The Windy Road ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I'm ## years old!
For my birthday me and some friends went for a tramping trip to Tongariro. Friday night myself "Fast turn", Connor "The Navigator" and Marek "The Real Navigator" drove to Turangi... the long way so much for my navigator and thankfully the backseat driver, Marek, knew how to get us there via the windy road :D

Check out the track
(':^)~(':^)~(':^)~(':^)~
Check out the pics

I'm going to try and add more links to things in this post. I have found it easiest to right click the mouse button when over a link and select "open in New Tab." Let me know if you would prefer I do something different.

We met up with Ali and Shawn in Turangi after heading the wrong direction after getting directions from Shawn to the meeting point a Shell/Burger King. Shawn's family has a bach (pronounced batch: a second home/cabin) between Turangi and Taupo. We brought the beer and had some good conversation. I knew Shawn from Ali's fancy dress party, remember the one where I was a gladiator! Anyway, when we rolled up and met at the BK Shawn said "I remember you, we dove together last weekend." Ahh yes I thought he looked familiar. He was doing his PADI Advanced course while I was doing my wreck specialty. NZ/Wellington is a smaller place than SLC yo!
Shawn was a cool cat and I'm hoping to get out diving w/ him in the next year.

We had some not so grand plans of being up and on the road to Mangatepopo Valley around 8am. Finally 10am rolled around and we were on the move :D We all piled into my car and made off for the trail.
The initial climb up to the south crater wasn't so bad but we were sweating for sure. This was nothing though as the climb to Mt Tongariro was steep as.

We had lunch and Ali said good by to Connor, this would be last time they will see each other for a long while, Ali held back but tears were still shed.

Shawn and Ali needed to get heading out because they were only doing the "Crossing," Mangatepopo to Ketetahi, and were not going on the overnighter with the boys. Come on Ali! j/k

We felt like we were being watched and my fingers were numb so we got moving. Conveniently, as we were passing over Tongariro there were ppl sitting on the ground looking like they were enjoying the cold!~ Freaks. Connor wandered over and found out that they were sitting on HOT dirt 8) a thermal vent was calling to my cold bones. Nice and hot on the bunz and fingers. We were on a pretty steep hill and I was a bit worried w/ Marek moving out over the edge but all was good. After warming up the race to the bottom was on!

Many many great view and some fun making another Sweet As sign but M needed to add an d an extra 'S' ;0

We covered many k's in 7 hours and by the time we made it to Waihohonu Hut I was spent! I had hurt both feet somehow and but I only cry'd a little. Dinner was made and we had some great views of the sun going down behind some clouds and Mount Ruapehu (Roo a pay hoo).

The hut was fantastic, gas stoves, a heater, lights and candles. There was a ranger in charge of the hut and took a couple of us out to set the possum traps. We were going to have possum for breakfast but we didnt' end up catching anything :(
That night we met a couple cool chic's from North Carolina and a uber tramper from Holland. We ended up drinking JD and Vodka while playing Gin hehehe.

We had another late start not getting out until 10 again. We caught the girls about mid day and ended up hiking the rest of the afternoon with them since they were going to take Connor with them and drop him in Taupo. These two goddesses ended up taking all three of us back to my car so we didn't have to take/pay and wait for a shuttle. Huge thanks!

I didn't shed a tear for Connor but I will miss the kid! Connor at 22 years old, has experienced so much and traveled shit loads more than I. Keep it up and I hope to tramps another path with you again.

Entertaining the Queen Day's 3-5

Check out pictures here.
Day 3: I hear a sure fire way to end a relationship is to do something in tandem...

We didn't have that problem at all; Jen paddled my ass around while I did some fishing. I could have done with out the comment here and there about sore shoulders and arms and I think I did well holding back the urge to give her some real pain to whine about...
Being of the hunter gatherer gender I felt it more important to make sure my tribe had sustenance. Not 5 minutes after dropping line I had my first real action. Reeling the bad boy in was a bit more work and extremely disappointing because I had to throw it back. The 7 foot Mako that I had in my hands was 6 inches to small. I should have just kept it anyway but Jen was all over me for even considering it... Damn goody goodies. O and thanks a lot Jen for not having the camera ready, GOSH now no one is going to believe me! Dinner turned out to be a bit less exciting, Coweye, what the locals consider crap/carp. We on the other hand liked it; a nice white, non fishy tasting morsel that accompanied our pasta and veggies nicely. I'm thinking the shark may have been better...

This is the sunset from our first night camping, pictures never really capture everything. When is someone going to create a picture that contains feelings, smells, a breeze...? Now that would be the shit!



Day 4: The Tide 101
O man there was nothing getting us out of the tent. It was almost noon before we got to moving our asses. As it turns out this wasn't such a great idea. Don't get me wrong if I had it my way we'd have spent 17 more days in there :)... By the time we started moving the weather sun that was so brightly shinning all morning was replaced by dark gray/grey clouds and the tide was out. Not so bad you would think except for the fact that nearly the entire head of the sound had receded some 200 meters. We meaning I had to drag the kayak while Jen hooted about her jandle breaking under the mud; 8+ years is a good life for a flip flop! The weather the rest of the day wasn't very nice, rain and wind until we finally landed at our camp spot. We ended up covering a good distance 10+km all the while I was singing me song.

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the colors high.
Heave ho,
thieves and beggars,
never shall we die.

The king and his men
stole the queen from her bed
and bound her in her Bones.
The seas be ours
and by the powers
where we will we'll roam.

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the colors high.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never say we die.

Some men have died
and some are alive
and others sail on the sea
– with the keys to the cage...
and the Devil to pay
we lay to Fiddler's Green!

The bell has been raised
from it's watery grave...
Do you hear it's sepulchral tone?
We are a call to all,
pay head the squall
and turn your sail toward home!

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the colors high.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never say we die.

We're sure glad that we continued on to the further camping area. It was just us and another Weka. I took some more time to drop a line but didn't have any luck and we were ready to call it a day. It's pretty hard fighting whitecaps all day. Whitecaps, for those of you not in the know, are waves that break and have a white foam top as the water falls ahead of the wave :P You know that ones that surfers are always trying to ride...

Another pasta dinner with veggies and some tuna that Jen brought from the states. She didn't think she was going to be able to eat so she brought her staples from home: wheat tortillas, tuna packets, turkey, scroggin (gorp/trailmix), energy bars... It probably didn't help that I told her she was going to starve. I was pleasantly surprised by her ability to eat a wide variety of foods. Most chicks I've dated are picky.

Even with it not being a superb day I couldn't have asked for better company in a better place.
Yarrrrrrrrr

The Amazon Queen in New Zealand Day 1-2

The Queen has finally come to New Zealand! Look out it's not the motherlands Queen but one from the Amazon. The Maori's may have a fight on their hands...
Jen Danker AKA The Amazon Queen came to visit me in Aotearoa for three weeks and I've got a full on road trip planned.

Day 1: Kisses Galore!
The ferry ride to Picton was fantastic clear skies and the sun came out in fashion. We took a picnic dinner and watched the sounds roll by as the sun was setting. The lovely weather didn’t last into the evening. I could barely see with the wipers full on as we drove around looking for our backpacker, the Jugglers Rest.
I finally found it along w/ the ditch next to the drive way. As you can see we’ve picked up our first bit of dirt and grass. I was sure that AQ would out do me but she kept the car on the paved and dirt roads, damn!

Day 2: Bloody hell!
We were off pretty early and that’s when I found out that my pack’s hipbelt had not come w/ me to NZ… Bloody HELL! It’s a good thing Jen didn’t opt for any tramps! We got set up with our rental bikes and jumped the water Taxi to Ship Cove, the start of the Queen Charlotte track. We were fortunate to have some dusky dolphins playing in the area so Jen got her first NZ wildlife sighting. We landed 3000 pictures later…

We hung around and took some more pictures and walked over to a small waterfall for even more …. Yep you guessed it, PICTURES! Just shortly after getting on our way in the saddle we were out and hoofing it up some pretty steep terrain. I’m SURE I would have made it if I had my own bike ;) We took our lunch break and had P&J bagel’s. Mmm P&J! We were constantly being harassed by this Weka and her chick. It was trying to burgle the rest of our sandwiches in a baggy situated between us; the nerve of some birds!

The next section of trail was some nice wide downhill. Hey Jen, what does Ryan tell you when you’re riding down a hill? She really did great and at a pace that allowed me to ride w/ one hand and video with the other. 8) Not long after midday the hail started in; hail, really, come on! Bloody hell! The ride was still enjoyable until we made it to the last 2k. The day’s journey 26.5km was supposed to take around 5 hours. We were getting pretty tired and I was sure we were only 10min away like 10 times. ;)
As most of my friends can attest, I’m always spot on w/ mileage and time estimates. The last 2km was wet slippery clay with loads of puddles that were not rideable. It was getting late, we were hungry, cold and wanted to relax and I knew if we didn’t get food in AQ the bad gunky would be around soon! That 2km took us another hour for a grand total 7 hours. Bloody h311! Some other bikers passed us a couple hard core riding and the rest in a hustle and one put it best, “I was a wonderful up until now.” After a quick rinse of the bikes we rocked up to the restaurant still in our muddy riding gear. After some back and forth deciding to cleanup first or get our grub on we settled on eating. Even though we were seriously under dressed no one gave us more than a double take on our way to the corner table with a view. :D We finally made it to the room and our gear was there waiting, a long hot shower hit the proverbial spot.

I don't think I can express how happy I was to have more time to spend with Jen. When I left the US I figured that I'd not be with my AQ again in a situation where we would "be" together. The wait was well worth it! Enough of the heart felt crap, robel robel out