Fin.

It's been a long time, it says Jobi goes to New Zealand.

Jobi went to Melbourne on December 29th. I went to a club called Sunshine People on New Year's Day. One of my favorites, Richie Hawtin played some nice minimal techno for 3 hours. It was a good set but lacked his trademark 909 and was a little slow. I randomly bumped into an old friend there. We lived together in London back in 1998 and travelled to Amsterdam one weekend. We fell out of touch 8 years ago and then ran into each other on the other side of the planet. Small world, eh?

In early January I got a 12 hour car ride from Melbourne to Adelaide where I visited my friend Jorgen for a few days. Adelaide's weird. It's a big city, but it's completely empty at night. It's really clean and well planned though. My highlight from Adelaide would be the Schutzenfest, a German beer festival. Jorgs and I decided to go at the last minute on a Saturday night. Jorgs won't pay for anything if he can help it, he's 18, hates TV, loves classic rock, and is basically mischief personified. We get along really well. The cost was $10 to get in, on Jorgs' insistense, we walked around the perimeter until we found a weak part of the fence and jumped over. We received an ovation from the drunks on the other side. We spent the next three or four hours getting drunk on stron German beer. Later that night I was sitting in a tent talking to some people when Jorgs comes sprinting past me out the back of the tent into an employees-only area. A couple of minutes later he walks back in the front, out of breat and laughing. Between gasps he explains to me that he was kicking a soccer ball when a security guard asked him to stop. There must have been a misinterpretation because insted of stopping he kicked the ball out of the guard's hand, then his walkee-talkee, then he sort of tackled the security guard and ran off. While he was telling me this story, two more guard came in the tent and went straight for Jorgs. Once again, he sprinted out the back of the tent. Ten minutes later I hadn't seen him, I was starting to think I was going to have to tell his mom that he got arrested, something I was not looking forward to. Then my phone rings, 'I'm outside, they won't let me back in.' Apparently he ran from them, lock himself in a toilet for 10 minutes, and they were waiting for him when he came out and gave him the boot. So we snuck into a beer festival and then got kicked out. I guess you can say we covered all the bases that night.


The Australian Open, now that was a great time. I do love some Grand Slam tennis. A group of us managed to sneak in four days in a row, not just on the grounds but all the way into center court. How did we do it? I'm not going to post something like that on a public website. If you know me, ask me the next time you see me. If you don't know me, buy my book. I'd say the best part was when 12 of us, from all over the world, all go in to see Federer, the #1 player in the world, play an epic 5-set match. I won't forget that night anytime soon.

Some time I really should write about:

• Rainbow Serpent
• Diving
• Bundy
• Byron Bay

(but it's probably gonna be a long time before i do so)

It's Not Over, It's Only Just Begun

EDIT: May 3 - 2006
I'm working on the last popst, promise!

I've been in Australia since December 29th, and things are just too hectic for me to keep up on here, so I'm gonna add more to this when I return to the US in March. Here's a taste of what's to come:

• Melbourne goes off.
• Running into a long lost friend from London in a club.
• Sneaking in a bierfest in Adelaide, only to get kicked out later that night.
• How to sneak into center court at the Australian Open (and bring nine of your closest friends).
• What the hell is a "bush doof" and do these crazy people ever quit dancing and go to sleep?
• Scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.

Goodbye Zelda, Long May You Run

I'll miss you, girl. I bought you from an English backpacker in Christchurch for $1,700. I sold you to three Argentine backpackers in Auckland for $2,000. I drove you 20,000km, leaving you with a total of 370,000km on your ticker. We only got moved on for illegal camping once, in Wanaka. I only spend about $200 on repairs on you. It's been good, may you go forever!

Sorry.

I'm way behind here. I plan on a huge update soon, but it might be a week or two. Just to bring things into perspective, I'm on the North Island, which is not nearly as nice as the South Island. I'm trying to sell my van and head to Australia before the end of the year. Wish me luck.

The Glacier

The Visitors

My mom and dad are visiting, it's a good thing, I hadn't seen them since March. This means I'm taking my third (and final) trip around the south island. We're having fun. A few days ago dad and I did a dolphin swim in Kaikoura. It was pretty impressive, there were tons of them. If you dive down and make noises and basically act like a fool the dolphins take interest and circle around you. A couple days later we did an overnight hike in Able Tasman National Park which feels like the Caribbean. Tomorrow mom and I are going walking on Franz Josef glacier and a few days after that we're all taking an overnight cruise on the Milford Sound. Doing touristy stuff instead of hand-to-mouth-backpacker stuff is fun! Hopefully I'll have some pictures up soon.

1 picture = 1,000 words

Tramping!

They call it "tramping", I call it "hiking". Whatever you call it, I've done a lot of it lately. The the last two and a half weeks I've walked the Kepler Track (60km), some of the Hollyford Track(40km), and the Routeburn Track (32km). Regarding my goal of spending 30 nights in the wilderness, I have 15 left to go. I hope to post a bunch of pictures up really soon.



PHOTO: Lake Te Anau at dusk from way above the treeline.



PHOTO: Lake Manapouri, we spent the night here.



PHOTO: This rocks!



PHOTO: The river on the Kepler Track.



PHOTO: It's just a fern. Hey, you wanted more pictures, you got em!



PHOTO: Lake Mackenzie was a really cool lake. I jumped in it at dawn with my German friends pictured here. It was freezing!



PHOTO: We uh... sort of got in a little trouble with the law.



PHOTO: Earland Falls is one of the tallest waterfalls I've ever seen and I've seen more than my fair share.

Invercargil & Bluff

After three peaceful days in the Catlins, it was time to move on. We dove out to Invercargill, the southernmost city in New Zealand. I came really close to running out of gas, but I made it as always. Our main objective was to go to Bluff, the very southern point of New Zealand, where the highway ends at a sign post that points the distance to cities around the world. I have to say, Bluff is a hole. It's run down and industrial and the only thing it has is that damn sign. Bluff is currently the butt of every joke that Bart and I tell. We also had a funny exchange at the gas station there.

ATTENDENT: Hello
ME: Hi, fill er up please.
ATTENDENT: Sure. Where are you guys from.
ME: America and Holland.
BART: Are you from Bluff?
ATTENDENT: No.
BART: Where are you from then?
ATTENDENT: I'm from the UK.
BART: Why are you in Bluff then?
ATTENDENT: I've been a lot of places.
BART: I'm sure you have, but why are you in Bluff.
ATTENDENT: I like New Zealand.
BART: I do too. Why Bluff though?
ATTENDENT: Where are you from?
BART: Holland.
ATTENDENT: Where in Holland?
BART: [some town in Holland]
ATTENDENT: Why are you from [some town in Holland]?
BART: That's where my family is from. Why Bluff?
ATTENDENT: I like New Zealand a lot, I've been here for over 30 years.
BART: BUT WHY BLUFF!?
ME: How much for the gas?

You probably had to be there. I found it quite funny. Imnvercargill was quite nice though, nothing out of the ordinary, but a pleasant city. We parked next to a park and spent the night. Then we headed to Fiordland.


PHOTO: Yours truely and the famous sign.

The Catlins

What a nice little area the Catlins are. Very few people live down there, maybe a thousand. There's lots of widlife though, birds out the yin-yang.. We saw the rare yellow-eyed penguin! You have to wait for them to come out of the sea around dusk and wait in a hiding place where they can't see you because they're very shy. I wasn't close enough to get a photo, but I had definately saw some, binnoculars helped a lot.

I've got a travelling companion for a little while, Bart, from Holland. He's got a van too, so we're travelling in convoy.


PHOTO: Nugget Point



PHOTO: Jack's Beach. Van living at it's finest.

Winter Vacation is Over

Mt. Hutt closed for the season yesterday and I lost at the horse races. Today I'm leaving Methven for good. It seems like so long ago I was fretting about what to do for the winter. Now winter is over but it feels more like the summer has come to an end. I'm been in Methven for so long (3 months) that I have sort of forgotten that I'm travelling. I don't want to leave, but I also do. Most of the people I've been hanging out with have left in the last few weeks. Anyhoo, it's been a blast. If any of you ever come to Methven, definately stay at Skiwi House. You can't beat the price and it's got the friendliest atmosphere in town. Trust me. I'm heading to the Catlins today. It's pretty far South and very remote. It's supposed to be one of the best places to see wildlife (penguins and seals) in New Zealand. Catch ya soon.

Cass-Lagoon Saddle

Last Monday Craig and I drove 3.5 hours to do a five day hike. When we go there I realized thatIi forgot to bring my shoes. D'oh!

So the enxt day we headed out on the slightly-shorter Cass-Lagoon Saddle route. Four four nice days we had the whole forest to ourselves. It was very nice. I'll post pictures soon. We just missed rain on one end and snow on the other.

When I returned to Methven I found out that they got 20cm of fresh snow. Sadly the wind was furious when I went up and had blown most of the powder away. I had already written the season off so it's all good. I'm off to the horseraces on Sunday!



PHOTO: Gotta love those 3-wire bridges!




PHOTO: We spent the night in this hut, it had a dirt floor. It was totally ghetto but a lot of fun.



PHOTO: It's always nice to finish.

Kiwi Media

New Zealand television and radio both get a big thumbs down from me. As far as TV there are three normal stations, 1, 2, and 3. Almost all they show is American programming, and they have all the crap. They have all the junk reality TV from Survivor, The Great Race, Class Reunion, and the Apprentice. Plus Jerry Springer, Texas Justice, Dr. Phil and all the regular primetime crap. There are a couple Australian shows, mainly soap operas, a couple British shows, and a few Kiwi shows, but almost exclulsively American programming. I thought I was getting away from that. The news on these channels is an hours each night, the international stories are from ABC or NBC and there's about 15-20 minutes sports coverage during this hour. The sports coverage is almost exclusively about rugby. If there's not a rugby game on that night, they talk about a rugby game from 20 years ago... on the news. They seem to break for commercials every 5 minutes and it seems like they only have about 20 different commercials to show. Another channel is C4, which is a lot like MTV except that it's free on the airwaves (I give them credit for that) and it's infomercials about 15 hours a day. It has Futurama and all those lame MTV shows like the Newlyweds, and Camp Jim. There's also Maori TV. Nine times out of ten when I turn to this station, they're showing the schedule. When they occasionally do show something it's dancing. I've never once seen current Maori social issues discussed on this channel.

And then there's the radio... somebody shoot me please. I don't turn the radio on, but I can't escape it. It's the same 25 popular songs again and again. No variety ever and still alot of commercials. Really popular is what I like to call the "nice music". You know, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Donovan Frankenreiter, and more. Basically one guy, an acoustic guitar and singing happy sweet songs. I just don't go for this nice business at all. Most of the music is, from the USA, UK, or NZ. The Kiwi music is, you guessed it, "nice". I don't even think it's a NZ thing, I think todays popular music is like this. It's like it's 1975 on the radio all over again. If Karen hadn't skipped so many meals the Carpenters would probably be enjoying a huge comeback right now. I'd rather listen to something that leave a little bit of a bruise. Rant over.

Tales of a Night Porter

Ah.. being a night porter. The hours suck and so does the pay, but it can hardly be called work. Actually, I'm pretty sure I've never had a job with less responsibility. I've had a good time at this job. Here's a few of my exploits..

• About two months ago it was a Saturday night and I was having a nap. At around 4:30 in the morning I awake to some uncommon noise. Apparently the manager, who was living in house at that time hear it too because we both walked into the lobby at the same time with confused look on our faces and then split up to find the source of the commotion. I noticed some wet footprints on the slate floor, and ran for the hot pool in the back. Sure enough, there were some dunk local boys in it. I've worked the door in a club enough times to know how to get drunks to leave without incident and that's what I did. While they're heading out the manager comes out and starts berating them. Basically screaming and threatening which was returned by the lads. We went inside and looked around to find that they actually had walked into the kitchen while I was sleeping and took a bottle of balsamic vinagerette (which was right next to a couple bottles of wine) and that there was a couple of broken eggs on the floor. I felt like a bit of a boob since I should have locked the doors into the main atrium area of the hotel. At 7 in the morning when my shift ended the morning receptionist came in and asked if I knew why there were eggs broken all over the parking lot. "Yeah, I've got an idea..." This has since become a favorite anecdote to tell around the hotel.
• This one occurs about a month later. It was after my shift had ended, I was at home sleeping and my roommate, Nick, asked me if he could drive my van for a little while. I obliged and told him he could find the keys in a pocket of my jeans on the floor. An hour or two later my phone rings, it's work wanting to know if I have seen the set of keys that I carry at night and then pass off in the morning. I looked thru my pockets and couldn't find them, so I informed them of such. The next shift I worked they still had not turned up, they were using a spare set. I told them that the last I remembered of these keys I had let a waitress use them and she set them down on the table where I was eating breakfast a few minutes before my shift ended. Basically, I was told taking the heat for they keys just yet because I don't remember leaving the hotel with them. A full day later I see them under a pile of stuff on my dresser. It turns out that I did take them home by accident, Nick took those keys, and one of the cash register keys can start my van!
• The night porter who works when I am off, Lyndon, never does anything. He goes in at 11, goes to sleep and gets up at 7. He never does any of the cleaning he is supposed to do where as I always do. Last Monday, there was a BBQ at my place, it was Lyndon's night to work and he was there. The Japanese and I made a point to get him totally obliterated before sending him to work, we were quite successful. He stumbled in five minutes late with a bottle of beer in his hand. When I went in the next day to work he was the talk of the hotel. It was a busy night as there was a conference in the private room with an open bar that didn't wind down until after 3am. It was my job to set that room up for their meeting the next day after I went to bed, sure no problem. Before she left, the receptionist (who usually works mornings) asks me if I was going to be able to set the chairs up tonight. I told her I was. Then being my typical expiramenting, joking self I asked her "Just curious, why would have happened if I said I was not able to move those chairs?" She cuckled and went home, I set up the chairs. The next night, last night, I go in at my normal time and the manager meets me. He told me that I did not have to work any more and that they would still pay me for the last three nights I was scheduled to work since Friday was supposed to be my last day anyway. Then he told me he was tired of the attitude of me and the other porter (this was the first time I had seen him in 3 weeks) and that my comment about moving the chairs the night before was totally uncalled for. So once again, my dry sense of humor and fat mouth get me in trouble. I probably could have argued and pled my point and stayed on, but why bother? I still get paid and it's a lot more fun to sit here and write about getting fired that to write about begging to keep my job. I'm pretty sure Lyndon's getting the boot too.
  

Random Blatherings

My brother Dan has been on me about writing more on this site. I told him I'm not really a writer, he told me I was wrong. So I told him that I never really feel compelled to write, he said I was probably right. Don't take it personally folks, I never feel like writing, it has nothing to do with this blog. In fact, this blog is about the most writing I've done outside of an institute of learning. But people read this and I shouldn't keep them hanging. SO... I'm gonna try and publish more often, even if it's just a few sentences and has nothing to do with anything. Consider this a disclaimer. Here goes nothing.

It's time for me to get out of Methven. The ski season is almost over. The ski season would have been over two weeks ago had we not gotten an unseasonal cold snap that brought 40cm of snow. I had two good days up the mountain last week and one OK day this week. I have three more nights of work and then I blow this one-horse town. For three months I've ridden the one horse several times. It's probably culturally insensitive, as a foreigner, to strut into some town and ride their one horse several times so I gots to split. Zelda is sick. I think it's alternator related because she keeps draining the battery. I got a new battery and she drained it, they replaced that battery with another new one and she drained that one too. It's frusturating. A friend is gonna take a look at it, I'm trying not to think too much about it. But once Zelda is fixed I'm heading south, way south and I plan on fulfilling my hiking quota. I plan to spend at least 30 nights in the wilderness while in New Zealand, I've got 5 under my belt so far. So for the next six weeks I plan on doing very little besides hiking. I've had dailiy internet access for three months and barely post on here, now I've comitted myself to posting frequently and I won't even have access to frickin electricity. Ironic eh? Oh, and Helen Clark was re-elected to her thrird term as Prime Minister by a very narrow margin.

The Injury List

Yusuke - bruised ribs (snowboarding)
Hiro - injured neck (snowboarding)
Risa - injured (fractured?) ankle (skateboarding)
Matt- re-injured knee (skiing)
Therese - broken arm (snowboarding)
Joytee - broken arm (snowboarding)
Brazillian-Guy-Who-Rented-My-Season-Pass-Cause-He-Looks-Like-Me - hurt knee (snowboarding)
Tatsuya - torn ligament (snowboarding)

All these people have stayed at the same hostel I am staying at. I'm fine. I think the season is over though, it's definately Spring and the snow is almost entirely gone. There's always a chance of more snow, though. I think I might need to look into moving on, but having income is nice. I'll probably stay until the end of September.

Beer O'Clock

I'm sorry, ok. There I said it, I'm sorry. I admit that it's careless of me, just when people start reading this stuff I go for six weeks without a new post. It's just that I'm still in Methven and things are pretty much the same as the last post. But I'll post some random tidbits of information to try to keep you entertained. I would also like to touch on the subject of photos. I'm still taking photos, but I haven't been near a good computer to get the phtos off my camera. I can't use the computer here at work for that, eventually I'll add a bunch of photos to all these posts but I can't tell you exactly when that will be. And now the random tidbits:

• I've been skiing a lot, on average 3 or 4 times a week. I got a cheap mid-week season pass thru work that enables me to go Monday - Friday. I've also got a half decent pair of skis and boots. It's supposedly the worst season here in the last 15 years, there just hasn't been that much snow. We got a 20cm dump last week that was heeps of fun last week but then there were gale force winds that blew most of it off. I'm still having fun, it's propbably better that I don't have a previous season under my belt to compare this one to. The drive up to the ski slopes is something else. It's 14km up a windy, unpaved road without guardrails. The mountain is made of crumbly rocks that are always breaking off and landing in the road. They say nobody has died driving up or down since 1992 but a couple vehicles go over the side every year.
• There's usually keas in the parking lot at Mount Hutt. What are keas? Keas are alpine parrots that live only in the south island of New Zealand. They are not afraid of people and are quite silly. They like to spend most of their free time perched on campervans pulling all the rubber parts off of it. They're know to get into a lot of mischief and destroy a lot of things and are protected by law. Basically they are the hoodlums of New Zealand. Keas are absolutely hilarious.
• The largest represented nationality where I'm starying is the Japanese, followed by the Australians. The Japanese have been a blast to hangout with and really like to party. They's tagught us some Japanese drinking songs and we've taught them some unique colloquialisms as "beer o'clock", "dry as a dead dingo's donger", and "did you touch my ass?" There are many good laughs being had. Almost as funny as the keas.
• The election for Prime Minister is in about one month. The incumbent, Helen Clark of the Labor Party is running against Don Brash of the National Party. Labor leans more to the left, National more to the right. Labor is favored to win, that's fine by me.

That's all I have for now. I'll try to find some good material while I'm here skiing, and some pictures, stay with me please.

Slope Style

If you have spoken with me or emailed me recently, I've probably been whining about winter. I won't be doing that anymore, I have embraced the winter. I am in Methven, a small village at the base of Mount Hutt, a ski resort. The season has just begun and the conditions are not that great yet, but it's supposed to hit full swing in August. That didn't stop Prince William from skiing there a couple of days ago. I'm trying to score cheap lift passes; no luck yet, but I'm pretty good at these kinds of things. In the week that I've been here I've met all sorts of cool people. I really will be spending the winter here. I like Methven.

I have a job too, possibly the best job in the world! I'm the night porter at the Methven Resort Hotel. I work 5 nights a week from 11pm until 7am. On an average night I spend 3 hours cleaning, 1 hour surfing the web, 1 hour soaking in the spa, and 3 hours napping or watching movies. This behaviour has been approved by management. I am also allowed to make anything I want to out of the kitchen and they feed me breakfast in the morning. I love it!

Top 25 and My 26th

On New Year's Eve of 2004 I got myself an iPod, I had been a good boy that year. I filled it up with 5500 of my favorite songs and it has been excellent to travel with. One of the countless cool things that it does is maintain a list of my 25 most played songs. So after 6 months, here they are:

1. "Gone For Good" -The Shins
2. "Walhalla" - Gouryella
3. "I Offered It Up To the Stars and the Night Sky" - The Dirty Three
4. "Young Pilgrims" - The Shins
5. "Fighting In A Sack" - The Shins
6. "See No Evil (Lab4 Remix) - DJ Amethyst & Phil Reynolds
7. "Run (Z2 Remix)" - Ecano
8. "The Kilburn High Road" - Flogging Molly
9. "12:18" - Global Communication
10. "Where Is S" - Infected Mushroom
11. "Next Exit" - Interpol
12. "Afrotekno" - Nick Sentience
13. "Inspiration (Club Mix)" - Polartraxx
14. "Vanguard (Original Mix) - Raymondo
15. "Pink Bullets" - The Shins
16. "More Drug N Bass" - Venetian Snares
17. "Girl/Boy Song" - Aphex Twin
18. "Sim Gishel" - Autechre
19. "VLetrmx21" - Autechre
20. "Swagger" - Flogging Molly
21. "VI Scose Poise" - Autechre
22. "Pen Expers" - Autechre
23. "May The Living Be Dead" - Floggin Molly
24. "Cruel Mistress" - Flogging Molly
25. "Just Listen (Original Mix)" - Ali Wilson & Matt Smallwood

Besides celebrating 6 months of having an iPod, I am also celebrating another journey around the sun. That's right, it's my 26th birthday. I remember so well my 19th birthday, I was travelling in the UK then. I spend the day getting drunk on Heineken and cheap chardonnay on the back of a bus travelling around London. It was a Wednesday. Feels like it was yesterday. Part of me still thinks (and probably will always think) that I'm 19. But that was 7 years ago and apparently my thirst of travel has not been quenched. If anything, the desire seems to be growing. I have spent my last four birthdays in five different countries, that's pretty wild. Nope, it sems that I'm only travelling farther, for longer periods of time, doing it more independently, and listening to stranger music. And I'm gonna go out and celebrate tonight. I'm going to see one of my favorite DJs from my London daze, Phil Reynolds (see song #6). I'll be wiggling to some hard trance until the sun rises the next morning.

A Whirlwind Tour of the South Island

(This entry was written 6 weeks after it occurred. Sorry. Writer's block)

I've had a visiter from home recently. One of my best friends' sister has been studying in Australia for a semester and swung by before she went back home. For nine days it's been quite nice to have a familiar face to show around. A familiar face I've known for sixteen years... when did we grow up? We didn't have much time and wanted to cover a lot of ground, so we logged a lot of miles in the ole van. And there's a catch to this as well, we were broke. We barely had enough to gas the van up. Broke.

I was in Takaka (near Collingwood on the map) beforehand, then spent the the next night in Blenheim boozing it up with my friends that I did the Heaphy Track with. I met Carly in Christchurch where we caught up on old times and made a game plan. The next day it was off to Akaroa, formerly a French settlement on the sea. It was very beautiful and had a Mediterranean look to it as you approached from the nearby mountains. During winter in Akaroa you can go on a whale watching trip or go to a cafe, that's pretty much it. We were skint so were only able to watch the whale-watching boat. It was an early night but the hostel had some good movies. The next day there was much driving to be done. We thought we were going to spend the night in Twizel but neither of us wanted to when we got there. It was like one of those horror movies where you drive in to a small deserted town and can't find anybody. Then you come to find out that the kids in town killed off all the adults. We got the hell out of Twizel pretty quick and headed off to Mount Cook. Mount Cook was cool. It's the highhest mountain in New Zealand and a national park. There wasn't much out there in terms of development (which was nice) but the mountains were impressive. We were gonna do some day walks but it was raining (we were at such a high altitude that we were actually in the cloud). I managed to get some good pictures though. The next day we were off to Queenstown. We had both been looking forward to going to Queenstown for some time. My take on the place is that's it's way too commercial. The is a lot of adventure stuff to do: bungee jumping, skiing, jet boating, and much more, but once again, it cost money. We went on happy hour tour and got wrecked. You can go fromm happy hour at one bar to happy hour at the next bar all night in Queenstown. The following day we spent hungover and went to Wanaka. I'll take Wanaka over Queenstown anyday. It's similiar in many wanys, both are on big lakes with towering mountains behind them, both are next to the ski slopes. Wanaka is a lot more laid back, though. We met an interesting English snowboard instructor there who showed us around town and explained how the skiing went in New Zealand. We finally did away with out hangovers with more drinks. The next day we drove thru the Haast area, a UN World Heritage area that simply must be seen to be believed and on to Fox Glacier where we stayed that night. We didn't feel comfortable hiking on the glacier without proper gear unless we took a guided walk and yep.. you guessed it the walk was a bit more money than we had. Man, why did I go so long without working? We were going to dotwo day hik the next day but realized the we werr inequipped for that so we went to Dunnollie (Greymouth) to say hello to the coal-miners. (Carly's comment: "I feel like I'm in Tennesee." Classic!) I enjoyed being back in Dunollie and catching up with some old (new) friends. We spent three nights there 'cause it's a bargain and did some great day walks everday. Then we returned to Christchurch via the ever-so-scenic Arthur's Pass. The next day Carly flew back to Australia, I went to Ashburton for work but decided to continue on to Methven.


PHOTO: See if you can find all the places. We really covered some ground.

WWOOF!

When I finished the Heaphy Track I was in the Golden Bay area. I liked it so much I wasn't ready to leave. So I wwoofed. It stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms. It's a popular thing here in NZ and will probably catch on in other places. Basically you for for a few hours a day in exchange for accomodation and food. It's great for travelers. I woofed for a German couple for a week. The food was excellent and so was the view of the bay. Takaka is a very laid back little town and very new agey. I felt like I was back in Asheville. Actually more like Black Mountain because it was such a small town. If you're thinking of travelling in the future you should check out the WWOOF site (paid membership required to achieve anything) or helpexchange (free.)

UPDATE: A week after I left Takaka, the town's largest employer, some kind of dairy plant, burned to the ground.

The Heaphy Track

I decided not to spend the winter in Dunollie. I like the place, but there's no jobs this time of year. I mean, I could bartend in exchange for accomodation, but then I'd start spending money I didn't have in the pub. I wished all the regulars my best and moved on. My three apple-picking friends and I decided to walk the Heaphy Track. It was 82km (50 miles) long, and took 5 days and 4 nights. The weather was perfect. The last day was spectacular, a long walk along a deserted tropical beach. The day before that we found a cave and explored it. Pictures speak louder than words on these things, and the pictures will be coming soon.


PHOTO: I'm not sure if you call this a "cow jam" or "South Island rush hour".


PHOTO: Maybe these things are more common than I thought.


PHOTO: I was feeling like Tom Sawyer in that cave.


PHOTO: Another shot of the cave.


PHOTO: We stayed here on our last night, the mouth of the Heaphy River.


PHOTO: Miles and miles of isolated beach. You've got to love it!

West Coastin'

It's been a little while since I last updated this, and for that I apologize. With that said, let us enter the no-spin zone. The west coast of the South Island is hundreds of miles long but only has two towns of any significant size (both under 30,00 people), Westport and Greymouth. I'm in Dunollie, which is a village next to the town of
Runanga, which is a few Kms outside of Greymouth. I've decided to spend the winter here. Being a transient living out of a van is fun, but winter is coming, it's getting dark early, and it's getting cold at night. I think I should stay indoors for a little while. So I've made a little arrangement with the Dunollie Hotel. Basically I stay
here in exchange for three hours of work a day for five days a week. The work... bartending. I guess the Dunollie is what would be considered to be a "historic pub". Most of the clientelle are regulars, most of the regulars are coal miners, and most of the coal miners are on strike. So I'm the new guy serving people who have been
drinking at this bar since before I was born. Judging by the casualness that many of the regulars just walk behind the bar to get something (darts, ect) I think that most of them have worked behind this bar at one point, and a few of them have probably even owned the place at some point (pubs tend to change hands every few years).
Frankly, they're all a bunch of drunken smart asses, but down deep they're good, freindly people and it shines through.

In Asheville, if you got me started on the subject of tipping, you probably would have heard me say that I think the concept of tipping is silly; that I would rather my server get paid more by the hour and
I pay a little more instead of perform some strange ritual of calculating a percentage and and leaving it in some a pang of either guilt of pity. The response I usually got was that since I wasn't in a service position, I wouldn't understand. Well... I'm in a service position now, I don't get tipped, and I like it that way. It just seems more
normal like this, I think I understand.

They West Coast is a beautiful place, it's going to be a little while before I can add any more pictures, sorry.. Geographically, it reminds me a little bit of the Blue Ridge Mountains, except that it is near the sea, a little bit warmer, and the vegetation is sub-tropical, lots of ferns and whatnot. But there are plenty of waterfalls and
excellent hikes that I intend to explore over the winter. Speaking of vegetation, the use of cannabis seems to be the norm amongst all age groups I've encountered, while it is illegal, nobody seems worried about it and several are quite open about participating in the growing process. I think it's a "West Coast thing". Too bad for this East
Coast boy that he gave it up a while back...

PHOTO: Coal Creek Falls, Dunollie.

PHOTOS: Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki

Wellington

I'm not going to kid around, I came to Wellington for one reason, and one reason only... to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, arguably my favorite band ever. Most of you have never heard of Nick Cave, and most of you who have heard of Nick Cave don't particularly care for Nick Cave. As soon as I heard of this show, I had to go. I bought my ticket within an hour of it going on sale. A Christchurch show would have made my life a bit easier so I could remain on the South island, but I was not so fortunate. So it turns out that this was going to be a bit of a pricey trip. I had to buy a round-trip ferry ticket (the scenery is absolutely beautiful!), a few nights hostel accomodation in Wellington, I had to pay to park my Zelda in Picton, and to top it off the ticket wasn't very cheap. Given the change I would do it all again. Humoring myself with the notion that anybody other than me cares, here's the setlist: Abattoir Blues, Messiah Ward, Hiding All Away, Red Right Hand, City of Refuge, Get Ready for Love, Easy Money, Supernaturally, The Weeping Song, Breathless, Babe You Turn Me On, The Mercy Seat, O Children, There She Goes My Beautiful World Encore 1 Come Into My Sleep, Deanna, God Is In The House, Do you love me?, Encore 2 The Ship Song, Stagger Lee

Wellington is a really cool city. There's lots of nightlife and culture and whatnot. Te Papa was awesome, it's basically the Smithsonian of New Zealand. You could spend a few days there... and it's free. There are more cafes in this town than you can shake a stick at. I was passing one that looked too trendy to pass up called the Film Archive. Just by looking at it from the outside I thought You know, if I got an espresso here, people passing on the street would think that I was really trendy. So I went inside and got a cup of coffee. I came to realize that it was called the Film Archive for a reason. The basement it a huge library of preserved, catalogued film. News footage, commercials, feature films, music videos, some of it dating back to the 19th century. All free to look at. Not knowing what to look for I watched the news feeds from the day the Rainbow Warrior was sunk in 1985 and when everything went down with Jim Jones' People's Temple in Guyana in 1978. Total time warp.

Also worthy of a mention... I spoke with several people before I left Asheville about the subject of running into somebody that I knew in New Zealand. You know... the "small world" effect. I never doubted that I would run into somebody, it was just a matter of how long it would take. Well it took just under two months. At the Nick Cave show I ran into a booking agent from Chicago that I had worked with at the Orange Peel. I wonder who else I'll run into.

Has anybody noticed that at the end of these entries there is a place to click to leave a comment? Well you are more than welcome to use it if you feel so inclined. Say whatever you feel like... comment, remind me about money that I owe you, share a bad joke... it doesn't matter.

The Grapes of Wrath

"It was supposed to be a pleasant working holiday in wine country, but for this traveller, it turned into a nightmare."

If my last couple of days were a cheap paperback, that's what it would say on the back of the book. I thought I had a plan for winter; go to Blenheim, get a job pruning in the vineyards, make a fistfull of cash. Yeah, right. It turns out the vinyards are paying "contract" rates, meaning that they pay you by the plant instead of the hour. 40 cents for each plant you prune to be specific. I busted my ass, eight hours a day, for two days for a whopping $40 (before taxes). So basically a hard days work (and it is quite hard) was earning me enough money to buy one bottle of the local Pinot Noir, if I didn't buy food, and I prefer Shiraz. Minimum wage in New Zealand is $9.50 an hour; I was making about $3 an hour.

But enough about the crap pay (the pay was the problem, I didn't mind the work), let me tell you about where I'm staying. Ahh, the Blenheim Motor Camp. It's basically a ghetto campgroud. It cost me next to nothing to park Zelda here for a week, hence my decision. It's mostly frusturated vineyard workers here at the moment, some living in tents, come living in the cabins. This place is NEXT to the railroad tracks. About every 90 minutes a train comes roaring through, shaking Zelda from side to side as I sleep. There's a few characters staying here. My favorite is the the conspiracy theorist from Fiji. Every chance he gets he'll talk to me about Area 51, time travel, life on Mars, ect. He's given up on pruning too.

But don't worry about me. You can't travel around the world without a few things going wrong. And besides, next week, I'm going to see the Master himself, Nick Cave in Wellington. Ah, my beautiful world.

PHOTO: My evil plans for the motorcamp have been foiled. Drat!

Central Otago

After picking apples I felt like exploring the area, known as Central Otago, a little more. Central Otago is a lot like the Old West; hot days, cold nights, not that much rain, even fewer people, and a whole lot of cattle. It's a really beautiful place.
My first thought was that I would bike the Otago Central Rail Trail from beginning to end, but I realized that the logistics put a little bit of a strain on my shoestring budget. So instead I decided to go to Peter's Farm Hostel in Waipiata, where I could take a day-trip on the Rail Trail on one of Peter's bikes and take a kayak out on the river. Peter invited me to stay on a bit longer to make beds and pick up bikers in his van in exchange for lodging, food, and beer. I stayed for five days and had a great time. Thanks Peter! I also caught two nice sized brown trout, I let them go.


PHOTO: Central Otago and the Big Sky.


PHOTO: Approximated 500 meters of abandoned shoes. Such shoe-fences are not particularly common in Central Otago.


PHOTO: There's not pot of gold. I checked.

Pimp my ride.

Many of you have been asking about my van. I'm gonna tell you about it now. I bought my van around the third of April in Christchurch. It's a 1986 Toyota Hiace with a mere 355,000 km on it. Since every good ride needs a name and it didn't have a name when I purchased it, I named her Zelda. Zelda and I go everywhere together. The back seats have been removed and converted to hold a double mattress under which all my stuff is stored. I've been sleeping in it comfortably every night, with the temperature sometimes falling below freezing. Zelda is a five speed with a (left-hand) column shift. Zelda doesn't like to get up early in the morning and neither do I. I love Zelda.


PHOTO: Zelda with a backdrop of Central Otago.

A quick story of interest

A little over two weeks ago I flew from Auckland to Christchurch on Quantas to get from the North Island to the South Island, a short one hour flight. I checked most of my stuff but carried on my daypack. When I ran it thru the x-ray machine at the airport the security man told me "You'll have to take the pocket knife out." I politely told him that I did not bring a pocketknife to New Zealand with me, there must be a mistake, and to please take a look. He took some stuff out, ran it thru the machine, and told me that it was still there. Wondering what he was seeing, I implored him to take more stuff out and to keep looking. He did and the knife still showed up. After more digging there was indeed a pocket knife in the pack. My Mom had been using this pack before me and she must have left her pocketknife in there. Security let me return to the ticketing counter and check that back to that I could keep the knife. No harm, no foul. The
interesting thing is that they I got this same bag past security in Charlotte and again at the international terminal in Los Angeles. Not surprising really...

Pick. Pick. Pick.

Picking apples. Is there a better way to spent autumn? Probably not. I've got a job picking apples. It's in Roxburgh in the middle of the South Island. It's a tiny, tiny place that's far from everything. It's really hard work picking apples, but it's sort of peaceful at the same time. I get paid by the bin and since I'm not that fast, I don't really make very much money. It's fun group of people that I work with, mostly travellers, a few Germans, two Dutch, two Japanese, one Chinese, an Aussie, a few Kiwis and me. I worked here for two weeks. It was fun.

PHOTO: Your's truely trying to look tough and not get blown off a rockfrom the top of the Bullock Track. The orchard I've been picking atis a tiny speck below.

PHOTO: Our happy group of multi-national pickers. (I took the picture.) The mountains in the background is where the photo above this one was taken from.

Sulfur City

Greetings from Rotorua, home of New Zealand's largest Maori population, thermal springs, geysers, and... that sulfur smell. It's really not bad at all and you get used to it after a day, and it's relieving to know that it's escaping from the Earth and not industrial pollution or anything like that.

Where I'm staying is aright across the street from a city park with lots and lots of bubbling pools. Some are the size of ponds with bridges going across them. Reall cool. I had a sort of surreal experience there. It was maybe a half hour until the sunset, and I found this little area with a roof over it and a man-made pool where you could sit on the edge and soak your feet, and that's exactly what I did. So I'm sitting here soaking, the sun is going down and suddenly no less that 30 Japanese tourists appear out of nowhere. It went from really quiet to really loud in about two seconds. I got a kick out of it, it's probably one of those things that you just had to be there.

I went to the Polynesian Spa the next day for a long soak. After all, this backpacking gig is hard work. That's quite a relaxing place right on the shores of Lake Rotorua. If I had a little more money and a ride, there are a lot more hot springs that I would like to check out in the area, but they all require an admission and none of them are that cheap. Maybe I'll come back for some more after I've made some money. It's Easter Weekend dn New Zealand has pretty much shut down. There's no bus service, many stores are closed, and most hotels/hostels are booked solid, so I'm gonna hang out for a few days. Plus the Jambalaya Festival takes place here this weekend, it's sort of a Caribbean/Pacific festival.


PHOTO: Yours truly in front of the Poutu Geyser.


PHOTO: A pool of scalding hot water.


PHOTO: Boiling mud.

Inking the formalities

I got a Kiwi bank account today. I also got a mobile phone today. The rates aren't very good, but incoming calls are always free. Hit me up if you want the number.

Sorry this post is so boring, I promise they will get better with cool pictures. Tomorrow I'm gonna get the hell out of Auckland. I think I'm going to go to Rotorua, lots of thermal activity there.

Clockwise!

As long as that flight was, it really wasn't bad at all. Air Tahiti Nui is a pleasure to fly. The cabin staff all have this casual eloquence to them that is really calming. Plus they give you socks, how cool is that!

The big news happened when I stopped in Tahiti for 2 hours. I when I flushed the toilet in the bathroom the water went clockwise! It was so beautiful! 25 years I had been waiting for that moment. It was so... like a clock.

I touched down in Auckland and cleared customs quickly. Auckland is pretty cool, there are 1.2 million people living the the greater area, making it the largest city in Polynesia. There's lots hustle and bustle and everybody is from everywhere else. And everybody smiles.

I bungy jumped off the Auckland Harbor Bridge today (thanks Jeff!). That was much fun. I wish I had a digital image to post, but I've only got a hard copy. I also went to the Backpackers Auto Market, that was fun. It's all travelers with the cars they bought trying to sell them before they leave the country. It's a fun place to mingle and talk. Auckland is lots of fun and I will probably stay for a few more days, but at the end of the day it's still a city, and that's not really why I'm here.

What does the future hold? Stay tuned...


PHOTO: The Auckland Bridge seen from Westhaven Marina. I jumped off that bridge!


PHOTO: My trusty ship in Tahiti.