Zealand (as I plan to do next June...maybe for a WHILE), Wanaka will be one of the three towns I will try to find work in. Wellington and Queenstown are the others.
Queenstown...reminds me of a small ski town out west. I fell in love immediately, as it mostly reminded me of Steamboat Springs, CO, where I spent the winter a few years ago. It is on the only flat spot for miles and miles...completely surrounded my mountains. Beautiful, but not the reason to go there. This is the town for adrenaline junkies. From the largest swing in the world, to a concrete luge type thing, to waterfall riding to the third largest bungy jump in the world, there are dozens of ways to kill yourself in this place, and that is how they make their money.
I picked the bungy jump. I have been dreaming of this forever, and it was finally time to do it. The Nevis Highwire is 134 (440) meters of free fall for the average person doing a swan dive off the top (see video to the right). You jump from a cable car type thing that is suspended by wires in the middle of this canyon. Just watch the video. It was the biggest rush I think I have ever had. Jumping off cliffs on a snowboard, jumping out of a plane, going 160 in a Vette...whatever you can think of, it does not compare to the bungy jump.
They strap you in, take your picture, and then you wobble to the edge like a penguin because your feet are tied together. I wondered, what if i trip and fall. It would still be a bungy jump, just a more scary version. You get to the edge...ONE, TWO, THREE, BUNGY! HUGE swan dive off the platform. Ground coming at you faster than you can even perceive, then you come to a slow stop, and fly back toward the sky. It is not jerky at all as long as you jump right. It is very smooth and comfortable. The problem is...you don't really remember it and it is over before it begins. This is why...I DID IT TWICE!
When they brought me back up to the cable car, the guy asked me if I had been doing drugs because I was on such an adrenaline kick. I told him it was better than drugs and that I could do it all day. He immediately said, "OK but only if you do it bullet style." "Hell yea!" I say, and get back in line.
Bullet style is a bit different, as you can imagine. With the swan dive, you jump out, toward the horizon, with your arms out. This is a natural skydiving position that causes your body to stabilize in the air and slowly go into a nosedive as the bungy cord starts to get tension on it. With the bullet, you put your hands behind your back, and instead of jumping out, you fall forward as far as you can, keeping your feet on the platform, and jump directly at the ground at the last second. The idea is that you sill start of in a nose dive, with no arms to create resistance. You are actually a bullet, heading straight for the ground. You fall MUCH faster, and get MUCH closer to the ground. A few people told me that they have never seen anyone get any closer to the ground as I did. The guy who explained the bullet to me told me it was perfect, and now I'm addicted. There is a bungy that is almost twice as high in China...I will certainly be there before the end of this trip.
Next was the famous Milford Sound. There is a hike that is so popular that it must be books months in advance. It is very regulated, and pretty much full of tourists. I'm sure it is amazing, but not worth having to book it so far in advance. I never even know where I'll be 2 days in advance, much less 2 months. The drive from Q town to Milford Sound is the greatest drive I have ever done. We had amazing weather, as we did for the entire South Island. This is very uncharacteristic, especially for this time of year. It is supposed to rain all the time and according to the locals we were very very lucky. The entire drive is through giant canyons with dozens of waterfalls trickling down the rock. My neck actually began to hurt. Again, you will have to look at the pictures to understand.
The actual sound was even more amazing. We took a boat ride through the sound, out into the Tasman Sea. The sound is actually a Fiord, which is Swedish for a huge gorge carved out by ice. The fiords that line the southern west coast of NZ were all created by fiords, and are breathtaking. There are stone walls rising straight up out of the ocean and many peaks reach over 5000 feet above the sea. The mountains have no topsoil, but many treas and vegetation have created a blanket of roots, using cracks in the rock to anchor themselves. They grow very aggressively, because of the 7 - 10 meters of rain that Milford Sound gets each year. The wettest parts of Washington state get about 2.5 meters of rain per year (Seattle gets less than 1 meter of rain per year and is not even in the top ten wettest cities in the US). Sometimes during huge storms, a tree will lose its grip on the rock and cause a huge "tree avalanche" that leaves a bare spot on the rock for up to 70 years after the slide. The wind in Milford Sound is also crazy. The more intense the sun gets, the more the mainland heats up. The hot air rises, and sucks air through the fiord like a funnel.
Finally, Lake Pukaki and Mt. Cook. This is the craziest lake I have ever seen. It is hard to see in the pictures but the water is a bright aqua blue. It does a wonderful job of reflecting the image of the mountains behind the lake, which are the tallest in NZ. Mt. Cook is named for Capt. James Cook, the explorer who found, and charted most of New Zealand. Scott and I actually stopped for a view of the lake, got back in the car and drove for a few km's, and turned around for another look.
OK, so I said finally, but I have one more place to talk about. We drove down the West Coast, so we decided to drive up the East Coast. More great coast line, not so many mountains, and very intense sun. The hole in the o-zone that you always hear about is actually right over NZ, as it is very close to Antarctica. The sun is about 4 times as dangerous down here. I am pretty sure I will get cancer on my arm just from the time it hung out the window while I was driving.
We stopped in Kaikoura, which is a peninsula with beautiful, clear water, and an abundance of wildlife that is hard to see anywhere else in the world. Scott went whale watching and saw three sperm whales and hundreds of dolphins. I went kayaking and chased dolphins and seals, and watched birds dive under the boat to catch fish. The water was so clear that you could see down to about 7 meters. The scenery was amazing; paddling in ultra clean water while looking up at snow capped mountains is not something you can do in the US. However, I was blown away by the wildlife. We had seals pop up out of the ocean to look at us...so close I could have touched them. We chased the dusky dolphin, and were surrounded by birds that dove under our boats for fish. The coolest thing I saw was a gamet, which is a bird that tucks its wings and dives from about 30 feet in the air into the ocean to look for fish. It was like watching a kamikaze. Apparently they have reinforced skulls. Dumb people used to nail fish to pieces of wood and bait the birds into diving onto the block of wood. I never found out if this was a way to hunt the bird, or jsut have a good laugh.
The South Island. Probably the most diverse, amazing place that I have ever been. I have so much more to tell you about it but I can't type forever and I know you can't read forever. If you ever get a chance to go anywhere, go there!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Murdoch James Estate, Vineyard
Photos >>> http://s216.photobucket.com/albums/cc311/rtwilli4/
New Zealand is quite famous for its wines. Cameron has a friend of the family that owns a vineyard in the southern part of the North Island near a town called Martinboro. We decided to check out the vineyard and see if they had any work for us to do. Mr. Frazier is the man that owns the vineyard and was happy to put us to work, as well as put us up in a very nice cottage for free.
We worked almost 30 hours while we were there. The whole time we were "bud rubbing." Grapes grow on vines, and the top of the vines produce the best fruit. The buds, or flowers, on the bottom part of the plant do not produce good fruit, and if left on the plant, they will use nutrients that could be going to the buds at the top of the plant. So instead of letting these small buds use nutrients, they are just chopped off.
So that's what we did, chopped off all of the small buds. Between the three of us, we pruned almost 10,000 plants. Easy work, great weather, average pay, and a great place to stay at a beautiful vineyard.
We also got a tour of the winery, where they actually make the wine. We learned all about how it is made and aged, from start to finish. Red is much different that white, different machines and methods are used depending on the type of grape you have and how much you want to sell the wine for. A winery needs to produce more affordable, average wine just like they need to produce expensive, top notch wine. This is all achieved by different methods when making the wine.
We had a great time at the vineyard, relaxing and working a bit. Definitely a must do if you come to NZ. We also got a free bottle and a few bottles worth of tastings...even an education on how to taste/drink wine.
New Zealand is quite famous for its wines. Cameron has a friend of the family that owns a vineyard in the southern part of the North Island near a town called Martinboro. We decided to check out the vineyard and see if they had any work for us to do. Mr. Frazier is the man that owns the vineyard and was happy to put us to work, as well as put us up in a very nice cottage for free.
We worked almost 30 hours while we were there. The whole time we were "bud rubbing." Grapes grow on vines, and the top of the vines produce the best fruit. The buds, or flowers, on the bottom part of the plant do not produce good fruit, and if left on the plant, they will use nutrients that could be going to the buds at the top of the plant. So instead of letting these small buds use nutrients, they are just chopped off.
So that's what we did, chopped off all of the small buds. Between the three of us, we pruned almost 10,000 plants. Easy work, great weather, average pay, and a great place to stay at a beautiful vineyard.
We also got a tour of the winery, where they actually make the wine. We learned all about how it is made and aged, from start to finish. Red is much different that white, different machines and methods are used depending on the type of grape you have and how much you want to sell the wine for. A winery needs to produce more affordable, average wine just like they need to produce expensive, top notch wine. This is all achieved by different methods when making the wine.
We had a great time at the vineyard, relaxing and working a bit. Definitely a must do if you come to NZ. We also got a free bottle and a few bottles worth of tastings...even an education on how to taste/drink wine.
Bob goes to Jail
Pictures: http://s216.photobucket.com/albums/cc311/rtwilli4/
So, if you don't know who Bob is, you need to read the post titled "Auckland slash Rum Night" from about a month ago.
Bob is a member of our traveling group that is just completely irresponsible and usually drunk. The alcoholic is a fun guy to watch but he causes problems and will not stop following us around.
So, on a day we have off from the vineyard, we decide to go to the bar and see if we can catch some cool sports of TV. Well, Bob has his own plan. He wants to take the van down to the beach and come pick us up from the bar after a few hours. We think that sounds fine. We inform Bob of how much gas is in the van (so we don't have another epic day searching for petrol), and tell him to be careful, and that we'll see him around 6pm.
So we hang out in the bar, meet some of the locals, tell stories, that sort of thing. The bar was surprisingly busy even though it was a Sunday afternoon. I think some of the people had just left church actually. It was a fun crowd, and everyone was betting on a horse race that was on TV, which was cool to see.
So 6pm comes and goes, no Bob. 7pm, 8pm, no Bob. The bar closes at 8:30, and we decide that we need to find a way back to the cottage at the vineyard. We ask an old guy who we have been playing pool with and he says "sure, I'll get you a ride."
The two of us walk outside to have a cigarette when a drunk old lady stumbles out of the door and mumbles, "oh, I haven't been drinking." We think "yea right, be careful grandma." Next thing we know, she is backing her car up to us, telling us to get in if we want a ride. This was the ride that the old man has found for us.
Martinboro is small, and empty, as is the road to the vineyard. We figure it is ok, and jump in. We make it home safely...I hope the old lady did as well because when she left us I was not completely sure that she would be ok.
So we go to bed, get up the next morning...NO BOB! Where the hell is this guy. We check the online version of the newspaper and see nothing that would lead us to believe that anything happened to him. We worked all day, and still didn't hear anything about Bob or our van, which had all of our belongings in it. Just when we were thinking that he may have driven off a cliff, Bob comes walking up the driveway with a smirk on his face. Keep in mind that he is now 24 hours late.
"Bob, where have you been?! Where is the van!?"
"Oh, the van is at the police station in Masterton and I spent the night in jail."
Bob had decided to get a 6pack to take to the beach with him while the rest of us were at the bar. Not sure what the thinking was here, but he had to drive an hour just to get to the beach and an hour back to the bar. This gave him about an hour on the beach, in which he decided to chug six beers. Not a great idea, especially when you are driving a shitty van in a foreign country with curvy mountain roads.
So the van overheats, as it likes to do, and Bob pulls over to let it cool down and put some water in it. Before the van cools off, a police officer sees Bob on the side of the road and pulls over to see if there is a problem. He immediately smells the alcohol on Bob, and gives him a breath test. Needless to say, Bob fails and spends a night in jail.
To make things worse, the jail is an hour away and another cop drives the van all the way there without putting any more coolant in it. This was not ideal, and probably hurt the van's chances of making back to Auckland in one piece.
Consequences:
-one night in jail, with breakfast!
-$1000 New Zealand dollar fine (about $800 USD)
-Extremely bad day for the engine in the van
-Bus trip back up to Masterton (1 hour) to get the van
-one damn funny story, thank goodness Bob was in jail and not off the side of a mountain!
So, if you don't know who Bob is, you need to read the post titled "Auckland slash Rum Night" from about a month ago.
Bob is a member of our traveling group that is just completely irresponsible and usually drunk. The alcoholic is a fun guy to watch but he causes problems and will not stop following us around.
So, on a day we have off from the vineyard, we decide to go to the bar and see if we can catch some cool sports of TV. Well, Bob has his own plan. He wants to take the van down to the beach and come pick us up from the bar after a few hours. We think that sounds fine. We inform Bob of how much gas is in the van (so we don't have another epic day searching for petrol), and tell him to be careful, and that we'll see him around 6pm.
So we hang out in the bar, meet some of the locals, tell stories, that sort of thing. The bar was surprisingly busy even though it was a Sunday afternoon. I think some of the people had just left church actually. It was a fun crowd, and everyone was betting on a horse race that was on TV, which was cool to see.
So 6pm comes and goes, no Bob. 7pm, 8pm, no Bob. The bar closes at 8:30, and we decide that we need to find a way back to the cottage at the vineyard. We ask an old guy who we have been playing pool with and he says "sure, I'll get you a ride."
The two of us walk outside to have a cigarette when a drunk old lady stumbles out of the door and mumbles, "oh, I haven't been drinking." We think "yea right, be careful grandma." Next thing we know, she is backing her car up to us, telling us to get in if we want a ride. This was the ride that the old man has found for us.
Martinboro is small, and empty, as is the road to the vineyard. We figure it is ok, and jump in. We make it home safely...I hope the old lady did as well because when she left us I was not completely sure that she would be ok.
So we go to bed, get up the next morning...NO BOB! Where the hell is this guy. We check the online version of the newspaper and see nothing that would lead us to believe that anything happened to him. We worked all day, and still didn't hear anything about Bob or our van, which had all of our belongings in it. Just when we were thinking that he may have driven off a cliff, Bob comes walking up the driveway with a smirk on his face. Keep in mind that he is now 24 hours late.
"Bob, where have you been?! Where is the van!?"
"Oh, the van is at the police station in Masterton and I spent the night in jail."
Bob had decided to get a 6pack to take to the beach with him while the rest of us were at the bar. Not sure what the thinking was here, but he had to drive an hour just to get to the beach and an hour back to the bar. This gave him about an hour on the beach, in which he decided to chug six beers. Not a great idea, especially when you are driving a shitty van in a foreign country with curvy mountain roads.
So the van overheats, as it likes to do, and Bob pulls over to let it cool down and put some water in it. Before the van cools off, a police officer sees Bob on the side of the road and pulls over to see if there is a problem. He immediately smells the alcohol on Bob, and gives him a breath test. Needless to say, Bob fails and spends a night in jail.
To make things worse, the jail is an hour away and another cop drives the van all the way there without putting any more coolant in it. This was not ideal, and probably hurt the van's chances of making back to Auckland in one piece.
Consequences:
-one night in jail, with breakfast!
-$1000 New Zealand dollar fine (about $800 USD)
-Extremely bad day for the engine in the van
-Bus trip back up to Masterton (1 hour) to get the van
-one damn funny story, thank goodness Bob was in jail and not off the side of a mountain!
Monday, November 12, 2007
"Into the Fires of Mount DOOM!!"
Pictures soon!
The Lord of the Rings sites are certainly not the reason that I came to New Zealand, but some of them are so beautiful and awe inspiring that it just makes sense to quote the movie when looking at them.
The "Tongariro Crossing" is said to be the greatest one day hike in the world. It is the northern part of the "Tongariro Circuit," and is an alpine pass between Mt. Tongariro and the north face of Mt. Ngauruhoe (the volcano used for Mt. Doom). Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and we were unable to do the crossing. Instead, we did the southern part of the circuit, which is slightly lower in elevation, but still amazing. The hike we did is called the "Waihohonu Traverse" and is a pass between the south face of Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt Ruapehu (the north islands tallest mountain, also a volcano which erupted right before we got to NZ). I can't believe that the northern route is any more amazing than the southern route...one of the coolest hikes that I have ever done. The only thing I can think of that rivals this hike was the Highland Bowl in Aspen, CO....plus in Aspen you get to snowboard down after you hike up!
ANYWAYS, the hike starts with a walk through some bush, then a forest. You come out of the forest thinking that this is just going to be another hike. Then you see it, Mt. DOOM!! The volcano is a perfect cone shape and covered in snow for almost the entire year. We hiked during early early spring, so there was snow everywhere. For most of the day you are walking next to the two volcanoes; it is hard not to trip while staring up at the summits.
Even though this hike is extremely popular, it is not hard to completely isolate yourself from other hikers. I let Nate and Cam go ahead of me, and kept a good pace to avoid being passed by other hikers. I was alone for most of the day. At one point i hadn't seen or heard anyone for almost 2 hrs, and I decide to stop and look up at Mt. Ngaugruhoe when I hear it. "Froto, you must cast the ring into the fires of Mount Doooooom!" This crazy guy was walking over a hill behind me and quoting the movie. He was actually really good and hilarious. For the rest of the day I couldn't help but laugh when I thought about it.
Near the end of the hike there is a side trail that leads up to the Tama Lakes. These are two mountain lakes, the higher one is at about 1400 meters (almost 5000 ft) above sea level. The views from the top of this side trail is amazing. I will just let you look at the pictures, and will try and post a video.
The hike was great, the weather was great, and it was pretty cool to be walking around in "Mordor."
The Lord of the Rings sites are certainly not the reason that I came to New Zealand, but some of them are so beautiful and awe inspiring that it just makes sense to quote the movie when looking at them.
The "Tongariro Crossing" is said to be the greatest one day hike in the world. It is the northern part of the "Tongariro Circuit," and is an alpine pass between Mt. Tongariro and the north face of Mt. Ngauruhoe (the volcano used for Mt. Doom). Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and we were unable to do the crossing. Instead, we did the southern part of the circuit, which is slightly lower in elevation, but still amazing. The hike we did is called the "Waihohonu Traverse" and is a pass between the south face of Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt Ruapehu (the north islands tallest mountain, also a volcano which erupted right before we got to NZ). I can't believe that the northern route is any more amazing than the southern route...one of the coolest hikes that I have ever done. The only thing I can think of that rivals this hike was the Highland Bowl in Aspen, CO....plus in Aspen you get to snowboard down after you hike up!
ANYWAYS, the hike starts with a walk through some bush, then a forest. You come out of the forest thinking that this is just going to be another hike. Then you see it, Mt. DOOM!! The volcano is a perfect cone shape and covered in snow for almost the entire year. We hiked during early early spring, so there was snow everywhere. For most of the day you are walking next to the two volcanoes; it is hard not to trip while staring up at the summits.
Even though this hike is extremely popular, it is not hard to completely isolate yourself from other hikers. I let Nate and Cam go ahead of me, and kept a good pace to avoid being passed by other hikers. I was alone for most of the day. At one point i hadn't seen or heard anyone for almost 2 hrs, and I decide to stop and look up at Mt. Ngaugruhoe when I hear it. "Froto, you must cast the ring into the fires of Mount Doooooom!" This crazy guy was walking over a hill behind me and quoting the movie. He was actually really good and hilarious. For the rest of the day I couldn't help but laugh when I thought about it.
Near the end of the hike there is a side trail that leads up to the Tama Lakes. These are two mountain lakes, the higher one is at about 1400 meters (almost 5000 ft) above sea level. The views from the top of this side trail is amazing. I will just let you look at the pictures, and will try and post a video.
The hike was great, the weather was great, and it was pretty cool to be walking around in "Mordor."
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Wellington...
Been having a CRAZY time in wellington partying w/ some new friends. The guy who is arm wrestling is Boz, a Kiwi bar tender at the backmpackers we stayed at in Wellington. Made great friends with this guy, he is like my family now. The girl he is hurting so badly is Aude, a French girl we met at the backpackers, and the other girl is her friend Marie. I think we scared them a little bit with our drinking habits and the fact that we ever get to bed before 5am, but we all had great times together.
Finally, the man between the pints of beer is my boy Scott. He is an American that we also met at the backpackers, and another great friend that will be in many of my future posts. Between Boz, Scoot and I, and the random groups of people that we managed to recruit to go out with us every night, we had many epic nights in Wellington.
I will add more pictures and commentary when I get to a computer that i can upload on, but for now I'll just say this:
-9 out of 10 nights I was up until at least 4am.
-We usually started partying at the Bar (Boz worked there but could drink w/ us and get cheap alcohol) around 4 or 5pm, and then went out to town around 12 or 1 am.
-I became pretty damn good at Giant Jenga, which is made out of 2x4's instead of little wooden blocks.
-The latest I stayed out was 9am.
-Spent a considerable amount of time jumping in the Wellington harbor as the sun was coming up (some times naked). This was fun, "totally legal," and a great way to prevent a hangover the next day.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
THE DOCTOR!!
I usually save My stories until I have time to reflect on them for a little while before I actually write them...But this one is the kind That i have to get down on paper immediately.
The Wellington Jazz Festival is going on right now. We went to see a jazz Quartet play...they were pretty damn amazing. The pianist was damn good, and since I grew up w/ the piano it was great to listen to her play. The guy on brass did a great job. He played the baritone? and the trombone, and did a phenominal job. The drummer was extremely talented and the leader of the group, but he was a little cocky and kind of overwhelming.
The guy on base (or cello...we couldn't decide what it was) was amasing. He was in complete control of the show. We will call him...THE DOCTOR! Think, the guy from that board game, operation. He looked like the guy who was laying down on that operating table, without the smile. Short grey beard, stone face expression, never smiled. The final piece to the puzzle..he had an extremely bald, shiny head. I mean it reflected the light so much that I wanted my sun glasses.
The DOCTOR went on on this bass slash cello instrument. For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about, it was a giant violin looking thing that he picked like a guitar. He stood there the whole show and dominated. THE DOCTOR!!! I wish i had a picture of him.
ANy ways, I have a totally new appreciation for Jazz now and i had a great time. It is actually my birthday, so I am already pertty hammered and about to go get totally bliteratied. The hostel we stay at hs a bar...they are excited to learn american drinking games and celebrate my birthday. P
Peace to you all...ahve fun and be safe!!!
The Wellington Jazz Festival is going on right now. We went to see a jazz Quartet play...they were pretty damn amazing. The pianist was damn good, and since I grew up w/ the piano it was great to listen to her play. The guy on brass did a great job. He played the baritone? and the trombone, and did a phenominal job. The drummer was extremely talented and the leader of the group, but he was a little cocky and kind of overwhelming.
The guy on base (or cello...we couldn't decide what it was) was amasing. He was in complete control of the show. We will call him...THE DOCTOR! Think, the guy from that board game, operation. He looked like the guy who was laying down on that operating table, without the smile. Short grey beard, stone face expression, never smiled. The final piece to the puzzle..he had an extremely bald, shiny head. I mean it reflected the light so much that I wanted my sun glasses.
The DOCTOR went on on this bass slash cello instrument. For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about, it was a giant violin looking thing that he picked like a guitar. He stood there the whole show and dominated. THE DOCTOR!!! I wish i had a picture of him.
ANy ways, I have a totally new appreciation for Jazz now and i had a great time. It is actually my birthday, so I am already pertty hammered and about to go get totally bliteratied. The hostel we stay at hs a bar...they are excited to learn american drinking games and celebrate my birthday. P
Peace to you all...ahve fun and be safe!!!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Running out of Gas
Once we finally got out of Auckland, we drove down to Taupo/Taurangi to see about doing the Tongariro Crossing, which is an alpine pass that is said to be the best one day hike in the country. When we got to Taurangi, we checked the weather and reallized that there would be about a week of bad weather, and one good day to do the crossing after this week of bad weather. We decided to drive to Whirinaki Forest and do a 4 day hike there, then make it back to Taurangi to do the crossing in the good weather.
We drive down to where we are supposed to get off the highway and make our way to the trail head. We have about a 30 kilometer drive on old, dirt logging roads before we get to the trail head. Frankly, we had no clue where we were going.
The drive up was kind of an adventure in itself and a lot of fun. We had grabbed some beer on the way out of town that day and seeing as we were on some old logging roads and there was no chance of seeing any cops, we couldn't help but crack open a few bottles on the way up. I know what your thinking. Beer, old dirt roads at night w/ no signs and 3 dudes that had no idea where they were going. The beer had nothing to do w/ us getting lost...I promise.
Well, it gets dark, the map we have has no road names (which didn't really matter since the dirt roads had no names), and the signs to the trail head were pretty hard to spot in the dark. I took a pretty funny, ridiculous video while we were driving (I will post it ASAP). We were pretty lost, hadn't eaten dinner, and over half way through the case of beer that we had bought. It just so happened that I turned the camera on right before we found the road we were looking for.
Well, after we found the road, finished our beer, and thought everything was OK...we got lost again. I'm telling you we were WAY out there on roads that NEVER get used. We apparently missed another sign and drove around some more before we found where we were going and stopped for the night. At this point, we had wasted a lot of gas and had about 2 liters (half a gallon) left. We were about 60 km (about 35 miles) away from the nearest petrol station so we knew we were in trouble.
The next morning, we decide that we will start out on the hike and figure out the gas situation later. The trail was a loop, and we were at the very southern tip of it. About 7 km (4 miles) north of the top of the loop was a little logging town called Minginui. We hiked for about 3 hours, enjoying the dense forest and huge trees before we got to one of the many back country huts that the Department of Conservation (DOC) has in most of the parks in NZ. We were hoping that when we got to this hut there would be someone (maybe even a DOC official) there that could give us some advice on where to get gas, but the hut was empty.
After some arguing and figuring out what the hell we were going to do, we made a decision. If we did the hike as planned, then we would end up back at the van with no food and no gas. Moreover, once we did run the van dry, we would be forced to hike out to the highway (could have been like 15 miles), hitchhike to the nearest gas station (25 more miles), then hitchhike back to the dirt road and hike back to the van. These dirt roads were hard to navigate because they all looked the same and had no signs. We would have been hiking, w/ no food, on roads that we knew were hard to follow and were completely empty of any humans. That is not ideal.
It was Monday afternoon. We decided that Cam and I would make the trip up north to Minginui find gas, and hike back to camp all in one day. Then we would hike out on Wednesday, back to the van (hopefully w/ some gas). Cam and I knew that we'd have to hitch rides, which is impossible to do w/ three people. Also, we needed someone to stay at the Van in case Cam and I never came back.
This was the best option because Minginui was the closest town, even though it was on the other side of a huge forest. Also, if we got gas on Tuesday, then we would still be able to get back to the Tongariro crossing in time to hike it in good weather.
So, Tuesday morning Nate hiked back to the van and Cam and started north. We took our tents and food w/ us and set up camp about 2 hours hike north of the hut. We were each carrying 30 lb. packs, and there was a vicious ascent on this hike to the camping spot that we had picket out. Both of our legs were burning like hell and we had only begun our journey to Minginui.
We set up camp, had a quick lunch, and kept heading north. Now we had a camp to leave our packs at, which was a few miles closer to Minginui than the hut was. We would hopefully sleep there for the night, but that was a long way off.
After lunch, we kept heading north. We even jogged a few times, trying to make good time so that we would get to Minginui early enough to find a petrol station or someone who could give us a ride to one. We also did not want to have to hike back in the dark.
We made it to the north end of the loop by 2pm. The guide and the signs on the hiking track said that it would take about 5 hours to go from the hut to the north end of the trail...we did it in about 4 hrs, including the hour it took to set up camp and eat lunck. We were making great time but were already tired as hell and weren't even half way done w/ our trip yet.
We rested for a while, then set off on the road to Minginui. We walked about 4 miles (for a total of 10 for the day) up to town, and caught a ride from a dude on a 4 wheeler for the last quarter mile into town.
Once we got into town, we saw a guy named Willy, who was trying to catch a wild horse (yes this was in the middle of "town"). I could see that he was busy, but didn't think, or care, about the horse. I was tired and needed some petrol.
Willy was a super nice Maori man who had 9 cildren. He was a logger, and had been living in Minginui for a long time. He told us a lot about the town, and the history of logging in NZ.
He drove us around town looking for gas, but no one had any and there was some kind of safety mechanism on his van that wouldn't allow us to syphon any out of it. One place that we went looking for gas was apparently a friend of his because they struck up a fairly long conversation. Cam and I were sitting in his van, waiting for him. The van was running and I came really close to jumping in the driver seat and stealing the thing so we could drive up to the closest gas station and get some gas, but I figured that would be bad karma. We finally convinced Willy to take us up to Murapura, where the closest petrol station was. This was about 35 km away from Minginui, so it was kind of a drive.
Willy was a crazy driver....i thought we were going to die a few times. Also, he had this habit of stopping in the middle of the road, right around blind turns! He kept seeing friends of his sitting on the side of the road drinking after they had just got off work, and he kept stopping and talking to them w/o even pulling off the road. If a truck had come around one of those turns, we would have been toast.
Anyways, we got 8 liters of petrol, and got back to Willy's house. We had to stop at his house and pour the gas from his red gas tank into a 6 liter water container that we had found at the hut, and a 2 liter milk jug that willy had. This would make it a little easier to carry, and they wouldn't let us fill up anything but a red gas tank at the petrol station. Also, we had to switch vehicles because Willy's wife did not want him taking her minivan down the dirt road back to the trail head.
Cam and I, Willy and his wife, and their 4 kids all jumped into an old 4 runner and headed down the dirt road back to the trail. We hung out there for a little while and talked. Then cam and I started hiking back south to camp. We got back and ate dinner before night fall.
By days end, we had hiked 20 miles, rode .25 miles on a 4 wheeler, about 45 miles in a minivan, and another 4 in a 4 runner. Most of the 20 miles of the hike we were carrying tents, food, petrol, or all of the above. It was a long day but I kept thinking back to my cross country days, and the fact that my parents had done marathons before. If they could do 26 miles then I could do 20, even if it was carrying lots of shit and hiking up and down hills in the woods.
We made it back to the van the next day (Wednesday). Man, that was the worst part of the whole ordeal. The last few miles of hiking back to the van were all up hill and we were carrying our packs, tents, and the petrol. Also, it was dumping rain. It sucked!!!
We got to the van, got in and just started laughing. Mission accomplished. We had gotten enough petrol to at least get back to some form of civilization. We went to sleep and hoped the next day would be sunny.
It was a beautiful day on Thursday...we layed out all our gear in the sun so that it could dry off from the storm that we hiked in the day before. We ate breakfast, and drove back to the highway, straight to the bar!! We thought that we deserved a celebration!!
Thanks to Willy and his family...Amazing people with huge hearts. Without you guys, we would probably still be in that damn forest somewhere, or dead on the side of an old dirt road up in the hills of Whirinaki! Thank you!
We drive down to where we are supposed to get off the highway and make our way to the trail head. We have about a 30 kilometer drive on old, dirt logging roads before we get to the trail head. Frankly, we had no clue where we were going.
The drive up was kind of an adventure in itself and a lot of fun. We had grabbed some beer on the way out of town that day and seeing as we were on some old logging roads and there was no chance of seeing any cops, we couldn't help but crack open a few bottles on the way up. I know what your thinking. Beer, old dirt roads at night w/ no signs and 3 dudes that had no idea where they were going. The beer had nothing to do w/ us getting lost...I promise.
Well, it gets dark, the map we have has no road names (which didn't really matter since the dirt roads had no names), and the signs to the trail head were pretty hard to spot in the dark. I took a pretty funny, ridiculous video while we were driving (I will post it ASAP). We were pretty lost, hadn't eaten dinner, and over half way through the case of beer that we had bought. It just so happened that I turned the camera on right before we found the road we were looking for.
Well, after we found the road, finished our beer, and thought everything was OK...we got lost again. I'm telling you we were WAY out there on roads that NEVER get used. We apparently missed another sign and drove around some more before we found where we were going and stopped for the night. At this point, we had wasted a lot of gas and had about 2 liters (half a gallon) left. We were about 60 km (about 35 miles) away from the nearest petrol station so we knew we were in trouble.
The next morning, we decide that we will start out on the hike and figure out the gas situation later. The trail was a loop, and we were at the very southern tip of it. About 7 km (4 miles) north of the top of the loop was a little logging town called Minginui. We hiked for about 3 hours, enjoying the dense forest and huge trees before we got to one of the many back country huts that the Department of Conservation (DOC) has in most of the parks in NZ. We were hoping that when we got to this hut there would be someone (maybe even a DOC official) there that could give us some advice on where to get gas, but the hut was empty.
After some arguing and figuring out what the hell we were going to do, we made a decision. If we did the hike as planned, then we would end up back at the van with no food and no gas. Moreover, once we did run the van dry, we would be forced to hike out to the highway (could have been like 15 miles), hitchhike to the nearest gas station (25 more miles), then hitchhike back to the dirt road and hike back to the van. These dirt roads were hard to navigate because they all looked the same and had no signs. We would have been hiking, w/ no food, on roads that we knew were hard to follow and were completely empty of any humans. That is not ideal.
It was Monday afternoon. We decided that Cam and I would make the trip up north to Minginui find gas, and hike back to camp all in one day. Then we would hike out on Wednesday, back to the van (hopefully w/ some gas). Cam and I knew that we'd have to hitch rides, which is impossible to do w/ three people. Also, we needed someone to stay at the Van in case Cam and I never came back.
This was the best option because Minginui was the closest town, even though it was on the other side of a huge forest. Also, if we got gas on Tuesday, then we would still be able to get back to the Tongariro crossing in time to hike it in good weather.
So, Tuesday morning Nate hiked back to the van and Cam and started north. We took our tents and food w/ us and set up camp about 2 hours hike north of the hut. We were each carrying 30 lb. packs, and there was a vicious ascent on this hike to the camping spot that we had picket out. Both of our legs were burning like hell and we had only begun our journey to Minginui.
We set up camp, had a quick lunch, and kept heading north. Now we had a camp to leave our packs at, which was a few miles closer to Minginui than the hut was. We would hopefully sleep there for the night, but that was a long way off.
After lunch, we kept heading north. We even jogged a few times, trying to make good time so that we would get to Minginui early enough to find a petrol station or someone who could give us a ride to one. We also did not want to have to hike back in the dark.
We made it to the north end of the loop by 2pm. The guide and the signs on the hiking track said that it would take about 5 hours to go from the hut to the north end of the trail...we did it in about 4 hrs, including the hour it took to set up camp and eat lunck. We were making great time but were already tired as hell and weren't even half way done w/ our trip yet.
We rested for a while, then set off on the road to Minginui. We walked about 4 miles (for a total of 10 for the day) up to town, and caught a ride from a dude on a 4 wheeler for the last quarter mile into town.
Once we got into town, we saw a guy named Willy, who was trying to catch a wild horse (yes this was in the middle of "town"). I could see that he was busy, but didn't think, or care, about the horse. I was tired and needed some petrol.
Willy was a super nice Maori man who had 9 cildren. He was a logger, and had been living in Minginui for a long time. He told us a lot about the town, and the history of logging in NZ.
He drove us around town looking for gas, but no one had any and there was some kind of safety mechanism on his van that wouldn't allow us to syphon any out of it. One place that we went looking for gas was apparently a friend of his because they struck up a fairly long conversation. Cam and I were sitting in his van, waiting for him. The van was running and I came really close to jumping in the driver seat and stealing the thing so we could drive up to the closest gas station and get some gas, but I figured that would be bad karma. We finally convinced Willy to take us up to Murapura, where the closest petrol station was. This was about 35 km away from Minginui, so it was kind of a drive.
Willy was a crazy driver....i thought we were going to die a few times. Also, he had this habit of stopping in the middle of the road, right around blind turns! He kept seeing friends of his sitting on the side of the road drinking after they had just got off work, and he kept stopping and talking to them w/o even pulling off the road. If a truck had come around one of those turns, we would have been toast.
Anyways, we got 8 liters of petrol, and got back to Willy's house. We had to stop at his house and pour the gas from his red gas tank into a 6 liter water container that we had found at the hut, and a 2 liter milk jug that willy had. This would make it a little easier to carry, and they wouldn't let us fill up anything but a red gas tank at the petrol station. Also, we had to switch vehicles because Willy's wife did not want him taking her minivan down the dirt road back to the trail head.
Cam and I, Willy and his wife, and their 4 kids all jumped into an old 4 runner and headed down the dirt road back to the trail. We hung out there for a little while and talked. Then cam and I started hiking back south to camp. We got back and ate dinner before night fall.
By days end, we had hiked 20 miles, rode .25 miles on a 4 wheeler, about 45 miles in a minivan, and another 4 in a 4 runner. Most of the 20 miles of the hike we were carrying tents, food, petrol, or all of the above. It was a long day but I kept thinking back to my cross country days, and the fact that my parents had done marathons before. If they could do 26 miles then I could do 20, even if it was carrying lots of shit and hiking up and down hills in the woods.
We made it back to the van the next day (Wednesday). Man, that was the worst part of the whole ordeal. The last few miles of hiking back to the van were all up hill and we were carrying our packs, tents, and the petrol. Also, it was dumping rain. It sucked!!!
We got to the van, got in and just started laughing. Mission accomplished. We had gotten enough petrol to at least get back to some form of civilization. We went to sleep and hoped the next day would be sunny.
It was a beautiful day on Thursday...we layed out all our gear in the sun so that it could dry off from the storm that we hiked in the day before. We ate breakfast, and drove back to the highway, straight to the bar!! We thought that we deserved a celebration!!
Thanks to Willy and his family...Amazing people with huge hearts. Without you guys, we would probably still be in that damn forest somewhere, or dead on the side of an old dirt road up in the hills of Whirinaki! Thank you!
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Sean Ryan and Jess
I am chillin at these dudes house...place in wellington. THey are 19, 20, and 17 and they all have their own place here. Its about 8 am on a sunday morning...I ran into these dudes about an hour ago after we all had a long night of drinking. Ryan and Jess are brother and sister and Sean is Jess's GF. they are all really chill...i'm pretty tired right now and i think I am going to go climb in bed w/ their hot roomate...good night!
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