Well, Last I left you I was on my last night in KL. Instead of skipping straight to Vietnam, I thought I should tell you of my last day in KL because it was a bit of a duzzy (I don't really know how to spell that word, but picture, "Last steps a Duzzy").
Anyways, I woke up early determined to see the national Museum. Angel, my couchsurfing host, gave me a lift to the Petronas Towers that morning on the way to work. From there I went to the national Mosque so I could take pictures since it was closed on Friday. While I was there, I was awestruck by the beautiful and incredible architecture of the mosque. Something that I have became accutely aware of in my travels in Malaysia is my complete ignorance of the Islamic faith. I know the basics, but beyond that it is pretty foggy. And something that has struck me is the idea of and Asian Islam. I have always viewed Islam as such a Middle-Eastern religion I forget that the largest population of Muslims is actually in Asia. Anyways, so I had been wanting to learn more about Islam, Buddhism, and Toaism while travelling. Well at the mosque I was approached by a tour guide, and we started talking about Islam. Soon we were rather involved and she invited me to her office to talk. So we went down and I listened more until, finally I told her I had to go. My plane was going to leave soon and I must leave. So at this point it was 11:45. My plane was to leave at 6:05 that night. So plenty of time I figured. So I grabbed lunch, and then realized I didn't have my passport photos for my Vietnam Visa, so I had to grab those and print my airplane ticket off. So by this point it is now 1. I thought no problem, bus back to Angel's, pack, bus back to KL Sentral, catch the train and be at the airport by 4. Well, at around 2:09 I was still on the bus and realized that I think I had just missed my stop. After trying to work this out with a non-English speaking driver I immediately hopped off the bus. As soon as it drove away I realized that I had just left my international cell phone on the bus. So I crossed the street and waited at the other bus stop for my bus to return. And hour and a half later, No Bus! It was now 3:40 so I decide I can't wait any longer. Technically I should be at the airport in 20 minutes. So I run (in 95 degree heat) back to Angel's. Throw all my stuff into my bag, and hightail it out of their. Then I catch a cab to KL Sentral. "Not bad", I think, (not realizing I had left both my belt and travel towel at Angel's). So it is now 4:20 I rush in get directions to the high speed train. Buy the ticket to the international airport (which to me makes perfect sense since I am flying to Vietnam). No, no, no, no, no. Apparently regardless of where it goes all Air Asia flights go out of the domestic airport. So now I have a ticket to the International airport, and from there will have to take a taxi to the LCCT (the domestic airport). So I get on the train, wait 25 minutes, run off, go straight for an ATM, and take 30 ringgits for a taxi out (taking a little extra out since I figured I was going to want a nice stiff drink on the plane if I actually made it). Then I dash to a taxi. However, it is then that I realize the line for the taxi is through the door. "That's it! There is no way I make this flight." It thought. So I wait for a moment at the back of the line looking like a boy that has to use the bathroom badly. Finally I lean forward and explain my situation to the couple in front of me. They kindly let me pass. Doing this I proceed about 30 people up to the front of the line where the man directing taxi's says he has heard my story needs my ticket and he has a taxi ready for me. Little did I realize you had to buy your taxi ticket elsewhere in the airport, so at first I thought I just didn't have enough money. So I run back to the ATM, and take out more money, and then back to the taxi. Then back to the ticket counter (where I was supposed to go the first time), and then finally to the taxi and into one. It is now 5:10. It was one of those hurry up and wait moments. The taxi was normally 30 minutes, but I used a line I've always wanted to say. "I'll give ya all the money I have left if you get me there in under 20!" I said. So we did make good time, and I did handsomely tip, however by the time I got to the check-in counter it was 5:40. Of course, no registers were open so I had to go to costumer service, (where everyone takes a long time). Anyways, finally a register opened up, and me and a man in the same situation tell the man what happening. He looks at us and says, "Nope, I'm sorry that plane is unavailable" I said "you mean for baggage?" "No, it is already taxied to the runway." He replied. "A half-hour early!?" I yelled. Then he looked at me strangely and said "no not a half hour early". So at this point to hurry the process up I shoved my ticket in his face. It turned out, the man who was also late for his plane was late for a different plane. Mine, fortunately, was still waiting. So I bolted from there with a boarding pass, knocking people off escalators left and right. Tapped my feet anxiously through security, and continued to run to the gate. My plane left at 6:05, and I arrived at the gate promptly at 5:57! Just in time. Of course, then I got on the plane looking for a meal and a strong drink, and when they came around with the drink cart I asked kindly for a beer. He looked at me and then said they had no alcoholic beverage onboard. Muslim countries tsk tsk. Haha. Anyways, it all ended well. Except for my phone, towel, and belt. But technicalities. I arrived in Siagon safely, and had a lift waiting for me their who took me to where I was couchsurfing. Everything apparently had been worked out for me without even my knowledge. So it was great.
Now. Siagon. Well, I actually have to run now so I will tell you of Siagon next time. I'm in Hoi An right now.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The Epicness of Melbourne
Well boys and gals, let me just say that I did not expect my trip to start out with such Incredible EPICNESS! Melbourne to say the least was... well... a week I won't soon forget. However to jump back to my leaving Auckland I shall keep it brief, because Melbourne will be long.
My last few days in Auckland were hurry-scurry. Between packing and saying goodbye, and all those last minutes things you had forgot to do until the time they were due arrived. However, it all worked out in the end. On Saturday night we had all of the family over, and A (Leigh's mother) finally made me the Pavlova she had promised me all year long. It was a fantastic evening and so nice to finally see all the family one last time. The next morning, was just as hectic with Leigh, Christoph and Yannik leaving to go skiing for the week. We said our goodbyes, which was hard. We all really connected over the past year. More so I think than they were used to as well, which I felt honored by. I'm not sure whether Yannik realized I was leaving or not. Its just to hard to tell. We told him time and again, but its not like he responds to it really. Anyways. It was an emotionally draining day. That night a friend took me back to her place and I crashed there. Early the next morning (like 4:30AM) I was driven to the airport where I snuck my rediculously overweight luggage onto the plane. Several hours later I was landing in Melbourne, Australia. If only I knew what lay before me.
Haha. I suppose I shouldn't build the week up to much, because to be honest I think a lot of the moments you had to be there for, but when you were (which I was), it was EPIC.
Anyways. I landed in Melbourne and took a bus from the airport to the city. Now I should say that when i snuck my overweight luggage onto the plane, I mean I was lugging around about 75lbs worth of it. Some of which was very awkward to handle. So needless to say I need to get rid of it as fast as I could. Fortunately about 50 pounds of that was luggage I was mailing home. So I confusedly walked around the city till I found a post office, went in, lifted my gigantic 50 pound bag onto the counter and told the man I needed to mail this home. He just looked at me blankly. I'm sure he thought I was crazy. But we weighed it, and and it was 23kg, and the maximum was 20kg's that they could mail. After I preformed some incredible puppy dog eyes, the man said we would just call it 20kgs. Then it turned out I couldn't mail it due to my laptop battery. But we did some research and apparently through some extra wrapping and labeling and such we could get around that as well. Finally the bottle of wine that Leigh and Christoph had given me as a goodbye present couldn't be mailed home. That problem was easy to fix though, I would just have to drink it in Melbourne.
So finally I got my bag off, and called my couchsurfing host who I was staying with, Natasha Stalker (kind of a freaky last name for a host but oh well). She gave me directions and off I went to meet her. I found the place easy enough and when a I rang the doorbell, and man with a big beard and frizzy hair answered. Something triggered in my mind about him but I couldn't place it. So I went inside and met everyone else. It appeared to be Natasha and about 4 other American male couchsurfers that were all staying there. Apparently I had happened upon a house that was hosting a whole group of Americans. So much so, that the day before I arrived they had thrown a July 4 party. It felt really nice to be among American's that a lot of that day was actually just spent sitting around chatting with them. Anyways, we were sitting around the kitchen when suddenly it hit me, "I've met that frizzy haired man before!" I thought. It was in Auckland at the Chinese lantern festival. We had both rocked out to a Mongolian throat singing punk rock band together at a couchsurfing meeting that day. Man the world is a small place. We instantly realized the occasion and had a good laugh over that.
That night we were scheduled to go to a African Dance class. Supposedly there was to be a free dance class downtown hosted by a Dutch couchsurfer studying dance in Melbourne. So we all figured why not. But first we thought perhaps we should pick up some booze from the shop. Now there were 5 of us at this point and the house only had one car. I should mention that that car was in fact a truck. I offered to ride in the back as did two of the other guys. When I say the bed of the truck though things got interesting. It had a cover on it and was pretty messy. But the three of us all squeezed in and then were covered up. Now something you should know is that the houses in Melbourne have no insulation, so in Winter (which is now) Natasha's house was FREEZING! (I mean freezing like every morning you wake up and judged the day based on how much breath you could see.) Anyways, The boys and I were surprised to find that the truck bed was actually the warmest place in the house! We were snug as bug in a rug.
At any rate, during the ride we had an intimate knowledge of the noises the truck was making. At one point we commented on how it didn't sound very good.... Sure enough, 30 seconds later the whole thing broke down. We decided to walk to the store since it was only 5 minutes away.... A half hour later we arrived at the store, made our purchase, and walked the other half hour back to the broken car. We tried everything on the car. This and that to no avail. We walked to a gas station and bought jumper cables, and tried to get some one to give us a jump. Problem was that the car was in a funny position where we would have to stop traffic in one lane of a busy road. We called the police to help but they distinctly let us know they didn't fix cars. Finally we decided to push start it even though we only had about 40 feet of space. Fortunately 20ft was all we needed. Getting the car going was so surprising I had to ask if it had actually started or I was hearing things.
Anyways, we went home, got changed and went to the African Dance. Walking through Melbourne at night was beautiful. Course, I love any big buildings at night, but Melbourne actually reminded me a lot of Chicago. The African Dancing was pretty funny to say the least. We arrived late, and had to learn the first couple of moves from watching others. However it gave us a plethora of material to bring back out throughout the week. After this we took a tram to Fitzroy and hit a Pub.
The next day Adam, Tony, and I (all American's) decided to go for a trip to St. Kilda's and try a restuarant that was pay-what-you-will called Lentils. But I should interrupt here, because I just nearly forgot the most important part of the week. I needed a battery for my camera first, so we went to Dick Smith and next door was a bargain book store. Sitting outside on a rack was a glorious book, "Da Gospel According to Ali G"! Oh yes. While most of the older generation that will make no sense too, but for us it was incredible. We instantly bought it and it defined most of our week.
Anyways, back to the restaurant. It was vegetarian, but that aside, it was freakin fantastic. A very hip place. Then we went for walk on the beach where we discovered a large model sun made of metal. Now I should remind everyone that it was pretty cold outside. So upon touching the sun and realizing it was warm we all somewhat laid on top and around it. Making large groups of children wander what was so special about it and thus also join in the fun. Proceeding this we walked by Luna Park. Luna Park is a theme park with the creepiest entry way ever thought of. It is a scary clown face and you enter through his mouth (very disturbing). Afterwards we caught a tram back downtown, because Adam wanted to show me an optical illusion building.
However, on the way there.... I FOUND FIFTY BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!
IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
I was walking on the street outside the bus terminal, looked down and noticed some paper on the ground. Went to pick it up, and BOOM! FIFTY BUCKS! Haha. I looked around and asked some people if they had lost some money, but no one claimed it so I smiled and continued on my way a slightly richer man. (I should note, that the optical illusion building was also AWESOME! it was a building designed like the illusion where you have parallel lines on a black and white checkerboard, and it makes them look crooked. Very cool building design.)
Alright from here on I'm just going to bullet point this because its going to be way to huge if I don't so...
My week looked like this:
Found fifty bucks on ground
Saw Optical Illusion building
Ran from Tram Police on way home
Replaced Fuel Filter
Adam got stuck in wheel well
I got drenched in gasoline
Made sure hoses to gas tank were replaced correctly
went out that night (EPIC!)
Wed:
Planned to go to Bimbo's for pizza (awesome pizza parlor name, and $4 pizzas)
Car wouldn't work in the morning
Mechanic came to fix it
We grilled 45 sausages (Mmmm Mm! Kangaroo!)
Cats locked us outside
Helped Mechanic fix the car
The front end of car ERUPTED in flame (while we weree working on it)
Had several seconds of imagining a car blowing up
Bolted to kitchen and filled dish pans up with water to put fire out!
Invented makes shift assembly fire fighting line and put fire out
ALRIGHT HOLD ON!
I just need to throw this out there. We literally had a car ERUPT in FIRE! I mean not like there was a small little flame. I mean this thing Spontaneously COMBUSTED INTO FLAME! There was mental pictures flying through my head of the car exploding 7 feet into the air in front of the house! IT WAS PRETTY FREAKIN RIDICULOUS! We momentarly ran for lives until we thought it might just be better to put the fire out. ANYWAYS, I just thought I should throw that out there. Now back to bullet notes!
Mechanic fix the car 4 hours later
Turns out the lines to the gas tank were switched (Oops!)
went out that night (EPIC!)
Thursday:
Went to Bimbo's
Saw the Orange man walking the streets (Man dressed entirely from in Orange from top hat (thats right TOP HAT) to his shoes)
Went to the ACMI (Australia Center for Movie Images)
Went to the Tim Burton exhibit
Got to hang out next to the actual Batmobile (YA!)
had dinner with Germans (new couchsurfers)
Went salsa dancing with Natasha
left Germans mashpitting in some club
was out for the night (EPIC!)
Friday:
Woke up with misplaced articles
Lazy day
made eggs
and mashed potatos
Went to the Melbourne Projection Festival which was interesting
headed to Chinatown
took Natasha home early
Left Phone and Camera in the taxi
Had cabbie return with my phone
met up with Adam and Langdon at Kebab stand for an EPIC! night
Sat:
discovered I had lost my camera
went to queen street Market
Had my first Burek (tasty pastry with meat in it)
relaxed back at the house
a Wizardstaff may or may not have been built
went to little creatures brewery
went back to bimbo's
had another EPIC! night in Melbourne
Sunday:
Woke up the next morning to the news that the cab driver had returned the night before and dropped my camera off (AWESOME!)
Natasha made delicious crepe's and I bought my plane ticket to Veitnam
Adam and I spent the day writing our memoirs of the past week to have them in writing.
(These bullet points are just small bits of the memoirs written that day)
That night I caught a plane to KL
Arrived in KL at 8 in the morning and took bus to town where I caught a bus to Singapore
After 16 hours of travelI meet up with Michelle for my four days in Singapore
That day I eat a delicous dinner of many foods I can't pronounce
That night Michelle and several friends and I go on a Night Safari at the park
(Night safari is really cool because its for nocturnal animals, and you can see them in the dark while they are actually active) (Lions and Tigers and Bears OH MY!)
Tuesday:
Spent the day exploring the city of Singapore
I spent the morning in Chinatown looking at all the hawkers and tried out some foot reflexology (basically a painful foot message) (I decide who to see by trying to find the oldest wisest looking man)
Then to the waterfront were I saw the Merlion (huge statue of a half-fish half-lion)
Next went to Kampung Gam (the Muslim section of town) and saw the Sultan's palace and the Sultan's Mosque
Then to Little India where 70 people all tried to sell me a new suit (also checked out the temples and such as I had everywhere)
Met up with Michelle and her family for dinner in Little India)
Then her brother (WHO HAS THE COOLEST NAME EVER: RONIN!) (AWESOME) took me out on the town (and by that I mean he and a friend showed me around the red light district of Singapore)
I have never been in a red light district, much less one in Asia, much less ever really thought about what happens there (let me just say it was an "experience", and I don't think I will be going back anytime soon. However its nice to have a image I can put in my head now when I hear the term "Red Light District")
Wednesday:
Michelle and I explored the city some more
Went to Hort Park (cool treetop bridge the whole way through)
Ate some Dim Sum (I should just say I ate AWESOMENESS! EVERYDAY here!)
Was going to see botanical gardens there, but we were both too tired so headed home.
I worked on writing this rather than sleeping
Also bought a visa to Vietnam
That night met up with Taylor (a UVA alum who I was crashing with) and Michelle and friends, we all went out to dinner and then hit a club that night (EPIC!) (haha, I just like saying that)
Thursday:
Woke up, packed, caught a bus to Kuala Lumpur
Met up with Angel (my couchsurfer here in KL)
Went back to her place and crashed after a tour around town
Friday:
Explored the city seeing the temples and Mosques of the city
Its definitely interesting being in and Asian Muslim country (I always think of Islam so much as a middle eastern religion, (which it is) but Malaysia is also a Muslim country with Muslim police outside of the normal police force.) (I also got a bit of a surprise when I came around a corner and suddenly was facing 500 people who got down on their knees bowed to me. I quickly realized I had come upon the call to prayer, but for a moment I was very confused)
Saturday
The next day Angel and I went to Batu Caves (a Massive series of caves with Hindu Temples within them)
Felt like I was going to be attacked by swarms of Monkeys at every step (they were everywhere)
Spent the day relaxing and finishing a puzzle with Angel
That night, I hit up the night market in Little India for a great experience (was able to impress the locals with my Malay language skills)
Sunday:
Explored the parks of KL, went to the orchid and hibiscus gardens along with there lake gardens with Angel
Got passport photos done at the mall
Ate some rockin Mee Goreng
Came back to Angels place and have now been workin on this for an hour or two
PEACE OUT!
Alright guys. I know that was pretty crappy, but its also pretty crappy to try and write about my travels rather than experiencing them. Well you know what I mean. Sorry a lot of this also probably doesn't make sense if you were there, but so be it. I've had an incredible last two weeks. Far crazier than I ever could have expected. Sorry I've been away for a while. I apologize. You guys rock. I'm off to Vietnam tomorrow. Till Next Time...
Goodbye and so Long
May the Force be with you.
Wes
My last few days in Auckland were hurry-scurry. Between packing and saying goodbye, and all those last minutes things you had forgot to do until the time they were due arrived. However, it all worked out in the end. On Saturday night we had all of the family over, and A (Leigh's mother) finally made me the Pavlova she had promised me all year long. It was a fantastic evening and so nice to finally see all the family one last time. The next morning, was just as hectic with Leigh, Christoph and Yannik leaving to go skiing for the week. We said our goodbyes, which was hard. We all really connected over the past year. More so I think than they were used to as well, which I felt honored by. I'm not sure whether Yannik realized I was leaving or not. Its just to hard to tell. We told him time and again, but its not like he responds to it really. Anyways. It was an emotionally draining day. That night a friend took me back to her place and I crashed there. Early the next morning (like 4:30AM) I was driven to the airport where I snuck my rediculously overweight luggage onto the plane. Several hours later I was landing in Melbourne, Australia. If only I knew what lay before me.
Haha. I suppose I shouldn't build the week up to much, because to be honest I think a lot of the moments you had to be there for, but when you were (which I was), it was EPIC.
Anyways. I landed in Melbourne and took a bus from the airport to the city. Now I should say that when i snuck my overweight luggage onto the plane, I mean I was lugging around about 75lbs worth of it. Some of which was very awkward to handle. So needless to say I need to get rid of it as fast as I could. Fortunately about 50 pounds of that was luggage I was mailing home. So I confusedly walked around the city till I found a post office, went in, lifted my gigantic 50 pound bag onto the counter and told the man I needed to mail this home. He just looked at me blankly. I'm sure he thought I was crazy. But we weighed it, and and it was 23kg, and the maximum was 20kg's that they could mail. After I preformed some incredible puppy dog eyes, the man said we would just call it 20kgs. Then it turned out I couldn't mail it due to my laptop battery. But we did some research and apparently through some extra wrapping and labeling and such we could get around that as well. Finally the bottle of wine that Leigh and Christoph had given me as a goodbye present couldn't be mailed home. That problem was easy to fix though, I would just have to drink it in Melbourne.
So finally I got my bag off, and called my couchsurfing host who I was staying with, Natasha Stalker (kind of a freaky last name for a host but oh well). She gave me directions and off I went to meet her. I found the place easy enough and when a I rang the doorbell, and man with a big beard and frizzy hair answered. Something triggered in my mind about him but I couldn't place it. So I went inside and met everyone else. It appeared to be Natasha and about 4 other American male couchsurfers that were all staying there. Apparently I had happened upon a house that was hosting a whole group of Americans. So much so, that the day before I arrived they had thrown a July 4 party. It felt really nice to be among American's that a lot of that day was actually just spent sitting around chatting with them. Anyways, we were sitting around the kitchen when suddenly it hit me, "I've met that frizzy haired man before!" I thought. It was in Auckland at the Chinese lantern festival. We had both rocked out to a Mongolian throat singing punk rock band together at a couchsurfing meeting that day. Man the world is a small place. We instantly realized the occasion and had a good laugh over that.
That night we were scheduled to go to a African Dance class. Supposedly there was to be a free dance class downtown hosted by a Dutch couchsurfer studying dance in Melbourne. So we all figured why not. But first we thought perhaps we should pick up some booze from the shop. Now there were 5 of us at this point and the house only had one car. I should mention that that car was in fact a truck. I offered to ride in the back as did two of the other guys. When I say the bed of the truck though things got interesting. It had a cover on it and was pretty messy. But the three of us all squeezed in and then were covered up. Now something you should know is that the houses in Melbourne have no insulation, so in Winter (which is now) Natasha's house was FREEZING! (I mean freezing like every morning you wake up and judged the day based on how much breath you could see.) Anyways, The boys and I were surprised to find that the truck bed was actually the warmest place in the house! We were snug as bug in a rug.
At any rate, during the ride we had an intimate knowledge of the noises the truck was making. At one point we commented on how it didn't sound very good.... Sure enough, 30 seconds later the whole thing broke down. We decided to walk to the store since it was only 5 minutes away.... A half hour later we arrived at the store, made our purchase, and walked the other half hour back to the broken car. We tried everything on the car. This and that to no avail. We walked to a gas station and bought jumper cables, and tried to get some one to give us a jump. Problem was that the car was in a funny position where we would have to stop traffic in one lane of a busy road. We called the police to help but they distinctly let us know they didn't fix cars. Finally we decided to push start it even though we only had about 40 feet of space. Fortunately 20ft was all we needed. Getting the car going was so surprising I had to ask if it had actually started or I was hearing things.
Anyways, we went home, got changed and went to the African Dance. Walking through Melbourne at night was beautiful. Course, I love any big buildings at night, but Melbourne actually reminded me a lot of Chicago. The African Dancing was pretty funny to say the least. We arrived late, and had to learn the first couple of moves from watching others. However it gave us a plethora of material to bring back out throughout the week. After this we took a tram to Fitzroy and hit a Pub.
The next day Adam, Tony, and I (all American's) decided to go for a trip to St. Kilda's and try a restuarant that was pay-what-you-will called Lentils. But I should interrupt here, because I just nearly forgot the most important part of the week. I needed a battery for my camera first, so we went to Dick Smith and next door was a bargain book store. Sitting outside on a rack was a glorious book, "Da Gospel According to Ali G"! Oh yes. While most of the older generation that will make no sense too, but for us it was incredible. We instantly bought it and it defined most of our week.
Anyways, back to the restaurant. It was vegetarian, but that aside, it was freakin fantastic. A very hip place. Then we went for walk on the beach where we discovered a large model sun made of metal. Now I should remind everyone that it was pretty cold outside. So upon touching the sun and realizing it was warm we all somewhat laid on top and around it. Making large groups of children wander what was so special about it and thus also join in the fun. Proceeding this we walked by Luna Park. Luna Park is a theme park with the creepiest entry way ever thought of. It is a scary clown face and you enter through his mouth (very disturbing). Afterwards we caught a tram back downtown, because Adam wanted to show me an optical illusion building.
However, on the way there.... I FOUND FIFTY BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!
IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
I was walking on the street outside the bus terminal, looked down and noticed some paper on the ground. Went to pick it up, and BOOM! FIFTY BUCKS! Haha. I looked around and asked some people if they had lost some money, but no one claimed it so I smiled and continued on my way a slightly richer man. (I should note, that the optical illusion building was also AWESOME! it was a building designed like the illusion where you have parallel lines on a black and white checkerboard, and it makes them look crooked. Very cool building design.)
Alright from here on I'm just going to bullet point this because its going to be way to huge if I don't so...
My week looked like this:
Found fifty bucks on ground
Saw Optical Illusion building
Ran from Tram Police on way home
Replaced Fuel Filter
Adam got stuck in wheel well
I got drenched in gasoline
Made sure hoses to gas tank were replaced correctly
went out that night (EPIC!)
Wed:
Planned to go to Bimbo's for pizza (awesome pizza parlor name, and $4 pizzas)
Car wouldn't work in the morning
Mechanic came to fix it
We grilled 45 sausages (Mmmm Mm! Kangaroo!)
Cats locked us outside
Helped Mechanic fix the car
The front end of car ERUPTED in flame (while we weree working on it)
Had several seconds of imagining a car blowing up
Bolted to kitchen and filled dish pans up with water to put fire out!
Invented makes shift assembly fire fighting line and put fire out
ALRIGHT HOLD ON!
I just need to throw this out there. We literally had a car ERUPT in FIRE! I mean not like there was a small little flame. I mean this thing Spontaneously COMBUSTED INTO FLAME! There was mental pictures flying through my head of the car exploding 7 feet into the air in front of the house! IT WAS PRETTY FREAKIN RIDICULOUS! We momentarly ran for lives until we thought it might just be better to put the fire out. ANYWAYS, I just thought I should throw that out there. Now back to bullet notes!
Mechanic fix the car 4 hours later
Turns out the lines to the gas tank were switched (Oops!)
went out that night (EPIC!)
Thursday:
Went to Bimbo's
Saw the Orange man walking the streets (Man dressed entirely from in Orange from top hat (thats right TOP HAT) to his shoes)
Went to the ACMI (Australia Center for Movie Images)
Went to the Tim Burton exhibit
Got to hang out next to the actual Batmobile (YA!)
had dinner with Germans (new couchsurfers)
Went salsa dancing with Natasha
left Germans mashpitting in some club
was out for the night (EPIC!)
Friday:
Woke up with misplaced articles
Lazy day
made eggs
and mashed potatos
Went to the Melbourne Projection Festival which was interesting
headed to Chinatown
took Natasha home early
Left Phone and Camera in the taxi
Had cabbie return with my phone
met up with Adam and Langdon at Kebab stand for an EPIC! night
Sat:
discovered I had lost my camera
went to queen street Market
Had my first Burek (tasty pastry with meat in it)
relaxed back at the house
a Wizardstaff may or may not have been built
went to little creatures brewery
went back to bimbo's
had another EPIC! night in Melbourne
Sunday:
Woke up the next morning to the news that the cab driver had returned the night before and dropped my camera off (AWESOME!)
Natasha made delicious crepe's and I bought my plane ticket to Veitnam
Adam and I spent the day writing our memoirs of the past week to have them in writing.
(These bullet points are just small bits of the memoirs written that day)
That night I caught a plane to KL
Arrived in KL at 8 in the morning and took bus to town where I caught a bus to Singapore
After 16 hours of travelI meet up with Michelle for my four days in Singapore
That day I eat a delicous dinner of many foods I can't pronounce
That night Michelle and several friends and I go on a Night Safari at the park
(Night safari is really cool because its for nocturnal animals, and you can see them in the dark while they are actually active) (Lions and Tigers and Bears OH MY!)
Tuesday:
Spent the day exploring the city of Singapore
I spent the morning in Chinatown looking at all the hawkers and tried out some foot reflexology (basically a painful foot message) (I decide who to see by trying to find the oldest wisest looking man)
Then to the waterfront were I saw the Merlion (huge statue of a half-fish half-lion)
Next went to Kampung Gam (the Muslim section of town) and saw the Sultan's palace and the Sultan's Mosque
Then to Little India where 70 people all tried to sell me a new suit (also checked out the temples and such as I had everywhere)
Met up with Michelle and her family for dinner in Little India)
Then her brother (WHO HAS THE COOLEST NAME EVER: RONIN!) (AWESOME) took me out on the town (and by that I mean he and a friend showed me around the red light district of Singapore)
I have never been in a red light district, much less one in Asia, much less ever really thought about what happens there (let me just say it was an "experience", and I don't think I will be going back anytime soon. However its nice to have a image I can put in my head now when I hear the term "Red Light District")
Wednesday:
Michelle and I explored the city some more
Went to Hort Park (cool treetop bridge the whole way through)
Ate some Dim Sum (I should just say I ate AWESOMENESS! EVERYDAY here!)
Was going to see botanical gardens there, but we were both too tired so headed home.
I worked on writing this rather than sleeping
Also bought a visa to Vietnam
That night met up with Taylor (a UVA alum who I was crashing with) and Michelle and friends, we all went out to dinner and then hit a club that night (EPIC!) (haha, I just like saying that)
Thursday:
Woke up, packed, caught a bus to Kuala Lumpur
Met up with Angel (my couchsurfer here in KL)
Went back to her place and crashed after a tour around town
Friday:
Explored the city seeing the temples and Mosques of the city
Its definitely interesting being in and Asian Muslim country (I always think of Islam so much as a middle eastern religion, (which it is) but Malaysia is also a Muslim country with Muslim police outside of the normal police force.) (I also got a bit of a surprise when I came around a corner and suddenly was facing 500 people who got down on their knees bowed to me. I quickly realized I had come upon the call to prayer, but for a moment I was very confused)
Saturday
The next day Angel and I went to Batu Caves (a Massive series of caves with Hindu Temples within them)
Felt like I was going to be attacked by swarms of Monkeys at every step (they were everywhere)
Spent the day relaxing and finishing a puzzle with Angel
That night, I hit up the night market in Little India for a great experience (was able to impress the locals with my Malay language skills)
Sunday:
Explored the parks of KL, went to the orchid and hibiscus gardens along with there lake gardens with Angel
Got passport photos done at the mall
Ate some rockin Mee Goreng
Came back to Angels place and have now been workin on this for an hour or two
PEACE OUT!
Alright guys. I know that was pretty crappy, but its also pretty crappy to try and write about my travels rather than experiencing them. Well you know what I mean. Sorry a lot of this also probably doesn't make sense if you were there, but so be it. I've had an incredible last two weeks. Far crazier than I ever could have expected. Sorry I've been away for a while. I apologize. You guys rock. I'm off to Vietnam tomorrow. Till Next Time...
Goodbye and so Long
May the Force be with you.
Wes
Thursday, July 1, 2010
1 Week North, and 1 Week Fiji
Alright guys... I know it has been a while since my last post, but that is because I have been away. This may well be a long one as I have a lot to catch you up on. Many adventures in the 2 weeks of vacations I have just had.
So to take it from the beginning I was having an old friend from the States visit me here in NZ. She had just graduated last year and joined the peace corps. So for the past year she has been living in Mongolia (least densely populated place in the world) and teaching English. For her summer break she came down to NZ to visit me (after a week with her family in Australia). Our plan was to do a week in the North Island of NZ and then a week in Fiji. And that's just what we did.
So Lara arrived on Saturday in the afternoon. I picked her up at the airport (I was late! Oops!) and we hopped a bus from there to downtown. I wasn't going to give her any down time. We were headed straight to Waiheke (an Island in that has several towns on it that is situated in the Auckland Harbour). I had a friend who had a house boat on Waiheke and was throwing a goodbye get together there for me. So we caught the ferry and went straight over. Once arriving we got groceries and made our way to the houseboat. The whole night was a lot of fun especially in such a rustic setting as this houseboat. We had to use a long-drop (the NZ word for an outhouse), and the house had no electricity so we partied using candles and a gas lantern. The boat was docked in the middle of a mangrove swamp, and the water was full of phosphurscent algae so when you splashed it than it lit up neon green momentarily. It was really cool. We made a huge soup dish for dinner. Lara was lucky enough to find a hair band in her serving, "Michelle did you lose a hairband while you were cooking?" was probably the hardest I had laughed in a long time. In the morning we through some tuna in the water and watched the eels come in and eat it. Then we went for a walk and saw some of the ugliest ducks I have ever laid eyes on (and these ugly ducks will never grow into beautiful swans). We took the ferry back that evening and got dinner at my favorite food court. Lara was in constant amazement and the ease of life here (they have no hot water in Mongolia and electricity is pretty on and off) (not to mention it gets down to -40 degrees there). After dinner we saw Robin Hood because Lara hadn't been to a cinema in over a year. By the way, HORRIBLE film! Afterwards we drove Thomas's brother home, because Thomas was kind enough to lend me his car the next day.
So the next morning we relaxed in the morning. We did some laundry and got our all together all together. Around noon we decided to leave (I was taking Lara to a west coast beach, Karekare). We got to the car, and started it.... or tried to start it. Nothing was happening. The battery wasn't dead, but the engine wasn't catching. So then we thought it had been pretty low on gas when we had parked it last night. So, after trying to push start it to no avail, we decided to walk to a gas station. When we arrived the woman said that they had no gas tank to lend us because some one had made off with their last one. So we then walked to a mechanic's, and Lara used her womanly wiles to get a gas container from then. Then it was back to the gas station, then to the car. When we finally got to the car, we realized that the spout on the container the mechanic had given us was the wrong fit. We couldn't get a seal between the container and the spout. So we had to try and hold the two together as tightly as we could while we poured. After pouring about half the container (1/4 in the car and 1/4 all over ourselves) we tried again. The car still didn't start. So the rest of the gas went in, but the car still refused to start. At that point, I was out of ideas. Lara ran across the street to a man outside of an Auto shop and brought him back. He sat down in the drivers seat, turn the key, and the car started immediately..... I HATE THAT! Haha. Apparently I just need to tap the gas pedal while starting it to feed some gas into the lines.
Anyways with that adventure behind us, we went to the beach and went for a walk. Now I knew that it had been raining a lot, but I was unaware of just how much. When we got to the carpark, we decided to take the path so we didn't have to get our feet wet (It is Winter over here.) What I didn't realize was that the path was also covered in a river about ankle deep. So we then waded through that went for a walk on the beach, got caught in a downpour, and then waded our way back to the car. (Not our ideal day, but actually a lot of fun.) When we got home Lara met Leigh, Christoph, and Yannik. We cooked dinner for them that night (which also turned out somewhat disastrously, but I think they appreciated the gesture.)
The next morning we were up bright and early, packed our bags and took Thomas's car back to him on the North Shore. However we failed to predict traffic on our way back, and just managed to catch our bus (I mean like almost ran it down sort of thing). But we made it and so we caught our bus down to Taupo for the first leg of our journey. Upon arriving in Taupo I immediately called to double check our reservations for ....... Wait for it...... SKYDIVING!!!!!! The company picked us up and drove us out to the airfield. We both got dressed up warmly since it was -10 degrees Celsius at 15,000ft up. So after a 15 minute plane ride we and a man strapped to our backs sat on the edge of a plane 15,000 feet above the ground, and gently threw ourselves out of it. The fall was a blast. It was a whole minute plus of freefall time, and I had told my guy to just have fun as if I wasn't there. So he took it upon himself to do flips and spins and such. It was a great ride down. Then after a minute or so the chute was pulled and I had another 5 minutes or so of looking out at the snowcapped mountains beyond Lake Taupo just as the sun was setting. Stunning!
After our skydiving adventure we got a recommendation for a hostel, checked in, and settled down. We watched the second LOTR movie, and then headed to a bar. See, it was the night of the 1st game of the world cup for NZ. (NZ's All Whites had not been in the world cup for 30 years, and in a country that is fanatical about sports, this was obviously a HUGE deal). So we found a nice pub where we ran into some of our skydive instructors. After a little chat with them the game came on. Now this was a Irish pub, and there were a bunch of Irish men that were apparently very passionate about NZ's All Whites. The game was pretty incredible. We got scored on early in the second half and then in the 90th minute of the game (literally seconds before it ended), we got a header in. Needless to say I learned a couple new curse words that night from the incredibly vocal Irishmen around me. It was a blast though. When we tied at the very end, it was hugs all around. (I've never seen so many grown men cry at once).
The next day we were up early again, and walked to Huka falls, and then back for a lay about in the natural Hot Springs. Once again, we rolled up to our bus just seconds before it was to depart. I actually had to ran for it, and when I caught the bus driver he just looked at his watch and chuckled saying how close we were cutting it. But we caught our bus and made our way down to Wellington (I should mention if only so they live in infamy, that we had the most annoying couple in the world behind us on the bus. Man if I ever sound like that when I'm with my girlfriend in a public location, someone please smack me.) Anyways, at Wellington Jeanie picked us up. (She is a friend of Leigh and Christoph's who I have met, and who my parents and I stayed with when we traveled earlier in the year). So that night we had a delicious dinner and great company.
Then next morning Lara and I spent the day in Wellington. We went to Te Papa (the National Museum of NZ) and then ate at Wagamama (which apparently means "naughty child") where I had my first eddimomy (that is definitely not how spell it, but I'm going phonetically). After lunch we went to the National Tattoo Museum (Kiwi's have some awesome tattoo's not to mention the native culture of tattooing among the Maori's). This museum obviously had been downgraded from what it once was. It was a bit of a bust to be honest, but it was free, and we saw some cool pictures. Afterwards we bought a cake and some wine for Jeanie and Larry and made our way back to their place. (Which I should say is always fun. Jeanie is just a blast to be around and so funny, not to mention she has some great stories. And Larry (an American) is always happy when he meets a fellow countrymen, and after 40 years in the Marines, he has some incredible stories too. (and he likes to share them))
Well the next morning found us being dropped off at the airport fly over to Fiji. Our first week was over. The airport was uneventful, except that Lara forgot to print her return ticket off, and supposedly you have to have proof that you also have a ticket to leave a country if you are going to enter the country. But we printed one off at the office, and it was no big deal. We landed in Fiji in easily about 85 degree weather. We had planned to couchsurf while there. So Lara had arranged for us to stay with this family in Nadi (city where the airport is). As we were leaving the airport a man came up to us and asked where we were going. The conversation went something like this:
Man: Bula, May I ask were you are staying?
Lara: Oh we know people here
Man: But where are you staying.
Lara: Oh we are just staying with some friends.
Man: Oh, so you have friends here.
Lara: Ya.
Man: Well where are they?
Lara: You mean like where do the live?
Man: Yes, where are you staying?
Lara: Like the address its um here
Me: (Staring back and forth between them at this bizarre exchange and deciding whether this man was planning to either scam us or mug us.)
Man: Oh Diane and Paul. I know them.
Lara: Wait you know these guys.
Man: Yes Diane and Paul, many people stay with them. That woman over there is waiting for you.
It was then that we saw the woman in the corner holding a sign saying "Lara and friend". So she set us up with a taxi and sent us on our way. Before going to Diane and Paul's though we got the taxi driver to give us a tour of Nadi, and ate some fresh coconut from a stand on the side of the road. When we did arrive at Diane and Paul's, we were greeted at a gate by a group of Rockweilers and a man with a gash in his side about 3 inches long, a half inch wide and an inch deep (quite literally an inch deep so you could see like flesh). I thought, this is a little bizarre, but then Diane came out and greeted us and introduced us to Paul. Diane breeds Rockweilers which explained them, and Noah, the guy with the gash had had a cyst that took a nasty turn which is where the gash came from. (Hospitals don't have the best medicine in Fiji, so they were treating it with herbal salves and it was getting better (I would have hate to of seen it when it was worse. Yikes!)) Noah it turned out was a travel agent, and so we talked that night about our plan for Fiji, and he set us up with a good package and so the next morning we were hopping on a boat and making our way to Mana Island.
Mana is where Survivor Fiji was filmed (they still had the set there, they had just left it sitting there. It was pretty disgusting how we had never cleaned up after ourselves), and right next to the island where Cast Away had been filmed. We stayed at a backpackers there for $30 US a night with all food included. It was pretty awesome. One day we went out snorkeling, and had literally the best snorkel I have ever had in my life. (Even better than the Great Barrier Reef). Most the time was spent relaxing on a beach or swimming in gorgeous turquoise water, or playing foosball in the backpackers. Mana also had a village on it. (Many Fijians still live in rural villages on islands). So it was nice to be able to walk through a village, and meet native Fijians. See the kids in the school and listen in on a church service. On night I was walking back to my bunk when I started talking to several Fijians who were sitting around drinking Kava. (Kava is the traditional Fijian drink. It was made from the root of a Kava tree/plant. They grind it up and mix it with water. Its not alcoholic as many people think, but it does numb your tongue and makes you a little drowsy. It also should be noted many people hate it and compare it to mudwater (which is what it does look like and partially taste like)) Anyways, they invited me to join them, and so all night I spent just hanging out with the villagers and learning my Fijian phrases and joking around. That was really cool cause for the rest of my time there I could refer to people by name and talk to them lightly in Fijian. Anyways, it was really neat to kind of get a real taste of Fijian life from the village.
I should also comment that Lara and I were scheduled to have a room to ourselves, but we decided when we got there why not just crash in a dorm so we can meet people easier. So they moved us.... to another room with just two single beds in it. Pretty much the same as what we had before. However the next day we found out the bed they had given us originally had been given to another couple after we changed rooms, and that couple had been attacked by bed bugs in the middle of the night. Funny how fate works sometimes.
At any rate, after 3 nights at Mana we went to Kuata which was definitely a little more upscale but a lot more tame. It was a nice transition after going from a young place with a good share of nightlife, and bad food and bad beds we moved to a place where the food was good and we had our own room, and we went to bed at 10 rather than 3. So it was a good way to end the trip. We spent 2 nights in Kuata. While there, I was able to go spear fishing... Awesome! Mark that off my life list. And we went snorkeling with reef sharks. You could swim down and if you were fast enough grab there fin and get pulled along by them. Another life goal to mark off. I also got a message outside in a cave (for ridiculously cheap) while I listened to the ocean waves break on the beach (this sound was only slightly deterred by the gaggle of Fijian women gossiping around me in a foreign language).
All in all, an incredible week. Fiji was fantastic, and I would recommend it to anyone. Lara and I made our way back to Auckland (flying on Air NZ which is even better than Quantas! I didn't know it was possible to be better than Quantas!) Her last day we took it easy, and went out to dinner with Leigh and Christoph and then rented a movie and watched it. The next day, we went out to a cafe for breakfast right before I took her to the airport. When we went to leave I realized that I had left the lights on and the battery was dead. Yay Dead Car Adventures. Haha. Fortunately we were in a parking lot with lots of help around. It started pretty quickly with a jump. After dropping her off I realized I only had a week left.
That night I went to a "fancy dress" party. Which I should let those of you in the states know, THAT DOES NOT MEAN BE FANCY! Apparently "fancy dress" in NZ means a costume party. Well I felt silly. Let me just say that. But I had an incredible time. It was a lot of fun.
Since then this week has been more of the same wrapping up stuff as before. And now I have wrapped up my blog for the time being. Thanks for listening. Sorry its such a novel. Next time I talk I may well be in Melbourne. Well. Cheers. I'm on my way home guys.
Wes
So to take it from the beginning I was having an old friend from the States visit me here in NZ. She had just graduated last year and joined the peace corps. So for the past year she has been living in Mongolia (least densely populated place in the world) and teaching English. For her summer break she came down to NZ to visit me (after a week with her family in Australia). Our plan was to do a week in the North Island of NZ and then a week in Fiji. And that's just what we did.
So Lara arrived on Saturday in the afternoon. I picked her up at the airport (I was late! Oops!) and we hopped a bus from there to downtown. I wasn't going to give her any down time. We were headed straight to Waiheke (an Island in that has several towns on it that is situated in the Auckland Harbour). I had a friend who had a house boat on Waiheke and was throwing a goodbye get together there for me. So we caught the ferry and went straight over. Once arriving we got groceries and made our way to the houseboat. The whole night was a lot of fun especially in such a rustic setting as this houseboat. We had to use a long-drop (the NZ word for an outhouse), and the house had no electricity so we partied using candles and a gas lantern. The boat was docked in the middle of a mangrove swamp, and the water was full of phosphurscent algae so when you splashed it than it lit up neon green momentarily. It was really cool. We made a huge soup dish for dinner. Lara was lucky enough to find a hair band in her serving, "Michelle did you lose a hairband while you were cooking?" was probably the hardest I had laughed in a long time. In the morning we through some tuna in the water and watched the eels come in and eat it. Then we went for a walk and saw some of the ugliest ducks I have ever laid eyes on (and these ugly ducks will never grow into beautiful swans). We took the ferry back that evening and got dinner at my favorite food court. Lara was in constant amazement and the ease of life here (they have no hot water in Mongolia and electricity is pretty on and off) (not to mention it gets down to -40 degrees there). After dinner we saw Robin Hood because Lara hadn't been to a cinema in over a year. By the way, HORRIBLE film! Afterwards we drove Thomas's brother home, because Thomas was kind enough to lend me his car the next day.
So the next morning we relaxed in the morning. We did some laundry and got our all together all together. Around noon we decided to leave (I was taking Lara to a west coast beach, Karekare). We got to the car, and started it.... or tried to start it. Nothing was happening. The battery wasn't dead, but the engine wasn't catching. So then we thought it had been pretty low on gas when we had parked it last night. So, after trying to push start it to no avail, we decided to walk to a gas station. When we arrived the woman said that they had no gas tank to lend us because some one had made off with their last one. So we then walked to a mechanic's, and Lara used her womanly wiles to get a gas container from then. Then it was back to the gas station, then to the car. When we finally got to the car, we realized that the spout on the container the mechanic had given us was the wrong fit. We couldn't get a seal between the container and the spout. So we had to try and hold the two together as tightly as we could while we poured. After pouring about half the container (1/4 in the car and 1/4 all over ourselves) we tried again. The car still didn't start. So the rest of the gas went in, but the car still refused to start. At that point, I was out of ideas. Lara ran across the street to a man outside of an Auto shop and brought him back. He sat down in the drivers seat, turn the key, and the car started immediately..... I HATE THAT! Haha. Apparently I just need to tap the gas pedal while starting it to feed some gas into the lines.
Anyways with that adventure behind us, we went to the beach and went for a walk. Now I knew that it had been raining a lot, but I was unaware of just how much. When we got to the carpark, we decided to take the path so we didn't have to get our feet wet (It is Winter over here.) What I didn't realize was that the path was also covered in a river about ankle deep. So we then waded through that went for a walk on the beach, got caught in a downpour, and then waded our way back to the car. (Not our ideal day, but actually a lot of fun.) When we got home Lara met Leigh, Christoph, and Yannik. We cooked dinner for them that night (which also turned out somewhat disastrously, but I think they appreciated the gesture.)
The next morning we were up bright and early, packed our bags and took Thomas's car back to him on the North Shore. However we failed to predict traffic on our way back, and just managed to catch our bus (I mean like almost ran it down sort of thing). But we made it and so we caught our bus down to Taupo for the first leg of our journey. Upon arriving in Taupo I immediately called to double check our reservations for ....... Wait for it...... SKYDIVING!!!!!! The company picked us up and drove us out to the airfield. We both got dressed up warmly since it was -10 degrees Celsius at 15,000ft up. So after a 15 minute plane ride we and a man strapped to our backs sat on the edge of a plane 15,000 feet above the ground, and gently threw ourselves out of it. The fall was a blast. It was a whole minute plus of freefall time, and I had told my guy to just have fun as if I wasn't there. So he took it upon himself to do flips and spins and such. It was a great ride down. Then after a minute or so the chute was pulled and I had another 5 minutes or so of looking out at the snowcapped mountains beyond Lake Taupo just as the sun was setting. Stunning!
After our skydiving adventure we got a recommendation for a hostel, checked in, and settled down. We watched the second LOTR movie, and then headed to a bar. See, it was the night of the 1st game of the world cup for NZ. (NZ's All Whites had not been in the world cup for 30 years, and in a country that is fanatical about sports, this was obviously a HUGE deal). So we found a nice pub where we ran into some of our skydive instructors. After a little chat with them the game came on. Now this was a Irish pub, and there were a bunch of Irish men that were apparently very passionate about NZ's All Whites. The game was pretty incredible. We got scored on early in the second half and then in the 90th minute of the game (literally seconds before it ended), we got a header in. Needless to say I learned a couple new curse words that night from the incredibly vocal Irishmen around me. It was a blast though. When we tied at the very end, it was hugs all around. (I've never seen so many grown men cry at once).
The next day we were up early again, and walked to Huka falls, and then back for a lay about in the natural Hot Springs. Once again, we rolled up to our bus just seconds before it was to depart. I actually had to ran for it, and when I caught the bus driver he just looked at his watch and chuckled saying how close we were cutting it. But we caught our bus and made our way down to Wellington (I should mention if only so they live in infamy, that we had the most annoying couple in the world behind us on the bus. Man if I ever sound like that when I'm with my girlfriend in a public location, someone please smack me.) Anyways, at Wellington Jeanie picked us up. (She is a friend of Leigh and Christoph's who I have met, and who my parents and I stayed with when we traveled earlier in the year). So that night we had a delicious dinner and great company.
Then next morning Lara and I spent the day in Wellington. We went to Te Papa (the National Museum of NZ) and then ate at Wagamama (which apparently means "naughty child") where I had my first eddimomy (that is definitely not how spell it, but I'm going phonetically). After lunch we went to the National Tattoo Museum (Kiwi's have some awesome tattoo's not to mention the native culture of tattooing among the Maori's). This museum obviously had been downgraded from what it once was. It was a bit of a bust to be honest, but it was free, and we saw some cool pictures. Afterwards we bought a cake and some wine for Jeanie and Larry and made our way back to their place. (Which I should say is always fun. Jeanie is just a blast to be around and so funny, not to mention she has some great stories. And Larry (an American) is always happy when he meets a fellow countrymen, and after 40 years in the Marines, he has some incredible stories too. (and he likes to share them))
Well the next morning found us being dropped off at the airport fly over to Fiji. Our first week was over. The airport was uneventful, except that Lara forgot to print her return ticket off, and supposedly you have to have proof that you also have a ticket to leave a country if you are going to enter the country. But we printed one off at the office, and it was no big deal. We landed in Fiji in easily about 85 degree weather. We had planned to couchsurf while there. So Lara had arranged for us to stay with this family in Nadi (city where the airport is). As we were leaving the airport a man came up to us and asked where we were going. The conversation went something like this:
Man: Bula, May I ask were you are staying?
Lara: Oh we know people here
Man: But where are you staying.
Lara: Oh we are just staying with some friends.
Man: Oh, so you have friends here.
Lara: Ya.
Man: Well where are they?
Lara: You mean like where do the live?
Man: Yes, where are you staying?
Lara: Like the address its um here
Me: (Staring back and forth between them at this bizarre exchange and deciding whether this man was planning to either scam us or mug us.)
Man: Oh Diane and Paul. I know them.
Lara: Wait you know these guys.
Man: Yes Diane and Paul, many people stay with them. That woman over there is waiting for you.
It was then that we saw the woman in the corner holding a sign saying "Lara and friend". So she set us up with a taxi and sent us on our way. Before going to Diane and Paul's though we got the taxi driver to give us a tour of Nadi, and ate some fresh coconut from a stand on the side of the road. When we did arrive at Diane and Paul's, we were greeted at a gate by a group of Rockweilers and a man with a gash in his side about 3 inches long, a half inch wide and an inch deep (quite literally an inch deep so you could see like flesh). I thought, this is a little bizarre, but then Diane came out and greeted us and introduced us to Paul. Diane breeds Rockweilers which explained them, and Noah, the guy with the gash had had a cyst that took a nasty turn which is where the gash came from. (Hospitals don't have the best medicine in Fiji, so they were treating it with herbal salves and it was getting better (I would have hate to of seen it when it was worse. Yikes!)) Noah it turned out was a travel agent, and so we talked that night about our plan for Fiji, and he set us up with a good package and so the next morning we were hopping on a boat and making our way to Mana Island.
Mana is where Survivor Fiji was filmed (they still had the set there, they had just left it sitting there. It was pretty disgusting how we had never cleaned up after ourselves), and right next to the island where Cast Away had been filmed. We stayed at a backpackers there for $30 US a night with all food included. It was pretty awesome. One day we went out snorkeling, and had literally the best snorkel I have ever had in my life. (Even better than the Great Barrier Reef). Most the time was spent relaxing on a beach or swimming in gorgeous turquoise water, or playing foosball in the backpackers. Mana also had a village on it. (Many Fijians still live in rural villages on islands). So it was nice to be able to walk through a village, and meet native Fijians. See the kids in the school and listen in on a church service. On night I was walking back to my bunk when I started talking to several Fijians who were sitting around drinking Kava. (Kava is the traditional Fijian drink. It was made from the root of a Kava tree/plant. They grind it up and mix it with water. Its not alcoholic as many people think, but it does numb your tongue and makes you a little drowsy. It also should be noted many people hate it and compare it to mudwater (which is what it does look like and partially taste like)) Anyways, they invited me to join them, and so all night I spent just hanging out with the villagers and learning my Fijian phrases and joking around. That was really cool cause for the rest of my time there I could refer to people by name and talk to them lightly in Fijian. Anyways, it was really neat to kind of get a real taste of Fijian life from the village.
I should also comment that Lara and I were scheduled to have a room to ourselves, but we decided when we got there why not just crash in a dorm so we can meet people easier. So they moved us.... to another room with just two single beds in it. Pretty much the same as what we had before. However the next day we found out the bed they had given us originally had been given to another couple after we changed rooms, and that couple had been attacked by bed bugs in the middle of the night. Funny how fate works sometimes.
At any rate, after 3 nights at Mana we went to Kuata which was definitely a little more upscale but a lot more tame. It was a nice transition after going from a young place with a good share of nightlife, and bad food and bad beds we moved to a place where the food was good and we had our own room, and we went to bed at 10 rather than 3. So it was a good way to end the trip. We spent 2 nights in Kuata. While there, I was able to go spear fishing... Awesome! Mark that off my life list. And we went snorkeling with reef sharks. You could swim down and if you were fast enough grab there fin and get pulled along by them. Another life goal to mark off. I also got a message outside in a cave (for ridiculously cheap) while I listened to the ocean waves break on the beach (this sound was only slightly deterred by the gaggle of Fijian women gossiping around me in a foreign language).
All in all, an incredible week. Fiji was fantastic, and I would recommend it to anyone. Lara and I made our way back to Auckland (flying on Air NZ which is even better than Quantas! I didn't know it was possible to be better than Quantas!) Her last day we took it easy, and went out to dinner with Leigh and Christoph and then rented a movie and watched it. The next day, we went out to a cafe for breakfast right before I took her to the airport. When we went to leave I realized that I had left the lights on and the battery was dead. Yay Dead Car Adventures. Haha. Fortunately we were in a parking lot with lots of help around. It started pretty quickly with a jump. After dropping her off I realized I only had a week left.
That night I went to a "fancy dress" party. Which I should let those of you in the states know, THAT DOES NOT MEAN BE FANCY! Apparently "fancy dress" in NZ means a costume party. Well I felt silly. Let me just say that. But I had an incredible time. It was a lot of fun.
Since then this week has been more of the same wrapping up stuff as before. And now I have wrapped up my blog for the time being. Thanks for listening. Sorry its such a novel. Next time I talk I may well be in Melbourne. Well. Cheers. I'm on my way home guys.
Wes
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The Planning Phase
Hey guys, I know its been about two weeks. But let me tell you, they have been some incredibly uneventful two weeks. Since last we talked, all my time has been spent trying prepare for the upcoming months. My last day of work is to be tomorrow. After that its a tour of the north island, a week in fiji, back here for a couple of days, and then off for 4 months of travel as I make my way back to the States. So in preparation for that, the past two weeks have been a blur of buying plane tickets, finding places to sleep, researching travel plans, contacting old friends, and the like. I, of course have also been preparing my goodbyes. Last night I made my last batch of kasespetzle for the family (a german dish which I taught myself to cook and is one of the house favorites here). Along with saying my goodbyes to extended branches of the Martelli family and distant friends. My last couchsurfing meeting was last night. Which I suppose could have been more eventful, but to be honest I'm just to lazy to meet new people at the moment. Anyways, that has been me recently. Just workin and plannin. My entries from this point on will become more spread out (as if they weren't already) but also FAR more interesting. I love you guys, and I'm on my way home. (Just taking a really round about way of getting there.)
Monday, May 24, 2010
South Island and More
Well once again, I find that I have some catching up to do on my blog, and once more I apologize for that. I believe my last post was on Tuesday or Wed. 2 weeks back. Well lets assume that little happened that week until Friday morning. At that point, Thomas showed up early in the morning to my house, we packed our bags and headed to the airport. We were about to do a week long road trip through the south Island!
Thomas and I arrived at the airport, checked in and hopped on the airplane with little problem. Once we were seated, we were sitting there when a good friend of Thomas's walked by and sat down directly behind us. Unbeknowned to us, he was on his way down to Christchurch (aslo called Chch commonly and pronounced "chch") for work for the week. This was convient as it meant we had a ride from the airport to our car rental location downtown. Thomas and I had rented a Wicked Campervan for a 9 days (Wicked is the name of the company) So we went and grabbed our rental car which was pretty sweet as (came with a table that folded into a bed, a kitchen counter and sink and a tiny propane gas burner). I inspected the car quite thoroughly upon recieving it. This is because for some reason, from my dad I have inherited this belief that all car rental companies want to royally screw you over. Which in the States may be justified, but in a county like NZ its just silly. After point out several minute scratches the man simply replied that he had marked the car as "scratched and nicked in several locations". So after getting our van we did a grocery shop, and decided to get our all together all together, and go meet up with another friend of Thomas's in Chch. His friend was out shopping when we arrived however, so we simply parked in his yard and cooked some sausages on the gas burner. It was very classy.
I should describe to everyone what its like here at the moment quickly. So that you can get a mental picture. We are headed into Winter here, right now. So while it is still early, the south Island is farther south than any other inhabited land in the world except the Chatham Islands. So its cold there right now. Also it is pretty much completely dark by 6, and the sun sets around 5:15-5:30. So whenever I describe dinner or early morning routines, picture it being dark, and very cold. (An Awesome Vacation)
Anyways, I digress. Thomas's friend arrived later, and we spent the evening relaxing with them. Later in the night we went and met up with another mutual friend of ours to watch some rugby, but that didn't last long, and then we were back to the car to sleep.
The next morning we were up packed, and out by about 9:30. We drove from Christchurch through Arthur's Pass. On our way we passed by Castle Rock, which was a massive rock formation with giant rocks towering everywhere in the middle of this empty field. It was really neat. Then we swung by Devil's Punchbowl Falls, where we hiked up to the waterfall. Because it was raining the falls were really going. We got thoroughly soaked, and headed back to the car pretty quickly. At the car we decided it was time for some lunch in the parking lot we popped the trunk, set up some chairs around the burner, and heated up some meat pies. However it wasn't long until sand flies started to attack us by the swarms. So we decided to move on and hold off on cooking. As we pulled out of the parking lot we passed two young people walking towards the falls. Thomas remarked how they looked like two good friends of ours from back in Auckland. After a brief pause I corrected him and said they WERE our two friends from Auckland. It was pretty remarkable that I travelled to the oppisite end of the country and was still running into people I knew in a community where the population is less than 40. We chatted briefly, but the sand flies continued to drive us bonkers. So we rolled the windows up and Thomas drove while I went on a murderous rampage against the sand flies. There was a path of dead flies left by our van, I will say that much. We pulled in shortly to an overlook to clean the van of our half cooked lunch. The overlook let us look from above at Arthur's Pass, which was just spectacular. While we were there we were viciously attacked, this time by a slightly larger foe. Several Kea's (pronounced key-ya (only picture the ya part of that as pronounced by a jamacian saying "ya mon") arrived to the scene, and decided the rubber on our van looked tasty. A Kea is one of NZ's many awesome unique birds. One of the few flightless parrots in the world, (or maybe the only) it is also quite friendly and has a vicious little beak. This beak it uses to remove the rubber from window frames or the seals from sun roofs. So while you want to be nice and loving towards this pretty cool bird; you are a little annoyed when it starts destroying your rental car. (Especially when you have an innate sense that all rental companies are trying to royally screw you.)
Well we left the lookout, and moved on to Pancake Rocks on the West coast. We arrived just as sun was setting. Pancake Rocks is a unique location where all the rocks are sandstone, and have taken on an crazy wavy shape to them. More than this it is also full of blowholes. So you can watch these really special looking rocks, and suddenly water will shoot out of them 15 feet into the air. Its pretty awesome (sorry you guys must get bored of my adjectives). After Pancake Rocks we hopped in the car and since it was dark we just drove to our sleeping spot just outside of Franz Josef Glacier.
The next morning we awoke to a misty morning. We cooked some toast for breakfast, and then headed into the tiny town of Franz Josef. After a quick stop at the visitors center, we headed off the the glacier. Rather than doing a guided tour we thought we would hike in ourselves and see how close we could get. In the end we made it roughly 50 yards from the base of the glacier. It is found in this large river basin with huge cliffs on each side. It was a striking walk, and being infront of a massive glacier surrounded by high cliffs really gave you a sense of being small. A humbling experience. From there we walked back and decided to swing by Fox Glacier as well. At Fox we stopped by a dairy, and picked up some food. Then we thought we would go for a walk around a lake before hitting up Fox. So we found this lake and walked around it. It was about a 2 hour walk, the whole time with Mt Cook and Mt Taranaki (the two biggest mountains in NZ) sitting directly in front of us. When we got to the far side of the lake you were supposed to see a perfect reflection of Mt. Cook and Taranaki in the water. However the clouds had rolled in and we missed it. Fifteen minutes later the clouds were gone, but we had moved on. It was pretty breathtaking anyway you viewed it really. After that we went to Fox, but the glacier hike was closed due to flash flooding (always a problem around moving glaciers).
So on to Wanaka we drove. However upon our drive there we greatly overestimated the South Island's ability to provide us with gas in completely rugged terrain. So we rolled into a lodge somewhere in the mountains just on fumes. However by then it was 6:30 so all the gas stations were closed anyways. We decided after much thinking to pay the 20 dollars to turn the gas pumps back on and move on to Wanaka.
We arrived in Wanaka and found a pretty dead town (granted it was a Sunday night). We walked around for a little bit, but then decided to just find a place to sleep and figure out what to do in the morning. Now we had been warned that Wanaka was really intense about "Freedom Camping". A term and law that complete baffled me. Apparently Thomas and I were "Freedom Campers" and being a "Freedom Camper" was not a good thing. It meant that we were camping in nondesignated camping sites. Which meant we were not paying money (which is why we were doing it) but apparently it was against the law. But I figured can they really bother you for sleeping in your car. Can't you just say you were to tired to drive farther and needed a bit of shuteye to be safe to drive. Well just to be safe I drove a good 13km out of town. There I found a picnic spot. It had a sign that said no camping but there was already another campervan parked there so we figured "Why not?". So off to bed we went. We finally had our sleeping routine down, and so we slept soundly.... That is until about 3:45 or 4 when we heard a loud knocking on our window. I woke up and shuck Thomas awake, "Thomas I think we are being arrested." I said. He simply replied "I told you." and rolled over and went back to bed. So I crawled over the chair and rolled the window down. There was a DOC (Department of Conservation) man standing there with a flash light. He explained that we were illegal, and why, and then the reprecussions of our actions which were up to a $500 fine, and that a police officer was on his way. I played it ignorantly, which was helped by the now 2 other campervans parked next to us also camping. I hopped in the drivers seat at 4 in the morning in just my boxers while it was roughly 3C or 36F degrees inside the van, and drove back into town to the registered campsite. Well... it was a good learning experience I suppose.
The next morning we awoke to see what we could not see when we arrived the night before. Wanaka is a beautiful town that sits right on the edge of Lake Wanaka. Just on the other side of the town, surrounding the lake, are massive snowcapped mountains. It was grand landscape. We swung by the visitors center and then headed to "Puzzling World" a place for adults to have a brainteaser or two. It houses NZ largest (and probably only) outdoor life-size maze. Its not a childish little maze either, it was built for adults, and usually takes about 2 hours to complete. The best part is the cafe at the building's entrance has brainteasers and puzzles on all their tables. So Thomas and I went in and just played games for free at the cafe for an hour and a half. Then it was such a pretty day out we decided we should go for a hike while we could. On our way out we saw a sign for the psychic challenge, which I thought was a pretty awesome thing. The psychic challenge was a challenge done by "The Puzzling World". Anyone attempting the challenge had to put up an entry fee of $1000. They then had 1 day to find a token that was hidden somewhere on the property. They were allowed to ask the man that hid it any questions they wanted and he had to answer them. However he could only "think" his answer. If the contestant found the token they won $10,000. If not the $1000 dollar entry fee was donated to a charity of "Puzzling World"'s choice. Essentially it was the "Puzzling World" trying to disprove psychics. Since starting 13 years ago, I think they have had like 6 proclaimed psychics attempt the challenge, none of them finding the token. I thought it was a pretty awesome challenged they had posed, and for a good cause since the money goes to charity.
Anyways, after Puzzling World we drove back out to where we had tried to sleep the night before an had our lunch. Then we drove another Km and went on a hike up Diamond Mountain. It was about a 3 and a half hour hike, which ended in a majestic view. With the lake sprawled out before us and us staring out at snowcapped mountains in every direction it truly was breathtaking. While there we decided we should move on to Queenstown that day. So upon our return we packed up, and made sure we filled up on gas before moving on to Queenstown. We arrived just before dark and were able to see another of those annoyingly repetitive gorgeous towns sitting on a lake surrounded by snowcapped mountain ranges. Its so beautiful you lose a sense of just how special it is because you see it everywhere in the south Island.
That night we scoped out the town, had some fish and chips, and found a nice quite residential street that we thought we could get away with sleeping on. Queenstown is very much a tourist town. A lot of young people go through there. It is the self proclaimed adventure sport capital of the world. Whatever you want to do they have it there. If you want to hike, ski, jet boat, paraglide, ski dive, bungy jump, etc. They have it. Might I mention it is where bungy jumping was invented. By good old AJ Hackett. At any rate, that night we went out for a bit and met up with a crowd of young people. I met a girl who said she had bought the last slot to go bungy jumping the next day. I was alittle disappointed to hear that since Thomas and I had planned to go bungy jumping the next day.
Well, we woke up bright and early the next morning. We were not bothered on our street, but we thought it best to move early in case anybody was coming. Thomas decided he wanted a shower bad enough that he was going to go for a dip in the lake. Let me just say that I believe it was this morning that we woke up and it was 1 degree outside (now that I think about it, it was also probably 1 degree inside too since our van didn't have a heater running through the night or anything). Anyways, so Thomas took a bath in water so cold I can't imagine, all the while I video taped it laughing. Then we swung by the bungy jumping office to see if anybody had cancelled. It turned out there were exactly 2 spots left for just the time slot we wanted. So... We did it. We had to check back in at 2 so until then we decide to hike Queenstown Hill. Again, majestic view at the top, awesome hike, you know the story. Haha. There was such grandeur there. Anyways, we finished our hike, made some lunch, and walked back to the bungy jumping center where they prepared us. Soon we were hopping on a bus and being driven to the location.
Now, again, I should give you some side information. Thomas and I had decided to do the Nevis bungy jump. This being the 2nd Gnarliest bungy jump in the world. It is a 134 metre fall which is 144 yards I believe. It is an 8.5 second freefall while going over 80 mph. You achieve 80 mph in the about 1.1 seconds. Its done over a river and at the bottom you are only about 25 feet from the ground after falling for 8 seconds. I was fine, until I got there and saw it. For this bungy you have to get in a Gondola and then get taken out to a platform that is just dangling there 140 metres over the gorge suspended by 2 wires. They do it by heaviest to lightest, and so that meant that Thomas was first. However since I was his friend and sent out there with him, it also means that I was 2nd even though I was probably the lightest in the group. Once we got off the gondola and were standing in the platform is when it really hits you. Not to mention they put a glass floor in the base of the gondola so you can see just how far down it is. Watching other people jump you realize just how long 8 seconds is. 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... Well, as Thomas got suited up I watched the group that was in front of us jump. As all these tiny girls walked up to the edge and jumped I thought "Alright, not a problem, I can do this". So by the time Thomas was about to go I thought I was good to go. But then they took me to the front and strapped me in. While I was being loaded Thomas was pulled back up. I only saw him for a minute before my attention was focused on the 134 metre plunge I was about to do. When I walked up to the ledge and looked down said, "Oh Shit!" and then thought "nope, not happening" But then seconds later I was somehow falling without anything beneath me. I don't really remember the act of jumping, but somehow I did it. And 8 seconds later I was estatic, that and singing freefalling at the top of my lungs. What a rush it was, and even though it was only 8 seconds and very expensive, it was kind of one of those character building things. I'd gladly do it again in an instant.
Not only was it fun, we met some really cool people who jumped with us that we went out with that night. The next day was all a bit of a shazy day after a late night with several Norwegians. But we drove on to Dunedin as planned. Once there we met up with a CS friend of Thomas's and I went to the swimming pool to have a soak and a shower. That night we parked by the beach and hit the sack. The next day we tooled around Dunedin, seeing the sights and sounds. We explode the University of Otago and the Otago Museum. That night we met up with some other CSer's who invite us to a Muffin Party. So we all made muffins, and then went to some guys house and shared muffins while watching Troll 2 (Definitely the best bad movie of all time. Made even better by the fact that I don't think they ever made a Troll 1.) and playing Go. (A side note, I never thought I'd like a pumpkin and cream cheese muffin, but surprisingly good.) That night we were able to sleep at the CSer's house. So on Saturday, we left Dunedin mid day, and head up the coast back to Chch. Along the way we stopped to see penguins and seals, not to mention Omaru which had an incredible, untouched, Victorian Downtown. There you could still find an authentic Bookbinding business still going. It was pretty neat. Finally though we pulled into Chch and parked the van in the front yard of our friends.
The last day of our trip, Saturday was spent roaming Chch. It was a beautiful day. We went to a market, and watched a couple games of chess on the life size chess board in Cathedral Sq. we returned the van, and celebrated out trip at a micro brewery. Then it was back to Paul's (our friend) for dinner. After dinner one more road trip to see the port of Chch and the city from a great overlook. The next morning it was up at 5:30, at the airport by 6, and back in Auckland by 8:30AM.
Sunday was spent recooperating from our trip and relaxing.
Now to be brief about this past week.
On monday I organized an improv session even though classes were over. It went well. Not many left for me though.
On Tuesday I went and picked up the Wire (a tv series) for Liegh and Christoph, and we watched that all night. Also on Tuesday, Leigh and I gave Yannick a flu shot which meant we had to take him to the doctors and physically restrain him while the doctor gave him the shot. He knew what was coming, and put up a good fight, but finally he resigned himself to it and we were successful. It was the most physical I'd ever had to be with him though. That night he had a siezure and fell off his excersize machine hitting his head pretty hard. But he recovered quickly and was alright.
Wed. I went to CS as usual without much to report.
On Thursday I watched Yannik all night. He started to get sick, and his allergies were acting up which I knew wasn't a good sign.
So on Friday Yannik stayed home all day, and I got to watch him. It wasn't to bad though. That night I went to a goodbye get together for a friend of mine, Vikram.
On Saturday, I went to a goodbye picnic for German Manny Christoph. We did it in Western Springs and had a great day. It was warm, and we had a bbq and everything. Fantastic. Afterwards we all headed over to the big house and continued there. The next morning I was still in the big house after crashing there. So a friend and I decided to grab a bite to eat and see a movie on such a gray day. So we went and saw Brothers. It was a very good movie. It was hard to watch at times I thought but a really good film. I love Jake Gyllenhaal.
So thats been it for me recently. Sorry it probably takes you guys two weeks just to read one of my entries. Well sorry. I only have 17 days left of work now. Won't be long guys. Love you all. And I miss you. Congrats to all the recent UVA grads.
Wes
Thomas and I arrived at the airport, checked in and hopped on the airplane with little problem. Once we were seated, we were sitting there when a good friend of Thomas's walked by and sat down directly behind us. Unbeknowned to us, he was on his way down to Christchurch (aslo called Chch commonly and pronounced "chch") for work for the week. This was convient as it meant we had a ride from the airport to our car rental location downtown. Thomas and I had rented a Wicked Campervan for a 9 days (Wicked is the name of the company) So we went and grabbed our rental car which was pretty sweet as (came with a table that folded into a bed, a kitchen counter and sink and a tiny propane gas burner). I inspected the car quite thoroughly upon recieving it. This is because for some reason, from my dad I have inherited this belief that all car rental companies want to royally screw you over. Which in the States may be justified, but in a county like NZ its just silly. After point out several minute scratches the man simply replied that he had marked the car as "scratched and nicked in several locations". So after getting our van we did a grocery shop, and decided to get our all together all together, and go meet up with another friend of Thomas's in Chch. His friend was out shopping when we arrived however, so we simply parked in his yard and cooked some sausages on the gas burner. It was very classy.
I should describe to everyone what its like here at the moment quickly. So that you can get a mental picture. We are headed into Winter here, right now. So while it is still early, the south Island is farther south than any other inhabited land in the world except the Chatham Islands. So its cold there right now. Also it is pretty much completely dark by 6, and the sun sets around 5:15-5:30. So whenever I describe dinner or early morning routines, picture it being dark, and very cold. (An Awesome Vacation)
Anyways, I digress. Thomas's friend arrived later, and we spent the evening relaxing with them. Later in the night we went and met up with another mutual friend of ours to watch some rugby, but that didn't last long, and then we were back to the car to sleep.
The next morning we were up packed, and out by about 9:30. We drove from Christchurch through Arthur's Pass. On our way we passed by Castle Rock, which was a massive rock formation with giant rocks towering everywhere in the middle of this empty field. It was really neat. Then we swung by Devil's Punchbowl Falls, where we hiked up to the waterfall. Because it was raining the falls were really going. We got thoroughly soaked, and headed back to the car pretty quickly. At the car we decided it was time for some lunch in the parking lot we popped the trunk, set up some chairs around the burner, and heated up some meat pies. However it wasn't long until sand flies started to attack us by the swarms. So we decided to move on and hold off on cooking. As we pulled out of the parking lot we passed two young people walking towards the falls. Thomas remarked how they looked like two good friends of ours from back in Auckland. After a brief pause I corrected him and said they WERE our two friends from Auckland. It was pretty remarkable that I travelled to the oppisite end of the country and was still running into people I knew in a community where the population is less than 40. We chatted briefly, but the sand flies continued to drive us bonkers. So we rolled the windows up and Thomas drove while I went on a murderous rampage against the sand flies. There was a path of dead flies left by our van, I will say that much. We pulled in shortly to an overlook to clean the van of our half cooked lunch. The overlook let us look from above at Arthur's Pass, which was just spectacular. While we were there we were viciously attacked, this time by a slightly larger foe. Several Kea's (pronounced key-ya (only picture the ya part of that as pronounced by a jamacian saying "ya mon") arrived to the scene, and decided the rubber on our van looked tasty. A Kea is one of NZ's many awesome unique birds. One of the few flightless parrots in the world, (or maybe the only) it is also quite friendly and has a vicious little beak. This beak it uses to remove the rubber from window frames or the seals from sun roofs. So while you want to be nice and loving towards this pretty cool bird; you are a little annoyed when it starts destroying your rental car. (Especially when you have an innate sense that all rental companies are trying to royally screw you.)
Well we left the lookout, and moved on to Pancake Rocks on the West coast. We arrived just as sun was setting. Pancake Rocks is a unique location where all the rocks are sandstone, and have taken on an crazy wavy shape to them. More than this it is also full of blowholes. So you can watch these really special looking rocks, and suddenly water will shoot out of them 15 feet into the air. Its pretty awesome (sorry you guys must get bored of my adjectives). After Pancake Rocks we hopped in the car and since it was dark we just drove to our sleeping spot just outside of Franz Josef Glacier.
The next morning we awoke to a misty morning. We cooked some toast for breakfast, and then headed into the tiny town of Franz Josef. After a quick stop at the visitors center, we headed off the the glacier. Rather than doing a guided tour we thought we would hike in ourselves and see how close we could get. In the end we made it roughly 50 yards from the base of the glacier. It is found in this large river basin with huge cliffs on each side. It was a striking walk, and being infront of a massive glacier surrounded by high cliffs really gave you a sense of being small. A humbling experience. From there we walked back and decided to swing by Fox Glacier as well. At Fox we stopped by a dairy, and picked up some food. Then we thought we would go for a walk around a lake before hitting up Fox. So we found this lake and walked around it. It was about a 2 hour walk, the whole time with Mt Cook and Mt Taranaki (the two biggest mountains in NZ) sitting directly in front of us. When we got to the far side of the lake you were supposed to see a perfect reflection of Mt. Cook and Taranaki in the water. However the clouds had rolled in and we missed it. Fifteen minutes later the clouds were gone, but we had moved on. It was pretty breathtaking anyway you viewed it really. After that we went to Fox, but the glacier hike was closed due to flash flooding (always a problem around moving glaciers).
So on to Wanaka we drove. However upon our drive there we greatly overestimated the South Island's ability to provide us with gas in completely rugged terrain. So we rolled into a lodge somewhere in the mountains just on fumes. However by then it was 6:30 so all the gas stations were closed anyways. We decided after much thinking to pay the 20 dollars to turn the gas pumps back on and move on to Wanaka.
We arrived in Wanaka and found a pretty dead town (granted it was a Sunday night). We walked around for a little bit, but then decided to just find a place to sleep and figure out what to do in the morning. Now we had been warned that Wanaka was really intense about "Freedom Camping". A term and law that complete baffled me. Apparently Thomas and I were "Freedom Campers" and being a "Freedom Camper" was not a good thing. It meant that we were camping in nondesignated camping sites. Which meant we were not paying money (which is why we were doing it) but apparently it was against the law. But I figured can they really bother you for sleeping in your car. Can't you just say you were to tired to drive farther and needed a bit of shuteye to be safe to drive. Well just to be safe I drove a good 13km out of town. There I found a picnic spot. It had a sign that said no camping but there was already another campervan parked there so we figured "Why not?". So off to bed we went. We finally had our sleeping routine down, and so we slept soundly.... That is until about 3:45 or 4 when we heard a loud knocking on our window. I woke up and shuck Thomas awake, "Thomas I think we are being arrested." I said. He simply replied "I told you." and rolled over and went back to bed. So I crawled over the chair and rolled the window down. There was a DOC (Department of Conservation) man standing there with a flash light. He explained that we were illegal, and why, and then the reprecussions of our actions which were up to a $500 fine, and that a police officer was on his way. I played it ignorantly, which was helped by the now 2 other campervans parked next to us also camping. I hopped in the drivers seat at 4 in the morning in just my boxers while it was roughly 3C or 36F degrees inside the van, and drove back into town to the registered campsite. Well... it was a good learning experience I suppose.
The next morning we awoke to see what we could not see when we arrived the night before. Wanaka is a beautiful town that sits right on the edge of Lake Wanaka. Just on the other side of the town, surrounding the lake, are massive snowcapped mountains. It was grand landscape. We swung by the visitors center and then headed to "Puzzling World" a place for adults to have a brainteaser or two. It houses NZ largest (and probably only) outdoor life-size maze. Its not a childish little maze either, it was built for adults, and usually takes about 2 hours to complete. The best part is the cafe at the building's entrance has brainteasers and puzzles on all their tables. So Thomas and I went in and just played games for free at the cafe for an hour and a half. Then it was such a pretty day out we decided we should go for a hike while we could. On our way out we saw a sign for the psychic challenge, which I thought was a pretty awesome thing. The psychic challenge was a challenge done by "The Puzzling World". Anyone attempting the challenge had to put up an entry fee of $1000. They then had 1 day to find a token that was hidden somewhere on the property. They were allowed to ask the man that hid it any questions they wanted and he had to answer them. However he could only "think" his answer. If the contestant found the token they won $10,000. If not the $1000 dollar entry fee was donated to a charity of "Puzzling World"'s choice. Essentially it was the "Puzzling World" trying to disprove psychics. Since starting 13 years ago, I think they have had like 6 proclaimed psychics attempt the challenge, none of them finding the token. I thought it was a pretty awesome challenged they had posed, and for a good cause since the money goes to charity.
Anyways, after Puzzling World we drove back out to where we had tried to sleep the night before an had our lunch. Then we drove another Km and went on a hike up Diamond Mountain. It was about a 3 and a half hour hike, which ended in a majestic view. With the lake sprawled out before us and us staring out at snowcapped mountains in every direction it truly was breathtaking. While there we decided we should move on to Queenstown that day. So upon our return we packed up, and made sure we filled up on gas before moving on to Queenstown. We arrived just before dark and were able to see another of those annoyingly repetitive gorgeous towns sitting on a lake surrounded by snowcapped mountain ranges. Its so beautiful you lose a sense of just how special it is because you see it everywhere in the south Island.
That night we scoped out the town, had some fish and chips, and found a nice quite residential street that we thought we could get away with sleeping on. Queenstown is very much a tourist town. A lot of young people go through there. It is the self proclaimed adventure sport capital of the world. Whatever you want to do they have it there. If you want to hike, ski, jet boat, paraglide, ski dive, bungy jump, etc. They have it. Might I mention it is where bungy jumping was invented. By good old AJ Hackett. At any rate, that night we went out for a bit and met up with a crowd of young people. I met a girl who said she had bought the last slot to go bungy jumping the next day. I was alittle disappointed to hear that since Thomas and I had planned to go bungy jumping the next day.
Well, we woke up bright and early the next morning. We were not bothered on our street, but we thought it best to move early in case anybody was coming. Thomas decided he wanted a shower bad enough that he was going to go for a dip in the lake. Let me just say that I believe it was this morning that we woke up and it was 1 degree outside (now that I think about it, it was also probably 1 degree inside too since our van didn't have a heater running through the night or anything). Anyways, so Thomas took a bath in water so cold I can't imagine, all the while I video taped it laughing. Then we swung by the bungy jumping office to see if anybody had cancelled. It turned out there were exactly 2 spots left for just the time slot we wanted. So... We did it. We had to check back in at 2 so until then we decide to hike Queenstown Hill. Again, majestic view at the top, awesome hike, you know the story. Haha. There was such grandeur there. Anyways, we finished our hike, made some lunch, and walked back to the bungy jumping center where they prepared us. Soon we were hopping on a bus and being driven to the location.
Now, again, I should give you some side information. Thomas and I had decided to do the Nevis bungy jump. This being the 2nd Gnarliest bungy jump in the world. It is a 134 metre fall which is 144 yards I believe. It is an 8.5 second freefall while going over 80 mph. You achieve 80 mph in the about 1.1 seconds. Its done over a river and at the bottom you are only about 25 feet from the ground after falling for 8 seconds. I was fine, until I got there and saw it. For this bungy you have to get in a Gondola and then get taken out to a platform that is just dangling there 140 metres over the gorge suspended by 2 wires. They do it by heaviest to lightest, and so that meant that Thomas was first. However since I was his friend and sent out there with him, it also means that I was 2nd even though I was probably the lightest in the group. Once we got off the gondola and were standing in the platform is when it really hits you. Not to mention they put a glass floor in the base of the gondola so you can see just how far down it is. Watching other people jump you realize just how long 8 seconds is. 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... Well, as Thomas got suited up I watched the group that was in front of us jump. As all these tiny girls walked up to the edge and jumped I thought "Alright, not a problem, I can do this". So by the time Thomas was about to go I thought I was good to go. But then they took me to the front and strapped me in. While I was being loaded Thomas was pulled back up. I only saw him for a minute before my attention was focused on the 134 metre plunge I was about to do. When I walked up to the ledge and looked down said, "Oh Shit!" and then thought "nope, not happening" But then seconds later I was somehow falling without anything beneath me. I don't really remember the act of jumping, but somehow I did it. And 8 seconds later I was estatic, that and singing freefalling at the top of my lungs. What a rush it was, and even though it was only 8 seconds and very expensive, it was kind of one of those character building things. I'd gladly do it again in an instant.
Not only was it fun, we met some really cool people who jumped with us that we went out with that night. The next day was all a bit of a shazy day after a late night with several Norwegians. But we drove on to Dunedin as planned. Once there we met up with a CS friend of Thomas's and I went to the swimming pool to have a soak and a shower. That night we parked by the beach and hit the sack. The next day we tooled around Dunedin, seeing the sights and sounds. We explode the University of Otago and the Otago Museum. That night we met up with some other CSer's who invite us to a Muffin Party. So we all made muffins, and then went to some guys house and shared muffins while watching Troll 2 (Definitely the best bad movie of all time. Made even better by the fact that I don't think they ever made a Troll 1.) and playing Go. (A side note, I never thought I'd like a pumpkin and cream cheese muffin, but surprisingly good.) That night we were able to sleep at the CSer's house. So on Saturday, we left Dunedin mid day, and head up the coast back to Chch. Along the way we stopped to see penguins and seals, not to mention Omaru which had an incredible, untouched, Victorian Downtown. There you could still find an authentic Bookbinding business still going. It was pretty neat. Finally though we pulled into Chch and parked the van in the front yard of our friends.
The last day of our trip, Saturday was spent roaming Chch. It was a beautiful day. We went to a market, and watched a couple games of chess on the life size chess board in Cathedral Sq. we returned the van, and celebrated out trip at a micro brewery. Then it was back to Paul's (our friend) for dinner. After dinner one more road trip to see the port of Chch and the city from a great overlook. The next morning it was up at 5:30, at the airport by 6, and back in Auckland by 8:30AM.
Sunday was spent recooperating from our trip and relaxing.
Now to be brief about this past week.
On monday I organized an improv session even though classes were over. It went well. Not many left for me though.
On Tuesday I went and picked up the Wire (a tv series) for Liegh and Christoph, and we watched that all night. Also on Tuesday, Leigh and I gave Yannick a flu shot which meant we had to take him to the doctors and physically restrain him while the doctor gave him the shot. He knew what was coming, and put up a good fight, but finally he resigned himself to it and we were successful. It was the most physical I'd ever had to be with him though. That night he had a siezure and fell off his excersize machine hitting his head pretty hard. But he recovered quickly and was alright.
Wed. I went to CS as usual without much to report.
On Thursday I watched Yannik all night. He started to get sick, and his allergies were acting up which I knew wasn't a good sign.
So on Friday Yannik stayed home all day, and I got to watch him. It wasn't to bad though. That night I went to a goodbye get together for a friend of mine, Vikram.
On Saturday, I went to a goodbye picnic for German Manny Christoph. We did it in Western Springs and had a great day. It was warm, and we had a bbq and everything. Fantastic. Afterwards we all headed over to the big house and continued there. The next morning I was still in the big house after crashing there. So a friend and I decided to grab a bite to eat and see a movie on such a gray day. So we went and saw Brothers. It was a very good movie. It was hard to watch at times I thought but a really good film. I love Jake Gyllenhaal.
So thats been it for me recently. Sorry it probably takes you guys two weeks just to read one of my entries. Well sorry. I only have 17 days left of work now. Won't be long guys. Love you all. And I miss you. Congrats to all the recent UVA grads.
Wes
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
2 More Weeks
Well, another 2 more weeks have come and gone since my last contact with you. My days have been kept extremely busy to tell the truth. We last talked on Wed. I do believe. That thursday I did... something with a friend (goodness now I can't seem to remember).
During the weekend I spent all my time over at Christoph's place (the other male nanny). His family was away for the weekend so I could crash there. On friday night I went over to his place, along with Thomas and Mona (she was Thomas's couchsurfer). At about 10 we decided that we were all really lame and tired. However Christoph and I felt obligated to make a night of it. So Thomas and Mona drove home, dropping Christoph and I off in town. We listened to a song or two at the fiddler, and then moved our way down to the Viaduct to meet up with Kevin. We went into the bar Kevin had stated he was in. However Christoph had forgot his ID so we had to have a staring contest with the bouncer, and then play 20 questions with him, then was warned that if we got drunk he'd come in and "kick our asses out". But he let us by. So we made our way in and went around back looking for Kevin. Only to find, once we were on the back patio, that Kevin was looking at us from the bar across the street. Annoyingly we left the bar we had just worked so hard to enter. We crossed the street to "Cowboys" (a bar with a somewhat questionable name). There we succeeded in nicking two Cowboy hats so that we blended in with the rest of the crowd (except Christoph's who's hat was bright pink. He actually stood out a little more than blended in.) After a good time at Cowboys we headed to the Imperial, hat in hand where we met up with a friend of ours who was bartending. There we all decided that we should try an accent for the rest of the evening, and so I decide that from then on I had grown up in Ireland. This led to quite a few hilarious introductions as I tried to justify why my Irish accent was so tweaked. I had to explain that though i grew up in Dublin, I had spent many years in the States as well. That was why my accent was a little off. I also checked #462 off a life list of goals which would be a flaming shot. Apparently there is a very famous french drink that is swirled around in the mouth for some time, and then the head is tipped back and you put a lighter to the mouth. Since I was with two french friends, I at one point looked over and found one with his mouth open and flames shooting out of it. I thought, "I have to try this." However its a lot harder to remember the proper order of things while you are mid action. So once my mouth was on fire I kind of stupid there sheepishly for several moments before everyone yelled at me to close my mouth and swallow. Anyways, I've now done flaming hackey sack and a flaming shot. I seem to have a lot of life goals involving fire. At any rate, the night progressed, and we Christoph and I decided to head for a bus. However since it was 3:15 it was difficult to find a bus still running (we also weren't aided by the fact that I was still asking all the questions in an Irish accent and then explaining were in Dublin I was from) So after about a half hour we thought, "no big deal, We'll walk home." .... ..... 1 hour .... .... 2 hours .... 2 and a half hours later at roughly 6 in the morning, we arrive home.
Needless to say we woke up late in the day. We had a pretty lazy day, and watched movies in the hot tub, and with some popcorn. The night we headed off to Thiago and Samantha's farewell party at the big house. (they were two Brazilian friends, Tu du bein?). It was a lovely night, and great to see them one last time. Christoph and I ended up sleeping at the big house that night. I slept outside in the hammock again (which again was awesome).
The following day we sat around and watched movies and ate KK (DELICIOUS!! Malaysian food). Pretty much all weekend Christoph and I were giants wastes of space really. But its good to have weekends like that every once in a while.
Monday found me at my 2nd to last week of improv. It was a lot of fun, and we are really coming together as a group which is really great.
Sorry its around here that my days start to get fuzzy. I can't really remember if I did anything the next Tuesday. But I'm sure if I did then it was incredible. The same somewhat goes for Wed. and Thursday. Oh ya, on Wed I went out to Mission Bay with Julia (a French girl who was Marine's sister. (I know these names mean nothing to you guys, but bear with me)) That night I went to CS drinks. On Friday, Thomas and I planned a trip to go up north, but plans changed and we never went up there. That night Thomas Christoph and I went out. We took it rather easy though and I went home early.
Saturday morning I got up early and packed, and then went out and picked up Marine and her sister. We went and spent the day at Bethells Beach. It was a great time with perfect weather. We made a mean sand castle and then went above and beyond, and built a whole village surrounding it (complete with a witch's hut by the stream in the woods behind the Castle. We also made our way to the caves at the far end of the beach after exploring those we did a little photo shoot outside the entrance. Little did we notice how quickly the tide was coming in. I became suddenly aware of it when my entire back side became completely drenched in water. It was a long cold walk back to the car after that. That night, I offered to babysit for Andrew and Kirstin (Leigh's sister and brother in law). Sometime I am glad I am with a severely autistic child, because after a night with a 10 and 8 year old having to entertain them all night, I was EXHAUSTED!
Anyways, this past week has been rather busy. All my attention at night has been focused on improv. During the afternoon, I tried to keep busy with doing yard work for the family. Monday was our last official improv class. On Tuesday we had a workshop with the other members of the Covert Theatre who we would be performing with. Then... Da da da, Wed. was our first night of performance. I should fill you in I suppose and say that right now in Auckland is the International Comedy Festival. Acts from all over the world come for 3 weeks of comedy shows. We were performing as part of this festival. The show was set up in the form of a Comedy Sports style (really the format was called the Jester (with an individual performer each night being declared "The Jester")) Anyways, every night we had a different number of performers. On Wed. I think we were all nervous not knowing how good it would be. For a lot of people it was their first time performing ever. However our MC did a great job of keeping the audience engaged and explaining a lot of people were new to performance. We pulled in about 80-90 people a night on average I would say. I was fortunate enough to be declared Jester 3 of the 4 nights which was a good feeling. The shows all went far better than expected. We had a fantastic time, and really came together as a group I thought. On Wed. after the show I went to CS. I should say that on the CS webpage I had advertised our show. So while at CS a person came up and was like, "your Wes from the Improv Comedy thing right?" She was studying journalism and had to write a report on something. So I was interviewed and then had a report written about me apparently. It was a nice feeling. On Thursday a bunch of us stayed after to watch Greg Ward's Show "A Brief History of Music". A great mix of one man show and improvised music. Friday night, Jason and I went out and then I met up with Kevin at the Fiddler. It ended up being another late night and we awoke at about 12 the next morning at Kevin's apartment.
Now Saturday I should take a moment to describe. Saturday in NZ was declared J Day. Now I know what V Day is, but I had never heard of J Day before. Apparently J Day, is a day of protest, where they protest for the legalization of Marijuana. Each of the major cities in NZ had a specific location where the protest was to take place. I thought, how interesting, a bunch of pot heads got organized enough for a protest. I wonder if their are signs and a picket line or what. So Kevin and I made our way to Albert Park were the protest was being held. Well let me just say I have never experienced anything quite like what I found there. I think just passing by Albert Park would get people high simply from second hand smoke. When I arrived I noticed the large funnelling of specific looking people entering Albert Park. Long dredlocks and red, yellow, green bandana's were pretty common. Once I entered I was even more amazed. As I looked around me and realized that of the 1000 people there in the park, 950 of them were smoking. Not like hiding it and puffing on something. I mean everyone was openly passing weed back and forth. Rolling joints, hitting bongs, anything and everything. Apparently it was the one day of the year were it was like Marijuana was legal in NZ. The cops did nothing, there was just to many of them to do anything. Supposedly it happened every year, and the government just accepted it as a form of protest. I have never quite seen anything like it. They had DJ's playing Bob Marley and such all day long. With food vendors there to assist those with a bad case of the munchies.
At any rate, we had our last show of the evening that night. Afterwards, a bunch of us went out for food and drinks. It was a really great weekend, and a great way to wrap up my improv here in NZ. I'm really glad I've done it while I've been here. These shows and the friends I've made have definitely made it worth it.
Sunday I took it easy, and now its Monday morning! Whew. Well I think you guys are now officially caught up. Things get even more hectic for me now then previous. I only have about 4 more weeks of work. This friday I leave for the south Island for a week, so if you don't hear from me thats probably why. Love you all. It won't be long till I'm back home now guys. (Sorry to burst your bubbles). (Well actually it will still be a couple months but you know. Like a drop of water in the bucket. Haha.)
Have a great day!
Wes
During the weekend I spent all my time over at Christoph's place (the other male nanny). His family was away for the weekend so I could crash there. On friday night I went over to his place, along with Thomas and Mona (she was Thomas's couchsurfer). At about 10 we decided that we were all really lame and tired. However Christoph and I felt obligated to make a night of it. So Thomas and Mona drove home, dropping Christoph and I off in town. We listened to a song or two at the fiddler, and then moved our way down to the Viaduct to meet up with Kevin. We went into the bar Kevin had stated he was in. However Christoph had forgot his ID so we had to have a staring contest with the bouncer, and then play 20 questions with him, then was warned that if we got drunk he'd come in and "kick our asses out". But he let us by. So we made our way in and went around back looking for Kevin. Only to find, once we were on the back patio, that Kevin was looking at us from the bar across the street. Annoyingly we left the bar we had just worked so hard to enter. We crossed the street to "Cowboys" (a bar with a somewhat questionable name). There we succeeded in nicking two Cowboy hats so that we blended in with the rest of the crowd (except Christoph's who's hat was bright pink. He actually stood out a little more than blended in.) After a good time at Cowboys we headed to the Imperial, hat in hand where we met up with a friend of ours who was bartending. There we all decided that we should try an accent for the rest of the evening, and so I decide that from then on I had grown up in Ireland. This led to quite a few hilarious introductions as I tried to justify why my Irish accent was so tweaked. I had to explain that though i grew up in Dublin, I had spent many years in the States as well. That was why my accent was a little off. I also checked #462 off a life list of goals which would be a flaming shot. Apparently there is a very famous french drink that is swirled around in the mouth for some time, and then the head is tipped back and you put a lighter to the mouth. Since I was with two french friends, I at one point looked over and found one with his mouth open and flames shooting out of it. I thought, "I have to try this." However its a lot harder to remember the proper order of things while you are mid action. So once my mouth was on fire I kind of stupid there sheepishly for several moments before everyone yelled at me to close my mouth and swallow. Anyways, I've now done flaming hackey sack and a flaming shot. I seem to have a lot of life goals involving fire. At any rate, the night progressed, and we Christoph and I decided to head for a bus. However since it was 3:15 it was difficult to find a bus still running (we also weren't aided by the fact that I was still asking all the questions in an Irish accent and then explaining were in Dublin I was from) So after about a half hour we thought, "no big deal, We'll walk home." .... ..... 1 hour .... .... 2 hours .... 2 and a half hours later at roughly 6 in the morning, we arrive home.
Needless to say we woke up late in the day. We had a pretty lazy day, and watched movies in the hot tub, and with some popcorn. The night we headed off to Thiago and Samantha's farewell party at the big house. (they were two Brazilian friends, Tu du bein?). It was a lovely night, and great to see them one last time. Christoph and I ended up sleeping at the big house that night. I slept outside in the hammock again (which again was awesome).
The following day we sat around and watched movies and ate KK (DELICIOUS!! Malaysian food). Pretty much all weekend Christoph and I were giants wastes of space really. But its good to have weekends like that every once in a while.
Monday found me at my 2nd to last week of improv. It was a lot of fun, and we are really coming together as a group which is really great.
Sorry its around here that my days start to get fuzzy. I can't really remember if I did anything the next Tuesday. But I'm sure if I did then it was incredible. The same somewhat goes for Wed. and Thursday. Oh ya, on Wed I went out to Mission Bay with Julia (a French girl who was Marine's sister. (I know these names mean nothing to you guys, but bear with me)) That night I went to CS drinks. On Friday, Thomas and I planned a trip to go up north, but plans changed and we never went up there. That night Thomas Christoph and I went out. We took it rather easy though and I went home early.
Saturday morning I got up early and packed, and then went out and picked up Marine and her sister. We went and spent the day at Bethells Beach. It was a great time with perfect weather. We made a mean sand castle and then went above and beyond, and built a whole village surrounding it (complete with a witch's hut by the stream in the woods behind the Castle. We also made our way to the caves at the far end of the beach after exploring those we did a little photo shoot outside the entrance. Little did we notice how quickly the tide was coming in. I became suddenly aware of it when my entire back side became completely drenched in water. It was a long cold walk back to the car after that. That night, I offered to babysit for Andrew and Kirstin (Leigh's sister and brother in law). Sometime I am glad I am with a severely autistic child, because after a night with a 10 and 8 year old having to entertain them all night, I was EXHAUSTED!
Anyways, this past week has been rather busy. All my attention at night has been focused on improv. During the afternoon, I tried to keep busy with doing yard work for the family. Monday was our last official improv class. On Tuesday we had a workshop with the other members of the Covert Theatre who we would be performing with. Then... Da da da, Wed. was our first night of performance. I should fill you in I suppose and say that right now in Auckland is the International Comedy Festival. Acts from all over the world come for 3 weeks of comedy shows. We were performing as part of this festival. The show was set up in the form of a Comedy Sports style (really the format was called the Jester (with an individual performer each night being declared "The Jester")) Anyways, every night we had a different number of performers. On Wed. I think we were all nervous not knowing how good it would be. For a lot of people it was their first time performing ever. However our MC did a great job of keeping the audience engaged and explaining a lot of people were new to performance. We pulled in about 80-90 people a night on average I would say. I was fortunate enough to be declared Jester 3 of the 4 nights which was a good feeling. The shows all went far better than expected. We had a fantastic time, and really came together as a group I thought. On Wed. after the show I went to CS. I should say that on the CS webpage I had advertised our show. So while at CS a person came up and was like, "your Wes from the Improv Comedy thing right?" She was studying journalism and had to write a report on something. So I was interviewed and then had a report written about me apparently. It was a nice feeling. On Thursday a bunch of us stayed after to watch Greg Ward's Show "A Brief History of Music". A great mix of one man show and improvised music. Friday night, Jason and I went out and then I met up with Kevin at the Fiddler. It ended up being another late night and we awoke at about 12 the next morning at Kevin's apartment.
Now Saturday I should take a moment to describe. Saturday in NZ was declared J Day. Now I know what V Day is, but I had never heard of J Day before. Apparently J Day, is a day of protest, where they protest for the legalization of Marijuana. Each of the major cities in NZ had a specific location where the protest was to take place. I thought, how interesting, a bunch of pot heads got organized enough for a protest. I wonder if their are signs and a picket line or what. So Kevin and I made our way to Albert Park were the protest was being held. Well let me just say I have never experienced anything quite like what I found there. I think just passing by Albert Park would get people high simply from second hand smoke. When I arrived I noticed the large funnelling of specific looking people entering Albert Park. Long dredlocks and red, yellow, green bandana's were pretty common. Once I entered I was even more amazed. As I looked around me and realized that of the 1000 people there in the park, 950 of them were smoking. Not like hiding it and puffing on something. I mean everyone was openly passing weed back and forth. Rolling joints, hitting bongs, anything and everything. Apparently it was the one day of the year were it was like Marijuana was legal in NZ. The cops did nothing, there was just to many of them to do anything. Supposedly it happened every year, and the government just accepted it as a form of protest. I have never quite seen anything like it. They had DJ's playing Bob Marley and such all day long. With food vendors there to assist those with a bad case of the munchies.
At any rate, we had our last show of the evening that night. Afterwards, a bunch of us went out for food and drinks. It was a really great weekend, and a great way to wrap up my improv here in NZ. I'm really glad I've done it while I've been here. These shows and the friends I've made have definitely made it worth it.
Sunday I took it easy, and now its Monday morning! Whew. Well I think you guys are now officially caught up. Things get even more hectic for me now then previous. I only have about 4 more weeks of work. This friday I leave for the south Island for a week, so if you don't hear from me thats probably why. Love you all. It won't be long till I'm back home now guys. (Sorry to burst your bubbles). (Well actually it will still be a couple months but you know. Like a drop of water in the bucket. Haha.)
Have a great day!
Wes
Monday, April 12, 2010
After a Hiatus
And this is how a really long blog entry begins... Haha. No I will try to make this quick. To be honest I don't really remember what I was doing three weeks ago. I believe I left you on a Wed. before going out to Couchsurfing. Well...
On Thursday I drove into town, and met up with a friend from the States. An old snowboarding buddy. She and I grabbed a bite to eat downtown and then just hung out. She had just come back from the states. (She has been living in the south island for a year, and it was the first time we were able to meet up). That was a nice meeting. After that, I headed home and watched Yannik. That night Thomas came over (after Yannik was in bed), and we chatted for a bit.
On Friday Christoph (the german Manny one) picked me up and then Fran, Christoph and I headed over to Thomas's where we met up with Aaron. We spent the day just messing around, playing music, video games, and staring out over the ocean. That evening while I cooked dinner, the 5 of us had a improvised song session which was thoroughly amusing.
The next morning I headed back over to Thomas's where we hung out until we decided to go to the Kingsland Festival. Pretty much it was just an excuse for bars to be busier earlier on a Saturday afternoon. But it was fun. There was a DJ in the streets and some street performers, and lots of people. Afterwards, Thomas and I went over to Neil's flatwarming party. At some point in the night we headed back to his place. I woke up the next morning in his spare bedroom. I walked out onto his porch and was standing overlooking the ocean with Rangitoto Volcano (an island in the middle of the harbor) directly in front of me. It was an absolutely stunning view. We hung out for a bit and then I headed home.
On Monday, Christoph's mother (Oma (really Oma means grandma in German, but its what we called her)) and his sister (Uli) arrived. From Monday on that meant it was German immersion time. This normally would be fine, and something I would have hoped for, only that they speak Schwabech (a dialect of German that is not Hoch Deutsch (High German)) which is what I've been learning. Thus everything sounded a little slurred to me.
At any rate, I don't remember a huge amount of things happening that week. On monday I had improv that went well. On tuesday... OH YA.! I TAKE IT ALL BACK! Something important did happen that week! On tuesday night I went to a drum circle. Every month on the full moon, there is a big drum circle and fire dance held in Mt. Eden Park. Now that might sound strange, but here for some reason fire dancing with either staff, poi poi, or fan is a pretty common hobby for people. You would be amazed at the amount of people that show up all with their own equipment and just go to town. So anyways, its this sweet as event, where you go, and sit under the full moon while you listen to people play the drums, while people in front of you dance in beautiful patterns of flame. Its pretty freakin sweet. And everybody shares, so if you want to try a fire fan or staff, or you want to break it down on the drums you just ask someone and they gladly share. BUT!! Thats not the Awesome part! The Awesome part, is that among all these fire toys was a fire hackey.... YA! Its what you picture. A hackey sack from that fad back in the late 90's only this time.... ITS ON FIRE! Haha. So I got to go over and kick a hackey sack around a circle with some guys only the hackey sack was a fireball. It was pretty gnarly if I do say so myself. (For those of you who don't know a hackey sack is similar to like a bean bag only round and about the size of my fist. The object is that you kick it and keep it in the air without ever touching it with your hands) So there is number 123 off my life list of goals. Kick a flaming hackey sack.
Anyways, outside of the the week progressed as normal. On Wed. I went out to CS, and on thursday night I watched Yannik. On Friday I went over to Rachel's 36th birthday party. It was a good time. I had to leave at around midnight though because we left for Coromandel the next day.
So, as I said on Sat. we packed up and headed to the Coromandel for a week with Oma and Uli, along with Christoph, Leigh and Yannik of course. It was gorgeous there as it always is. I did lots of hiking, kayaking, swimming, reading, and definite relaxing. I hiked back to the same waterfall as before, and climbed halfway up again and went for a dip. I kayaked in the estuary, walked along the beach, got a message at the Kiwi Retreat, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I als read an interesting book on gang life here in NZ. (It's a definite problem).
Well the family left on Friday, however I stayed and had them drop me off in Coromandel township where I waited for a bit, and then hitchhiked my way to Colville. There I waited to meet up with some friends of mine and we were going to make a weekend of it at a backpackers lodge. They finally arrived, and around 18 showed up. We stayed at the White Star Lodge. Nice place with lots to do. I was able to hike to two waterfalls (in which one I went swimming in and nearly caught hypothermia (it was cold I mean)), milk a cow, ride a four wheeler, build a sandcastle, watch the sunset on a secluded beach, and hang out with some friends for a good time. We did as I said end up going to this secluded little beach where me and a friend went for a nice long swim. However when we were out a ways she suddenly got stung something. We quickly made our way in where we realized it was most likely a jelly fish judging by the mark it left on her. So then... we decided someone had to urinate on it. I was unaware of this, but apparently in its common belief in NZ (and maybe elsewhere) that urine with sterilizes the poison or reaction (or whatever you want to call it) of a jelly fish. As it turned out all the guys tanks were empty but Kevin's. So we made a wall of towels, and gave them a moment, however, It seems that Kevin could not handle the pressure and his flow was rather weak. Well, I will leave that story there, but needless to say it led to a rather amusing afternoon. The whole weekend was great. On Sunday morning a bunch of us went to the buddhist temple down the road and did an hour meditation class. It was a pretty cool experience. Expect for when the cockroach decided to crawl on me, and I wasn't supposed to harm and living creature. That was something that was a difficult challenge of will power. Sunday evening I returned home.
On Monday I went to improv. Another successful night. On tuesday, I watched Yannik all day. We went to How to Tame your Dragon. It was good, I enjoyed it, although Yannik fell asleep in the theatre towards the end. At night he had an allegic reaction and swelled up pretty bad, but I think I handled it well. And now today is today. See that wasn't so bad. Oma and Uli left today, and now things head back to normal for a bit. Till my vacation in May. YAY.
Anyways, that catches us all up. I hope you are all doing well. I love you all and miss you dearly.
Wes
On Thursday I drove into town, and met up with a friend from the States. An old snowboarding buddy. She and I grabbed a bite to eat downtown and then just hung out. She had just come back from the states. (She has been living in the south island for a year, and it was the first time we were able to meet up). That was a nice meeting. After that, I headed home and watched Yannik. That night Thomas came over (after Yannik was in bed), and we chatted for a bit.
On Friday Christoph (the german Manny one) picked me up and then Fran, Christoph and I headed over to Thomas's where we met up with Aaron. We spent the day just messing around, playing music, video games, and staring out over the ocean. That evening while I cooked dinner, the 5 of us had a improvised song session which was thoroughly amusing.
The next morning I headed back over to Thomas's where we hung out until we decided to go to the Kingsland Festival. Pretty much it was just an excuse for bars to be busier earlier on a Saturday afternoon. But it was fun. There was a DJ in the streets and some street performers, and lots of people. Afterwards, Thomas and I went over to Neil's flatwarming party. At some point in the night we headed back to his place. I woke up the next morning in his spare bedroom. I walked out onto his porch and was standing overlooking the ocean with Rangitoto Volcano (an island in the middle of the harbor) directly in front of me. It was an absolutely stunning view. We hung out for a bit and then I headed home.
On Monday, Christoph's mother (Oma (really Oma means grandma in German, but its what we called her)) and his sister (Uli) arrived. From Monday on that meant it was German immersion time. This normally would be fine, and something I would have hoped for, only that they speak Schwabech (a dialect of German that is not Hoch Deutsch (High German)) which is what I've been learning. Thus everything sounded a little slurred to me.
At any rate, I don't remember a huge amount of things happening that week. On monday I had improv that went well. On tuesday... OH YA.! I TAKE IT ALL BACK! Something important did happen that week! On tuesday night I went to a drum circle. Every month on the full moon, there is a big drum circle and fire dance held in Mt. Eden Park. Now that might sound strange, but here for some reason fire dancing with either staff, poi poi, or fan is a pretty common hobby for people. You would be amazed at the amount of people that show up all with their own equipment and just go to town. So anyways, its this sweet as event, where you go, and sit under the full moon while you listen to people play the drums, while people in front of you dance in beautiful patterns of flame. Its pretty freakin sweet. And everybody shares, so if you want to try a fire fan or staff, or you want to break it down on the drums you just ask someone and they gladly share. BUT!! Thats not the Awesome part! The Awesome part, is that among all these fire toys was a fire hackey.... YA! Its what you picture. A hackey sack from that fad back in the late 90's only this time.... ITS ON FIRE! Haha. So I got to go over and kick a hackey sack around a circle with some guys only the hackey sack was a fireball. It was pretty gnarly if I do say so myself. (For those of you who don't know a hackey sack is similar to like a bean bag only round and about the size of my fist. The object is that you kick it and keep it in the air without ever touching it with your hands) So there is number 123 off my life list of goals. Kick a flaming hackey sack.
Anyways, outside of the the week progressed as normal. On Wed. I went out to CS, and on thursday night I watched Yannik. On Friday I went over to Rachel's 36th birthday party. It was a good time. I had to leave at around midnight though because we left for Coromandel the next day.
So, as I said on Sat. we packed up and headed to the Coromandel for a week with Oma and Uli, along with Christoph, Leigh and Yannik of course. It was gorgeous there as it always is. I did lots of hiking, kayaking, swimming, reading, and definite relaxing. I hiked back to the same waterfall as before, and climbed halfway up again and went for a dip. I kayaked in the estuary, walked along the beach, got a message at the Kiwi Retreat, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I als read an interesting book on gang life here in NZ. (It's a definite problem).
Well the family left on Friday, however I stayed and had them drop me off in Coromandel township where I waited for a bit, and then hitchhiked my way to Colville. There I waited to meet up with some friends of mine and we were going to make a weekend of it at a backpackers lodge. They finally arrived, and around 18 showed up. We stayed at the White Star Lodge. Nice place with lots to do. I was able to hike to two waterfalls (in which one I went swimming in and nearly caught hypothermia (it was cold I mean)), milk a cow, ride a four wheeler, build a sandcastle, watch the sunset on a secluded beach, and hang out with some friends for a good time. We did as I said end up going to this secluded little beach where me and a friend went for a nice long swim. However when we were out a ways she suddenly got stung something. We quickly made our way in where we realized it was most likely a jelly fish judging by the mark it left on her. So then... we decided someone had to urinate on it. I was unaware of this, but apparently in its common belief in NZ (and maybe elsewhere) that urine with sterilizes the poison or reaction (or whatever you want to call it) of a jelly fish. As it turned out all the guys tanks were empty but Kevin's. So we made a wall of towels, and gave them a moment, however, It seems that Kevin could not handle the pressure and his flow was rather weak. Well, I will leave that story there, but needless to say it led to a rather amusing afternoon. The whole weekend was great. On Sunday morning a bunch of us went to the buddhist temple down the road and did an hour meditation class. It was a pretty cool experience. Expect for when the cockroach decided to crawl on me, and I wasn't supposed to harm and living creature. That was something that was a difficult challenge of will power. Sunday evening I returned home.
On Monday I went to improv. Another successful night. On tuesday, I watched Yannik all day. We went to How to Tame your Dragon. It was good, I enjoyed it, although Yannik fell asleep in the theatre towards the end. At night he had an allegic reaction and swelled up pretty bad, but I think I handled it well. And now today is today. See that wasn't so bad. Oma and Uli left today, and now things head back to normal for a bit. Till my vacation in May. YAY.
Anyways, that catches us all up. I hope you are all doing well. I love you all and miss you dearly.
Wes
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