I'm still alive.....

So i've been a little MIA.....yesterday I wrote a really long blog and before I could post it the time on my computer ran out and i lost everything...bummer. I arrived in Wesport today which is on the east coast of the south island. I spent three nights in Nelson which was a great little town on the northern tip of the south island. I finished wellington with mike deb and ethan and was spoiled rotten... i forgot how nice it is to sleep in a nice big bed! I am excited to stop back towards the end of my trip to see them again. Wellington is a fantastic city, alot like San Fran. Everyone lives up on the hills and the city is in the middle with a big beautiful harbor. I went to Te Papa, Wellington's main museum, and i visited the botanical gardens (took SO MANY pictures!) Mike was my personal tour guide and drove me all over the city.

Nelson was a great little town... it's alot like West Chester or Doylestown. Apparently it is hippie-central (richard you'd do well there) Yesterday i walked through the Abel Tasman National Park. It was absolutely stunning. I felt like everything i was looking at was fake because it was so beautiful. I rode in a water taxi the length of park, then did a four hour walk to a beach where the taxi picked me back up. i didnt know anyone on my tour, but met some new people (who i am traveling with now). OH! and i got to see seals! i tried to get one on the boat so i could steal it and take it home to live in my bathtub, but he was to preoccupied with eating an octopus...yeah... did you know seals really don't eat that many fish? i bet you didn't!

Everyone I was traveling with since Auckland left a day before and my friends Ben and Stu stayed behind with me. So we've split until we reach Franz Josef which is two cities away. Stu Ben and i have been hanging out having a pretty good time without everyone else, but it still stinks to lose half your crew. We met a new guy named Jimmy today who is very cool. He is actually a cave tour guide in Wiatomo and he jumped on the bus for a few weeks until he has to go back to school in Dunedin (done-e-din) so the three guys got me to go jetboating on a river that runs through Westport today. the boat went crazy fast and the driver was whipping us around all over the place. It was like being on a ride in Disneyworld only 10 times better. I got absolutely soaked. After we got off the boat, everyone looked at me and was like, how did you manage to get so wet? I was in the very last seat on the end and was getting sloshed with water. It was like someone was pouring water on my head with a bucket! i took a few videos with my digi camera... so when i finally find somewhere that i can download pictures and videos i will. most of the computers here, if not all of them, are locked so you can't download onto them.

Tomorrow we move to Lake Somethin-or-other for a nite then we head to Franz Josef to do glacier hikes. I am pretty excited about that. Kathleen has asked me to compile a list of the top jobs in NZ... so here is what I have so far in no specific order:

-Tandem Skydive Jumper/Instructor
-Cave tour guide
-Aqua-taxi boat driver in Abel Tasman Park
-Kiwi Experience bus driver
-Ocean Kayaking guide
-I'll let you know more later

p.s. the NZ bus drivers are crazy here... all of them. no matter what bus i get on i feel like i'm in Dana's mini cooper going to Iron Hill Brewery for lunch! They all dance and sing while they're driving and they're all freakin crazy.

some new NZ lingo:

sandflies: worse than mosquitoes
mosquitoes: mossies (how do you spell mosquito?)
jandals: flipflops
goon: any kind of boxed wine (Mr. Wich, I hope you're enjoying the goon you bought in Delaware:)

ok, that's all for now... i'll try to write more frequently... it's been pretty tough. hope things are good back home!!!

Wellington

I just got into Wellington tonight around dinner. Mike and his son Ethan picked me up at the hostel I got dropped off at. Mike, Deb, and Ethan live in this great house with floor to ceiling windows in every room. The room I'm in right now, if i look out the windows, i can see the harbor... the view is incredible. It kind of reminds me of a house that would be in West Chester or in Doylestown. They have great taste in abstract art and they have all these cool paintings covering the walls and tons of black and white pictures in big frames. it's so homey... it's not like the houses where we live that are enormous and hardly lived in.

Mike and Deb fed me some fantastic quiche, gave me some tasty red wine and let me do all my laundry. I was so happy to take a shower in a nice bathroom with hardwood floors, a fluffy towel, no flip-flops and a big bathtub with all sorts of toys for ethan... it's amazing how much you miss all the little stuff. staying here will definitely be a tease. Mike and Deb are fantastic and have just made me feel so at home which is what i needed after today....

Today was kind of hard, I've been traveling with mostly the same people since Auckland, and now that we've hit Wellington, everyone is splitting up and taking more time for the south island. I won't have Bods for my driver anymore, which sucks because he is the coolest guy and so knowledgable and so very excited to tell everyone about where he's from. Some people stayed back in River Valley for another night, and I'm staying in Welly until the 28th, so some people will be ahead of me and there's a chance I won't see them again. A big part of backpacking is mental. You meet so many people and you form these really quick friendships and right when things are getting settled and you're comfortable, you go your different ways and you don't see each other again. Then you have to go to a new city and start the friendship process all over again. It's mentally tiring at times... like everything was going great and i was traveling with a crew, and now i have to make friends all over again. But the good thing is that the way this bus pass works, i will see people who are a few days ahead of me or a few days behind me depending on how many days i choose to stay in one place. so there is a chance i can run into people i've already traveled with, and if not, then i make a new crew of friends on the next bus i'm on... it'll all work out in the end... it's just been a exhausting day. well, i need to hit the sack. I think Deb and Ethan are going to show me around a little tomorrow. I may go hit up the free museum and just explore.

NZ time: Wednesday, January 24th, 11:33pm
Philly time: Wednesday, January 24th, 5:33am (i think)

I survived Lake Taupo

I arrived in Taupo two days ago today I left there and moved to a really remote hostel in the middle of nowhere... aka River Valley. It's a pretty cool place, they have a river right outside and I just got done swimming in that. On our way here our busdriver (His name is Bods) took us to a waterfall and I umm... jumped off it into the rapids!! ahahhaa so very cool.

I had the most insane time In Taupo, Google Lake Taupo and you'll see where I'm at. It was absolutely breathtaking there. I haven't written because I wasn't really around at the hostel. On my first day I went out around the town (very small place) took some photos and just read by the side of the lake. My second day I decided to wake up at 5:30am and go on a "trek" called the Tongiraro Crossing (pronounced tong-i-raro) yeah, you know Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings? Yeah, I hiked the freakin mountain next to it. The weather was too harsh to get up Mt. Doom. The hike was 18.5km and took me from 7:30am to 2:30pm. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my entire life. It beat any lacrosse practice or game I've ever had and it totally beat out shoveling 5 tons of stone for my father this summer in Delaware. There is this part called Hell's Gate and I swear Satan himself was sitting at the top laughing his ass off at me. Hell's Gate is all the stones that Froto, Sam, and Gullum (spelling?) have to climb up in Lord of the Rings. I was breathing so hard and I thought I was going to fall over. The whole time i was climbing random thoughts kept popping into my head, for instance, about 3-4 summers ago i was at my friend Christine's house and there was a flip-flop on her stairs and I was like oh, I should move that before someone trips over it... But I ended up just leaving it there. And what do you know, Christine comes down the stairs, trips on it and twists her ankle... so yeah, random thoughts like that kept coming and going, i just kept thinking of all these funny things to keep my going. And I'd say to myself well shit, if freakin Sam can carry Froto up this thing, I can get up it myself. My main goal was to stick it out with all the guys because I didn't want to hike it by myself. So there were 3 of us, then we picked up two other guys along the way. I thought Austria was the most beautiful place I have ever been... I think it took a backseat to this place. I got so many pictures. So anyway, we ended the hike an hour ahead of time which was awesome... we laid around for an hour waiting for the bus to pick us up.

So after my 18.5km trek I decided to umm... go jump out of an airplane... SORRY MOM! Talk about an action-packed day!! I jumped 15,000 feet with Roy (he owns the place... he's been jumping for 25 years) So I jumped out over Lake Taupo and the sky was so clear that I could see from coast to coast (or something like that) Lake Taupo is so big that it could fit Singapore in it! I had a pretty crazy day to say the least. I got a video and pics of me jumping, I can't wait to watch it! Afterwards I went out to dinner with two guys that I did the trek with and Sarah the English girl (who i am getting better at understanding, Margie you were right) then we all went out and drank alot of beer... I think it's pretty necessary after a day like that. Bods our driver is this crazy guy and he was out with us too. We didn't get in until like 3am. I almost pulled an all-nighter.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Wellington to stay with my mom's friend Mike and his wife. I talked to him today and I am pretty excited to get out of a hostel for a few days and sleep in a house... i forget what it's like to shower without shoes on! The south island will be much slower, I am going to spend about a month there, rock on. alright I gotta jet, the shrimp is on the barbie (seriously! all we do is BBQ here!!) talk later!

NZ time: tuesday jan 23rd 2007 6:30pm
Philly time: tuesday jan 23rd 2007 12:30am

Rotorua and Wiatomo Caves

Ok so I didn't post the other day because it was a small fortune to use the internet at the hostel. I have basically been hauling ass down the north island, a little faster then I would like, but I really have no option right now. There is a Grand Prix race in Taupo and every city in a 50 mile radius is booked. Luckily because I am on the Kiwi bus, they set aside a block of rooms for us in advance so i am guaranteed at least one night stay. So I went through Roto yesterday and this morning when we left we went to see the geothermal pools and geysers. I think it's pretty much like Yellowstone Park. So that was very interesting... pretty amazing that the Earth has to let out all that steam you know? We had a Maori tour guide who was hilarious and made learning about the boring facts of geothermal activity pretty interesting. I took alot of cool shots. I can't find a computer that I can download to yet, I may go get a cd burned and load pics that way.

So In Roto I met up with some new people, Sarah is still with me and I befriended a guy named Dave who thought I was Canadian... last night I mentioned something about Philly and he was like wait a damn second, you're an 'effin Yank? Hilarious. I ran into Kristen from Auckland and another guy i met in Auckland named Conroy. Conroy hopped on my bus today. He is very cool... kind of looks like Sang (for those of you that know who Sang is) So Sarah (who I still have trouble understanding) Dave, Conroy and I are all bunked together. oh, and we lucked out and they ran out of dorms, so they upgraded up for free to a "chalet" aka a apartment with our own bathroom and kitchen...aww yeah!

This afternoon I went to the glow worm caves with Dave and Conroy and did this insane tour through these caves. We swam, rode innertubes through the channels underground, climbed the walls, it was incredible... Expensive, but totally worth it. When the hell am I ever going to go 65-100 meters under the ground and swim you know? The water was so cold that we had to wear wetsuits to keep warm. And they gave us these crazy miner helmets and all. I abseiled into the cave (not sure if i spelled that right) which means I was connecting to a rope and I lowered myself down into this hole in the ground. When I got to the bottom and looked up there was this liiiiitle tiny circle of sunlight. I'm surprised I didnt freak out because I'm not all about being in dark confined areas, but I was ok. So the guide took us all underground through these caverns and we saw all these glow worms that look like stars in the sky. We climbed two waterfalls, jumped off one and we had to scale the walls to get through some parts. It was a pretty crazy experience. I got done and was like oh-my-god, i can't believe I just did that! Our group only had 5 people and we were pretty ahead of schedule, so the guide took us on the lower grade tour (cheaper and less fun) for free... so we basically got 2 tours for one price which was pretty "sweet as"... sweet as is this saying here... everyone and their mother says it. so you're like oh we're going on another tour? Sweet as! Or like, what we're been upgraded to a chalet? Sweet as! hahaha ya'll probably think i'm crazy!

ok, so a few things:

1. there are more Canadians here then sheep. They are everywhere. In fact, I've met more Canadians than NZers.
2. I went to put on my white flip-flops yesterday and realized that I brought two left feet. Awesome. That's what I get for owning 40 pairs of flip-flops.
3. My bus stopped in Hobbit-town yesterday. Yeah.... freakin HOBBIT-TOWN!!!
4. I've been eating so much tunafish i think I am becoming one (and yes Richard, tuna without mayo....bleck)

I miss you all so much! Thank you for keeping up with me and my trek (the 5 of you that are reading...hahaha) I just finalized plans for Fiji tonite! And Mamma Dukes Evangelist is gearing up to rock Sydney with me in another month and a half. Feel free to email me (thanks Dana!) Tomorrow I am doing something that rhymes with shmydiving.... and in another day or two I am going on a 12 hour trek into the Tongariro Mountains where Lord of the rings was filmed (holla!)

ok, my internet is running out. Will write tomorrow maybe if there is time.

NZ time: Saturday January 20th, 10:30pm... so is it like 3:30am in Philly? I hate doing math! Lata!!!

Near Coramandel.... at Mercury Bay

So I took the Kiwi bus to the Coramandel Penninsula today. It is absolutely amazing here. Picture rolling hills like Ireland but with a huge blue and green ocean right next to it. I saw my first sheep(s) today... along with many cows. Dad, I thought of you and laughed the entire way on the busride. I met a girl named Sarah on the bus, she is from the UK and very nice, but her accent is so harsh that I can't really understand what the hell she is saying. So if she laughs, I laugh, or if I think she asks me a question and I don't know what she asked I go, oh yeah oh yeah. Whatever.

So I went on an ocean kayaking trip which was absolutely wicked. We kayaked around all these islands and came up onto this beach with these crazy rock formations. Sarah and I went together... at first I thought I sucked at paddling, but then once we switched and I went into the back of the kayak, I quickly learned that it wasn't me that sucked...ahaha. There is a group of 4 guys here and they went on the kayak trip with us too, one of them looks like Ray (if you can imagine Ray with an English accent) I keep staring at him, he probably thinks I'm a weirdo. So anyway, after we all got done the kayak trip, the taxi guy dropped us off at the wrong place and we couldnt find the bus, and we didn't know where to go, so we solved that whole dilemma by finding a bar. About 20 minutes later after we're all drinking the bus comes flying by... we wave at our driver and he then slams on the breaks, pulls the bus over and says, hey i gotta drop the rest of the bus off, you gonna be here in like 15 minutes? He's a very cool guy and is extremely educated on the country. He knows anything and everything. Tomorrow we head to Rotorua (ro-toe-rue-a) to check out some geothermal pools, should be a good time.


January 18th 2007.
it's around 11pm here, so count back 17 hours and that's the time in the states

Auckland

So after my first post i ended up getting into my room of 12 people... yeah, 12 people. So i explored the city a bit, got a cell phone (if you want the number let me know) and slept from 4pm until 12pm. I was woken up by two girls that came into the room and were like holy crap it smells like hell in here (not the exact words, but you get the idea) so I start talking to them and the one girl is telling me about the Kiwi buses that they have that run from city to city etc. So i have bought the Sheep Dog bus pass that will take me from Auckland to Christchurch and a ton of cities in between. I get to choose when i want to leave and how long I want to stay, the passes are really flexible and it gets me alot of discounts for stuff. So $500 well spent (i think) I think it was a good choice as renting a car was going to cost me a small fortune. I'm not sure how i am getting back to Auckland from christchurch yet... i have two months to think about it though... driving on the other side of the road will be an insane adventure.

So I've been hanging out with this girl kristen (the bus pass girl) and we went on this free Auckland tour yesterday and this bus took us all around and we visited the main attractions--which there aren't many-- auckland is kind of a blah city. not much to do or see really. I went to the harbor which was actually very cool. there are all these crazy huge yachts and boats. we did this bridge walk where we were strapped onto the underneath walkway of the harbor bridge and we watched people bungi jump off of it--no i didnt bungi jump-- i'm not sure that's really my thing, actually--Mom skip this part--i think skydiving is more my thing... i may do it at Taupo further down the north island. then we went to the Skytower which is this big building that overlooks the entire city and to all the outer islands, i got some great pics.

so Kristen left today and I may meet up with her in Rotorua (pronounced Ro-toe-ru-a) which is two cities away for me. Tomorrow i head for Mercury Bay which is along the south pacific ocean near the coramandel peninsula, I will probably stay a day then move on because I really want to get to Rotorua, Taupo & Wellington.

Surprisingly nothing crazy has happened yet, but it's only 10:40am here so the day is young. I feel like I have been here for so long already, it's only been like 3 days... that means it's definitely time to head to the next city. So off to Mercury Bay tomorrow at 8am.

NZ Time: Wednesday January 17, 2007 10:46am
USA Time: Tuesday January 16, 2007 4:47pm (kristi can you migrate some art in the 6pm for me?)

I'm here!

The flight was long, but really not all as bad as I thought it was going to be. I pretty much just slept and ate the entire way here. I sat next to good people on both flights (which was a big fear) the one guy let me use his cell phone to call my parents when we landed in LA. I got in to Auckland at 6am this morning and I'm currently at my hostel waiting to check in at 12pm (it's 8:30am). As I was checking in two guys gave me their unused internet cards.... so here I am.

I always get nervous when I first stay at a place because I don't know my way around or anything... so I just pretend like I know what I'm doing... somehow it worked. This morning, the bus driver was just dropping everyone else off at the end of the street, I managed to get him to take me directly to my hostel...I probably looked frightened and he felt bad for me!

Anyway, it's time to go find a place to call home. I'll check back in soon.

Mappin out NZ

So you can kinda/sorta see where I'm going for the first two months...