South Island, NZ & Bangkok

The South Island of New Zealand is CRAZY!!!!!! After Nate and I finished our 3 weeks of working in the vineyards in Blehnheim we blitzed the South Island over 2.5-3 weeks. I've seen and done more awesome things in the last month than you can shake a stick at. It's really been an incredible experience, one that I would most definitely recommend to anyone interested in breathtaking landscapes!

In the last few weeks I've climbed mountains, camped on beaches, seen amazing lakes, walked around with glaciers, seen TONS of waterfalls, and witnessed several of the most beautiful sunsets imaginable! Throw in the fact that I also have been Canyoning (traveling through a canyon/river using ropes, swimming, jumping, zip-line even) and jumped off of/swung on the world's tallest swing and I can reasonably say that these days will go down as having been some of the most amazing of my life!

Franz-Josef Glacier

Glacial Pool - Fox Glacier

The mountains are very accessible here, almost weirdly so. I've been very impressed with the National Parks System where all the trails have been in very good shape. The trails are kept up with very well and it seems that all trampers have an appreciation and respect for the places they are visiting. There is very little vandalism and misuse of the parks here which seems to allow you to feel more in touch with the fact you are in a raw place not disturbed my man.... almost like you have your own pristine little slice of earth that you are seeing not yet spoiled by the wrath of mankind.

On more than one occasion I was able to simply walk to the top of a mountain! It was a very physical and challenging adventure making the climb to the top. It was generally a set of switchbacks and then ridge lines that were super steep. The trips were always incredibly rewarding. There is no other feeling similar to when you have hiked and climbed your way to the top of mountain and when the summit is conquered you can stand there and truly feel on top of the Entire World!!! There is a certain sense of awe and astonishment at how amazingly beautiful and rugged the world can be when you look and everywhere within your 360* point of view there is nothing but the peaks of vast mountains surrounding you. Some of these mountains and peaks are completely covered in snow, some are snow-capped, and some have no snow, only the green base of a dense beech forest and a brown stone-faced look as it goes about the tree-line. In the valley floor, a couple thousand feet below, there's the river that has made it's home where a massive glacier once slowly crept along, cutting and chipping away at the giant mountains as it moved. There are certainly waterfalls to be found around if you look; beautiful streams of water falling in such an innocent way that it causes you to just stare in a daze for a second. When you finally snap out of your period of mental silence you go back to looking around at everything you see and wondering to yourself how in the world you are at the bottom of the earth, standing on the top of a mountain and able to experience something as wonderfully humbling as it is to be YOU!

This is very similar to my experience in Arthur's Pass National Park. Nate and I spent a couple days there where we hiked the Bealey Spur Track and the climb to Avalanche Peak. I have climbed to the top of Avalanche Peak in Arthur's Pass National Park. The peak is 1,863 meters with roughly a 1 km vertical ascent from Arthur's Pass Village, where we started the climb. The climb was not much of a hike as it took us doing quite a bit of climbing rocks and ascending up really steep switchbacks that destroyed the legs and back until we made it above the bush line. We then hiked and climbed through grassy steeps and over huge piles/chunks of rocks to reach the top. When we finally reached the base of the peak we hit the snow. Had to walk up the last couple hundred meters through 2 ft. of snow. When I finally hit the top I scrambled over 100 meters of rocks or so until I at last was standing on the absolute pinnacle of Avalanche Peak! I had ascended 1km vertically over a not-so-long distance up the side of one New Zealand's most challenging day walks and I had done it in exactly 2 hrs. It was a subconscious goal once we got out of the bush line in around an hour and I realized it could be done. The top had an amazing view that was somewhat the basis of the description above being surrounded by peaks and mountains and staring at the snowy Southern Alps. I had hiked and summited peaks before in the Rocky Mountains while snowboarding that were equally as tall and maybe even more massive, and Avalanche Peak was just as sweet, fulfilling, and definitely more difficult.

About 1/4 of the way down from Avalanche Peak... look closely to see the road

It really cannot be put into words, nor can a camera really capture the essence and beauty of any particular moment. I continually found myself saying "Wow.... I understand why they filmed Lord of the Rings and King Kong here. This entire place is like a wonderland. I feel like I'm going to see a Smurf pop out from behind that bush!" Many moments existed where I had the ability to look around and see at least, if not more than, 3 completely different ecosystems.

The beaches are pretty sweet! There is a beautiful greenish-blue tint to the water and there's generally driftwood around. Some beaches are even rocky. What really makes the beaches beautiful here are the sunsets. The sunsets here on the South Island are completely and utterly NUTS! Because we were so far south (roughly 40-46* latitude) the sun doesn't completely give way to light until around 11:15pm. The sun begins to go down around 9pm allowing a sunset that really does last for 2 hours! The most amazing oranges, reds, purples, golds, and yellows light up the sky. Clouds bring about amazing colors and patterns as the light hits and reflects off of them. As the sunset progresses and the sun's light gets more and more dim the sky becomes divided with one side giving way to millions of stars and the moon while the other still echoes the last beautiful rays that the sun has to offer the day.

Sunset - Hokitika

Even crazier is the thought that while you are on the beach watching this most incredible sunset over the ocean, you can look to your left and less than a mile away is a 13,000 ft. peak and snow-covered mountain range shooting out from the earth. The last few brilliant orange rays of the sun strike the mountain and give it the craziest and most brilliant of looks. In one complete moment you can take in the most beautiful snowy mountain peak you've ever seen alongside and playing a part in the most beautiful slow and gradual sunset you could imagine, all while laying on the beach beside a small campfire and a big piece of driftwood looking at the millions of stars and constellations above and behind you. This was my night on Gillespies Beach overlooking Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman.

Taken from Gillespies Beach:

Mt. Cook

Midnight..... little lights are from my tent

Waking up to this?!!!!

Lake Matheson - overlooking Mt. Cook & Mt. Tasman

Mountain or Reflection????? Reflection

We also hit Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world, for a of couple days. Most of you that know me understand that I like to do crazy stuff as often as possible, so a stop here was mandatory. Queenstown is settled on a lake, nestled within the Alps, allowing for more awesome views and sunsets. It's an incredibly expensive place but cool as hell. It reminded me a lot of a small ski-town in the Rockies somewhere. The first day we went Canyoning which was sweet. We were high in the mountains jumping, sliding, climbing, swimming, and absieling our way through an extremely clean and COLD mountain river that amounted from the snow-melt. Had to wear wetsuits and helmets. The water was clean enough to drink and I must say that it was the best water I've ever tasted. At some points we were jumping around 10-15 meters off of waterfalls throwing down tons of water into deep pools. We also absieled 50-60 ft. a couple of times and on more than one occassion, dropped from the rope 15-20 ft. into deep pools. Really cool experience!

Day 2 in Queenstown saw us jumping from the Worlds Tallest Swing. The swing sits 109m above a river in a canyon and consists of a 60m free fall and full swing of 200m! As centrifugal force takes hold it accelerates you to speeds of 150 kph. Of course I was suited up in a really serious harness and what not and at no point felt in danger. I jumped it twice, the first time doing the "pin-drop" where you basically jump and try to stay as straight up and down as possible to be more aerodynamic, thus reaching faster speeds. The guys working the swing were cool and were aware that I wanted it to be as scary and crazy as possible, so when they pulled up me from the first jump they told me I was going to be a terrorist next jump. When round 2 came around I walked up and started getting clipped in and what not when all of a sudden a f'n trashcan gets thrown on my head/body. The trashcan went down to about my waste, so I couldn't see a damn thing but my feet. It was a green trashcan so it was dark and didn't let in much light through the plastic. I could see the outline of something drawn on the can though..... and it looked like, like a stinking terrorist. In fact, it was Osama Bin Laden himself, complete with massive beard and turbin. This was special treatment, as only a few people get to be Bin Laden. The guys told me to hold the ropes that kept the trashcan from flying around behind my back and as they were "arguing" with each other about clipping the safety harness (already clipped), Will, the operator, pushed me off the ledge. Keep in mind the fact that I couldn't see anything so it was completely unexpected. The feeling of falling almost 200 ft. and then swinging at 150 kph all completely blind was the wildest of feelings! It wasn't scary, but it was certainly something I'll never forget. It was awesome! Interested in checking it out then Google or YouTube ShotOver Canyon Swing or check out http://www.canyonswing.co.nz/

Lake Wanaka - road to Queenstown

This was the last day of good weather we got. It rained for about a week non-stop after that which killed the views. We saw Milford Sound during a storm which was cool because there were hundreds of waterfalls and rushing rivers but we couldn't see very far due to the low clouds and fog. We then headed towards Christchurch, our final destination before heading to Thailand. On the way, we stopped on the back side of Mt. Cook and the mountain range that I had camped on the beach in front of. It was also rainy and foggy there for the most part but still beautiful. The lake approaching Mt. Cook was crazy. Blue and green water like a tropical ocean in front of snowy mountains... it was awesome.

Waterfalls - Milford Sound National Park

Mt. Cook National Park -(Mt. Cook covered by clouds)

We sold our van in Christchurch and hung out with some awesome people for the week we were there. I was a little worried we wouldn't sell the van because there were HUNDREDS of cars/vans for sell and no one there to buy them. All the backpackers were leaving before the holidays and no one was showing up that close to Christmas. Nevertheless, we sold the van to a few guys from Israel which is ironic because they don't care about Christmas, Hannukah had just ended. With all the loose ends tied up, we left New Zealand and headed to Bankok, but not before missing a flight and spending a night sleeping in the airport. New Zealand was quite a blast.... I am ever so glad that this was a large part of this trip as it provided me with many lifelong memories.

Bangkok is insane! It's so busy here. There's a constant buzz of scooters, cars, buses, motorcycles, and tuk-tuks. The air is by far the worst I've ever seen. There's a constant smoke, not a haze but a smoke, that always prevails. You can find anything you could ever imagine here, and by that I mean anything. There are about 7.5 million people here in the city and I think I've seen them all. Cool place, but I'm ready to go sit on a beach and drink a beer.

I haven't shaved in nearly 3 months and have an awesomely huge beard that will put me in the running for best Santa Claus in Thailand. Asians can't really grow a real beard, thus they all love mine. I've recieved quite a few compliments and laughs/smiles regarding the thing. We are heading to Ko Tao in the Gulf of Thailand tonight and will be there for Christmas and New Years. I'll be getting my Advanced Openwater SCUBA Certification over the next week and a half. I'll be doing lots of diving for the next 9 days and also lots of partying as I'll be taking a day trip to hit up the Full Moon Party on Ko Pha Ngan on Christmas Eve. These parties attract tens of thousands of people who get down on the beach all night long. The last DJ's shut down around 11am! With that said, I'm much more excited about the SCUBA diving. I've snorkeled in so many amazing places throughout my life and I've always been interested in going a bit deeper. Apparently there are at any given time whale sharks, sea turtles, a few sharks, pilot whales, and other awesome sea creatures in the waters off Ko Tao.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Years filled with good food and family time. I will definitely miss you all and wish I could be there with my family. Say a prayer for me as I'll definitely send one out your way and please please eat some really good southern soul food for me if at all possible!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Years!

New Zealand Update

Me last night..... first hair cut in 3 1/2 months, no shaving since late September.

Visited a beautiful rose garden a few days ago.... the willow tree is actually 3 willows but looks like one massive tree.

This is the grime my hat has accumulated since September 4th!

This is the Daddy-Mack of all traveling caravans, buses, spaceships, etc. Saw this one on a side street and new I'd found a gem!

What's up Peoples..... Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I hope you all are doing well and enjoying all the good soul food that's getting thrown down the hatch right about now. New Zealand has been great thus far. It's a pretty expensive place but very friendly for the most part. It reminds me quite a bit of home from a cultural standpoint but not so much from a topographic one. I have found in the two months or so of being here that Americans apparently stand out from other people. On more than one occassion people have walked up to me and just asked "Your American aren't you?" or simply "What part of the States you from?" without me even opening my mouth. I've also found, as expected, that we as Americans are stereotyped and looked down upon due to our current government, especially the President. Several different times people have explained that from their expectations they assumed Americans would be arrogant and selfish. This is a bit dissapointing but I must also add that Ryan, Nate, and myself have definitely changed a lot of peoples viewpoints towards Americans. I would say that we've been excellent ambassadors for our country thus far. We have heard numerous times by Kiwis (NZanders) that they are so pleased to hear how polite we are. Of course we have been saying "yes maam"/"no maam," "please" and "thank you," and "have a good day," etc. Just the things that seem to be the norm from good southern gentlemen and women. Apparently the younger generation of kiwis and even other travelers do not use the same etiquette we're used to. We've even been told by people who are in contact with lots of the tourists that Americans are by far the most polite people they encounter day to day. You can be proud that North Carolina and the United States has been represented well! As of what we are up to these days.... Ryan has moved on to Thailand a bit early to get in some climbing and to submerse himself into the Asian culture and lifestyle a bit more. Nate and I are currently in Blenheim, a town on the NorthEastern corner of the Southern Island in New Zealand. We've been here for two weeks and will be here another week. We are currently working at various vineyards for a contractor doing bud-rubbing (taking growth off lower part of vines), chute-thinning (taking out double jointed chutes on vines), and wire-pulling (wires keep the vines growing up instead of out). Considering how inexpensive Asia is, we are making about 2 - 2 1/2 weeks worth of living there for each 1 week of work here in NZ. We're hanging out with all kinds of different of people. There are Scots, Israelis, Kiwis, French, Japanese, Americans, and several Germans. We have encountered many more Germans than any other nationality of travelers. I would estimate that around 35% - 40% of all the people we see traveling are Germans. It's crazy!!!! At any given moment you can go to a hostel and see at least 5-6 sometimes 10-15 Germans staying there. Kind of random skipping around here. A few stories: First I guess comes the story of me getting jumped on at a bar by some ugly Kiwi. So I was at bar/club listening to a live band and dancing with this girl from Wellington for 30-45 minutes who was with a friend and had given me every reason to believe she was single, etc. All of a sudden some guy pushes the crap out of me from behind and sends me flying and sliding across the floor. When I get to my feet (rather quickly) there's a guy coming at me letting loose this massive right hand haymaker. He had just started swinging thank the Lord and he obviously didn't know how to throw a punch since his arm was fully extended taking the long way around to my face. Before I could really comprehend what was happening I had a guy swinging at me so I did what most people would do, defend themselves. While this guy was taking a massively slow swing at me I took the opportunity to throw and land the first complete punch. I jabbed with a left and threw an overhand right to the eye area. I knew I didn't want to actually get into a drag-out fight in a foreign bar so I followed it with another left and a big right to put him down that apparently connected with his mouth/teeth because my right hand got really mangled and cut up in the dilemma. At this point the bouncer comes rushing in and grabs me takes me outside. The police talk to me for about 5-10 minutes, I tell them what happened, the bouncer then confirms my story to be true... that I hadn't done anything at all but defend myself and then the cops let me go and told me to be careful. I'm not sure what exactly I did, whether this guy had a crush on the girl, was an Ex, or just wanted to mess with an American tourist. There actually had been quite a bit of random attacks from teenagers within the area recently. Either way, I somehow ended up on the giving end rather than the receiving end. At this point within a week roughly between us we had been arrested and spent a night in jail and in a bar fight that if happened at home would have sent two of us to jail in one week. New Zealand is an awesome place right? 

Kiwis celebrate Guy Fawke's Day on November 5th and have a huge fireworks show. This guy is the guy the movie V for Vandetta was based on except the authorities actually stopped the train that really did have tons of explosives on it before it was sent crashing into Parliament in London. It was possibly the best fireworks show I've ever seen in large part to the actual noise of the whole thing. When the fireworks went BOOM it sounded like bombs or canons going off. The event took place over Wellington Harbor and featured two boats shooting off symmetrical fireworks that were quite intricate. It was pretty awesome!

Couple days later Nate and I took the Ferry from Wellington (North Island) to Picton (South Island). Picton is located in the Queen Charlotte Sound which is amazingly beautful. There's a trail that runs up the side of a hill/mountain that you can walk to get a great vantage point of the whole harbor and sound. This story is of the probably the dumbest thing I've done to date on this trip. So Nate and I went walking up to the lookout over the sound and on the way up I decided to take the direct route that was directly straight up the side of this mountain (like 45 degrees, don't look down) I figured it would eventually hit the next switchback that had been occurring and I'd meet back up with Nate. Luckily for me we had already passed the last switchback. I couldn't really go back down the way I'd just gone up because it was too steep to do anything other than slide on my butt really fast and out of control and besides, I could look and see the top I thought. So I just said to heck with it, I'll keep going until I reach the top and I'll have my own lookout. Needless to say, everytime I thought I was close to the top it seemed to be the same distance away as the last time I stopped to catch my breath. So I ascended probably 400-500 vertical feet scaling this mountain grabbing trees and roots one at a time. It was to the point that if the root or tree that I grabbed (I did choose these very carefully) would have broken I'd have been TOAST!! Eventually I did make it to the top, enjoyed the nice view for a bit and then had to come back down. It was OK at first cause I found the ridge and hit that. I had been completely and utterly by myself since I'd left the trail about an hour prior. I went a ways down the ridge because the slope was much easier than the way I'd come up. Then I found a stream and knew I could follow that until the bottom. So the way down was crazy!!!! There were several hundred instances of "HOLY MOLY, if I lose my footing here I'm up shit creek without a paddle!" At one point I ended up having to pull a Man vs. Wild and climb down a 20-25 ft. rock face/waterfall with nothing but vines to hold on to. By this point I had figured out which plants were cool to grab and which weren't. There were lots of semi-controlled slides, and several broken tree limbs and stuff that caused a couple uncontrolled slides. I eventually made it down to the bottom, messed up my pinke which was healing from the fight about 4 days earlier, but didn't break any bones which was pretty amazing considering the severity of the descent I had just done. Got back down the van which was at the very bottom of this F'n hill that I later found out was 487 meters tall!!!! By far the dumbest and craziest thing I have done on this trip. 1,200 feet down a mountain is much easier on a snowboard than in the hellacious bush of New Zealand! This pic is of the sound I was climbing to look at, taken by Nate from the vantage point I originally set out for. New Zealand's funky foods!!!! Nate and I ran into both of these intriguing foods on the same isle!

Hope everyone's doing well. Life's great my way, make it great yours too!!!!

Fiji Pics

Pics:

Tom - Main man and boat wreckerThe Whole Family oustide Tom's house

Kadavu Island
Ferry we rode to Kadavu
Nate and me tossin the coconut

Bah, me, Tom, Ryan, Chief Iokimi, random dude @ Cesar's Palace
Checkin out the jump!
Goin for it Baby!!!! Landed much further out than it looks
Beautiful Day...

The Shit Travelers Deal With!!!!

So this is a small taste of an essay I'm writing, a good bit of which is complete in my head but I'm waiting on Asia to finish it. You'll figure out why that is once you realize what I'm writing about. I will ask that no one take it or any kind of crap like that because I may potentially try to get this published by the end of it. It has the makings to be a funny good little read and it's all on point, 100% true. So here goes.... the introductory to my essay, Enjoy!!!!

The Shit Traveler's Deal With

When one uproots themselves from home and begins the tenacious life of a traveler they unknowingly give up one of the more comforting, serene, and habitual moments of our daily lives as human beings. By this I most certainly mean taking a shit or dropping the proverbial deuce in the comfort of a clean and familiar bathroom; preferably one's home.

When we take a shit in a place we find so comforting as our home, so familiar as our schools or our offices, or even as relatively familiar as somewhere in our own town there is a certain sense of security, of permissability, and even somewhat of cleanliness. However, contrary to these comforts of the mind, the shit of a traveler causes all sorts of demented questions and feelings to be raised.

The first obvious question a traveler asks themselves is "Where can I go?" The answer to this initial question profoundly determines the line of questioning that follows.......

Sweet As!!!! New Zealand

So New Zealand has cranked up and gotten into full swing since the last submission. Forgive me for the delay, no real good excuses other than I've been chillen out. Lots of cool shit has occurred and many beautiful landscapes have been seen. The van fiasco ended up pretty well. It costed us only $150 and we were set. She's been running great ever since.

Thus far we've walked through Kaori tree forests with the trees being over 1200 years old and 16 meters wide. Long ago when the British Crown handed out all the land of New Zealand everyone who was handed a piece of land immediately cleared it all out for farming, logging $, etc. Native New Zealand had beautiful, thick forests with massive Kaori trees. Everyone cut their forests down, while one man left his the way it was. This forest can still be seen today and we took an hour or so stroll through the 11 hect-acre plot. Not far up the road from this plot is where the 2nd and 7th largest Kaori trees in the world exist. This one is the 2nd largest: 16.9 meters across the base (around 55ft.)

Couple days later we walked a cave with a stream running through it and glowworms hanging from the cavern ceiling. We were the only 3 people there and walked about 1/2 mile off the road to get to Ivy Cave. We probably went ~100 meters into it and spent a lot of time with the lights off in order to see the glowworms. They were spectacular. It seemed as though there were thousands of little pinholes in the ceiling allowing light to penetrate the unbothered darkness. Thousands of them were there..... it reminded me of something out of Fraggle Rock for all you old skool kids. We happened into a cavern that was obviously where everybody decided to make their mark. People had been etching their names in the wall for over a century! The oldest dated signing that we saw was from 1882. Of course we made our additions to the place and headed back out to daylight.



The next eventful action that took place was one which could've been bad but worked out pretty well. We headed down to Lake Taupo which is in the middle of the North Island and to Turangi, a town directly south of the lake that is considered the Rainbow Trout Capital of the World. We were there because Tongariro National Park was close by and this was the place to get all the details worked out to be able to do the Tongariro Crossing, New Zealand's most beautiful 1 day walk. When we got to the information center it became painfully obvious that the weather would be shit for the next few days and that the only possible time to do the Crossing would be on Friday or Saturday. Considering it was Monday we had a few days to kill so we looked up a National Forest that wasn't too terribly far away and decided to hike it for a few days. We got all of our stuff together, got groceries and headed out. We drove to the place where we turned from the Highway onto the dotted line that this road was in the Atlas. The dotted line was a rutted out logging road that barely qualified as a road that our poor van was capable of having a go at. We took off down the dirt road and drove for 20km or so before the night sky fell upon us. Once it got dark we took a wrong turn or two or maybe even three due to the fact that we missed a small wooden sign pointing the way. We were 30km off of the highway and during our fiasco had managed to get extremely low on gas. So low in fact that we weren't sure we could even make back the 30 km to the highway, much less the additional 30 km to the nearest gas station. We finally found the sign, took the turn and parked the car to wait until daylight.

When we woke up low and behold we had stopped and parked almost directly in front of the trail head we were searching for. We might have been out of gas but we had plenty of food and water. We had a couple options: walk to Minginui which was a town up north about 35-40 km through the Forest to get gas and hike it back or try to get the van as close to the highway as possible and run it dry before hitch-hiking somewhere to get the gas. We decided to hike a day and see what was going on in the Forest as there was a serviced DOC hut 6 km in. We got to the DOC Hut and of course there was no one there so we had to make a decision. We decided that we would stop there for the day and wake up early and head to Minginui. We found a 6.5 liter water jug and planned on getting the gas in it.

8:30 am the next morning we got up fixed breakfast and then Ryan and I headed up the trail at 10 am while Nate went back to man the car in case someone happened to show up at the trail head. Ryan and I were carrying 40 lb. packs (roughly) and hiked 8 km to a camp site, set up camp, fixed lunch and then left our packs there and took day packs with water, food, and some first aid stuff. We were back on the trail by 12:30ish. We then busted ass up and down hills over and through the mud and got the remaining 9 km done to reach the end of the trail head by 2:50 pm. We then walked another 7 km down a gravel road into the town of Minginui, picking up a ride from a 4-wheeler for the last 1 km. It was 4 ish and we had walked ~23 km and our feet were tired. The first person we saw was a guy named Willie. This was awesome due to the fact that I've never met a guy named Willie who wasn't a chill and genuinely good person. There were no gas stations in Minginui and after looking for gas at people's houses Willie drove Ryan and I to the nearest gas station another 25 km away. We got to the gas station and had to borrow a red gas canister as our water jug was clear and wasn't legal for gas storage. We got 8 liters of gas and got back to Willie's and put it in the water jug and an old ass milk jug Willie gave us. He was even nice enough to donate the pretty nasty yellow cream that had been forming for the last 5 months.

The mission had been accomplished, we'd gotten gas, now we had to lug it all the back to the van. Willie dropped us off at the trail head and we headed back into the forest to our camp 9 km away. We made it back to the camp around 7 pm with enough time to fix dinner before nightfall. We had just walked ~31 km (about 19 miles) in 9 hours (about 5-6 hrs walking time). Our feet were dog tired but we were happy to have gas. We slept in the next morning and walked the remaining 18 km back out to the car with our ~40 lbs. packs plus the gas. I was lucky enough to have a lot space in my pack so I got to hike the 6.5 litres of gas out that day.

Over 2 days Ryan and I had hiked 30 miles and 36 miles over 3 days including the first days hike. We got the gas in the van and successfully made it to the gas station, of course not without stopping at the first bar we saw and drinking a well deserved beer.

We managed to get out of that in time to get back to Turangi and get everything squared away with doing the Tongariro Crossing the next day. Sure enough, morning came and it had snowed a shit ton that night and the X-ing was too rough without serious alpine equipment and experience. We were taken to the southern half of the Tongariro loop and hiked about 19 km throughout the day walking through plains with a Volcano on either side of us. The plains had a small amount of melting snow but none that you could see anywhere but below your feet. The volcanoes however were covered with snow. It was pretty f'n amazing. We walked through the Plains of Gorgorath and hiked up to the edge of Mt. DOOOOM!!! (Lord of the Rings). Got some great pictures and enjoyed a beautiful day. My feet were really damn tired afterwards though considering we only enjoyed a one day break between the gas fiasco and Tongariro.

This is me peeing with Mt. Ruapehu in the background. Mt. DOOOM is right behind Ryan who took the picture. Nate and Ryan jumping over the mountains in kick-ass Guitar poses. And the top pic is of MT. DOOOOM!!! taken from a good bit away... the ridge to the lower left of the Mt. is where these two normal looking pics were taken.


















We spent a day at an awesome beach and watched another beautful sunset. The wind was blowing pretty damn terribly which made it a bit chilly. The cool thing was that the wind was blowing a mist, consisting of nothing but sand, over the top of the beach only about 1 ft. high. It created the coolest looking effect I can remember seeing in quite some time. The pictures don't do it justice but it was amazing. The beach was probably 300 yards from the ocean to the end of the sand with lots of tree stumps and other gnarly wooden fragments in it. This is what the "mist" was blowing over. Add on the golden sun in the background and it was magical.
















We spent a couple days in Wellington, which is quite the blustery place. Winds there were pretty ridiculous, sometimes gusting upwards of 120 kmh. Cool place nonetheless. We went about 5-10 km south of the city to a point that supposedly had a seal "colony." We saw about 6 seals which was cool but was a bit of a dissapointment. We enjoyed another beautiful sunset there and stayed the night in the parking lot/gravel area. We had quite the interesting night with seven 15-16 year old little stoner kids.
















The night in hindsight doesn't surprise me as it's right up our alley considering how random and awesome it was. These unforgettable types of things always tend to happen to us when we travel and meet people. These crazy kids desperately wanted to hotbox the van, which we let them do, and then they proceeded to take us to the abandoned building we were parked beside. I'd picked up on them saying something to the effect of them trashing the building earlier but didn't really know what they were doing in there. When we walked in it was absolutely crazy. It was a war-zone replica. These kids were absolutely beating the shit out of this building. It eerily reminded me of the guys from Clockwork Orange at how they seemed to be on a mission to inflict as much damage as possible. They were going at it with fists, feet, wood, steel and anything else they could muster that would bring about destruction. Seeing as how I (we) completely disapproved of what the little bastards were doing we didn't really do anything but walk around and watch in disbelief. At that point my senses came to me and I realized that if the cops showed up it wouldn't even matter if I had done anything or not, I'd be screwed anyway. At that point I picked up a steel pole about 8' long and took out a stairway bannister. In hind sight this was really immature and stupid, didn't set a good example, and illegal nonetheless. We got the hell out of there pretty quickly and told the crazy ass kids to leave us alone and that they were gonna get themselves in trouble if they kept up with their antics. Nonetheless, it was a fun, random, and crazy night that will stay with me for quite some time.

A couple of days after that night we left Wellington and headed to Martinborough where we were put in touch with the owners of Murdoch James Estate, a vineyard here in the popular wine town. Many of the vineyards in New Zealand are here in Martinborough. We've been here for a week now and will be leaving tomorrow. It's been a great experience and we've been blessed with wonderful hosts. We've worked for 4 days pruning the bottom halves of the grape vines. "Bud Rubbing" as it's called. It's not hard and we've had great weather so it's been fun. It's been a nice, relaxing break from the travel and I'll definitely miss the vineyard. The wine here is great and the people and atmosphere are even better.

We have to go to a nearby town tomorrow morning as American Bob has a court date for his incident that occurred the other night. Sparing the details, he spent the night in jail for driving when he wasn't supposed to be. Will be heading towards Wellington afterwards.

Hope everyone at home is doing well... I think of you and pray for you all often. Love life and live it up!!!!