Oops

While booking my flights I was using an American calendar online and was planning on being home just before the may long weekend. However, the holiday I thought represented Victoria day was Memorial Day. Crap, I'll be exactly one week late. Doesn't really matter in the end I guess.

In other news here is the latest weather forecast for Queenstown. Anyone jealous?


This is out at Queenstown Gardens, I hang out here for lunch sometimes. I guess the view isn't bad.

The Last Leg

After much humming and hawing about what I was going to do on my way home I have decided and booked it. I will be leaving New Zealand on April 30th and head back to Sydney for a couple weeks to visit some friends there and in Wooloongong and hopefully some family in Canberra. I will then fly out of Sydney back to Auckland on May 15 then, crossing the date line, to Apia, Samoa for 5 days. I then fly from there to L.A. for a couple days and head home on the 22nd to Buffalo (lame town but really cheap to fly to). So, May 22nd I'll be home!

After all that my journey will look like this. 15 different flights on 6 different airlines and a lot of bags of peanuts.

Just Another Day at the Office

Today was awesome. As part of my job I tell people about the Milford track which is a 5 day hiking trip in which people walk to Milford sound. I always get asked how many times I've done it or when was the last time I've done it and sadly I always have to answer that despite the appearance that I'm experienced I have never actually hiked it or even seen it. No longer. Today I got to go check out the track via helicopter as I scored an empty seat while one of the track managers went out to pump shit into tanks or something (I wasn't involved in this).

I met Bill before sunrise at work and we headed out to the Queenstown airport. 6 of us squeezed into the 7 seater chopper and started up towards the Routeburn track, another track that we offer as a guided walk. Along the way we saw the sun rise hit the mountain tops and glaciers while zooming over mountains and valleys. Incredible is the only word I can think of. We dropped off 3 guys and then headed out to the Milford track to Glade house, the overnight stop along the track. Here we got a nice cooked breakfast with the guests and then Bill started his thing and I started out with the group and walked with them for a couple hours.

My ride sitting at Glade House.

A detour off the track to check out a bog.

An eel. This thing was at least 3 ft long and it was a "small" one. I'm skeptical.

Crossing the Clinton River.

Glade House looking back from the cable bridge.

When I came back Bill was still working so I went with Rico (the pilot) to deliver some stuff to other lodges from Milford Sound. Flying around was amazing. The pictures I took suck in comparison to what it really looked like.

We hooked this up to the chopper with the rope and flew it down the valley. It had oranges and stuff in it. Some fell out along the way b/c it started spinning alot. Bombs away.

Apparently this is the technique when lifting a "cage" of stuff, stick your head out the door.

The valley.

Sutherland Falls, 1904ft. Wow.

Nice valley.

This is coming up to Iceberg Lake, no icebergs though.

After we had delivered stuff we picked up some of our walkers and flew then to pick up Bill back at Glade House. The walkers pay 450 bones to fly back to Queenstown by chopper. Total cost to me for the day: $0. oh ya.

Queenstown Update

Alot has happened since my last post. I have found a place to live, started to work and got my laptop from Canada. Last Friday I moved across town to my own room in a hostel. It reminds me of living in rez by myself. The kitchen is down a couple floors so I find every reason not to go down there and just end up munching on anything edible in my room. The view out the window is great though and I'm only a 10 minute walk from work.

The view of which I speak with the Remarkables in the background.

Work has been a learning experience. I'm working for a hiking company that offers guided hikes along the Greenstone, Routeburn and Milford tracks down here. We send up to 50 people at a time on these hikes, usually about 75 people in total a day leave from our office to hit the trail. My actual job is to brief the people on what to bring which involves standing infront of up to 50 people at a time and giving them the spiel that yes, they have to bring thermal underwear. When I'm not in briefings I'm doing the paperwork associated with the whole thing. The first week has been a whirlwind with so much to remember and trying to make stuff up when people ask me specifics about the tracks b/c I haven't actually done them. But slowly it's coming together and I'm getting a grasp on it. I've signed up to do this job until the end of the season in April upon which I will begin my journey home. I still have a bit of NZ to see and have been throwing around the idea of going back to OZ for a couple weeks to visit some people and beaches that I missed last time. More on these plans later.

Getting my laptop was an ordeal. I hate waiting for stuff like this to come in the mail, it always seems to take forever. But here it is and it works great. Internet in my own room again... the luxuries.

seriously now

Hey, guess what? Ben and I met up on Tuesday over a Fergburger (more on this later) and a great view over the lake and compared stories about our NZ adventures. I'm staying here in Queenstown to work while he's heading back to the great white north to pursue a professional snowboarding career.

I got a job in town here working for a hiking company organizing hiking groups or something like that. I haven't actually started yet so I'll be able to give you better details later but as of now it sounds extremely similar to what I do at camp in the summer. However, I hope it's more organized and less stressful, they aren't paying me enough for it to be. Finding a job took a day but finding a place to live has deemed to be as Wayne would say "exponentially" more difficult. I have a few leads but as of now I'm still stuck in a hostel. It blows.

After spending a small fortune on feeding my internet addiction I decided to but a computer in Canada and have it sent over. I know what you're thinking "Rob, you must be able to buy a computer there.". This is true, however they cost like double for the same thing. I'm all about comparing prices and finding the deals, and this was the best one.

Oh, yesterday I awoke to seeing fresh snow on the ground! I thought it was summer here. The ground I saw the snow on though was really high on the top of mountains but still. 13 degrees still isn't cutting it. I have to go buy a sweater

Someone just dropped an SLR on the concrete floor here in the internet cafe and it shattered... that sucks.

The Nevis...

Last week a bunch of us from the bus booked to go on "The Nevis", a 134m bungy jump just outside of town in an area that more closely resembled Afghanistan than NZ. They say go big or go home so I opted in on the highest jump in NZ. The whole process took about 4 hours while the 8.5 second freefall into the valley floor almost gave me a heart attack. On the brightside I got a t-shirt and certificate (which will surely hang next to my degree) to prove I did it.

This is at the first ever bungy jump site (not the nevis). It's a wimpy 43m, I saw a bunch of rovers doing it for sectional.

Here I am, about to die.

This is THE NEVIS in all it's glory. This is actually my friend Julie jumping.

View of Middle Earth

Yesterday myself and a couple friends went and conquered a nearby mountain top. The view from 1750m was incredible but the 2.5hr walk uphill wasn't.