From Queenstown...

We've covered some serious ground since leaving Motueka.  We drove South through Hamner Springs where we went for a soak in a strange hot springs/water park thing.  Then we were off to Christchurch where we stayed with Denise, one of Margaret's friends.  We saw some pretty hilarious prop comics perform in the Busker's Festival--a collection of street performers and variety acts that lasts ten days.  It was nice for us poor travelers to get some free entertainment. 

After our one night stint in Christchurch we charged over to Lake Tekapo to meet our friend Tyson.  We spent the day swimming, throwing rocks and basking in the sun.  We slept right on the lake shore under the extraordinary southern hemisphere stars.  After packing up our slightly moist sleeping bags we set off to Mt. Cook National Park.  We hiked in for an overnight stay up to Ball hut.  The hike was easy so we had some time to just sit in the sun above a crackling glacier.  There was a fancy radio set up in the outhouse next to the hut we slept in.  We got to here the Ranger talk to all of the people staying in the huts around the park.  We got to listen in on a hillarious conversation about a very full outhouse somehwere deep in the park.  We all giggled when the Ranger instructed the campers to use the 'poo stick' to try and wiggle out some extra room. 

We climbed a somewhat sketchy rockslide to get a better view of Mt. Cook, which was covered in glaciers and ice.  The park is a big mountaineering hotspot (or should I say cold spot har har har), and most of the hikes through the park are precarious to say the least.  As we hiked out it rained on us and we got to test out our new rain gear.

We parted ways with Tyson, he was headed East in search of surf and we headed off to Milford Sound.  When we settled on a campground it was pouring rain.  There were about 10 campervans and then us in our three person tent.  We set up our stove in the rain and made some veggie soup with some TSP (textured soy protein mmmmm).  I think we were the entertainment for the night for all the people snuggled up in their vans.  In the morning we drove the rest of the way to Milford Sound for a cruise through the fjord.  The rain had stopped and all of the rainforest-covered mountains looked magical with the sun shining through the misty peaks.  It rains on average over 7 meters in fiordland.  It helps explain why even the sheerest peaks coming out of the water are covered in green.  The skipper told us that even though we were on the sea there is layer of fresh water that usually stays around 3 meters thick.We decided to spend another day at our campsite because it was so epic. 

We are now in Queenstown  preparing for a 8-9 day tramp through the Dusky Track--also apart of Fiordland national Park.  It will definitely be really wet and muddy.  We decided to hire a mountain radio to get weather reports and to communicate if we get stranded and need help.  We went to Stu's upholstery (?) to rent what we thought was going to be a little hand held thing, but instead got thorough instructions on how to set up our 'simple' aerial for our radio...  frist we have to climb a tree to get the transmitter 4 meters in the air, then run wires to the ground 20 feet away then hook it into a clunky box.  If we do get stranded, hopefully we can set it up before we run out of food. 

More Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56993065@N03/

Burger King in NZ still sucks (and is expensive)

We arrived in New Zealand without any hiccups.  All of the hostels were full so we checked into a 'hotel' in Auckland.  Apparently spontanaeity isn't the best strategy to find shelter in the heat of the school holidays.  After setting our  bags down, we decided Burger King was our best option for food for reasons that still escape me.  As we sat and enjoyed our ten dollar BK meals we absently gazed at the muted TV to see four hairy men thrusting their hips at us.  Next they were silhoutted by the setting sun, under an outdoor shower rubbing themselves (look up bearforce one if you want to see the video for yourself).  We were all puzzled why this was playing in BK.

The next day we caught an early bus to Hamilton and then a connector out to Ragland where we met a friend who is working in a hostel there.  We camped in a holiday park.  Basically, that meant our three person tent was squished between two caravans and a road.  We had a beer with some locals at the dive bar.  They played an odd assortment of Nsync, Madonna, Cindy Lauper, among other gems from the 90s.

Our next stop was Taupo.  We got up at 5 in the morning to get to the great walk in Tongoriro.  It was about 20km hike plus a 700m climb up Mt. Doom.  This side hike was rather treacherous.  The mountain seemed to be entirely made of small pebbles that swallowed your feet.  While it took us about an hour to scramble up the volcanoe it was a quick 15 minute run/ski/almost-eat-shit-skid down the face.

At the top of Mt. Doom.  Skyler pushing a boulder onto some orcs

Bollywood production.  What you can't see are the minicoopers to the left of the wheelchair gang.

Wellington

Wellington city center

Outside our hostel window.  Two cyclones converging = lots of rain

Margaret and I on the beaches of Abel Tasman

We returned to Taupo exhausted and decided to stay in the hostel for the shower and bed.  We all woke up at about 2 to some seeerious rain.  Glad we weren't free camping.

We decided that most of the things we are excited about are on the South Island so we set our sights on Nelson.  We made it to Wellington, a very neat town that is smushed between a ring of hills and right on the water.  It feels small and intimate but is still a vibrant city.  The walking signal to cross the street reminded me of the warning sound you might hear if there was a breech in your spaceship or submarine.  I found it made my crossing brisk and with purpose. 

After getting settled we went for a walk on the docks where we saw a man come into harbor that had just finished sailing his multi-million dollar boat from South Africa to Wellington by himself.  He was the third place finisher for that leg in a solo sailing race around the world.  We then walked further down and ran into a bollywood film production.  It involved a group of people in wheelchairs, three mini coopers and a gang of motorcyclists.  The minicoopers squeezed by the wheelchairs by driving up on the side of the dock while the pursuing motorcyclists got cut off by the chaotic wheelchairs.  It seemed to be some bizarre adaptation of the Italian Job.

In the morning we took the ferry to the south island and then bussed into Nelson.  We are spending a few days with my Aunt in Motueka, before we strip down our packs and head out for the wilderness. 

On the Tongoriro hike... I think this is where Frodo destroyed the ring

That's it for now!  Probably won't be able to post for another week or two.

Road trip and now a Change of Plans

We had a blast on our road trip down to Melbourne.  The weather was pretty gloomy on our way down.  We ended up camping in the rain the first night but had some great weather after that.  We finally saw some kangaroos on our last day of the trip. You can see more pictures on my flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56993065@N03/

Tuesday we packed up shop at Lucas' aunt's house getting ready for our bussing adventure up North.  Wednesday I lugged everything into the city and met up with yet another Santa Cruzan, Leah, for a beer at the Opera house.  When I met up with Lucas and Skyler they had bad news... our bus to Byron Bay was cancelled.  For those of you who do not keep up with the news, Northern NSW and Queensland are experience biblical floods.  Yesterday on the news I saw a flash flood torrent tossing trucks and SUVs like bouncing twigs down a creek.  I'm a bit dissapointed we won't get to see the great barrier reef or the whitsunday islands or any of the tropical rain forest, but were not going to let it slow us down.

Our bus pass was supposed to be valid to go all the way up to Cairns and we could hop on and hop off at any of the stops along the way.  Since our mini traveller pass is now the most expensive one-way bus ticket to Coff's Harbour, we are canceling our bus ticket and are heading to New Zealand early.  We leave for Auckland tomorrow and will hopefully have better weather over there.

So, farewell Australia.  

If you are craving more pictures and stories check out Lucas' and Skyler's blog and flickr:

Lucas Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57181626@N08/

Skyler's Blog:

http://theadventuresofskyler.blogspot.com/

Catching Up

Since the last post, much has happened.  I'm going to try fit in the highlights, so I apologize if it doesn't all flow together.  Lucas and I got second in the beach volleyball tourney in Brighton.  We profitted $80 woo!  That almost pays for our entry into the next tourney.  It was pretty similar to a tournament in Santa Cruz, except they play thumping techno beats instead of reggae, the courts are pristinely flat instead of bowled out, and the afternoon wind is something fierce.  We were exhausted by the finals (our 9th and 10th game), and as soon as the game ended it started raining with 30mph gusts (http://www.flickr.com/photos/56993065@N03/5311388879/lightbox/).

We've been doing some yard work for Jalleh, Lucas' aunt, as a present for her hospitality.  Luckily we haven't ran into any redbacks or anything else that will kill us.  The other day I was hanging up my clothes in the back yard and when I turned around to see this vicious looking lizard ready to attack.  Luckily nobody was around to here me squeal.  As it aggressively walked up the steps toward me I realized it was going for the strawberry patch.  I later learned it was harmless, but those strawberries could've easily been my pinky toes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIlQ9cc-zAM

During the rainstorm that came in after the brighton tournament, Kayvan and Jalleh took us up North along the coast a bit to see some great views of Palm Beach.

Since the last post Lucas and I have been spending much of our time with his family. I feel so fortunate to have been apart of their Christmas celebration. I've been spoiled with so much good Persian food, I'm not going to know what to do with myself when we hit the road. Christmas felt  like a good ol'e American Fourth of July.  The main differences were people were wearing Santa hats and kids were playing wiffle cricket and rugby, rather than baseball and football.  We spent the day at the beach snorkeling and playing some mean smashball.

A few days later our friend and travel companion, Skyler arrived.  We took the ferry across the bay into Sydney, where we walked around the Opera house and explored the botanical gardens.  We saw some incredible flying foxes, some nice roses, a sweet succulent garden and some cool statues.  

Yesterday we got to Mrs Macquerie Point at 10 in the morning to get a spot to watch the Sydney fireworks show.  We were stoked on the way over because the park looked empty when we were crossing the bridge into sydney.  When we arrived we realized we were about 6000 people back in the cue.  By about one we had a spot inside.  Garrett, Chloe, and Shelby, our other friends from Aptos, met us there later.  After several hours of dice games, some napping and lots of water and sunscreen we got to see the fantastic show.  We didn't get to see all of the fireworks but we got to see the ones that shot off of the bridge very well.  Here is some footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vju3h2XtzZw

Today we rented a rather compact car.  The roads are narrower and you drive on the left side here, but Lucas did very well getting out of the Sydney.  We only hit one curb and turned onto the right side of the road just once.  Tomorrow we begin a road trip down the coast to Melbourne and will be coming back on the 7th in time to play in the New South Wales Open beach volleyball tournament on the 8th.  

Here are some Pictures from the last few weeks.  Too many to put on the blog, but they're here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56993065@N03/?saved=1