North Island Pics

Avo peak

Here are the pics from my Avalanche peak hike, I'll get the ones from the North Island up soon.

Bitter farewell

Prepare yourself, this is a long ramble of assorted thoughts that I wanted to get into print, some of it may not make sense but it does to me. I'm sure I forgot somethings that I wanted to say but oh well, this is the general gist of it.

I can honestly say that this has been the best 4 ½ months of my life. I have had more fun and met more amazing people than I ever could have expected. Coming over here I knew that I was going to like it just based on what I had heard from friends and seen from pictures. What I didn’t know was that the experiences I was going to have were going to completely change me. Since being here I have been able to take a step back from a mainstream lifestyle and experience something completely different. I was able to live the life I wanted with only the most minimal commitments. I would go to class during the week, and literally almost every single weekend I was able to drop everything and go travel and explore somewhere brand new. I was living completely on my own, taking care of myself, feeding myself and doing whatever I wanted. I’ve realized that there is so much more to life than just going through the system; working hard in high school to get into a good college, working hard in college to get a good job and then working hard at your job to support yourself. I am terrified of this. This is going to sound a little cliché and maybe kind of redundant but I don’t know why it took flying to the complete other side of the earth to realize how much there our world has to offer. I came to one little tiny set of islands in the southern pacific and have seen more amazing things in this little area than I have in my entire life. I tell myself that I want to keep travelling, keep seeing amazing things, now I just need to make it happen.
I have also learned that there is definitely something to be said for living simply. Now don’t get me wrong I enjoy nice food and a good solid roof over my head, but it’s easy to make simple food taste good and equally easy to make a small accommodation feel like home. Growing up in boy scouts I always had fun camping and hiking, but it always seemed kind of like we were just playing in the woods. It’s not until you actually head out carrying everything you think you’ll need in 1 bag on your back that you realize that it’s possible to be completely self sufficient. I am so thankful for everything that I learned from scouts, because the best times I’ve had here have been living in the wilderness. The best feeling is setting up your home for the night underneath a hanging glacial valley, or next to a river, or right on the beach of beautiful lake or up on the snow looking out at massive peaks all around you; knowing that you got yourself there and you are going to get yourself out of there. I never knew I would be so happy cooking a small pot of ramen noodles with a chopped up carrot a few shavings of cheese and some instant mashed potatoes to absorb the extra water, all the while knowing that it is going to be an amazingly satisfying meal. The same can be said for a simple hot bowl of oatmeal in the morning to take the chill away when you climb out of your sleeping bag.
The one thing that has truly made this experience for me is hands down the people I have met and the friends I have made. I was put in kind of a unique situation coming over here, since I came with a study abroad program (Arcadia University) I was immediately thrown into the mix with 15 random people from across the US. Plain and simple, we got lucky. Our program director Jane told us flat out that it only happens about every 8 years or so that a group really meshes well, and we did. For the most part we are all great friends. I feel like I know these people almost as well as I know the people I have spent my entire life with. We all hang out at least once a week at what has become a tradition of Wednesday night potluck dinners and I see most people on a daily basis. Within the group of 15, 8 of us have really become a family. We do everything together, are always looking out for one another and we harass each other just like siblings. The same can be said for my flatmates who have also been amazing. I live with 3 other Americans and 1 Brit, we are all guys and we all have gotten along great. My flatmate Joe has become one of my really close friends he has also completely meshed in with the Arcadia group and I have in turn become great friends with the kids in the group he came over with as well. I have made some kiwi friends along the way whom I hope I will stay in touch with as well, but oddly enough the best friends I made here are all other Americans.
It’s weird to think about leaving. Four of us went and dropped our friend George (1 of the 8) off at the airport today, and it is strange to think that I don’t know when I am going to see a lot of these people again. Like I said before I really do have a family here. Not just the group of Arcadia students, but with the way our flats are set up so close to each other, my family is huge. It is not uncommon for me to run upstairs and pop into my friend’s flat and see if they what they are up to, or if they want to make dinner together that night, and they routinely do the exact same thing. I have conversations out my window from building to building everyday when I see a friend walking up the stairs to their flat, and I almost always know some walking by to say hello to. Thankfully with facebook and what not I will hopefully stay in touch with all these people, but it’s still weird to think about.
When I get on the plane next Sunday, I’m not just going to be walking away from them; I’m going to be walking away from a whole life I established here. I guess that’s what all this is really about, I made a whole new life here in 4 ½ months and I really really like it. This country has done amazing things for me. It has taught me a lot about what I think is important, and the kinds of people I want to surround myself with. Everything I’ve done here has been fun, spontaneous and exciting and that’s the way I like it. Routine is boring and it sucks. That being said I am going to try real hard to not fall into the same routine when I come back home. There is so much to do in my own backyard both at home and down at school and it’s about time I started taking advantage of it.
All this is not to say that I am not looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone I left again, I am very excited about that. It’s more that I am scared to lose what I have here. Everything and everyone here makes me smile and laugh so much I feel like I live in a little wonderland on the other side of the earth where nothing can go wrong. I’ll stop rambling now and just say that I have made lifelong friends and had life changing experiences and I’m going to do my best to not forget a single one of either. This is probably my last blog entry for a long time, I have 4 finals in the next 7 days and it’s going to be hell. While this adventure is coming to a close hopefully another one turns up soon and perhaps I’ll have more to write about. Thank you for reading all these, I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about my experiences even half as much as I have enjoyed them. All I can say is I highly suggest seeing as much of this planet as possible because it can really blow your mind.

Final(s) Hurrah

So after flying back from Auckland on Friday and spending the weekend studying for my Environmental quality exam Monday, It was obviously time to get out of Christchurch one last time. Monday night Austin, my flatmate Joe and I caught a ride with Travis and his girlfriend Chelsea up to Arthur's Pass with the intention of hiking Avalanche Peak. The 5 of us spent the night in the exact same campsite where we went for our very first adventurous weekend way back in February! The mountains all over NZ have been getting heaps of snow over the last few weeks so we were really excited to bag a snowy summit. We had rented Ice axes and crampons from the Uni tramping club just to cover our bases. Tuesday we went to the DOC visitors center and the lovely lady Christina more or less tried to scare us out of going all the way up by telling us that this early in the year the snow base was not solid and the conditions were very prone to slides. If there is one thing I've learned or I suppose maybe not learned is that the DOC likes to try to scare you and you don't always really need to listen. We did choose the less technical route up that kept us below the bush line and off the ridges longer. The weather was perfect, blue sky and barely a breath of wind. We were able to leave a bunch of our camping stuff; tents, sleeping bags, food, etc. in a locker at the hostel in Arthur's Pass village where the attendant also told us that we would "be up to our eyeballs in snow". We headed up the track and soon enough all three of us were hiking in stubbies(unnecessarily short shorts). We made it up above the bush line and popped on our crampons, since we were about shin deep in snow and climbing up a reasonably steep ridge. We made it to a flat area with an old weather station (3'x3' metal frame with a wood trail marker in the middle), here Joe and I decided to put our pants back on, only to discover that Austin had left his waterproof pants on the side of the trail when we had changed into stubbies. Being the man that he is he did the entire rest of the hike in shorts, sometimes plunging a full leg down into the snow and getting a little cold surprise on the family jewels. We then continued on up the ridge slowly but surely in knee deep or more snow. We summitted around 2pm, and had lunch with one of the most beautiful 360 panoramas. Snow capped mountains on all sides with valleys spilling off in every direction, Crow glacier on the opposing peak, and looking down on the trans alpine highway through the pass. We headed back down the ridge, which turned out to be much easier than we expected, and about halfway down i pulled my crampons off and attempted to run/roll the rest of the way down which was really really fun, and quite funny. We ended the hike in the dark with a spectacular view of the waxing moon and venus right over the mountains, and yet another amazing NZ starry night sky. After collecting our gear from the locker we were lucky enough to catch a ride with a guy heading to Christchurch and got a ride all the way back to our flats! It was the perfect way to end my adventures in New Zealand, right back where they started in Arthur's Pass. I have heaps to say about my time here and how it has affected me and all that good stuff, but that is going to have to come at a later date when I have collected all my thoughts. 12 days left and 4 exams to go, this semester has flown by and I'm going to miss it.

Sorry for the long delay, but here's the recap of my "study" week trip to the north Island. Nora, Alyssa, George and I flew from Chch to Wellington on the 6th, and hung out there for the weekend. We had an amazing time, and all of us really liked the city. It felt so much more like an actual city compared to Chch, which is basically just a huge sprawling collection of shopping centers and strip malls with no real "city". In Wellington you felt like you were actually in a real city, and the Uni, where we were staying with friends, was just up the hill(incredibly steep hill may i add) and provided incredibly easy access. We had amazing weather Saturday and spent the day walking around downtown and exploring the botanical gardens, etc. . Sunday it started to rain so we hung out at our mate's flat for a while and then drove up to Tongariro NP where we were hoping to do the Tongariro crossing the next day (one of the most spectacular day hikes in the world). We spent the night camped out under a cooking shelter at a DOC campsite, we set my tent up under the shelter for the girls to sleep in while George and I slept under the 2 sinks since it was the only other dry spot. Unfortunately the weather did not improve for Monday and there was 0 visibility and 90 km/hr winds on the saddle so we did not get to do it. Instead we drove up to Lake Taupo and hung out in a lakeside pub and watched the Celtics game 2. We also stopped by Huka falls which is nothing incredibly impressive but its a 9 km water fall draining from lake Taupo into the longest navigable river in NZ. What did make it impressive was watching a guy and 3 kids run it on white water kayaks! Our next stop was Waitomo caves, and we called ahead to receive a 20% discount on a black water rafting trip (in caves you can't see the white water so it becomes black water) . When we arrived at the caves the next morning we were given a good news/bad news scenario; the rain had flooded the rafting cave so our trip had been canceled, but since we had pre-booked the day before and they had already collected money from us they said we could do a 4 hr abseiling trip instead! Abseiling is a fancy word for repelling for those of you (including me) who don't speak climber. Bottom line was we got to go climb around caves and repel down water falls 80 m underground for 4 hrs!!! it was incredible, but unfortunately since we were wearing wetsuits and climbing through rivers we couldn't get any pictures, and they wanted $15 a pop for the ones they took... That afternoon we drove up to Raglan (google image search or youtube Raglan indicators). This is the most famous surfing destination in NZ, and for good reason. It is a bay on the west coast of the north island that under the right conditions can have one of the longest ride-able left hand point breaks in the world. Luckily for us, the massive low pressure system that had taken up residency over NZ and had brought all that rain was on its way out and had brought massive swell along with it! I spent all day Wednesday surfing and having time of my life. We stayed at an Eco-Retreat Hostel overlooking one of the breaks and were able to rent boards and wetsuits right from them. Arguably one of the best days of surfing i've ever had. From here we drove up to the Cormandel Peninsula which is just east of Auckland. We hiked the Pinnacles which are massive volcanic plugs that were left when the volcanic cones eroded away. We hiked in light rain and intermittent sunshine up to the top of the highest pinnacle and had an amazing view out to the water, and of the entire surrounding peninsula. We then drove along the coast out around the rest of the peninsula and circled back to Auckland where we were lucky enough to be able to spend the night with my friend from high school who is studying for a semester at Uni there. Overall it was an amazing last big hurrah of an expedition in NZ and I am so glad that I got to really see the North Island! Pictures will come as soon as I compile them from everyone's cameras.

Last weekend, 5 of us drove down to Wanaka to do a bit of hiking and see the town. We took the car our friend Austin's car (he was with us) which his brother left for him to sell. We had to jumpstart it to get out of the parking lot at school, and then about 20 minutes out of Christchurch one of the back tires, which incidentally had just been replaced, literally blew up. Like I'm talking the entire sideway of the tire shredded and the hubcab ejected like 30 ft. off the road blown up. Luckily we had a full size spare and were good for the rest of the trip. We got to Wanaka and camped that night up the lake a ways. Our plan the next day was to hike the Rob Roy Glacier track, when we went to the visitors center in town the next morning we were informed that the track was "very closed" due to "active landslides" and "track repair". Clearly based on this information, and the fact that all the other day hikes in the area sounded pretty beat, we decided to see just how "very closed" the track actually was. Turns out there was only one section that was washed out, so after ducking some caution tape and taking pictures next to signs saying don't be here we were good to go. It was drizzling throughout the day Saturday so the valley we were in was covered in low lying clouds and mist which was super cool. There was also the small fact that I had forgotten to bring any good pants to hike in, so I ended up just wearing my bright day glow orange longjohns...When we got the the end of the track we could see the front faces of the glacier just below the clouds and happened to see a massive avalanche come down off of it! On our way back out from the track along the 30 km of dirt road and ford crossings we some how ended up with a massive yellow reflective exclamation point sign in our car...I'm denying all responsibility or knowledge of how it came into our possession. We went back to Wanaka to cook dinner by the lake but since it was cold and kind of windy, well to make a long story short we ended up dragging a picnic table and bench into the entrance way of a bar that was closed for refurbishing right along the main road through town on a Saturday night and cooking dinner there. Yes we got some VERY funny looks from people. After dinner we walked around town still with no real plan of where we were going to sleep that night. During our wandering we passed a bakery with cardboard boxes and sleeping bags in the window, turns out they were hosting a 40 hr famine for world hunger or something along those lines. We had the bright idea that maybe WE could also sleep in the boxes in a warm, dry place! Well when we came back later we found out that the people staying in the boxes were 14 yr old girls and the mother/bakery owner wasn't to keen on 5 strangers staying there too even in support of world hunger...We then did the only logical thing and immediately after talking to her went around the back of the bakery and raided the motherload of all dumpsters. Now when I say we hit the jackpot, this might as well have been the lottery for 5 hungry kids wandering around a town. We found probably about 50-100 assorted pastries and treats nicely wrapped up in paper and placed in the trash bins along with 3 MASSIVE (roughly 6 in. square) cookie/brownie things with a cream center that were individually sealed in plastic! We were pretty much in heaven. We ended finding a place to sleep outside of town, and woke up the next morning and cooked breakfast down by the lake. We then wandered around town some more and ended up spending over an hour on the playground there with all the parents and they're little kids. It was a pretty mean playground, literally everything spun around. It took us one more jumpstart at the gas station on the way out of town to make it back, but overall it was another awesome weekend.

On another note, yesterday I dreaded my hair and am planning on keeping it that way for quite a while hahahaha.

Cheers!

quick recap from 2 weekends ago before I get into the way more exciting trip this past weekend.

With nothing really planned for our first weekend back from break my mates and I made the spur of the moment decision to rent an incredibly small log cabin up the road to an old ski field for the weekend. The cabin was probably 25'x15' with a double bed and 2 twins upstairs in an attic, It was listed only as sleeping 5 so naturally we fit 15 people in. It was a crazy weekend full of all sorts of shenanigans of which I won't go into full detail. There was also a peacock that made its residence around the cabin and he came and visited us both mornings. Saturday we hiked up to the top of the ski field which was basically a large incredibly steep loose sandstone bowl...Sunday when we made it back to Christchurch we met up with Jane, our program leader, and went to Adrenaline Forest. It was a massive high ropes course in a huge stand of pine trees. They gave us a harness and some gloves and sent us on our merry way to go play on 6 different levels of Adrenaline fun full of lots of zip lines, giant rope spider webs to swing into, high wire bridges and heaps of other fun obstacles. the 6th level got up to 20m off the ground, which is almost 70 ft!

Now on to the awesome part. This past weekend, myself and 8 of my friends headed down to Mt. Cook National Park and hiked up to Mueller Hut. The trail covers 1000m vertical and is pretty much straight up. Since we were staying up there, and since I obviously was going to camp instead of staying in the hut, this feat was tackled with a very full pack. We had absolutely beautiful weather Saturday for our ascent, it was crystal clear blue skies and warm out. We had spectacular views of Mt. Cook and the surrounding glaciers for the entire hike which was truly breath taking. It had snowed the night before so once we made it up to the ridge there was fresh snow which was awesome! I hadn't realized how much I had missed seeing it! Due to the warm weather, there were numerous avalanches going on...on the other side of the valley nowhere near us. But we were able to look across and watch them which was pretty wicked. We arrived at the hut and myself and the few others in our group who were camping set up outside on the snow with direct views of the tallest mountain in NZ!!! The hut itself was pretty awesome and we were able to hang out and cook dinner in there which was soooo much nicer than hanging out oustide in the freezing cold. That night a front moved in from the west and brought thick clouds and snow with it. We woke up in the morning to zero visibility and light flurries. The hike back down was through snow and sleet down through the clouds along what was classified as an "unmaintained alpine route" which means we were following orange poles and cairns. It was an incredible experience and we finally burst out of the cloud when we were still about 100m above the valley floor which was a really cool and kind of eerie feeling. Overall it was an awesome awesome awesome time and it felt so good to have a pack on again and be tramping once more. The minivan adventure at the end of break was great in its own right, but it's no substitute for carrying your life on your back. As usual the pictures tell a much better tale than I do so they'll be up very shortly.

I'm looking forward to my next adventure whatever it may be and trying not to think about the fact that i have just over a month left!! It's going way to fast, and I wish I could just pause, rewind and do everything over again.

Sorry for the delays, but here is the much awaited recap of my past 2 weeks. My mom and Kyle arrived on Monday the 12th and we walked around downtown Chch and had a nice meal out. The next morning we went and picked up our spaceship, yes spaceship. We rented a minivan from spaceship rentals, and it was awesome. It was bright orange, well ours was a dull orange because it was kind of old, but nonetheless orange with spaceship written in big letters all over the place. It had your standard driver and passenger seats, and then a short bench seat in back. Behind the bench seat was a framed set of cubbies that were located underneath a bed. The bed had two options to achieve full length, you could either spin the bench seat around(yes it spun) and then there were legs that would drop in and you could put another cushion up front, or you could open the back of the van and there was a rack that would pull out and the extra cushion could go out the back. Along the whole edge of the door, and the edge of the inside of the van right at the door they had riveted in snaps and there was a thick tarp similar to the material used on a boat dodger that snapped in place to keep out the weather(it didn't work super well for sandflies though). The van also had a small tv screen in back so you could watch DVDs. We were given 2 DVDs to start with and we were encouraged to exchange with other "space travelers" whenever we saw them. Never fear tho, if you did not run into another space traveler then you could stop in at one of many "space stations" around NZ and exchange your DVDs there. Now that you have the gist of our hilariously corny but totally awesome ride I'll continue on. We headed out of Chch and up into Arthur's Pass. Our first stop was a place called Cave Stream; it is a cave that goes through a hillside and takes about an hour to walk through. You literally walk along the stream bed in freezing cold water that is sometimes waist deep. Obviously it was wicked cool and incredible to walk through a hillside. (mom only fell once) After that we drove through the pass to Greymouth on the west coast where we took a tour of Montieth's Brewery and got to taste some of their delicious beers. Did I mention that it had been raining since we started coming down out of Arthur's Pass? Well anyway it wasn't raining at this point, it was pouring. We drove on down the west coast for probably another hour or so before stopping to camp. When we pulled in to our campsite it wasn't raining so being the confident scout that I am I decided that I could set up my tent and remain quite dry throughout the night. I did get my tent up, and it was dry for the moment, but since all my belongings were able to live in the car instead of in my tent, I had no pressure on the edges of the tent where the tarp was folded under. Due to this miscalculation, the tarp unfolded a wee bit and allowed the water to run off my tent and puddle on top of the tarp (it couldn't even run off due to the fact that the edges were folded up). I did what I could to stay on top of my sleeping pad, and I was able to stay dry, but my tent was thoroughly soaked. For the rest of the time in our spaceship, at night we would pile our bags on top of the bench seat and on the ground next to it and with the help of my inflatable bedroll I slept on duffle bags. Anyway, the next morning we went to the Franz Josef Glacier and walked right up to the end moraine (bottom end). It was a truly incredible sight, and to get to it you walked up the valley that the glacier had receded through so you could see the exact path it had taken. One thing that was really hard to wrap your head around was that because the west coast of NZ gets so much rain the vegetation is incredibly lush, so you literally walk through a rain forest and come out looking at a massive body of ice. It was a bit confusing, but hey that's NZ. We then drove on down, took a quick look at the Fox Glacier and then found a place to camp. The next morning we took a quick walk out to the blue pools, which is where these two rivers meet and the back edies create calm swirling pools. The water is supposed to be crystal clear, but unfortunately due to the overcast weather we did not get to see and trout "floating in air beneath you" as they say. Our next stop was Wanaka where we happened to pull in to PUZZLE WORLD!!! it was pretty damn awesome. They had a crazy illusion rooms with all sorts of weird stuff going on and then one room that was on about a 30 deg. slant which completely screwed with your sensory perception. They also had a very confusing adult size maze which was pretty fun to try to figure your way around. We then swung through Queenstown, had Fergburger and headed on down through Te Anu and camped out on the way to Milford Sound. The next morning we headed out to Milford Sound for my 2nd time, and took a boat cruise out to the mouth which was incredible. It had snowed a bit the night before so all the mountain tops had a nice white covering. On our way back out from the sound we stopped to do a hike that had been recommended to us by my program director. We were supposed to get up to a saddle between two mountains that overlooked Milford Sound, unfortunately about 200 meters from the top we hit smooth rock surface covered in ice...needless to say we had to turn back. Regardless tho it was a pretty cool hike straight up the side of an alpine valley and we got to hike up above the snow line for a while which was pretty sweet. Our journey then took us back up through the center of the south island where we stopped at Mt. Cook (highest peak in NZ). The visitors center was incredibly cool and was actually more of a mountaineering museum giving a history of Mt. Cook and the many excursions that had taken place, as well as confirming the fact that my dad's hiking boots are artifacts. (there was a pair in the museum) The weather worked in our good fortune and the clouds cleared while we were in the visitors center to allow us a full view of Mt. Cook, and it was pretty amazing. On our last day together we headed out to the Bank's Peninsula which is to the east of Christchurch. It is one of the very distinct volcanic features in NZ and is comprised of incredible steep rolling farm land and numerous little bays that line the coastline. We stopped in the French settlement of Akaroa and did some shopping and then continued out to Hickory Bay on the very tip where I hopped in for a surf. Unfortunately the waves were not coming from the right direction so the surf was pretty terrible, but the incredible location made up for it. We ended the day having dinner with an Israeli family who my mom and brother were staying the night with via the servas program.

I then headed off to Survey Camp for my last week of break. The entire sophomore civil engineering class spent the week at a camp in the hills above Lyttleton, about 20 min outside of chch, working on all sorts of crazy surveying tasks. We had to create a topographic map of an area, take measurements for a road widening and reconstruction, and locate the exact location of the for corner pegs for a prefabricated shed to be dropped on to. It was a pretty fun time and it was also my first time since being here where I was completely surrounded and immersed into kiwi culture which was interesting to say the least.

Overall it was a great break and I had amazing experience and met some really cool people. I am now struggling to get back into school mode again and come to grips with the fact that I only have 2 months left over here.

Cheers from the Southern Hemisphere!

ps. its fall down here now and I don't like it. good thing summer is on the way again!

SO. the past 10 days have been pretty action packed. I finished out classes on Thursday the 1st with an incredibly easy Intro to Maori test, and then Friday morning headed South towards Fiordland with some of my flatmates and my friend Alyssa to begin my first extended period of time carrying everything I need on my back. Alyssa and I split from my flatmates who were headed to Queenstown and hitchhiked on down to Te Anu. On the last leg of our hitch we got picked up at 9:30 at night by a family of 4 who were also headed to Te Anu, the dad is a Christchurch surfing legend and was one of the first people to surf out on the Banks Penninsula...pretty epic, and it saved us from camping on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We woke up the next morning in a mild drizzle and went and waited at the Department of Conservancy (DOC) office for the rest of our friends to get there. 9 of us headed out on the Kepler track around noon on Saturday with a light rain overhead. This "light" rain quickly turned into a consistent downpour and by the time we had reached our first break point, 2 hrs into the hike, we had all determined that nothing we had was actually waterproof regardless of labeling. Our plan for that night was to camp at a free campsite just off the track that was also listed as having a 4 bunk hut. By the time we got to the campsite we were all cold and wet, we went into the hut which was already occupied by a fisherman, his son, and his son's friend who were up from Southland fishing for the weekend. We were ecstatic to see that they had a fire going and they graciously invited all 9 of us in to the hut (which actually had 6 bunks). After drying out our belongings and warming up we were all invited to stay in the hut, so with a few people double bunking we fit 12 people into a hut that couldn't have been more than 20'x15'. Thankfully we woke up the next day to sunshine and were able to continue on in good spirits. Since the Kepler track is considered a "Great Walk" they charge considerably for hut and campsite accommodations, seeing as I am quite stingy and adventurous I decided that it would be in my best interest to freedom camp (i.e. camp outside of 500 m from the trail). That next night when we arrived at the campsite my mates had booked, I headed off down the river and found an amazing campsite right on the river at the base of a massive cliff. Monday we headed up to the saddle and after about 2 hrs of switchbacks we were rewarded with AMAZING views of the surrounding mountain ranges of Fiordland. We had crystal clear skies and only a light breeze (it was blowing 80+ km/hr the day before) so we were thrilled. We ended day 3 back down along Lake Te Anu at Brod Bay for our final night on the Kepler. As you will see in the pictures, I had yet another amazing campsite right on the water :) After a morning skinny dip and some yoga on the beach we hiked out to Te Anu for some much deserved fish and chips and other greasy fatty sugary foods after 4 days of eating ramen noodles, oatmeal and peanutbutter. We met up with my friend Travis (big red beard) and from there some people headed back to Queenstown and the rest of us headed up towards Milford Sound. Milford Sound was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! The drive out alone was breathtaking and when we got there it was stunning. Huge steep snow capped peaks on all sides with water falls streaming down. Words and pictures do not come close to capturing how beautiful it was.

On Thursday my friend Austin, his brother Eric, and I started off on the Routeburn track which goes from Milford road through the mountains to just outside of Queenstown(If you remember back a few weeks I had already hiked the Queenstown half of the trail). The Milford side of the track is SPECTACULAR. We shot up above the tree line almost immediately and were greeted with ridiculously gorgeous alpine views. The three of us then had lunch next to a 174m waterfall, which i took a much needed shower in. Our first night we bushwacked our way down a "side trail" past one of the huts that had not been cleared in atleast a year or so. We ended up camping on a river delta at the base of a hanging valley between 2 peaks (see pics). The next day the track took us about 3/4 of the way to the top of the range and then traversed along above the Hollyford River valley. Needless to say this was also amazing. We reached the summit of Conical Hill (1540m i believe)around 3 pm and then headed down the other side to find our next campsite. Eric had a recommendation from a hitchhiker for an amazing place to camp so when we reached the valley floor we headed up along another canyon to an upper alpine meadow where we spent our last night on the track.

A few side notes about both tracks:

1) It is definitely NOT still summer at the southern end of the island. It was VERY cold almost every night, and on the last night of the Routeburn I woke up to find my tent was legitimately a block of ice...whether or not this had anything to do with the additional fact that i may or may not have thrown my pack in the river we had to cross is yet to be determined...

2) Living for multiple days on end on a diet of ramen noodles, oatmeal, peanutbutter, granola bars, nutmix and water is not that enjoyable. But, when you are freezing cold at night and in the morning, hot food is truly amazing.

To end the adventures of my first week of break I hitchhiked back from Queenstown to Christchurch, miraculously in only 2 rides. The first from an off duty taxi driver headed home, and the second from a german physicist who is studying abroad in Sydney. He was headed from Queenstown to Christchurch in a campervan and picked me up about 7:30 pm Saturday night. Our plan was to drive straight through to Chch but seeing as for some reason everything but the bars closes by 7 oclock at the latest we came very close to running out of petrol and had to stop and spend the night in a small town along the way. This morning (Sunday) we woke up and he was kind enough to drive me right back to my flat! Tomorrow begins another adventure when my mom and brother (Kyle) fly in and we head off down the west coast to see the glaciers!

In case you can't tell I'm not enjoying myself at all here.

Cheers!

So first off here are the long awaited photos from my trip to abel tasman from a few weeks back




Second off I played in Ultimate Frisbee Nationals this weekend and had a mean time, we came in seeded last and ended up finishing 4th (should have had 3rd)! It was a really cool time and we got to play the Auckland team that is headed to Worlds in Prague this year. They were incredibly good and it was really cool to see a team like them play. After this week I head off on my 3 week spring, or i guess fall break. You probably won't hear from me for a while but i should have some killer tales to tell if and when i make it back.

Cheers from the Southern Hemisphere!

Sorry for the long absence, I actually had to do some schooling this past week. :-( Anywho 2 weekends ago I went to the Hokatika Wild Foods Festival on the west coast. To say it was crazy would be an understatement. I rode over Saturday morning with ENSOC (engineering society; and incidentally the single largest social organization on campus). They rented out a bunch of party buses and we began the trek through Arthur's Pass. Oh and did I mentioned they're sponsored by Tui, a NZ beer company? Regardless, we had a great time and I ate lots of crazy foods including some Southern Alp oysters, grasshoppers, grubs and a few other oddities. It was more or less a giant party with the theme of "bring your own theme" so everyone was dressed up in hilarious costumes.

On the rebound from the weekend we celebrated St. Patty's day in full splendor. I cooked up some mean corn-beef and Irish Soda bread that went along with cabbage and onions, green mashed potatoes, and of course guiness.

This past weekend is up there in the running for coolest weekend ever. 8 of us planned a trip up to Abel Tasman National Park, which is the northern most part of the south island. 5 people headed up Thursday night, and myself and two of my friends returned a rental car from Christchurh to Nelson on Friday. From Nelson we hitchhiked over to Abel Tasman. This took a little longer than we anticipated and once we were on our way out to the park we realized that we had missed our window of low tide to make it across the flats to the campsite we were supposed to stay at that night. We made an impromptu decision at the intersection where we had to head towards the campsite or the trailhead, and at 8:45 pm we hit the trail and hiked out to Separation point under a cloudless sky with glow worms lining parts of the trail. The three of us spent the night under the stars next to the lighthouse on Separation point and woke up to an amazing sunrise over the water and the islands in Queen Charlotte Sound. I then lead the charge for a sunrise swim off the rocks on the point and dove in and swam with the local seals who were out and about. We then continued on down the coast track with our full packs stopping about every 20-30 minutes when we came to yet another amazing pristine tropical beach. At one of the first ones we stopped at for a swim we were graced with the company of a short tailed stingray who was about 2 1/2 ft. wide and was swimming right in next to the shore! The track took us from one beach to another through amazing jungle, made up of giant palm ferns and other amazing plant life. As with most things here, words can't come close to capturing the awesomeness so there will be pictures to come shortly.

This coming weekend, I'm hanging around Chch and playing in the NZ Ultimate Frisbee Nationals! Should be sweet as

Cheers!

So I had another awesome couple days this past weekend down in Queenstown (the adventure capital of NZ). We (myself and the other kids in the program I came over with) took a 7 hr bus ride down on Friday morning and arrived around 2:30-3:00 pm. More or less immediately after we arrived, we met up with the other Arcadia group who was there and we all headed out to Shotover Jetboats. If you don’t know what a jetboat is, or even if you do, watch some youtube videos because it was soooo cool. They piled 15 of us along with the driver into the boat, and we headed off racing down a river canyon enclosed by cliffs on either side. The driver was flawless and was whipping the boat within less than a foot of the canyon walls while we were going at least 60 mph. Jetboats can travel in as little as 4 in. of water, so we would drift turns over sandbars where my ankles wouldn’t even have gotten wet. The drivers are also quite good at spinning the boat in a full 360 while going full speed…makes for quite the adrenaline rush when you spin a boat that is roughly 16 ft. long in a 20-25 ft. wide river! After jetboating we went back to the backpacker lodge we were staying at and then headed down to a place we were all told by various Kiwis that we absolutely MUST go to. This place was Fergburger. As an American when a Kiwi tells you that a place in New Zealand has the best burgers of all time you’re not to apt to believe them. WELL let me tell you that Fergburger has the BEST burger I have ever eaten. If you check out their menu online I ordered the Big Al…It was by far the most food I have ever seen fit inside of a bun and every single bite was an amazing new flavor blast.(In case you can’t tell it was prettyyyy tasty) Saturday morning we headed out early and kicked off our hike on the Routeburn track around 9:30. Let me also mention that we had beautiful weather all weekend, blue skies and 75 deg the whole time.
The Routeburn was an amazing hike, winding you through moss covered old growth forests, over numerous suspension bridges, up through an alpine river valley and then along the river up to a hut by a waterfall where we had lunch, and of course where a few of us cooled off with a dip in the pool beneath the waterfall. After lunch we continued on up to the lake in the hanging glacier valley that was feeding the river, and from there up to the summit of conical hill. I really can’t get to descriptive while typing about this because I cannot think of words that would come close to doing justice to the amazing sights we saw. The only way to put it is we hiked through a National Geographic magazine….check out the pictures which will be up within a few hours. ALSO for all you Lord of the Rings buffs, we unknowingly walked right past a real Ent (tree person). I without knowing it at the time just so happened to take a picture of him and didn’t realize it until I got back to Christchurch, when you see this picture there will be no doubt that this tree is alive. In total the tramp was a little over 20 miles up and back, and took us about 9 hrs to tackle. Afterwards we were treated to an amazing gourmet pizza meal which we all attacked after a day of eating trailmix and PB&J.
Sunday did a pretty good job of rounding off the weekend with more adrenaline. In the morning we headed up the gondola on the mountainside overlooking the town and had a stunning view of the surrounding mountains and the lake that Queenstown sits beside. At the top of the Gondola we went Luging, although not the type on ice. We were in little carts on a cement track that winded down and around through tunnels and over bridges to give you a pretty thrilling time. The best comparison we came up with is to a real life version of Mario Kart racing for N64, which makes it pretty freaking sweet…After lunch we headed out to Kawarau Bridge to BUNGEE JUMPPPP. It was pretty damn fun if I do say so myself. You basically dive off of an incredibly high diving board over a river. I was hoping to get dunked but I only got my fingers wet, for some reason the guys running it seemed real keen to dunk the girls so their shirts got wet but not so keen for the guys...weird right? However after doing the 150 ft. jump, I wish that I had done the 450 ft. one out of the cable car…guess I’ll just have to go back. Anyways, the pics should be up in a little bit once I get them onto my computer and sorted out

Sorry for the delayed update. Classes started last monday and are all going well. I have all my classes in the mornings and then labs a few times a week in the afternoons. Last weekend was fun filled, albeit not quite as amazing as the previous one. Friday night I went to a Christchurch Crusaders rugby game with a bunch of people, face paint worked its way into the mix and we all had a great time. Saturday there was a reggae concert on campus from noon-7 featuring the top NZ reggae bands including the Black Seeds, and Six Sixty. It was pretty hilarious people watching, and from what I can tell kiwis haven't gotten the memo that it is no longer the 1970s...By this I mean that there are ridiculous amounts of mullets, short shorts, cut off jean shorts, and bright neon colors everywhere. Like I said, its pretty damn funny. Sunday I went to a farmers market/flea market in the morning, surfed the Tsunami warning in the afternoon and then went to a cricket game that night. For the record rugby and cricket are incredibly confusing, but Cricket is possibly the stupidest game I have ever watched. Any sport that can go into overtime with a tie score of 214-214 should not exist. Right now I'm trying to make it through a week with no swell and then myself and all the other kids I came over with are heading down to Queenstown for the weekend! We're going tramping one day and then luge(ing)?,not on ice but the cement tracks that they have at ski areas, and BUNGEE JUMPING! WOOOOO should be sweet, i'm sure there will be another entire photo album by the end of the weekend to make everyone just a little bit more jealous. hahahaha

cheers!

So to put it lightly, this past weekend was the best two days since I’ve been in New Zealand. To put it not so lightly its in the mix for the best two consectutive days ever. Myself and 4 friends headed out on Friday afternoon for a camping/hiking trip up into the Southern Alps. What we thought was just going to be a warm up camping trip turned into a mountaineering peak counquering adventure of a lifetime. We headed out to our planned destination of Broken River Ski Area, about 5 kilometers up the road we encountered a locked gate where we were forced to park our car. The 5 of us began our ascent up the steep winding switchbacks that just to get to the main parking lot of the ski field. During the winter they have a cart mounted on a track to bring you up towards the field because the next section is so steep…obviously since it is summer here that was not operating so we continued on our merry way up the impassable switchbacks. We were frequented with spectacular views on our way up which was just a small dose of what we would see from the summit. When we reached the top of the lift from the parking lot we realized that we were still about another kilometer of switchbacks away from the base of the ski field…When we did reach the base we were in the middle of an alpine meadow surrounded by a steap rocky bowl looking out onto the surrounding Alps. We determined that our best route to the summits would be to follow the grass as high as we could into a rocky section rather than try to tackle the large amounts loose rock that covered the center of the bowl. We began our ascent which quickly turned into a low grade mountaineering endeavor when we realized that the bowl was much steeper than we anticipated. After scrambling over and around the rocky features that we faced the 5 of us safely summited nervous knob and were greated with one of the most breathtaking full 360 degree panoramic views I have ever seen. Up until this point I don’t think that it had hit any of us that we were in fact hiking amongst the Southern Alps of New Zealand! We rested up top and then traversed along the saddle of the bowl over to Sunny Peak which was a little higher and we recorded an altitude of 6050 ft!(our car was parked somewhere at somewhere around 3000 ft) We raced the shadows back down the basin following the lift line, which because of the steep pitch of the bowl, and lack of stable base, is actually just an extremely long rope tow that you clip a harness on to.

We made it back to the car and drove back down the dirt access road a bit before finding a place to set up camp for the night. We cooked up some pasta and had a well deserved beer, kept cold in our make shift chilly bin(kiwi speak for cooler) in the alpine stream running behind our site. When the stars came out every one of us was blown away. When I say that this was the most amazing night sky I have ever seen I mean it was the most amazing night sky I have ever seen, only to be rivalled by round 2 on Saturday night. We had a full view of the milky way and the Southern Cross and with no light pollution at all we could see even the tiniest farthest away stars. It was breathtaking. We awoke early the next morning largely due to the fact that it dropped to around 30-35 deg. F so all of us except our friend Austin (who was in a -15 deg. Sleeping bag) were pretty damn cold and were looking for a warm breakfast. On the cold note, it didn’t help my cause that I spent the night in my hammock which lets body heat escape in all directions… Anyway for breakfast we cooked up some oats and apples with brown sugar and peanut butter for flavoring.

From there we decided to head up Arthur’s Pass which is the main throughway from coast to coast and cuts through Arthur’s Pass National Park. We reached a town near the top of the pass and stopped at a visitor’s center where we were directed first to a 131 metre waterfall and then up the road to another ski field. The waterfall was breathtaking and rivalled everything I saw in Yosemite. Not to mention, unlike in the US where staying on the trail is strictly regulated, in NZ it is only reccomended so needless to say we went right up to the base of the waterfall to get the full experience.

At this point I’d like to apologize for this incredibly long post, but you need to understand that this was indead one of the best weekends of my life.

We walked back from the waterfall, which was only a 20 min. hike from the road, and drove up to the parking lot for the Temple Basin ski field. As was the case with Broken River, the actual base of the ski area was completely inaccessible by car so we began yet another vertical trek up rocky swithbacks. I’m not really sure what these people do in the winter…they obviously really like to ski though because you have to work your ass off just to get there. The steep switchbacks led us up to the lodge which was in a picturesque alpine meadow straight out of the movie Sound of Music. The 5 of us stood in the meadow looking back out at snow capped peaks and for all intentional purposes could have been standing in Switzerland. We ate lunch behind the lodge and while the others napped I went off and explored a small waterfall we had seen, hoping to find a pool to take a dip in. I ended up finding a little oasis of three waterfalls all with their own little bathing pool down in a ravine and I treated myself to a nice, albeit cold, private bath. I then went back and woke the others to share my findings and we continued to explore down the ravine. We ended up finding multiple much larger pools which we could jump into from the surrounding cliffs! The last and best one we found was about 10-15 feet deep and fully lit up by the sun. It was full of crystal clear blue water and surrounded by 15 ft. cliffs on all sides, truly paradise after a full morning of hiking.

On our return to the car, we decided that since we had already made it to the top of the pass that if the west coast was less that 100 km away that we would head down and see the Tasman sea just to top off the weekend. Upon checking the gps at the car we found that the coast was only 75 km away so off we went to the Tasman. We ended up camping next to a cattle and elk farm right on the water. Since we were on the west coast we were treated to a stunning sunset over the Tasman Sea and Austin and I decided to sleep out on the dune under the stars (which as previously stated were the only stars to rival the previous nights) while the other three slept in our van. We awoke the next morning to the sound and smell of the surf, cooked up some oats and headed back up the pass.

On our return journey we stopped at Castle Hill, which is a major rock climbing destination due to the incredible amount of massive boulders that reside there. After walking around and adding to our long list of amazing sights we concluded our adventure and returned to Christchurch. Just when I thought that the weekend was over and I was finally going to be able to relax, a game of pick-up ultimate frisbee started on the field directly outside my window. I was obviously obligated to join. It is now almost 9:00 pm Sunday evening and I am falling asleep at my computer, not looking forward to rejoining the real world and going to class in 12 hrs. for the first time in 2 months….

Check out the photo album for lots of pictures from this epic weekend

CHEERS!

finally finished orientation today. I did manage to get out surfing this morning with my friend Will who is working on a PhD here. I used his 9'4" Mctavish board and we went out to the Banks Peninsula and surfed at Magnet's Bay. It was a beautiful left pointbreak set among the volcanic landscape of the peninsula. the waves were 2-3 meters high and perfect, especially since we were in the water at sunrise. I then spent the afternoon down a the beach since the clouds finally broke and we got some sun. I also finally got my hands on a phone and a surfboard of my own. I have to register for classes thursday and then will hopefully head off somewhere for the weekend. I promise to get more pics up soon since I probably have another100 or so on my camera.

Cheers!