Two Years in KiwiLand

New Zealand - the non American perspective (by Paul Cheshire)

2009-12-26T22:48:00.000-08:00

Introduction

I do not come from the Land of the free and the home of the brave, I come from the land that gave us everything necessary to live in the world today. As Nate will agree, this can only be one country, Scotland. Therefore, my view of New Zealand may be slightly different to that of my good American friend. But I need to keep in with the big man as he has promised to have his good Mother hoist the Bonnie Scotland flag up the Smith flagpole when I come to visit the Burgh of Pitts.

New Zealand is a small country with a vast number of wonderful sites, more than any one country deserves. Similar to Scotland, the North Island is green. But there are also the beaches, the ski slopes, the mountains. Someone told me New Zealand was a poor country, if this is true yachts must be on special offer down the local shops. And then there’s the South Island, not seen much of it yet but from what I hear New Zealand is a country of two halves, with each one impressive as the other.

Nate’s observations

Of Nate’s main gripes I agree with some and disagree with others. The inconvenience of the convenience store I can live with. I like it where things close at a reasonable time and a country recognises the difference between day and night. Where I grew up the only place open at 3 in the morning were the petrol stations and you had to ask for your Pot Noodle through the window.

Roundabouts, I love roundabouts. Auckland has a long way to go before it obtains Polo mint city status so these don’t bother me too much. But I agree with Nate about some of the other road set ups. You can be sitting at a red filter light at 3 in the morning with not a single other car in site. But you just know the one time you decide to go there will be a police car round the corner.

One road which Nate has not specifically included in his blog yet is St Georges Bay Road, the road I live on with my fiancée Fiona, which I know drives him mad. Lots of parked cars on either side of the road so often a drive down the road involves stopping, starting, pulling in and out. A common feature of British town roads. I love it.

Pharmacy rule – I think Nate has summed this one up. I only wish I was there the day he yelled at the counter in true Macenroe style “You gotta be kidding me!”.

Doritos and diet pop – I think Nate might be over this one, and it’s all down to me. I discovered “Martha’s backyard”, a USA store, and was good enough to take Nate there. A kid in a sweet shop comes to mind. I was disappointed that the woman behind the counter never said “Have a nice day now”.

My observations

Breaking the ice

Being Scottish is a wonderful thing. You can inform all your American friends about all the amazing inventions your fellow countrymen devised, you can be proud about how amazing at all sports your country is, you can be proud in the knowledge that you will take a great tan when the sun comes out and you can be guaranteed whenever you meet someone new in New Zealand they will inform you about their Scottish ancestry. This will be quickly followed by either “you’ll be use to this cold weather being from Scotland” or “it’s not like a Scotsman to buy a round of drinks”. If I were to get a dollar for every time someone said one of those to me I’d still be a miserable auld Scotsman.

Sports participation

This country is sports mad. I’ve never known so many people to go out jogging so often or play a sport regularly. They definitely prefer to take part than to spectate. And it’s infectious. Having no interest in jogging what so ever before I arrived here I have since ran two half marathons, signed up for another and spent a small fortune on running shoes.

Making the most of your doorstep

Often I am embarrassed when I meet someone who has visited Scotland and they tell me all about the Highlands or the Islands and I have to admit that I have never visited them myself. There is the old cliché about not appreciating your own doorstep and there are certainly a lot of Kiwis who are as guilty of this as I am. Many may not have visited the South Island or done the Tongariro Crossing but one things for sure most weekends they are probably at the family bach by the sea. Auckland, and I’m sure most other main NZ cities, empties come most Friday nights should the weather man predict sun for the weekend. I think the attitude most have regards to getting out and doing something is brilliant. Certainly something I hope rubs off on me once my time here is up.

Christmas in the sun

Being from the Northern Hemisphere everyone assumes I am use to White Christmas’. This is not true. Where I am from there have only been three in my lifetime, ironically one this year which I missed. But one things for sure in New Zealand that the sun shining on Christmas day is a lot more common. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel celebrating Christmas in the sun but I’ve done it twice now and have to admit to liking it. A barbeque on the beach followed by a swim in the sea, there could be worse ways to spend your holidays.

Hopefully this has provided a different insight into a fascinating, wonderful, sometimes bizarre country.

Paul Cheshire
28/12/09

Kiwi Christmas (without the Kiwis)

2009-12-25T22:48:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to spend Christmas this year with friends from all around the world, fellow orphans without family in New Zealand. We went over to the Howarth's house for a delicious and huge home-cooked meal featuring turkey, ham, sausages, and much much more. We also had a great rum cake that Paula's family mailed all the way from Ireland. I even got to dress up as Santa Clause to surprise (and scare to death) baby Chloe. We enjoyed the day eating, relaxing, playing games (James caused the men to lose Trivial Pursuit which I was not happy about), and playing and singing RockBand. It was a great way to spend Christmas in the hot sun!

Santa Clause comes to visit

Good girl!

Good boy or bad?

Games outside in the sun

Rum cake from half way around the world

Milford Track (Day 4)

2009-12-05T00:43:00.000-08:00

Today was the final day of hiking. We got our first bit of rain for the whole trip overnight (fortunately it had stopped by the morning). There was a note in the kitchen indicating that we couldn't start out on the track right away as they had to be sure it wasn't flooded from the overnight rain but got the all-clear to head out by around 8:30.

It wasn't the nicest day ever but it wasn't too bad. It was a bit overcast but the sun broke through a few times and we did see some blue skies yet again. We were quite lucky to have blue skies on all 4 days of the hike as that is very rare in this part of the island. Today was also a bit less relaxing and a bit more of a mission to finish up as we had to be at the end of the track to catch a ferry by 2:00. I had to whip my parents like mules along the way to keep them moving but we got there.

After a bit of celebrating and getting eaten alive by the sandflies at the ending spot coincidentally named "Sandfly Point", we boarded the ferry and took the 20 minute ride to Milford Sound where you've seen pictures from the day we began the tramp (those were better pictures as it was a nicer day).

After taking the bus back to Te Anau downs, we were fortunate to enjoy a huge feast at the hotel after a much needed shower. I absolutely gorged myself like a pig and ended up passing out at around 7:30 that evening.

Overall, the 4-day, 33.5 mile hike was one of the more fun and beautiful experiences I've ever had and it was great to get to spend it with mum and dad.

Milford Track (Day 3)

2009-12-04T14:14:00.000-08:00

Day 3 marked a bit more of an ascent up into the mountains. The first hour and a half was an uphill climb to Mackinnons Pass. The weather started out beautiful again but as we were climbing up the mountain, the clouds began to roll in. I thought that maybe if I hurried up I could make it to the Pass before it got completely clouded in but I was wrong.

I was a bit worried that the whole rest of the day would be cloudy now and it was getting very cold at the top of the Pass. Just as I was about to give up hope, our good fortune struck again and the clouds started to dissipate just as quickly as they rolled in. There was a big valley at one of the day huts that we didn't even know was there one minute then it was completely clear and beautiful the next.

The rest of the day remained nice with only a bit of cloud cover but mixed in with sunshine. The hike down was actually more gruelling than the hike up as we had to take an emergency avalanche route for safety reasons which was quite steep and scattered with ankle-breaking rocks. Fortunately, we made it through OK.

On the way back, we also stopped at another day hut and took a further hike back into the woods to see the Sutherland Falls which is the highest falls in New Zealand and at one time was thought to be the highest falls in the world (found not to be true later). We finally got to our huts after a gruelling day's hike. This hut had 4 separate bunkrooms of about 10 beds each. The whole group was in bed early tonight to rest up for our final day. We finally got some of the rain that we heard so much about but fortunately it waited until we were at the hut for the evening.

Another beautiful morning

The journey up to Mackinnon Pass

And the fog started to roll in...

At MacKinnon Pass but unfortunately covered in cloud

The commemorative statue at MacKinnon Pass

The clouds parted for a few seconds while at the top - I thought this is the best we would get

A bit of blue sky coming in above the statue

The fog seemed like it might start to lift

Mountain tops began peaking through

Me at the day hut on the highest point of the Milford Track

And suddenly the clouds lifted!

Dad, Mom, and me at the highest point of the hike

Me at the toilet with the best view in the country

Panorama view at the peak with the famous toilet

View from the can...

Beginning the descent

Beautiful views on the hike down

The clouds threatened to roll in again but it was short-lived

Beautiful Panorama

Down, down, down

Mom and Dad hoping their knees would hold up

Mom

Sutherland falls

The flightless Weka bird we saw along the track

Milford Track (Day 2)

2009-12-04T04:11:00.000-08:00

Today was a bit tougher of a hike but still not too bad. I think we hiked about 16 Km today through gorgeous scenery. Most of the hiking was relatively flat as it followed the river again today except for the last kilometer or so when we began to climb.

We were certainly fortunate once again today with the weather. It typically rains more than half of the days in December and is overcast for a good portion of the days it does not rain. Today was our second day in a row of blue skies. In fact the crazy ranger named Katie at the hut this evening told us that it was 28 degrees (82 for all you Americans) which is very warm for this time of year as far down south as we were. It was so hot that once we finally got to the hut, we decided to go down to the swimming hole which was a local glacial lake with water temperatures just above freezing. We all went for a wade but then my dad and I decided to jump in. I immediately became disoriented and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped for a minute before I found my way back to shore...very refreshing!

The cabin was nice again with three bunkrooms. Two smaller ones with approx. 8 beds and then a large one with 20 something beds. Fortunately, we got one of the smaller room with the 8 beds. It wasn't too hard to fall asleep tonight after the long walk and the refreshing swim.

Camouflage

Beautiful panorama view

Nice pigtails! You found those on the ground, right?

About to cross one of the many avalanche zones. They weren't kidding either as we were hearing avalanches all day long - some were quite loud!

It's hard to tell how big this trout was as there is nothing to really compare it to in the picture but this guy was a big one

Like a symphony of koru ferns

I think the old man is lost, should we help him?

Me jumping into the freezing cold water

Video of Dad jumping into the COLD glacial lake!

The Milford Track (Day 1)

2009-12-03T22:57:00.000-08:00

I flew down to Queenstown on the 2nd of December to meet up with my Parents as they continued their tour of New Zealand. Thus began my 5 week holiday!

They met me at the airport and we proceded to hit the road on the way to Te Anao Downs (about 3 hours away)where we would spend the night before embarking on the infamous Milford Track the following day.

We spend the night in a hotel in order to get a good night sleep before the hike. We were meant to pick up our track tickets (yes, you need tickets as only 40 people are allowed to start the track each day and the tickets sell out almost immediately when they go on sale annually in July) in Te Anao at the DOC center but of course they forgot to leave them for us. This meant we had to drive 40 minutes from Te Anao Downs back to Te Anao to pick up our tickets the next morning. It actually worked out for the best as the next day was beautiful so we changed our boat to the later one (there are two boats per day that take you to the start of the track) giving us time to go explore Milford Sound and take advantage of the good weather as the area is notoriously unpredictable with lots of rain.

Milford Sound was about an hour and a half drive from Te Anao Downs and did not disappoint. The drive was very scenic with snow capped mountains and colorful wild flowers (Lupines) covering the country-sides. Milford Sound would also be the location where our hike would end in a few days. It is regularly ranked as New Zealand's most beautiful location and I can see why (although I would find the hike itself to be even prettier).

After spending some time at the Sound and taking a bunch of pictures, we headed back to Te Anao Downs to catch our 2:30 boat to the start of the track. The boat took about an hour across Lake Te Anao, and the journey was also full of beautiful scenery.

The first day on the Milford Track is a very easy 5 Km to the first hut (another advantage of taking the later boat). Apparently the original first hut was ruined in an avalanche so this one was built instead. The hike was pretty and wound along a beautiful clear blue-tinged river (the Clinton River) with large trout visible from the water's edge.

The hut itself was nice and had two separate bunkrooms with approx. 20 beds in each and a large common room for cooking and eating. We spent the evening cooking food, exploring the area, reading, and avoiding the sandflies. The sandflies are the only problem with the area as they are EVERYWHERE and attack as soon as you stand still. As long as you keep moving they leave you alone but if you forget your bugspray on this trip, you will be in trouble!

One of the beautiful Lupine-filled fields on the drive to Milford Sound
Mom and Dad at the Lupine field

Mirror Lake - it's famous for it's reflective qualities but unfortunately it was a bit windy so we didn't see it at it's best

Mom and Dad with the beautiful mountain scenery in the background

Me and Mom

Me at Milford Sound

Me and the Parents at Milford Sound

Milford Sound Panorama View

More Lupines on the drive back

The boat at Te Anao Downs to take us to the start of the track

The boat ride to the start of the track

Me and Mom hiking the start of the track

The Clinton River

Beautiful Scenery

Mom at the Clinton Hut. P.S. - Happy Birthday Mom!

In the bunks for the night

New House!

2009-11-15T21:35:00.000-08:00

Well, as much as I enjoyed my old apartment, I decided it was time for a change and so far I have been quite pleased. Although I really enjoyed living by myself and being centrally located downtown, I found a great place with a couple of my friends / co-workers. I moved into a 5 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom house in Orakei (suburb of Auckland) with friends Alex and Steve who you have seen in other posts.

The place is not right downtown but is only about 5 Km from my building. The added benefits are that 1) it is a very big house with plenty of space, 2) We have great views of the city and the ocean, 3) it is just a quick walk to the local park and beach, 4) I have a couple of good flatmates that I get along with well and 5) I finally have a balcony (2 balconies actually).

The house is 4 floors with the first floor consisting of the garage (with lots of storage space), laundry, and foyer. The next floor has 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms. We use one of the rooms on this floor as the spare bedroom / ironing room. We each have our own bathrooms as well. Alex and Steve have nice rooms with a view but I have a huge ensuit bathroom.

The third floor has a large living area, spacious balcony with great views, and the kitchen/dining area as well as a half bath.

The top floor was previously used as a bedroom but we are using it as the Movie Room with a huge TV and my couch and recliners from my old apartment. This floor also has a full bath, walk-in closet and another large balcony with even better views.

To top it all off, the house even has an elevator! The original owner had it installed as there was an elderly woman living here. We don't use it much but it was great when we had to move everything in.

Yeah, I'm really enjoying it here.

The new house!

Ha! - this is the lift (elevator)

My bedroom (blame my parents for the mess as they were here visiting). Sorry the picture turned out blurry, I'll try to remember to replace it

My bathroom

The dining area

My mom visiting and put to work in the kitchen

View from the living area into the kitchen

The third floor living area with the balcony

View of the city from the balcony

Non-zoomed view of the city and a bit of the water from the third floor balcony

Non-zoomed view of the ocean from the third floor balcony

The fourth floor TV lounge

My dad relaxing in the Movie Room

View out to the ocean from the fourth floor balcony

Auckland sunset from the 4th floor balcony

The Land of Oz - Blue Mountains

2009-10-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

The Land of Oz - Hunter Valley

2009-10-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Land of Oz - Sydney

2009-10-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

Waiheke Tree Planting

2009-10-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

James, Alex, and Me on Waiheke Island

I spent a Saturday afternoon out on Waiheke Island helping to plant some Macadamia Nut Trees on the land that I previously stayed at if you recall from an earlier entry. It was a day of manual labor but I went over with James, Steve, and Alex and we had a good time. There was a frustrating point when after we planted about half of the trees we had a look at the rows and saw that they were all crooked due to some shoddy measuring. Luckily we were able to salvage the work without too much extra effort.

Steve, Alex, and Me
Taking the truck out to get to work

Hillbilly rednecks

Postponing doing the real work Time to start planting

Steve and Alex pretending to work

Waihi Beach Weekend

2009-09-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine, Jay, has a family bach down in Waihi Beach. We all got the invite to head down there for the weekend as sort of a combined weekend getaway and a going away party for our friend, Chi, who has recently quit PwC and will be spending the next few months in Thailand gaining a teaching certificate in Yoga of all things.

We had a great weekend spent lounging by the beach, hiking to another nearby beach, playing some intense ping-pong tournaments, and relaxing.

Michelle, Karen, me, Alex, James, Paula, and Fi in Jay's bach

Stone skipping contest at one of the local secluded beaches

A nice beach we took a hike to

Michelle, Paula, Chi, Jay, Paul and Fi on the hike

A view of Waihi beach and the ocean

Michelle, Paula, Paul, Jay, Fi, and me

Sunset over Jay's bach

Jay, Paul, Me, and Michelle

A game of soccer

Paul shooting a rainbow out of his hands

A little trick photography by Chi

Me lounging on the beach

Waihi Beach

Winter Tongariro Crossing

2009-09-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

A group of friends and I decided to take a long weekend trip in September to go back to Tongariro National Park to do a bit of skiing and just spend a weekend away from the big city. It is about a four hour drive from the city so we left work a bit early on Friday in order to make it down in a decent time.

We rented a bach in the town of Ohakune. If you remember, I visited the area a few times in the past, and this is where I originally did the Tongariro crossing back in January. The intention was to attempt some skiing but with me being a novice and some of the others not really in the mood to break their ankles attempting to learn, along with the fact that the weather was forecasted to be quite nice, we decided to do something different.

Chi, Paul, and I decided that we would do the Tongariro crossing again but this time in the winter! We had to rent crampons to climb the snow and ice and decided to do a guided tour as we weren't quite sure what to expect.

It ended up being a great day and was not overly difficult. The going was a bit slower in the snow but the scenery was quite different and still very beautiful. The funniest part of the day was when we got to the top of red crater and decided instead of using our crampons to slowly hike down the hill that we would slide head first all the way to the bottom. It was a huge hill and probably not the safest thing in the world but it was heaps of fun. Chi had the best slide down as she flipped over several times and almost took out all of the spectators at the bottom. Definitely worth doing the second time in the winter!

Mt. Doom in the Winter

Me and Chi

Mt. Ruapehu

Chi and Paul when we first started to see snow

Hiking higher...

More snow...

At the first crater

Me, Paul, and Chi at the base of Mt. Doom

Paul on the frozen tundra

Time to put the crampons on

En guard!

At Red Crater

The clouds rolled in for a bit

We were on about a meter of ice as evidenced by this sign that is usually about waist high

And it started to clear up again!

Check out the reflection in the lake

Wine Connoisseur

2009-09-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I started attending a 5 week wine tasting course - excuse me, it's a wine "profiling" course as it is much more than tasting. It is led by one of the 257 Masters of Wine in the world. See some more details about the course here.

I decided that it would be good to learn a bit about wine as I really didn't know anything. The course has been very interesting but so far I've learned that I don't have an extremely sophisticated pallate. I'm taking the course with two friends from work - Paul and Jay. Jay seems to know his stuff a bit, but Paul and I have trouble distinguishing what aromas the wines are from the aroma wheel - "fresh cut grass", "tomato leaf", "mellon". It has still been a great course keeping my interest for the 2 hours as I've learned a good bit about different wines. So far we've learned about the aromas (of white wines), learned about the different types of grapes, taken a factory tour in Kumeu River, learned of the astringency of red wines, etc. I feel slightly more sophisticated but still have a couple of weeks to go to get my diploma...

Muriwai

2009-09-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

There are a ton of nice beaches around Auckland, but one of the more famous ones is called Murawai Beach which is only about a 40 minute drive from town. I went there a few weekends ago with friends and spent the morning exploring the area. It has black volcanic sand and is very picturesque. This beach is really popular and crowded in the summer time but was pretty empty in late July / early August when we went.

It's also famous for its gannet colonies which just look like slightly nicer looking seagulls (still annoying though) to me.

We had a nice time at the beach hiking around and exploring some of the caves. I was able to drive out on part of the beach so I took the "Beast" off-roading again. It was a beautiful day, especially considering it was still actually winter.

The Beast on the black sand beach

Me and Michelle enjoying the views

Maria, Brian, Fi, Paul, Me, Karen, Michelle, Chi

Paul and Me

Exploring the beaches

More exploring the beaches and caves

Me at Muriwai

A large rock with one of the gannet colonies on top

Gannets

Closer view of the gannets

Me with a nice view of the beach

Fi, Paul, Michelle, Chi, Karen, Maria, Brian

Chi being a hippie

90 Mile Beach and Cape Reinga

2009-09-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

So I had a week off of work in September. The original plan was to meet up with my buddy, Keith, in Thailand or somewhere else in Asia but those plans fell through so I had a week to spend around New Zealand. My buddy, Paul also had a couple of days off so we decided to head up North for a bit. This was my first time heading north of Auckland.

Paul and I drove up to Keri Keri and stayed at the Top 10 Holiday Park there. The weather wasn't supposed to be good the next day and we had planned to take a trip out to 90 Mile Beach so we tried to reschedule to the following day. To our luck as it turned out, they were not able to reschedule.

90 Mile beach is actually only about 55 miles long (why kiwis? no one knows). It's well known as it is also considered to be a road and able to be driven on by 4-wheel drive vehicles. While we did have the Beast with us, Paul and I decided to take the tour instead as it would eliminate our need to drive and we would have boards available to bodyboard the famous sand dunes.

The drive up north was not looking promising as it was overcast the whole way and raining, however we were lucky that as we approached the beach, the weather cleared and it ended up being a beautiful day.

The drive along the beach was beautiful. We made several stops to take in the scenery. The sand was full of shellfish (Tuatuas) which you could pretty much dig out by the dozen everywhere you went.

The next stop was the famous sand dunes. We were all given body boards and had to hike to the top of the dunes (a steep and tiring walk) where we then took a running start and surfed headfirst down the dunes ending in the river below. Paul and I did this 3 or 4 times before tiring out from the hikes up the dunes. On the last ride down, a group of 5 of us decided to race down the dunes. This didn't work out as expected as I collided with another guy in front causing a chain reaction of all of us wiping out and tumbling down the hill. Everyone was OK after getting the sand out of our ears, eyes, and nostrils.

After a further drive, we ended up at Cape Reinga which is the furthest northern point on the main land of New Zealand. There is a famous lighthouse there and it is a very important Maori spiritual site. This is also where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean and you can see the different currents come together.

After a long drive back, we were going to stay another night in Keri Keri but the hotel had cockroaches running around and we weren't sure what we would do the following day anyway so we decided to head back to Auckland and go golfing the following day. It was another great trip.

Me and the Dune Rider on 90-mile beach

Paul and the Dune Rider

If you look closely you can see the remains of some of the cars that got stuck driving on 90-mile beach.

Views along 90-mile beach

The massive dunes on 90-mile beach

Me at the Dunes

Paul at the Dunes

Video of Paul Dune-Riding

Cape Reinga

Me at Cape Reinga

Lighthouse at Cape Reinga

Northernmost point in NZ

Me at the lighthouse

Me and Cheesy

Where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean

See the actual tree in the next picture

See the tree on the tip of the rocks

Visiting an old Kauri Forest

Adventure Race

2009-08-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

My buddy, James, had a great idea that we should do an "adventure race." This is a type of race that is run by teams of 4 that involves a bunch of running as well as other activities like puzzles to solve and games of skill to complete. The main part of it however involves running around through the woods and rivers gathering flags with only a satellite map to guide the way. There was also supposed to be a tubing part down the river, but none of us went out to get the required helmets so we weren't able to do it. The event takes about 3 hours but is not an all-out run for the whole time. Unfortunately, James hurt his leg in the annual PwC rugby game the prior day but we still went ahead with the plans. The teams were myself, Paul, Sarah, and Brian on one team and Steve, Alex, and Jay on another vs. a bunch of other corporate teams.

It turned out to be a beautiful day and while we tried hard on the first running event, we started to get a bit more lackadaisical after that and just enjoyed the great weather. The day culminated in a BBQ in the parking lot to celebrate a great day. I couldn't really bring my camera during the race as we spent a lot of time running through the river (especially me as I fell in within the first 10 minutes) so the pictures below are primarily in the parking lot afterwards.

Sarah, Alex, Brian, Paul, Steve, and Jay

Sarah, Alex, and Paul

Steve and Paul puting the innertubes to use

Me on the BBQ

Steve and Alex

Me, Sarah, Alex, Steve, and Brian

Mid-Winter BBQ Breakfast

2009-07-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

Since the weather was so beautiful this weekend, a group of us decided to wake up early on Sunday morning and head to Michael Joseph Savage Reserve (a park out near Mission Bay) for a nice BBQ breakfast. This is a beautiful little park overlooking the city and the ocean and was a perfect way to relax and enjoy the weather. The winter here has been pretty rainy but it was sunny and around 60 degrees today (not bad for the middle of winter).

I brought my portable BBQ which has proven to be the perfect thing to bring to NZ. We cooked eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoe, french toast, and had coffee and orange juice while relaxing in the camping chairs and enjoying the beautiful day and good company. I think we were out there for a good 3.5-4 hours and it was a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

View of Devonport from the park

Paul, Romain, me, Fi, and Michelle relaxing

The best chef in the world

Mmm...tomatoes, sausage, and a mushroom & cheese omelette

French Toast

Chi and Paul making a bacon / french toast sandwich with syrup

Nothing like cooking breakfast with those views of the city and ocean

First course - bacon and toast

Setting up

All Blacks v. Australia

2009-07-18T16:38:00.000-07:00

I decided that there is no way that I can be in New Zealand for two years without going to see the famous All Blacks rugby team play. They had a game at Eden Park a couple of weeks ago so I went along with Steve and Deon to go check out what all the fuss is about. We were told how crazy things were supposed to be and I was a little concerned that I would have things thrown all over me or get in a fight or something, but it was quite the opposite really.

I couldn't believe how tame things were. The crowd was not loud at all. Considering that this is New Zealand's most famous sport and that they were playing against one of their biggest rivals in Australia, the stadium didn't even sell out until a couple of days before the game. And the stadium is only at about half capacity anyway as it is undergoing big renovations for the 2011 Rugby World Cup which will be hosted here. I was almost whispering to Steve and Deon during the game and when anyone stood up to cheer, the rest of the fans yelled at them to sit down. The loudspeakers hardly even worked, either. The All-Blacks won in a close game but I was pretty unimpressed with the atmosphere - nothing like a PSU game, that's for sure. Oh well, at least I can tick that off the list and it was cool to see the Haka before the game.

The All-Blacks doing the Haka before the match.

Me and Steve - we invented our own cheer - YEEEs! (in a kiwi accent)

Me and Deon - the only fans cheering

Finally, a real fan

This looks more like the crowd I expected to be surrounded by

Brew on Quay

2009-07-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

Recently, a new bar opened up downtown called Brew on Quay. It has quickly become a great hangout with over 100 types of beers and lots of games to play. Here's some pictures of a recent evening after work.

Dominos (me, Alex, James, Michelle, Paula)

Alex building a masterpiece

Michelle ready to destroy the sculpture

James - intensely into the dominos course we made

A hard fought game of Connect Four (the men won every time)

I Luv 'Ye, A'ways H'ave

2009-07-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

So while I was back in the U.S. attending two weddings, my good friends Paul and Fi got engaged back in New Zealand on their 5 year anniversary. We had a little engagement party once I returned. I am hoping to make the invite list as I think I would look good in a kilt - we'll see if I make the cut!

Paul and Fiona

Paul, Chi, me, and Paula

Me and Paul

I guess the duct tape didn't hold...

2009-07-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the post I put up about going to Great Barrier Island on Great Barrier Airlines? If you recall, there was a lot of duct tape inside those tiny planes. I guess it did not hold in this case (see the story below).

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10583122

Braden & Jenn's Wedding

2009-06-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

I flew back to the U.S in early June for my brother's wedding. I came home a week early because I knew that there was a lot to do ahead of time. I arrived on Saturday morning at 6:00 AM and had to prepare for Braden's bachelor party that evening. We went out and had a great time (unfortunately no photos from the evening). I think Braden sufferred a bit the next day, though. Between then and the wedding, I had a lot of catching up to do with my friends from home. Dan flew in from Boston for the weekend then I had a happy hour for work on Tuesday followed by hitting up all of my favorite local food places. I was dying without Doritos, good pizza, and wings. My mom was nice enough to have an assortment of five different bags of Doritos waiting for me on my arrival home and my dad had made a whole batch of homemade salsa - Delicious!!

Anyway, fastforward to Thursday...Braden's rehearsal was Thursday night in Carlisle, PA which is about a 3 hour drive from Pittsburgh. The rehearsal went smoothly followed by a delicious dinner at one of the local restaurants where we got to see a good (but somewhat corny) DVD slideshow that my dad put together of Braden and Jenn growing up.

The next day was busy with a breakfast with the extended family (this was the first time in a decade that my mom's mom, two brothers, and sister were all together at the same time) followed by the wedding.

I'm happy to report that I fulfilled my most important duty and did not loose the rings. I was quite nervous that I was going to though. The wedding went off without a hitch but we were then whisked right away for pictures. Without even a couple of minutes to relax, we moved from one place to another then finally went back to the hotel where the reception was taking place. We had to go straight out for the first dance followed immediately by the speeches from the maid of honor and best man (me!). I was nervous for my speech but it went really well and I received a lot of compliments afterwards. Braden and Jenn were good sports throughout the whole day but must have been exhausted once it was over. After my speech I was finally able to relax a bit, say hello to the family and friends, and have a few drinks.

A good time was had by all. The next morning was a big breakfast at Jenn's house followed by what was supposed to be the much anticipated tennis match between my mom, dad, uncle and cousin but it was postponed due to rain. I had to drive back to Pittsburgh for my friend, Dave's, bachelor party but I'll welcome my dad to put a link to the results of the tennis match on his blog as this was all that they talked about the whole time there.

It was great to see my family again and convenient that they were all together in one place while I was home. I wish I could have spent a bit more time with them all but hopefully I will again soon.

Me walking my mom down the aisle

Braden and Jenn just married

Me and the maid of honor

Gramma and Grampa

Nana

Husband and Wife

Me and Braden

The Smith Family

Uncle Dave, mom, Nana, Aunt Susan, and Uncle Jeff

Wedding pictures in the local park

The Best Man Speech - I was a real crowd pleaser

Reactions to some jokes about Braden

Hutchinsons and Smiths

Nana and Uncle Jeff

Mom and Dad

Gramma and Grampa

Me, Aditya, and Dan keeping watch over the bar

Assurance Function (5 June)

2009-06-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

At PwC here in New Zealand, we have an annual assurance function for our service group in the office. There is always a theme - this year it was "If I wasn't an accountant, I would be..." People don't take the theme too seriously and use it as an excuse to go to the costume store to find something funny. Paul and I decided to go as the New Zealand Badminton team in honor of the hilarious team nickname that I explained in an earlier post.

The party was a great time. Surprisingly, virtually everyone participated and let loose a bit. It was a fun concept and I doubt we would get this level of participation back in the States. Everyone stayed out late and there were a few headaches the next morning but a fun time was had by all.

Alex (peruvian musician) and John (Canadian Mounty) getting into costume pre-party.

Me and Paul with Helen (Lara Croft)

John with one of the 4 Hooters Girls

The French Pimp (Romain) and Musician (Alex)

Interesting..."If I wasn't and accountant, I would be a banana"

Paul and Helen

Me and Paula (the baggage handler)

Alex, Paul, John, and me

Jacco the bike rider with the musician

The NZ Badminton team

Lambo and PK

Rockin' Out

Rotorua (May 29 - 31)

2009-05-31T14:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we had a 3-day weekend due to the Queen's Birthday (one advantage of not fighting for independence from the Brits I guess) so a few of us decided to go to Rotorua. If you recall, I went there for a day or two over Christmas Break as mentioned in a previous post. Rotorua is a city about 3 hours south of Auckland where there is a lot of geothermal activity. James and Paula organised this trip as they had an Irish friend, Liam and his girlfriend Katarina visiting. Paul, Fiona, Alex and me joined them. We headed down on Saturday afternoon, but unfortunately, it was raining and pretty cold when we arrived on Saturday. Also, since we got a late start, it was already getting dark (it gets dark here now at around 5:30). We stayed at a backpacker place called Treks which is in a convenient location in town. The place was pretty good with a nice communal kitchen / lounge where we spent the first evening playing Cranium, having some drinks, and catching up. I must say that the others were terrible at guessing my humdingers (songs you have to hum and your team guesses what they are). They did get a kick out of trying to make me whistle though.

Paul and James cleaning up the mess after dinner at the hostel

Paula, James and Alex hanging out before an intense game of Cranium

Liam, Katarina, Fiona, Paul

The following day, we were up early and headed out to Wai-O-Tapu thermal park which is one of the well-known geothermal places in New Zealand. It's a bit of a tourist trap but also some beautiful thermal pools and formations. There is a geyser there that goes off every morning at 10:30 which was cool to see but a little bit of cheating takes place as a guy drops some soap in the geyser to make it erupt. Apparently, the geyser was discovered about 100 years ago when some people were washing their clothes in the hot pool and the soap they were using caused the geyser to go off...that would have been a bit of a surprise, eh?

Me with the Lady Knox Geyser in the background

Video of the geyser going off

The Champagne Pool at Wai-O-Tapu

Me in front of the champagne pool

Look at all the steam!

This lake was really cool as it was all green!

After the thermal park, we headed back for a good lunch then relaxed a bit before heading to one of the local Maori villages called Mitai to enjoy a traditional Maori feast called a Hangi where the food is cooked underground using heated rocks and to see some traditional song/dance performances. This was a great evening. The Maori experience was really cool as the guide led us into the woods where the Maori paddled past us through the fresh water spring river in their canoe then led us up to the village for a traditional performance. We even had a "chief" within our group who had to approach the Maori tribe in the traditional way where they approach with their weapons and lay a flower or tree branch/fern down as a sign of peace. It was a good time.

After dinner we went next door to a place called Rainbow Springs where we saw the fresh water springs full of huge trout. We also got to see some Kiwi birds! This was the first time that I had ever seen these things. They were bigger than I expected. They were in an enclosure but it was pretty open for us to see them. They were scurrying around in the pens but we were not allowed to take flash photos as it could apparently kill them.

After the show and the Rainbow Springs tour, it was time to head back to the hostel. We were all pretty exhausted so went to bed shortly after getting back then had to drive home the next morning. It was a good weekend once again.

The Maori performers coming in on the canoe

Another view of them on the canoe

Video of the Haka dance

Another video of one of the songs

Samoa Round 2 (12 May - 22 May)

2009-05-23T18:32:00.001-07:00

I just returned from my second trip to Samoa. As you'll recall, I went back in March for work and returned for the final audit in May. As I was working, it wasn't much of a vacation, but I still had a good time and had a chance to go see some things over the weekend. I took a cab around the Island on Sunday for the day which cost about 200 Tala (65 USD) for the entire day. The cab driver took me and Kyle (the guy I was working with) to a beach called Vavau which was really pretty - it would be a great place to go if you wanted some seclusion and to get away from it all. It was a bit rainy when we went, but it stopped raining after a while and we were able to hang out at the beach. The beach Fales (huts) here were about 180 Tala (60 USD) per night. Next, our cab driver took us to a more popular resort beach called Senalei (or something like that). This beach was really nice and the weather turned much better here. We had some of the local Vailima beers and relaxed on the beach for a while before heading back to the hotel. This was a more developed resort but the accommodation started at somewhere around 300 USD per night. Some pictures of the beaches are below.

Lagoon at Vavau

Vavau beach - beautiful and in the middle of nowhere

Some of the Fales (beach huts) to stay in at Vavau

Vavau Beach

Kyle and Fau (our driver)

Sinalei beach

Sinalei

Other Random Happenings

2009-05-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

As I haven't posted for a while (there have been a few weeks between the Routeburn Track and Samoa), I figured that now would be a good time to give a few updates and include a few random pictures from over the past several weeks that didn't really fit well in my other posts.

So I got back from the Routeburn track on 19 April. The weather in Auckland has been getting a bit cooler lately so there has not been as much in the way of outdoor activities to do. Unfortunately, it also gets dark here now at around 6:00 so I'm looking forward to September/October to roll around again soon. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely much nicer winters than it was back home. It gets cool here, but I doubt that there are any days when a winter jacket would be required. It also rains a bit more in the winter time, but usually for relatively short spurts.

Since the Routeburn track, we did have one very nice day and it just so happened to be on a day that a group of us planned a golf outing. This was only my third time golfing here which is a shame as they have a bunch of very nice courses. I really need to try to get out a bit more often in the coming year. We went to Formosa Golf Course to play a round for one of my friends - Phil's - birthday. In my group, we had me, Paul, James and Steve. We were all a bit rusty and shot over 100 but it was a great time, a beautiful course overlooking the ocean with views of Rangitoto Island, and a perfect day.

On another weekend, one of my friends and manager, Chris and his new fiance, Samantha, had everyone over for an engagement party. Chris spent some time in the U.S. in the San Francisco office and met Samantha while over there. He's my manager on several jobs and a great guy. It was a nice relaxing evening spent with friends (and even a few Kiwis this time). That same weekend, Steve and I caught a morning showing of the new Wolverine movie. I thought it was great and was glad that Steve was willing to get up early to go see it with me. My other friends said it was weird to go that early in the morning (10 am show) and asked if we brought candy for all the little kids and called us pedophiles. I'll have them know that there were not little kids in the theater that day. Steve and I got some lunch at a delicious place called Nando's then I bought the Wolverine PS3 game to play the rest of the day.

A couple of weeks ago, we had new secondee join us from France named Alex. He is a great guy and will be a welcome addition to the expat community over here. I helped him move to his new flat and took him shopping as he doesn't have a car yet, then he joined me, Paul, James, and Ben (an American secondee working at E&Y who I just met in my apt. building) for a mens' night out. We had a great time bar-hopping (Sky City, Occidental, Danny Doulan's, Cowboy & Indian, etc.) until the very early hours of the morning before calling it a night. We had planned a movie marathon the following day but nobody felt up to it after waking up to some pretty bad hangovers.

Another thing that's been big in the news here lately is the whole Swine Flu outbreak. New Zealand is one of the countries that had some people infected (there were 10 people infected who came over on a flight from Australia). One of the people on the flight was a guy who sits right in my section of the office. He didn't realise he was on that flight until several days later so was in the office that whole time. Luckily he didn't have it or else a bunch of people in our office probably would have come down with it. I don't know all the details but it seems like the media is blowing this thing out of proportion at the moment. Hopefully it goes away soon as I'm tired of hearing about it.

I think that pretty much fills in the previous few weeks between 20 April and 11 May when I headed to Samoa. See a few random pictures below.

Also, if you haven't checked in a while, I have been gradually updating my list of The Good, The Bad, and The Unusual observations I've made about New Zealand. Might be a good time to check this out again if you haven't in a while.

Me and Steve golfing at Formosa

A rainbow over Auckland. We've been getting a good bit of rain lately and it seems like there are always rainbows here - probably because the rain is usually short-lasting then the sun comes up.

Here's another view of the city from the harbor. My office building is the white one on the right there.

While Leslie was here, I had a client in Tauranga for a couple of days. We stayed in a place called Mount Maunganui ("the Mount"). This is a really nice beach town with a lot to do and just a couple hours drive from Auckland. Unfortunately I had to work but Leslie checked out the sites. I'll definitely come back here sometime next summer for a weekend to better check the place out. The photo above is one that Leslie took from the top of the Mount.

On the way home from Tauranga, we drove through a town called Paeroa. This is a small town that is where the famous New Zealand pop called L&P was invented. L&P is OK, but not one of my favorites. We still had to stop and get a picture with the giant L&P bottle though.

101 Must-Do Attractions in NZ (Work in Progress)

2009-05-22T21:47:00.000-07:00

I've borrowed this list from the AA Travel website. I figured that it will be a good way to keep track of some of the things that I've done while I'm here and as a list so I have some ideas of what to do next. It's a work in progress at the moment as I don't feel like copying all of the links right now. I will link each destination to its description page on the AA website and for those that I have visited, I'll write a quick blurb with a reference to where I've talked about it in my Blog.

1.Mitre Peak and Milford Sound

2.Doubtful Sound

3.Bay of Islands

4.Fiordland National Park - Partially complete. This is where the Routeburn Track is. I'll definitely have to go back to see more of it.

5.Abel Tasman National Park - Done - This is where Dan and I kayaked over Christmas 2008

6.Aoraki Mt Cook

7.Coastal Kaikoura

8.Hanmer Springs

9.Camping - Done this many times and love the camping here.

10.Tutukaka/The Poor Knights

11.Marlborough Sounds

12.Fox and Franz Josef glaciers - Dan and I hiked the Franz Josef glacier when we were in New Zealand in 2005. See picture below:

13.Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro - Done. These were the three Mountains at the Tongariro Crossing. Ngauruhoe was Mt. Doom that I climbed to the top of.

14.Waitomo Caves - Done. These were awesome and definitely deserve this spot if not a higher one.

15.Travelling the Southern Scenic Route

16.Otago Rail Experience

17.White Island (marine volcano)

18.Stewart Island

19.Arthurs Pass National Park

20.Tongariro Crossing

21.The Blue Pools of Haast Pass

22.South Westland

23.Waipoua Forest

24.Mt Taranaki

25.Lake Tekapo Observatory and Church of the Good Shepherd

26. Ulva Island (Stewart Is bird sanctuary)

27. Otago Peninsula

28. Canterbury Plains

29. Punakaiki (Pancake rocks)

30. Cape Reinga

31. Auckland Gulf Islands - Waiheke, Great Barrier, Rangitoto and Tiritiri Matangi

32. Kicking the autumn leaves (walking Outlet Track along the Clutha River, Wanaka)

33. Akaroa and Banks Peninsula

34. Glenorchy and Dart River

35. Farewell Spit

36. Queenstown (adventures)

37. Hokianga (Northland’s west coast)

38. Whanganui National Park

39. Cape Kidnappers

40. Lake Waikaremoana, Te Urewera National Park

41. Fine wines and fabulous foods

42. The Queen Charlotte Track

43. Lake Matheson (Fox Glacier)

44. Arrowtown

45. Orakei Korako (geothermal attraction, near Taupo)

46. TSS Earnslaw (vintage steamship)

47. Rotorua

48. Night skiing and riding at Coronet Peak

49. Dunedin City (architecture)

50. Mt Maunganui

51. Karangahake Gorge

52. Eastland SH35 (scenic coastal road journey)

53. Getting up close and personal with marine and wildlife

54. Hollyford Valley (and the Hollyford Track, Fiordland)

55. Hot Water Beach

56. Auckland’s west coast

57. Rotorua Luge, Skyrides, Skyswing

58. Kapiti Island

59. Marlborough wine trail

60. New Chums Beach, Coromandel

61. Christchurch City

62. Mt Tarawera

63. Te Papa Tongarewa museum

64. The Bridge to Nowhere (Whanganui National Park)

65. Coromandel Township

66. Lake Taupo’s water attractions and Tongariro River

67. The Pinnacles

68. Te Mata Peak (Hawkes Bay)

69. Rotorua rafting

70. The Forgotten World Highway (between Taumarunui and Stratford)

71. Lake Wanaka maze

72. Moeraki Boulders

73. New Plymouth’s coastal walkway

74. Seafood City (Auckland)

75. Castlepoint (old seaside town)

76. Wainui Beach (Gisborne)

77. Ahipara and Shipwreck Bay

78. Buller Gorge

79. Taranaki Gardens

80. Cape Palliser (southernmost tip of the North Island)

81. Auckland War Memorial Museum

82. Raglan

83. Takaka Hill: Rameka Track Mountain (Abel Tasman National Park)

84. Whakarewarewa traditional Maori village, Rotorua

85. Waitangi Treaty Grounds

86. Rere Rock Slide, Gisborne

87. Spa and well-being (Nelson)

88. Auckland’s Sky Tower and Skyjump

89. Devonport and North Head

90. The Interislander

91. Auckland volcanoes

92. Central Otago

93. Port Waikato

94. Golf in an Alpine Amphitheatre (Queenstown Golf Club)

95. Hundertwasser toilet (Far North)

96. Wellington Writers’ Walk

97. Cross-country skiing (Lake Wanaka)

98. Stonehenge Aotearoa (marking the winter solstice Downunder)

99. Rugby Museum (Palmerston North)

100. Beehive and Parliament buildings

101=. Attend a Must-Do Event, North Island

101=. Attend a Must-Do Event, South Island

Routeburn Track (Day 3)

2009-04-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of the track. We woke up early again to a beautiful sunrise over the Routeburn Valley. We had a quick breakfast and some hot chocolate then headed out as I had to make sure to be back to Queenstown in time for my 4:30 flight back home. The last leg of the track was mostly downhill and was much easier than the rest of the track. It ended up only taking us a little over 2 hours to finish, which put us way ahead of schedule. It was Leslie's birthday and since we were in the middle of nowhere and I didn't have any presents, I made her a cake out of a rock, some mud, and a stick for a candle. She was very happy but didn't eat any of her cake.

It was a relief to finish the track but it had been a wonderful time with some of the most gorgeous scenery I had ever seen. We drove back to Queenstown taking in the beautiful sites of the Dart River Valley along the way. This Valley is near Glenorchy and was the scenery for Isengard in the Lord of the Rings movies. Once back in Queenstown, we had a nice big breakfast before Leslie dropped me off at the airport (she carried on to Milford Sound for a couple of days). For whatever reason, the annoying employees at the airport would not let me on an earlier flight even though there were empty seats as it is the airline's "policy" not to do this unless I pay for a whole new ticket so I sat around a read a book for a while. It was a great long weekend and I didn't want to get back to work...oh well, all good things must come to an end sometime.

Leslie with her "Birthday Cake"

View of the Routeburn Valley

Me crossing one of the suspension bridges

At the bottom of the Routeburn Valley

Leslie crossing the last bridge before the end of the track

Triumphant Finish!

The drive back to Queenstown

View of the river from one of the many single-lane bridges

Dart River Valley

More beautiful scenery

18 Km away

What would NZ be without the sheep?

It seems strange to have palm trees in this cooler environment

Lake Wakatipu

View of Queenstown from up one of the mountains

Routeburn Track (Day 2)

2009-04-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

We woke up bright and early today after going to bed so early the night before. It was a beautiful day and the rain had finally gone away! The weather can change quickly here so we made sure to get on the trail early after a quick breakfast. We had another 12Km or so to go before getting to our next hut called Routeburn Falls hut. To get there, the first half of the day was uphill and into the mountains overlooking the Hollyford Valley. We had a beautiful morning for this part of the track with stunning views out into the Darran Mountains and over the Valley. Just as we were leaving the Valley, the clouds started rolling in as the day heated up and completely filled it in. It was crazy how fast they rolled in so thank goodness we started early when we did or we wouldn't have even realised the beautiful sights we were missing.

After we left the Hollyford Valley, we finally made it to the highest point of the Routeburn Track at the Harris Saddle. Here there were a couple of cabins for day use and emergency shelter only so we took a break for lunch. After relaxing a bit, we decided to do an optional side track up Conical Hill which was about an hour hike up a fairly steep mountain to get some good views out over the valley and of Harris Lake. By this point, a good bit of cloud cover had rolled in, but we still had some nice views at the top of Conical Hill. It was a tough climb but worth the effort.

After, we began our descent to the Routeburn Falls Hut where we would spend the night. This hut was very nice. The bunks were less crammed together with separate sleeping areas of 4 bunks each. The front porch of the hut had beautiful views out over Routeburn Valley. Again, we had a nice dinner and relaxed, taking in the wonderful views, before calling it a night. Today had been great and I saw some of the prettiest views I have ever seen in my life.

Me and Leslie climbing up the mountain with Lake MacKenzie below.

Me continuing the hike up

Beautiful view out over the are we had hiked through the previous day

Stunning View (and I'm not just referring to me in the picture)

Me with Hollyford Valley and Darran Mountains in background

Leslie taking it all in

The mountains up here had glaciers on them as you can sort of see in the background

Me on the hobbit trail

Me with Hollyford Valley in background

Bilbo
Les taking a break at the Harris Saddle

View of the Harris Saddle huts from hike up Conical Hill

Les at the top of Conical Hill

Me walking out to the edge of one of the lookout points up to Conical Hill

Lake Harris

Routeburn Valley (the roof of the Routeburn Falls Hut where we stayed is at the bottom).

Routeburn Falls

The view from the front porch of the Hut

Routeburn Track - Queenstown then Day 1

2009-04-17T02:49:00.000-07:00

Queenstown Airport

It's been a long time since my last blog update so I apologise to anyone out there who is actually interested in this stuff. I've been busy with work then away in Samoa for the last two weeks without much Internet so am finally getting a chance to update this.

As I mentioned in my last couple of entries, my friend Leslie was out visiting for a couple of weeks. We decided to go on a multi-day hike on what is considered one of New Zealand's "Great Walks" called the Routeburn Track. I was fortunate enough to be able to get a Friday off of work and left early Thursday afternoon to catch a flight down to Queenstown on the southern part of the South Island which is the closest decent-sized city to the Routeburn Track.

We flew into Queenstown airport and had plenty of beautiful views of the mountain ranges along the way. Queenstown is surrounded by mountains and it seemed as if the plane came awfully close to the mountains on its descent. The surrounding area of Queenstown is absolutely stunning with lakes and mountains all around the city which itself is a quaint tourist town. It was autumn here and it really felt like it with leaves changing colors and the crisp air.

The Routeburn track is not a circuit and can be started from either end. One end is about an hour drive from Queenstown and the other end is over in Fiordland National Park which is about a three and a half hour drive from Queenstown. Due to my limited time as I had to be back at work on Monday, we decided to start at the far end and finish in Queenstown on Sunday so that I would be close to the airport in order to catch my 4:30 flight back to Auckland. Therefore, we would take a shuttle bus to the start of the track near Te Anau. We rented a car to drop off at the Queenstown end of the track so that we would have it waiting for us when we finished.

The first evening was spent dropping of the rental car at the trail head and getting a nice dinner in Queenstown before heading out. A couple of the photos below show some of the nice scenery around Queenstown on the drive to drop the car off.

We had a 3.5 hour bus ride the following morning to start the track so had to get up bright and early to catch the 7:00 bus. It is nearly winter time now in New Zealand so the days are much shorter and it gets dark at around 6:00. Therefore, we had a busy first day as we planned to hike about 12Km to get to the hut once we actually got to the start of the track. The drive to the Routeburn track was beautiful - this area of the island is definitely one of the prettiest. We unloaded some of the passengers in Te Anau where they would catch a boat to the beginning of the Milford Track which is another of the "Great Walks" and probably the most popular track in New Zealand. All of the Great Walks require reservations for the huts through the DOC website and sell out quickly each year for the most popular hikes during the peak times. Milford was not available for us, but luckily there were spots on the Routeburn track which some people say is actually better than Milford (It is in the top 11 tracks in the world per National Geographic Adventure Magazine - see article here). It was towards the end of the hiking season (in fact only about a week left officially) so it was possible that it would be pretty cold, but it ended up being a pretty nice temperature.

The weather held out for us on the bus ride the entire way until we literally pulled into the parking lot of the start of the track when it started to rain. Unfortunately, this rain was not going to give up the first day. It was a bit disappointing as the low clouds and fog limited some of the views and we got soaking wet, but the moss-covered forests were absolutely beautiful and this part of the track had a lot of waterfalls which were better due to the rain. We didn't get a whole lot of pictures on the first day due to the rain but really did enjoy it despite the weather. All of the guidebooks say to expect at least one day of rain on the 3-day hike as this part of NZ gets its share of wet weather. The first day was mostly uphill so was fairly tiring although not too bad (compared to the Pinnacles hike that I talked about in an earlier post, this was much more of a gradual & manageable uphill). The second day would be half uphill until reaching the summit then mostly downhill for the next day and a half.

We got to the hut at around 4:30 just as the rain was easing up. We were totally soaked so it was nice to change in to some semi-dry clothes, cook up some hot soup for dinner, and hang out in the kitchen/common room of the hut for a while where it was nice and warm with a big fire. It's quite the communal feeling with lots of other hikers from all over the world. It was great to talk to some people and rest for a bit, but after such a long, wet, and tiring day, Leslie and I couldn't make it past about 8:30 before heading to bed. The bunk rooms are pretty nice but in this cabin (Mackenzie Hut), they are all right next to each other. Fortunately, the bunk room wasn't full so we weren't crammed in and breathing on strangers while we slept. It was a good first day but we were hoping for better weather tomorrow.

Te Anau Downs - this is where the Milford Track begins. It's about another hour drive to Routeburn from here.

Me at the start of the Track

Elevation map of the hike

Leslie looking like a crippled Quasimoto crossing one of the small waterfalls. They say that you will definitely get wet, muddy boots on the track and they were definitely right about the wet part.

The moss-covered forests were beautiful

Leslie at the Howden Hut where we stopped for lunch and took a break from the rain.

Me in the strange forest

Lake Mackenzie Hut

Great Barrier Island (Day 3-4)

2009-04-12T00:59:00.000-07:00

Today was Easter! We got up early again to catch the sunrise and make another delicious breakfast of eggs (and Cadbury Mini-Eggs as it was Easter) and hot chocolate. Today we would begin with a venture to the Kaitoke Hot Springs track. These were some natural hot springs on the island that flowed into a small river making the water as hot as bath water. It was a nice 45 min. walk to get to the springs where we spent about an hour relaxing in the warm mineral water. It was pretty cool, but also kind of gross as there were a bunch of other people around and the water was a bit muddy. See a few pictures below:

Michelle, Chi, Paula, Leslie, and me relaxing in the hot pool

Chi, Michelle, and Paula in the kiddie pool

New Zealand Fern (or Koru) on the hike back to the carpark

The next stop was Medlands Beach to enjoy the sun and pick some Green Lipped Mussels for dinner. If you recall from an earlier post, New Zealand is famous for its Green Lipped Mussels and we found a bunch of them on the rocks around the beach. We gathered handfuls of them for dinner then hung out on the rocks and the beach for a while before heading back to our Bach.

Medlands Beach

Picking Mussels on Medlands Beach

New Zealand Green-Lipped Mussels

Hanging out on the rocks at Medlands Beach

Picturesque View at Tryphena Beach

Once arriving back at the Bach, we all relaxed for a bit then started prepping for dinner. We would be enjoying yet another feast of the rest of the Snapper we caught the previous day as well as the fresh mussels we had so vigilantly hunted today with a bunch of veggies, pasta, and more. It was a great dinner and I could hardly move, but there was still another surprise waiting. It was Paula's birthday and James had arranged for one of the local restaurants to make her a B-day cake. We secretly picked it up during one of the petrol stops earlier in the day. We all sang happy B-day to PK, then sat around and talked for a while before hitting the sack. It was another enjoyable and relaxing day.

The women prepping the kitchen

Mmmm...those mussels were great!

Happy Birthday Paula

We even had noise makers and little pop rocket confetti things.

The next morning, Leslie and I woke up early to do some sea kayaking. We had rented a kayak from one of the local shops the day before, and luckily it hadn't yet fallen off of the Bongo, so we took it out at around 7:30 to Tryphena Harbor. The sea was really calm and pretty and it was a gorgeous morning to get out on the ocean. We took our time paddling around the bays and checking out the boats docked in the area. The water was really clear and pretty warm, but I didn't want to fall in because we had heard there were sharks in the area. We had a great time, then headed back to the Bach at around 10:00 in order to pack up to catch our flight back to Auckland. When we returned the kayak on the way to the airport, we passed our favorite bakery called the "LunchBox" that made the best cream-filled donuts. We all had our fair share then headed to the airport to catch our tiny plane back. It was a great long weekend with beautiful weather, lovely company, and lots of relaxation. I really didn't want to get back to work.

The BEST donuts in the world

Steve and I partaking in our donuts (and discussing our future restaurant business that I can't give away any details of here as people will steal our idea).

The cozy plane back to Auckland

Me wishing I didn't have to leave

GBI from the air

Once we returned back to Auckland, I took Leslie to Mt. Eden to see the large volcanic crater in the city that you've seen pictures of in previous posts. Then we headed out to Mission Bay area to walk around and grab an ice cream while the sun set. Tomorrow I would be heading to Tauranga for a couple of days of work but was really excited to get through that as Leslie and I were heading to Queenstown Thursday afternoon to embark on the Routeburn track.

Leslie and me at Mt. Eden

Auckland sunset out near Mission Bay (Leslie's silhouette)

Me in front of Auckland during the sunset

Great Barrier Island (Day 2)

2009-04-11T03:08:00.000-07:00

Woke up to a nice sunrise this morning. Once everyone got up and had a good eggs and chips & salsa breakfast, we headed in to town as there was some sort of pumpkin festival or something going on. Now, the whole island only has about 800 people living on it, so I could almost hear the banjos playing the Deliverance tune as we pulled up (Ding da Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Diiing). The festival ended up being a nice little relaxing thing with a bunch of good food and some not-so-good arts and sculptures. We discovered the best donuts with homemade cream ever this morning as well (more to come on those later). One of the local hillbilly townsfolk even hit on Michelle and Chi telling them that he makes good babies...(with his sister maybe).

Pulling in for the Pumpkin Festival

Leslie modeling her newest favorite fruit, the feijoa.

Steve, James, and Nate admiring some of the interesting sculptures on display. Note that mine is a construction cone - no idea if this was really art or not.

Group photo in front of the toilet / counsel house / community center (not sure exactly, but it looked kind of cool). From left: Michelle, Paula, Leslie, Nate, James, Steve, Chi, Deon

After a thrilling morning at the Pumpkin Festival, Steve had arranged for us to charter a boat for a trip out with Captain Barry to try to go catch some Snapper. The sea was pretty choppy at first and we had trouble standing, let alone catching any fish. We decided to play balancing games while the boat was moving to see who could stand on one foot the longest (I had the solo record by the way with 8 seconds).

After several attempts in some of Barry's favorite spots without so much as a bite, we decided we would try one last spot, and if we didn't catch anything there, we would come back out the next morning. Well, as luck would have it, the last spot proved to be the best one. Almost immediately we hooked three fish (we only had three rods out at a time and simultaneously snagged all three). I caught some sort of a sea trout while two others caught red snapper. We started getting fish like crazy out there. Every other catch was a red snapper with several that were pretty big. It was great fun, and Barry had his hands full helping all of us out, putting up with the multiple tangled reels we caused, and disposing of our fish with his ice pick that he put through their heads before throwing them in the holding bin for us. We all had a great time....well, most of us. Unfortunately, Deon was a bit sea sick but she was a great sport taking all of the pictures for us. Without her we wouldn't have chronicled our expedition as we were too busy catching dinner. Speaking of which, once we returned in to dock, Barry filleted our fish for us and we proceeded to cook them up on the barbecue with some garlic, oil, and fresh herbs back at the bache for a delicious dinner supplemented by veggies, pasta, and a few green lipped mussels (more to come on these later).

Playing the balancing game when the fishing was slow

Steve and Capt. Barry chatting it up

Patiently waiting for the fish to bite

Me working to untangle my reel

James and Me still waiting...

Leslie being a good sport

Finally the fish arrive, and James celebrates by kissing his first victim

Captain Barry helping to haul in the red snapper

Michelle with the biggest catch of the day

Mmm...Dinner

Steve and me grilling up our freshly caught fish

The much anticipated meal

Group dinner

Great Barrier Island (Day 1)

2009-04-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

Well, first of all I got an email a couple of weeks ago from my good friend, Leslie, from the US telling me that she quit her job recently and had a few weeks off before starting her new one. She was going to come to New Zealand for a couple of weeks to visit and see the sights which was awesome - my second visitor to the Island!! Her visit came at a good time as we had 2 days off for Easter and I was able to manage another day off the following Friday. (Note that here in NZ we actually get public holidays for Easter unlike back home...but I guess at least we have Thanksgiving back home which sort of makes up for it.)

So for Easter, I had already planned to go to Great Barrier Island (NZ's 4th largest island approx. 100km off the coast of Auckland) with a bunch of my work friends. As mentioned in the previous post, Mike went back to Canada. He was originally supposed to join us, but his vacancy left room for Leslie to come along (as it turns out we were in really big houses anyway and it wouldn't have been a problem). We booked flights on Great Barrier Airlines. The roundtrip 30 min. flights were actually cheaper than the 3.5 hour ferry would have been. The planes were really tiny, and we were packed in as you can see in the picture above, but it was really cool to fly above Auckland and a bunch of the other tiny islands along the way. The scenic flight alone was probably almost worth the airfare. My only complaint was the duct tape holding the plane together and the lack of service on the flight (no flight attendants, toilets, or movies).

Side note: The security for the domestic flights here in NZ is ridiculous. In fact, it is nonexistent (at least for these little puddle jumpers). We arrived 30 min. before the flights, told them our names (no ID required), were handed a reusable boarding pass, then waited a bit before being called right on the planes. There were no metal detectors or anti-liquid laws or anything. It would have been interesting if they checked our carry-ons as we had Beer, Liquor, and Wine (as we heard the stores might be closed for the holidays) and the game Twister - that would have raised some eyebrows.

We arrived bright and early Friday morning, picked up the 8-seater "Bongo" van from the airport, and headed to our baches (as you may recall from an earlier post, a "Bach" is the kiwi word for a holiday home). Paula had arranged the houses and I hadn't even really looked up much about them so didn't know what to expect. It turned out that they were beautiful and situated up on a hill with a gorgeous view out onto the water with big decks to sit on and enjoy the sunrise/set. They each had 3-4 bedrooms and plenty of room to hang out downstairs. The picture above shows our view from the balcony. Best of all, for two houses, it only cost us each $160 NZD total for three nights.

Since we arrived early the first day and the weather was nice, we decided to do a hike. James was the captain of the Bongo and drove us along some windy roads and through some beautiful scenery to the Windy Canyon hike up to Mt. Hobson (the highest point on the island). We all enjoyed a morning / afternoon hiking to the top where we had a nice lunch before heading back down. The weather was great (and pretty hot for April). That first evening, we relaxed in the house, BBQ'd some sausages and veggies on the grill, and fell asleep early after a long day. PS - you can find some more great photos of the trip on Steve and Deon's Blog HERE if you're interested.

Leslie on the Windy Canyon hike

Hanging out on the Bongo

Top: James, Chi. Bottom: Steve, Paula, Leslie, Me, Michelle. Photo by Deon.

James, Steve, and Me posing at the top of Mt. Hobson

Deon taking a picture of Leslie taking a picture of me on the hike

Another of Deon's pictures from the hike

At the top of Mt. Hobson (621 meters)

Top: Michelle, Me, Steve, Deon. Bottom: Chi, Paula, James

Another One Down...

2009-04-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, it's kind of a shame how many friends come and go while I'll be here. Last Friday was Mike's last day and the week before, his wife, Tara, left to return to Canada as well. They had actually only been here around 5 months or so as Mike started working at PwC Auckland after I did, but had become good friends during that time. The first week that Mike arrived was when he joined us for the Waitomo Caves adventure that you'll recall from an earlier post. Unfortunately, the job marked was not working out for Tara and she needed a job in order to complete her degree and got an offer back home in Canada. Mike made the decision to cut his contract early to go back as well. It's been great getting to know them and I'm sure we'll meet up sometime again back in North America.

Samoa - Talofa

2009-04-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

Talofa is the national greeting in Samoa which is where my work took me last week. I flew up with one of my colleagues, Kyle, on Wednesday and stayed there through Monday evening. It was kind of weird flying there because while it is the same time as New Zealand, it is a full day behind as it's just across the international dateline. So I flew out of Auckland on Wed. morning and arrived in Apia on Tuesday morning.

It was hot and humid in Samoa. This is still their rainy season so it was very humid the whole time there. Thank goodness my hotel, Aggie Grey's, had air conditioning. When I first went to the room, it had a whole bunch of windows which were all opened and I thought that there would not be air conditioning and really panicked until I got inside.

One of my friends from work has a girlfriend who is a flight attendant for Air NZ and happened to be staying at the same hotel as us the first night. She and a few others took me and Kyle out with them for dinner on the first night to the Yacht Club at a restaurant called Swashbucklers which was nice. We had a great meal out on the deck overlooking the water. The next few days were fairly uneventful as we actually had work to do, although Wednesday night's dinner was a Fia Fia night at the hotel where we got to see the traditional Samoa singing and dancing and eat some of the traditional food such as taro (a favorite was baby taro leaves in coconut milk), fish, roasted pig, seaweed, etc. About the only thing I didn't like was sea urchin which really grossed me out, but I can tick it off the list for trying it.

One really strange thing I noticed about Samoa was that there were a whole bunch of trannies (lady boys) all over the place. One of the locals at work explained that these are called Fa'afafine. Apparently, in the past in Samoa, parents in families with mostly boys used make the youngest male dress as a female and assist with the cleaning and cooking with the other women. They were essentially raised as a female. I think that the practice of forcing the youngest male to become a transvestite is less practiced now, however there are still a lot of fa'afafine around, but more so by choice or because they acted effeminate as children so their parents realized that they were fa'afafine. It's a shocking tradition to say the least, but it appears to be socially acceptable over there. The place where I was working had a number of these fa'afafine as did the hotel where we stayed. I guess it's part of their culture there and the people seem very accepting of it. I found this to be strange especially considering that the people of Samoa are very religious. In fact, all the stores are closed on Sundays and everyone wears white and goes to church - they are mainly Methodist, catholic, Mormon, and one other that I can't remember - maybe 7th day Adventist.

Anyway, we were supposed to have to work on Saturday to do a stock-take, however it got pushed up to Friday so we ended up having the whole weekend off. Kyle and I took a full day tour of the island stopping at several waterfalls and having a barbecue and relaxing couple of hours on the beach. This part of the island was much more like the Samoa I expected to see. We had to stay right in town due to its proximity to our client and the town itself was not the nicest place - not bad or anything, but not like a tropical resort that you might expect. After the tour, we met up with a couple of the guys from work for a night out at some of the local bars after having a few drinks along the sea wall. This ended up being a fun night, but thankfully the bars closed at midnight there or it might have been a rough next day.

Sunday was a relaxing day at the hotel as everything was closed as it always is on Sundays there. Monday was our last day at work before catching the 8:30 plane back to Auckland. I'll be back in May for another two weeks so will have to see what else the island has to offer. Some pictures from my Saturday tour are below:

The pool at Aggie Grey's (my hotel)

View out over a valley on our tour

Me at Lalomanu Beach

BBQ Lunch at Lalomanu Beach

Me hanging out before lunch

The beaches on Samoa are apparently all deserted and secluded like this. They are all owned by local families. You can go to them but might have to pay around $5 to use the beach (not bad). Many, including this one, had little wooden beach huts you could rent out for $80 Samoan Tala (approx. $25 - $30 USD) per night which included three cooked meals.

Nice clear water, but they didn't have snorkel gear to rent

Back on the road to continue our tour

Waterfall at one of the villages along the way

Another waterfall higher up in the mountains

Going, Going, Gone...

2009-03-21T01:22:00.000-07:00

One problem with being on a two-year secondment and having a lot of friends who are also on secondments is that we all started at different times which means, of course, that we will end at different times. This past weekend marked a farewell weekend to my friends Jeremy and Erin who are also from the U.S. Jeremy came over here to NZ about two years ago from the Boston office with his wife, Erin (who is a fellow Yinzer by the way even if she has since become a traitor). I talked to Jeremy before I came over, and he was very helpful in my decision to come here (even though he forgot to tell me to bring the good deodorant from the U.S. and to ship over Doritos). It seems like somebody leaves here just about every month and it's kind of sad, but it's been great getting to know them and there will be more new people coming in soon to attempt to fill their shoes (won't be easy).

Their official leaving drinks and party will be this Thursday and Friday, but since I will be in Samoa for work, I was happy that they also had a get-together at their apartment this past Saturday. There was a USA theme and everyone wore some elements of red, white, and blue. We helped them finish off all their drinks so as not to go to waste when they move. I also took part in the Wheatbix challenge which is when you have to try to eat a Wheatbix (a dry, crusty, flaky, cereal bar that is meant to go in milk) in under 60 seconds. Nobody succeeded, but I had a respectable time of 80 seconds. We all had a good time hanging out until late then went out to a local bar for a drink before calling it a night. Jeremy and Erin leave next weekend to do a few months of traveling around Asia and Europe before heading back to work. It seems to be a pretty common theme here as my other friends who have left are still on their travels. I will have to try to save up some money to do a few months of travels myself (so send me US dollars!). Well, I'm off to Samoa tomorrow so there should be some good updates next week when I return.

Note: Jeremy and Erin have kept a great Blog of their two years here if anyone wants to check out what an exciting and busy time that two years in Kiwiland can really be.

Jeremy partaking in the Wheatbix Challenge

Erin made these fancy drink recipes in frames to help us finish off their liquor

We also helped them finish off some delicious (although stale) salt & vinegar flavored rice cakes. These things were covered in salt & vinegar powder.

Beer Festival and Irish BBQ

2009-03-14T03:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend kicked off the right way with an Irish Barbecue over at James & Paula's. I guess it was more of a Kiwi barbecue since we had pretty much lamb everything - I really like the lamb sausages here. We all had to wear green in celebration of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day. It was a nice evening and we even got to play some P-I-G on the mini basketball hoop. Although I did not win any games, luckily my fellow Americans there did not lose the title to any other nationalities which would have been a slap in the face.
Playing P-I-G at the BBQ

James tending to the BBQ

Saturday was the Auckland Beer Festival. Here at PwC we have coaching managers who we meet with regularly to discuss how things are going and make sure that we are not having any problems, etc. I've been lucky with my assigned coaching manager, John, who is a British guy who came over on secondment here when he was about my level and has decided to stay for the past 5 years. He decided that it was about time for a coaching session for me and Paul (who is also his coachee) so we got tickets for the Auckland Beer festival. John, me, Paul, Jacco, Jeremy, and Phil all met up on Saturday afternoon for a mens' day out at the festival. It was a bit of a rainy day, but fortunately a lot of the festival was indoors. We had to buy tokens for each beer so we all chipped in and bought a big bag. Jeremy kept all of our tokens and allocated them to us for each round. I felt like we were at Chuck E Cheese's getting tokens for the various games.

We had a great day. After a bit of wondering around, taking in the sights and music, and sampling some beers, we found a table and parked it for the rest of the afternoon taking turns getting up to get the rounds. We sampled a bunch and one of my favorites was the Wheat beer from the Waiheke Island Brewery.

After some good fun at the beer festival we caught a cab back in to town and went to where else but a bar. We got some food and played a bit of pool. John brags about how he beat me so badly last time we played so I challenged him again. We put $20 on the game and I beat him! Unfortunately, I gave him a double or nothing chance and he won it right back.

After the bars, we headed up to the casino. Everyone else called it a night, but Jeremy and I played until late. I ended up winning some decent money at blackjack and had a great time as our table had a lot of energy and some big betters. We capped the night off with a late night/early morning burger and kebab before heading back home.

Phil, Paul, Jacco, Jeremy, and John waiting to get in the festival

John and his hopeless coachees

Posing with some of the beer girls - I don't think they were hired for their knowledge of barley and hops...

Since I didn't get to be in the previous photo, I think I deserved one of my own - I already enjoyed Speights Summit beer but I think I like it better now.

Jacco found a fellow Dutch girl

Me, John, and our Miller girl (I guess they were too cheap to hire real girls)

Cheers!

A bit later in the evening - I think I still look OK, but it appears that John is getting a bit cross-eyed.

Birthday Weekend

2009-03-06T02:48:00.000-08:00

March 6 was my 27th birthday - I can't believe how fast time seems to be flying by these days. I've now been out of college longer than I was actually in college - seems crazy to me. Anyway, I guess I never thought I'd be spending my 27th birthday in New Zealand (although I did spend my 21st birthday in Australia and a few of my birthdays in Guinea when I was going there for work). Actually, now that I think about it, of my 21st - 27th birthdays, I think 5 of these have been in other countries. Well, this was another nice one to add to the list.

Friday was my actual birthday here, although it was technically still not my b-day if you go by the date I was actually born in the U.S. - nevertheless, this made it nice as I got to celebrate my b-day for two days. Friday evening, we had a Quiz night at one of the local pubs for a fundraising event for a couple of my friends from work, Phil and Lyndsay, who are raising money to run a 100K race. Well, good for them, but I will never do such a thing. Considering how dead I was at the end of my half marathon, I can't imagine knowing that I still had 79 more Kms to go.

The quiz was a good time and we had a good turnout of about 16 people from work for our two tables. Afterwards, I went out for a drink with my friends Mike and Tara from Canada who, due to a number of reasons but mainly Tara's inability to find a job over here which she needs in order to finish her degree, will be returning home shortly. Mike works with me at PwC and just arrived here a month before Christmas. They are great people and it will be a shame to see them go.

On Saturday, I relaxed and went for a walk around the city as it was a beautiful day. That evening, I went over to Chi and Michelle's new apartment for a little get-together and another extended b-day celebration before heading to the IMAX theater to see Watchmen. The movie wasn't that great but it was nice hanging out with the group before-hand.

Sunday was a day of relaxation in the sun down at Mission Bay. I read a bit of my book that James and Paula got me for my b-day called A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. So far it's pretty interesting. I also got some really good ice cream from a place called Movenpick which is a Swiss ice cream place here. Overall, it was a great weekend.

Us at the Pub Quiz

The girls posing with me at the pub quiz

At Chi and Michelle's Flat with my Birthday Brownie they made me

Blowing out my 21 candles (since I told everyone it was my 21st b-day. nobody believed me)

Relaxing at Mission Bay

My Apartment

2009-03-05T20:32:00.000-08:00

I just realized that I never really put up any pictures of my apartment. Well, I live in a one-bedroom apartment on Mahuhu Crescent which is the street right next to Vector Arena near downtown. It's a great location because it's only about 10-15 minute walk to my office. I am technically still in Auckland City, although some of my mail has the address of Parnell on it which is a suburb just outside the city so I must be right on the dividing line. What I like best about the location is that I'm still pretty much downtown but far enough away that it's quiet and feels more secluded. The apartments here are generally pretty small. Mine is a decent size compared to some of the shoe boxes that I saw when I was looking for apartments. It feels a bit larger also because there are two big picture windows and the ceilings are quite high (I'd say probably 10 feet). It came unfurnished so everything you see in the pictures below is mine (except the stove, refrigerator,washer). The only thing I really wish that it had is a balcony. There are a few here that do have balconies so I'll keep my eyes open for one of them to open up and potentially switch apartments. Anyway, check out some pictures below.

My living room

The view out of my windows

Living room again

The Kitchen

My Bedroom

The bathroom comes right off of the bedroom which is convenient but kind of strange that when people come visit as they have to go through the bedroom to get there.

The outside of my building

View of the little park and Vector arena from outside my building

View from Vector Arena towards the city - this gives you some idea of the proximity of my apartment to downtown (see the SkyTower on the right - that is central downtown)

Virtual Tour

To give some perspective, I'm right where point A/B are. My office is located where the two orange roads form a right angle to the left of A/B.

And here is where I am in NZ on the map zoomed out a ways. So I'm right on the east coast.

The New Zealand $Downer

2009-03-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

When I started work on 1 September, 1 New Zealand Dollar was worth 70 cents US. Just this week, the exchange rate actually dropped to below 50 cents US. That means the currency has devalued nearly 30% since I arrived. This is not good for me. If I continue to think of my salary in terms of US Dollars, I make less and less every day. Basically, there is no incentive for me to save any money here as it will not be worth much at all back in the U.S. Depressingly, I converted my salary the other day to US Dollars and realized that I'm making a good bit less than I did when I first started my job in 2005. Oh well, I can't think of it like that. I'm still enjoying my time here and the local prices have not changed (actually, if anything they've dropped due to the problems in the economy - I'm thinking about looking for a new apartment as I can probably get a much better deal now than when I moved here 6 months ago). Have a look at the doclinked GRAPH to see why I'm so poor (Change the dates on the bottom right of the graph to 9/1/08 - 3/5/09). Feel free to send US dollars to your poor friend/brother/son/grandchild/nephew to help me out in this third-world environment. Alternatively, it would be a great time for anyone to come visit as your dollar will go much further at the moment.

Billy Connolly Show

2009-02-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

On Saturday evening, I went out with friends to watch Billy Connolly perform at the Vector Arena which is right next to my apartment building. I had the group of 10 or so over to my flat beforehand as it's a quick 1 min. walk from my place to the Arena. On a side note, the Vector Arena is where most all of the big shows are in Auckland (like Chris Brown & Rhiana, Billy Joel, Kylie Minogue, Kanye West to name a few of the recent shows).

Anyway, I had not heard of Billy Connolly before coming over here, but my Scottish friend, Paul, really likes him (claims he's the most well-known comedian in the world but I think that's just because he's Scottish as well). Paul bought a bunch of tickets on pre-sale and told me I had no choice but to come along. I borrowed a few of Billy Connolly's DVDs ahead of time to see what he was all about. He did a World Tour of New Zealand which was pretty good as it was a mixture between a travel DVD of New Zealand and his comedy shows. Anyway, the show was good and Billy's stories and tangents kept us all entertained. It was a nice evening but not a late one as I stayed out too late at Danny Doolan's (an Irish Bar in the Viaduct) the previous evening. A nice weekend in Auckland, but I'm going to have to plan a weekend away again soon while the weather is holding out. Also, I went for a nice run today - my knees have pretty well recovered from the half marathon. I think it's about time I started training for the next one.

Half Marathon

2009-02-21T20:08:00.001-08:00

Well, today I can tick off two of my to-do boxes in life. I ran in the Cathay Pacific Half Marathon (21Km). Considering that I've never even run a quarter-marathon (~11K), I can successfully tick the boxes next to quarter and half marathons now. I was training for this a bit before the holidays, but once they arrived, my training drastically died down. At least I was still participating in some sports after the holidays which probably helped a bit. Anyway, myself and Paul from the office decided we'd run in this one about 3.5 months ago. James (another friend from the office) decided to join up last night. James has run a few of these before but Paul and I never have. We were pretty worried about it and thought we might have to cut it off at the 11Km point. We didn't exactly prepare the best since we haven't run in weeks, went out to the bars pretty hard on Friday night, then ate Burger King and Dominos on Saturday. At least I drank a good bit of water during the week to get me hydrated.

The actual race wasn't too bad for the first half. We went at a fairly slow pace but felt pretty comfortable. Things started to get pretty bad for all of us around the 14Km mark. I wasn't really all that tired from a cardio perspective but my legs and knees were in a lot of pain. This point was a little bit hilly which did not help matters at all. We carried on and then the worst part for me was the final 2Km. I can say that I jogged the entire way although it wasn't very fast. I finished the race in 2 hr and 20 min. which is certainly not a time to brag about, but the fact that I did finish and did not have to walk made me really happy. My legs are still killing me and I'm sure my knees will not function tomorrow, but I did it. I'll have to train a bit more for the next one. We'll see how long this takes me to recover.

Sports Day and GT's Leaving-Do

2009-02-16T02:41:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday right after work, we had our office sports day. We went to a local park, Coxs Bay, and had an evening full of playing touch rugby, soccer, ultimate Frisbee, tug of war, and a bunch of other games. Our office is divided up into zones so each zone competed against each other for zone points. What we do with the zone points, I have no idea other than they are used to compete against other zones. Anyway, we ended up coming in third place but still had a great time. Afterwards, we all had drinks and a barbecue to wrap things up. It was definitely an enjoyable evening and something I will recommend to our office back home.

Saturday evening was valentines day, but also a going away party for friend and co-worker, Gareth "GT", and his girlfriend Claire. They are heading back to PwC in England after some travels beginning next week. In the theme of the day, we were all required to wear red or pink outfits for the evening. My buddy, James, went so far as to wear a pink panther outfit - I'm hoping he rented it and is not a Furry. We started things off at GT's place as we were required to finish off all the rest of their bottles of wine since they didn't have room to take them all home. We made pretty quick work of them. Actually, on the way to GT's, I went to Food Alley with friends: Jacco, Michelle, and Chi for a romantic $9.00 V-day meal. Next we headed over to a local pub called the Northern Steamship. We hung out there for a while and had a few drinks before heading over to a 70s/80s style disco called Boogie Wonderland. This place was pretty fun but not a place I would go to regularly. We fit in pretty well with our ridiculous pink clothes though. It was a late night, but fortunately my friends took me to a portable trailer food-place that is most likely only open the late hours of the weekends to serve delicious burgers called The White Lady. A great time was had by all.

Chi, Jacco, Michelle, and me at Food Alley

GT and Claire toast

The arrival of the Pink Panther

Val and Fiona

Michelle and Chi somehow talked their way into the DJ booth

Fi, Tara, and Mike

Paul, Caroline, and Paula

Me and Fi

Me and Paul

Erin and Jeremy

James and Chi

Don't know what to say...stunning

Me and GT

Waiheke Island (6 - 8 February)

2009-02-09T01:32:00.000-08:00

This past Friday was Waitangi Day in New Zealand which meant another public holiday. I went with friends, James and Paula, to Waiheke Island which is an island about 30 KM from Auckland by ferry. It's a great weekend trip as there are a bunch of beaches, wineries, and generally beautiful weather (even though it's so close to Auckland, it's generally more sunny here) and is less than an hour away from a ferry port within walking distance of my apartment.

James and Paula know people who own some land on the island and they let us stay there for the weekend. It's a really nice 12-acre plot of land. I brought along my tent but they also have a permanent tent-like structure that is also sort of like a Teepee called a Yuit (I forget how this is actually spelled). They eventually plan on turning the place into something like a commune and hippy get-away which should be interesting.

It was great to get away for the weekend. The place we stayed was nice and secluded and relaxing with some pretty views from up on the hillside. We barbecued a bunch of food, had some drinks, and played some yahtzee in the evenings (we played 4 times and I did not get a single yahtzee or win a game - needless to say I was not happy).

On Saturday, we also went to the Waiheke wine festival up the road where we sampled a bunch of wines and stuffed ourselves with food while enjoying some live music. The festival was right next to Stonyridge Vineyard which is apparently famous for its red wine called Larose but I don't know much about that stuff. Afterwards, we went to a stunning local beach, relaxed in the shade under the trees, threw the football around a bit, and swam in the water (which is getting surprisingly warm). In all, it was a terrific and relaxing weekend and I was sad to have to get back to work.

Setting up camp at the Yuit

My Tent with nice views of the countryside

Inside the Yuit

James firing up the lamb sausages, chicken, and steak

View of the land from up on the hill (that's the Yuit on the left and the ocean in the background).

James on the hike up the hillside

Paula taking pictures on top of the hill

The moon was so bright we could easily see at night.

View of the vineyard from the wine festival

Waiheke wine festival

Me and James relaxing on the beach under the trees

Pittsburgh Steelers - Super Bowl Champs!!

2009-02-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago after the Steelers beat the Ravens in the AFC Championship game, I plead my case to my manager that I needed the afternoon off today for the Super Bowl. Fortunately, I had a sympathetic manager who understood the importance of today's event. I headed down to a local bar called Fox's which is in the Viaduct at 12:30 PM today (Monday) to watch Sunday's 6:30 PM Super Bowl back home.

The bar turned out to be fairly crowded. It was interesting to see a bunch of different people wearing all sorts of NFL jerseys (most of whom were locals). I think people here enjoy watching the Super Bowl as an excuse to go to the bar in the middle of the day during a work week. People also seemed to be cheering for both teams - I guess they just wanted a good game. There were, however, a few Steelers fans. I did feel a bit sad not to be at home for the Super Bowl as I'm sure there were some crazy celebrations going on. It was nice that a few of my friends from work came out to watch. Jeremy (USA), Richard (Kiwi), James (Irish), Mike (Canadian), and Gareth (UK) came to support the Steelers so at least we had a bit of an international Steelers Nation going on. It was one of the best games I've ever seen capped off by a 27 - 23 Steelers Victory to get their record 6th Ring.

Richard and Jeremy Supporting the Team

Halftime

Victory!!

Redneck BBQ

2009-01-26T11:37:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in the previous entry, on Sunday, the group decided to go to a local river (Retaruke River) to hang out, swim, barbecue and try some fly fishing for some trout. This was a great way to relax after all of the hiking from the previous day, and a good opportunity to soak my blisters in the cool water. Steve taught me and Jeremy how to fly fish...well, he was a great instructor, but I don't think we were the best students. I had to untangle my line about 100 times including getting it unwound from the tree branches. Steve is a very patient person though and offered to take us out again sometime - looking forward to it. I've added this post because I previously didn't have very many pictures from the Redneck Barbecue. Deon was kind enough to share some of hers. Steve and Deon have a great blog about their time in NZ as well if you want to check it out. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures as she took some great ones.

Me firing up the BBQ under the bridge- this thing has been put to great use since I've been here.

Doesn't that just make you hungry??

Steve teaching Jeremy how to fly fish

Steve teaching me to cast

Look at that form...perfect

Steve showing me how it's really done

Me and Jeremy attempting to throw Chi in the River

Jeremy lost the hotdog skipping bet so he had to be the first to jump in

Me in a candid pose - beer in hand

On the drive home we saw these Red Deer - look at the size of those racks!

A well-deserved meal and some drinks to complete a great relaxing day

Tongariro Crossing (24 - 26 Jan)

2009-01-25T23:30:00.000-08:00

We had a long weekend in Auckland as it was the Auckland Anniversary Weekend. I went with a group of 12 friends from work down to make another attempt at the Tongariro Crossing. This was the same trip that Dan and I attempted to do over the Christmas Holiday (see link) but did not finish due to terrible weather. This time around, it was a completely different story - the weather was absolutely beautiful.

We caught the 7:00 bus on Saturday morning from the lodge we were staying at (The Park) to take us to the beginning of the hike. We set off around 7:30 and were up to the South Crater by around 9:30 (this was the point where Dan and I turned back last time). This time, there was hardly any wind and we had bright blue skies. It was a pretty tough uphill hike to the South Crater which turned a few of the group off to the next idea, but 6 of us (me, James, Jeremy, Paul, Jacco, and Michelle) decided to try to hike up Mount Ngauruhoe which was Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies. In an earlier post, I said that Mount Ruapehu (which was right next door) was Mt. Doom, but just found out that it was actually Mt. Ngauruhoe.

Anyway, hiking up Mt. Doom was one of the toughest things I've done in recent memory. There was a lot of loose gravel and some larger rocks that made it difficult to navigate. It wasn't actually mountain climbing like with pick axes and stuff, but most of the time we had to use our hands to pull us along up the mountain (scrambling). It took about two hours to get to the top (2,291 meters which is 7,520 feet), but the view was certainly worth it. We could see for miles. The climb was tiring and my leg muscles kept cramping up - I think I was pretty dehydrated since I drank about 2 liters of water on the way up. There was still a good bit of snow at the top then another 10 minute climb up loose lava rocks to the actual crater. We were able to stand along the edge of the volcanic crater which was a little unnerving but really cool as well. There was a lot of steam coming up from the rocks around us.

After admiring the views for a bit, we had to get back down. This was much easier. We were able to scree down the entire side of the mountain. This was basically like skiing down the loose rocks in our shoes. It was pretty fun, but I fell a couple times and cut up my legs and arms a bit.

Afterwards, we continued on and met up with the others at the Emerald Lakes. These were really pretty lakes a colorful turquoise bluish color from all of the minerals. We stopped for a bit for some food then continued on as we had to catch our bus home at 4:30. We made it the rest of the 19 km with just a few minutes to spare.

The following day, the group decided to go to a local river (Retaruke River) to hang out, swim, barbecue and try some fly fishing for some trout. One of the guys, Steve, is into fly fishing and had a few extra rods so he taught us. Unfortunately, we didn't catch anything but had a great relaxing day hanging out like bums under a bridge by the river drinking beers, barbecuing, and taking dips in the swimming hole. The whole weekend was very relaxing with beautiful weather and a great group of people. Looking forward to the next long weekend two weeks from now.

UPDATE: Have a look at my friends' Steve and Deon's Blog for some really great pictures of the trip. Deon is a photographer and she took some amazing pictures.

Group shot at start of trek (From Left: Paul Cheshire, Fiona Finlay, Paula Kilcolm, Jeremy Ciaccia, Erin Ciaccia, Jacco Moison, Me, Stephen James, Chi Le, Deon James, Michelle Christensen, Mike Gray, Tara Gray, James Casey)

Mt. Ruapehu

Rock formations on the beginning of the Tongariro Crossing hike

Mt. Ngauruhoe (This was actually Mt. Doom but couldn't see it well last time due to heavy cloud cover)

Almost up to the South Crater where we would begin the hike up Mt. Doom

Everyone made it to the South Crater and stopped for a bite to eat

Me at the South Crater with Mt. Doom in the background (this is the same place where I was a few weeks ago when it was freezing cold and winds of 80km / hour. The video on earlier post of me talking was taken on the other side of the rock I'm sitting on. Completely different weather this time).

James and Jeremy taking a break on the hike up Mt. Doom

Paul and me hiking up the mountain

Finally almost to the top of Mt. Doom where we started to see snow

View from the top. South Crater is down below where the light brown patches are.

Me finally making it to the top of the Crater.

Group shot posing at the top

View inside the crater

Me at the Summit

Inside the crater again.

Continuing the journey (the mountain we just climbed is the one in the background)

Red Crater

Blue Lake

Emerald Lakes

Emerald Lake

Steve teaching how to fly fish.

Redneck Barbecue under the bridge

Mt. Ruapehu

Me calling AA when my radiator boiled over. The guy fixed it in about 1 minute when it turned out the hoses were backwards or something.

Ski lifts up Mt. Ruapehu

Skiwi sign with Mt. Ruapehu in the background

New Zealand Badminton

2009-01-18T00:17:00.000-08:00

The New Zealand rugby team, which is one of the best in the world, is known as the All Blacks.

The other mens sports played in New Zealand have names with reference to the All Blacks. For example, the cricket team is the Black Caps, softball is the Black Socks, and the men's basketball team is the Tall Blacks. One of my friends from work was telling me that the men's badminton team name followed suit and was named after the shuttlecock used in badminton. I thought for sure it was a joke, but apparently not. See for yourself...only in New Zealand, I guess:

New Zealand Badminton team article.

Christmas Break (Days 10 & 11)

2009-01-03T01:42:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, our trip was now winding down. We checked out Lake Rotorua a bit on the morning of the 2nd of Jan. and played around in the hot pools underneath the sand then headed over to the Ruck & Mall (a gambling joint / sports bar) where we were hoping to catch the Rose Bowl. Fortunately, they were able to get the game on for us; unfortunately, Penn State lost which put a bit of a damper on the already rainy day. It was just me and Dan surrounded by a bunch of degenerate gamblers who were there at 10AM already betting on horse races.

After the depressing loss, we hit the road back towards Auckland. On the way back to Auckland, I took Dan up to Mt. Eden (an old volcano in Auckland that is the highest point in the city which appeared in a previous post). Afterwards, we headed on back to my place and were out after a couple episodes of True Life on the TV. It was kind of nice to be back to the conveniences of my apartment but a shame that the trip was over.

Jan. 3 was Dan's last day. We pretty much just relaxed and watched other college bowl games on TV as it was another rainy day. That evening before Dan's flight, we went over to Paul and Fiona's flat for a little get-together, so Dan was at least able to meet some of my friends over here. I took him to the airport at around 8:30 to catch his 10:30 flight back home to the U.S. It was great having him out here as my first visitor to NZ and we had a fantastic holiday - well, back to work on Monday and looking forward to the next vacation.

View out over Lake Rotorua

Me digging into the hot (very hot) sand at Lake Rotorua

One of the annoying birds at the Holiday Park that sounded like a Pterodactyl screaming all night long

Watching the Rose Bowl while it was still early and we still had hope

Dan on Mt. Eden with a view out over Auckland City

The crater at Mt. Eden

This tree is a Pohutukawa which is also known as a New Zealand Christmas Tree as the red flowers bloom each year at Christmas time

This is about the extent of my beard growth for the trip. Unfortunately, I've shaved it off already since I have to go back to work (sorry, ladies).

Christmas Break (Day 9)

2009-01-01T02:02:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Dan and I woke up at 6:30 this morning in order to pack up, make breakfast, and get into the town of Whakapapa Village to catch our bus to the start of the Tongariro Crossing at 8:00. As usual, we were a bit late pulling in at 8:05, but luckily the bus was still there. We made it to the start of the 15 - 20 KM track (not sure of the correct distance because every brochure said something different) and set out on our way. The weather forecast said it would be pretty windy but we thought they must have been wrong as everything seemed fine. It was overcast, but that was supposed to clear up in a few hours. We saw a bunch of people turning back who said it was too windy and cloudy up near the top to continue but we wanted to see for ourselves so we carried on up the huge sloping trail (with many 1 minute breaks along the way). Once we got to the top, we could understand where they were coming from. The visibility was only about 10 feet due to the clouds and the wind was blowing at about 80 Km/Hour from what we were told. We probably could have carried on as many other people did, but since we couldn't even see much, we decided to head back. Our bus driver came back (I think he was a bit annoyed but we were only a couple of many people who turned back). He was pretty rude and only would take the people back that he drove up although there were many others that used his company waiting there. Oh well, Dan and I got back OK.

From there, we set off towards Rotorua where we planned to spend the night. Along the way, we made our first stop at the Tokaanu Thermal Pools walk. We were going to go for a dip, but the bathing pools were closed. We were, however, able to still take the walk. It was a short 20 minute track around a geothermal area where we saw lots of hot thermal pools and bubbling mud. We tested the water by dipping our fingers in it and they almost burnt off it was so hot. Pretty cool to see, though.

From there, we made a quick stop at the Huka Falls near Lake Taupo that Dan really wanted to see because approximately 200,000 liters per second flow through. It was a bit of a let-down though as it wasn't so much of a waterfall as it was a very strong river flowing downwards. The water was a pretty blue, though. At least we didn't have to hike to see it.

From there we hurried to the Orakei Korako Thermal Park that we read about in our Lonely Planet travel book. This is a big geothermal area where there are many geysers, a historic cave, hot springs, and boiling mud. It was really pretty with all sorts of mineral deposits, beautiful blue hot springs, and orange thermal algae. We strolled around for about an hour getting a bunch of good pictures. Unfortunately, none of the larger geysers went off while we were there, but we did see a couple smaller ones shooting up water.

Afterwards, we continued on to Rotorua which is a well-known town for all of its geothermal activity. The park - Kuirau - right in the middle of town has a bunch of hot springs and boiling mud with a few thermal pools that we were able to dip our mosquito-bite covered legs in for some relief. The whole town of Rotorua stinks like sulfur from all of the geothermal activity.

We stayed at the Cosy Cottage Holiday Park where we camped again. It was right next to a boiling stream and Lake Rotorua which has hot springs under the sand that you can dig into to make your personal hot tub. We grabbed a bite to eat and a couple of drinks at the Pig & Whistle bar in town which used to be the old police station before calling it a night after an eventful day.

Dan on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing Trail

View from higher up the mountain on the Tongariro Crossing

Video - deciding whether to continue or head back

Pretending to reach the summit on the crossing

Geothermal Spring at Tokaanu Thermal Pools

Another hot spring at Tokaanu Thermal Pools

Video of the bubbling mud at Tokaanu

The Huka Falls

Thermal Algae at Orakei Korako Thermal Park

Hot pool and surrounding thermal algae and mineral deposits at Orakei Korako Thermal Park

View from lookout area at Orakei Korako Thermal Park

Black & White Photo with Orange highlights at Orakei Korako Thermal Park

Steam coming off of the "Painter's Palette" pool at Orakei Korako Thermal Park

Thermal pools at Orakei Korako Thermal Park

More thermal pools at Orakei Korako Thermal Park

View of the "Painter's Palette" at Orakei Korako Thermal Park

Me down in the cave at Orakei Korako Thermal Park - the pool was used by Maori women to prepare prior to ceremonies. The green in the rocks is jade.

View of the entrance to the cave from the bottom

View of the "Painter's Palette" from above

Bubbling mud

Video of the boiling mud

Me at Orakei Korako Thermal Park

Dan

Black & White photo with Orange accented

The steam coming up from the ground

Dan at Orakei Korako Thermal Park

Christmas Break (Day 8)

2008-12-31T01:06:00.000-08:00

Today (New Year's Eve), we drove from Hutt Valley (outside of Wellington) to Whakapapa Village near Tongariro National Park. It was about a 4.5 hour drive. Fairly uneventful day really. We got a bit of a late start since we got in on the ferry so late the night before. Once we made it to Whakapapa Village, we found a nice little DOC campsite called Mangahui where we set up the tent. This is a really nice isolated campground that cost only $4.00 per night for a tent site. The sites are great - separated nicely from each other and right near a hiking trail and stream.

After setting up camp, we headed in to Whakapapa Village to visit the DOC info center to try to plan our trip on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing for the following morning. The weather was not looking that great with high winds expected, but the day was supposed to improve towards the afternoon. We were a bit skeptical, especially after the first bus service we called said that they cancelled trips for the following day due to weather (it is recommended to take a bus to the start of the track then they will pick you up at the end of the track later in the day), but the next bus company we called said that the weather should be OK so we decided to do it. After visiting the info center, we headed further up Mount Ruapehu to check out the ski slopes and lifts. Since it's summer time, they do not have skiing at the moment, however, according to the DOC person, sometimes they do, but due to a lot of rain this December, there was not enough snow remaining. It looks pretty cool and I've heard that the skiing is great from some of my colleagues but sounds pretty busy in winter time as they get around 10,000 skiers many days. Maybe I'll give it a shot this winter.

After checking things out, we headed into town to get a few groceries then made some dinner - chili and kumara (like a cross between a potato and sweet potato). We had a couple beers in preparation for New Years, but then it started to rain. It was only around 9:00 but since we were camping and it was raining, there was not a whole lot to do. By about 10:00, we decided to head to bed - not much of a New Year's celebration but we knew we had a big day ahead of us. Due to the rain, Dan decided to sleep in the car. I chanced the tent and it turned out OK as the rain fly held the water out and I had a dry (although cold and noisy due to the rain) night's sleep.

View of Mt. Ruapehu from the road

Scenic view of Mt. Ruapehu

Kiwi on skis sign - we didn't see any kiwis, unfortunately

The lifts up Mt. Ruapehu - pretty busy in winter

Our campsite at Mangahui

Christmas Break (Day 7)

2008-12-30T23:59:00.000-08:00

Today we woke up and took our time a bit around the campground. We had to pack up to leave the Pohara Beach Holiday park and eventually make it to the Interislander Ferry in Picton for the 10:10 PM crossing back to Wellington. The ferry terminal was only around 3 hours away so we had plenty of time to check some more things out around the area.

We started off by heading to Wainui Falls which was near Pohara Beach. This was a pretty quick hike back into the woods to see the waterfall. It was pretty cool - we got to cross another suspension bridge along the way. The falls were pretty, but the water nearby was pretty rough and freezing cold so we didn't go in.

After the falls, we gradually made our way back towards Picton. One highlight that we wanted to see was Harwood's Hole which is supposedly one of the deepest caves in the southern hemisphere. It was an 11 KM drive off of the main highway on a one-lane gravel road with a steep cliff drop-off on the other side. We made it about half way up the track when we saw some people standing around as if they were hosting some sort of event. Sure enough, it was apparently the first day of the Canaan Downs Music Festival. This was some sort of big hippy event held down by the cave each year that is pretty famous in the area I guess. The people wanted us to buy tickets for the event, but we just wanted to see the cave. They warned us that since so many people were coming in, it would be tough to get back out if we didn't turn back soon, so after a bit of thought, we decided to take their advice and head back. Sure enough, as soon as we started driving back, a big hippy bus was coming around the corner causing a road block. We had a bit of a standoff then more cars came in behind the bus. The only thing for me and a couple other cars going my way to do was to back up about a half mile until the road widened enough for the bus to pass. This was very stressful as there was a ditch on one side of the road and a cliff on the other. Eventually we made it far enough, but all these hippies got out of there cars and were trying to direct traffic. Some large sloppy hippy got out of her car and was trying to direct me around the bus - I had plenty of room if only she would get out of the way instead of telling me what to do. After me screaming at her and losing my mind, she finally moved and I was able to pass. We met a bunch more cars coming in as I was trying to get out that were a bit easier to navigate around but still caused a big delay getting out of there. Needless to say I was quite stressed out by the time we got back to the highway.

We still had a lot of time so we decided to take a three-hour walk on the Takaka Hill Walkway. This was supposed to be a three-hour hike with some great sea views and lots of marble rocks to see. It turned out to be pretty awful. The track was not used much so it was overgrown in a lot of areas. There wasn't much to see in the way of marble and not really any good sea views. There were all sorts of pricker bushes along the way that were driving Dan and I crazy. The only sort of cool thing was that there were a bunch of sink-holes along the way due to the number of caves underground in the area. We were bored pretty quickly so moved pretty fast when able and fortunately finished the track in about an hour and a half.

Then, we pushed on towards Picton. Since we finished the track ahead of schedule, we had time to stop along the way for dinner. We ended up going to a really nice place called The Clansman in Havelock where we got a big platter of their famous green-lipped mussels which are larger than mussels we have back home and are native to the area. These were actually really good -I didn't realize that I liked mussels.

After dinner, we traveled on to the ferry, caught a bit of sleep on the ride over, then went back to the Hutt Park Holiday Park. We arrived at 1:30 AM, and of course they messed up our reservations again. Oh well, they straightened it out quickly and we were off to bed in another bunk cabin immediately.

Me on a suspension bridge on the way to Wainui Falls.

Wainui Falls

Me and Dan at the falls

A close-up of an opening fern - symbol of New Zealand

A full fern which is also a symbol of New Zealand

Sign for Canaan Downs Music Festival and Harwoods Hole - would have been nice if they put people at the entrance to collect tickets rather than 5 KM in.

View from the Takaka Hill Hike

Black and White picture with only yellow visible

Dan struggling through the pricker bushes

One of the big sink-holes along the Takaka Hill walkway

Video of Dan struggling through the pricker bushes

Christmas Break (Day 6)

2008-12-29T22:19:00.000-08:00

Today was a pretty busy day. We started the day off right with some eggs and bacon on the grill. Just as we were finishing breakfast a truck drove by handing out free samples of Sol Beer (kind of like Corona). It was still early in the morning but, oh well, we were on holiday and it was free so we obliged. Next, we headed out to a place recommended by some of the campers called Rawhiti Cave. We didn't really know what to expect. People warned us that the hike up is pretty steep, and they weren't kidding. It was a relatively short hike - only about 45 minutes but practically straight uphill. The hike was definitely worth it though. The cave was amazing. It had all sorts of stalactite formations hanging from the top of the cave. They grew is strange shapes as they shifted out towards the sun. We explored the cave for a bit and hiked down to the bottom of it over some pretty slippery rocks, but luckily didn't fall and impale ourselves.

After the cave, we headed on to the Pupu Springs (Te Waikoropupu) which are supposed to be the some of the clearest in the world. It was pretty cool, but since there was so much water bubbling up, it made it tough to see too clearly. There was an ex-hippy DOC guy there who told us that the water at the Info Center in town is pumped directly from the springs underground and is some of the best in the world. They sell the water in the info center for about $3 a bottle but the water coming from the spigot outside is the same source (apparently the locals go there to get water) so we filled our water jugs up for free. It was pretty good, but still just water. The hippy DOC guy also told us about a place nearby called Wharariki Beach. Note that it is pronounced "Firariki" - the "WH" sound in New Zealand is pronounced like an "F". He said to go at low tide in order to see all the caves and cool places on the beach. He mentioned that it is a great place to "play" and the caves are "magical" and he claimed to see faces in the rocks there. Although that was an odd description, we were an hour away from low tide so decided to go check it out.

Whararike beach did turn out to be an amazing place. The beach was huge and almost completely deserted. There were beautiful sand dunes, lots of caves, rock formations out in the water, and a bunch of seals around the area. We spent a good bit of time walking around, exploring the caves, and watching the seals. I didn't see any faces in the caves but it was still a pretty cool place, probably one of my favorites. I couldn't believe that such a beautiful place is not commercialized at all. There was hardly anyone there at all and we actually had to hike about 20 minutes across private farm land just to get there. This place would have certainly had a few resorts on it if it were in the U.S. It is located up near Farewell Cape (a skinny peninsula jutting out from the northwest corner of the south island) on the South Island. The map below shows approximately where we were at:

After spending a good bit of time at Wharariki beach, we gradually made our way back to the Holiday Park. At least this night, we were able to move out of the overflow camping area into our own site which was nicer. On the way back to Pohara Beach, we stopped in at a local bar/restaurant that had been recommended to us by a number of people called the Mussell Inn. It was quite an interesting place the brewed its own beer and had a large shaded outdoor eating/chilling out area. This place had some normal people but also was hippy heaven. There were a bunch of weirdos there and it felt like we stepped back in time to the 60s. There were young hippies but also a lot of older hippies that appeared not to have changed much from the 60s, including our DOC guy that we met at the Pupu springs - he showed up in a long flowing white robe-looking outfit. It was fun people-watching until the hippy band came on and everyone started dancing all strange so we decided to get out of there and head back to the campground. It was another busy but great day.

Dan posing with grilled bacon and eggs breakfast

Me with the free early morning beer

Dan posing at the penguin crossing sign - we didn't see any, unfortunately

Me with the entrance to Rawhiti cave in the background

Strange stalactites at Rawhiti Cave

Dan at the entrance of Rawhiti Cave

Another shot of the stalactites

Looking down into the cave

Me on the way down into the cave

Looking up at the entrance of the cave from the bottom

Pupu Springs

Pupu Springs (Video)

Wharariki Beach

Me on Wharariki Beach

Rock formations out in the water at Wharariki Beach

Dan in a cool little tide pool at Wharariki Beach

Dan out in the water (there are supposedly pretty strong rip tides so we didn't go out far)

Southern fur seal on the rocks at Wharariki Beach

A seal staring us down at the beach - supposedly it's dangerous to stand between a seal and the beach because they bite people so we moved out of its way

The seal pulling itself out of one of the tide pools

The seal when he got bored with us and didn't want to attack anymore

Dan in front of one of the many caves on Wharariki Beach - they go back in pretty far

One of the caves was dripping water into the sand causing these little pillars where rocks were blocking the drips - thought it looked pretty cool

Me on Wharariki Beach again

Me on one of the sand dunes at Wharariki Beach

The pretty landscape on the walk back from the beach

The walk to Wharariki beach across private farm land

Since we are in New Zealand, I figured we needed a picture of sheep

Here's a video of the seal swimming right near us in a tide pool

Christmas Break (Day 5)

2008-12-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

Well, the tent held up last night. Today, we left Bark Bay fairly early as we had a lot of paddling to do. We continued along the coast for a bit to Tonga Island to check out some more seals. There were a lot more of them on this island compared to the Pinnacle Island colony. We even saw some of the seal pups. The water was a bit choppy out this way, but not too bad. After we checked out the seal colony, we headed straight back to Marahau stopping only once on a little unnamed beach near the Anchorage Bay area. We were gearing up here for the "Mad Mile" again, but it turned out to be very tame compared to the day before. With no problems there, we steadily made our way back taking the coastline along the way. It was another beautiful sunny day.

We were originally scheduled to take the evening ferry back up to the North Island and were going to go up the the Bay of Islands up north of Auckland, but the weather was so nice and we were enjoying ourselves so we decided to stay down south for a bit. Fortunately, I bought fully changeable ferry tickets, so we called them up and postponed it a couple of days. On the advice of one of the staff members of the Ocean River Kayak Company, we decided to drive an hour or so to nearby Golden Bay.

We didn't have any accommodation planned and didn't realize how busy it gets here over the summer time. It's not a ton of people, but since the towns in Golden Bay are pretty small, they fill up quickly. Fortunately, we found another Top 10 Holiday Park at Pohara Beach. This wasn't the best place for camping as it was pretty crowded. They did not have any available cabins and only overflow campsites for the evening so we had to suck it up and pitch the tent on a piece of grass out in the open. It didn't turn out to be too bad.

The things people have at the campsites are ridiculous. Apparently this is a pretty popular place for families to come to every year over the holidays. Most of them come for weeks at a time. I have never seen so many gigantic tents here. People put up big tents practically the size of houses. They have electric hookups and people bring refrigerators, flat screen TVs, and washers and dryers to hook up in their tents. Some of them also had real bunk beds in them. I guess people pack up their whole house in a trailer then pull everything back out at the campsite. I meant to get some pictures but unfortunately forgot. Oh well, the people were pretty interesting. Some of the older ladies came over and talked to Dan and me about my grill that I brought because they thought it was really cool and different than anything they had seen before. They explained that everyone in the campground tries to show each other up each year with new gadgets, bigger tents, etc. so they wanted to know where they could get a grill like mine. They were a bit disappointed when I told them I shipped it over from the U.S. but some of them had family over there so I can just imagine that the campground will be full of grills like mine next year.

After a long day of paddling and driving, we hung out for the evening, made some food, then cooked some make-shift s'mores over a little gas burner that I had. They do not have Grahm Crackers or the right kinds of marshmallows here, but we did OK.

View of Bark Bay from our Kayak as we headed out

Tonga Island fur seals on the rocks.

A little deserted beach near Anchorage where we stopped before the Mad Mile

Coming back to shore in Marahau

The Beast in its element on the way to Golden Bay

Make-shift s'mores at our campsite in Golden Bay