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

For names sake

Well it was bound to happen one day, I have had my first Krumping experience. Man it was wild; crazy faces and arms flying everywhere. Pretty cool aye! So before you'll start thinking oo he's sick I can't believe rob would do such a thing... I said Krumpting not crumping, GOSH! I am so upset that I didn't have my camera, I had just taken it out after returning from the beach :(

Wandering up on this was just good luck, I was having some drinks my friend Lisa and walking her to the concert she had tickets when we saw a large group of Mauri kids all grouped together. Lisa headed off to her show and I had time to burn... so I went to check it out and it looked to me like a break battle but these kids sucked at breaking! I thought huh well maybe the kids on this side of the world don't have skillz? I asked one of the youngsters, prob 17, what was up and what they were doing. He informed me of the style of Krumping, it's heritage from Cali, and that this was a battle of two crews for a name. Crew A had given a new name to one of it's members, Killa. Said crew wasn't aware of crew B which already had a Killa so they were there to battle for the right to keep the name. The battle included Killa, Twin Killa, Twin, and some other crony... Anyway, I wasted a good hour watching these guys throw down. This style of dance fits really well w/ the Mauri culture since it allowed the kids to kinda dance like their tribal ancestors and make faces like them when they do their cultural performances.

Both crews were having a good time, in good spirits and not at all menacing which to me was sweet as

Check it out here on youtube

Cold Killa out

Labour day in Kaikoura

Weekend of October 25th, 2008. All Images

Man lets hope I can remember how all the great parts of this weekend that occurred over a month ago. First I would like to apologize to the girls for not getting this up sooner and for missing a write up about our last vacation, this one’s for my lesbian’s friends.
Thank you for inviting me share your last weekend/holiday in New Zealand. Bonnie and Clair have been in NZ for many months are now GTFO. Marek and I set out from Wellington while Matt jumped a plane from Auckland. Jenny had just arrived from the UK the day before and was seriously jet lagged when we met.

As we rolled into town the rest of the gang had just purchased a load of groceries and were on their way to make lunch. Me, always being the nice guy, pulled over and offered to take their goods to the backpacker. The poor starving fools would come to find out some 30 minutes later that their lunch had been hijacked and was not coming back anytime soon. I promise we didn’t know we had their lunch…. ;)

We spent that evening walking and playing on the beach. Is it still a beach if there isn’t any sand? It shouldn’t be if you ask me but hey, words are just words. This “beach” was just a load of fist size and larger rocks. It made a really cool sound as the tide came in and out, check it out here. Matt kept us entertained by trying to hit a seagull. We got his focus changed for a couple minutes trying to hit a stick out in the water. A boy can so easily be distracted, oo shiny! I found some fennel growing just up from the beach so I took a load back to broil up, mmm. I don’t think anyone else was impressed but hey, I didn’t have the make or break parmesan.

Saturday we went out for a walk on the Peninsula(map), six would start four would finish. You get pretty hungry on these long walks and the weak never seem to make it home 8)
The wind and ever threatening rain wasn’t so nice for Jen and Clair so they headed back the way we came, too bad for them because the sun came our and the wind wasn’t so bad on the “beach.”

Turns out that Marek and I wandered into a seagull nesting ground; the sign was on the trail and we were walking the “beach.” Anyway we were snapping off some pics of flying and nesting gulls and some seals out playing when we notice some guy waving at us. As we wandered back that way this guy was asking if we knew how to read, to which I said no speak English ;) na but I really wish I had. This guy was pretty pissed that we missed the sign… O Bonnie everyone/thing gets stressed it’s just part of life. ;) The tide was in and we were unsure if we could make it around the rocks. After some tricky jumps from rock to rock and tide surge timing we were able to make it to the final dangerous crossing. A big lazy seal was napping right where we had to pass, no more than 2 feet from biting our ankles off! We made it but Bonnie almost got us all killed. Being the only girl with us she would have to be the one to step on the only stick in the area making a loud sound to stir the beast. It had probably just finish off eating the last tourist that passed by and was too full and tired to move so we make it back w/o spilt blood. I’d have to say, I sure would like to know what seal tastes like.
Little did we know this was only a taste of our adventures to come. I had found a waterfall hike, 10 min return, about 30km out of town that morning and now being back in the car full of energy Matt suggested we check out the falls. On the drive we passed the seal colony and Matt said, “I wonder if the seals ever swim up all the river and streams in the area?” As we arrived at the falls, Matt first noticed a couple pup seals swimming and playing under the falls.
Guess that answers that question! I love it when things like that happen.
It was pretty damn cool being so close, we hung out for a long while watching them and they eventually were quizzical enough to come up. Matt and Bonnie used some flax to splash up the water. They liked it and came over to investigate and ended up playing for a good five minutes. Cute little buggers with their sleek bodies, long whiskers and big round eyes. There were five pups and not adults to be seen. Three were playing in the water, one sleeping on a rock and wouldn’t couldn’t be bothered and another somewhere in the bush that Bonnie and Matt sought out.
Topping this night off was a nice spa soak, drinks by the fire, food hunt in the rain which turned out to be expensive gourmet pizza that was so delish!

We had booked a whale watch for yesterday but because of the weather and waves it was postponed to today and what a beautiful day it turned out to be! Clear skies, albatross, dolphins and one whale made the $130 trip worth while, well maybe but I need to convince myself so ya it was great!

Unfortunately Marek and I had to hurry back to catch the ferry so the weekend had to come to an end :’( Number and hugs were exchanged with full expectations of seeing these great people again in the future.
Good luck on the rest of your trip Clair. Bonnie, back to work for you and I hope you get “sorted.” I’ll come and visit both of you in the next year or two max.
Matt lets make some SCUBA plans and Jenny try to remember what it is you came to NZ for or where you put your shoes for that matter.

Speaking of shoes, huge props go out to Matt for shipping returning to the backpacker to get my Chaco sandles and shipping them to me! I owe ya...

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Day Trip with Marek and my new rig!

So here she is my NZ girl, what shall I name her? I bought this 1996 Subaru Legacy Grand Wagon AKA Outback. I was told she is green, right? ;) She treated us very well today easily cruising up over a few big hills and taking the winding corners w/o a squeal. Not so great on petrol consumption 11L/100Km. Marek said it best, "Dis is not so good." Marek is a partner in crime here in NZ. He has relocated here from Czech and will be staying until his visa is up next Nov. He's a good guy and hard to understand sometimes but we manage pretty good.

So I ask Marek to head out on this road trip with me to the beach. I was having a look see at the map a couple days before and picked out this place. When I told Marek he said he had been there a few times already and loved it. These are his pics.


This here is the scene when we first roll up. I'm already in love. NZ has such character. "Home of lost soles." How suiting, there are so many soles and souls here from all around the world. I have met many people that have come to this country to escape what is the rat race most of us live on the daily... I'm one of them and loving it but home will probably always be the SLC for me.

These next two pictures show where we are heading and coming back down. To the left of us you can see the hill in the background that we are about to climb. The climb looks like more work than it actually was, we made it up and down in about an hour with a sandwich break and watching the waves on the other side.

To the left is my favorite picture of the day. I took some time with this one, I hope it captures you as the scene did me. Click here to see the rest of the album from this trip.


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Yum

 For the poor around the world fret not for no matter what corner of the globe you find your self there is cheap noodles not so far away. Check this college boy meal out, my first taste of cheap noodles here. These bad boys are even selling me on the "Simple Goodness" and "No artificial colours or flavors" Sweet as!

This is where you ask, now why would this well to do computer programmer be eating such rubbish. To which I would respond: Fuck'n hell, no matter what salary you make here it's just not enough ;) In all reality I was just way too preoccupied this week to make it to the store: reporting stolen road bike, buying a car, working a shitload to cover for holiday when Jen comes out, planning a road trip, riding, and buying some previously owned books. More to come on each of these topics…

I've got to remember to buy some replacement noodles for my flat mates, shhhh I took these w/o asking. Well I really couldn't have asked anyone anyway because I've been left alone, again... So I've been in the flat now, maybe 3 months? In that time I have seen one flat mate, lets call him Michael Burns, twice and spoke to him once. My other flat mate, AKA Tom Smith (go figure I'd find the only Smith in NZ!), travels for work and has been here a total of maybe 3-4 weeks. This makes for a lonely flat :( I like my place very much but damn someone to say hi to at the end of the day would be nice. Maybe I'll order me one of them mail order girls from Russia. I’m good, some more messages from ya’ll would be great HINT HINT.

I’ve got send props out to Momz, there is no way I would be able to be here and keep all my shit together back in Utah. Love you mom!

 Bike, ug well she’s gone and I miss her! This last weekend my road bike was taken from outside a friends flat, seriously people! Nope the bike goes have still not forgotten me :( I filed a claim today and got a replacement quote for around $5,999 NZD. I have a $250 excess (deductible) and they are going to depreciate the bike. Since it is a 2002 frame and I put all new components on it in 07 and 08 they had better not screw me. I've put some watches on TradeMeand put the word out to a few bike shops. I figure I'll go check out the police station for seized bikes every couple weeks for a bit.

Car, a 1996 Subaru Grand Wagon AKA Outback. It has 145,000km on the odometer pretty good for that year right? It seems to run good but I’ve not really driven it. I bought it yesterday and it’s been parked since LOL perhaps I’ll use it this weekend. I’m hoping to do a bit of a road trip maybe 100-300km to see how it goes. They don’t clean their cars much around these parts. Every vehicle I saw hadn’t been vacuumed in what seemed to be a year. Even after buying this car they did not clean it, Gosh! I’ll be making this baby mine if it survives the weekend. Wish us luck.

Holy hell I can't keep blathering on like this all night; that reminds me of a certain girl friend of mine. If you want know the rest you'll just have to email me or wait for me to get bored again.

Cheerio's mate