Hitching To Wanaka

This past weekend from Thursday to Sunday, my friend Dane and I set out for Wanaka to do some mountain biking in the vast trials. We began early morning hitchhiking and it took us 7 rides to eventually get there but we met some really interesting people. A sampling includes: a guy name digger, a mom and her son, and a man on the way back from the dentist! We had a beautiful weekend of weather, and got in a little sun bathing on the beach! Unfortunately when we set out to leave saturday afternoon we were not graced with the same good fortune of our other ride. We got stuck in a little town of Roxburgh for 3.5 hours while we waited for a ride. Finally throwing in the towel we got a room for the night. AFter hitching for 2.5 more hours the next morning we gave in and got a bus back to Dunedin. All-in-all a fun but frustrating experience.

When i returned to Dunedin Sunday afternoon I headed to the beach with the Frisbee team for a BBQ to celebrate a teammates birthday, although somewhat cloudy it was a really fun time.

Milford Sound: Another Slice of Paradise

Colin, Spencer, Matt, Kelly and I re-rented the Baby Beluga following the end of classes and set out to Doubtful and Milford Sounds, on the South-West Coast, in the Fiordlands of the South Island. It is a wonderous and beautiful place. With the original intention of getting into doubtful sound and perhaps kayaking we were quickly informed when we arrived that you can only access Doubtful by cruise boat which was far too expensive. We decided to rent a row boat in the nearby Lake Manapouri and just lie out in the sun all day and float while Spencer ran 46km of the Kepler Track. With the expectation of a coming rain storm we opted out of camping that night and got a hostel room to avoid the downpour, a good decision.

The next day we drove up to Milford sound which was the most beautiful drive of my entire trip. It was a valley with steep walls that were covered in waterfalls. Hundreds and Hundreds of waterfalls lining the walls as you drove through it. At one point we had to go through a tunnel to go through a mountain and it opened up to the most amazing valley. We didn't do anything particularly exciting but to experience and observe this wonderful place. We drove back to Dunedin that night and feasted on home-made calzones!

Dirty South hits the Road: Baby Beluga in the Deep Blue Sea

It's Thursday night and there was only 1000 words separating me from what was to be the best weekend in New Zealand. By the time I got back from Frisbee it was almost nine and after dinner and shower it was nearly 10. I quickly ran down to the library and did about an hour of research to beef up my paper and returned home. After going through the readings for the assignments while everyone proceeded to go out for the night, I decided I was way to tired for this, after staying up the night before to finish a different paper. I went to bed just before midnight and woke up at 7:30 to write the paper. I finished by 10:00 and handed in down in the uni library where I met colin to get the car for the weekend. We headed out a little after one for Hanmer Springs 7 hours away. A 24-pack of Speights, 4 kiwis and 8 hours later we arrived in Hanmer and picked up the keys to house where we met up with the rest of the team. We played pictionary and then a couple games of hearts and finally went to bed a little before 1am, to wake up for 8:30am games.

After having to wake up Colin and Kelly up multiple times, and worrying about how i was going to survive the rain and wind, having severely under-packed we finally got to the fields and began to warm up. The sun quickly emerged and it seemed, although windy, to be slowly becoming a nice day. This hope faded as it began to rain, lightly at first, then beginning to pour. We lost our first game, and won the next two by a small margin. In good spirits at the slowing of the rain, we casually began the fourth game, not expecting much from our opponents. We went down 3-7 by half. Deciding we needed in a switch in attitude, I announced I had the perfect cheer. "Clear eyes, full hearts... can't lose, Dunedin Forever." Deciding to flip a switch, Tom Bond and the Dirty South (our team) was a new team, rattling off four quick points to equalize. We battled through the rest of the half and emerged victorious 13-11. Cold but in good spirits we headed to the Hot Springs to warm up. The perfect remedy.

After the hot springs we picked up the makings for Beef Rogan Josh, to contribute to the team pot luck we had going. It was a delicious feast of steamed potatoes, carrots and califlower, with pasta and meat sauce, as well as the rogan josh we contributed. We ate them with Mojitos that jon made and began our drinking for the evening. We played various games at the house and when we finally began to run out of alcohol we made our way to the tourney party at the field house where we had been playing. When we got there the keg had just run out and we were really disapointed, but alas another one appeared and the world was right again. We hung out for a while before Colin and Spencer decided that it was time to do discs (5 beers fit into a frisbee, it is consumed at once, quickly). Jake and Matt went head to head first with matt booting off the balcony mid disc, and jake coming up victorious, but not to long after vomiting right next to matt of the side. Jon accomplished an amazing 35 second disc to the amazement of the entire crowd. The night considered to get crazier and eventually Adrian and I headed back to the house, and played of all things Yahtzee, till everyone else came home. They brought some strangers with them and to get them out we yelled "To the Bars!" and everyone started leaving on our cue, but then we didn't leave, we just went to bed. Unfortunately Colin had passed out in our room in his sleeping bag on the ground in front of the door so you couldn't open it without hitting his head. After much persuasion and a couple hard bumps to the head he finally moved enough to get in.

The next morning, a little hungover and with a black eye from someone hitting me with a backhand in one of our games in the previous day, we headed to the fields after a delicious breakfast that jon cooked. We rolled through our first game 13-1, and then won our next game 13-9 against the team we came back against the day before, putting us in the finals of the South Island Championships, to play the team we lost to on the first day. In a fairly evenly matched game that didn't go our way we went down 7-1 at half. The team kind of demoralized, I started the "Smiles and Bounces" cheer, and we had a much more upbeat second half. I had a pretty good game that week after not playing amazingly that weekend. Adrian, Jon and I dominated handling with just silly drops keeping us in the way of scoring. In one intense zone point. Adrian and I worked and worked between the two of us each with two layouts in the point finally scoring after slowly marching it down the field. We had one good run where we fired three off in a row to come back to end the game 13-5. A loss but it was rather hard fought despite what the score showed. Still happy to finish 2nd we ended the tournament in good spirits and one of our girls won MVP of the tournament.

From there the Baby Beluga (our baby blue compact hatchback, kinda like a golf, rental car) and our crew set off for Christchurch to stay the night before a few extra expeditions the next day. After confusingly navigating the Quaked city with its many detours and road closings, we finally stumbed upon a hostel to stay at and made some great Beef Vindaloo and garlic naan, and played hearts till bed. We woke up in the morning and headed out to Castle Hill, which is a huge boulder field, that is like a maze. It's really cool but paled in comparison to the next adventure, Cave Stream, a 2-3 km underground stream in complete darkness that we hiked.

We had heard about Cave Stream from one of our teammates and decided to check it out. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. From melting ice flows and fresh rain, water levels were especially high and extremely cold that day, and upon first examination we decided it was to dangerous and we shouldn't do it. Then we thought how could we turn away, we'll just keep going till we have to turn around. So that's what we did. With a headlamp and a flashlight for five people we began our way up the tight cave passage that was an arms width at most parts and somewhere around waist deep with its highest being below nipple. It was bone-chillingly cold, probably around 45 degrees F, and everytime we saw a ledge we could get out on, we would warm up with exercises. About an hour in and extremely cold, we reached an impass a 3-4 foot waterfall that we couldn't get up at the current water level. We later found out that we were at the very end, but we had to turn back and do the whole thing all over again. On the way upstream (the first way) I lost my shoe on a rock and it floated downstream, I thought it lost forever. On our way back we found it floating in a small eddy and I was ecstatic. We rushed downstream to get our, knowing that at this point things were getting extremely dangerous as we all ran the risk of hypothermia. We finally made it out with numb legs and feet, happy to be alive. It was probably the most dangerous and exciting thing I have ever done.

After warming up we headed out back home to Dunedin, but not after Colin hit a duck that jumped in front of our car. After the initial shock, Jon exclaimed that we turn around and pick it up because he wanted to keep it to make duck stew. We finally rolled into Dunedin a little after 10 exhausted and ready to pass out. It was an amazing weekend I will never forget

Otago Peninsula: Fun in the Sun

This saturday we rented a car, and explored the Otago peninsula which extends off of Dunedin, and is home to cool birds, seals, and sea lions! After descending the large sand dunes into the beach, we threw around the frisbee for a while, then decided to harass the large sea lions. When provoked they will aggressively roar and then chase you for a short distance.

That night we drove up past Port Chalmers to Long Beach (about 30minutes away) to the Cathedral Caves where there was a large party of about 60 people with a bonfire and music powered by generator. Everyone camped out in the cave which was prettty expansive afterwards. I was so cold when i woke up around sunrise that I went for a long run on the beach in the early morning to warm up. It was beautiful out. After returning home I slept most of the day to make up for lost sleep, waking up at dinner to write a short essay for the next day. Another great weekend in Dunedin!

Lost in Snow

Since I got back from this weekend, whenever I close my eyes I can picture myself on this spot, on my stomach staring across the glacial valley of the Southern Alps. Pure Bliss.

Matt and I drove up friday night to Wanaka, and dropped three of our friends off at the trail head of Mt. Aspiring National Park where I went earlier this year (see Bush Ball post). We were expecting a massive storm for this weekend that never seemed to materialize (besides dropping a bunch of snow for us to ski). As we drove down a dirt road in the dead of night, snow began to fall. All of a sudden we saw a large herd of cattle blocking the road. As we drove they began to slowly run (butts jiggling) down the road, but not out of our way. Matt insisted he wanted to get out and chase them, and after much debate we let him out and he went wild on them, chasing them off the road. Our road was clear... for now. As we drove we were met with herd after herd of sheep or cattle which needed to be persuaded off the road by horn or matt's yelps. It was quite the experience.

Matt and I returned to our hostel in Wanaka after dropping them off and woke up the next morning, to blue sky, powder and a whole mountain almost empty because of the expected storm. Over a foot of powder in places, fresh tracks, and all the wonders of skiing above tree-line led to some of the most amazing skiing. On both days we hiked up to the peak of the mountain to look out over the valley (where the picture was taken), even making a snowman at the top as a gift to the snow gods.

Sunday afternoon we picked up our friends from Mt. Aspiring and returned home, exhausted.

Over, Under, Sideways, Down

Leaving early friday morning, 3 friends and I departed for the West Coast. Driving up through Wanaka we stopped at Puzzling World a place with illusion rooms and a giant maze. Colin and I powered through the maze in 37 minutes. We continued on to the Coast and made it to Haast by nightful and stayed at a hotel room there. We woke up early and headed to the Fox Glacier where we took a short hike to the front of it and touched some ice. It was rainy all day...

Around nightful we arrived in Arthur's pass and hung out and played cards in a cafe till dinner time. Then we drove down the road a little pulled off and set up camp in the woods, making a hearty meal of mac n' cheese on the camping stove. In the morning we woke up and hiked about an hour up to this amazing hundred foot waterfall. We got back in the car and drove back home via Christchurch stopping on the ways to jump in some bright blue water, and then later to see the boulders on the East Coast.

A wonderful time had by all...

Tonga: Hidden Paradise

I spent the past week in the wonderful island chain of Tonga, specifically on the main island of Tongatapu (meaning sacred south). I left friday from Dunedin on a bus to Christchurch, where we hung out in the town square till we caught another bus to the airport where we spent the night. We got out towels and sleeping bags curled up next to each other and hunkered down for the night. We woke up in the morning to a bustling airport and made our way to the terminal for our flight.

After flying from Christchurch to Auckland, and then on to Tonga, we arrived after dinner in the main island Saturday evening. We were picked up by our resort owner who was also the cook, grounds keeper, receptionist and driver. He and his wife ran the quaint island resort which was very lovely. Arriving in darkness we woke up not realizing the beauty that lay outside. We spent the next few days (slash the entire week) doing nothing but reading and relaxing and napping on the beach. Nights were spent drinking and playing cards. I had no desire to do anything but lie on the beach and loose myself in the island time. It was about 80 degrees with a constant breeze that left you neither hot nor cold all the time. After 2 months of sleeping fully clothed in my sleeping bag in Dunedin, it was amazing to sleep only in underwear for once.

We had a few small adventures seeing some of the attractions on the island but for the most part, it was spent simply relaxing. The nation of tonga is only comprised of about 100,000 people and is not a very touristy place. It is rather impoverished, but everyone seems quite content and happy. They are happy that it is not overrun with tourists but still heavily rely on the few tourists it does get and the aid money it recieves from overseas.

After going taking a ferry to the small island of Tongamatu we took the 10 minute walk around the island, had lunch and lounged for the day. We returned home in time to go to a cultural dinner and show that included tongan buffet and fire dancing. A full cultural treat. We headed to the airport at around 12midnight to wait for our 3 am flight. When we landed in Auckland we learned that there had been a Earthquake in Christchurch (our next destination) and after a stressed out few hours of trying to figure out flights 5 of us got direct flights to Dunedin that day, while me and my friend Brittney had to fly to Queenstown where we would take a bus the rest of the way (another 3-4 hours bus ride). We arrived at around 10pm saturday night, our vacation complete!