Been a good while since I've been in civilization that allows me enough time to update the 'ole blogerelly. I had big hopes of doing a 4 day trek just outside of Queenstown called the Rees-Dart. I got all my supplies together, complete with vacuum sealed packs of lemon and cracked pepper tuna. The good stuff. I started out with a beautiful 3 minutes of sunshine before the skies clouded up and started spitting. That spit grew to a pouring, freezing rain that turned the hiking path into a Woodstock-esque mudfest, although I was the only person for miles to enjoy this one. I trudged 6 hours to the first hut where I would learn that I will always be a Floridian and am not cut out for alpine conditions.

I got to the hut all cold and wet to meet the other 6 people that would be staying the night in the Shelter Rock Hut. I should have known that it would be a long night when the rest of the hikers got out their stoves and made mushroom stirfry with a sweet cashew sauce... from scratch. I settled for my vacuum sealed pouch of lemon and cracked pepper tuna and figured it would get better. We were right at the snowline and as the sun went down the night got progressively colder. The "other" hikers got out their sub-zero sleeping bags and polypropelene undergarmets as I prepared by fluffing out my thin blanket over my Thermarest mattress on the floor.

To make a long story short, I froze my ass off and woke-up with a brilliant idea. I'm from Florida, I like dolphin sandwiches and sunshine- I'm turning around and going back down the mountain. So my 4 day alpine hike turned into a 2 day hike 'quickie." Screw it.

I hitchhiked back to Queenstown and had McDonald's for dinner with a big Coke to make myself feel better about the failed summit attempt. Ok, I didn't feel bad, but I wanted Mickey D's. Went to taste the happy hour nightlife and was invited by an older lady to go back to her house, not what you think, and join a BBQ she was having. So I went to my second multi-million dollar NZ house overlooking the lake for a little feast. I got to talking to a guy at the party that owns one of the local radio stations. He invited me to come down the following night to get a little airtime. The whole situation kind of creeped me out and I left town the next day heading for Wanaka.

Two rides into the day I got picked-up by a young guy heading out to a farm near Wanaka for his friends birthday. I spent the evening on thousands of acres with music blaring under a few tents eating lamb chops and sausage from their own farm. It was good to hang out with a group of guys my age as it was kind of like fraternity times all over. People were wrestling, doing face plants into the grass, and burning each other with hot pokers from the bonfire.

One of the guys from the party said his dad owns an orchard about an hour South and invited me to come pick fruit for a few days. Migrant Worker Brad couldn't resist and I went back with him and a few buddies of his to the orchard for some good 'ole fashioned hard work. I picked nectarines and peaches for the next two and a half days making a little over $300. You strap this bucket on first thing in the morning and just pick until they say stop. It really wasn't all that bad with the help from Senor iPod. There's nothing like a little Yanni to get the picking hands gong.

We finished work at about 4 in the afternoon and got to ride four wheelers around the countryside and eat nectarines. Good times were had. I left the farm and hitched my way towards the two big glaciers on the Southwest coast of the South Island. I got stuck in a sandfly ridden town called Haaste waiting 2 hours for a ride before calling it quits and heading to a little backpacker place for the evening. Got a ride the following day to the glaciers from an Irish couple with an RV that they drove like a Formula 1 car on the windy mountain roads. I was sitting in the back and with each turn the pots, bananas, luggage and me would be tossed to the other side of the vehicle. The guy had gone bungy jumping the day before and said he was still pumped on adrenaline. Perfect.

Did the glacier thing and had some beers that night with a big group of guys with one looking just like Boris Becker. With the beer flowing, the Boris jokes did not get any lees funny throughout the night and they actually got better as Boris himself got completely hammered and tried to pick-up a gigantic girl from amongst the crowds.

I hitched North all day yesterday, getting stuck in a muy small dairy farming town for a few hours only to be saved by a solar power sales guy heading north to Nelson... my destination.

1 week left in New Zealand....