Queenstown, New Zealand

Day 20

I start the day off trying to hitchhike to Queenstown about 1.5 hours south of Wanaka; the keyword being 'trying'.  I've heard enough people talk about doing this that I decide I must do it over here.  It's a good way to spend time with the locals, create a good story, do something crazy.  In the US  hitchhikers are generally thought of as homeless, drug-addicted, hippies; pick your stereotype.  In New Zealand, its so common that it's hard to find someone that hasn't done it.  Apparently the hierarchy is s follows, from easiest pickup to hardest pickup:  single girl, two girls, girl with a guy, single guy, two guys, and any more than 2 of anyone is nearly impossible.  Also, you need to look respectable and find a place a bit outside of town with room for the car to pull over.

So I'm walking out of town which is fairly easy since Wanaka isn't too big and I find a good place.  I throw my bag down and put my thumb up.  Eye contact is important so I look at everyone going by.  Some cars have kids (It's a NZ holiday now, so the families are out and about), some smile and wave back, some cars are full.  I see a car pulling over just ahead and am a little confused because the car was full of people.  Three guys get out, and all of the sudden I realize that MY hitchhiking spot just turned into a group hitchhiking spot.  Rule number one of hitchhiking; don't have more than 1 dude. Dammit!

They are all cool, surfer looking, Queenstown-sign toting dudes.  "Hey mate, you going to Queenstown too" one of them says.  "Trying to, yeah."  I respond.   All of us spread apart down the road, and I quickly realize that no one is going to pick this many people up.  After about 20 minutes, I pull out my phone, look up the bus schedule, find out a bus leaves in 30 minutes for Queenstown.  I contemplate staying, but want to get to Queenstown sometime today so I head to the bus stop.  I have the lurking feeling that the second I leave will be the second that someone drives by and wants to pick us up.  Then again, I could be there for hours.  You never know.

I leave the now shirtless hitchhikers, who at this point are basically standing in the middle of the road trying to flag down cars, to themselves.

On the bus, I meet a guy from Switzerland (Dom), and we go to same hostel. It's a cool place called 'The Flaming Kiwi'.  We settle in and meet some others in the kitchen while eating dinner.  We decide to go out to the bars for our first drinks in Queenstown; the adrenaline and alcohol fueled adventure sports capital of New Zealand.  At the first bar, we order some drinks and within basically 30 seconds of grabbing mine I'm ambushed by 3 guys who seem to know me.  It takes me a minute, but I realize that they are the 3 hitchhikers from earlier with shirts on and sunglasses off.  "Hey mate, glad you made it! Sorry for jumping in on your spot earlier, but that's as far as our ride would take us" one of them says.  "No worries, How long did it take ya?" I shoot back.  "About an hour, a DHL truck picked us up, and haha, we all piled into the back. No seat belts of course."  another guy says.  We talk for a couple minutes and they wander off to another bar.  It still amazes me how easy it is to run into people out here and Queenstown is not exactly a small place.

Our group heads to a bar called Winnies.  It's a bar/club where they open the entire roof every hour.  It's really cool in the summer because the cool air rushes in and freshens the place up.  I have a conversation with an English guy about tipping (you don't tip in NZ); he thinks it's better not to tip, I play devils advocate and argue that tipping is better.  Truth be told, each system has it's benefits, but I kind of prefer the non-tipping system.

Hitchhiker friends

Welcome to Queenstown

Day 21

I wake up with a mild hangover, which is expected.  I make some lunch and drink about 3 cups of free tea to get back to normal.  I'm going hiking today!

Right next the the hostel there's a mountain where all of the para-gliders drop off to go gliding over the lake onto a landing spot in a city park.  This basically means that you see the para-gliders slowly drifting down in the sky all day long.  They look like colorful dandelion seeds (with the puffy ends) constantly blowing in the wind over the city.  It's a cool site to see.  Anyway, I'm going to hike up the mountain to the point where they jump off.

I start out the hike near an old cemetery. Some of the gravestones are from the late 1800's which is kind of neat.  I wander around for a bit before starting into the woods.  The first 20 minutes are basically straight up-hill.  I pass by a girl who is coming down and ask how difficult it is to the top.  I ask mostly to make conversation.  She tells me it's hard, but worth it.  I pass by a bunch of downhill bike trails, and the occasional biker shoots past down into the woods in a seemingly reckless fashion.  After an hour or so I get to the top.  The entire forest has the faint smell of cotton candy and I don't know why.  Flowers perhaps.

At the top, I discover a playground.  There are the para-gliders dropping off, a road luge coarse, a bungy platform, a restaurant, a bike shop, and a perfect view of the blue lake, mountains, and city.  I sit and look at the view for awhile.  There are so many things going on up here!  I see boats motoring around the lake below as well.  After resting for awhile I wander over to the bungy platform and wait for someone to take the plunge.  A couple guys jump off and it looks absolutely insane.  My time will come.

It's far quicker to get down the mountain, and back at the hostel I meet an american guy.  We talk in the room for a couple hours about business ideas for travel (mobile applications)  I learn that he has written a couple and is making about $400 a month passively.  Not much of course, but better than nothing.  We are inturrupted by the English guy from last night.  It's time t hit the bars again!

I go out with a couple girls, Dom, and the English guy.  We meet up with a Swiss guy I had met earlier in Franz Joseph and I end up hanging out with him and his friends the rest of the night.  We see the funniest drunk guy I've ever seen.  He reminds me of the guy in 'Weekend at Burnies' (youtube it), stumbling around by himself in this constant state of falling but amazingly not completely falling over.  We all laugh heartily at this spectacle.  Eventually 2am rolls around and everyone heads home.  I get some pizza and do the same.

Paragliders!

Day 22

I have to move to another hostel because the one I am currently staying in is fully booked for Christmas Eve and Christmas.  It's no problem because I find some room at another one right down the road.  I meet a really cool Austrian guy in my new room.

We meet up with some friends in the other hostel and go play frisbee golf in a park.

We meet a Swiss guy with a slack line and proceed to play around on this thing for over an hour.  It's basically a seat-belt type material you tie up between two trees and try to balance on it and walk.  The better ones can do tricks.  I decide I must get one.

We see a portable stripper pole in the park with a group of girls sitting around, one is performing (not in a dirty stripper kind of way but an artistic, graceful, ballerina-esqe kind of way)  No joking, it's very artistic.  A group of guys look on in amazement and smoke cigarettes.  I could keep my eyes off it to be quite honest.

We go to a cowboy bar and have a couple drinks because they are cheap...when in Queenstown.

One of the Swiss guys in our frisbee golf gang is participating in some kind of travel challenge.  One of his 'challenges' is to put as many people in a phone booth as possible.  We help out and fit about 6 people in there.  Me and the organizer climb on top for the photo.

We go to the 'Fergburger' restaurant.  It's a famous burger joint in Queenstown.  It's a good burger but not the best I've ever had.  That honor goes to the Unami Burger in LA.

We go to another bar and order a bucket of coronas.

We go back to Cowboy bar and play shuffleboard for a couple hours.

I stay up till 3 am talking to Chris in the room about Europe and I felt like I got a good history lesson.  I learn he is biking across New Zealand. This is something I would like to try.

http://swisstravelfreak.com/

Day 23 Christmas Day

Christmas is very anti-climactic when you are out exploring the world.  Far away from friends and family, it kind of just feels like just another day.  It doesn't help that it's summer time in New Zealand and it doesn't feel like Christmas weather.  I begin to realize that it's not the day of the year that makes it feel like Christmas, it's the family, the food, the cool weather, Christmas lights.  In the absence of these things, December 25th is truly just another day.

In Queenstown, people seem to treat Christmas as a day to party and drink beer.  Not a bad way to spend Christmas I guess.  After partying for quite a few days this week, I use it as day to relax. Eventually Chris and I make dinner, have a few beers, and basically sit around and talk for a couple hours.

We end up going over to the other hostel to meet with some friends.  We plan to spend the evening at the beach to watch the sunset and hang out.  I run into a couple more people I've met in Queenstown and we form a circle on the beach.  I bring a bottle of wine that I originally needed for cooking, but it will not go to waste at the beach.  We all sit around and watch the sunset, pass the bottle of wine around, and talk.    

Merry Christmas!

Day 24 Boxing Day


“Today is the first day of the rest of your life” so I decide to start the first day of the rest of my life with some bungy jumping.  The particular destination I choose to do this is an old bridge right outside of Queenstown.  The platform is about 43 meters above one of New Zealand’s clear blue rivers.  There’s no better place to spend $150 to scare the absolute crap out of yourself I assure you.

Now, I’ve known that I was going to do this for awhile now.  The skydiving was completely unplanned in New Zealand but the bungy jumping was a planned enemy, a self-created one if you will.  You see, I’m not afraid of many things in this world but jumping off a bridge head first into a river might be at the top of the list.  I don’t like heights, so I wasn’t really looking forward to doing it as much as I was looking forward to getting it over with.  

I get to the bridge around noon.  It’s a busy day for the bungy because everyone is on holiday in New Zealand.  This means you get to watch a lot of people jumping before you get your chance to go.  I probably watched 20 people do it.  They create a cool atmosphere up there.  They have a combination of hip hop and techno music radiating from the bridge.  The river has cut a path through the rock and like the rest of New Zealand is pretty beautiful.

The people have a mix of styles and reactions after they summon the courage to jump.  Some people scream, some are too scared to scream.  Some people jump, some are too scared to jump so they kind of bend at the knees and slowly fall off.  Some people are obviously nervous, some try to hide it.  Some get dunked into the water, some don’t.  The only common thread is that everyone falls fast.

As I stand in line to go on the bridge, I see how they hook people into the harness.  I wouldn’t say I was scared at this point but I definitely had a heightened sense of awareness.  There was some adrenaline pumping for sure.  I described this before with the skydiving, but I think you almost get immune to some of these crazy things because you have been doing and seeing them nonstop.

So it’s my turn to go and the guys hook me up.  He asks me if I want to get dunked in the water, and I willingly oblige.  It’s a hot day anyway.  Here’s where it gets crazy.  I stand up, and sort of hobble over to the edge of the platform.  There a couple of cameras you have to acknowledge (wave, thumbs up, whatever to want), then you’re on your own.  My first mistake was looking down into the rushing river below and the fear just rushes in.  For a split second it feels like I’m in a plane that’s crashing down to earth, you know what is going to happen and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.  It feels like you are committing suicide…everything in you tells you that what you are doing is a bad idea…a really bad idea.  I look straight ahead, take a deep breath, and jump.   It happens so quickly that I didn’t have time to rationalize the decision or convince myself that it would be fine.  You just do it, you flip the switch.

When you’re falling, it’s pretty intense.  Your stomach feels like it is in your throat.  The water races into view and the cord starts to have some tension as the water nears.  My head and arms touched the cold water and then I bounced back up.  Then you fall again, repeat.  After the initial drop everything slows down and you can enjoy it.  It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, and would do it again with no second thoughts. This heights thing isn’t so bad after all.

A boat picks you up on the river and takes you to the shore.  I pass an older couple who have been watching from below.  They ask me how it was, and I respond with “incredible, amazing, unbelievable”…some word in this family.  They also ask me if I jumped with confidence or kind stumbled off the edge in fear.  I tell them I jumped, but inside my head I’m not 100% sure.  I need to look at the video evidence.
The video evidence comes back favorable, I jumped like a champion.

Goodbye cruel world.

Wanaka, New Zealand

Day 17

I obviously don't know it at the time, but the best times I've had so far will be in Wanaka.

My day starts out with a bus ride further south to a town called Wanaka.  It's an early bus and I'm tired, but I wait to sleep until the bus leaves.  I scan the incoming passengers for familiar faces.  Oddly enough, I see Hannah get on the bus right before it leaves, so our paths will cross yet again.  I close my eyes and sleep until our first stop for breakfast, a which point I wander over to the table where Hannah is sitting.  She is with with another girl; Sylvie from Canada.  Her primary language is French but speaks very good English.  The three of us are best friends on the bus to Wanaka.  We (mostly Sylvie) talk about traveling in Asia, and how it is a bit more difficult than traveling in New Zealand.  She tells me to imagine myself as a giant wallet filled with money.  "This is how the people in Thailand will see you. Get used to it.  Accept it." she says.

When we arrive, I immediately like the place.  It's right on a blue lake in the mountains.  Sylvie tells me she is going to stay at 'Wanaka Backpacka'. I immediately recognize the name because someone I've previously talked to said it was a great place, so we go together.  Hannah wants to camp somewhere, so we leave her behind.  The hostel is right on the lake, with great views.  In fact, it's the best hostel I've stayed in so far.  We settle in and work on a plan for the rest of the day; Puzzling World it is. It's a tourist trap, but it looks fun so we decide to go for the rest of the day.  They have holograms, a big outdoor maze, and other games/riddles/problem solving games to play around with.  

Sylvie and I set out to walk the 2k's to the infamous Puzzling World.  It takes about 45 minutes to get there, but it seems like far less because there is no break in the conversation.  I wasn't sure I liked Sylvie at first, but after the walk I decide that she's really cool.  We buy some cherries from a local grower on the street on the way.  It's cherry season in New Zealand and those were the best cherries I've ever had.  

Puzzling World is interesting and ultimately fun.  The best thing they have is a maze with bridges, towers, and over a km of paths.  The sign informs us that the maze has 2 versions; one is easy an takes 30 to 45 minutes to complete, the other is hard and takes 1 to 1.5 hours to complete.  We look at one another with an unspoken agreement that we should tackle to hard one.  

Fast forward an hour:  We've solved most of the maze, walked probably 4km, and begin to get frustrated.  We've done the maze very methodically, checking off all the "options" as we go; some are dead ends, some are future paths we need to take.  We must have missed something and now everything looks the same and we can't find the path we need.  Gahh!  We decide to grab a drink to replenish our energy, which works, and we complete the maze with a victory high-five (and a hidden sigh of relief).  There is no one else left in the place; everyone else has gone home.

This experience reaffirms my understanding that you have to make the best of situations, and the people you surround yourself with matter.  I had more fun doing a stupid maze with Sylvie than hiking up a glacier with people who I didn't really connect with.  We seemed to get in this groove where we both understood that we were only here for a short time, so we created a fun atmosphere for ourselves even under challenging circumstances.  We built it and maintained it. Teamwork at it's finest.

We take a goofy picture and head back to the hostel, make dinner, and plan what to do the next day.  There  is an understanding that after beating the maze, we will be a team from then on. We have many different "options" for tomorrow,which is lingo we carry over from the maze experience; an inside joke.   We make some tea and eat some chocolate as the sunsets over the lake.  I share my wifi, she shares her Lonely Planet, and we decide to sleep in and meet up between 10 and 11.  

Tomorrow we will walk around the lake to a winery for wine tasting, come back for lunch, then head out to a more aggressive hike up Mt Iron.  The stars are ridiculous tonight, and you can see the milky way perfectly.  

Goofy picture

Lake Wanaka

Bathroom in Puzzling World

Day 18

I sleep in for once which feels excellent, but I'm also ready to get up and enjoy the day.  I meet Sylvie in the kitchen around 10, we make breakfast, and take it outside to a picnic bench overlooking the lake.  It's going to be a nice sunny day for sure.  We review our plans and talk for awhile.  A German girl (Nora) wanders over to the table and says hi.  We all make small talk and invite her to come along to the vineyard with us.  More the merrier.  She tells us that she would like to come but has to do laundry first.  She will meet us later in the day for the Mt Iron hike.

We are almost ready to go (backpacks on, water bottles filled, sunscreen applied) when I run into my roommate from last night.  I haven't really met him yet, but ask him if he wants to join us.  He thinks about it for a couple seconds and says "yes, i would like to go" in a German accent.  It is a good decision because the three of us end up having a good time.  I find out his name is Philip and he has been traveling in New Zealand for 9 months now.  Sylvie adds in that she has been in New Zealand for only 3 days but has been traveling in southeast Asia for the past 2 months.  She is on a 10 month trip around the world.  At some point soon I'll also have some traveler street cred.  It's a funny thing that happens when people meet one another out here.  People kind of size one another up with 2 questions: where have you been and how long have you been gone.  The more (and weirder) countries the better and the longer away from home the better.  You gain a subtle amount of respect by answering these questions properly.

The three of us start out on the trail to the vineyard.  It goes along the lake and the willow trees on the side of trail create a shady, breezy walk which is nice.  We share stories, laugh, and generally have a good time on the way there.  The vineyard is on a hill overlooking the lake and when we get close, we see a couple hawks circling over the vineyard looking for rabbits.  The grapes are in long strait rows that seem to go on for miles.  A dog greets us as we make our way to the tasting place: an open air house on the top of the hill.    I begin to think that I could be perfectly content working on the vineyard picking grapes all day.  Better views than working in a cube, for example.     

           

We get to try 8 different wines and decide to buy a bottle to share for dinner later in the evening.  We make our way back to the hostel for lunch, relax, and wait around for Nora.  Philip decides that he is going to go fishing in the lake while we go hiking Mt. Iron.  Nora shows up a couple minutes later and we get ready to head out again.  Just as we are about to go, Philip walks in with a huge trout he just caught. He immediately gains the attention of everyone in the place and tells Sylvie and I that we are having fish for dinner.  We nod in agreement, give him a high-five, and head out.        

On the hike Nora tells us that she just graduated with her masters degree in social work.  At this point we realize that all of us have masters degrees, and thus have found a common bond.  It's important to find these with the people you meet.  The more common views/experiences/backgrounds you find, the better friends you will become.  And it doesn't matter if people are from different countries or backgrounds either...you can always find something.  We get to the top of Mt Iron and are rewarded with a 360 degree view of the area.

Back at the hostel Philip shows us a second fish that he caught which is almost as big as the first; a salmon this time. I make a pasta dish that I have perfected out here, Philip fillets and cooks the fish, and Sylvie pours the wine.  This teamwork creates the best dinner I have had out here so far.  We don't leave the table for another 3 hours.  Eventually Philip goes to get his guitar and plays softly as we continue the conversation until about midnight.  We are the last ones up.

At the end of the night we slowly realize that our time together is over.  We are all going separate directions tomorrow and it's a sad time.  In fact, saying goodbye to those you meet is the single hardest part about living out here.Tonight it's particularly hard.  You share your time together in a far off land, often doing crazy things together, and you develop friendships quickly.  There's a certain balance which always exists though.  The stronger the friendships you make, the worse the goodbyes are.  And if you are doing it right, this happens over and over again.  I think the correct way to deal with this reality is to simply realize that the next friend will come along, and you shouldn't hold back just because you know it will be hard to say goodbye.  There's a life lesson here somewhere I'm sure.

Rippon Vineyard

Mt Iron

Day 19

I decide in the morning to stay in Wanaka another day.  It's a nice day and I need a break from doing things and meeting people.  You almost never get any alone time out here.  You are around other people constantly; cooking, eating, drinking, even sleeping   I spend most of the day writing and sitting by the lake.  

As I’m walking back to the hostel, a guy waves over to me.  I say “hey, what’s up!” before I recognize who it is exactly.  Upon closer examination I find it is a German guy (yes, there are a lot of Germans out here) I was with in Franz Joseph.  I sit down for awhile and talk to him and his 2 new friends; an English guy and New Zealand guy.  They have been hiking for the past 2 days, just hitchhiked into Wanaka, bought some beer, and sat on the lake under a tree to relax.  I relax with them.  They offer me a beer, and we hang out for the next hour or so.  I really wasn’t expecting to see anyone today, but it was a pleasant surprise.      

The stars are the best I’ve ever seen out here.  I wandered out to the picnic bench and lay on top and look up for awhile.  My eyes slowly adjust to the dark and I see millions of stars; the Milky Way is bright.   I notice that some stars are moving at a constant pace across the sky.  Of course these are not stars at all, but man-made satellites tracking across the sky.  I guess the sun reflects light off them, kind of like the moon, which is why you can see them.  It’s kind of crazy that people are smart enough to build those things, shoot them up in rockets, and you can see them as tiny specs of light from earth.  

I look forward to going Queenstown tomorrow.

Hanging out on the beach

View from the hostel

Franz Joseph Glacier

Day 14

First a bit more about yesterday evening:

My plans change for the movie and I end up seeing Drive instead of Mission Impossible.  Plans are really nothing more than current thoughts out here; nothing is ever set in stone.  The rational for this particular change is that Drive starts at 3:50 which would give me time to get back to the hostel to eat dinner with everyone.  It was a good movie, although a bit depressing for a rainy day.  It’s one of those movies where you don’t really know what happens at the end, more of a pick your own ending type thing.  Enough about the movie.

I pick up a bottle of New Zealand wine on the way home and make dinner (pasta with sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, parmesan cheese, and parsley).  I see a girl making stuffed mushrooms next to me which look amazing.  I ask her what kind of cheese she used; blue cheese and I store it to memory for another rainy day.  I eat dinner with a girl from South Africa who recommends that I visit there.  I share my wine, and we talk about grown up things.  As the conversation (and wine) begin to dwindle, I hear a growing raucous at the table next to us.  A group of younger twenty-somethings has been playing some kind of drinking game.  I stand next to an older gentleman who watches on and we try to figure out what they are playing.  A girl at the table turns around and asks me to play, so I hesitate for a split second (the bus leaves at 7:15am tomorrow) but sit down and play.  Luckily I don’t lose and thus don’t drink much.  We move on to another game where you have to pick and animal and come up with an imitation, look and sound.  If someone does your animal, you have to repeat your animal and pick another animal (person) and they continue.  If you break the chain, you lose and drink.  It’s funny and for anyone within earshot, ridiculous I’m sure.  I decide that it’s nice to be able to relate and interact with all age groups in the hostels.

The games get too loud for the late hour, so everyone steps outside on the back porch.  There’s a couple New Zealanders, a guy from England, a Dutch girl, a French guy, an American form Orange county; a united nations of sorts.  We get into a conversation about racism and I realize that every country has their own variety, in New Zealand it’s the Maori.  I eventually wander off to sleep; others walk out to a park with a bottle of wine.  I gotta get up early.

---------

I wake up early to take bus to Glaciers. It’s a long drive…about 8 hours to get to Franz Joseph.   I meet the guy from Orange County outside my room and we leave the hostel together.  He reminds me of David Blaine; at least his voice sounds like his.  I find out that he’s from Iran, but has lived in California for most of his life.  We connect and decide to go to the same hostel later that day.

 

The bus stops at Pancake Rocks and we have an hour to look around.  No one knows how the rocks formed.

A girl from Ireland joins the bus.  We talk for an hour or so.  I learn she came to New Zealand because the Ireland economy is bad and some of her relatives live on the North Island who she will live with for awhile.  She just got a working visa.

We get to the hostel around 7pm and go to the grocery store to grab lunch for the glacier hiking tomorrow; pastrami sandwiches and an apple.   

At the hostel we watch a movie while drinking a couple beers and eat free popcorn and vegetable soup with 8 or 9 others.

We end up hanging out with a German guy and a couple Americans for most of the evening.  Finding Americans is somewhat rare out here.  Finding Germans is common.

Meet a Swiss guy with an interesting personality.  We joke around for while. I tell him that he’s lucky to stay in MY room.  He ends the evening with “goodnight ladies.”

Pancake Rocks

Wine!

Day 15

Today is ‘Hike a Glacier Day’.  I wake up and head out to the glacier at about 8:00am.  It’s a nice sunny day which I eventually learn is rare for this part of the country.  It rains 200 days a year here.  Our guide is an ice-axe toting Tasmanian.  He tells us this is the best day in last 3 weeks for hiking.

We start the hike by learning a little bit about the glacier, why it’s here, how it formed, what to do, what not to do.  He tells us a story about a rock slide a couple months ago.  This is one example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pe2mGoRSJU  The rockslides throw boulders a couple tons heavy out over the paths through the ice.  They are rare, but as you can see, seriously dangerous.  He jokes that we already signed the release form, and then switches back to serious mode and instructs us to follow his lead exactly; don’t wander off.  We put crampons on (spikey cover for your boots) and start out onto the ice.  The guides cut out paths and steps as we go.  The ice changes and melts in the summer so carving out new paths is an on-going activity. It also slows down the groups’ pace (i.e. gives the unfit folks a rest).

It’s really cool.  Much of the ice is a deep blue color.  Why? Because the ice is so densely packed that it absorbs all wavelengths of light but blue (which it reflects back).  We pass by holes in the ice where the melt water finds a weak point in the ice and carves out a hole to the underground river beneath the glacier.  Our guide calls these ‘death holes’ and doesn’t let us get anywhere near them.  If you fall or trip in, you are dead.  Period.  We also pass through some deeper crevasses with ice walls on both side of the trail.  It’s an odd feeling because the sun is warm but being next to huge ice cubes also cools the air.  The air temperature changes quickly.

We stop for lunch at some point and sit on the glacier on top of our coats.  The vertical limestone cliff next to us blocks the sun which is good at first and then bad.  You cool down quickly on an ice cube with no sun.  Although against company policy, the guide tells us to fill our water bottles in the pools if we need more.  It’s freezing cold water and tastes as delicious as pure glacier water can taste.   We continue up the glacier after lunch, reach a stopping point, and start to head back down.   We see an alpine parrot near the top; the only mountain parrot in the world.

The guide points out that the glacier is currently receding.  50 years ago it was a lot bigger.  You can see where it was in the past by looking at the mountain plant line.  On a short-term basis the glacier grows and shrinks in 20 year cycles.  Winter snow is how it grows.  We get to the bottom again, take off the crampons (which feels almost as good as taking off boots after a long hike), and head back to the bus.  We hike through a little bit of rainforest to get there and I have this recurrent thought that it doesn’t seem like a glacier should be here.      

Hike a glacier. Check!

Eat dinner with a German girl, get her number, and decide to meet her in Queenstown for a beer where she lives.

In the evening, meet a really cool German guy (Patrick) who tells me that skydiving is an existential experience, and describes it better than anyone I’ve heard so far.
  
Try to avoid running into a bunch of drunken English people on the porch, fail, and end up talking about 9-11 conspiracies, Barack Obama, and the US government for longer than I want to.

Book skydiving for tomorrow.  It’s officially on.

Danger is my middle name

Crevasse

Ice steps

Ice Axe!

Day 16

“...the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'” -On The Road Kerouac

Wake up and have an hour conversation with Patrick over coffee.  He studied English in the university in Germany, and recites his favorite quote above.  I dig it.  As we are talking, a young girl walks in and obviously knows Patrick.  She doesn't look a day older than 16.  Patrick and her have a quick exchange, I introduce myself,  and she (Hannah) leaves to the grocery store to grab lunch.  I learn that she hitched a ride over to the glacier with Patrick.  He tells me that she is from a small town in Wisconsin and is 18 years old.  The entire thing seemed bizarre to me.  Here is a attractive young girl, in a country half way around the world alone, hitch-hiking and camping by herself.  She has either a significant amount of bravery or a significant amount of insanity. I'm not sure which.

She comes back from the store with a can of beans, and throws it in the microwave, and declares it lunch.  Hmm.  Patrick has to book a helicopter flight to the top of the glacier so he leaves for the moment. I talk to her for awhile and don’t sense anything odd about her.  She is well spoken, has a bubbly personality, and is generally very nice; not the drug-addicted, high school dropout type I expected.  She's doesn't seem to be running from anything; parents, friends, her town, her past.  I decide that there is something I’m missing from her story, but perhaps I will never know.  But that’s how it is out here.  You get glimpses, half stories, thin slices, fleeting impressions of those you meet.  You are forced to make very quick judgments about people, and you do so knowing that others are doing the same with you.

I go check in at the skydive place to make sure everything is in order. Apparently the power has gone out on the airfield and they can't put gas in the plane.  It will be delayed until 4pm, so I have a couple more hours to contemplate the decision to jump out of a plane at 12,000 feet above the earth.  I find it somewhat odd that I'm not the least bit nervous.  Maybe it's because I've seen fellow travelers faces as they describe their experience to me, or maybe it's because after 3 weeks of doing and seeing wild things, you get desensitized to it all.  It's probably a little of both.

On the way back to hostel, I pass Hannah on the street.  She is going to a campsite.  I give her a hug, and wish her well on her journeys.  I probably won't see her again. Walking away I begin to have this oddly protective feeling and hope she will be ok; Maybe it's because she was from the US had little money. Maybe it was because she was doing things I would hesitate to do.  Again, probably a little of both.  I walk on knowing there's nothing I can do.; nor anything I should do.

I go back to the skydive place at 4 and everything is a go!  I sign the release form, meet a brother and sister from Denmark who will be going as well, and hop in a van.  A guy with white dreadlocks drives us over to the airfield; he looks like the typical base-jumping madman type.  I later learn that his hobby outside of work (jumping out of planes) is base jumping  Crazy dude!  At the airfield I meet my tandem partner, an older guy who has done over 8000+ jumps.  That's good to know.  He puts all the gear on, explains what is going to happen, and we head over to the small plane with the 2 others.  There's an electric feeling in the air.

We pile into the small plane, and take off.  It's noisy but not noisy enough that people can't talk.  As we go up, my partner shows me the altitude gauge on his wrist....4000ft, 5000ft....10,000ft.   The ride up is actually really cool in itself.  You can see ocean, glacier, rain-forest, farmland, the snow-capped Mt Cook (the highest peak in New Zealand, everything really.  We get to 11,000ft, then 12,000ft, and the pilot gives a thumbs up to my guy who opens the door of the plane.  I'm going first, and this is the first time in the whole thing that I get a little nervous.  Actually jumping out of plane is crazy.  With tandem jumps, you have your partner attached to your back, so you are actually most of the way out of the plane before your partner jumps too.  I look down, close my eyes for a split second, and then we're in free fall.  It's the most bizarre feeling ever!  It doesn't feel like you're falling at all, it feels like you're flying.  The ground is soooo far away that you can't sense that it's getting closer.  There's a lot of wind.

After about 45 seconds of free fall, my partner pulls the shoot, and this is the 2nd time you get nervous.  Is the shoot going to come out?  Is the turbulence of the shoot coming out normal?  Am I going to die?

After about 10 seconds, you go from free fall to floating with the shoot out.  You are still WAYYY up in the sky though.  At this point, my partner gives me control of the parachute.  You can go right, left, descend slower, or descend faster.  If you pull hard on one side, you can almost do corkscrews in the sky.  The ground gets closer and closer, and then you hit the ground.  We had a good landing.

It's a wild feeling when you get to the ground.  Your brain just floods your body with adrenaline and endorphins and you are on cloud 9.  The feeling lasts for about an hour afterwards and I immediately see why people really get addicted to skydiving.  The entire thing has this dreamlike quality to it.  It almost doesn't seem real.            

If you haven't done this in your life, go, now!

Look at the glacier in the background

Almost there

Landing

Thumbs up for being alive 

Nelson, New Zealand

Day 12

I take the ferry in the morning to the South Island which takes about 2.5 hours.  The ship is bigger than I imagined, and my Canadian ex-Navy friends tell me the boat is only a little smaller than the ones they took around the world.  There are 8 decks for cars, trucks, people, etc.  I see a couple 18-wheeler trucks full of cows.  The top deck is for viewing, but unfortunately the word of the day is rain, so there’s not a whole lot to see.  The boat does navigate through some mountains though so I put on my rain jacket and take a look.  When we pull into port, we unload, and we get into a bus which takes us to Nelson.  The bus drivers always tells us what we are looking at out the window (for those not sleeping).  He explains that it’s ALWAYS sunny in Nelson which is one reason why there are an abundance of wineries here.  Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.

We get off the bus and I walk to the hostel…in the rain.  I get to try out my pack cover, which works like a charm.      

I came to Nelson to kayak the Abel Tasman National Park.   Tomorrow is the plan.  I look at the forecast for tomorrow and it calls for rain, lots of rain; in fact it’s not supposed to stop raining until tomorrow night.  Damn! I decide to do a winery tour instead since this is a prominent wine making region of New Zealand.  It’s the best option for a day filled with rain.

Part of me is excited to play a classy, refined, pseudo-pretentious gentleman sampling the different vintages of the Marlborough region of New Zealand; kind of like a Napa Valley meets Middle Earth.  The other part of me is simply excited to get “horsed” (kiki word of drunk) with some others from the hostel all day tomorrow while someone drives me around.  It’s always good to have balancing influences.

I start thinking about dinner, so I ask where the nearest grocery store is.  First off, let me tell you that if you eat out every night, you’ll blow through money quickly.  I try to only eat out when I see something that interests me, or if I’m completely exhausted.  Also, I've found it interesting to wander through the grocery stores in other countries.  Everything is slightly different, even the familiar stuff.  In New Zealand, they keep the eggs on a regular shelf (not refrigerated) for example.  I also bought an ‘UgliFruit’ at the store yesterday.  Not sure what it tastes like yet, but it’s damn ugly.

I decide to make pasta with olives, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and parsley for dinner.  With a couple apples and bananas thrown in for breakfast/lunch, it costs about 14 NZ dollars (~11 US dollars).  I’ll have this tomorrow night too, so I can make changes to the recipe if needed.  It’s nice to be able to make some good food on a slow day.

I stay in a room with 2 young natives (they teach me some kiwi words), 2 Englanders, and 1 Spaniards.  As we are talking, the lights flicker and the power goes out.  We hear people from the bar downstairs burst into screams and laughter.  The power comes back on a couple minutes later.

UgliFruit!

Day 13

“One day it started raining, and it didn't quit... We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stinging rain... and big od' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night.” –Forest Gump

The loud rain outside the window instructs me to sleep in late, so I do.  I check in around 11 at the front desk and ask about the winery tour.  The guy at the front tells me the tour is cancelled because the roads are flooded.  What the hell!  I work on plan C.  I ask the hostel owner what he recommends for this fine day; he has nothing.  He recommends sleeping, planning, or going to see a movie.  The thought of going to see Mission Impossible leaves me disappointed, but it’s supposed to be a good movie so I seriously consider it.

A girl from Bolivia comes out to the porch to find me glaring at the rain and querying my phone for ideas.  She had just come back from a 4 day kayaking trek in Abel Tasman, 2 days early.  Apparently the rain created a situation where about 40 people where cramped into the shelters in the park waiting for the weather to clear (which it never would).  She had had enough of this.  I don’t blame her, and immediately look upon my situation in a better light.  

I hear on the radio:
*that some tourists had to get rescued from flooding.  They were in trees.  I find this funny for some reason.    
* ‘The Hobbit’ is currently being filmed in New Zealand on the South Island and shooting is delayed until the rain stops.
*Almost all road traffic is stopped out of Nelson

The girl tells me about the glaciers I will see at my next stop.  They sound really cool. She hiked one (Franz Joseph Glacier) and skydived...skydove…whatever, the other one (Fox Glacier).  I check the weather for when I’ll be going through there and it looks perfect.  I’ll probably steal her route and do the same.  Skydiving above the ocean, a couple glaciers, and a rainforest sounds unbeatable.

For now though, I trade a big-budget American movie indulgence for my new skydiving plans. Seems like a fair deal.  I’ll grab a bottle or two of wine of the way back for the evening.  Tom Cruise you better not let me down.  

Not taken in rainy Nelson, and not being followed in rainy Nelson, but good advice nonetheless.

Wellington, New Zealand

Day 9


I check out of the hostel, say bye to Kang, and decide not to go to Napier.  It’s nice place to drink New Zealand wine but I want to spend more time on the south island, so I skip it.  I buy a bus ticket to Wellington instead which leaves in a couple hours.  It’s a 6 hour bus ride to Wellington, the capital so today is a travel day.

I meet a German couple on the bus.  The two girls ;) are camping across New Zealand.  This is certainly a great idea, but I realized long ago that I couldn't manage to bring all the required camping gear for New Zealand and then ditch it for SE Asia and India.  We talk for awhile and I tell them about the Tongario crossing which they will attempt later.

About half way through the bus ride, we have a 30 minute rest stop so we get off the bus for some fresh air and find a picnic bench to sit at.  A small girl from New Zealand is sitting there eating a sandwich.  We talk to her and realize she is taking the bus back to her Moms house in some town on the way to Wellington.  I find it odd at first that she is by herself, but then come to the conclusion that it’s not a big deal out here.   The girl tells us she went with her dad to get a “pit’ at the SPCA in Taupo.  Apparently, according to the German girls and Kang, the Kiwi accent is difficult to understand.    I have a hard time with “pit” but of course recognize SPCA and realize she is saying “pet”.  Thank God my first, and only language for that matter, is English.  We get back on the bus and head for Wellington.

I play around with my phone for awhile and finally figure out why the FM receiver on the phone doesn’t work.  I needed to plug in the ear-buds.  Apparently they serve as the antenna.  Crazy.  I then proceed to listen to New Zealand radio for the next hour.

The bus arrives in Wellington at 8:30pm.  The station is basically closed and it starts to get dark.  The hostel is 2.2km away so I decide to walk (instead of taking a cab).  Along the way I meet a couple Americans walking the same direction.  I ask them where they are staying and learn that they plan to camp with the Occupy Wellington gathering near city hall.  They tell me it’s free and we contemplate the idea that you could just camp with any Occupy people in any big city.  Nobody would know the difference.  Although feasible, I find the thought of doing this cringe-worthy.  It’s not much different from being homeless, really.

I stay with a German guy, English girl, and another American from Maine at the hostel.  I ask them where to grab some food (It’s about midnight).  They tell me the grocery store is open until midnight.  I grab a pizza, walk back to the hostel, make it, eat, and sleep.

Last look at Tongiaro from the bus 

Day 10

I start the day looking for a library.  My first order of business is to make a decision on where to go for New Years.   After some deliberation and route planning I decide on Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  I book a ticket for the 29th so I can make some friends before New Year’s Eve.  I also book a ticket for a ferry to the south island.  After about 3 hours of planning, booking, and scheming I head over to the Te Papa museum to get my fill of some culture.  Wellington is the capital of government, art, and history in New Zealand and the museum itself is really cool.  They have the best preserved giant squid specimen in the world on display.  It looks like a giant alien in formaldehyde.  I don’t have time to get around the entire museum before they start moving everyone out the doors.  I decide to come back tomorrow.

I decide to grab something good for dinner: Pho.  On the way back to the hostel I run into the Canadians I’ve crossed paths with before.  Chris tells me they are going to a comedy show tonight.  I have no other plans for the evening, so I join them.  There are six comedians, all of them are pretty bad but it’s still fun.  Jokes are difficult to understand in a culture that is not your own, I come to realize.  They did get progressively better though; maybe the beer helped.

Alien Squid @ Te Papa

Pho for dinner

Day 11

Again, I start the day off at the library; only a couple hours though.  More planning.  I book a hostel in Kuala Lumpur for New Year’s because I fear that it may be busy around that time of year.  I also book a hostel in Nelson, my next stop.

I head out to the art museum next.  I mess around there for a couple hours and head to the Parliament building for a free tour.  I learn that New Zealand is so small that government committees will sometimes invite citizens into the parliament building to discuss objections to certain proposed laws.  Also, anyone can watch the parliament in-session on a first come, first serve basis.  The guide takes us into the parliament room to see all the seats, etc.

My next stop is Mt. Victoria lookout.  It’s in a park in the city.  In the 1800’s, they used to use the lookout to spot incoming ships and then send signals down to the city to indicate which type of vessel was coming.  Now it’s just the best place to see the city.  I end up spending about 3.5 hours here, and over the course of that time develop a certain liking for the city.  This happens all the time in New Zealand.    

I begin by hiking about 2km into the park, mostly up-hill of course.  After awhile I kind of forget that I’m in a big city because I’m actually in the woods.  I get to the top and have about an hour before the sun starts setting.  A picture is worth a thousand words, but in short you can see the entire city, the harbor, the airport, nearby mountain ranges, the ocean, everything.  To say the view was good would be a gross understatement.  In fact, I decide to write this as I wait for the sunset on a nice patch of grass.  I see the sun going down over the water, airplanes are taking off from an airstrip below rocketing past me, and a dozen little sail boats are playing around in the harbor below.  I plan to stay up here until its dark to see the city lights too.  The English girl from the hostel told me she got a ride up here last night and it was ”absolutely worth it.” Watching the sun go down, listening to some tunes, and watching the city from high above, I tend to agree.  As the sky gets darker and darker shades of orange, I begin to see a lighthouse in the distance sending beacons of light my direction and Venus starts to shine through the clouds.  The city lights begin to flicker, boats turn into moving lights on the water, airplanes turn into flying lights in the sky and I begin to think that I’m watching some kind of human beehive or anthill or something.  It’s odd looking at a city from so high up and slowly watching the transition from day to night.

I see a house on the hill near me, and as the orange grows deeper I notice the TV in the house gets brighter and brighter.  I begin to think “how could someone be watching TV. when you could walk out on the back deck and see what I’m looking at!”  I guess everything starts to become normal and boring when you can see it every day.  Maybe that is why exploring the world is so exciting; you always see new things, amazing things, everyday.  

Anyway, I don’t want to leave but it’s completely dark now and I have to make my way back to the hostel.  I decide it will be safer to hitch a ride back to the city instead of hiking back through the woods in complete darkness.  I wander around looking for a target, but don’t really see anyone who looks acceptable.  I pass by a couple, probably German, and figure they might be good, but I wait too long and they leave.  I’ve got to build up some confidence at some point while I’m here and hitchhike at least once.  I save it for the South Island, and decide to put on my head lamp and navigate through the woods.  It’s all downhill so it only takes about 15 minutes and I’m comfortable again knowing I've made it out of the woods alive.  I pass by houses; some with Christmas trees in the windows, some with their doors hanging wide open, and I am reminded again that New Zealand is the safest place I’ve ever been.  Up early to take the ferry to the South Island tomorrow.

Victoria lookout.  Between day and night.

Victoria Lookout.  Until we meet again.

Taupo, New Zealand

Taupo, New Zealand

Day 7
I start the day packing up my computer and a couple other things outside of the hostel on a picnic bench.  I see Conner and Antje and we talk for awhile about different customs and beliefs in other cultures.  I tell them the Spanish think that drinking cold things when you have a sore throat is bad.  The Germans believe you should wear a scarf in the same circumstances.  Conner and I laugh a bit.  We decide to meet up at the same hostel (Black Currant) in Taupo the day after next.  I walk to the bus station and wait for the bus to Taupo.  It is about 10 minutes late, so I look over that the guy sitting next to me, and ask if he's waiting for the same bus.  He says yes, and he informs me that the buses are always a little late.  This is Kang from Korea and we talk the entire bus ride to Taupo.  I tell him the hostel I'm headed to is cool, so we go together.  The only room they have left is a double, so we become roommates for the next 2 days.

We decide to hike down the river to a waterfall, and then further to a volcanic area known as Craters of the Moon.  It's a 12km hike.  We wait until 4:30 and head out so it's not so hot.  The water in the river is crystal clear.  The first point of interest we come across is a bungee/swing platform.  We actually hear the music radiating from it before we see it; Rhianna. When we get closer, we realize that the swing is in full operation.  We watch a couple go together from a small pasture down on the river.  The platform is way up on the mountain top.  The operators pull the cord, and the people in the double harness go flying past us over 100 miles an hour, and there's a  progression of "Oh my god!", followed by expletives, followed by laughing.  This thing is crazy!

We continue on and hike to the top where the platform is.  We stop to watch from the top this time.  A guy gets clipped in, dangles over the edge of the platform, gets into a position where he is upside down looking at the water.  The operator pulls the cord, and SNAP he goes flying down and then out over the river.  My god!  I decide I have unfinished business with the bungee/swing (in a couple weeks in Queenstown) and we move on.  My adrenaline is going just writing this, and I might have a heart attack when my number comes up.

We walk past a stream with a little waterfall that is flowing into the river and see people swimming.  It is a thermal spring (hot water) and we decide to test the waters on the way back when it's dark and after hiking all day.  We meet an older couple from California who are walking with what looks to be a black bear.  In reality it is some kind of St Bernard mix.  He was huge.  We talk to the couple for awhile and learn they became permanent residents because they liked the country so much.  They tell us the South Island in even better than the one we are on.  In the course of the conversation the bear shakes his head and slobber comes flying out of his mouth in all directions hitting the four of us.  They apologize, we I brush it off telling them we are going to go swimming on the way back anyway.

We get to the waterfalls, which has the color of ice blue Gatorade.  Kang and I agree that it is amazing, take some pictures, and move on to the Craters of the Moon.  Upon arriving we realize the gates are closed, so we hike up a hill and get a birds eye view instead.  It looks like something on another planet; the earth is steaming and it smells like sulpher.  Fairly tired at this point, we decide to head back to the thermal stream.  It starts to get dark and I pull out my headlamp, a necessary item in New Zealand.  I tell Kang to pick one up.

We get to the stream, change into our bathing suits, and jump in.  The water is really hot but not too hot.  There are a couple other people there but the waterfall makes it too noisy to really talk. Everyone relaxes, enjoys the view,  enjoys the warm waterfall/massage.  The fact that it was all natural, dark, and outside of the town makes it really cool.  I decide it is better than the spa from last night.

We head back to town fairly quickly so we can make it to the grocery store before it closes at 11pm.  We get frozen pizzas and food for tomorrow (for hiking Mt. Doom), get back to the hostel and eat.  No one else is awake.

It was the best day so far.  Up in 5 hours to catch the bus to the park for Mt. Doom.

Seconds before dropping

Huka Falls

Day 8

Wake up at 4:45am and it's still dark outside. We are going to catch the bus to the Tongariro National Park where Mt Doom is.  We are going to hike a 20 km track called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.  It's supposed to be the best day hike in New Zealand.  I don't really have much to say about this hike, pictures are probably the way to go and the pictures really don't do it justice. It was the best hikes I've ever done.  The scenery is ridiculous.  We were completely exhausted at the end of the day.  It's kind of funny when you reach the end of the trail.  You emerge from the woods and see everyone sprawled out on the grass in the shade with their shoes off either sleeping or doing some serious resting.  It's a tough hike, no doubt.

We decide that beers are in order for the evening to celebrate the conquest, so we grab a 12 pack of some type of New Zealand beer from the store and dinner (spicy noodles).  Back at the hostel, we go to the kitchen to make dinner and find the rush has started for kitchen space.  It looks like the kitchen in a restaurant around dinner time when everyone congregates to make dinner for the evening.  Kang makes the noodles and I crack a beer, hand him one, and sit down.  Some guy walks by with a big fish, Rainbow Trout, which he caught in the lake.  Other people make salad and I begin to realize that everyone eats really healthy out here in the hostels.

Kang is concerned that he is the only Asian in the place, I tell him not to worry about it; nobody knows each other anyway.  Eventually Conner and Antje get back from their biking adventure and join us at the table with a bottle of wine.  We compare drinking games of America, Germany, and Korea.  We try to play a game which involves saying “bunny bunny” and  “carrot carrot”.  The other group of Germans looks over with an equal mix of curiosity and ‘What the hell are you people doing’.  It was actually pretty fun.  At the end of the night the kitchen/family room begins to empty out.  Everyone at the table realizes that we are all moving different directions tomorrow and will probably not cross paths again, however we decide to meet up in Wanaka on the south island for New Years if we can.  We’ll see what happens.

We're gonna climb up that! Whoa.

Still the beginning

Green Lake on the way

Snow in summertime.  

Rotorua, New Zealand

Day 5 Rotorua, New Zealand

Wake up, catch the bus to Rotorua, meet up with Coner (a writer) and Antje (an artist) and we ride to Rotorua.  I still don’t know where I’m staying yet, but Conner and Antje tell me they’re staying at the Funky Green Voyager.  We wander over, it looks cool, and so that will be home for the next couple of days.  It’s a small place, painted green obviously, and feels more like a home than the other hostels I’ve stayed at so far. We grab lunch at the mall across the street.  I get ‘New Zealand Fish and Chips’.  I’m not sure if it was delicious because I was so hungry or because it was really that good.  Doesn’t really matter I guess.  Antje draws a picture of me in her book as we eat and Conner tells me about Laos.  I’ve found that everyone is extremely knowledgeable about the world out here.  All of the places I plan on going, someone has been there before and offers plenty of advice (go here, don’t go there, India is shocking but worth it, etc)
I then go off and grab some things I need: a daypack, sunscreen, super glue, another shirt, a couple pair of socks (because I left 2 pair in Waitomo…fuck.  And this normally wouldn’t be a big deal but when you only have 5 pair total, you’ve lost almost half your socks!)

I then head out to do the Lonely Planet’s Walking Tour of Rotorua.  I borrow a copy of the book and head off.  The town is situated on a lake and the Maori culture is big in this town.  Over 25 percent of the population is Maori (the original settlers of the island…kind of like the Indian tribes in American).  The first thing you notice about the town is that is smells like sulpher, everywhere.  The town is famous for its hot springs (think Yellowstone National Park) and there are lots of smoking pools and vents everywhere.
I walk by a young man who says something in Maori to me.  I respond with ‘How are ya doin’.  He says ‘I didn’t say how are you doing, I asked if you had a smoke’.  I say I don’t and move on.

I start to lose daylight as I walk through the park where there are lots of smoking pools.  There’s not really anyone out anymore, so I pick up the pace a little.  I hear a woman (local and Maori) call from behind me.  She tells me she’s looking for her sister in the park.  I tell her that I haven’t seen her, and we start walking and talking.  I start to get a bit nervous as she yells her sister’s name.  Is she calling for someone to rob me?  I have 500 dollars worth of electronics in my pocket and more cash than I want to lose.  She asks me if I’m the Queen of England’s son, and I tell her I’m from the States.  Finally we see a couple people approaching, her sister and brother.  She gives me a hug and tells me to enjoy New Zealand and walks off.  I smile for a minute realizing that no one is out to get me.  I wouldn’t walk by myself at night through many parks in the States.

On the way home I stop by the grocery store, grab some noodles, vegetables, and a big beer.  I make dinner in the hostel about 10pm and talk to the others in the kitchen.  One woman from Sweden has bought a car and is traveling around for 3 months, everyone else is from Germany.  We talk about the thermal pools which people can swim in (I’m doing this tomorrow), bungee jumping, and the best places to enjoy New Zealand wine.   I decide that I really like the Germans, and then go to sleep.

Lake "I forget the name" in Rotorua

Day 6 Rotorua, New Zealand

I start the day off with an apple. I wander outside to the smoking gazebo (mostly because it provides shade, but I later realize that it is a prime location to meet people) in the courtyard and start scheming about what to do on my last day in Rotorua.  I decide not to do any Maori cultural things; something about paying 80NZD to watch people sing, dance, and parade around on a stage doesn't really appeal to me.  I decide I would have done it if it was free.  In the end, I decide to take it easy and hang around the hostel for the day.

I meet a Swiss guy who comes out to have a smoke.  He tells me he has rented a car for 3000NZD for 3 months.  He also tells me about a road-trip he took 10 years ago around the USA, down through Central America, and down to Bolivia in South America...with no internet or GPS!  We joke about it being like traveling on the Oregon Trail but come to the conclusion that if you've never had it you don't miss it.  We discuss what kind of gadgets we will have in another 10 years.  Technology evolves so fast these days.

I meet a guy from England and have the standard conversation; whats your name, where are you from, where are you going, where have you been, not much more before he puts out his cigarette and heads back inside.  I continue researching where to go after New Zealand.  A girls tells me about Fiji last night and I contemplate whether to go there or go to Australia.  I don't make a decision.  I decide to walk down to the lake en-route to the spa.  It's about 7pm.

    

I see a couple sitting next to the water with a baby duck.  There's a cage next to them, not sure what exactly what the story was with this.  I see a bunch of black swans in the water, and am surprised how big they are.

I then discover a street festival, there's a band playing (two guys with guitars actually), and I listen for awhile. I check out all the booths. People are selling all sorts of things from jewelry to waffles.  I pass by a stand where they have a machine that mixes vanilla ice cream and whatever kind of berries you want together into a cone.  I decide I can't live without the blackberry/vanilla mix, so I get it and head toward the spa.  I run into the Canadian guy from Waitomo, tell him about the spa (only costs 20NZD), and tell him to meet me there if he wants.  I never see him.    

I arrive to the spa at about 8:30, and the woman at the front desk asks me if I have ever been before.  I tell her no, and she then proceeds to explain that the green pool has saltier water and it good for your muscles, the other ones are good for something else.  I don't listen too closely...seems a little astrology-esque.  

There are 7 pools, each has a different temperature right on the lake.  I walk out and immediately see a bunch of Chinese people...like over 100.  I'm officially a minority, but it  doesn't really bother me.  At one point while moving from pool to pool I pass by a European looking guy, we nod and look at one another like we have just done some kind of secret mental handshake.  You see, the Chinese like to come and go in huge tour buses in New Zealand, and I've never met a single person from China yet.  It like they are some kind of collective consciousnesses; like the Borg (for the Star trek nerds) or something.  They travel in packs.

At about 9:30 the buses must be leaving because the place empties out.  I take over the best spot in the pool closest to the lake and do one of those poses where you put your arms over the edge of the pool and rest your head on them, looking out into the lake.  Pretty relaxing.  A Czech guy and a Dutch girl from the hostel wander over and we talk for a while.  I show them Jupiter and the girl tells me she thought they were all just stars up there ;)  Cringe.  We also talk about how hard it is to photograph things in New Zealand.  Everything is so much more amazing when you are there in 3D.  When you snap a picture and put a border around it, you lose 3/4 of it.  She tells me, "but if you can take a great picture, you can then go back and remember how much better it is in-person".  I agree.

  

I stay until the place closes at 11pm, and float back to hostel.  I end the day with apple.

Maori guy