After about three weeks on the road, we’re finally all settled in our cozy 4 bed hostel which is unusually filled with old people and families. After reading e-mails from home telling me how stormy and crazy the weather is in PDX, and being away from the fam/friends for so long, I’m a lil ancy to return home. However, I also don’t want to leave NZ because it’s going to be a while until I return to this beautiful, easy, and relaxing country. My story here starts like this… (these notes are mainly for my records, but check em’ out if you’d like) Day 1 (Dec 5th): Hew n I left our hostel in Sydney in the early morning. I remember almost missing the flight out due to airport renovations but everything eventually worked out (like it always does) and we both had left the land which we were at for nearly five months. Once we reached the NZ coastline, I could see Mt. Cook on my right hand side which was on the South island (we were landing in the north in Auckland). That just shows how small the two island are. Once we arrived in NZ, we took a bus to downtown Auckland where we met up w/ our long lost JCU friend Stephanie Schonholtz at an X-Base Hostel. I tried the NZ Big Mac’s (expensive but delish) and we got free drinks at the local bar all night and danced the night away…. Day 2 (Dec 6th): After waking up hung over, we bussed to the Britz car rental company to pick up our 4x4 Campervan “Adventurer” vehicle (a beefed up Toyota Land Cruiser). After a long 4 hr. ordeal (Britz sucks don’t go through them) we finally got on the road with a loose itinerary and open minds. It was hard navigating around the city at first w/ a left handed stick shift, on the right side of the car, driving on the left side of the road. Totally opposite than the US. We first drove across to the city to Auckland’s black sand beaches. Kare Kare was a way cool beach (where we eventually camped), we trekked a waterfall, then drove to Piha where we met some very nice and 
generous native Maori people parked at the viewpoint next to us. [Side note- the Maori people are very kind and get along way better w/ the white settlers than Native Americans or Australian’s Aboriginals. I admire the way the two races came together somewhat peacefully. Aka they weren’t as fucked as other native people had been when getting conquered.] Day 3 (Dec7th): After waking up/cooking breakfast, we hit the road towards the Waitomo Caves. Driving in the country is really easy because nobody is on the road. There is only a population of only about 4 million people in NZ w/ over 40 million sheep. The drive towards Waitomo was our first experience of New Zealand’s beautiful green rolling hills. Whether or not it’s country’s native vegetation, it’s still breathtaking. After a couple hours of driving, we arrived in Waitomo and realized our tyre was going flat. That day we partook in a sweet “Black-Water Rafting” adventure where we were guided through underground rivers/streams w/ cool ass glow-worms and crazy stuff. After a 37 meter absail (repelling) down a huge hole in the ground, we zip-lined through the glow-worm lit caverns w/ crazy wetsuits and head lamps on. We also climbed up through and under cavernous waterfalls which was pretty wicked. After that awesome experience, we went back and had our flat tyre fixed and was good to go, camping in a sweet mossy infested place deep in the green grassy hills of the Waitomo area. Day 4 (Dec 8th): After having our flat spare switched back and flat tyre fixed, we drove through some amazing scenic areas towards the volcanic thermal town of Rotarua. In Rotarua, we checked out the local mud thermal things which were pretty cool, then we drove to a local spot where a thermal river was flowin through. It literally felt like sitting in a small river of hot-tub water; coolest experience ever. After chillin in the warm springs and talking to some locals, we drove two seconds to Rainbow Mt. and trekked to the top where a nice view was waitin’ for us. After the Rotaruaness, we drove to Taupo and camped in a free area next to a peaceful river where I cooked my lamb steak meal for the 3rd night in a row mmmmm. Written on December 27, 2008 Day 5 (Dec 9th): This day we drove into NZ’s skydiving capitol Taupo with the intention of skydiving that day however, due to the clouds, wind, and rain, we were un able to make the jump. So, with the rain pourin’ we decided to walk around the city a little bit for the heck of it. I bought my family some Possum fur/wool gloves and socks and other stuff for Christmas presents… we checked out an art gallery and then we drove to a glass blowing place which was really cool. After checking out the lake (it is huge), we drove to the Toronga National Park where they filmed parts of Lord of the Rings (Mt. Doom (Mt. Ngarouhoe is located there). We did some short walks, checked out a visitors center, and ended up camping on the side of the highway next to a cinder-cone volcano (Mt. Ngarouhoe). To get ready for the volcano climb tomorrow, I ate some delish rice and beans for dinner then went to bed. Day 6 (Dec 10th): This day was set aside to conquer Mt. Ngarouhoe (over 2100m). It took a couple hours to trek up to its base. Once we started up the actual cinder-cone, there were no trails, just slippery/gravelly lava rock. 
The climb was one of the hardest climbs I’ve ever done both mentally and physically. Two steps up = 1 step back with most of the climb probably being equal or greater than 45 degrees. It was like climbing into hell’s asshole. After the two hour ascent I finally made it to the top. The top was crazy because there was a huge pit inside. There was also fab 360 deg views. Trekking down the volcano consisted of “ice and rock skiing” on the glaciers and volcanic gravel and took a total of 20 min. After the exhausting day we drove south to some weird ass place n set up camp. While we were cooking dinner, some creepy old man interrupted us and basically said if we didn’t camp in his campsite, he’d call the cops…so we took the deal and moved sites to his creepy ass 50’s style campsite where NOBODY was staying at. Steph and Mat were scared shitless. Day 7 (Dec 11th): This day we drove to Windy Welly (Wellington), stopped at an i-site, ate some Mackers, walked around the city on Cuba St. and found a cool lil alternative shop to check out. The funny ass kid behind the counter was fun to talk to and he gave us “Spice” some brand of smoking tobacco that contains all sorts of crazy ingredients. So, that night, we drove to the nearest holiday camp park, got a spot, drank some Jack, we all jumped on a sweet “air-pillow” they had there and hung out with some high-school kids aha. It was hilarious talking to all the lil buggers. Day 8 (Dec 12th): On this day we boarded a ferry from Welly to Picton (North island to the South island). It was a cool three hour ride w/ beautiful views of the south island’s inlets. When we arrived, we drove straight to the cool lil town of Nelson where I bought a wool benie. Then, we drove towards the Able Tasman National Park where we went SKYDIVING! The whole experience was not as scarry as I thought I’d be. It was just really amazing, but it went so quick that I almost paid to go again. In the dive I got awesome views of the Abel Tasman national park and the ocean while falling through a little bit of clouds. That night we camped in a nice but wet field somewhere the National Park and it rained all night. This is the part of the trip where things started to get realllly wet. Day 9 (Dec 13th): The next morning we drove to the national park itself and did a cool little 4 hour trek around cool coves and beaches towards Anchorage Bay and took a water taxi back. Afterwards we drove towards Westport and stopped midway with really cool views, but heaps of mossys and sandflys infested the place ahh. Day 10 (Dec 14th): We drove all day from Westport to the Franz Joseph glacier stopping at pancake rocks in between. The coastal drive was full of great views of the Tasman Sea and the Southern Alps. We camped by the coast and again, it rained all night. Day 11 (Dec 15th): This day was a very lazy day where we checked out the other glacier in the area, Fox Glacier. Afterwards we stopped at this little restaurant and drank some local beer/ate good food. That night we camped at a holiday park next to the glaciers and was able to upload some photos onto my computer (and start writing parts of this blog). Day 12 (Dec 16th): This day we had a scheduled Franz Joseph Glacier ice hiking tour. Even though we were given “waterproof” gear, the hard ass rain soaked all our cloths and made the 8 hour hike through the glacier extremely freezing and uncomfortable. However, I enjoyed the views and talking to the two cute Swedish girls that were in our group. After the grueling hike, I drove about 3 or 4 hours to the beautiful town of Wanaka (however the rain made it impossible to see the scenery). We were so fed up about our wet camp equipment that we stayed the night in an x-base hostel. The kitchen was closed when we got there so we cooked dinner on the sidewalk. Day 13 (Dec 17th): Waking up to sunshine, we drove to Queenstown where we had book a 134m Nevis Bungy jump for the day. I 
recommend anybody who goes to NZ to do this bungy. It was the coolest, most awesomest, kinda scary, longest freefall bungy ever (ranked the 3rd highest in the world)! That night we stayed in town b/c Queenstowns a cool place to go out and meet people. By the way, Queenstown is my favorite town in NZ. It is surrounded by jagged snowcapped peaks and a huge blue lake lays in the middle. Amazing. Plus, heaps of backpackers travel through the area so the bar hopping we did that night was fun fun fun. In fact, we ran into Willy (funniest kid ever) and Zaphier both Americans from JCU at one of the bars along with the first of many cool Argentineans. Day 14 (Dec 18th): This day we just took it easy and explored the town a little while meeting up w/ Willy. I went shopping and ran into a girl that I knew from TSV in the middle of the town….sooooo that was interesting. Afterwards, we drove towards Te Apau, did a little forest trek, and set up camp in this nice, deserted, grassy field down by the river. Day 15 (Dec19th): After cooking breakfast we drove to Milford Sound, which is tied for one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever done in my life (the other being the drive to Mt. Cook). The drive went through huge foggy and snowcapped mountains with heaps of waterfalls everywhere. We took a small boat cruise through the sound where we saw more huge mountains that fell right into the water. There were also heaps of seals present and supposedly dolphins often live around the area. After the cruise, we drove back towards Te Apau and stopped midway to hike one of the cool looking mountains called the “Key Summit” track. We also stopped to look at mirror lakes. That night we camped in the same riverside area just outside Te Apau. Day 16 (Dec 20th): On this day we trekked around the Manapouri Lake circle trek (taking a boat taxi to the start of the trek). After the 4 hour trek we drove towards the Catlins (the southern part of the South island). Around this time Steph started to get really sick and freak me out a lil aha. Day 17 (Dec 21st): On this day we drove to the beautiful Catlins, stopped at numerous viewing/nature sites including a huge waterfall trek and the most southern point of the south island. I almost stepped on a sea lion who was hiding on some petrified wood-rock and he barked at me super loud…kinda scary. Day 18 (Dec 22nd): Driving through the 2nd half of the Catlins, we checked out the famous lighthouse and then finally drove to the huge college town of Dunedin. I was extremely exhausted of driving as we sat down and had some local beer in the “Octagon” (the city center). After resting, we continued to drive north east stopping at the really cool looking Morokai Boulders (huge round stones on a flat beach) where I took some pretty cool pics. That night we ended up Driving all the way up towards Mt. Cook and camped in a nice little place near another cool little river. Day 19 (Dec 23rd): On this day we drove to Mt. Cook. This was tied as one of the coolest drives I’ve ever driven because we were cruising right next to one of the most blue and colorful lakes in the world with the southern alps and Mt. Cook right behind it. We did a 3-4 hour trek towards the base of Mt. Cook 
being surrounded by huge glacial peaks and crossing two really neat swing bridges. Afterwards, we started the drive towards our final destination of Christchurch, camping at this rest stop on the side of the highway. Day 20 (Christmas Eve): After arriving in Christchurch, we dropped our rental car off, got some compensation back for not having a cooking lamp/water hose that was supposed to be included in w/ the car, and got all settled down in our cozy 4 person YHA Hostel room. Mat lost his wallet on the way back into town. We also met up w/ Grim (Jared from JCU) here and we all went out to a nice Christmas Eve dinner at an Indian food restaurant. It was delicious, but didn’t settle well in our stomachs. That night we attended Midnight mass at the Christchurch Cathedral (which was packed w/ people and tourists). This one Asian tourist wouldn’t stop taking pictures w/ his DSLR during mass and snapped some shots of Grim taking communion aha… crazy/disrespectful dude. Day 21 (Christmas Day): Christmas morning we all woke up and walked to Starbucks and got some hot drinks (the only place open). Grim and I also had some left-over coco mix so we made some butterscotch schnapps coco for Christmas along w/ some nasty champagne, mmmmm…….. Day 22 (Boxing Day, Dec 26th): Today we all had flights to Auckland. I said bye to Mat in the YHA b/c he had a later flight. In the Auckland airport I met up with Grim and Steph and we picked up Grim’s rental (he was staying for an extra two weeks to drive around the islands w/ his x-gf). We drove around the city stopping at some crazy mall that was packed w/ locals…I mean extremely crowded because of the day after Christmas sales. We then dropped Steph back off at the airport and said good bye because she was catching her flight home to the states. One by one, we were slowly returning to America, to save up more money, to travel more on another day. I had one more night to stay in Auckland, so Grim and I drove to our hostel downtown, had our car “valet” parked, cooked dinner, and had some free drinks at the local bar w/ our Israeli, Scottish, and Swedish roomies. Later on that night we met up w/ these really cool and cute Argentinean girls and hung out with them for the rest of the night. I couldn’t really sleep well b/c I had dreams and thoughts that our car (w/ both my huge bags in the trunk) was being stolen from the dude who was supposed to “park” our car. Day 23 (Dec 27th): So the next morning, today, of course my dreams came true and the keys were never returned to the front desk. To make an extremely long story short, we got conned the night before and Grim’s rental car w/ all our shit in it was stolen. LUCKILY, after filing a police report and freaking out for a couple hrs, a towing company called the hostel saying that someone mysteriously was having our car towed to us and we’d just have to pay the fee. AHHHH SWEET RELIEF. After thanking God, Grim and I had to go “de-report” the police report we made and report that his cell was stolen from the car (which took hours). After returning to the hostel and finally checking out, we made some lunch and hung out with the Argentinean girls one last time before Grim drove me to the Auckland Airport where I am now. What a way to end the trip eh? Oh boy. So after over three weeks of trekkin through New Zealand, I’m finally returning to the States after being away from home for about 7 months where I’ll see my friends and family for a short time, celebrate a late Christmas and New Years, got to DC, then School in San Diego and from there who knows! I miss my friends and fam dearly and can’t wait to catch up with them. However, I’ll miss NZ and will definitely come back some day, perhaps to live in Queenstown or something.... Ultimately, being the only one old enough to drive in NZ, I drove over 4,200 kilometers in 19 days and had some of the best times of my life. Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand were purely amazing in their own ways. Next, I will travel back to Europe (especially around Scandinavia) and meet up w/ all the Norwegian/Swedish homies that I’ve met over the past few months, also meet up w/ my German roomie Jan. I also will travel to South America with an emphasis on Brazil, Argentina (to meet up w/ the Argentineans), Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, and Ecuador. Also, I will travel South-East Asia as well as India. Also, I will road-trip the homeland and Canada and perhaps afterwards trek down into Central America. Eventually, I’ll make it to Africa and the Middle-East…ahhh and hopefully within that time I’ll meet more cool people, perhaps a cool girl to marry, and settle down to do whatever more I feel like As for now, it’s been a trip and it’s only begun.
