Went out last night again and I am done. Went with the Danish girls who really like to party. They stay out till 4 and 5am. Well I’m too old for that, and Nick and I just didn’t feel in the party mood tonight, so we came home around 1am, which would’ve been a good time to go to bed, but no no, let’s watch a movie, so we watched Equilibrium on the super awesome wide screen surround sound system they have here and I fell asleep during it.

Went to bed, got up this morning and am ready to leave Queenstown. Too much money was spent here, the hostel smells, and I need a change of scenery. So we’re off to Te Anau caves then Milford Sound. Queenstown is quite pretty though, if you get the chance, def check it out.

Last night, I went out with some german girls, a mongolian girl (first mongol I’ve ever met), and one American guy. We first went to Fraser’s for two for one daquiris, then went to Altitude Bar where they had a horizontal bungee. Basically, there are two girls at one end holding drinks, on the other there is a guy srapped to a bungee cord which is attached to the wall. He tries to run as hard as he can to get one of the drinks, run backwards without falling and drink it as quickly as possible before going back for the second. Aahh, it was quite humerous to watch. Didn’t get to do it, but it was hilarious.

We went bar hopping a bit more and dancing, then I went home at 2am cause I had to get up and do Nevis in the morning. I woke up late, but still with plenty of time to get to the Bungee place. We drove 45 minutes out to this huge canyon which had a gondola hanging in the middle of it.

I met a really nice swedish girl named Sarah and a Canadian girl named Jordan (they’re always from Toronto). We took a little basket ride to the gondola and then got strapped in. They go from, heaviest to lightest, so I was second. Thankfully, there was an even bigger guy there and he had to go first. We watched through the glass floor as he kept falling and falling until he became a tiny dot. I was kinda freaked out at that point. It’s a long freakin way! 134m! For those of you without a calculator, that’s about 402ft.

It was my turn and I jumped straight out and it was amazing. Awww, so much fun. I’d do it again if I had another $79 bucks. I got all three jumps on DVD which is cool and I got some pics of the last one.

Went back to the hostel and made some lunch, then met up with Leigh and we went to the luge at the top of the gondola ride. That was really fun, you get to going pretty fast on those things. I am waay too tall for those tiny carts though and one of them, I couldn’t break cause my knees got in the way. I didn’t know this however until I reached the first curve and went flying over it. I skinned up my arm and leg, but I was okay. It was kind fun to be honest.

From then on, I checked the luge to make sure it would brake right. We went on 5 rides and that was it. Very fun. We should open one of those in the states. I’m now back at the hostel. We’ll stay in Queenstown one more night, then head out to Te Anua caves tomorrow morning.

Man, I’m def giving thanks this year! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I went bungee jumping twice today! I’m doing the Thrillogy, which is three jumps for a combo package, costing me a bit though. So the rest of the trip’ll be pretty low key. I registered this morning and then while Leigh did her thing, I went up to Kawarau Bridge and jumped 43 meters off of it for a nice wet dunk into the river. It was wicked! I got a nice DVD to prove it, so you can all see that when I get back.

Then got some groceries and ate a huge beef lasagna for lunch which I regretted later while standing on the platform of my next jump, the Ledge. It’s 47m over the side of a mountain and you’re harnessed in by the waist, so I tried to do a side flip which turned into a sort of flaying twist but it was awesome. And I didn’t vomit! Very happy bout that.

Saw two Scottish guys again, Darren and Adam, who I’ve been seeing periodically on this trip. They’re doing the Thrillogy as well. Tomorrow is the Nevis, 134m jump and then a bit of luging in the afternoon

Oye, iceclimbing was amazing! Got up early in the morning and walked over to the Guides Shop. It’s only a couple minute walk, this place is tiny.

We took a bus first to a small shack where we got all of our helmets, crampons, boots, axes, and other gear, stuff it in some packs and then went up to where I had hiked to the glacier the day before. But this time we proceeded past the yellow rope just below the glacier. There, we took off our hiking shoes and put on our double boots (two boots in one), strapped on our crampons which are basically just huge spikes sticking out of the bottom of your boots, and put on our helmets. We also had to put on some nylon pants so that the spikes would not hang on our cotton pants. You put everything else back in your pack and start hiking up the glacier.

We hiked 4km into the glacier. Now just to give you some knowledge on the glacier, cause I am fact man. The glacier moves every year based on the amount of snow, rain, and wind they get. Over the last 200 years, on average it has been receeding. But in the last 5 years, it’s been advancing and advances about 2m every week. Which is pretty fast for tons and tons of ice.

The Glacial surface is like walking through a Dr. Suess book, with huge walls and pillars shooting up from the ground and crevasses extending dozens of meters below you. Don’t worry, I got some great shots. After hiking across narrow bridges, steep inclines, and hugging the walls with everything melting around us, we finally made it to the ice walls we were to climb.

Along the trip, we had to take different paths from what the guides intended because the glacier changes everyday so what was a bridge yesterday, might be a 15m drop today. In fact, they have guys who come out every day and carve steps into the ice to make it easier to get across. All day long we could see them in the back just hacking away.

I used up my water getting up there, so I just found a pool of melted ice and filled up my bottle there. It’s prolly the stuff we pay two bucks for at the gas station.

Once we got to the walls, I ate the lunch I had brought while the guides climbed up the back of the walls and hammered in some bolts to attach to the top ropes. Other then the ice part, it was the same as rock climbing, they even used the same belay device I do. It helped alot to have climbing experience. I got strapped in and got my ice axes ready. The key is to slam your axes into the ice, then move you legs up and jam your crampons into the ice. Then you can move your axes up and so on. I climbed four walls of varying difficulty. One had a nice overhang with a huge crack across the middle. That sucker was a $!#ch to get over. They said I did really well though. Prolly helped that I am tall. You basically had to get up to the crack, get your feet on it, jam your axes above the crack as high as you can and then lift yourself up and jam your feet in again. It was deadly having those axes in my hands, such a feeling of power.

While I was waiting my turn to climb, someone pointed out a wierd green parrot. We asked what it was and Mike, one of the guides, said it was a kea. He had to shew it away a few times before it finally flew off, beautiful orange underside. We asked why he did that and Mike said, they eat the ropes. We said oh, well we’ll let you know if we see one then.

This one guy, Adrian, was kind of short and just couldn’t bring himself to get over the crack. He was trying so hard that he finally gave up and let go of his axes, pulling his hands out of the wrist straps. The top rope held him up of course but one hand got hooked on the strap for a second causing the axe to come loose from the ice and shoot out at us behind him.

It was awesome, it went flying through the air and almost hit Mike, who later said, “Thanks guys for yelling, Hey axe in the air.” It was pretty cool. The other axe was still stuck up there and so Dave, the other guide, used the ropes to snag it from the bottom and shot that one out as well. We were all prepared for this one however.

That was such a cool thing. After climbing the walls a few times, I could feel it in my hands and legs, I was done. We hiked back to the bus and went on back into town. Oh, and I met this guy from LA there, Mike, who works at Activision and likes to rock climb. We exchanged emails and he wants to try out Rockreation, small world huh?

After that, I met up with Leigh, who had gone over to Fox Glacier to hike around whilst I ice climbed, and we high tailed it out. We drove until we got to Haast and stopped there for the night. Met some people we had seen earlier as well.

The next morning we drove to Wanaka to go to Puzzle World which is a really cool place. They have all sorts of optical illusions, holograms, mind games, and even a huge maze you can go through. Spent a few hours there and ate lunch.

Then we headed down to Queenstown, found some accomodations and walked a bit although all the shops were closing. Everything closes here around 6 or 7p, so early! We did get to eat Subway though, finally no more pasta. We’re in Queenstown for a few days before we do the Milford Track, so not sure what we’ll do tomorrow. Maybe go for a luge or bungee jumping, or whatever.

We got to the hostel last night just in time. It was overcast all day until finally, we got our stuff into the hostel and it immediately began to rain. We got up this morning and Marc decided he would join us to Franz Josef instead of going to Christchurch.

We drove straight through for only about 2.5-3 hours. The roads were windy and it was raining but we made it. We got here and Marc wanted to do a tramp to the glacier before heading on to Fox Glacier, so we tagged along. It was raining on us most of the time and I was smart enough to only have brought my USC hoody. No other long sleeves of any kind. It was pretty chilly, but not freezing. We walked about 40 minutes to the glacier. It’s inside this huge valley, with grassy mountains on either side, tiny waterfalls lining the crevasses. It is really a sight to behold. One which I shall be climbing tomorrow. We even saw a huge chunk of it break off and fall to the ground. It apparently moves a meter every day, which is pretty fast from a geological standpoint.

On the way back to our hostel, we dropped Marc off at the highway 6 intersection. Even though it was raining, he wanted to press on to Fox Glacier. Oh, I was asking him how long he was waiting before we picked him up and he said only 10 minutes or so. He had just ridden with a German girl and a Hungarian girl. I said, wait, was the german girl tall and blonde and the hungarian girl short and brunette? Did they drive a white van, which they slept in? He was very surprised and said yes. I had talked to them in Nelson in the jacuzzi. They were apparently just 10 minutes ahead of us going elsewhere. Funny how that works huh?

Right now, we’re just chilling in the warm hostel, which is actually very nice. We have our own kitchenette, bathroom, and tv in the room. Got to get up early tomorrow to go climbing. Cheers.

Okay, finally, I shall update this thing. I tried yesterday, but halfway through, the kiosk killed everything, which sucked ALOT. So here’s attempt two.

Lots to go over for the last 4 days. Let’s start off the night before the camping trip.

11/15: Leigh decided she wanted to dig for mussels during low tide at this one harbour which was all sand at low tide. So we walked out off the bank and quickly learned it was very soft mud cause we sunk up to our ankles and my sandels were nasty after that. I took them off and we continued out up to our knees in mud. Leigh was enjoying this saying the mud was good for your skin. I wasn’t to keen on all the rocks, shells, and little crabs I felt moving around in it. We didn’t find any mussels, but found 12 golf balls!

Went back to the hostel and I jumped in the pool, jacuzzi, and sauna. Yeah, this is an awesome hostel. Outside the hostel and inside, there’s a little sign that says, “Go naked.” with a little smiley face. I thought, “Sweet, finally someplace I can go nude in public.” which I have always wanted to do. So I took my swim suit off and sat there naked. I got others to go nude in it as well. It was great.

Later, I talked everyone into running out and jumping into the pool naked, then back into the sauna. So we all did so (guys and girls) and really no one around cared. It was deadly. Oh, and for those of you who have altercations about guys and girls being nude in the same place, it’s not a sexual thing at all; in fact Germans do it all the time. They have saunas everywhere and they’re all co-ed. Anyway, that was fun. I took a shower, had some dinner, and went to bed.

Now the great Abel Tasman camping trip. Abel Tasman National Park is in the North West corner of the South Island. It’s beautiful coastland made up of islands, rainforest, and several small coves bunched together.

Day 1: 8:30a-Woke up and drove out an hour to Kaiteriteri to get our kayaks.
9:30a-We got the schedule of our trip and the money sorted out, then got in the kayaks and headed out along with 3 other doubles and a guide, Eric, who would accompany us only till 1p. These kayaks were pretty cool. It’s a double seater, the person in the front keeps pace, the person in the back turns the rudder with pedals. There are three compartments, one in the bow, aft, and between the two people.

In those compartments, we put our backpacks, tent, sleeping bags, and food for 3 days. The other kayakers were two german guys, 1 tasmanian guy and 1 english girl, 1 danish guy and 1 german girl.

12p-Reached Split Apple Rock which is basically a huge boulder which fell from somewhere and cracked finely right in two down the middle. It’s huge too.

1p-Arrived at Apple Tree Bay where we had some lunch and then said goodbye to our fellow kayakers and Eric, our guide and set out on our own.

3p-Arrived at Observation Bay and looked around on the beach. You can pretty much pull in whereever you want. It’s not like there was much of an itinerary. Eric had told us there were a lot of mussels in the area and Leigh still had the mussel fix. So we stopped, Leigh got in her swim suit and started picking some huge mussels off the rocks and I went for a swim. There was only one couple on the otherside of the beach and I figured, I’ll never see them again so I just went skinny dipping.

It was great. So liberating. I swam around a cliff and found an inlet which I climbed up on. There were some huge rocks with grassy heads of hair, the light sea grass that’s almost fur. It was neat. I climbed a little bit more and felt like a kid again climbing rocks naked. I’m sure I looked quite funny had there been any onlookers.

5p-We shoved off from Observation Bay after I put clothes on and we bagged all the mussels. We came into Te Pukatea Bay where we were to camp that night. We set up camp and then discovered that the kitchen set we rented from the kayak place did not include a cooker. Conn and Vickie, the tasmanian and brit, said we could borrow thiers that night which was very nice of them. They were cool people. They walked up to Anchorage, the next bay over, cause there were flush toilets and filtered water there. We followed about halfway, then realized we had plenty of water and really didn’t need to go to the bathroom. So we walked back and I went skinny dipping again. The water was cold, but once you go numb, you’re fine.

7p-We boiled the mussels in a pot and removed them from the shells. We had about 50. In most of them, you could find little crabs which had been half digested. It was very strange. And when mine started crunching when I ate them I was done. I ate about 10. Leigh prolly ate about 30 before she couldn’t eat anymore. We also made tortellini cause I couldn’t just eat mussels. I have to admit though, for wild picked mussels, they weren’t all that bad.

9p-Early to bed, but we were tired and it was too dark to see anymore anyway. It was a very cold sleep that night. My bag was pretty warm, but Leigh’s isn’t made for cold weather, so we snuggled close for warmth.

Day2: 8a-Woke up and packed up the tent and bags in the kayak. Ate some soup and were out on the water by 9a. It was a very cool feeling having everything you need in that kayak and having the freedom to roam wherever you wish, and to go places you couldn’t get to just by hiking. Leigh even said she was enjoying it more then she thought she would. (Not so big on the camping)

10a-Stopped in Anchorage to fill up on clean water and use the flush toilets. I also asked the warden there if there was a phone nearby. She said there was a phone in the next bay over, Torrent Bay.

12p-Stopped at Torrent Bay, found the phone and called Kaiteriteri Kayaks by the brochure I had. I told them about the cooker situation and they apologized and and said they’d drop it off in Onetahuti with my hiking shoes that day.

1p-We were trying to get to Barks Bay, but we overshot it into Mosquito Bay, then went back to Bark Bay and set up camp. The plan was to drop off all the stuff we didn’t want to walk with, kayak to Onetahuti, drop off the kayak and pick up my shoes, then walk back to Barks Bay.

2p-Left for Tonga Island where there’s a seal colony. Saw lots of seals laying on the rocks and swimming and took some pictures. Suddenly, we heard a “Fsshtt!” off to one side of the boat. We looked and nothing was there, then another one on the other side. We just caught the curved dorsal fin. It was a dolphin.

We soon realized that we were surrounded by a pod of dolphins. They were almost circling us. It was an overcast day and the water was dark, so you could only see them when they came up for air. It was actually quite eerie. You’d never know where they were going to come up next, and only meters away. They were big too and deep dark blue. Nothing like Cali dolphins. That was a very cool experience and I even saw one jump completely out of the water in the distance. Deadly!

3:15p-cruised into Onetahuti to drop off the kayak. We were kind of sorry to see it go. We had gotten really good at bringing it in and setting it out. We had a good teamwork system going on. Next to the Camp sign, I found a bag with my hiking shoes in it, the cooker, some chocolate bars, and a note saying, “Sorry mate. Hope you’ll accept these bribes.” We hiked back to Bark Bay which was only a couple of hours.

6p-Arrived at Bark Bay, made some dinner, pasta of course. Talked and shared stories and played some Sh!# Head. Also walked on the beach a little bit.

11p-Leigh went to bed, I stayed up to look at the stars which were beautiful. Weird seeing a totally different sky though, no constellations I could recognize. Then I went to bed. It wasn’t quite so cold this night.

Day 3: 8:30a-woke up and ate breakfast.

9:15-I forgot to bring the bag my shoes were in with us, so we stuffed all the tent and sleeping bags and everything we didn’t need to hike into the germans’ bag and placed that out by the camp sign to be picked up by the guides.

9:45a-We set out hiking. The goal was to get to Marahua, basically back to the start, by 4p to catch a bus to Kaiteriteri. It had been moderately chilly the last couple of days, but the day we hike, of course the sun is going to belt down upon us. It’s nice walking around in New Zealand cause it’s a very aviary place. There are no predators to worry about. The biggest mammal is the possum.

So many birds though and a lot of sandflies which will bite the crap out of you if you don’t have repellant, which we did thankfully. There’s a bird here called the Tui, also a beer, which has two voice boxes. They’re everywhere and it makes a very pretty call. Like a duet from one bird.

12:30-Ran into german girl and Danish guy, James. We sat and had lunch, which was a sandwhich and some chips.

1:15p-Arrived at Anchorage and realized that Marahua was still 3.5 hours away. We weren’t going to make it in time. So we decided to go down to Anchorage and hang out until the next water taxi came in and take that to Marahua and eat the $25 bucks it costs.

We ran into Conn and Vickie who were laying out on the beach. We told them the news and they decided to hoof it anyway and try to make the bus. We sunned on the beach and hung out till 4p when we got a taxi straight to Kaiteriteri. Turns out Conn and Vickie and the German guys made it, but they ran most of the way. We got our stuff out of the bag we had put it in, got our car and headed back to Nelson. Ahh, what an awesome trip that was.

6p-Made it in time for free soup at the hostel. Hung out in the sauna, pool, hottub, and got people to go naked again. Good times. Later on, after a much needed shower and dinner, I stayed up talking to some Danish girls who offered me vodka and coke. I can never resist the vodka.

Later, they were heading out to a bar. I was invited but knew I had to get up early, so I declined. Will meet up with them again in Queenstown though.

Drove to Westport and had lunch there. Decided to drive up to Karamea and see the Oparara Basin and arches. It was a horribly windy road and the last 45 minutes were uphill on gravel. Poor Mo was feeling the pain. But he made it! We kept thinking, this better be worth it! But it was. We walked across this well laid track through jungle along a red river. We found out later that the tanin in the red bark of the trees seeped into the river and gave it the deep red color. It wasn’t poison, just red.

We were walking along and suddenly looked up to see this huge stone archway into a long tunnel. The trees masked everything to the very last moment, it was quite cool. Took a good many pictures there. We wandered off the path, into the cave and it was huge. The red river flowed right through it.

After that, we drove back to Westport and were going to make dinner, when a Danish couple offered us the remaining ingredients of their tacos. I happily accepted. Leigh ate some of it, but had some pasta as well. I ate the rest. Can’t let food go to waste you know. I played a game of Rummikub which they had just taught me how to play. I lost, but it was still fun.

Sigh, finally made it to 11/20, today. We had reserved a rafting trip the day before, so we got up early for that. Before we left, I made my reservations to go ice climbing on the Franz Josef glacier. That’s right, ice climbing! That’s gonna be freakin deadly!

We drove out to the Buller river and met a Danish family we were going to be rafting with. We took a really long bus ride out to where we would be rafting and met up with our guide, Marty. He asked me if we wanted to be a bit more adventurous, we could go in the mini raft for just two people. I said sure! By this point, we were seasoned kayakers, so I had faith we could do it. All that experience in Abel Tasman and the Cormandel Peninisula really paid off on the river too. We got in our wet suits, booties, and helmets and got on the river. He gave us some quick instruction and told us some hand signals to watch for. The danish family was in the big raft and we followed behind in the smaller raft. Leigh was in front rowing and I was in back rowing and steering. We worked quite well together. The rapids were really fun too.

There was one which was just 3 giant waves one after the other and on the last wave, I saw a huge rock wall on the other side of it. Not wanting to hit that wall, I turned us to the side, hoping we could skip across the side of the wave. Oh we skipped across it alright, and out of our raft. Plunge, suddenly, I was in the water. I came up and took a breath, grabbed my paddle in front of me and looked for the raft. I grabbed onto it and looked for Leigh who was right next to me.

Thankfully, we had practiced getting flipped over, so I grabbed the raft and flipped it back over. Got on the other side of the raft and told Leigh to hold on. I got myself up into the raft and then helped her in. We had made it and it was freakin great! Cheesy smiles the whole way as they say down here. I got some good pics of it too!

There was also a part, where you could swim through the rapids, so we tied the boats together, jumped out into the water and floated through. I swallowed a bit of water, but it was still fun.

Man, I tell ya, through kayaking, sledging, and rafting, I think I’ve put this Lasik thing to the test and it’s fantastic! I’m so happy I did it. There was also a 7m rock you could jump off of which was fun as well. Good times. I am checking a bunch of stuff off on this trip.

We left from rafting and headed down to Greymouth. On the way, we picked up a French hitchiker named Marc. He was very nice and we talked along the drive. We stopped at Paparoa National park to see the coastline, the pancake rocks and the blowhole. The Pancake rocks were very interesting. They’re not quite sure how they were formed. but they’re just huge stacks and pancake looking rocks all over the coastal cliffs.

We then hit the road again to Greymouth and found this cool hostel with some really neat interior design. Tomorrow we head for Franz Josef. Atlast, this is done and I am hungry! Gnite!

YES! I just booked a 3 day kayak and hiking excursion starting tomorrow morning.

We’re going to kayak unguided through Abel Tasman National Park and see seals and all sorts of cool beaches and wild life, then hike back, camping on the beach along the way. Glad I brought my tent. This is gonna be awesome

Oi, what a ride. That ferry was pretty awful. It was moving along quite fast and was kicking the boat up and down much more then I expected. You look out the window and it was literally ocean, land, sky, land, ocean. It was bad. Leigh is much more motion sick then I am and so she got it first and i had to go back below deck to the car to get some pills for her. By the time I got back up, I was feeling it as well and took one too. Not sure if it helped at all. I went up on deck and took a nap. Figured I can’t be sick if I’m asleep.

When I woke up, there were rocks off the bow and we were coming into the South Island. It was amazing; almost like coming into Jurassic Park, so much untamed wild jutting up from the water.

After we landed in Picton, we got on the road to Nelson. Now that we were rocked plenty up and down, let’s go side to side on km after km of winding roads. Didn’t help Leigh much I must say, but no one vomitted, so that’s good.

Got to Nelson and am staying at Paradiso hostel which is super nice. It’s got a salt water pool, a jacuzzi, and suana. Freakin sweet. Depending on weather, we may or may not go kayaking tomorrow. There’s heaps to do here. I’ll keep you posted.