Southern hospitality

Spent the last couple days in Dunedin, second city of New Zealand located in the south east of the South Island. New Zealand has some of the damndest weather in the world I'll tell ya. Staying comfortable is impossible unless you are willing to throw on and off layers every 30 seconds all day long. One moment it's sunny, then windy, then rainy, then sunny and rainy at the same time (quite a favorite of the NZ climate) then every once in a long while you get a brief spell of fine weather as they call it when trying to predict the weather forecast which they do much worse a job of here than back home.



I met an Italian guy by the name of Michelangelo at this Hostel with some very friendly staff. We ate out at a fancy Italian restaurant where Christmas music played in the background sung by Italians. Michelangelo kept saying how much he missed his food back home and cannot even cook himself a proper Italian meal because the authentic ingredients cannot be gotten in New Zealand. While I enjoyed my mushroom sauce pasta very much, he complained his was not nearly up to snuff.



When one of the managers of the hostel overheard Michelangelo and I bemoaning the cost of renting a car she offered to lend us her car for the day, hence the title of this blog. People in New Zealand never cease to amaze me. So we drove around the scenic and wildlife abundant Otago Peninsula seeking out sea lions, penguins and albatross. These are the same birds that Shackleton saw in Antarctica in "Endurance" and a very small, windy tip of the Otago Peninsula is supposedly the only place in the world where you can see them. Watching them whirl around above me while the wind relentlessly whailed against the mountain cliff was quite an awe inspiring experience. Other seabirds would play in the wind letting themselves nearly get smashed against the cliff before managing to swoop up again. (of which I wasn't able to get a decent picture.)





Curious fur seal looks at me inquisitively.




Sealion comes ashore


Yellow Eyed penguin waddles up the beach to its nesting site.


Blue Penguins up close and personal.


We finished our day waiting with about 30 other people for the blue penguins to come ashore at nightfall. The Department of Conservation (DOC) setup an area for close viewing of the penguins without disturbing their evening routine as they come ashore to return to their nesting sites. Dozens upon dozens of these little penguins waddled ashore in several groups of about 18 penguins. Unfortunately it was too dark to get pictures (flash photography damages their eyes.) They were the cutest things in the world tho, especially when they'd try to hop up these little steps.

Milford Track and Milford Sound

The Milford Track was brilliant. Like I mentioned earlier, I was accompanied by a German by the name of Andreas who by luck of chance got a booking on the track 4 days prior to his booking date, which happened to be the same date I booked months ago. It was his first time doing an overnight hike or a hike with a backpack.



We were very lucky that it never rained during our four days on the track. That is very rare considering that the Milford Sound area is the second wettest place on earth. It makes for very lush rainforests even if they aren't tropical.



The intrepid Dr. Root stands on a rock in front of one of the many many waterfalls in fiordland.



Those are lakes, not puddles near the highest point of the track (1154 metres - not so high). It's hard to tell how far away they are, but they are about a half a kilometer or so from where I was standing when I took this photo. If you look closely you can see the trail winding up on the lower left corner of the picture.

Valley among giant mountains.

Milford Sound is actually a fiord, not a sound. It's a fiord because it was created by glaciers.

Nevis

Sorry for the long delay in updates. Haven't been near a computer for awhile. Been camping alot since I met up with a very nice Canadian couple, Todd and Cat. Toured around with them for about a week which allowed me to save lots of money and got off the Kiwi Experience bus for awhile which was nice.



Rainbow over the roadway. It disappeared as we drove under it.

This sea lion was actually demonstrating its boundaries to keep back, not posing for the camera as it might look.

These penguins were found deep inside a cave underneath cliff walls that met the beach and were only accessible at low tide. We felt bad for taking their photos as apparently they were vewwy scared.



So after the first bungee jump I did another one the next day over three times as high called the Nevis named after the chasm that the cable car you jump from is suspended over. That has to have been the greatest thing I've done in NZ so far. Beats even skydiving. There's someting about leaping off a 440 foot ledge that is more terrifying and thrilling than jumping out of an airplane. Whenever I look at the photos, especially this one, I relive the thrill and want to do it all over again. I have one more jump in Queenstown which I may be doing soon. But right now I am in Dunedin where I arrived just a few hours ago and where the steepest street in the world is.

Bungee Jumping

I know, I know, the extreme sports are beginning to get old... well, maybe for you to read about, but not for me as participator! I was pretty scared. It was harder to jump off the platform than throw myself out of the airplane. Apparently I had the nicest jump in terms of form. Form was the last thing on my mind, but glad to hear it.







Rainforest meets mountains. This was the view the morning of our second attempt at climbing the glacier. I forgot my camera so I have no new pics of the glacier. The day started out nice but halfway into the trip it started raining and sleeting. So we're clambering around on this glacier in the pouring down rain, but no one's spirits were daunted. Before the rain came the view of the glacier spreading up into the mountains was spectacular. The guides use pick axes to make steps into the ice. Many of the steps were vertical, as in straight up. Pretty crazy. Many places there were handrails in place and a few places we walked across chasms in the ice over bridges made of ladders and plywood.





Queenstown. Adventure Capital of the world, or at least New Zealand. This is where I will be doing the Nevis bungee jump tomorrow. Over three times as high as the one I did today. The jump happens over a giant canyon from a small cable car suspended 134 meters up (435ft) the second highest bungee jump in the world. You free fall for 8 and 1/2 seconds before the bungee slows you down and stops you from colliding with the foot deep stream below. Scared? You could say that. More excited than scared at this point tho. We'll see how that ratio is tomorrow when I'm in that little cable car and then step out onto the small platform. Advice I've gotten from other people is ... don't look down.

Queenstown




Maori for a moment.


On Wednesday I leave to the Milford Sound to embark on the Milford Track. Private Person (Andreas) got a fluke booking four days ago by some uncanny bit of luck for the same day I booked two months ago so we will be doing the hike together.

Franz Josef Glacier

Crossed over to the South Island a few days ago via Ferry. The strait between the North and South Island creates a lot of wind.



Visited The Forbidden Pool from Lord of the Rings The Two Towers where Gollum gets caught by Faramir. Sorry, no Smeagol impersonation.



Today we (the kiwi bus tour) attempted climbing a glacier but the rain prevented us from actually getting on the ice. Tomorrow we get to try again with full refund of today's soggy outing.

A picture of me on the second outing with me actually on the glacier. A French guy in our enterage was nice enough to email me this photo he took.





Went sea kayaking again. Nothing terribly exciting. At one point the waves got a bit out of control near a rock island jetting out of the sea and there was some chaos and colliding among the kayaks.

Apple Split Rock - from another angle looks exactly like an apple split in two.

We had a costume party couple nights ago. Everyone had to come up with a costume that started with the letter 'P'. Some people got pretty creative....

British Police Officer

Pippy Longstockings

Plant and Pandas

Pink something or others....

Pointed titted Punks and Private Person (the guy on the right's shorts say "PRIVATE")

Police and the Pope (Loubie Lou our bus driver)

Pair of Gimps and Pijama boy in the background.

White Water Rafting

Latest adventure was doing class 4 and 5 rapids. Hahaha, great fun that was. One of the boats half capsized in the middle of the class 5 rapids and everyone was sorta just stuck in limbo while they tried to free the half sunk, flooded raft. I was the only one laughing at them... half of them were laughing at themselves and their situation too, so what the hell. It wasn't as scary as I thought it'd be, but there were a few times I almost found myself in the river. I want to try whitewater kayaking.

Tented again by the river. After the kayak trip we had lunch and then the bus was off again, in its usual -no moment for rest- rushed fashion. I think I was the only one from our bus tenting because everyone else was ready to leave and my tent with all my stuff strewn about it was still up. I barely made the bus in time. One of the staff people had to drive me up the hill while one of the people in reception called our bus driver on the cell to tell her to wait. Slightly annoying. We had a day rest in Wellington and I'm only now feeling a bit recovered from all the activities rushing from place to place.

Participated in a little pool competition tonight at the hostel. Got third place out of about 15 people or so by lots of luck and a little skill. I was stoked. The winner got $50 of drinks at the hostel bar. There were no runner up prizes.

Sky Diving

So the sky diving finally went through today at around 11am. Pretty good stuff. I got a photo package and DVD of the whole thing but it's film not digital so won't be posting those pics here. :-/ Here are a few pics I did get.







Pretty good fun. Wasn't even that scary. The moment when your bum leaves the plane is a bit of a "omg what have I done" moment but you're soon in the swing of things and flying high enjoying the ride. Whooooooooooooooshhh!!!

Sky Diving?

Weather permitting I will be throwing myself out of an airplane bright and early tomorrow morning from 12,000 feet for a scant $139. Went blackwater rafting which was great - floating down a river in complete blackness save for the ceiling of the cave which is covered with glow worms making it look like a night sky folded and bent - with the echo of people whistling the Star Wars theme song.



Went 4-wheelin' in some amazing countryside/farmland. The quads were fun, kept getting reprimanded by the tour guy for driving crazy, though. Went Zorbing which was whacky and fun - big round ball rolling down a hill you're inside of with some water to keep things somewhat smooth.










Went to a Tamaki Village where the Moari people gave us a taste of their culture and traditions. Prolly the highlight of the trip so far. They did a great dance and just the whole feel of the culture and people was special. Unfortunately I was filming more than taking photos so don't have many good ones.






Went Louging which was pretty good fun. Some good banking turns and drop offs. Got a free ride for no particular reason - something Kiwis seem to have a natural knack for. The attendant just felt like being nice after his friends joked that I should check my camera bag that I had left in his care during my runs since I couldn't louge and film at the same time.



Camped out a couple nights. This morning was mite cold with some rain and my stuff stayed mostly dry. Thanks for the bungees Dad, they worked out great for keeping my tent and bedpad to my pack. Bought a day pack as well which has been helpful.



There was more but that's all the time I have right now. All in the last day or so. Good times. I don't bother looking at my bank account - takes the fun out of it.

will be doing class 5 whitewater rafting soon! (this is not a raftable river tho, except for the ultra insane)