So Long to Godzone

Last night in Auckland tonight, and decided to do a bloggy night instead of getting plastered. Figured should save some energy for Melbourne, where Tadhog and I are headed next. A review of the past couple days:

6/9: Went up to Kahoe Farms hostel further north from the Bay of Islands. As soon as we got out of Paihia, the sun appeared and we finally got the warmer weather I'd been hoping for. The hostel was a brilliant place, owned by an Italian guy who made us the only good pizza I've had since arriving in NZ, and let us play on his X-box for much of the night. It was sweet as.

6/10: Drove up to Cape Reinga, one of the northernmost points of the North Island, and saw a few beaches along the way, including Ninety Mile beach, which is not actually 90 miles long (more like 90 km), but is still pretty awesome. It's got giant sand dunes that you can toboggan down, and Tadhog and I did just that. Only once though, since we were borrowing the toboggan and didn't feel like hiking up the sand dune more than once (it was really kinda steep).

6/11: Drove back down to Auckland. Armed with the knowledge that I gained from my last visit (that Auckland's CBD is a little on the bland side), we opted to stay in Ponsonby, a nearby suburb which is about a 25 min walk from the city centre, and is a lot cooler than the CBD. The hostel's much nicer than the YHA I was in before, too.

6/12: I take my car to the backpacker's car market for attempt 1 at selling it. Since I put a fair amount into maintenance while I owned it, I decide to offer it for the same price I bought it at. However, since there are very, very few backpackers opting to arrive in NZ this time of year, a grand total of 4 people show up all day. This was a very boring and disheartening day for me, so I shan't write about it further.

6/13: I try taking the old girl to a local car fair. The locals scoff at the price I'm selling my car for, but one expresses interest at a severely discounted price. After a couple of hours, I agree to it since it's better than a) nothing and b) waiting around for another day and a half doing the same thing, and probably not getting a much better price for it. He feels a little bad for me I think since he takes me back to his house for tea and biscuits. Or maybe he didn't feel bad and that's just how they end transactions in NZ. In the afternoon, Tadhog and I go visit One Tree Hill (the namesake of the U2 song, which in turn I think is the namesake of that show on the WB). It's got some awesome panoramic views of Auckland, though it no longer has a tree at the top (was cut down in 2000 by a Maori activist for reasons you can partially read about here). At nighttime we go to a bar to see the All Blacks (national rugby team) play France. We're accompanied by a bunch of French people from the hostel, so they're in quite a better mood than most of the bar when the French eke out a narrow victory. Do a small bit of drinking around the town, then go home.

6/14: Yeah, I haven't actually done that much today besides a bit of shopping and seeing The Hangover with Tadhog. Kind of lame for my last day in NZ, I know, but I needed a break.

So tomorrow, I leave New Zealand. I'm going to miss this place a lot, and will be back some day. But, looking forward to my time in Australia, and the fun adventures and challenges that will await me back home.

Coming to the End of Things...

So I came to a realization recently the past week and a half, when I visited Mt. Doom, was amidst the volcano farts and thermal awesomeness of Rotorua, enjoyed the "eau de South Island" of Coromandel, and in the raininess that is currently the Bay of Islands (I'm sure there are some islands out there somewhere, I just can't see them...) - I'm almost done with this trip. I have 6 more days in NZ, the country that I've come to know as something like home for the past three months. After that, two weeks in Australia, which in a previous era of my life would have seemed like a huge amount, but now I'm reckoning will be barely enough to scratch the surface of the tip of the iceberg of Aussie culture. (Yes, I've gotten supremely spoiled having such a long period of time off.)

I've enjoyed my life in New Zealand, and there is a long, long list of things that I didn't manage to do while here that gives me a huge incentive to come back (in warmer weather!). There's a part of me that could even see myself returning at some point to Wellington, Dunedin, or Nelson in some sort of full-time employed position. But not at this point in my life.

When I first moved to NYC in late 2004 and very, very unsure about what I was getting myself into, I was given a sage piece of advice by a guy whose name I can't remember now, but he was one of Daisy's former roommates in Williamsburg, anyway - "The key to loving New York is leaving New York." I've been away from the city long enough to have a better grasp on why I would choose to live in such an expensive, dirty, crowded, prone-to-shitty-weather place to live.

1. A great group of friends and potential friends that are always around at any point that I choose to seek them out. By potential friends, I mean that person sitting on the subway across from you that's reading Sandman right after you got done reading it. Something I never realized before I moved to the city is that there is a HUGE amount of people out there with the same interests as me, and that often that Venn Diagram of interests intersects in many, many places. Seeing this, I became much, much more confident in myself and allowed my interests to flower in ways I never would have living in a rural area.
2. Living in NYC is the static equivalent of travelling. Travelling allows you to discover many new things about the world and about yourself, and meet lots of new people. NYC allows you to do lots of that as well to an impressively high extent. It's important to get out once in awhile, but you can almost always find something in NYC that you've never seen before, or meet someone who completely changes your perspective on life, if you're looking for it. So while travelling is maybe the best thing in life for figuring out things, NYC is the next best thing (that I've discovered) if you need to stay put and make money.

So, that's why I'm putting an end to my time in NZ for now. That, and winter has arrived, even in the "Winterless North" where I'm typing this blog post right now (it's warmer than the rest of NZ, but rainy as, as they would say). I need some warmer weather.

The plan from here, to finish up, is to head up to Cape Reinga, one of the northermost points in NZ, then to head to Auckland day after tomorrow to see some things, sell my car, then fly out to Melbourne. From there we'll head to Sydney via either the outback or the coast, depending on how much Tadhog wants to drive. On the 29th of June, I'll fly to LA, see two of my favorite redheads in the world for a few days, then be back in NYC in time for the 4th of July. I sure hope someone's having a party then...

Kia ora, mates...

12,000 feet

That's how high the plane was when I jumped today. Or, more accurately, how high my skydiving instructor Greg jumped while I was attached to him. Wow, that was an experience unlike anything I've encountered before. Not something that can really be put into words, but I'll give it a go - 8 of us (4 instructors, 4 newbies) plus the pilot go up in a small airplane that's really not much bigger than a suburban, get up to the desired altitude, strap ourselves to the instructor's front, then basically dangle ourselves out the hatch and wait for the instructor to jump. I experienced what seemed like about 5 seconds of sheer terror as my face hit a wall of air and the ground approached sickeningly fast, before my mind took over from my animal instincts and realized that, wait, this was all part of the plan. I laughed for a bit and enjoyed the descent. Supposedly it was about 45 seconds of freefall before the chute opened, but it really felt to me like maybe about 15 seconds. The parachute part to me was even cooler, as I could look around Lake Taupo, and all the volcanoes southward and westward. Of course, that's when I started experiencing a bit of motion sickness, as Greg started teaching me how to steer the parachute - spinny spinny spinny. I avoided making pavement pizza from 1000 feet up, however. A few minutes later, we landed, which was really much smoother than I thought it would be, a nice standing up landing (before I collapsed a second later due to dizziness). Not something I will probably be doing again anytime soon, but really glad I had that experience.

Oh, right, what came before:
Had a couple of sweet-as days in Wellington once Tadhog arrived. Was quite ready to end the solo portion of my trip, though it rocked the house while it lasted. We enjoyed the Wellington nightlife, exploring some bands, some hiking trails through various parks, and the Te Papa museum, the finest one I've seen in NZ yet.

From there, we made our way north to Napier, stopping in Martinborough to do some wine tasting (I spat most of mine since I was driving), having a nice little luncheon there. Napier was a good point of interest - in 1931 there was a devastating earthquake which basically flattened the town and caused about 40 square kilometers that was previously below sea level to rise above sea level. That latter effect actually wound up being a gain for Napier, as it gave the town much more room to expland. New buildings that went up to replace the old for the next 15-20 years or so were all built in the Art Deco style, making it one of the largest collections of Art Deco buildings on the planet (I think there's somewhere in Florida that might be a little larger). Cool place to walk around and relax. Tadhog and I also went on another wine tour (Napier's in yet another big wine region) aboard bikes (or push-bikes, in the local vernacular). While we didn't finish in record time (you know, you get distracted by good wine and beer and conversation), it was a grand old time.

Yesterday, arrived in Taupo, which is nestled by the lake of the same name, which is NZ's biggest lake. It's actually the caldera of a huge volcano, which last erupted in 186 AD. It blew out so much ash that Chinese and Romans at the time noticed the sky going red. So yeah, if it happens to go while we're in NZ, we're pretty screwed. But it's a nice town.

Tomorrow, going to investigate a local hot spring and waterfall, as well as have lunch with Sally, one of the ladies I hiked the Queen Charlotte Track with. After that, will head down to Tongariro National Park. Unfortunately, it's gotten way too cold and icy to do the Alpine Crossing without a pickaxe/crampons and a guide (which costs too much for my liking), which I was really looking forward to doing. But there's some lower-elevation hikes we can do, and we'll get to see Ruapehu and Ngaruhoe (Mt. Doom) up pretty close. After that, we're going to book it up north where it hopefully will get warmer. It's getting pretty cold in NZ - so much for my notions that it would be like San Francisco in the winter!

Welly

I left good weather behind on the south island apparently. The ferry ride from Picton was about as rough as a boat ride could probably be without actual damage or injuries, I think. I was doing OK, since I'd taken some Sealegs pills, but a good portion of the ship...well, it was sort of like that story from Stand By Me where everyone's throwing up. Even with modern medicine on my side though, I had to sort of lay down on the couch in the ship's bar and zone out.

But that aside, arrived in Wellington just fine. The weather has been positively Greymouthian with a side of near gale-force winds - I haven't seen the sun in about 5 days, and nearly had my glasses blown from my face a few times (I've gotten in the habit of just pocketing my glasses when I go outside - even if it's not windy, they'll get all rainified). Winter has definitely arrived in NZ.

That aside, I have gotten to do a few fun things, mainly of a museum nature. Did the Parliament tour yesterday, did a floor of Te Papa, the national museum (saving the rest so I can see with Green Raja after he arrives tomorrow evening), and occupied the NZ film archive for most of today (seeing Eagle vs. Shark and Black Sheep). Also walked up Mt. Victoria this morning, and while the views were a bit cloudy, it was highly invigorating walking up the top and getting blown about a bit by the wind! Tomorrow, other than picking up an Irishman at the airport, I'll check out the WETA museum (Peter Jackson's company's tourist trap - I can't resist, and it's free unless I buy lots of stuff), and if the weather's remotely nice, I'll go ride the cable car and see the Karori Sanctuary, where they're trying to restore a NZ-as-it-was-before-humans-screwed-it-up environment, with native flora and birds, and no predators like stoats or feral cats. (Yes, feral cats are actually a decently-sized problem here.)

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have more awesome adventures to report next post.

Top of the South, Part II

So conclusion after the past 10 days travelling through Golden Bay, the Abel Tasman region, and the Marlborough Sounds - I am definitely, 100% returning to NZ one day. This was pretty certain as it was, but I've had such an excellent week and a half that I find it hard to believe I wouldn't seek out this same experience one day. I'll find some time to post the backlog of pictures that I've accumulated once I get to Wellington (where there ought to be a decent internet cafe).

So, since I left Nelson:
May 11th: Drove up to Collingwood, the northernmost town in the South Island. On the way, stop at Te Waikoropupu springs (also known as Pupu Springs, a little ironic given how clear the water is), the largest freshwater springs in NZ and among the 100 largest in the world. Neat place. Also stopped at the Abel Tasman memorial. Neat place, rather boring monument. Collingwood is a town of 250 people, and I agreed with the Lonely Planet description that it felt sort of like the "edge of the world".

May 12th: Head up to Farewell Spit, which is pretty much a giant sandbar that juts about 30 km into Golden Bay at the very top of the island. Whales get confused a lot here and beach themselves. Also checked out Pillar Point, a lighthouse close to the northernmost point of the south island, and Wharakiri Beach, maybe the most beautiful beach I've seen in my life. Hang out with some seals and some cows that have strayed onto the beach from the nearby farm and watch the sunset.

May 13th: Planned to do nothing today, ended up walking the northern third of the Abel Tasman Coastal track instead, from Wainui to Mutton Cove and back. Ends up being about a 25 km walk. Had a nice brief chat with some kayaking Kiwis that were camping out, but mostly is a day of solitude.

May 14th: Drive down to Marahau (on the southern edge of Abel Tasman park) very early in the morning to catch the 9:00 water taxi, which takes me to Bark Bay in the park, and I walk the southern third of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. (I had plans to do the middle part of the track as well, but certain areas are only passable at two hours before and after low tide, which was at 6 am and 6 pm these days of early winter.) Very lovely beach views, like the day before, but this hike is also about 25 km, and I'm quite exhausted by day's end. Drive down to Motueka, about 15 km down the road and the biggest town in the area.

May 15th: This is my "do nothing" day, and I'm pretty successful - get my car tuned up for the first time since I bought it, which winds up not being too expensive. Also happens that a roving band of singer songwriters from Dunedin is in town playing that night, so check that out, and it's bloody brilliant. I love music.

May 16th: Drive to Picton, in northeastern corner of the south island at the head of the Marlborough Sounds. It's where I'll catch the ferry to Wellington and the north island on the 22nd. I'll be doing the Queen Charlotte Track, which is right the following four days. Stay at a totally awesome backpackers called Tombstone Backpackers (it's across the street from a cemetery) and meet a Canadian who's biking around NZ and making a documentary about it and a German that's travelling with him. Help is needed to film him tomorrow, and I am up to the challenge as long as it's early in the morning - I don't have to catch the boat to the track until 9 am.

May 17th: My stint in filming goes well, I think, despite the rainy morning. Catch the boat out to Ship's Cove at the beginning of the track, manage to avoid getting seasick despite the rough waters (though it was pretty close). Hang out at Ship Cove for a bit - this place is where Captain Cook landed quite a few times during his voyages, meeting Maori and trying to cure his crew of the scurvy. On my way out of Ship Cove, I come across two Kiwi ladies, Sally and Pep, whom I soon find out are staying at the same places I am for the next three nights. Side note: The Queen Charlotte Track is one of two multi-day tracks where there are private accommodations along the way, meaning you can get a shower and a nice meal at hotel accommodations (I opted for the cheapo backpacker rooms). I walk with them for a bit and we're pretty much insta-buddies. Along the way we see a mom and dad weka feeding their baby. You can kind of understand why weka are semi-endangered, as if we'd been individuals with malicious intent, we could have easily snatched the baby from the parents as they dug for grubs. We stay at Furneaux Lodge on the eastern side of Endeavour Inlet. Since it's very much the tourist off-season in NZ, it's pretty much the three of us and the staff (who were super-friendly to us, though possibly partially out of boredom, but hey, they were cool anyway), so it's a fun time in the bar that night. As we wander out of the bar around 9:30 to call it an early night (as one does generally when one hikes all day), I hear pretty much the most unnerving sound one can hear when it's pitch black out: the sound of a wild pig screaming followed by a splash. Of course, I didn't realize that it was a pig fleeing from me for a second or two - for all I knew Nessie had relocated to NZ. Laughing it off and changing my underwear, I retired.

May 18th: This would be the shortest day, but also the most precipitatious - five minutes in, there is honest-to-god hail. This lasts for only about a minute, but the rain lasts pretty much the whole hike. Fortunately, it's pretty flat this day. Punga Cove Resort has probably the best views of the three hotels on this hike, but probably is my least favorite - spa wasn't hot at all (disappointing after a cold rainy hike), and food and drink at the restaurant were a bit overpriced.

May 19th: Longest hike today, but also some of the best views. Finally make it all the way around Endeavour Inlet, and clear views for most of the hike of both Queen Charlotte Sound, Kenepuru Sound, and Picton. Get to see the Wellington ferry leaving Picton, too, which is pretty nifty. Around 25 km later, we arrive in Portage, which is where Maori and Pakeha (Europeans) used to carry their canoes overland from sound to sound. The Portage Resort has a working spa, so the three of us get a bottle of wine and proceed to drink it in the spa, which makes us a little silly. When we eat dinner, we get a little sillier, and possibly causes the waiter to not offer us dessert (that was our theory, anyway). Good times.

May 20th: Pep and Sally need to catch an earlier boat than me, so I opt to sleep in a bit and catch them in Picton that evening instead of hiking with them. The beginning is the steepest climb yet, and results in the best views of the hike, in my opinion. After that climb though, I'm pretty much just running the rest of the hike, making few stops, and end up at the wharf where I meet the return boat to Picton about two hours early. I hang out and manage to actually get an earlier boat. Meet Pep and Sally for dinner and drinks, and after exhausting Picton's Wednesday night options, we say goodbye and are back to our respective accommodations. Since they live in Taupo and that was on the list of places I'm visiting on the north island, will probably revisit them in two weeks or so.

Today's the 21st, and I'm doing pretty much nothing today besides writing this blog post. Tomorrow I catch the ferry to Wellington, a three hour trip across the Cook Strait. I'll be there until the 28th or so. The 26th, Tadhog arrives, and so my solo journeys will come to an end. It's been fun travelling alone, but it will be good to have a dedicated partner in crime.

...And, a little promo...

Since my good pal Tadhog is meeting up with me in Wellington starting the 26th of May to do a whirlwind of the North Island (and then some of Australia), and we used to be in a band together, we thought we'd do a Flight of the Conchords type promotion. Here's a lovely t-shirt image we put together:

Top of the South!

When I last wrote, I was in Greymouth on the West Coast. Pretty much nothing happened the week that I was in Greymouth. It's the largest town in what was formerly NZ's Coal Belt, and now that the coal is more or less tapped out from the hills, the area's in some decline. Tourism's not super huge here - compared to places that are a day's drive away, Greymouth is, well, kind of ugly (at least, compared to the rest of NZ - by many other countries' standards it would be quite nice). And it rains quite a lot - the west coast is one of the rainiest areas in the world, and it rained 3/4 of the days I was there. It is the largest city in the area at 13,000 souls though, and it's the terminus of the Tranz-Alpine railway that crosses the southern Alps and ends at Christchurch, so visitors tend to spend a night in town and then move on to the glaciers southward, or head up north to Nelson and the Marlborough wine country.

So, after helping out at the hostel and watching a crapload of movies and Grey's Anatomy in my flat, I moved northward to Nelson Lakes to get another taste of the mountains. St. Arnaud is a cute little town, and had a good deal of hiking. I did a three hour hike up Mt. Robert, which was one of the most rewarding short hikes I've ever done in terms of amount of effort (not much) per ounce of awesomeness (lots). There was a decent amount of snow at the top, so Todd (a fine young American who I picked up in Greymouth) and I built a little snowman there. Perhaps he is still there even now. The snowman, not Todd. I dropped Todd off in Picton the next day and totally did not commit murder on a mountain top. I can't stress that enough.

After Nelson Lakes and the drop off in Picton (from where I will take a ferry into Wellington and the North Island in a week and a half), I spent the night in Blenheim and went on a tour of four wineries. Blenheim and the Marlborough wine district is world-renowned for their sauvignon blanc, something to do with how the soil is makes it super smooth and tasty. Their other wines are pretty good, too. So that tour was pretty nice, and I was pretty happy after that :D

Blenheim didn't have much beyond wine, so I moved onto Nelson (City), one of NZ's oldest cities. Old isn't exactly a good adjective for it, though - the oldest intact street is here, and it's from 1863. New Zealand's really a baby. Kind of makes me want to find the nearest Kiwi and pinch his/her cheek. I recommend you reading at home try and find a Kiwi to do this to as well. Anyway, I digress. Nelson's a very nice town, all sorts of cafes and bars and sunshine and all those things that would make a yuppie like me happy to live here if I were staying in NZ permanently...except for one thing. We've hit what's called the shoulder season, when all the tourists have effectively cleared out, and tourists make up a significant portion of the population you would see on the streets at day and night. A Canadian girl I met in Greymouth told me previously that Nelson was pretty awesome in the summer, but as of mid-April pretty much empties out until October. Much of NZ is like this, unfortunately (though the mountainy areas, like Queenstown, get heaps of ski traffic starting in June). Oh well - if I do come back, I'll revisit Nelson, and it'll be in the summer.

So, from here, I have a couple of stops I'll be making before I head up to Wellington. Golden Bay, the land of naked hippies and sunshine (so the guidebooks assure me). Abel Tasman, land of kayaks and sweet coastline hiking. And the Queen Charlotte Track, land of even more sweet coastline hiking.

So long!