New Zealand » Steve’s Travel Blog

An amazing week with Philly, now bring on Australia!!!

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Hello all,

I just spent the last week traveling around NZ with Philly and we had an awesome time together. My last post showed the start of the week. So after skydiving we headed to do the Tongariro Crossing. This time we did it in 6 hours and the views were astonishing. You hike through so many different ecosystems and every turn brings another view. THe hikes in the Rocky Mountains are cool as well but this is so much different. After the crossing we headed to Napier and wine country. We arrived at 11:30 am and were on a wine tour by 12 noon. THe other tours i had been on you usually got about 5 tasting at each winery. THe first winery on this tour gave us 8 and I got another because there wazs another one I wanted to try. We had some good wine and some really cool wineries that had some neat marketing ideas (go to farmgatewines.co.nz). We got back to the hostel at about 6pm and I was quite drunk and starving for food as we had missed lunch. It was early to bed which was good because I could sleep everything off. THe next morning we got up and did a walking tour around Napier and then to the aquarium. Philly decided to do the scuba feeding and got to swim with the sharks and sting rays. I took pictures and it was pretty cool watching in the tank, no place for me but maybe I will have to learn how to scuba dive. We left Napier later that day and made our way back norht and stayed on a 330 acre dairy farm which was interesting to find in the dark. We went back to Auckland after that and Philly is headed to the south island for a few weeks before working again. I got tickets for a live rugby match that had the Aucland team playing a team from South Africa. I went with 7 other guys from the hostel and had a great time. The team from SA won but it really did not matter much to us. I am chilly out right now getting ready for my flight to Australia on Wednesday (which would be Tuesday for you in Canada). I am going to try to get a flight to Tasmania as soon as I get there and hang there for a few weeks before tackling the mainland. It looks like I can get a 1 year visa but can only stay for 3 months at one time. So I will break up Oz with some trips to Tonga, Samoa and Vanautu.

Looks like the next ime I write I will be in Oz, so till then take care.

Steve

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Sky Diving, yes I finally did it!!!!!

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

Well, I have finally did the sky dive I was hoping to get done at Christmas, but let me catch you up first.

I met up with Philly on Saturday and we left Auckland after renting a car. We went south to Waitoamo Caves where i had earlier abseiled down some waterfalls. We got in in the evening so we booked into a hostel and then set up a plan for the next day.

On Sunday we went to the caves but instead of abseiling this time i did what is called Tumu Tumu Black Water Rafting. Basically we tube down through the cave on inner tubes and it was really dark. We also did some caving and it was a blast, but maybe not as good as the first ad venture or at least not as extreme. After the rafting we stopped at a rabbit farm and watched a lady shear a rabbit. It was one of the funniest things i have ever seen. They tie up the rabbits feet and then stretch him out like he is on a spit and the just turn him around and shear him with sheep shears. Some people were offended but I thought it was awesome. Got to love Kiwis and how they decide that they are going to make money. This farm has around 350 rabbits and they shear each one 4 times a year and sell assorted products made of the fur in their shop.

We left the rabbits behind and went on to Taupo, one of my favorite cities. We booked a sky dive for Monday and then took it easy for the rest of the day. We met up with Sam that I had meet thru the Stray bus for a few drinks but were in bed by about 1am.

Today was nothing but excitement about sky diving. We went at 12 noon and dove about 1 hour later. My sky dive master was called Juddy and he was pretty wild. We got all harnessed in and then straight on to the plane. We dropped a few off at 12,000ft and then up to 15,000ft for the rest of us. Once we got to the proper height it went pretty quick. I was the 2nd out and we scooted our way to the doorway and I was basically hanging out and he counted to 3 and we were off. They first few seconds were breath taking as you start to fall at 200km per hour and wow, that is fast. In a few seconds you figure it out and then enjoy the free fall for about 1 minute. The camera man is all around making us look as goofy as possible and then he waves off and they open the shoot. It takes about another 2 minutes to get to the ground and we did a few tricks while we were in the air. it was absolutely amazing!!! It was the best adventure thing I have ever done. I am sure i will be on this high for a few days. i remembered my brother Greg talking about his sky diving that he did a few years back and saying that if the shoot does not open to put the helmet on you feet and land feet first so that everything else just goes into it and there is less to clean up. Well i told my dive master that story and he had a good laugh and said that he may use that on his next guest that is looking a little afraid, I hope he does.

By the way that is a felt marker in my mouth. The instructors always try to draw on each other just before they jump and the guy in front of me got it really good and then they handed me the marker so that i would get blamed. i did not know where else to put it because i had messages on my hands so i put it in my mouth. Never did get in trouble though, sweet.

We are headed to the Tongariro Crossing tomorrow and I will do the 7 hour hike for the second time but i could use a little exercise right now so it should be fun. We will stay in Taupo until Wednesday morning and then we are off to Napier do see what we can find there.

Until next time, everyone take care.

Steve

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Steve is not an electronics wizard

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Well I now have proof that I know very little about electronics. My fancy new camera with built in mp3 player stopped working about a month ago so I bought another camera and thought that when I got back to Auckland ... [Continue reading this entry]

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