I got in and had a good 25 minute walk to my backpackers. I could have gone and seen the sights of Launceston, namely Cataract Gorge (a giant eyeball?), supposedly quite nice, but I didn't. I was tired and watched two movies. Yea I know what you're thinking. You're in Tasmania, go out and do things! Well sorry, I was tired and needed to veg out. Eat it.
That night I went out on the town in Launceston for a bit. Nothing crazy at all, went to a bar with a few girls and listened to some music and all that. Basically just relaxing for the next day...
Day 4: Woke up early to start a 3 day tour of the East Coast of Tassie. The company I booked through, basically my only option with the time remaining, is heavily walking based, so I was a bit worried about the median age of the group as well as the walking. Turned out to be 2 older couples, but they were awesome old people...cast of characters:
Gene and David - an older couple (65 or 70) who has travelled to over 100 countries and has lived in Papua New Guinea for the last 8 years organizing their health care or something superhuman like that. They are awesome and hilarious people. David is one of the best conversationalists (a real word?) I've ever met.
Tim - a canadian civil engineer from Edmonton. Real nice guy, genuine, and cool. Nothing bad about this guy, or too outrageous. Can't dance, again propelling the Canadian guy stereotype
Roberto - an Italian who always gets lost on the walks (more about that later) and laughs when he tells a story and only gets halfway through the story. Oh, he also walks away when he talks to you. Needless to say, a little odd...
Paul - a serious bushwalker from Sydney who would go off and hike on his own and do crazy pace walking. A serious walker, but a nice guy too
Katie - an 18 year old English girl who actually reminded me of my sister a lot. Real nice girl and the one I hung out with the most.
There was also another older couple who was pretty awesome and compared themselves to fossils we saw, the same danish girl from the one day trip (she's following me I'm sure...), an Israeli guy and an English girl (who looked 20-22 I was sure, but found out she was 31) who were travelling together, and some others. Total, about 15 people on the trip.
...yea we're doing at least 3, maybe 4...I know sorry, but you can just pretend you've read them all and fake it, I'll never know...I know that's what my sister does.
The tour started with us heading into the Northeast of Tassie. Our guide, Ian, an awesome guy in his late 30s, so incredibly laid back, brought his son along with him on the tour. A little odd and would cause us to censor some of our comments, but he was a cool kid so no worries. We headed off for Ralphs Falls, passing and stopping in tons of great little towns. The provincial feeling of these Tassie towns is so strong. These towns are the kinds of places with like 1000 people max, and everybody knows everybody else, and ther aren't supermarkets or k-marts, but still butchers and veggie markets and bakeries and hardware stores and all that. Tassie really is a wonderful place I assure you.
Anyway, the road to Ralphs Falls was closed b/c of downed trees, so that idea got nixed. We drove pretty much all morning, and stopped in St. Helens, an amazing coastal town, the biggest in the NE, busting with 1200 people, for lunch. An hour and a bowl of pumpkin soup with bread later, we headed out to the Bay of Fires.
Now I'm convinced that sometime in the 20th century, the Australian Tourism Bureau had a great idea. They said, "look, Australia is huge, and if people come, they'll just stay in Sydney and Melbourne and not go anywhere else to see our amazing things. So, let's name all our amazing geographical and geological features with cool names, and people will go!" It worked. In Tassie they have the Bay of Fires, the Hazards, Cradle Mountain, etc. In the mainland they have the 12 Apostles, the Devil's Marbles, the Pinnacles, etc.
ANYWAY...The Bay of Fires is a great coastline area of gorgeous whitesand beaches, light blue turquoise water and huge feldspar and sandstone boulders with red and black lichen covering them. It's a special place that would be busting with summer tourists if in the states, but being Tasmania, we saw probably 4 other people all day. The walk started on the beach with some light climbing over the rocks (nothing like the boulder field Dad, but that's later). That continued for about an hour until we came to a huge set of boulders hugging the coast, or take a path away from the beach through forest. Being young and adventurous, me, Tim, and Katie took the rock route.
It would be wrong to say it was the wrong route, but definitly the ill-advised, the non-wheelchair accessable route. Over rocks, 10 foot jumps down, big climbs and the sea crashing next to us. At one point we got caught in a splash pool which is just what it sounds like. At another point, there was no other option but to go through a small cavern under two rocks. Obviously, being small and svelt, it was decided I was to go first. Oh good. No, everything turned out fine and we finally got past the rocks after about an hour and a half of climbing. It finished off with a nice 45 min of beach walking. Roberto somehow got lost, walking past the bus and ending up 30 min west of the bus. He finally realized he probably wasn't in the right place (real smart guy) so he hitched a ride back to the bus. Very hilarious.
That night, we had a great dinner of Tasmanian Salmon and Tasmanian Wine, lots of wine. The whole group of us (including the older couples) spent the night talking about everything from US Foreign Policy, Australian Prime Ministers, English politics, English Rugby, Wine, Liquor and Beer, other illegal goods, Computers and Technology, and any other thing. It was a real good time. I've gotten grilled a lot about American Politics actually. I've never been poorly received, mainly because all the foreigners I meet agree with my views and my vote in the last election, but if I was conservative/republican, or even worse, politically uninformed, I would not have been received well by many many people on this trip.
The next day (I lost count): We headed out for the short drive to Freycinet National Park, the 2nd oldest National Park in Tassie. It is the home of Wineglass Bay, rated the 8th most beautiful beach in the world by Outside Magazine. It was a 600 m ascent to the lookout on rock steps. Something that was not kind to my legs and feet. It was a rough walk up, took about 40 min but the view was worth it. It's hard to describe Wineglass Bay. It's one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. Please, look it up on the internet, it's gorgeous. White sand beach, and blue water going from the lightest blue ever to the darkest blue. All in a half-moon shape. So nice.
Me and about 6 others walked down, almost harder than going up, and much longer, to Wineglass Bay. Truthfully, it's nicer from the lookout. Then we had the option of walking back up to the lookout and then down to the carpark, which would take about 1 1/2 hours. Or, walk to Hazards beach and then a coastal walk, supposedly 2 1/2 hours. Obviously, this group loving to Bushwalk, the 7 of us chose the Hazards walk. After 1/2 hour we made it to Hazards Beach which I think is nicer. Finer sand, not a soul in sight, gorgeous mountaineous peaks to our left and right. For shortness of the emails I'll try and sum it up. It ended up being a bitch of a walk back to the carpark, the whole thing totalled 11km and took us a long time. I ran out of water midway through and it was pretty tough going. No real hills, it followed the coast, but still rough going and real long.
After it all, I was really glad I did the long hike, but tired as hell and I think that night I went to bed among the later of the group, and that was at 10 pm. We were all bloody knackered
The next morning, I awoke in the bush (not an encounter with a girl, the Australian bush) seeing as how we had spent the night at cabins in the middle of the forest. That day, we headed out for Maria Island, a great national park island that was a convict jail for a while, and then an italian businessman tried to put in lots of other industries, and they thrived, until the businesses collapsed in 1929 with the depression.
Now it's a walking and camping hotspot, a great place for lots of Tassie families to go for a weekend camping trip. Dad, I imagine that this would be the place we would have gone memorial day camping if we lived in Tassie. But I bet they don't have a slushie race...
We did, yep, you guessed it, more walks! Woo! Me and a few others, with Roberto tied to a leash, walked the hour and a half walk to the convict built reservoir, then another 2 hour walk around fossil cliffs. One side of Maria Island (in Australia, they pronounce it Mariah island, like Mariah Carey, but without the sluttyness) has heaps of shallow marine environment fossils, lots of clam and mussle shells. Somewhere, Rowan Lockwood is smiling. It started to piss down rain on the way back, but all in all, considering Tassie's reputation for cold and rain all the time, I had great weather while I was there. Sun shining, very little rain, great stuff. So yea, Maria Island, like the rest of the trip, full of walking.
That night, we finished the tour in Hobart, and being Saturday night, 7 of us in the group planned to go out. Mind you, I've been travelling a month and a half and this would be the first sitdown dinner I've had the whole time. Me, Tim, Katie, Paul, Shy, Claire, the Danish girl (unpronouncable/unremembrable name) went out for good italian food and wine in Hobart. Finally, I found something going on in this town! Apparently the town is quite bustling Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but shuts down after the sun sets the rest of the days. It was a fun night, nothing crazy, dinner, wine, Tasmanian scotch, beer. A good time.
The next day I hung out with Katie as she was staying in my hostel and spent the day having brunch, laying in parks, eating ouse cream, that kind of thing. Ok fast forward to the ending:
TASMANIA IS AMAZING!!! For all of you going to Australia soon, whether it be travelling or studying abroad, GO UNDER DOWN UNDER TO TASMANIA!! It's such a special place, very provincial, innocent, and nieve in some ways, but also still a part of modern Australia, and therefore the modern world. The scenery is gorgeous, the people are unbelievably friendly. It's the kind of place you literally fall in love with. Plus you get to see Tasmanian Devils which are sweet as (ps - got a picture of one right next to my face...oh man it was scary).
Now I'm back in Auckland staying at my Aunt Lizzy's house, who you all have heard from a few times on my trip. I spent my first day back playing in the pool, relaxing with the family, and having a great time. Travelling is amazing, it's such a different lifestyle, and obviously, something everyone should do for a while at least once. I've had such a great time relating my experiences to you all through these emails, and had even a better time LIVING THEM. It's been a very surreal last month and a half with all the people I've met, things I've done, places I've gone, sights I've seen. It's an unforgettable experience and has turned me on to travelling more than ever before. There is so much out there to see, so why not check it out and give it a fair look?
The official study abroad program and orientations start in 2 days, and classes finally start on the 28th. Emails might be more infrequent now, but the way I figure, one set of giant adventures is behind me, and a whole another set of adventures lies ahead of me, meeting new people, living in a huge city, taking classes at a college of 35,000 undergrads, playing rugby in the land of rugby heaven, etc. And of course, there will be lots of funny stories to relate, so I'll probably keep sending some emails and pictures as I get them.
Thanks for reading, if you did, and I'd love to hear back from all of you,
Matt
Feb 6th,2005
Hey all,
So I continued my big adventure by finally venturing down under, to Australia. I pretended to be an adult by getting through customs fine and arrived in to Melbourne, Australia around 10 AM after a 3.5 hour flight. Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia with around 4 million people. So that first day, after checking into my hostel in the Central Business District, I went out and explored the city. First off, I went to the Rialto Tower to check out the view of the city. Rialto Tower is the tallest office building in the southern hemisphere, so it was a nice look out over the city. The skyline of Melbourne isn't very picturesque at all.
In fact, I haven't found Melbourne to be that outstanding. It's just agreeable. The nightlife and shopping and city is nice, but it lacks character. And Australians? They are an interesting bunch. Overall, I've found that they are EXTREMELY proud that they are Australian. I've also found, and this idea has been confirmed by a lot of other foreign travellers in my hostel, them to be fairly racist. I don't mean to ruffle any feathers, but it seems that they are so caught up in the glory of being Australian, that anyone else (the main groups of people I've found to be the targets are those from China, Japan, Pakistan, India and New Zealand) who isn't pro-Australia is discriminated against. It's just an observation.
Hi Matt and all...
I just had to respond to your comments about Aussies being racist. I
know
what you're sayin... based on first impressions. But believe me,
compared to
Americans, they are no where near as racist. And... quite frankly, I'd
put
the Kiwis up there with the best of them, when it comes to being
prejudiced
(you'll find that out Matt, after living life here for awhile... the
Kiwis
are "quietly racist" against the Maoris, Asians, Indians, Islanders,
Australians, etc) whereas the Aussies are much more outspoken about
what
they think, much like the Yanks.
Having lived in this part of the world for nearly 20 years, guess what?
Given the chance to move back to America; remain in New Zealand; or
immigrate to Australia... where would I choose?
Australia hands down! They have the population/sophistication/economic
advantages/political power of the US; plus an array of tax
breaks/education
breaks neither the US or NZ offer; and at the same time, they show the
same
immense PRIDE in being Australian that Americans do.. Kiwis sadly lack
that
same self esteem and it is a HUGE worry for me as I raise my kids..
they
have no pride whatsoever in being Kiwis (as much as I try to instill it
in
them)! It's almost like they apologise for being a New Zealander. I so
relate to the Australians for their pride... just look at the Olympics.
Yet at the same time, they maintain the incredibly laid back, "let's
have a
good time" lifestyle, which the Kiwis share.. as well as the good 'ol
"down
under humour"... something you wouldn't find in the States.
So Matt, I encourage you not to be too quick to judge our trans-Tasman
compatriots.. they're pretty "fair dinkum" and I think, if you give
them a
bit of time, you'll come to love them and their culture. And perhaps
once
you've lived here in NZ for a term, you'll have a different opinion.
I'm
pleased to hear your compliments about the country, but I think you
don't
entirely know what's goin' down here... most Kiwis are headin out cuz
it's
not such a great place to be.
Sorry again about the Super Bowl... win some! Ya lose some!
Luv,
lizzy
Hello Matt,
Both you and Lizzy certainly are not hesitatant to
tread on difficult if not explosive opinion in regard
to racism attached to a nation,race,or culture.
I was raised in the United States when racism was down
right overt, my father and grandmother clearly stood
within a body of opinion shared by many in our country
that would define them as racist in the context of
today. I saw it and lived it and shared it.
From my perspective, it is reasonably safe and
rightious to conclude if an individual has racist
tentencies and perspective. It is infinitely limiting
to make the leap and attach racism to a particular
group,culture,color,sex etc.,because, if you choose to
be brideled by that notion. You will miss out on
friendships,a good business partner,love, you name it,
you simply have a greater potential to miss out on
life. In that context both you and Lizzy are limiting
yourselves when you attach blanket racism to
either the Aussies or the Kiwis. T'is a false road.
Your travel journal reflects delight with living and
great observation; I say take care with conclusions
based upon that personal experience.
Really enjoy your travel journal; keep them coming,and
good luck.
Sincerely yours,
Cary
Lizzy replies
Day 2: I had planned to go to the Royal Botanical Gardens today, but of course with my luck, Wednesday had to be the day of the highest rain total in 24 hours in the history of Melbourne. It started raining around 7 AM, and literally, didn't stop raining until about noon the next day. The city is still full of downed trees and flooding and ridiculous stuff. At one point, a guy said to me, "40 days and 40 nights eh?" and I thought it fairly possible...
For some reason I decided to venture out in the rain in sandals and shorts, and didn't realize why I was getting weird looks until I realized what I was wearing. Took about a 1/2 hour walk down to the National Art Gallery, and man what a surprise! I don't know if Melbourne knows what it's got! Every time I turned a corner, Van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrandt, van Dyck, Degas, Monet, etc, etc. Very impressive gallery. Cabbed it back to the hostel in time to make dinner for 70 backpackers. Why? The hostel gave me the ingredients and I cooked, put in about 3 hours work, and got a free night's lodging and a 6 pack of beer out of it. Not a bad deal at all.
I was cooking with a bloke from London whose name is either Dave or Daniel. I can't remember which, so I'll just refer to him as Dave/Daniel. Cooking the dinner wasn't hard at all, it was Chicken with Sundried Tomatoes in a blush sauce over Penne. Pretty good for a free dinner in a hostel eh? The most amazing thing though I think was cooking 10 kg of penne (22 lbs!)...
After cooking, me and Dave/Daniel talked and drank our beers, and he convinced me to come to some shady bar in Little Italy b/c he knew the bartender and we would be "hooked up all night." So we headed over to this place around 9:30, and stayed till 2, not paying for a single drink all night. I had a hilarious encounter with an Aussie named Michael, who is a lawyer by trade, but describes himself as "a fucking important lawyer." This guy, sloshed off his mind, was convinced I was also a lawyer, had gone to Harvard, and now live in Van-cooover. So when we are about to go back, somehow I told Dave/Daniel that I play poker, and he tells the cab to go to the casino, at 2 AM.
I don't know if you guys have been to a casino, at 2 AM, but it's shady business. The kind of people who are at a casino at 2 AM aren't well, good people. But I was there so who knows. It took me an hour and a half to make my way to the poker tables, namely because the Roulette tables got in my way. There were people there blowing through money like you wouldn't believe. Lots of people were putting down $25 chips on numbers on the roulette tables (37-1 odds!), and just blowing through $50 bills. Not me, I went to the casino with $105 and determined to break even. At one point went up $60 on Roulette, then back down to even so like a good Catholic boy I stood up and walked away...away to the Poker tables...
Lost $25 on the way to the Poker tables on some stupid game, and finally sat down at a $4/$8 minimum bets Hold'em table. Hold'em is the style of game, and $4 means that the minimum bet per round is $4, and if there is betting one round, the minimum bet goes up for the rest of the rounds up to $8. Finally, my semester living in Lambda Chi would pay off...
On my first hand, I lost $40. I'll try and make the poker jargon short: Off the flop, I sat at two pairs, none on the table. After the turn, another 6 came down making my hand a full house, 6s full of Queens. So I bet hard, and only one guy stays in. He had the other 6. $40 down the drain...
So I buy back in with my last $40 and try to slow play a bit, not betting much and waiting for good hands. Little by little, my money was getting wound down, and at around $15 left, I finally won a hand, then won another, 2 in a row. After a little more slow play, I win 2 more hands. I was finally getting into the zone, but I took a hand off to count up all the $2 chips. I was up to $216! Right then and there, at 5:15 AM, I stood up and cashed out. A short cab ride home and I was in bed by 6 AM. Needless to say, an unbelievable and ridiculous night
Day 3: Not surprisingly, I slept until 1:30, and spent the day recovering, and trying to relax and get a hold of what had happened the night before. That night, my hostel, along with another hostel in the CBD, was orgnizing a pub crawl, so I figured why not, a good way to meet people I guess. It was a fun night, $3 for 3 free drinks at 3 different bars. Met some people, nobody outstanding though, and overall had a pretty mild night and headed back around 1.
Day 4: Today, I headed off to test the limits of my sitting down potential. I was headed to uncharted territory for American sports fans, a cricket game. It was a day/night one day international match in the VB Final, Australia vs. Pakistan. It started around 2:15 and was due to finish around 10:30 or 11!!! And people say baseball is slow...
I had spent a good deal of time learning cricket while in Auckland, and it was for good reason because I actually understood what was going on. It's not that the game itself is slow, it's just that the rules dictate the game to go on for a very long time. It really is full of talent and skill, despite the upper class reputation it has I guess. I also had the observational fortune to be sitting on the border of a Pakistan fan section and an Australian fan section. Every time Australia would do something good, or even if nothing were going on, at about a rate of one a minute, the Aussies would bust out the chant of "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!". Their repertoire was very limited, as their other favorite cheers were racist comments towards the Pakistan fans, and the wave. Not impressed was I.
It's funny, you could tell the players themselves were bored also. Like at one point a beach ball flew on to the field, and Australia's captain ran over and kicked it back in the stands, while the bowler was throwing (like a pitcher pitching in baseball). Another one stashed a banana under the pitch boundary marker and between bowls ran over to steal a bite. Pretty hilarious stuff. Australia ended up winning, 237-219. An amazing experience, and I think my butt is smaller now from being squashed on the seat that long.
Day 5: Saturday, yesterday, I went on a one-day tour of the Great Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles. The Great Ocean Road is known as one of the great coastline highways in the world, kind of like the California coastline drive, but add temperate rainforest on the other side of the road. It's really amazing, just such gorgeous wild beach and surf and craggy cliffs right next to sheep farms and temperate rainforest and little summer batch holiday towns. It was a nice escape from bustling Melbourne. My driver was Shane, a good Aussie guy who knows the entire history of the area and was very entertaining. Don't know if he said everything he normally does though, seeing as how half of the bus didn't understand English very well. Overall, we covered 560 km in the day, so it was full of driving. But I was pumped up, b/c it included a free BBQ dinner.
Now when you hear "BBQ dinner" what do you think of? I imagine, at the least, some kind, usually 2 different kinds, of meat. Some kind of salad, whether it be leafy salad, or potato salad or something like that. Nope, not this Barbecue. We had white sandwich bread straight out of the bag, barbecued sausages, and tomato sauce (ketchup). That's it. Nothing to drink, no plates, no silverware, oh sorry, we had tea and napkins. But that's it. It was the most ridiculous thing meal I've ever had, and all I could do was laugh.
From the BBQ we went on to the 12 Apostles, which are limestone rock formations that were eroded from the beach and stand alone in the shallow surf. There are 12 of them, hence the name. When you think of it, you don't know why they are impressive, or why they're so popular, but they're impressive all the same. We were also supposed to be there for sunset, as it's billed as the "12 Apostles sunset tour." Yet for some reason, Shane corralled us up and we left just as the sun was coming out of the clouds and about to go down. Pissed me off a bit. All the same, it was a good $75 well spent and a really enjoyable day seeing some of Victoria (the state of Australia I'm in) outside of Melbourne.
Today: Today I woke early to head to the Victoria Street Markets. This is the mother of all markets, with literally everything. You can find anything at all here, all kinds of foods, clothes, goods, etc. I put my bargaining skills to test and heavily contemplated buying a didjereedoo, but then realized that I would have to travel through Tasmania with it, and decided against. So after 4 hours of wandering through the stalls, I left with nothing but pictures and a wallet still full of money.
Then caught the trams (Melbourne is well serviced by them, very easy to get around the town, and you don't really have to pay) across town to the Royal Botanical Gardens which are known as the best in Australia and some of the best in the world. Being a sunday afternoon, the place was full of picnicking families, little kids running around, and older couples out for a stroll. The gardens are gorgeous and full of wildlife and native/foreign plants. It's very impressive and just gorgeous. Nice to see that Melbourne is committed to having such a large (380 or so hectares) park right in the city.
Tomorrow I fly off to Tasmania. Due to terrible planning, my plane leaves just as the Super Bowl, featuring my Philadelphia Eagles, starts. I'm hoping to catch the second half of the game in Tasmania after the plane lands. Go Eagles.
Overall, I liked Melbourne. It's not as "cosmopolitain" as everyone was telling me it was. It's certainly a huge bustling international city, but I found a city like Wellington in New Zealand to be much more enjoyable.
I'll make sure to get in a fight with a Tasmanian Devil when I go down there.
Hope to hear from all of you,
Matt
27 Jan,2005
Cary,
Glad to hear the Tribe has gotten off to a good start. I knew Jimmy would be a good leader, he's that natural. He plays rugby like he doesn't work hard, so flowing, but he does work hard and is committed. Real great guy, and an understated part of the Tribe back line.
It's amazing in New Zealand, it's such a rugby-based culture. Everything from random touch and 7's tourneys, to people throwing a ball around on the beach, to actual rugby stores and rugby pubs and the Super 12 teams getting coverage like our NFL does. It's very exciting for someone like me. And when they find out I play rugby, man are they surprised. But all the Kiwis I've talked to do hear good things about the future of US Rugby, and that's good to know our international reputation is growing.
I've yet to start formally playing. I get back to Auckland around Valentine's Day and will start in practicing with the team pretty much right away. I'll write more about that and the experiences along with it when I get into it.
Hope all is well, and Go Tribe!
Matt
Posted Jan 26th,2005
Hey all,
HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!! I'm sure this means so much to you, but it's actually a big deal here. Heeps of people from across the ditch are here and my hostel has planned quite a night. I'm sorry I haven't gotten a chance to respond to all of you individually, my time on the internet is limited, but I do read everything sent to me and really do appreciate all the emails. Thanks for them and keep sending.
Queenstown: This is the town I've been in since last Thursday (it's 6:45 pm Wednesday 26/1 as I'm writing this) and I'll be here till Friday. I have absolutely no clue why I've been here so long. I really don't like this town at all actually. The best word I've found for describing this town is desperate. In the main streets, there seems to be no inherent culture, just shops, booking agents, thrill ride operators, bars, and clubs all desperate for the tourist buck. From what I understand of Las Vegas, the two seem pretty similar, very money and tourist driven. However, if you're into anything adventure, this is the town for you. You can river raft, river surf, paraglide, parasail, skydive, bungy jump, and even para-bungy, where you parasail to 180 m, then bungy jump down. Needless to say, this isn't the kind of town where quiet reflection reigns supreme.
Thursday night and Friday night were filled with all of us (the group of 8 I've been hanging out with) hitting the town pretty hard. This town can be pretty expensive to go out in, and it showed these 2 nights. Thursday, as I previously described in the last email, was a pretty fun night. Friday blew thursday away, as I got to bed somewhere between 5:30 and 6:30 AM, and managed to call and talk to a few people at WM while they were on their way to class. At one point in the night, I had a turdburger. I remember it tasting good, and that's what I'm gonna go on, but the name isn't so appealing non? I got many snakebites that night (take that however you may...) and further than that, nothing from the night is really PC enough to put in an email (especially seeing as how I'm using a mac..), so I'll just leave it for good stories after I get back.
That next morning, Saturday morning, I woke up around 9:30 because me, Jeff, the Dutchies, Scott, Lou, Scotty (from Canada), and his girlfriend Mer, all rented a minivan for 2 days to go out to Milford Sound, known as the most gorgeous place in NZ. The drive out there was beautiful, as is everything else in NZ, but hilarious too. Scotty introduced us to an amazing road game called HEY HORSE!
Rules of HEY HORSE!:
When you see a sheep or a horse, you yell out the window, HEY
HORSE!
When you see a cow, you yell out the window, HEY COW!
(note: why do you yell HEY HORSE! at a sheep? I still can't
figure it out)
If the animal looks at you, you get Sheep: 1 point, Cow: 3 points, Horse: 5 points If the animal starts running, you get Sheep: 2 points, Cow: 6 points, and Horse: 10 points.
This game is quite easy to play in New Zealand not only because the sheep are so numerous (over 40 million in total), but also because they are so skittish (what have those farmers been doing in their free time??), and have a pack mentality. Once you scare one sheep away, the whole rest of the sheep around them start sprinting away. With lots of sheep on the drive and lots of yelling and scarring to do, our trip therefore became known as the SHEEP TORMENTATION TOUR 2005. Soon, we realized that honking the car horn would not only do the same thing, but save our voices. Man, that horn was honking the whole time scarring those sheep.
I realize, reading this over, that the game doesn't sound nearly as funny as it was when we were playing it. Maybe I just like watching sheep bolt away, but it was pretty funny to all of us.
After continuously playing the game for about 2 hours, we reached our midway point, a 2-street city called Te Anau. This town is, hmm, well if it were in a contest for best cities of the world, or even NZ, it would receive an "A for Effort" ribbon. Translation: it sucks. While dining on a gourmet lunch of a chicken pie and a sausage roll, I witnessed one of the greatest one-handed catches in history. Better than the Willie Mays Over-the-Shoulder catch that is constantly run. Ronald bit into his greasy sausage roll, which then proceeded to slip out of the pastry crust and fall harmlessly to the dirty ground. Jeff, out of sausage- catching instinct, dove to the ground, full extension, and grabbed the sausage between his first 2 fingers. Absolute exquisite effort, just for a greasy $1.50 roll of processed beef. I live for moments like these.
Putzing around in Te Anau, we were wasting enough time that making our 3 PM cruise in Milford seemed almost like a bit of a stretch. Once we pulled out the map and realized that we would probably miss the cruise (1 3/4 hours to go 170 km of windy road), we put Dennis, one of the Dutchies, behind the wheel. To say he drove fast is a definite understatement. He was going 60-80 km/h on curves meant for 35 km/h. And straightaways? about 160 km/h (that hovers around 100-110 mph). Anyway, enough of that, we got there with 4 min. to spare.
I'm not gonna bore you much more with driving stories, but the point of getting there is the scenery. Milford Sound is unbelievably gorgeous, it is literally beyond words, and beyond pictures. It's a fiord technically, carved out by an ancient glacier. I know for a fact that my pictures won't turn out as good as I can remember it. The best way I can describe the drive in is like the first time you drive down center city philadelphia, or new york, or chicago, or any other big town with high-rise buildings. And you look out the window and strain, and stretch, and tilt your neck as much as you can to see the spires, the tops of the buildings, but you can't, so you stretch further and press harder, and you're just amazed by how tall the buildings are. That's the way Milford Sound is, but replace the skyscraper buildings with mountains and waterfalls. The waterfalls go up into the clouds, higher than you can see. It's an amazing sight.
The cruise in Milford was great as well. It was absolutely pissing down rain and pretty cloudy, but that made even more unbelievable waterfalls. Some of them went to the top of the 1500 m high mountains that rise right out of the sound. It's such a special place, just hard to describe how powerful it is. So I'll wait for the photos to be developed, and hopefully I got a few that can show how special it is.
After the cruise, we headed back to Te Anau, taking our time now and stopping for pictures of the waterfalls and scenery and such. Once we got onto the open road of Southland, our luck finally ran out and going 126 km/h, Jeff got pulled over by a very cordial, but firm cop. Bummed out, we decided to cheer ourselves up by getting out, hopping a fence of a sheep farm, and running around chasing sheep. Oh man that cheered us up. Finally, I found something slower than me!
Heading back to Te Anau, we decided to not stay there for the night (good call) and leave back for Queenstown, and we would arrive around 10:30 pm. One good thing out of Te Anau though: they have a street named Wong Way. Ha!
more in the next one....
-->Sorry that last one wasn't too funny. I'll try harder, I know you love it dubes.
That night, we got back into Queenstown, everyone tired from a whole day of driving and scenery all running on a maximum of 4 hours of sleep. Making things even worse, the hostel we had all been staying in, the Discovery Lodge, was full up for the night, and most of the other hostels in town didn't have 24 hr. reception and were closed up for the night...hmm, problem. An amazingly nice guy, who uses the word bro way too much, at the front desk of Discovery helped me out by calling literally every budget place in town and finally found a place 3 km away that was $35 a night plus free english full buffet. Not a bad deal considering the time. So all of us took it and it turned out to be a great ski lodge, great find. Somehow, the other boys found the energy to go out on the town again that night. They must have drank some Jolt Cola that I didn't get, b/c I fell asleep watching cricket and had a nice quiet sleep.
The next day, seeing as how we had the car rented for that day until 5 pm, I took the role of leader and basically decided that we would go out to Glenorchy, a gorgeous area an hour NW of Queenstown. Glenorchy and the surrounding 15 km or so is basically where about half of the Lord of the Rings movies were shot. All of the forest scenes, mountain scenes, plains scenes, most of the movie, was shot around this small town. So, for me to say the scenery was gorgeous, well you all know, b/c I assume most of you have seen the movie (mmm, Friday taco bell and LOTR movies right Ryan?) It was a drive full of hungover people, more HEY HORSE! and just amazing scenery. Finally, we get to unpaved road and to a walk called the Lake Sylvan track. Nice 2 hour return walk through lots of forest and culminating in a nice lake view. Paradise for me, but not really enjoyed by the rest of the crew. Didn't bother me too much since they were all following my lead and I wanted to go here.
We got the car back by 5 and as no surprise to me, I got pressured to go out seeing as how all of my friends in Queenstown were leaving the next day. Surprisingly, nothing much in Queenstown was open, but then again, it was a Sunday. I've bonded quite a lot with Lou, and it was a great last night hanging out with her. Not too crazy of a night by my standards, just a nice last night with my friends of the South Island.
The next two days were filled with lots of nothing. I walked around the town and reaffirmed my distaste for it. I read a lot, and wrote a lot in my journal. Last night I went to bed at 10:30 I think, out of boredom. Anyway, fast forward to today...
|
As I mentioned in a previous email, the Kawarau bridge, a 43m
bungy jump, and the site of the first commercial bungy jump
in the world, is the only place I can do a bungy jump due to
weight restrictions. So I said, ok, let's get it on. $170
for the bungy and 3 great pictures (not up on the web until
tomorrow of the day after. I'll send out a small email with
the web address. I gave myself a 9.3 on the swan dive
form.) To say I was nervous was an understatement. Man, the
day of, the drive there, walking to the place, registering.
I really didn't like the idea of throwing myself off a
perfectly good bridge with a giant rubberband attached to my
leg. To make matters worse, once I got up there, the guy is
getting me fitted and all, and my mind is racing, and I hear
him say: "Oh man, this won't hold." .....!!!!!.... Those are probably the last 5 words you want to hear a minute before doing a bungy. So I flip out, turns out he was talking about a towel only there for comfort on my ankles and everything would be fine. They attached 2 bungy cords to me actually, to make sure I would be safe.
|
  Kiwi Judge says it was a 9.3/Matt says its a 9.6
|
The groundrush is out of control and you are going towards the water, towards it, everything is getting real big, and then, pfffooosssshhhh, the rubberband snaps back and you go flying back into the air...and then down again, and then up again. On that 2nd bounce you realize what you just did and I'm pretty sure that my mom will have strong words for the curses she heard me spit out even though I was on the other side of the world.
My time is running out on the computer.
All is well.
I'm safe, didn't die.
Bungy jumping is amazing. Do it
Love you all,
write to me, everyone,
Matt
Posted Jan 20th,2005
Hey all,
Sorry I haven't written in a long while, it's been so busy and I've been in some pretty remote areas. I hope that the start to everybodys semester has gone well. From Sam Sadler's emails, it sounds pretty funny already.
Well when I last wrote, I was in Wellington, the capital of NZ. It's an amazing city, it really is. It has the culture and feal of Montreal or New York, but only has 200,000 people so the city is very walkable and not too big. In Wellington, I stayed in my favorite hostel from the trip so far. Somehow or another, I managed to meet a girl from Upper Dublin (5 minutes away from my home in Cheltenham) in that hostel and I had a real good time while I was there. If any of you ever go to New Zealand (or live there for my Aunt Lizzy), then make sure to stop a few days in Wellington.
Oh one thing I forgot to write in the last mail, is that on the trip from River Valley to Wellington, we passed through a town called Bulls. So I can say now, that I am one of few people in the world to ever, really, truly, get milk from bulls.
After 4 nights in Wellington, I made my way across the Cook Strait on a 3 hour ferry that connects the North Island with the South Island. That day, I stayed in a small harbor town called Picton. The only reason I stopped there was to do a wine tour of the Marlborough Region (They don't grow cigarettes here Ryan). They are really known for their Sauvignon Blanc wines, and man they were good. We were encouraged to spit out the wines we didn't like, but as I think you all know, I obviously didn't do that. We tried about 25-30 wines and I took notes, with the notes becoming pretty hilarious by the end. Stumbling back to my hostel in Picton, I found about 40 of the 50 beds in the hostel filled with germans. I didn't hear much English, but because I had some wine in me, I really wasn't sure what was going on and went to bed early confused.
The next day I joined up with the Kiwi Experience bus (the hopping on-hopping off feature is great) on our way to the Abel Tasman National Park. This national park is at the NW corner of the South Island and receives the most hours of sunshine each year of any region. I quickly met some people and these would be the characters I'd travel the South Island with:
Jeff - a senior at some uni in Canada who has been travelling for 7 months. He is a real Canadian: loves hockey, says "eh?" all the time, and is the worst dancer in the world.
Scott - a 28 year old civil engineer who is one of 8 people to permanently live in Las Vegas.
the Dutchies - 2 brothers, Renault and Dennis, who are travelling around, smoke a pack a day each, and in 2 years, they figure they have gone about 25 days without drinking...hmmm
Lou - a car salesman from Leeeeeds (her pronunciation...oh yea, lou is a girl. sorry should have clarified). Real cool girl and has become one of my good friends on the trip.
There are also about 15 Canadians on our bus, out of a total of 40 people. I guess without hockey, they have nothing to do but travel. There are loads of other cool and interesting people to but none of you really care too much about them I'm sure, so on to what I did..
In Nelson, the town we based ourselves in for the Abel Tasman National Park, we just hung out and relaxed for the afternoon and I got to know the group. I'm sure my Britney Spears t- shirt really helped that... That night, as have all the nights since, been lots of fun with a good deal of partying and various debauchery. Somehow or another me and a few other guys on the trip took some part in a 43 year old's bachlorette party, but like navels, it's fuzzy.
Oh also another thing I've learned on this trip. I don't know if it's the people I'm travelling with and their ineptness, or the character of Kiwis themselves, or my own inflated sense of self-worth, but through this trip I've been one of the best dancers each night. The "sprinkler" and the "Carlton" have definitely come out as well...
The next day we went to Kaiteriteri beach where some went sea kayaking, but seeing as how I already did it up north, I decided some lobster-transformation (aka sunbathing) was in order. Me and Lou hung out on the beach for about 5 hours and I got as red as those kickballs that you used to play with in school. I also managed to get lost for 2 hours on a beach that is only 1/2 a mile long. I amaze myself sometimes.
After baking in Kaiteriteri beach, we headed down for a stretch of time on the West Coast of NZ. The Kiwi experience guide book labels the West Coast as "rugged" and "hardened". Now not to deter anyone from going, but imagine this: Combine the weather of Seattle, the backcountry people of the Bayou in Louisiana, and the isolation of New Mexico. Add lots of beer, and that's pretty much my summation of the West Coast. But still, it's a lovely place.
We stayed that night in Westport, a depressing coal mining town where there really is nothing to do. That night while shopping for dinner, I found a local microbrew, Miner's Draught (pronounced Draft). Interestingly enough, it was bottled in a 2 Liter bottle and was piled in with the Coke and Sprite. Just brilliant. Walking back I saw a little kid completely naked playing with some gravel in the middle of the main street. And he looked at me with a puzzled face, as if I was the weird one. And he was probably right considering the town...
That night we headed out to the beach (great surf on the west coast!) for a good bonfire, some drinks, and just a good time. It's one of those real chill things that you'll remember for a while. The people on this trip have turned out to be really great people. I'm really enjoying the group I'm travelling with.
The next morning the manager of the hostel had some sort of nervous breakdown and screamed at us saying we were all disrespectful, dirty, and wild. Not completely untrue, but still, in true Pi Lam fashion, I managed to break some stuff before I could leave in retribution.
We woke up early the next morning to take a walk to see New Zealand's largest seal colony, on a beautiful area called Cape Foulwind. Then on to Punakaiki to check out the Pancake Rocks. Look up some pictures of them on the internet, they're really brilliant. It's stylobedded limestone rocks (the geology nerd in me coming out...) that form pancake shapes and have blowholes (don't get too excited Overturf) where when the tide rushes up, it shoots water everywhere. Very cool place.
We travelled further on down the West Coast to a small place that isn't on the map, literally. It's not even in a town, it's location is 10 km south of Hokitika, NZ. It's called the Lake Mahinapua Hotel, which sounds 100x more classier than it is. This place, managed by a great old coot with a meter long beard named Les, is basically an excuse for Kiwi Experience buses to party in the middle of nowhere together and basically have free reign. And that's what happened. I found a new talent as a table-top Meatloaf impersonator, something that I am sure will come out again back at WM. It was a real brilliant time, and I'm sure the pictures will bring back more memories after. Heeps of fun.
The next morning, we struggled to stumble on the bus to go to Pukekura, the smallest town in NZ, and probably the world. Somehow or another, this is a town, yet it only has 2 people living in it. The only thing in this town, literally, is the Bushman's Center. Now for some, Wellington might be heaven for coffee lovers, or France for wine lovers. But for people like Dave Powell, and if you don't know Dave Powell, I'm sure someone will explain to you who he is, this place is his heaven. The owner, half the population of the town, jumped on the bus to explain what the Bushman's Centre. All he really did was spend 10 minutes insulting vegetarians and making fun of them in hilarious ways. Then he explained that this place was a shrine to hunters and trappers and stuff like that.
He also said that his last job was as a deer relocator. Now when I think of deer relocator, I think of trapping safely with nets and just moving them to another park or something. No, not for this guy. He would have someone fly him in a helicopter above a park until he spotted a deer. Then they would bring the helicopter lower, and he would jump out of it, landing on the deer, and wrestling the deer to the ground, tie it up, and carry it to another park, all while it's alive. To say that this guy is hardcore, is an understatement.
As I basked in his awesomeness, I had a good full english breakfast. Then we headed off for Franz Josef for 2 days. Why 2 days in the middle of nowhere? Well the west coast of NZ has 2 of only 3 worldwide glaciers that advance into a temperate rainforest (the other is in Patagonia). It's pretty trippy standing next to palm trees and looking at a glacier. Adding to my comfort level, I found out that the Australian-Indian and Pacific tectonic plates rub up next to each other right down the main street of that town. Very comforting in light of the relatively small earthquake that caused the tsunami, compared to the impending (next 10 years) very large slip of the aus-indian and pacific plate.
Comforting thought eh?
more in the next one...3 emails?? geez sorry, I know I'm asking a lot. Maybe you should have a lunch break then read the next one.
Arriving in to Franz Josef, we went in to the Glacier guide place to find out what we were in for the next day. I picked the full day hike, 8 hours total, 5 1/2 on the glacier. I took it easy that night, but I can't say that for some of the less intelligent people in our group...
The next day we were up early to do the hike. In total about 25 people from the bus were doing the full day, and like I expected, their overtrousers and raincoat didn't fit me. We were also given terrible boots (but we can't wear our own, their boots are "specially made" for the glacier) and wool gloves, which I couldn't understand seeing as how I was hiking a glacier, a wet glacier made of ice. Wouldn't it be cool though if they had a glacier made of something else though? Like a marshmallow fluff glacier. That'd be sweet. Anyway back on to the hike:
So with their equipment not really fitting me, I tried to get a partial refund, but was given a DVD of the glacier. Eh, I got something. The bus took us to a carpark where it was a 3 km walk to the glacier. We were split into 4 groups, and I ended up in the 4th and slowest group, but I was fine with that, seeing as how this was my first experience with walking on water.
My words really can't do it justice. I wish I could show you guys pictures of it, and I can when I get back. I'm not taking digitals, only 35 mm regular film, so despite the requests I have, I really have no pictures to send back with these emails. When I get them developed back in Williamsburg, I'll digitize them and send the good ones out.
The glacier is so gorgeous and so impressive. It's unbelievably huge and changing, literally, all the time. The guides get up early each morning and cut a new path of steps on the glacier. And every guide carries an ice axe with them to cut a new path while we're walking on the glacier. It's also real real scary, I mean it's huge and steep and the steps aren't very good, and it's challenging. It's probably the most challenging hike I've done in my life, and my feet showed it after. I still (now 3 days after) have terrible blisters covering all my feet. Coming down the vertical face was not only scary and challenging, but was compounded by the fact that I had bleeding blisters. But aside from the pain of the blisters, it was amazing. I am really glad I did it. Such a cool experience and gorgeous beyond belief.
After a good bit of celebration, and nursing my feet, that night, we headed out the next morning bright and early to Lake Matheson. This is the ultimate postcard spot of the South Island: a gorgeous reflection lake, still in the early morning, and reflecting the two highest mountains in New Zealand, Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. Absolutely gorgeous, I'm sure I got some great photos.
On to Wanaka, a real chilled out place that reminds you of a Colorado ski village. Very relaxing. That night I brought out my cooking skills and made a real good chicken and pasta dinner for me and 7 others. For the first time, I also made my first pasta sauce, turned out great. The dinner was the normal cast of characters that has developed, my friends in this group I guess, plus one other guy, another dutchman who looks ABSOLUTELY JUST LIKE Mary's retarded brother from There's Something About Mary...Frank's and Beans!! Like every other night on the South Island, we went out and had a great night out on the town partying.
The next day (yesterday) we headed for Queenstown, the adventure capital of NZ and probably the world. It's also where bungy jumping was invented. We stopped at the Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first commercial bungy jump and watched about 6 people on the bus do a bungy. I also found out that this is the only place in the world I can do a bungy right now b/c of weight restrictions. Sooo, we'll see what I do in the next few days...
Last night was filled with more clubbing and good times. Finally got to bed around 4 am after some hilarious times with teapots, fresh rolls at Subway, the Karate Kid, horizontal bungy, and something called Snakebite. Don't worry G-Spot fam, nothing and nobody here compares with OC nights and family dinners.
So now for the next while, I'll be in Queenstown. Tomorrow, me and 7 others are renting a big van and driving 5 hours to Milford Sound, supposedly the most gorgeous site in NZ, which must be impressive. Then I'll be in Queenstown more, trying not to waste my money, with maybe a daytrip to a big university town called Dunedin, the most Scottish town outside of Scotland apparently (thinking of you and your kilt Alex...). Then it's on to Christchurch, the biggest city in the South Island.
Hope everyone is doing well and I'd love to hear back from all of you,
Sweet as,
Matt
Posted Jan 10th,2005
Hey guys,
So I haven't written in a very long time, but man I've been so busy travelling I haven't really had any time to stop and write an email. New Year's was good, but sedate. People in NZ were still saddened with the Boxing Day Tsunami events, so it was pretty sedate in the city. I still had a good time, but nothing crazy.
I started my travelling on January 3 after a good few days at home with my aunt, uncle, and cousins in Auckland. It was so great to hang out with them and relax for a few days. We travelled an hour north of Auckland on the Hibiscus Coast to Warkworth, to see a rodeo. It was absolutely hilarious. I mean come on, it was a rodeo, in New Zealand. Great line from the rodeo: the announcer, a cheeky fellow, after seeing heeps of sheep released for the under 10 sheep catching contest, "Any Aussie farmers in the crowd? Stay back!"
Day 1: I'm travelling with a backpacker bus called Kiwi Experience. Overall, it's really good and bad too. Really good b/c it's so easy, the hardest part of the day is hopping on the bus b/c they do bookings and take care of a lot of stuff for you and have heeps of discounts. The bad thing is that they take care of a lot of stuff for you. But still, the option of hopping on and off as I like is a great one.
The first day was a trip from Auckland, the largest city in NZ, to the Coromandel Peninsula, a big place for people taking vacation (think people from Northern Virginia and the Outer Banks). After climbing to the top of Mount Eden to take in the views of Auckland, we headed out on the highway for the 3 hour drive. In Whitianga I went on a 4 hour sea kayak which was great. We kayaked through a "hole in the rock" feature and stopped at Cathedral Cove, a great little beach isolated from pretty much everything. The Kayaking guide, Nathan, made us cappacinnos on the beach front, like serious amazning ones. He heated the water and frothed the milk and brewed the espresso and everything right there on the beach. It was so good and hilarious at the same time. After kayaking through a manta ray colony, we headed back. Great trip. I stayed that night in a crappy little hostel with all the other people from the Kiwi bus. After going out that night I got to know some of the people on the bus...some of the characters on the trip:
Jorge - a middle 20's lawyer from spain who asked for a year off, and his firm said no, so he threatened to quit and they gave him the year off (sweet deal eh?)
Brooke - just graduated from University of Colorado, one of 2 Americans I've met so far since I've been in NZ. Real quality girl and has become one of my best mates on this trip so far. It's very nice to have another American around, considering most everyone on the bus is English, Australian, German, Irish, or South African.
Pat and Whitney - a couple from Winnipeg, Canada around my age taking a year off from college to travel around. They were in Phuket (the hardest hit area) in a beachfront resort during the Tsunami. They said they had a hut pretty high up and far away from the beach, but had gone to the beach every single day from 8 am to 5 pm for 28 days straight. But for some reason, they didn't go on the morning of the Tsunami. Walking to the bus terminal, they had to step around dead bodies. The whole event seems surreal when you hear it on the news, but when you meet two people who went through it, it hits home a little more...
Brandon and Shaz - 18 and 19 year old brother and sister from South Africa who seem to party more than anything else.
John - an Irish truck driver who has been travelling for 15 months. Quite a simple man...
Rakinda and Risha - two girls my age from London. Actually in general, pretty everyone on the bus is 18-25. It's a great group really. But that's kind of the problem with it all, you want to travel and do your own thing but you make some amazing friends and have a tough time leaving them all. I haven't let it affect my travel plans, but it's still tough.
Day 2: Leaving Whitianga (the city we slept in on the Coromandel Peninsula), our driver Jimmy got a call from his sister that his father had really unexpectadly died. Jimmy is a great guy, real personable and friendly, and used to work as a skydive cameraman in Taupo (central North Island). He was devestated and so after an hour he turned the bus around back to Whitianga and Kiwi Experience's marketing manager, a lady called Flea who drove for 6 years and was on holiday in Whitianga, came and was our new driver.
On the way to Rotorua, the tourism capital of the North Island and also the smelliest (big volcanic activity there and the town stinks of sulfer) we stopped in Matamata, famous for being the site of filming for Hobbiton in Lord of the Rings.
I've already been to Rotorua, when I was 10, and am going there again with university orientation, so I went to the supermarket with Brooke and just hung around in the thermally heated pool right next to our backpacker. The smell of that city is terrible, really. It's like you've got a rotten egg dangling in front of your face everywhere you go.
I met two guys from Ireland in the Rotorua backpacker who've been travelling through Australia and NZ for 2 years. They get to a city, stop, and pick fruit or carry concrete for like 3 months to make some money, and then travel all over. They drove around Australia twice and have seen lots of the bush as well. Doing the same thing in NZ. It's crazy to meet so many people who are travelling for so long and meet new people and sleep in a different spot every day.
Day 3:
Waitomo
It turns out that Waitomo, as much as everyone plays up the glowworm caves, isn't really a town at all, just a few caves, a cafe, 2 bars, and 2 hostels. But there I toured a glowworm cave and it was so cool. It's like a million little LED lights on the ceiling. Turns out glowworms are really maggots trying to feast on stupid flys trapped in the cave. But then again, tourists wouldn't come if they called it glowmaggot caves.
That night, our bus driver, Flee, cooked a big Thai green chicken curry dinner. And since Waitomo is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, we all picked up a bottle/box of wine each, and well, the night was pretty crazy. It was a real good time getting to know everybody and socializing with everyone. The whole bus is really full of great people, lots of people travelling alone, like myself, and real open to meeting people. Kiwi Experience had heeps of complaints from people staying in that hostel not with us, so it was obviously a real successful night.
Day 4:
Taupo day 1
I finally got some time to sleep in here and we set out from Waitomo around 11. The weather has actually been pretty crap, it's kind of followed me down the North Island. In Taupo, lots of people went bungy jumping or skydiving but a bunch of us went on 2 hour loop hike to Huka falls, a waterfall that's actually a giant Grade 6 (not commercially raftable) rapid where an olympic sized swimming pool of water passes through every second! Real impressive sight. After the walk I got the chance to relax for a few hours in a natural spa pool where burning hot water falls from a waterfall and meets the icy Waikato river. It's only a 3 meter difference between scalding and freezing so everyone is kind of packed in quite close. Very cool place.
Taupo Day 2:
I had intended to walk the Tongariro Crossing today, a 17 km hike between Mt Ruapehu and Mt. Nguarehoe (famous for being Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings) in genuine Mordor country. But the weather being pretty crap meant it was too dangerous to do the hike, so it was closed (something that apparently happens often). I'm not too worried though; I'll take a weekend trip down from Auckland some time while I'm here. So like what most people do when it's raining outside in a place where pretty much everything is outdoors based, a bunch of us went to see Ocean's 12. Not something to do really on the other side of the world, but it's better than just sitting inside. Truthfully, I needed the relaxing day to recharge. I didn't realize how tiring travelling is. But then again, I can't complain, I'm in New Zealand.
That night about 20 people from the bus went out to a bar called Holy Cow!, famous for it's table dancing. It was a good fun long night.
Day 6:
River Valley
Leaving Taupo, we travelled into the Tongariro National Park where heeps of LOTR filming locations are. After a nice hour hike to a waterfall, we continued on to a place called the River Valley Lodge in Taihape. It's not on the map. I know New Zealand is a very rural country, but this is beyond rural. It's possibly the most remote place in the world from Philly. This lodge was great though, so incredibly peaceful in an old wood lodge in a big gorge on the banks of the Rangitikei river. It is a gorgeous place, the whole scenery looks like a painting.
-They had a "beach volleyball pit" but it was filled with kitty litter>br? -They also had a "golf course," but it was just mowed grass in a field and the 9th hole had seemingly no way to get past the cow fence or nowhere to tee off from, or no cup actually.
Great place though, really, I promise.
Day 7:
Next day we went white water rafting on the Rangitikei river
(the site of lots of the Elf-land filming in LOTR). It was a
8 km raft with 14 Grade 5 rapids and 10 Grade 4 rapids (Grade
5 is the highest commercially raftable rapids there are). So
yea, I've never been rafting before, neither had anyone
else. So after a long time getting the gear on (the owner
commented on me getting in the wetsuit "Like trying to fit a
whale into a condom") we got started with our commands
ranging from Forward and Backpaddle, to Oh Shit! and Don't
Die!. We hopped out to go down a low grade rapid without the
boat (floating down the rapid) and I got caught in a rapid
and was held underwater for a good 10 or 15 seconds. It's
possibly the first time I thought there was a good chance of
me not making it. 10 or 15 seconds isn't long, but it really
is when you're not expecting it and when you're panicking.
Fun start to the raft eh?
The rapids were ridiculous. Unbelievable and so scary. Our boat got caught in the middle of a Grade 5 rapid and it was real scary, we were wedged on a rock with a flooded boat and in the middle of a rapid. The other guides hopped out and we had to pull ourself loose basically which took all 7 people in the boat's every ounce of strength, and 2 guides perched on other nearby rocks. After unwedging ourselves, we flew up vertical and shortly lost a girl under the water, but Haiko, a poetical (pun, anyone?) engineer from Germany pulled her back in quickly. We made it through ok but it was a good 20 minutes of real frightening stuff. Later, in the middle of 2 grade 5 rapids, me and Brandon from South Africa got thrown out of the boat, but got back in quickly to deal with the next rapid. At the end we stopped for a 12 meter cliff dive (great!) and some river surfing in a rapid. Unbelievable trip and well worth the money.
That night we got in to Wellington, the capital of NZ around 6. Just late enough to not have time to do anything. I'm hopping off the bus here and staying for 4 nights, tonight being my 2nd. Last night was fairly quiet with some good indian food and a few games of pool at the backpacker pub. Today me, Jorge, John, and Brandon went to Te Papa, the national museum of NZ. It's unbelievable, so impressive. It took us 4.5 hours to get through but I could have been there longer and will probably go back in the next few days. Lots of stuff on Maori history, NZ culture, popular history, natural and biological history as well too.
Last night I stayed in a big, flash backpacker that was impersonal, crowded and sucked. So tonight and tomorrow night I'm staying in a great old house with only about 60 beds and offers free wine in the evening, free coffee and tea 24 hours, free internet 24 hours, and heeps of other stuff.
Wellington is a great city, so so so much culture and it's fun to walk around and sit down and just take it all in. No wonder it won Best City in the World award in 2001, 2002, and 2003.
After Wellington, I cross the Cook Strait to go to the South Island and will spend a day touring the vineyards of the Marlborough sounds, famous for their Sauvignon Blancs. And then back on the Kiwi bus heading down the west coast of the south island.
Some notes on the trip:
-I can't understand a single person from the entire nation of Ireland.
-British comedy is weird.
-There are an unreal amount of sheep in NZ. Like 10x the amount of people.
-Indian, Malaysian, and Thai food is amazing. I absolutely love the Asian influence over here.
-L&P soda is "World Famous in New Zealand". It's a weird lemon and paeroa (a town, not a fruit) drink. It tastes just like baby diapers smell. Suffice to say, I only had 1.
-Rural New Zealand is fascinated with Corrugated Iron. So far I've seen a giant dog, a giant sheep, a giant carrot, a giant L&P bottle, and a giant moses (yea, the religious guy) all made out of corrugated iron. And of course, the gift shops and cheesy stores accompanying all of them.
-I met a guy in a bar in Taupo, who is good friends with Boris from meeting him at Bond University while Boris was studying abroad in Australia. He told me Boris is a weird guy (already knew that) and he wore short red Baywatch style shorts the whole time. Boris - he said you'd know him by the name The Rob. Cool guy.
-Rolling hills of the central North Island are good, until it makes your stomach queezy.
-NEW ZEALAND IS GORGEOUS
I'm doing fine, and hope everyone is also. Sorry this was so long but I've really literally lived more in the past 7 days than I have in a long time. I would love to hear back from all of you.
Love and miss you all,
Matt
....continued in next email...
Posted Dec 30,2004
Hey all,
This is the first of many emails from me abroad. I figured sending one email to everyone works best. I'm thinking about setting up a Blog so you can check it at your leisure, but haven't done it yet. If you don't want to get emails from me while I'm abroad, just email me back and say so.
I got off fine in Philly. Actually funny enough, behind me in the long line for security was Sarah, the sex-crazed redhead from Real World: Philadelphia. She was spending christmas in Philly then off to the Bahamas with her family for New years. Quite plump actually. I guess tv takes off 15 pounds...
The flight to Chicago from Philly was fine. One of the flight attendants was a girl named Macy. Despite her drastically unfortunate name, she was very nice. Chicago was pretty funny. I sat down at a bar for a burger and ran into a guy who was wittier than Uncle Laird (I never thought possible) but incredibly cinical (sp?) and democratic. Somehow to my disbelief, he rationalized his inability to get a medium rare hamburger to the fact that President Bush is in office and the Iraq war. Somewhere Michael Moore was smiling I'm sure...
From Chicago to LA I was assigned to sit between a gay couple. I asked the one to move and he said no. Well I took it upon myself to show him how large I am and uncomfortable it would be to sit with me between them for the whole flight while I was taking off my backpack. He proceeded to say, "Oh I'll move now"...
I ran into my sister's roommate from college who lives in Vancouver, in a Starbucks, in the international side, in Terminal 2, in LAX. Crazy.
The flight to Fiji was fine. It took almost 12 hours, but not bad. Great line from a flight attendant: "We have to delay the drink service a bit longer because the fasten seatbelt lights are still on. We're currently flying into a 100-120 knot headwind so we can't let you stand up because we're (long silence) flying into a big wind..." I only slept about 3 hours of the flight, but movies, gameboy, and books entertained me throughout. Good food and wine too, which I obviously enjoyed to the fullest extent that I didn't have to pay for.
Oh one big difference I've noticed between Kiwis (people from NZ) and Americans is that all Kiwis, young and old, all have really cool shoes.
Fiji airport is hilarious. I arrived to 85 degree weather and a wall of humidity, and a band playing island music for us. All the shops were open and everyone was real nice. But it was 3:35 AM their time. They really bend over for the tourists I guess. The airport was also decorated with Christmas lights. On the plane to Auckland, New Zealand from Fiji I saw the most beautiful sunrise of my life. Bright red, gorgeous.
Arriving in Auckland was no trouble at all and my Aunt Lizzy and Cousin Chelsea were there to pick me up. For all who don't know, my aunt Lizzy is my dad's sister who lives permanently in NZ.
Last night we had burgers for dinner. Complete with fried egg, fried onions, and steamed beets. Good, but different. Kinda tasted like a steak with relish on it, good, but different.
I've taken on the task of trying to understand Cricket. It's harder to understand than a Tiefel class or so I hear. I know bits and pieces here, but as Bill Bryson says, "Nothing would benefit the game of cricket more than the introduction of golf carts."
I've adjusted from the jet lag now, and today I took an early morning walk around my aunt's suburb today and found that all 5 of the coffee shops (located right next to each other actually) are all closed. Actually most everything is closed. Most people in New Zealand get from Christmas to the beginning of February off for holiday. Extremely nice for them, potentially bad for me and my travels.
Yesterday and today I spend a good clip of time hanging with my cousins and having a good time playing Xbox and watching tv with them. They get a lot of our tv, but a little late. Like they're just getting "Last Action Star" which I desperately tried to persuade them out of watching due to my own terrible experiences with it. It's New year's tomorrow here (remember, NZ is 18 hours ahead of east coast USA) and I plan to tear the city up.
This is a long email. Sorry, I'll work on making them shorter. That blog thing seems like the best option actually. I'll get on that soon and send out the link.
Everything is sweet as,
Matt
William and Mary Rugby