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.

Whoa, hold up..

Hey, you've missed a few things that I've done in the past little bit. Let me bring you up to speed.

To get to the south island you have to take a ferry, fly or be a really good swimmer. I opted for the 3 hour boat ride which was really nice and extremely windy. At one point I could lean into the wind and have it hold me up. The scenery was gorgeous, check it out.

Someone on the boat.

Cool sky over the north island.

Nicer weather on the south island.

This looked really nice even if it was through the bus window.

I traveled down towards the west coast where we stayed for a couple nights on a farm. I slept in my tent and really missed my thermarest and wanted to kill all the cows and roosters in the morning. The farm was right beside Abel Tasman National Park where I went on a sailing trip. The weather was perfect and the wind was up.

Anchorage bay


Split apple rock in Abel Tasman.


Sunset in Barrytown, a "town" of 40 people? more like Barry-no-town.


sorry about the small pictures, click on them, they should get bigger.

The Real N.Z.

About a week ago I headed to the south island and have been loving every minute of it. I've been traveling on the bus and have met so many people from all over the world. Some of them I've been with for over 2 weeks which has really been a blast. Most of it has been a whirl wind and I have lots to say and tons of pictures to show but right now I only have one memory card here so this is the most recent stuff. I'll fill in the blanks when the pace subsides a bit.

Last week I went on a cruise around Abel Tasman national park which was spectacular. We were on a really nice catamaran and had some solid wind so we got to throw up a jibbaker (jib and spinnaker combo) and really get the party started. I also saw a really nice sunset and hung out in a town of 40 people. I climbed the Franz Josef glacier and fell asleep on the bus. (pictures from these events will be posted shortly)

However, the past couple days have delivered the New Zealand that I have really been looking for. The scenery I have seen can only be rivaled by that of the Columbia river valley in B.C. I have been on sensory overload for the past 2 days, it's a good thing I'm not driving.

Lake Matheson with some sweet mountains. We didn't get here early enough for the perfect reflection but no one missed the 6am wakeup.

A typical westcoast beach. We looked for jade by picking up everything resembling green. None was found...

Jade? no, just some cool rocks.

This is what I came to see. How much for the mountain? I'll take two.

"Blue pools"
It reminded me so much of Chiniguchi. You could see huge rainbow trout swimming around. I attempted to kill one by throwing rocks but it didn't work. The water was freezing.

This is a plant we named "the stick tree". These must be the boringest plant in the world. The leaves look like twigs, with this one being fully foliated. I'm going to chop one of these down next Christmas and give it to Charlie Brown, he'd love it.

My friend Malin in Makarora.


Lake Wanaka.

A few of us wanted to go for a hike up one of the local mountains so we got ready and started walking. By the end our journey we had walked 2 hours along a road, got to the base of the mountain, realized it was all rose bushes, walked through a rabbit infested, poisoned field, walked to the beach, walked along a time line and eaten lunch.

The timeline was on bricks along the lakeshore. This one caught my eye as the stray bus seems to stop at every "New World" grocery store in the country.

Kia Ora

Rotoura
(Kia Ora - Hello in Maori) I am currently breathing lungs full of sulphur in Rotorua. It is a city built around hot springs and disgusting looking bubbling pools of mud. Every few minutes the wind will change direction bringing the sulphur stench with it. I can't wait to get out of here.

This is what I am talking about. These pools are everywhere.

This was the biggest pool/pond I found. I had to hold my breath. Some guy tried to convice me that breathing sulphur sulfur is good for your lungs, I don't buy it.

In an attempt to escape the sulphur contaminated air I left the city limits to check out Rotorua's other claim to fame - their luge track. Instead of ice and a sled there is concrete and a three wheeled plastic car. I hopped on a gondola up to the top of a small mountain then took off back down, it was a lot more fun than it looks. I could have luged all day.

My sweet ride.

The beginner track. There was very little in terms of safety barriers. On the advanced track I saw a kid eat it pretty bad after taking a corner way too fast, put the car on two wheels, and fly off the track, over a dirt barrier, and down a hill into some trees. I'm sure he bounced back.

Waitomo
A few days ago I went caving in Waitomo which sounds kind of lame but it blew away any notions of what I thought caving was going to be. I was under ground for over three hours, abseiling, climbing, and walking chest deep in underground streams. At one point I was pinned between the bottom of a stream and the roof of the cave trying to "squeeze" through a whole only slightler larger than my body. Small spaces combined with absolute darkness really messes with my head.

Me learning to abseil. I am pretty sure that if there is some kind of man eating monster on earth that it lives in that cave somewhere.

One of the stalactites hanging from the roof of the cave.

Kiwis at a kiwi farm outside Waitomo.

Auckland

Before Waitomo and Rotorua was Auckland. I stuck around in Auckland for a few days after Rob headed south and I decided to attend New Zealand's biggest tennis tournament (which really isn't that big), climbed a volcano, and toured the rest of the city.

Rangitoto Island. One of the volcanos that helped form Auckland. Its bigger than it looks, especially when you are climbing it in a 33 degree heat.

Auckland harbour at sunset - complete with the biggest yachts I have ever seen.

I moved down to the front row. No one noticed.