New Adventure means New Blog

Well, I figure I should do a new blog since I'm embarking on a whole new adventure. So I hope it's not too much trouble for everyone to visit the new address. You'll see that it's identical save for one letter, 'o' instead of 'n' as 'oz' being short for Australia replaces 'nz' which of course is short for New Zealand.

http://rootblogoz.blogspot.com

So since this time I have a pretty concrete itinerary I suppose I will share it with you. I arrive in Sydney on the 14th where I'll spend a few days and then I catch a flight to Alice Springs to land smack dab in the middle of Australia right in the center of the outback where I'll be starting an eleven day guided bus tour. My tour kicks off in Alice Springs near Ayers rock (a giant rock) on the 18th and heads north to finish in Darwin, the most northern city in Australia, on the 28th. On the 29th I fly to Cairns where I'll be spending New Years and from there I might go snorkling in the Great Barrier reef. Then it's down the coast stopping at Fraser Island, which is a giant sand island and supposed to be great. Not sure how I will travel down the coast. I fly back to Christchurch from Brisbane on the 15th of January so that only gives me two weeks to cover over 800 miles, more distance than all of New Zealand. Prolly will be on a bus rather than hitchhiking.



Thanks my loyal fans for following along with me on my adventuers. It's been fun sharing my travels with you all. My New Zealand trip isn't over, though. In a month I fly back to Christchurch to spend my remaining ten days in New Zealand. Until then, it's time to experience a whole new adventure and place.

Giddy as a Goat

Well, I'm not sure how giddy goats get, but I am going to be spending my second half of my trip in Australia. So here I am having done all these things and I'm only halfway through my trip and about to embark on a whole new adventure. Wow, I feel incredibly lucky.

I'm in Christchurch right now in the middle of the east coast of the South Island. Not too much exciting to report of this city, but here are a few photos anyway.

You can play outdoor chess in the square in the town center.


Or watch a jester like guy walk over broken glass barefoot.


Or get stomped on while lying in same said pile of broken glass.


Or you can just admire the statue that can be seen with a seagull pooping on its head 90% of the day.


Or perhaps better to admire the Cathedral with the Christian band playing holiday tunes in the square. (They had just left before I took this photo.)


Or maybe you'd like to seek refuge from the overtly religious themes of the town center at the Art Gallery which has some really great exhibits, many which you would have really enjoyed Michael Zelehoski. (unfortunately no photographs of the artwork were permitted, but I liked the architecture of the building)


Or perhaps you'd prefer a relaxing stroll down the river in one of those boats which method of propulsion is with long poles. I didn't.


How about staring at another statue? An alive one that is never found in the same pose twice.


He has been doing this every day as a means of making a living for the past ten years.


You have to donate before taking a picture as he claimed someone made a lot of money selling his photo on the internet. That mighta just a been a ploy that I fell victim to, tho....

Mt. Cook and surroundings

Buzzabee

Buzzaboo

Sun sets on lake Tekapo on the way to Mt. Cook.


Attack birds on Lake Tekapo. This was strange and a bit scary to say the least. I was freaked by these birds that were between the size of a barn sparrow and a crow that started swooping down on Michelangelo and I shrieking and trying to attack us. Very strange. Basically they didn't want us on the rocks by the lake's shore.







Opal colored lake below Mt. Cook. Boy it was windy at the edge of that precipice falling into the canyon between the mountain range and where I crouched to take a photo in order to not get blown over. Did I mention it's windy in New Zealand?


The peak of Mt. Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand. Apparently it's not so easy to climb. You need a resume of previous mountaineering experience with crampons and rope and all that. So I'll have to find something a little more realistic.


Praying for the Hithhiking Gods to get someone to stop while hitching on the road to Mt. Cook.


Jason takes a turn hitching


Michelangelo takes a turn hitching



Jason has to get a lift in the next three cars. The odds didn't seem in his favor given the poor progress that day, but he did in fact get two sheep shearers to stop before the arbitrary three chances were up; and they bought *us* beers instead of the other way around. Almost every person that has picked us up have been Kiwis (as opposed to tourists) and have been in the industry of farming either by exploiting cows (milking them), sheep shearing and other industry related jobs.

Seals on really oddly formed rocks in Kaikora, where I swam with Dolphins.

Swim with the dolphins

Wow, so yeah... swam with dolphins this morning. You strap on a snorkle and goggles, some fins and wetsuit, and swim around with your head looking down so you can see them swim under you, around you, coming so close you could just reach out and touch them if you wanted. I didn't touch any though. I'm guessing there were about 50-100 dolphins swimming around. Often there 200 so I'm told. Pretty incredible.







In my glee I kept gulping salt water trying to dive and forgetting to take a deep breath before going fins up and so yeah, wasn't quite inept at the snorkle thing and ended up dry heaving by the end of the morning from taking on so much salt water. We had about 5 separate chances to swim with them. The boat would pull up near the dolphins and then we'd all jump in. You had to move quick because the window of opportunity to see them was often short. All in all it was pretty amazing and saw and swam with a good many.

Hitchhiking

The following blog has been brought to you by Montieth's Black beer and well hung cherries.

Michelangelo and I have been hitchhiking the last couple days. He leaves a couple hours before I do and then we meet up in the next town.



Yep, traveling in style. The last ride I got was in a red '71 Mustang. Americans seem to have a reputation of having a high gun related crime rate among New Zealanders. The first time I got picked up was from a slightly shady looking character with a scruffy face and bad complexion and bad teeth. When he asked me if anyone had ever pointed a gun at me I half expected him to pull a gun on me when I answered no. He said he knew a guy visiting the states who was in a diner when somebody pulled a gun on a guy and shot him in the head in broad daylight in the middle of the diner. Another scruffy looking guy who picked me up and bought me a coffee (nice guy who just started doing WWOOFing with his farm) made mention of the number of guns apparently available to people in America and then the guy in the Mustang today also made a comment on how Americans seem to have easy access to hand guns when he asked me if I hitchhiked in the U.S.

First we hitchhiked from Dunedin to a small town called Moeraki where there are these strange round boulders. I forget how they formed but I think it had to do with geothermal activity in the sea - maybe volcanically? Anyway, they aren't dinosaur eggs in case that's what you were thinking.









We also had some extremely good Blue Cod caught fresh daily. We tried to fry it with flour but it didn't quite work out right. It didn't matter tho, you could cook it plain and it would still taste great. It was so good we had it the last three nights. It was in Moeraki when we discovered Montieth's Black. We both agreed it was very tasty. Michelangelo bought a bottle of red wine which was also top notch.

The harbor at Moeraki where we bought fish and walked to the boulders.

So two nights in Moeraki and one night in Oamaru and today we arrived in Timaru. More penguins and seals in Moeraki. We had to walk a few miles to get to the penguin viewing but it was worth it. Got some good video of fur seals claiming terriroty.



There was also a large sea bird colony that we stumbled upon when tramping about in someone's private farm land. A seagull (at least I think that's what it was) acted as protector of the rest of the sea birds on the cliff when we so rudely arrived on their beach which I thought was kind of peculiar. There was also a trampoline at Moeraki campsite.

The Intrepid Dr. Root doing a forward flip.

Long update today because there's free internet in this Hostel. There wasn't much in Oamaru. Just some public gardens we walked around in and I climbed a tree and jumped a creek. Oh and in the evening we walked out on a pier and there were some highschool girls crewing or what you call it. They were quite happy to have their pictures taken.

Nearly fell in

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.