So I have a little time and a little prepaid internet left so we are going to take a quick journey through whatever happens to pop into my head before my time runs out.
Nobody has been able to accurately recreate a good hotdog, no matter how "American" the stand claims to be.
Weirdest thing I've seen in a second story window: Bulldozer
I got to play on stage at the world renowned Bennet's Jazz Club as a guest artist for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
You will never see cops in a group of less than 5 on the streets of Melbourne
The best way to learn a public transportation system is to get hopelessly lost on one
At any given time, New Zealand Pop culture is 8 to 10 years behind ours. Australia sits at about 5
They decided to build their mall around an old shot making factory, with-out tearing it down, so you walk out of Diesel or FCUK or Donut King and smack into the brick wall of a 5 story metalurgy factory just kind of hanging out in the middle of everything.
Some guy in a suit thought I was his son and followed me for 4 blocks before he realized his mistake.
Today I saw an Aboriginal man who had dyed his sideburns (massive sideburns) silver, the hair immediately around his ears pinkish purple and the hair around his bald spot bleach-blonde. The rest of his hair was black.
Combination shops are a big deal here, for instance Haircuts and Pet Grooming, or Pizza and Kebabs.
Sure, why not?
All over town there are tiny tile mosaic space invaders (from the game) about 20 ft up and just chillin' on the wall. I've counted almost 30, each one by itself.
Almost every single bar or restaurant in this town serves pizza for really cheap, and it makes me happy.
There is a donut shop that sells Cactus Cooler. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, there is no explaining the awesomeness it entails.
The Boat That Rocked, Rocks
Australians are very punny
They have a very weird version of football here, I understand it less then Cricket.
In the middle of the Museum of Melbourne, there is a forest. With snakes and fish and everything
Welp, out of time, hope you enjoyed this last minute encore
Until next time,
Cheers,
The Wayward Hoover
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Kangaroos Are Dirty, also last international post.....for now
Greetings from Melbourne!! Since I left you last I have visited Flinn's Reef, Milnn Reef, Sydney, Tourqay, Geelong, Lorne, Port Fairy, The 12 Apostles, Tommy's Lookout, Hall's Gap, Rose's Gap, the Grampians National Park, and Loch Ard Gorge. Not to mention about half of the nooks and crannies spread thickly across Melbourne city center
*Inhales*
It's been a busy to say the least.
I really have no idea where I should start and which stories are worth including so I'll just start with the diving. Hard to go wrong with a wonder of the world right?
In Cairns there are three types of buildings; empty ones, restaurants and dive shops.
My kind of town.
After repacking my stuff in the dark into a bag for home and a bag for travel, a van stole me away from my hostel and shuttled me to the docks where I was given milk and a slice of cake and told to wait while they took all of my stuff and put it in my cabin and fluffed my pillow for me
The cake was delicious.
Much to my delight the cake was a constant fixture in life on the dive boat, our schedule started at 6 in the am and went something like this:
Dive cake dive breakfast dive cake dive cake and lunch dive cake dive dinner and cake dive dive
...cake.
It was wonderful.
For those of you playing the home game and who are slightly less interested in the specific names of all the fish, I saw the entire cast of Finding Nemo.
Got there autographs.
Went out to lunch and pitched ideas for their next movie and how I will direct it.
(Minus Bruce)
If we weren't underwater than we were on the top deck eating cake or dancing or running face-first off the edge and falling to the water 25 feet below us.
I saw a crocodile. It was a baby, but it coulda ate my toes.
The city of Melbourne was built to order just for me, I am convinced of it. The layout was originally designed with wide streets for moving large carts of goods, which the citizens promptly ignored and created their own intricate system of alleyways and tunnels to get around the town.
This city is alive, and when you cut it bleeds adventure.
I have been here for about a week and a half and have been exploring from sunrise to sunrise and have maybe worked my way over half of this city.
Maybe.
Big Maybe.
There are two sets of doors here, the ones that are open during the day, and the ones that are open at night... With that in mind let's say I've only seen a quarter of the city.
Most stores don't have signs, the good ones are only accessible through the back of another store and the best ones are in the back, around a corner and down a flight of stairs. And you have to knock.
I pet (petted?) a Kangaroo. It was dirty.
There is a massive open air market here that sells all sorts of discount wares and fresh foods and fried foods and fried discount wares.....and a homeless man having a butterfly painted on his face.
I get on an airplane for the states tomorrow and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
The Melbourne International Jazz Festival runs from April 26th to May 2nd.
Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my face
*wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipe*
The festival and its events however were hidden from view, to the uninitiated you would never know that jazz talent and appreciators from all over the world were converging on the city to share and experience alike the new flavors and old recipes being traded in back alleys and on performance hall stages.
Walk down any given empty alley and knock on the right door, it would be opened to reveal a packed house, stretching to point an ear towards the corner stage where the likes of Jim Black, Charlie Haden, Marc Hannaford, Katie Noonan and countless others were letting the music do the talking for them.
It was unreal. If the city bleeds adventure then it certainly Screams, swoons and cries jazz
Now there is a certain matter which is most unfortunate but we all must address together.
My trip is ending, and soon (Tomorrow Soon). However my adventures will not be ending, if I have anything to do about it. I will be rumbling around the central valley for about a month before heading off again to work as Ranger Director on Catalina island, and then after that, who knows??
I should mention that I lived in a van for a week in the Grampians National Park. Also google the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, they were awesome.
The question is, should I keep tip-tapping at my keyboard to share my experiences, accidents, ravings and discoveries? Or should I leave it as a tribute to the epic journey that these last 4 or 5 months have been?
I will definitely return to at least share some pictures that I feel represent the various highlights of the trip, as I know you are all just tripping over yourselves to see exactly what I have been rambling about.
But before that, I have one more night to try and trick this City into showing me what she's hiding, so until then
Cheers,
The Wayward Hoover
*Inhales*
It's been a busy to say the least.
I really have no idea where I should start and which stories are worth including so I'll just start with the diving. Hard to go wrong with a wonder of the world right?
In Cairns there are three types of buildings; empty ones, restaurants and dive shops.
My kind of town.
After repacking my stuff in the dark into a bag for home and a bag for travel, a van stole me away from my hostel and shuttled me to the docks where I was given milk and a slice of cake and told to wait while they took all of my stuff and put it in my cabin and fluffed my pillow for me
The cake was delicious.
Much to my delight the cake was a constant fixture in life on the dive boat, our schedule started at 6 in the am and went something like this:
Dive cake dive breakfast dive cake dive cake and lunch dive cake dive dinner and cake dive dive
...cake.
It was wonderful.
For all you fish freaks out there I saw so many fish I couldn't even begin to try and list them all here......what's that?? You want me to try anyways?? Well if you insist.
I saw Anemone Fish, Maorie Wrasse*, Bumphead Parrot fish*, Parrot Fish, Butterflyfish, Butterfly Fish (there's a difference), Angel Fish, Black spotted puffer, Yellow Spotted Puffer, Orange and Black Puffer, Brown Puffer, Grey Pipefish*, Yellow Pipefish*, Lionfish, Grey Reef Shark*, White Tip Reef Shark*, Black Reef Shark*, Mako Shark*, Common Hermit Crab, Silver Fish, Common Coral Trout, Black Banded Triple Fin*, Common Reef Lobster, Red Sea Bass, Round Ray, Shovel Nose Guitar Fish, Greenback Turtle, Various Trigger Fish, Surgeon Fish, Forcep Fish, Reef Eel, Cardinal Fish, Little Blue Annoying Fish, Big Blue Annoying Fish, Spiny Sea Cucumber*, Hairy Sea Cucumber, Totally Gross Sea Cucumber, Giant Clams*, Less Than Giant Clams, Panicked New SCUBA Diver, and of course the Goofy American Fish.
* = something that was bigger and/or longer than me
For those of you playing the home game and who are slightly less interested in the specific names of all the fish, I saw the entire cast of Finding Nemo.
Got there autographs.
Went out to lunch and pitched ideas for their next movie and how I will direct it.
(Minus Bruce)
If we weren't underwater than we were on the top deck eating cake or dancing or running face-first off the edge and falling to the water 25 feet below us.
I saw a crocodile. It was a baby, but it coulda ate my toes.
The city of Melbourne was built to order just for me, I am convinced of it. The layout was originally designed with wide streets for moving large carts of goods, which the citizens promptly ignored and created their own intricate system of alleyways and tunnels to get around the town.
This city is alive, and when you cut it bleeds adventure.
I have been here for about a week and a half and have been exploring from sunrise to sunrise and have maybe worked my way over half of this city.
Maybe.
Big Maybe.
There are two sets of doors here, the ones that are open during the day, and the ones that are open at night... With that in mind let's say I've only seen a quarter of the city.
Most stores don't have signs, the good ones are only accessible through the back of another store and the best ones are in the back, around a corner and down a flight of stairs. And you have to knock.
I pet (petted?) a Kangaroo. It was dirty.
There is a massive open air market here that sells all sorts of discount wares and fresh foods and fried foods and fried discount wares.....and a homeless man having a butterfly painted on his face.
I get on an airplane for the states tomorrow and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
The Melbourne International Jazz Festival runs from April 26th to May 2nd.
Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my face
*wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipe*
The festival and its events however were hidden from view, to the uninitiated you would never know that jazz talent and appreciators from all over the world were converging on the city to share and experience alike the new flavors and old recipes being traded in back alleys and on performance hall stages.
Walk down any given empty alley and knock on the right door, it would be opened to reveal a packed house, stretching to point an ear towards the corner stage where the likes of Jim Black, Charlie Haden, Marc Hannaford, Katie Noonan and countless others were letting the music do the talking for them.
It was unreal. If the city bleeds adventure then it certainly Screams, swoons and cries jazz
Now there is a certain matter which is most unfortunate but we all must address together.
My trip is ending, and soon (Tomorrow Soon). However my adventures will not be ending, if I have anything to do about it. I will be rumbling around the central valley for about a month before heading off again to work as Ranger Director on Catalina island, and then after that, who knows??
I should mention that I lived in a van for a week in the Grampians National Park. Also google the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, they were awesome.
The question is, should I keep tip-tapping at my keyboard to share my experiences, accidents, ravings and discoveries? Or should I leave it as a tribute to the epic journey that these last 4 or 5 months have been?
I will definitely return to at least share some pictures that I feel represent the various highlights of the trip, as I know you are all just tripping over yourselves to see exactly what I have been rambling about.
But before that, I have one more night to try and trick this City into showing me what she's hiding, so until then
Cheers,
The Wayward Hoover
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Neener-Neener!!
Hello faithful readers, friends, family, random visitor from India that I keep getting.
I am currently traveling in Australia, and have nowhere near enough time to write a full post right now as I am waiting on a van to pick me up and take me to a very large boat, on which I will be living for the next 3 days and from which I will be jumping as often as possible into the Pacific decked out in SCUBA gear.
For the win.
I Definitely only told you so that you could be jealous (neener-neener!)
Also this marks the end of my semester!!
No more tests, homework, random geology side trips, lectures in beautiful places, rests in less than beautiful places. From here on out its just me and my wandering compass needle until May, which is when I will be returning to the beloved U. S. of A.
Allegedly.
Who knows? I might miss my flight.
Needless to say this will lead to an epic increase in tomfoolery, mischief and your all around good fun shenanigans.
Only about half of which I can tell you about.
Because my mother reads this blog that's why.
Well, my van is here, so until next time...
Oh ya, I'm in Cairns for all you Google Earth fans. Since Queenstown I have also been to Dunedin and then back to Christchurch before flying north to Cairns.
Cheers,
The Wayward Hoover
I am currently traveling in Australia, and have nowhere near enough time to write a full post right now as I am waiting on a van to pick me up and take me to a very large boat, on which I will be living for the next 3 days and from which I will be jumping as often as possible into the Pacific decked out in SCUBA gear.
For the win.
I Definitely only told you so that you could be jealous (neener-neener!)
Also this marks the end of my semester!!
No more tests, homework, random geology side trips, lectures in beautiful places, rests in less than beautiful places. From here on out its just me and my wandering compass needle until May, which is when I will be returning to the beloved U. S. of A.
Allegedly.
Who knows? I might miss my flight.
Needless to say this will lead to an epic increase in tomfoolery, mischief and your all around good fun shenanigans.
Only about half of which I can tell you about.
Because my mother reads this blog that's why.
Well, my van is here, so until next time...
Oh ya, I'm in Cairns for all you Google Earth fans. Since Queenstown I have also been to Dunedin and then back to Christchurch before flying north to Cairns.
Cheers,
The Wayward Hoover
Monday, March 23, 2009
Gravity is my favorite toy
It is totally unrealistic to try and Hang-glide, Skydive and bungee-jump...
... In one day at that is, I had to spread it over two.
I am currently staying in a room above Queenstown and am doing my very best to jump off of every high place within spitting distance tied to whatever rope is convenient.
No rope? No problem, give me a foil or a parachute and I'll be glad to jump face-first off of a perfectly good cliff or out of a functioning airplane.
Due to a quiet little mix-up somewhere in the cosmos we are enjoying an extra day in Queenstown.
Great news for my adrenal glands.
Horrible, horrible news for my bank account.
The Routeburn track is one of the great back country trails in New Zealand and is renowned worldwide for its breathtaking vistas and cascading waterfalls. It is fitted with 32 kilometers of trail ranging from maintained and groomed to vaguely marked slabs of rock. With four huts (kiwis can be wusses about their backpacking (tramping) and build huts on trails to save the horror (the horror!) of carrying and pitching a tent in the wilderness) the trail is recommended at 3-4 days, 2 days if you're experienced and in a hurry.
I don't have that kind of time.
Luckily one end of the trail emerges north of Te Anau (home of giant cement statues of extinct birds and where I was staying last week) and the other end empties into Glenorchy just North of Queenstown.
You know what sounds like a great idea? Day hiking the Routeburn track while your friends van it from Te Anau to Queenstown and meeting them there.
Naturally we had to try it.
You know what's less than a great idea? ( ^that idea right up there )
Actually I stand by it being a great idea. That side hike to the summit of another mountain maybe a little less standing by that idea.
Three of us set off on the first trailhead shuttle at O'dark thirty on the 21st to tackle what we were guessing was going to be a 10 hour day of steady hiking. 30 minutes in we had our first seriously rolled ankle.
Go team.
Between tripping over each other and tripping over ourselves we managed to trip over a waterfall.
All 174 meters (metres if you fancy) of it.
From the waterfall we could see all down the glacial valley we were sidling to see the fjord-lands and the Tasman Sea off to the west as well as the Misty Mountains (read: waaaaaaaaaay to much Lord of the Rings on this trip.)
New Zealand tracks are marked not in distance but in time you should expect to hike between landmarks. They say it is because the terrain can be so deceiving when viewed on a map and people end up stranded short of their destinations. For the first 6 hours or so we were able to make the check points in about 2/3 of the time expected of hikers. So when we arrived at the high point and 2/3 distance mark of our hike a little over an hour in the black we decided that we had time for a quick (read: not quick) jaunt up nearby conical hill.
Conical is a Kiwi euphemism for monstrous and malicious.
Just like Damp is a Kiwi euphemism for sheeted downpour.
Conical Hill was worth it. It also left us with 2 and half hours to hike the last 12 kilometers, rated at at about 4 hours. So we did what every sensible hiker would do, we ran as fast as our nerves would allow. Which for about an hour was a very slow scramble as we worked down bare rock paths and steppes. Back in the forest though we were able to step up the pace to half the marked times.
I fell, I bled, I made it to the trail-end by 6 (our goal). That last part is all that matters.
I changed my mind, there is no such thing as too much Lord of the Rings.
In Queenstown, it rains people, at any given time you can look up and there will be no less than 10 parachutes/hangliders/parasailers/man-birds soaring around above you.
I know that I have been doing something right because I have started to run into people over and over again. Travelers and natives alike are in the right places at the right times and its like a reunion between old friends with people I talked to waiting in line for an ice cream cone.
So free pool night is my absolute favorite bar gimmick. While staying near Lake Wanaka I played a fellow student who was from Switzerland. After getting totally stomped on for a couple of racks I asked how long he had been playing, to which he replied "Oh I stopped playing tournaments when I was 10".
It was then I decided to stop taking it easy on him.
There are wild goats here, and they don't get much taller than my knees, they are ridiculous.
well until next time,
Cheers,
The Wayward Hoover
... In one day at that is, I had to spread it over two.
I am currently staying in a room above Queenstown and am doing my very best to jump off of every high place within spitting distance tied to whatever rope is convenient.
No rope? No problem, give me a foil or a parachute and I'll be glad to jump face-first off of a perfectly good cliff or out of a functioning airplane.
Due to a quiet little mix-up somewhere in the cosmos we are enjoying an extra day in Queenstown.
Great news for my adrenal glands.
Horrible, horrible news for my bank account.
The Routeburn track is one of the great back country trails in New Zealand and is renowned worldwide for its breathtaking vistas and cascading waterfalls. It is fitted with 32 kilometers of trail ranging from maintained and groomed to vaguely marked slabs of rock. With four huts (kiwis can be wusses about their backpacking (tramping) and build huts on trails to save the horror (the horror!) of carrying and pitching a tent in the wilderness) the trail is recommended at 3-4 days, 2 days if you're experienced and in a hurry.
I don't have that kind of time.
Luckily one end of the trail emerges north of Te Anau (home of giant cement statues of extinct birds and where I was staying last week) and the other end empties into Glenorchy just North of Queenstown.
You know what sounds like a great idea? Day hiking the Routeburn track while your friends van it from Te Anau to Queenstown and meeting them there.
Naturally we had to try it.
You know what's less than a great idea? ( ^that idea right up there )
Actually I stand by it being a great idea. That side hike to the summit of another mountain maybe a little less standing by that idea.
Three of us set off on the first trailhead shuttle at O'dark thirty on the 21st to tackle what we were guessing was going to be a 10 hour day of steady hiking. 30 minutes in we had our first seriously rolled ankle.
Go team.
Between tripping over each other and tripping over ourselves we managed to trip over a waterfall.
All 174 meters (metres if you fancy) of it.
From the waterfall we could see all down the glacial valley we were sidling to see the fjord-lands and the Tasman Sea off to the west as well as the Misty Mountains (read: waaaaaaaaaay to much Lord of the Rings on this trip.)
New Zealand tracks are marked not in distance but in time you should expect to hike between landmarks. They say it is because the terrain can be so deceiving when viewed on a map and people end up stranded short of their destinations. For the first 6 hours or so we were able to make the check points in about 2/3 of the time expected of hikers. So when we arrived at the high point and 2/3 distance mark of our hike a little over an hour in the black we decided that we had time for a quick (read: not quick) jaunt up nearby conical hill.
Conical is a Kiwi euphemism for monstrous and malicious.
Just like Damp is a Kiwi euphemism for sheeted downpour.
Conical Hill was worth it. It also left us with 2 and half hours to hike the last 12 kilometers, rated at at about 4 hours. So we did what every sensible hiker would do, we ran as fast as our nerves would allow. Which for about an hour was a very slow scramble as we worked down bare rock paths and steppes. Back in the forest though we were able to step up the pace to half the marked times.
I fell, I bled, I made it to the trail-end by 6 (our goal). That last part is all that matters.
I changed my mind, there is no such thing as too much Lord of the Rings.
In Queenstown, it rains people, at any given time you can look up and there will be no less than 10 parachutes/hangliders/parasailers/man-birds soaring around above you.
I know that I have been doing something right because I have started to run into people over and over again. Travelers and natives alike are in the right places at the right times and its like a reunion between old friends with people I talked to waiting in line for an ice cream cone.
So free pool night is my absolute favorite bar gimmick. While staying near Lake Wanaka I played a fellow student who was from Switzerland. After getting totally stomped on for a couple of racks I asked how long he had been playing, to which he replied "Oh I stopped playing tournaments when I was 10".
It was then I decided to stop taking it easy on him.
There are wild goats here, and they don't get much taller than my knees, they are ridiculous.
well until next time,
Cheers,
The Wayward Hoover
Thursday, March 12, 2009
"Who wants to be run over by the Zorb?"
What a silly question. Of course I want to be run over by a Zorb. Who wouldn't?
That's right dear readers I'm back after an extended stay in a magical land where you have to pay for internet.
Places I have been since my last post for you google earth geeks: Picton, Kaikoura, Christchurch, Cass Field Station, Westport, Greymouth, Hokitiki and am currently staying in a field station in Harihari *Gasp*.
For the past week or so we've been bouncing around mountain field research stations where there is no internet *tear* and even when we're in town you have to pay for it, which I'm not going to do.
I finally went Zorbing, which was awesome. They filled it with water and its the closest thing I think I can get to riding in a washing machine.
During a free day in Christchurch me and a friend decided to take advantage of a nearby gondola and take some bikes back down it. After being reminded exactly how long it has been since I rode a bike on the first hill it was down hill the rest of the way. I should also mention the massive wind gusts that had me riding at a 45 degree angle (Karma for Wellington?). It was so windy that flies congregated on the side of our legs and bikes to get out of the wind.
I was chased through Cathedral Square by marching bagpipes, into a wall of more bagpipers(??) Apparently I wandered into some sort of Bagpiping competition while I was looking at a man in a top-hat.
The most interesting pizza I have ever eaten was on a whole wheat crust with onions, spinach leaf, fresh hen, ham and hare with mozzarela cheese and bleu cheese chunks. The sauce was plum sauce.
While we were in New Plymouth we were actually staying outside of town. The Profs dropped us off in town and gave us directions (kind of) to wander back into the holiday park (a motel/rv/campsite/whatever the heck else you want it to be). On our way back (well after sunset) it occured to us that we had no idea where we were going, so we stopped some poor random kiwi on the path to point us in the right direction. She proceeded to invite us to her house (think beach-front villa with windows for walls) offer us dinner, ice cream, introduce us to her dog and sons (interchangeable apparently) and then give us a ride home, leaving us with an invitation to wander back for another meal and to meet her daughters who were visiting from America of all places. She was nice.
There are at least 23 different ways to prepare black-eyed peas, I know because that's what I've had for dinner every night since Christchurch.
It more or less never stops raining here, the current storm has been going for almost a week.
There is a cave near Greymouth that I am going to get married in, and then go rafting through.
Bookstores here are only for the adventure spirited, sure there are the ones like Borders but most of them are pretty well hidden. My favorite so far was a store hidden in the back of an antique shop. I wandered upstairs where there was a clothing store and in the back of the store there was a little nook with a giant bookcase in it, when I got closer there was a door to another room crammed with bookshelves and a little cash register in the corner. Books three deep on the shelves it was smaller then my room at home with honestly thousands of books lying around.
When leaving Kaikoura our train was cancelled and we were left scrambling to find a bus to get to Christchurch.
I swam with dolphins. I hit one (on accident) in the face.
I found a blues bar in Christchurch called The Southern Blues Bar (kiwis aren't known for their creativity). It was pretty good and they let me go up and jam with the house band which was pretty sweet.
Everyone comments on my accent. I think they're nuts.
I saw watchmen on March 4th. With the dateline that's 2 days before you. And I was the only one in the theater.
I found a "Mexican" food place in Auckland that tasted like Thai food. I want a quesadilla more than life itself at this point.
Tomato sauce (ketchup) is still really weird here.
You know that crusty old bum/troubadour that you always see in movies? I found him. He lives at the Strawberry Tree in Kaikoura and he is hilarious. I think his name is Steve. He was playing with this band (by band I mean two guitar players, one from Brazil and the other from Czech Republic and by playing with I mean wandering between the two while they played their set.)
American pool is impossible to find here. Every table has billiards a little bigger than golf balls and side pockets with rounded rails, it's ridiculous. All I want is a free pool table with real billiards.
I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's at the Botanic Garden in Christchurch, and I watched the rain scene, while it was raining.
That's right, be jealous.
There is a man in Cathedral Square in Christchurch who looks just like Doc from Back to the Future. They call him Wizard. He has been screaming at passer-by for over ten years they say. He has a milk crate that he hides his water bottle under, no one knows why.
Ok.
This is all I can remember for now, I may or may not have knocked my head on the roof of a cave (repeatedly).
Cheers,
The Wayward Hoover
That's right dear readers I'm back after an extended stay in a magical land where you have to pay for internet.
Places I have been since my last post for you google earth geeks: Picton, Kaikoura, Christchurch, Cass Field Station, Westport, Greymouth, Hokitiki and am currently staying in a field station in Harihari *Gasp*.
For the past week or so we've been bouncing around mountain field research stations where there is no internet *tear* and even when we're in town you have to pay for it, which I'm not going to do.
I finally went Zorbing, which was awesome. They filled it with water and its the closest thing I think I can get to riding in a washing machine.
During a free day in Christchurch me and a friend decided to take advantage of a nearby gondola and take some bikes back down it. After being reminded exactly how long it has been since I rode a bike on the first hill it was down hill the rest of the way. I should also mention the massive wind gusts that had me riding at a 45 degree angle (Karma for Wellington?). It was so windy that flies congregated on the side of our legs and bikes to get out of the wind.
I was chased through Cathedral Square by marching bagpipes, into a wall of more bagpipers(??) Apparently I wandered into some sort of Bagpiping competition while I was looking at a man in a top-hat.
The most interesting pizza I have ever eaten was on a whole wheat crust with onions, spinach leaf, fresh hen, ham and hare with mozzarela cheese and bleu cheese chunks. The sauce was plum sauce.
While we were in New Plymouth we were actually staying outside of town. The Profs dropped us off in town and gave us directions (kind of) to wander back into the holiday park (a motel/rv/campsite/whatever the heck else you want it to be). On our way back (well after sunset) it occured to us that we had no idea where we were going, so we stopped some poor random kiwi on the path to point us in the right direction. She proceeded to invite us to her house (think beach-front villa with windows for walls) offer us dinner, ice cream, introduce us to her dog and sons (interchangeable apparently) and then give us a ride home, leaving us with an invitation to wander back for another meal and to meet her daughters who were visiting from America of all places. She was nice.
There are at least 23 different ways to prepare black-eyed peas, I know because that's what I've had for dinner every night since Christchurch.
It more or less never stops raining here, the current storm has been going for almost a week.
There is a cave near Greymouth that I am going to get married in, and then go rafting through.
Bookstores here are only for the adventure spirited, sure there are the ones like Borders but most of them are pretty well hidden. My favorite so far was a store hidden in the back of an antique shop. I wandered upstairs where there was a clothing store and in the back of the store there was a little nook with a giant bookcase in it, when I got closer there was a door to another room crammed with bookshelves and a little cash register in the corner. Books three deep on the shelves it was smaller then my room at home with honestly thousands of books lying around.
When leaving Kaikoura our train was cancelled and we were left scrambling to find a bus to get to Christchurch.
I swam with dolphins. I hit one (on accident) in the face.
I found a blues bar in Christchurch called The Southern Blues Bar (kiwis aren't known for their creativity). It was pretty good and they let me go up and jam with the house band which was pretty sweet.
Everyone comments on my accent. I think they're nuts.
I saw watchmen on March 4th. With the dateline that's 2 days before you. And I was the only one in the theater.
I found a "Mexican" food place in Auckland that tasted like Thai food. I want a quesadilla more than life itself at this point.
Tomato sauce (ketchup) is still really weird here.
You know that crusty old bum/troubadour that you always see in movies? I found him. He lives at the Strawberry Tree in Kaikoura and he is hilarious. I think his name is Steve. He was playing with this band (by band I mean two guitar players, one from Brazil and the other from Czech Republic and by playing with I mean wandering between the two while they played their set.)
American pool is impossible to find here. Every table has billiards a little bigger than golf balls and side pockets with rounded rails, it's ridiculous. All I want is a free pool table with real billiards.
I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's at the Botanic Garden in Christchurch, and I watched the rain scene, while it was raining.
That's right, be jealous.
There is a man in Cathedral Square in Christchurch who looks just like Doc from Back to the Future. They call him Wizard. He has been screaming at passer-by for over ten years they say. He has a milk crate that he hides his water bottle under, no one knows why.
Ok.
This is all I can remember for now, I may or may not have knocked my head on the roof of a cave (repeatedly).
Cheers,
The Wayward Hoover
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Just a quick fix......quit your whining! I can hear it all the way over the date line!!
At the moment, three things hurt; my head, my stomach and my limbs, so this will be brief just to whet your appetites.
I am currently in Kaikoura, which is on the South Island, after leaving Rotorua, I was in Auckland for almost a week and then New Plymouth for not nearly long enough.
Since my last post I have tried the most interesting pizza I have ever tasted, I caught a ride from a kiwi, met some organic farmers from Maryland and swam with penguins.
I'm afraid that's all I have for now because I need to sleep off this headache
cheers till then,
The Wayward Hoover
I am currently in Kaikoura, which is on the South Island, after leaving Rotorua, I was in Auckland for almost a week and then New Plymouth for not nearly long enough.
Since my last post I have tried the most interesting pizza I have ever tasted, I caught a ride from a kiwi, met some organic farmers from Maryland and swam with penguins.
I'm afraid that's all I have for now because I need to sleep off this headache
cheers till then,
The Wayward Hoover
Monday, February 9, 2009
Volcanoes, I Climb Them
Ok. So at the moment, I am hanging out in Rotorua, where they charge you by the minute for the internet.
Ridiculous.
After leaving Wellington, we moved on to Turangi (tUr-an-ee) where I was promptly assaulted by every sand flea within spitting distance. My feet look like some sort of cross between hamburger meet and a leper.
In between biting and being bitten by the fleas, we managed to wander our way over to the Tangariro Crossing, a very spectacular hike over one of the most active volcanic fields of modern times. This includes Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings.
Mt. Doom stinks.
Seriously, it smells like rotten eggs and sweaty tourists.
But the rest of the volcanoes were amazing. After wandering past river after river of (cold) lava, we hit the flank of the ticking time bomb everyone kept calling a mountain. A few stops to inhale dangerous volcanic fumes and we were hiking across the floor of a crater about a 1/4 mile across.
Awesome is a pansy word compared to these peaks and craters.
After scrambling up a few more volcanic rims we came to a series of lakes, which were that beautiful turquoise blue that you always see when you're exhausted from climbing volcanoes. Sadly for us, they were quite literally lakes of sulfuric acid (dilute, but hey you don't see me jumping head first into the acid lake). Warning signs abounded, so naturally a couple of girls from another hiking party (Americans of course) thought it would be fun to have a swim. While their skin was slowly eaten away (they got a rash) we stumbled upon what would be the first of many fumerals, all of which smelled like burnt sin.
Natural deposition of a pure mineral, one of the rarest occurrences in the world, brings about the absolute strongest urge to vomit I've had in recent memory. Vaporized sulfur spouting out of these vents was crystallizing around the edges of the fissures in the ground. Apparently, moving directly from a gas to a solid is smelly business because there is no escaping the brimstone (rotten eggs). We continued on and found tons of interesting (says the geology prof.) rocks, one of which he had only heard of but never seen in person but expected us to identify it just the same (Olivine bearing Rhyolite).
If you have ever seen the movie Cool Hand Luke (the correct answer here is "Yes The Wayward Hoover, of course I've seen Cool Hand Luke") then you have a pretty solid of where we stayed in Turangi.
There were rows of small 8x8 cabins with spring-net cots, and the proper dosage of sand fleas. But it was so far my favorite stop. We spent the majority of our time sitting on our stoops playing ukelele, singing and swatting bugs.
Rotorua is world famous for its hotsprings, which are heated by volcaninc vents, which vent sulfur, which smells like rotten eggs. Seriously, the whole town smells like rotten eggs, and its a tourism hotspot.
I will never understand.
While in Rotorua we are responsible for our own food. For the most part we've teamed up with our roommates and been able to wrangle some pretty decent meals out of the Pack 'n' Save (Kiwi for Costco).
The tallest commercially rafted waterfall in the world is approximately 25 ft high, and I rafted it.
I have not gone Zorbing yet.
I know that I have had too much art history because today we were at a museum and I noticed that the guide was wrong.
I don't know what you know about masking tape and newsprint but if you are looking to create a realistic portraiture in the round, pick some other medium. I spent the better part of 12 hours last night trying to convince the sports section to look like my ears and nose.
At the end of it all, I thought it looked pretty decent. My art professor disagreed.
Things I still want to do:
Luge
Jump out of an airplane
Bungee Jump
Shave a sheep
If someone ever asks you what Kiwi peacocks do for fun, the answer is bite tourists.
I have lost all track and sense of time. I can't tell you what day or hour it is, all I know is that in 3 days we leave Rotorua.
I think that is awesome.
The ketchup here is weird. It's sweeter, almost like bbq sauce except not tasty. The hunt is on for some good old fashioned Heinz 57.
Have I mentioned how much the Kiwis love curry?
It is wicked hot here in Rotorua. I sleep on top of the covers underneath the window with as few articles of clothing as my roommates will allow.
The actor who played Jango Fett also apparently used to work making videos (very cheesy videos) for New Zealand museums.
I already miss my friends from Lewis and Clark.
I am running out of coins so this post has to stop here.
Tune in next time for something else I haven't told you about yet!
Cheers!
The Wayward Hoover
Ridiculous.
After leaving Wellington, we moved on to Turangi (tUr-an-ee) where I was promptly assaulted by every sand flea within spitting distance. My feet look like some sort of cross between hamburger meet and a leper.
In between biting and being bitten by the fleas, we managed to wander our way over to the Tangariro Crossing, a very spectacular hike over one of the most active volcanic fields of modern times. This includes Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings.
Mt. Doom stinks.
Seriously, it smells like rotten eggs and sweaty tourists.
But the rest of the volcanoes were amazing. After wandering past river after river of (cold) lava, we hit the flank of the ticking time bomb everyone kept calling a mountain. A few stops to inhale dangerous volcanic fumes and we were hiking across the floor of a crater about a 1/4 mile across.
Awesome is a pansy word compared to these peaks and craters.
After scrambling up a few more volcanic rims we came to a series of lakes, which were that beautiful turquoise blue that you always see when you're exhausted from climbing volcanoes. Sadly for us, they were quite literally lakes of sulfuric acid (dilute, but hey you don't see me jumping head first into the acid lake). Warning signs abounded, so naturally a couple of girls from another hiking party (Americans of course) thought it would be fun to have a swim. While their skin was slowly eaten away (they got a rash) we stumbled upon what would be the first of many fumerals, all of which smelled like burnt sin.
Natural deposition of a pure mineral, one of the rarest occurrences in the world, brings about the absolute strongest urge to vomit I've had in recent memory. Vaporized sulfur spouting out of these vents was crystallizing around the edges of the fissures in the ground. Apparently, moving directly from a gas to a solid is smelly business because there is no escaping the brimstone (rotten eggs). We continued on and found tons of interesting (says the geology prof.) rocks, one of which he had only heard of but never seen in person but expected us to identify it just the same (Olivine bearing Rhyolite).
If you have ever seen the movie Cool Hand Luke (the correct answer here is "Yes The Wayward Hoover, of course I've seen Cool Hand Luke") then you have a pretty solid of where we stayed in Turangi.
There were rows of small 8x8 cabins with spring-net cots, and the proper dosage of sand fleas. But it was so far my favorite stop. We spent the majority of our time sitting on our stoops playing ukelele, singing and swatting bugs.
Rotorua is world famous for its hotsprings, which are heated by volcaninc vents, which vent sulfur, which smells like rotten eggs. Seriously, the whole town smells like rotten eggs, and its a tourism hotspot.
I will never understand.
While in Rotorua we are responsible for our own food. For the most part we've teamed up with our roommates and been able to wrangle some pretty decent meals out of the Pack 'n' Save (Kiwi for Costco).
The tallest commercially rafted waterfall in the world is approximately 25 ft high, and I rafted it.
I have not gone Zorbing yet.
I know that I have had too much art history because today we were at a museum and I noticed that the guide was wrong.
I don't know what you know about masking tape and newsprint but if you are looking to create a realistic portraiture in the round, pick some other medium. I spent the better part of 12 hours last night trying to convince the sports section to look like my ears and nose.
At the end of it all, I thought it looked pretty decent. My art professor disagreed.
Things I still want to do:
Luge
Jump out of an airplane
Bungee Jump
Shave a sheep
If someone ever asks you what Kiwi peacocks do for fun, the answer is bite tourists.
I have lost all track and sense of time. I can't tell you what day or hour it is, all I know is that in 3 days we leave Rotorua.
I think that is awesome.
The ketchup here is weird. It's sweeter, almost like bbq sauce except not tasty. The hunt is on for some good old fashioned Heinz 57.
Have I mentioned how much the Kiwis love curry?
It is wicked hot here in Rotorua. I sleep on top of the covers underneath the window with as few articles of clothing as my roommates will allow.
The actor who played Jango Fett also apparently used to work making videos (very cheesy videos) for New Zealand museums.
I already miss my friends from Lewis and Clark.
I am running out of coins so this post has to stop here.
Tune in next time for something else I haven't told you about yet!
Cheers!
The Wayward Hoover
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