Hey,
Today is my last day in New Zealand. I'm in Christchurch right now after a week of camping and climbing in Castle Hill waiting to head to the airport for my 6:45 flight to Sydney.
Castle Hill was a pretty good way to end my time here. I met some friendly people at the campsite that turned out to be climbers and we hung out for the week. Michal and Elias, from Israel and Austria, respectively, made my time at the campsite and climbing areas much more comfortable and enjoyable than they would have been otherwise. With two cool climbing partners, we went out to the boulders every day from Sunday to Thursday. I didn't climb particularly hard while I was there, in part because it took me until Thursday to get the feel of how to climb in the area and also because the rocks were so barren of holds that it seemed like everything was either a V1 (easy) or V8 (very hard). No complaints though. I worked on improving my mental state while climbing and pushed myself in different ways. The scenery there was top notch. Apparently, part of The Chronicles of Narnia was filmed at Flock Hill, which was one of the bouldering areas.
In Sydney, I have about a week before my Oz Experience bus pass starts so I think I'll try to get out to the Blue Mountains for a few days for some sight seeing and climbing. My plan for after that is to head up the east coast to Cairns, stopping along the way. It sounds like Byron Bay, Frasier Island, the Whitsundays, maybe Magnetic Island, and Cairns are the main places to check out. After that, I'll head to Alice Springs for a few days to see that place and then Uluru, or Ayers Rock, which is the big rock in the middle of Australia, before flying to Sydney and then home to SFO.
Leaving NZ feels like my trip is about over, but I still have over a month to go. Looking forward to the rest of my trip and also to seeing everybody when I get back.
Talk to you soon,
Andy
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Christchurch HO!!!
Hey everybody (or you, if there's just one person reading this),
I'm in Christchurch right now, which is on the east side of the south island, right about in the middle. Since I last wrote, I've gone down the west coast down to Queenstown and then back up the middle/east side to get to where I am now. On the way down to Queenstown, Sean and I stopped at a couple cities, Wanaka and Franz Joseph.
Our first stop after Greymouth was Franz Joseph, which is the home of a GLACIER!! In the JUNGLE!! It doesn't look all that great in the rain though, which was how we saw it on that first afternoon. I did get to pick up a big block of ice though, that was cool. Oh, another thing, and I can show everyone (you) all pictures of this when I get back, glacier water is teal, not the usual blue that I associate with streams and rivers. We passed by a bunch of rivers fed by the glaciers in the area and they looked like someone dyed them with food coloring. Almost like the Sharks' old uniforms' color. Amazing. At the hostel, Sean and I met three cool English guys that we would end up seeing again in Wanaka and Queenstown, which happens when there is one road to take and the city centers might be 5 streets wide. After a nice night of hanging out, listening to stories about English stuff, and watching some TV (Back to the Future 2, thank you very much. GREAT SCOTT!!) we fell asleep to silence as the rain had finally stopped.
Luckily, the next morning was clear as a bell and Sean and I saw both the Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers. Actually being able to see them and see how large they were was much more satisfying that using my imagination. Soon enough though, the clouds started coming in so we hightailed it for Wanaka. The weather down here will go from rainy to sunny to rainy 5 times a day sometimes.
Wanaka was awesome. It had a beautiful lake and small beach that was the perfect scenery for us to unwind. It also had Puzzleworld. Very awesome. All kinds of illusions and 3D pictures. Now after hearing about that, I bet you can't believe that there was something even cooler there, but there was. Possibly the coolest part was the huge maze they had outside. There were a few acres covered by 6 foot tall walls that made up pathways--it felt like being in one of those mazes they have on kids' menus at restaurants. The goal was to get to the four corners in a certain order and took about 1 1/2 hours. It was worth the effort.
After Wanaka, we made it to Queenstown, which reminded me of Mt. Shasta, but with the lake right in town and more mountains for skiing. As I said earlier, we ran into the English guys there along with Rabea, who if I haven't mentioned her yet, is a German tourist that Sean and I met on the Interislander ship. Small country. Queenstown is the adventure capitol of the country with: bungee jumping, paragliding, parasailing, THE LUGE (which I missed out on this time, dang), mountain biking and tons of other stuff. It also has Fergburgers, which are hamburgers that are simply great. Aioli sauce, big patties, good bread. Yeah, I had a couple and they were good. The highlight of my stay in Queenstown, though, was the mountain biking. There was an area about 7 miles from town, inventively named 7 Mile Track, that had all sorts of burms, jumps, and wooden bridges. It was like something out of the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Lucky for me, there was a mountain bike club meeting that day and for $10 I got lunch and some instruction on how to get better at biking. Now, I'd like to say that by the end of the day I was tearing through the burms and jumping everything, but I can't. I was getting better though and now I know how to keep improving at home.
Funny story.
I went to Milford Sound for a day, which was quite excellent and incredible, and met a Scottish girl on the boat that took us out into the sounds. We made plans to make some dinner that night at her hostel. I ran to the store after the bus dropped me off and headed for her building (building A). She wasn't there. Noone knew who I was talking about. It seemed like I was out of luck in finding her, so I asked if I could just cook my chicken there because everyone seemed pretty cool and friendly. They said sure. As it turned out, I hung out with them for the rest of the night (St. Patrick's day) and all day the next day. Lucky me how that turned out.
After that, I took an 8 hour bus ride to Christchurch, met up with Rabea (again) and a friend of hers who took me to The Cave, a local climbing wall that completely shut me down. It was shaped like a quarter circle it was so overhanging. I ended up staying the night at the friend's house and getting travel plans set up the next day. My plan for this week is to make it out to Castle Hill, which is a bouldering area about an hour from here, and climb for a while. This trip has been great, but I need some physical activity and climbing.
Tomorrow might be a good climbing day.
See ya later.
Andy
I'm in Christchurch right now, which is on the east side of the south island, right about in the middle. Since I last wrote, I've gone down the west coast down to Queenstown and then back up the middle/east side to get to where I am now. On the way down to Queenstown, Sean and I stopped at a couple cities, Wanaka and Franz Joseph.
Our first stop after Greymouth was Franz Joseph, which is the home of a GLACIER!! In the JUNGLE!! It doesn't look all that great in the rain though, which was how we saw it on that first afternoon. I did get to pick up a big block of ice though, that was cool. Oh, another thing, and I can show everyone (you) all pictures of this when I get back, glacier water is teal, not the usual blue that I associate with streams and rivers. We passed by a bunch of rivers fed by the glaciers in the area and they looked like someone dyed them with food coloring. Almost like the Sharks' old uniforms' color. Amazing. At the hostel, Sean and I met three cool English guys that we would end up seeing again in Wanaka and Queenstown, which happens when there is one road to take and the city centers might be 5 streets wide. After a nice night of hanging out, listening to stories about English stuff, and watching some TV (Back to the Future 2, thank you very much. GREAT SCOTT!!) we fell asleep to silence as the rain had finally stopped.
Luckily, the next morning was clear as a bell and Sean and I saw both the Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers. Actually being able to see them and see how large they were was much more satisfying that using my imagination. Soon enough though, the clouds started coming in so we hightailed it for Wanaka. The weather down here will go from rainy to sunny to rainy 5 times a day sometimes.
Wanaka was awesome. It had a beautiful lake and small beach that was the perfect scenery for us to unwind. It also had Puzzleworld. Very awesome. All kinds of illusions and 3D pictures. Now after hearing about that, I bet you can't believe that there was something even cooler there, but there was. Possibly the coolest part was the huge maze they had outside. There were a few acres covered by 6 foot tall walls that made up pathways--it felt like being in one of those mazes they have on kids' menus at restaurants. The goal was to get to the four corners in a certain order and took about 1 1/2 hours. It was worth the effort.
After Wanaka, we made it to Queenstown, which reminded me of Mt. Shasta, but with the lake right in town and more mountains for skiing. As I said earlier, we ran into the English guys there along with Rabea, who if I haven't mentioned her yet, is a German tourist that Sean and I met on the Interislander ship. Small country. Queenstown is the adventure capitol of the country with: bungee jumping, paragliding, parasailing, THE LUGE (which I missed out on this time, dang), mountain biking and tons of other stuff. It also has Fergburgers, which are hamburgers that are simply great. Aioli sauce, big patties, good bread. Yeah, I had a couple and they were good. The highlight of my stay in Queenstown, though, was the mountain biking. There was an area about 7 miles from town, inventively named 7 Mile Track, that had all sorts of burms, jumps, and wooden bridges. It was like something out of the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Lucky for me, there was a mountain bike club meeting that day and for $10 I got lunch and some instruction on how to get better at biking. Now, I'd like to say that by the end of the day I was tearing through the burms and jumping everything, but I can't. I was getting better though and now I know how to keep improving at home.
Funny story.
I went to Milford Sound for a day, which was quite excellent and incredible, and met a Scottish girl on the boat that took us out into the sounds. We made plans to make some dinner that night at her hostel. I ran to the store after the bus dropped me off and headed for her building (building A). She wasn't there. Noone knew who I was talking about. It seemed like I was out of luck in finding her, so I asked if I could just cook my chicken there because everyone seemed pretty cool and friendly. They said sure. As it turned out, I hung out with them for the rest of the night (St. Patrick's day) and all day the next day. Lucky me how that turned out.
After that, I took an 8 hour bus ride to Christchurch, met up with Rabea (again) and a friend of hers who took me to The Cave, a local climbing wall that completely shut me down. It was shaped like a quarter circle it was so overhanging. I ended up staying the night at the friend's house and getting travel plans set up the next day. My plan for this week is to make it out to Castle Hill, which is a bouldering area about an hour from here, and climb for a while. This trip has been great, but I need some physical activity and climbing.
Tomorrow might be a good climbing day.
See ya later.
Andy
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Greymouth, NZ South Island
It's been a little while since my last post, and this one would have been up yesterday if the internet hadn't cut me off right before I hit "publish post." Oh, well.
Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to since Rotorua:
--The next stop for Cardiff and myself was Taupo, which is slightly south of Rotorua and was the site of an Ironman race while we were there. We watched for parts of it and it was impressive thinking about how some of the competitors were moving for about 14 hours in a row. The two of us decided to be active by going mountain biking at the Craters of the Moon park, which was a few km out of the city. About 2 hours, some bad directions, a wrong turn, a fall, and a lot of wind and rain later, our intrepid American duo made it to the bike paths. It was extremely worth all of the effort to get there. They had hours of pristine single track set up for us, complete with wooden obstacles at points and rating systems for the trails. The biking might be the highlight of my trip so far because of what we had to do to get there.
--After Taupo, we headed to Napier, which is on the east coast of the north island and near Hamilton, where Cardiff's job was going to begin the next day (Monday). We spent what ended up being our last day together eating and playing some hackey sack.
--The next day, after Cardiff left for work and my prospects for work in town seemed bleak, I took a walk down the beach. On my way back, I ran into a guy parked on the beach who was heading down to Wellington (where the Interislander ferry leaves for the south island) which was where I wanted to go. He said he'd give me a ride, so I got my stuff and we headed out. His name is Sean and he's from Santa Barbara! We made it down to Wellington that night after doing a little bit of wine tasting as we traveled, as the area around Napier is famous for its wine.
--We spent a few days in Wellington together waiting for our ferry to leave. I wanted to visit my friend Lindsay, who is working at a winery in a nearby town, but because of weird train scheduling, it didn't happen. Wellington felt a lot like San Francisco because it is right on the water and has some culture.
--The ferry ride was quite nice and scenic and took about 3 hours, during which time it was sunny, windy, and rainy. The conditions changed about every 15 minutes, with the exception of the wind, which was constant.
--Our next destination was Nelson, about 3 hours away on a very scenic drive along the north coast of the south island. It was so scenic that by the time we got there, we were tired of the beautiful mountain and bay views. On the ferry, we met a German tourist named Radea who was heading in the same direction that we were, so we gave her a lift.
--The hostel in Nelson was great. They had free soup for dinner, free cereal and toast for breakfast, a hot tub, a spa, a pool, and cool lofted areas throughtout the building for hanging out and using the internet that felt like tree houses.
--The next day I tried looking for a fruit picking job, which turned out to be fruitless (haha) because I needed a work permit, which I couldn't get without a bank account number, which I couldn't get without a semi permanent New Zealand address for them to send the info to. So, unless something happens, it looks like I don't have to worry about getting a job here, which is kind of nice.
Well, the timer says i have 20 seconds so I'd better go.
Talk to you soon.
Andy
Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to since Rotorua:
--The next stop for Cardiff and myself was Taupo, which is slightly south of Rotorua and was the site of an Ironman race while we were there. We watched for parts of it and it was impressive thinking about how some of the competitors were moving for about 14 hours in a row. The two of us decided to be active by going mountain biking at the Craters of the Moon park, which was a few km out of the city. About 2 hours, some bad directions, a wrong turn, a fall, and a lot of wind and rain later, our intrepid American duo made it to the bike paths. It was extremely worth all of the effort to get there. They had hours of pristine single track set up for us, complete with wooden obstacles at points and rating systems for the trails. The biking might be the highlight of my trip so far because of what we had to do to get there.
--After Taupo, we headed to Napier, which is on the east coast of the north island and near Hamilton, where Cardiff's job was going to begin the next day (Monday). We spent what ended up being our last day together eating and playing some hackey sack.
--The next day, after Cardiff left for work and my prospects for work in town seemed bleak, I took a walk down the beach. On my way back, I ran into a guy parked on the beach who was heading down to Wellington (where the Interislander ferry leaves for the south island) which was where I wanted to go. He said he'd give me a ride, so I got my stuff and we headed out. His name is Sean and he's from Santa Barbara! We made it down to Wellington that night after doing a little bit of wine tasting as we traveled, as the area around Napier is famous for its wine.
--We spent a few days in Wellington together waiting for our ferry to leave. I wanted to visit my friend Lindsay, who is working at a winery in a nearby town, but because of weird train scheduling, it didn't happen. Wellington felt a lot like San Francisco because it is right on the water and has some culture.
--The ferry ride was quite nice and scenic and took about 3 hours, during which time it was sunny, windy, and rainy. The conditions changed about every 15 minutes, with the exception of the wind, which was constant.
--Our next destination was Nelson, about 3 hours away on a very scenic drive along the north coast of the south island. It was so scenic that by the time we got there, we were tired of the beautiful mountain and bay views. On the ferry, we met a German tourist named Radea who was heading in the same direction that we were, so we gave her a lift.
--The hostel in Nelson was great. They had free soup for dinner, free cereal and toast for breakfast, a hot tub, a spa, a pool, and cool lofted areas throughtout the building for hanging out and using the internet that felt like tree houses.
--The next day I tried looking for a fruit picking job, which turned out to be fruitless (haha) because I needed a work permit, which I couldn't get without a bank account number, which I couldn't get without a semi permanent New Zealand address for them to send the info to. So, unless something happens, it looks like I don't have to worry about getting a job here, which is kind of nice.
Well, the timer says i have 20 seconds so I'd better go.
Talk to you soon.
Andy
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