134 m

As a couple of you know already from the leak from the presses, I threw myself off of a suspended pod 134 meters (440 feet) down to the Nevis River and was thrust back by the help of a bungy cord. I woke up yesterday and went with two friends to do the Nevis Highwire Bungy at 8:30 am. It is advertised as the 2nd highest in the world behind the Blukrans Bridge in South Africa at 216 m (but I think there actually are two others that are bigger as well per Wikipedia - The Macau Tower at 233 m and the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland at 220 m). Either way, it was maybe one of the best experiences of my life and by far the most intense 9 seconds of adrenaline. We (myself, Alex, and Jay, who goes to Michigan State...) were picked up by a shuttle and were very amped up and respectively listening to our pump-up music on the 45 minute, 4WD trip to the canyon that the Nevis River runs through - I was listening to Zeppelin mostly, but kicked it up to some rap right as our van pulled into the prep. center. We were quickly checked in, harnessed up, and away we went to a metal cage that slowly traverses the wires across the ravine and docks into the jumping pod. I was surprisingly calm the whole time, which was similar to my skydiving experience, and watched as several others went before me as it went from heaviest to lightest. I made sure not to look down, but was entertained by the shrieks and screams from the jumpers before me. Finally it was my turn and I was put into a chair with my back facing the ledge, hooked on to the elastic rubber band that would ultimately preserve my existence, smiled for the camera, and then taken to walk the plank. I scooted along with my legs together like a prisoner with the shackles, and this was the moment that my brain began to process what I was about to do and I became filled with a rush of excitement and nervousness. "3-1-2, go!" And off I went, perfect swan dive into the air and began my free fall. For the first second of the jump your brain does not really know what to do or how to process every sensation that you are feeling - the weightlessness, the air rushing past you, the vision of the ground far below you, and the understanding that you are falling hundreds of feet with just the security of a cord to whip you back before you meet the earth. After the initial second, it is a surreal experience that seems somewhat out-of-body as you continue to fall for the next 7 seconds at speeds of about 128 km/h (80 mph). Finally you feel the tension of the rope pulling you back and you are gently yanked back from your fall and tossed like a rag doll back up to the sky. I was actually laughing towards the end of the fall and when the cord engaged as I couldn't believe the rush I was experiencing. The cord bounced once more and I pulled the strap on my left leg and was rappelled into a vertical position and was wheeled back in by the pulley on the jump pod. When I got into the pod I was met by my two friends as well as other jumpers and people waiting and I just had a massive grin on my face and continued to laugh. It was quite the experience and one that I will never forget (Mom, I was obviously only going to tell you now what I was up to in Queenstown...). I also was able to upload the video of my jump on youtube for your viewing pleasure - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp1CzuGdC20


Although tough to follow an act like bungy jumping, I also made my way down to the Franz Joseph glacier before I arrived in Queenstown. I signed up for the full-day hike, which takes you close to the top of the glacier and you are walking along the ice for about 3 hours. The views of the glacier and the surrounding canyon walls, covered with rich forests and low-lying clouds, were pretty remarkable. The hike itself was a bit slow going as the guide continuously was picking his ax at the ground to make it have better traction for our crampons (sharp clamping gear hooked on to boots). But it was a really unique experience and cool to see the bright blue walls of the glacier as you hiked up and the freezing cold water rushing below some of the crevasses that were formed over thousands of years.




We continued on our drive on the west coast of the south island, which really is beautiful and has sweeping landscapes that change around each bend. Noteworthy stops were along the Haast Pass, which cuts through the Southern Alps and gives spectacular views of Mt. Cook (tallest in NZ at 12,000 feet), Mount Aspiring National Park, and several noteworthy rivers like the Haast and the Makarora). I mean, with this picture here, the photographer should just give up his day job and become a professional postcard creator or the views really are stunning enough that anyone can capture this landscape in its entirety. During these couple days of driving on our way down to Wanaka and Queenstown, there really were so many amazing sites to stop and take pictures. I hope you enjoy the few that I have posted here, but would obviously love to show you the others that I have taken that truly demonstrate how diverse the landscape is in this region. The other picture here is when we stopped at the Blue Pools, which is glacier water flowing through a river with the mountains in the background. We also stopped at an amazing fruit stand on the way in to Wanaka that had many varieties of plums, apples, peaches, nectarines, cherries, kiwi fruit, dried fruit, and maybe the best ice cream I've ever had. They put a bunch of fresh cookies and cream ice cream into a blender with recently picked mixed berries, blend it together, and give you this delicious treat in a cup or cone.





Wanaka is on...Lake Wanaka, and is about an hour or so from Queenstown. It is a really nice, relaxed version of Queenstown, and still has the great views of the mountains and lots of great restaurants, cafes, lakefront paths for tramping, etc. We finally pulled in to Queenstown two days ago in the late afternoon and went straight to the lake to cool ourselves down after the long trip on the A/C-deprived bus. The views in Queenstown are some of the best I've ever seen for a town. The Remarkable Mountains are the backdrop to Lake Wakatipu with forests all around and people doing all sorts of crazy adventure activities (bungy jumping, skydiving, jet boating, canyoning, parasailing, hangliding, etc.). This mountain range is also the only other true north-to-south range in the whole world other than the Smokey Mountains (always helps to pay attention to the driver here and there because sometimes he actually said something important). After bungy jumping, most of us spent the other time relaxing, doing some easy walking trails around the town, chilling by the lake, and getting ready for the next legs of our respective journeys.


I leave tomorrow morning for a 10-day hike that takes me around the bottom southwest corner of the south island, through the Fiordland National Park, the Caitlins, some amazing alpine tracks, the furthest south town of Invercargill and back around to Christchurch. Here is the summary of it for those of you that are curious: http://www.hikingnewzealand.com/hiking-tours-in-new-zealand.htm. So yeah, that's the scoop for now. I won't be able to really update at all until I get back, but until then I hope you are all well and I will talk to you all soon.





Justin

Tramping

So for those of you who don't know, Kiwis use the word tramping to describe hiking, long walks, etc. I titled this post tramping because over the past 4 or so days I have been doing a lot of it through some great national parks here. After Tongariro National Park, our bus headed down to Wellington, the capital, which has a whopping 380,000 people, making it the third largest city in all of New Zealand behind Auckland and Christchurch. We only stopped over for one day here, but I was able to visit the famous Te Pappa museum (lots of interactive exhibits regarding Maori culture, the country's crazy weather, the history of European settlements, etc.) and climb up Mt. Victoria (where the picture of the CBD and harbour is from) where I found the Lord of The Rings scene filmed there. For those of you interested, it was in the first film when Frodo & Sam quickly get off the trail as the rider from Morador passes them on his horse - they hide under the big tree root that I am posing under in the picture. After a quick stint in Wellington, we caught the 8 am ferry through Cook Straight (separates the north and south islands) over to the port town of Picton where most arrivals into the south island come into. There are some great hikes around Picton (including the Queen Charlotte track), but we did not have time to hang around and were picked up and taken through the Marlborough wine region on the way to our final destination, Abel Tasman National Park. The several hour drive was very beautiful and we were all amazed at our first views of the south island. There were miles of large hills covered in vividly green trees, wide plots of farming (including hops, which was really cool to see given my obsession with hoppy brews), tons of vineyards, and, of course, thousands upon thousands of sheep and cows. On our way to the national park, we stopped in Nelson just to pick some more people up. The town is pretty small, but is known for its hippy feel, big art scene, great cafes and restaurants, and a great spot that backpackers use before they hit the national park close by.

We finally got to our accommodation in Marahau, which is the closest town right to the entrance of the 50km+ Abel Tasman coastal trail. The "hostel" was actual a farm, aptly named Old Macdonald's Farm, and was a really interesting little spot with llamas, alpacas, sheep, horses, etc. and pretty basic accommodations; this actually added to the experience as most of us were very tired each day after tramping around that it was nice to kick back, chill, have some drinks around a fire, BBQ, etc. Abel Tasman National Park is named after the Dutch explorer who sailed around Australia in the mid 17th century before he hit New Zealand and has this park, the Tasman Sea, and Tasmania named after him. On the first full day a group of us did the half-day hike, half-day sail option, which worked out very well. We did an 11km segment from the start to the Anchorage beach, where we were met by a catamaran that picked us up. The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the boat, sailing, swimming, and spotting seals (and saw a young "pup" with its mother). The pictures of this national park really do not do it justice as it is absolutely magnificent. The Department of Conversation (DOC) in New Zealand manages to keep all of their national parks in impressively great shape and they actually care for close to 20% of the country's land. Abel Tasman is one of most popular national parks and I could easily see why from the minute I stepped on to the trail. The trail did not change as drastically as Tongariro did, but there were subtle differences that were revealed frequently as I walked through. At first you would be on a hot sandy beach with really fine sand and crystal clear, emerald water, and then straight in to the heart of a dark jungle with lots of Jurassic looking trees, roots all through the trail, and very moist air that acted a much-needed air conditioning. Around the next bend there were rivers with massive boulders (one spot called Cleopatra's pool that you can actually slide down natural slides formed between the rocks), and other variations of trees that all had different feels as I walked through. That first night we went to the Park Cafe (the only bar around) and conveniently a really good reggae band was playing and everyone was dancing and having a good time - the natural surroundings also included locals that had a "deodorant optional" philosophy, which obviously enhanced their fragrance during their frantic dancing & grooving. Another highlight in the town was a great burger joint called The Fat Tui. I had the "Hau burger," which included the following ingredients: beef patty, thick slab of bacon (Peter Luger style), grilled pineapple, beets (yes, beets!), bulgar wheat, tomato, and a great mustard sauce, all topped off with a fried egg. It was truly an amazing burger and was well deserved after the long day of hiking. The second day I actually took the "aqua taxi", which is a speed boat that you can take to different points along the trail. I took it up to the Tonga Marine Reserve spot and hiked the 17km south and met up with the Anchorage spot that I hiked north to on the first day. Overall the coastal track was a great experience and the small-town, rural feel of Marahau and Old Macdonald's Farm made for a solid 3 days. And another amazing sight was the fact that not only does this area get the most sunny days of anywhere in the country, but the low and high tides are the most extreme and make for some awesome photo opportunities as you can see below. The aqua taxi boats actually had to be towed by tractors into the water when it was low tide.

After tramping in Abel Tasman, we got on the bus and headed to the west coast of the south island, which is renowned for its amazing coastal views and also the pesky sand flies, which covertly surround you wherever you are in this region and bite the hell out of you, leaving very itchy bumps (I currently have about 10 on my feet thanks to these little buggers). We stopped at the "pancake rocks" on the way down the coast, which were very large rocks along the beach that look like layers of pancakes after thousands of years of the sea crashing down and altering the landscape. The coastal views were stunning around every bend in the road and reminded me a lot of the backdrop to Peter Jackson's King Kong (I was told he filmed somewhere in the south island, but not sure where) - tall, rolling mountains covered with trees and low-hanging fog that covered the tops gave a very unique and jungle feel. We spent the night in Barrytown, which has the nickname "Barry no-town" and mockingly "Baz-Vegas," as there really is nothing to do there, but was a convenient stop-over point on the way down to the Franz Joseph glacier. I am currently in the town right outside of the glaciers and signed up to do a 6-hour hike tomorrow that will take me all over the icy mammoth - it is 12km long and is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world. It is also a World Heritage site.

Tune in to the next post as I'm sure I will have sweet as pictures of climbing the ice, scaling down steep and narrow crevasses with icy rivers running underneath - all with pick ax in hand and the sharp, ice-gripping boots.

Tongariro

I am currently sitting at The Park Lodge (a terrific hostel / hotel) at the National Park, which is commonly known as Tongariro National Park. It was assigned the general name of "National Park" because it was actually labeled with this title back in the 19th century and was only the second place, after Yellowstone, to be given this designation. Tongariro is one of the "must-see" spots on the north island as the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is walked here and it is considered the best one-day walk in the country. It is about 18.5 km (a little over 11 miles) and took me and a group of five others about 6.5 hours to do with a lunch break and some occasional stops. We did this walk two days ago and it was truly amazing. The landscape changed about 5 times and every time we turned around a bend or got to the peak of a rocky path we were climbing, the scenery changed once more. I will post a bunch of pictures below to give you all an idea and how the trail changed so drastically at each segment (Note: You can actually click on the pictures and it should give you the full version of them). At the peak, we were about 1,900 m up, which was a bit short of Mt. Ruapehu at 2,800 m (tallest in the north island) and Mt. Nguaruhoe, which as I mentioned previously, is actually Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings, at 2,300 m and has a perfect conical top in it. Our guide told us this volcano is also used often as a "stunt double" for Mt. Fuji in Japan as there is no development or towns around it - it was also used in Last Samurai in this respect.

So the landscape changed many times as I mentioned before. First, it was like walking through some short bush with small streams on each side of you and easy bridges to walk over. In the distance was "Mt. Doom" and we quickly had to scale a very vertical gradient with loose rocks and narrow openings to climb. After we got through this point it looked almost like I was walking on the moon. I was viewing one massive crater and a very flat plateau to walk on with Mt. Ngauruhoe behind me and Mt. Tongariro to the left of me with patches of snow on it (oddly enough as it was about 90 degrees out) . After this segment, we had to continue climbing to the peak of the trail at 1,900 m and were greeted with the stunning view of the Emerald Lakes below us. These lakes were incredibly luminescent, small bodies of water that were a bright green with a yellowish tint, which most likely was due to the abundance of sulphur from under the ground. Again, the landscape changed back to very baron looking walls of brown and red mountains with very rocky paths. Shortly thereafter, the scenery changed dramatically and all around us were tall, wispy yellow, knee-high plants and it was almost as if we were transported to the English countryside. This continued for a while and weaved in and out of some streams, an occasional waterfall, and several sulphuric gas vents in the ground. This whole segment was also ancient burial ground for the Maori people and you were not allowed to step off of the trail. The alpine flowers, tall, yellow plants continued to surround me until I finally reached the forest canopy towards the bottom of the trail and for the last segment was immediately welcomed into a lush forest with trails covered in trees and moss and rapidly flowing streams to the left of me. When we finally made it to the end of the trail, a simple car park was there and everyone coming through to the end showed visible signs of exhaustion, joy, and amazement at the fete just accomplished. It was not very difficult as long as you were fit, but it was very long for a day hike and many people actually do the whole circuit over a span of 4 days.

So, I hope this post did not bore you, but I felt like it deserved its own story as it truly was an amazing day of tramping through authentic Kiwi national park. I ended up staying at the National Park and the Lodge here for 2 extra nights as it is so comfortable here, the views of the summits are right outside the cafe (see closest picture), and it was a great place to relax before I continue on to Wellington and then take the ferry over to start my adventures on the south island. It amazes me every day to think that I've only been traveling down from Auckland for a little over a week and yet feel like I have been exploring the north island for much longer. I am very excited to see what the south island brings, as it is supposed to be even more wilderness, with many glaciers, the Southern Alps mountain range, pristine beaches, Marlborough vineyards, etc.

Talk soon,

Justin

Skydiving, surfing, and spelunking

As you can see by the title of the post, over the past two days I have done several pretty ridiculous activities. But I'll first start where I left off from before. So I left Auckland (thankfully as it was becoming my Bruges, if you have seen the movie), and hopped on a Stray bus tour. It was a really great way of meeting a lot of cool people from all over the world (most seemed to be Brits or Irish though, which was pretty funny) and an easy way for transportation around the country. The first stop was in Hahei where we walked around a beautiful place called Cathedral Cove (which reminded me of Halong Bay in Vietnam as it had several massive pieces of land jutting out from the sea). At night, we went to the Hot Water Beach at low tide to sit in holes we dug out as when you dig through the sand there, boiling water comes through and you can sit in the holes like a jacuzzi. It was an amazing experience and the stars shining through were like nothing I've ever seen before. The next day we headed to the famous surfing town of Raglan where I gave my first go at attemping to catch a wave and surf. The instructional 10 minutes made me think it was going to be a piece of cake, but obviously when I was in the strong current and attemping to do it with a massive surfboard and my wetsuit on, it was really difficult. I managed to catch about 7 waves out of the 50+ times I tried. But I'll tell you what, for the 5 seconds or so when you're riding that wave, you feel pretty damn cool (Silver, I'm almost as good as Butchy Yost in Juan de Cinci). So after surfing, we stayed at a cool hut back in the woods for the night where we did some flying foxes in the dark (basically a zip-line) and had a grand ol' time.

We then woke up early and headed to Waitomo, which is where all of the caves are that you can go into and do some spelunking, abseiling, rock climbing, and see the famous glow worms (which I was told are technically maggots as they're not in the pupa stage yet, but "worms" was more markatable than maggots). I picked the most extreme caving option (as that's obviously my MO), and it was pretty damn insane. Me and a Swiss guy on my bus were the only two doing it, and we were able to be underground (probably about 100 feet at times) for 3 hours and we did 3 abseils (climbing down on ropes), 1 of which was in a waterfall, some rock climbing, saw tons of glow worms, and just explored around.

After an awesome time in the caves, we headed on to Maketu, where we were part of a traditional Maori ceremony called a Marahe, which was a big feast of food (including Seinfeld's favorite, the infamous Mutton), and then a bunch of Maori dances, one called a haka, which I have put a picture of below. Basically all of the guys do these war-chanting songs and the women follow with their own parts. It was a great time and we actually slept all in one big room too as the Maori traditionally do.

In the morning, we headed to Rotorua, which is a pretty big tourist spot because of it's famous thermal baths. The whole city is in a big caldera after a volcano under the ground exploded millions of years ago. The cool part is that there are still tons of spots where there is boiling mud that you can view and also the whole town smells of sulphur, which was quite displeasing. It was a real nice stop, which we did on the way to the highlight of the trip so far - Taupo, which is where I am now and is considered the skydiving capital of the world. I think roughly 40,000 people skydive each year here. Lake Taupo, surrounds the city and is the biggest lake in the country and is the size of Singapore. So, shortly after getting into town, the whole bus (including myself) opted to head straight to the Skydive Taupo to be tossed from a wee plane at dizzying heights of 15,000 feet. I was in the last plane to go up and had a nice amount of time to think about whether I was going to go through with it. I am very glad I did as it was one of the coolest experiences and biggest rushes in my life. You put on a jumpsuit and get into the plane (which for some reason is pink) and off you go, nose of the plane pointed straight to the sky, and head up to the highest point you can jump from in tandem of 15,000 feet. After a girl went first (she was only doing 12,000 feet), my calm manner instantly become a bit shaken as I saw her scream and get sucked under the plane and headed towards earth. Finally it was my turn and the guy I was tandemed to (Laci, from Hungary), asked me if I was ready (not like I really had a choice in the matter) and away I went. Free falling to the ground at 120 mph is quite the adrenaline rush. The wind is whipping in your face and you can see the entire northern island of the country. There is so much to see that the minute-plus free fall and subsequent five-minute glide after the parachute comes out goes by very quickly. I made it safely to the ground and for the rest of the day had a smile on my face and remnants of a rush still going through my legs.

Now I am still in Taupo and will be hopping back on the bus tomorrow with a new driver (the last was a slovenly drunk fellow with one leg named "Woody") and a new group of people. It's a funny dynamic how you meet a lot of cool and then you become very close with them for a short while and then people leave and new people hop on. Fortunately I have met a lot of interesting people from Ireland, the UK, and Holland and will most likely see them later on in the route. Tomorrow I am going to the National Park, which is where you can do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which is supposed to be the best day-hikes in the county. It is also where Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings was filmed.

I appreciate all of the posts and I hope you all are well.

Justin

Happy MLK Day (Maybe he could have made the correct pass interference call...)

Other than the reference in the title, I will not talk about the game at all as I am obviously disgusted. I hope this post finds you all well and enjoying the 3-day weekend. This past weekend I spent my time exploring Auckland a lot more and becoming very familiar with the city - there are only 1.3 million people here (out of only 4 million in the country and 40 million sheep) and the area is fairly easy to get around. Saturday I started the day by going to the Ponsonby area, which is known for having the best restaurants in the city as well as good bars as well. Hamish (no Windheim, he's not Jordanian, but Scottish, although I could see the confusion with the name) told me about a great burger place, crudely named Murder Burger, that I had to try; it was not that great and I probably should have stayed with the Lonely Planet recommendations of great brunch spots in the area as the book has been spot on thus far regarding pretty much everything. After eating, I walked down to Victoria Park and attempted to figure out the game of cricket after briefly discussing the rules with Hamish earlier in the day. Below is a picture I took of a game going on. It was humorous to me that not only do the points go in the 100's, but everyone is dressed in really preppy white pants, vest, etc. like they're going sailing:

After watching for a bit, I walked over to the piers and took a ferry over to Devenport, which is

just across the bay from Auckland and part of the North Shore area. It was a pretty sleepy neighborhood with a lot of couples restaurants, but also a nice hill to climb up and get great views looking back on Auckland's CBD and the skyline. This was a personal favorite of mine (Silver, good symmetry?):

I took the ferry back over to the city and met up with Hamish and a couple of his work friends at an apartment downtown where we drank some scotch (Aberlour) and I had a good laugh in my

head when all three of them were oggling the glory of the liquor like they had never tasted it before with one kid telling me how to swirl it, smell it, and taste it - yeah, thanks, chief, I kind of know my scotches. After this, we went to a house party as the one scotch kid is actually a DJ and knows, apparently, one of the biggest rap names in New Zealand. His name is PNC (not the bank) and he seemed like a pretty normal dude when I met him at the party. I was introduced to him by a wasted Hamish as "my friend Justin who just got laid off at his job in New York and jumped on a plane to beautiful New Zealand!"). Here is a funny music video I found of his song, "Just Roll": http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=ecxd1IK32tw. (He's the guy on the couch with the gotee to the left of the weird dude that for some reason is wearing a dinosaur costume). The song is actually not that bad. I probably should have asked PNC what his influences are. The party was not that popping, but we also left around 12. Check out his cover of "Moonlight" as well as that gave me a good laugh too.

The next morning I woke up early and took the ferry to Waiheke Island, which is known for its wineries (currently at around 32) and some really nice coastal day hikes. The hike I did was around Church Bay and took roughly 2 hours and I ended up sweating like crazy and walking in like a shlub to the Mudbrick Vineyard where I put down about $3 to taste 7 really nice wines. New Zealand (particularly the Marlborough region in the northeast tip of the south island is known for its Sauvignon Blancs and also has some great Riselings as well). The other winery I went to was the Cable Bay Winery. It was far surperior as the guy giving the tasting was brought in

from the bar because it was so busy and he was not use to pouring small tastes, so we basically were poured close to half a glass of wine for all 8 wines we tasted - and he forgot to collect the $5 - glorious. I was obviously pretty buzzed walking back to the ferry, but enjoyed a nice sun setting on the harbour as we docked back in to the pier.

The rest of the night was pretty laid back and I woke up this morning and checked in to the Nomad Fat Camel hostel as I was running low on my patience with Hamish and needed to get up early Tuesday morning for a bus tour I'm doing. I'm going with a company called Stray and it's basically one of those "hop on, hop off" bus tours

where you pay not that much money and get transportation, a guide, discounts on a bunch of activities (spelunking of course, Dave), etc. So I leave tomorrow morning at 7:45 am and our first stop is Hahei, known for boiling hot water that comes up under the sand and people sit in them like jacuzzis. Also, a stop soon after at Raglan, which is known for being a really good surfing town - I may have to try it out for the first time and see if I can at least stand up (I mean, Phil, if you did it, I'm sure I can). I then start making my way down south through the north island and eventually to the south island.

I've enjoyed everyone's comments to the posts and I will respond to them as I can and of course any emails sent my way.

Take care,

Justin

Arrival

So here I am, on the underbelly of the world. It took a 6-hour flight to San Fran, a 4-hour layover, and a 12-hour flight to Auckland, but at last I have arrived. It amazed me that I could just sit on a couple plane rides and all of a sudden be warped 9,000 some miles and into the heart of summer. The plane touched down at 4:30 am New Zealand time on Friday even though I left Wednesday - effectively skipping the first day of my life. And I can still hear the flight attendant's welcome in my head; "...and for those of you who are from this absolutely beautiful country, welcome home." That got me very excited and definitely made me forget that bumping in my stomach coming from the rigatoni with ricotta and some sort of weird meat sauce served earlier in the marathon flight.

After a short stint in the "biosecurity" line (which scares you a bit as they deem any sort of false statement regarding plants, food, random specks of dirt on your boots, etc. brought into their country as a fine of at least $200 and possibly imprisonment), I was on my way to an apartment of someone I had never previously met. For those of you that don't know, I did "couch surfing", which basically is like a Facebook-type website, but the profiles are used for people to determine whether they want to host people on their couch, spare room, etc. for a certain period of time. A kid named Hamish was gracious enough to let me crash at his place this weekend and even gave me his keys when he went to work today so that I could come and go as I pleased - talk about trusting a stranger. This sort of situation would never happen in New York.

Unsurprisingly, the first place that I somehow stumbled upon was the Auckland Domain, which is a massive arboretum-type area with a lot of gardens, trails, and the Auckland Museum. It reminded me a little of the Golden Gate Park, but much much smaller. Here are a couple pictures I took today of it. I especially like the one with the train as the old trains are a bit of throwback, ala Station Agent:

















After some time spent wandering around this area, I also visited the Parnell area. This small neighborhood east of the Domain was quaint and filled with really unique shops, restaurants, and coffee shops. One of the many interesting things I noticed in my first day was that no one jay-walks in Auckland and on occasion there are actually instances when both sides of the intersection are stopped and the pedestrians race by on all sides of the street and crossing at various diaganol paths. I then had a small lunch in the Grafton and checked out Auckland University's campus. It was really beautiful, small campus, with a lot of Victorian-style buildings, large quads, and their famous clock tower. Here are some pictures from that as well:




















The rest of the day was spent touring through some of the more touristy areas of Queen and Victoria Streets, walking along the wharfs, and ducking into a bar or two for some cold brewskies as it was about 80 degrees. Obviously these watering holes included a Belgian bar called Occidental and the Shakespeare Hotel & Brewpub (Auckland's first brewpub, which also has 13 rooms that are always booked).

So that is the update on Day 1. I'm finally going to hit the sack after what seems like ages since my head last hit the pillow. I'm going to be in Auckland the rest of the weekend and did (in case you were all worried) find a 24-hour bar (the Shakespeare one) that assured me they would have the Birds game on Monday morning at 9 am - giddy up.



Justin

Trial run

So, because I want to keep all of you up-to-date on my travels, but did not want to go through the laborious process of creating email groups, remembering email addresses, etc., I thought it would be easiest if I created a blog.  Basically, if you're interested at all in what I'm doing over on the other side of the world, just click on the "follow this blog" icon on the right hand side and it should then give you updates through email each time I post a message, picture, etc.  If you already get too many emails and don't want to hear my ramblings about how beautiful New Zealand and Australia are while it's cold and miserable in the States, I will completely understand.  So yeah, that's it.  I leave on Wednesday the 14th and come back March 10th.  One picture (among many) that always gets me excited for the trip is the following:

Apparently these views are common over there, which is pretty crazy to think (this is in Lyttelton, a town right outside of Christchurch in the South Island).  

Feel free to leave a message here or send me an email to my gmail account - jbrock7@gmail.com.

Talk soon,

Justin