Hi all,
Pictures here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/i5sDHM2Lz3BocfCC7
Today is the one year anniversary of my unemployment. Woo hoo! In honor of this momentous event, I've decided to celebrate by... not working! Ha ha ha!!!
Last time I wrote I had just gotten to Nelson, which is where I ended up staying for about 4 days just lazing around the pool at the hostel and taking some walks around the area. I was lucky to have great weather for the time I was there. Nelson is kind of like Santa Cruz; it's near the water, has good weather, and has a bunch of little shops that sell arts and crafts, hippy stuff and organic shit. The hostel where I stayed has a bunch of lifers there. From how they tell it they've been there for months. These two Dutch guys Ralf and Eelko have spent two months picking fruit in the Nelson area. From what I can tell their day consists of picking fruit, hanging out in the hot tub, getting drunk, and waiting for the Kiwi Experience bus to drop off girls.
From Nelson I wanted to hit the Franz Josef glacier on the west coast. I'd read in the Lonely Planet guide about how the TranzAlpine train across the southern alps was one of the most beautiful rides in the world so I went out of my way to go to Christchurch first then take the TranzAlpine to Greymouth the next morning. That was a big disappointment. Maybe it's better in winter when there's snow but I've taken more scenic train rides in Europe. I was pretty pissed off that I spent extra time and money on this diversion when I could've stayed an extra day in Nelson by the pool.
Franz Josef is not really a town, it's more like a few hotels and some stores at the base of the glacier. I'd never seen a glacier before so I decided to sign up for an all day hike. I was considering doing a helihike where they bring you up the glacier by helicopter but the weather was really crappy so they didn't know if it was going to be available. For the hike they hook you up with boots, a rain jacket, an ice pick, and some steel talons to attach to your boots. I think my favorite view of the glacier was at the base where you can see how enormous it is. We spent about 6 hours on the glacier itself and it was pouring the whole time. Much climbing was involved, as you can imagine. It's not considered an extreme activity, but I managed to turn it into one by slipping headfirst into a crevasse. Somehow, the slippery snow nullified my cat-like reflexes. I think I had defective talons. Anyway, we're crossing over these crevasses when next thing I know I'm sliding down on my back headfirst. I must've used a combination of my left knee and my skull to stop my descent because that's what was sore afterward. It was about a 30 degree decline that went down about 25 feet so I don't think it was life-threatening. Still, I don't think it would've been too much fun. There were some pretty amazing things to be seen on the glacier, like the blueness of the ice and some of the natural caves that we slid and crawled through. Wicked!
From there I headed to Wanaka which is a small lakeside resort town. I stayed there a few days doing some day hikes and kayaking out in the lake. I met a guy from Marin who just spent 5 months working on a research station in Antarctica. I think I've found my next job! There's this cool little movie theater in Wanaka called Paradiso where they have couches and lounge chairs and serve fresh-baked cookies at intermission. I watched Return of the King (again). I think if Lord of the Rings took place in modern times they'd replace the ring with a cell phone. You know what I'm talking about, how people treat their cell phones. I'm going to text you later with... my precious! Anyway toward the end of the movie when they show a shot of Liv Tyler up on Minas Tirith someone had spliced in about 1 second of a porno. This naked woman was up there and gone in a flash. The whole theater started cracking up! It was just like in Fight Club! Awesome.
Speaking of Fight Club, it's true what Ed Norton says about single-serving friends. When you're travelling you end up meeting random people and just chatting with them for a couple of hours and you'll never see them again. Sometimes you don't even find out their names. Weird.
After Wanaka I headed to a small town called Te Anau from where I took a day kayak trip out to Milford Sound. It's in the middle of Fjordland which is named so because of... surprise... fjords! If you don't know what a fjord is, www.m-w.com. Again it was raining but the amount of gear they gave us covered everything but my hands and face. Which, of course, was enough for the sandflies to feed on. Those little fuckers bled me dry. They just swarm around you. Maori legend has they were created so people wouldn't linger too long in Milford Sound. I can see why because it was just spectacular. The mountains are almost perpendicular to the water and there's waterfalls streaking down just about everywhere. It rains two out of every three days in Fjordland which supplies a constant amount of freshwater on top of the salt water in the fjords. This creates a unique ecosystem where there are many species of plants and marine life growing in the sound that usually grow at much greater depths. I also saw a few seals swimming around. Toward the end of the day the sun came out so there were some amazing views. I think I'm getting jaded by the views in NZ. I've taken some good pictures though.
Well, I'm in Queenstown now I only have one week left in NZ. What else can I tell you... I stopped biting my fingernails... I miss my Les Paul (take good care of it Ron)... Swiss army knives are very useful... whitebait patties are good.
Take 'er easy!
Dave
Pictures here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/i5sDHM2Lz3BocfCC7
Today is the one year anniversary of my unemployment. Woo hoo! In honor of this momentous event, I've decided to celebrate by... not working! Ha ha ha!!!
Last time I wrote I had just gotten to Nelson, which is where I ended up staying for about 4 days just lazing around the pool at the hostel and taking some walks around the area. I was lucky to have great weather for the time I was there. Nelson is kind of like Santa Cruz; it's near the water, has good weather, and has a bunch of little shops that sell arts and crafts, hippy stuff and organic shit. The hostel where I stayed has a bunch of lifers there. From how they tell it they've been there for months. These two Dutch guys Ralf and Eelko have spent two months picking fruit in the Nelson area. From what I can tell their day consists of picking fruit, hanging out in the hot tub, getting drunk, and waiting for the Kiwi Experience bus to drop off girls.
From Nelson I wanted to hit the Franz Josef glacier on the west coast. I'd read in the Lonely Planet guide about how the TranzAlpine train across the southern alps was one of the most beautiful rides in the world so I went out of my way to go to Christchurch first then take the TranzAlpine to Greymouth the next morning. That was a big disappointment. Maybe it's better in winter when there's snow but I've taken more scenic train rides in Europe. I was pretty pissed off that I spent extra time and money on this diversion when I could've stayed an extra day in Nelson by the pool.
Franz Josef is not really a town, it's more like a few hotels and some stores at the base of the glacier. I'd never seen a glacier before so I decided to sign up for an all day hike. I was considering doing a helihike where they bring you up the glacier by helicopter but the weather was really crappy so they didn't know if it was going to be available. For the hike they hook you up with boots, a rain jacket, an ice pick, and some steel talons to attach to your boots. I think my favorite view of the glacier was at the base where you can see how enormous it is. We spent about 6 hours on the glacier itself and it was pouring the whole time. Much climbing was involved, as you can imagine. It's not considered an extreme activity, but I managed to turn it into one by slipping headfirst into a crevasse. Somehow, the slippery snow nullified my cat-like reflexes. I think I had defective talons. Anyway, we're crossing over these crevasses when next thing I know I'm sliding down on my back headfirst. I must've used a combination of my left knee and my skull to stop my descent because that's what was sore afterward. It was about a 30 degree decline that went down about 25 feet so I don't think it was life-threatening. Still, I don't think it would've been too much fun. There were some pretty amazing things to be seen on the glacier, like the blueness of the ice and some of the natural caves that we slid and crawled through. Wicked!
From there I headed to Wanaka which is a small lakeside resort town. I stayed there a few days doing some day hikes and kayaking out in the lake. I met a guy from Marin who just spent 5 months working on a research station in Antarctica. I think I've found my next job! There's this cool little movie theater in Wanaka called Paradiso where they have couches and lounge chairs and serve fresh-baked cookies at intermission. I watched Return of the King (again). I think if Lord of the Rings took place in modern times they'd replace the ring with a cell phone. You know what I'm talking about, how people treat their cell phones. I'm going to text you later with... my precious! Anyway toward the end of the movie when they show a shot of Liv Tyler up on Minas Tirith someone had spliced in about 1 second of a porno. This naked woman was up there and gone in a flash. The whole theater started cracking up! It was just like in Fight Club! Awesome.
Speaking of Fight Club, it's true what Ed Norton says about single-serving friends. When you're travelling you end up meeting random people and just chatting with them for a couple of hours and you'll never see them again. Sometimes you don't even find out their names. Weird.
After Wanaka I headed to a small town called Te Anau from where I took a day kayak trip out to Milford Sound. It's in the middle of Fjordland which is named so because of... surprise... fjords! If you don't know what a fjord is, www.m-w.com. Again it was raining but the amount of gear they gave us covered everything but my hands and face. Which, of course, was enough for the sandflies to feed on. Those little fuckers bled me dry. They just swarm around you. Maori legend has they were created so people wouldn't linger too long in Milford Sound. I can see why because it was just spectacular. The mountains are almost perpendicular to the water and there's waterfalls streaking down just about everywhere. It rains two out of every three days in Fjordland which supplies a constant amount of freshwater on top of the salt water in the fjords. This creates a unique ecosystem where there are many species of plants and marine life growing in the sound that usually grow at much greater depths. I also saw a few seals swimming around. Toward the end of the day the sun came out so there were some amazing views. I think I'm getting jaded by the views in NZ. I've taken some good pictures though.
Well, I'm in Queenstown now I only have one week left in NZ. What else can I tell you... I stopped biting my fingernails... I miss my Les Paul (take good care of it Ron)... Swiss army knives are very useful... whitebait patties are good.
Take 'er easy!
Dave
