New Zealand trip

Arrived in LA on Thursday after a 12 hour flight, where I met up with Jackie - the first person Adam and I met in Auckland when we arrived in New Zealand - and now the last person I'll see as the trip ends! Jackie has been the most incredible host and has tirelessly shown me around the city. It's been a blast, filled with beaches and cheesy tourist sights. Also met up with Alison, a friend from Wellington who happened to be going through LA at the same time.

The last time I was on the west coast I didn't make it to In N Out Burger, that mistake wouldn't be repeated on this trip. It was number one on my to do list. Below are a couple other checks off the list.



pondering celine dion's greatness



The Hollywood sign - just as impressive in person as when seen on TV





The only thing i couldn't check off was Amoeba Records, a huge independant music store. It's probably just as well though. I would have ended up spending money i don't have and bored Jackie to death as i drifted aimlessly for hours within it's walls.

It's been a blast, but I head out tomorrow - headed home! Tomorrow I arrive in DC around 9 and head back to the Burg to figure out what i'm doing next.

Playlist:

Gnarles Barkley - Transformers
Metric - Calculation Theme
Belle and Sebastian - White Collar Boy
Belle and Sebastian - Funny Little Frog
Stereophonics - Rewind
David Grey - Lately
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979

Oz was great - lotta camping, lotta hippies, lotta good times.

Arrived in Sydney on June 21st and ended up spending 4 days in Sydney (that's about 3 days too many). I ended up doing a surfing trip up the east coast with surfaris a company that runs a tour between Sydney and Byron Bay, a small beach town about 3 hours from Brisbane. The tour ended up being a blast. I hadn't really done much camping on this trip yet, so it actually got me out into national parks and camping right on the beaches we'd be surfing. Wild dingos, kangaroos and kookaburras were everywhere and it was the best food I've had while camping ever (sorry mom). Even though it was winter the days got up to about 70 degrees and the water was about the same temperature - nights, however, were pretty cold. It was a fun and even though i'm still not that great at the whole surfing thing, the people on the trip, the awesome parks we were going to and the campfires made the trip the highlight of Australia for me.



Once in Byron Bay I stayed for two nights in the Arts Factory hostel, which has this hippy commune feel to it. Drum circles, lots of tie dye, lots of dreds and lots of Canadians... It was actually a really cool place - buildings were spread out over a pretty big property with a hot tub, pool, teepees, and a lush rainforest feel as you walked around. Weather in Byron Bay was beautiful too - warm enough for a beach day in the middle of winter. The town, which refuses to let Mc Donalds in, has a nice feel to it. Glad I spent my time there instead of Surfers Paradise, which looked a lot like VA Beach when i drove through it.

Sunday I headed to Brisbane, where my flight would leave on Tuesday (today). I ended up meeting up with Stuart, a friend from Wellington, for a walk around the city and a few drinks. It was great to see him again.

Back in Auckland for a bit now. Gotta buy my kiwi music and close my accounts here. Then, sadly, say goodbye to NZ.

Playlist:

Fly My Pretties - Turn It Around
Kora - Burning
The Roots - Why
The Clash - Train in Vain
M.I.A. - Sunshowers
The Go! Team - Ladyflash

Arrived in Sydney late on Wednesday. Looks like i'll be here until Monday, when I'll make my way up the east coast to Byron Bay and Brisbane where I'll meet up with Stuart, a friend from Wellington.

Here's the predictable Sydney tourist picture.

Annd I'm back in Christchurch. After about 2 weeks doing a loop around the South Island I find myself back in the city for one more night. A quick rundown of my past 2 weeks:


Monday Morning (June 5) I jumped on a bus from Christchurch to a small town on the west coast called Barrytown. Barrytown was where I was supposed to meet up with Stray, the bus company i'd decided to do the South Island tour with. The town only had 5 houses and a hostel (that was completely empty including staff when I arrived). Since I found myself alone, I decided to read on the (cold) beach and check out the sunset. After it set I returned to the hostel to check in.

The (only) reason Stray stops in Barrytown is to meet up with this old guy who teaches you to make knives from scratch. Unfortunately on Tuesday, the day I was there, the place was closed. With knife dude not making knives and no bus leaving till the next day, I decided to do a hike up a mountain behind the hostel. By two i still hadn't made it to the top of the thing and had no clue how much farther it would be so I begrudgingly gave up and started the long trek back to the hostel completely starved. (no grocery store in Barrytown). Luckily the hostel had a bar, and the bar made a mean cheeseburger. That dinner may have been the best of my trip.

Wednesday was my first day on the Stray bus. There were only 5 of us on the bus and we were all about the same age, so it was really easy to get to know everyone. After a quick stop at pancake rocks, we traveled down the west coast to the Franz Joseph glacier, a growing glacier that's surrounded by a rainforest. I signed up to do a day walk up the thing on Thursday. Our guide on the hike actually carved out our steps the entire way with a pick axe - it was pretty amazing - and for some reason I was more tired at the end of the day than he was.







Friday we headed off to Queenstown, a town created to suck the money out of you. It was there that, as seen in my last entry, I did the Nevis Bungy, a 134 meter jump off a cable car. I'd decided to stay in Queenstown for a week, which knowing its reputation for making you bleed money, probably wasn't the wisest plan. I ended up crashing at my friend Maureen's house after 3 days to try to save money and it kind of worked... She lived far enough from town that I wasn't tempted to eat out and I was saving on accommodation as well. Their house also had an awesome view (below).



After a week, I jumped back on the 7am Stray bus to see the Milford Sound, a sure-fire highlight of the trip that everyone raves about. The boat ride ended up being incredibly wet and foggy, which is apparently pretty normal in that area – one of the rainiest in New Zealand. Unfortunately, due to the rain and fog, most of my pictures didn't come out that great. Here's one to give an idea of the sound.



Saturday, after a night in Te Anu, we headed farther south to Invercargill, a freezing and, yes, rainy place (soo much rain in the south) where you catch the ferry to Stewart Island, one of the only places to see kiwi birds in their natural habitat and one of the least inhabited places in NZ. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating, so no one wanted to go to Stewart Island since we might not make it back. That night we just stayed in the hostel and didn’t really do too much.

The next day we headed to Dunedin, on the east coast of the South Island. The weather, again, was pretty horrible and closed a few roads so we had to skip the Catlins wilderness area, which is supposed to be pretty awesome. Since we skipped the Catlins, we got to Dunedin early and had the afternoon to kill. The Speights brewery tour was the perfect way to kill the afternoon... Free tastes at the end too!

Woke up early Monday morning and after a quick stop at the steepest street in the world, headed up the east coast back to Christchurch. Obviously a lot of scenery on the whole trip as well. Below are some pictures of pictures taken along the route.









Tomorrow I'm off to Sydney. Just over two weeks til I return home.

Playlist:

Fly My Pretties - Quiet Girl
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Slow Cheetah
Ted Leo and the Pharmasists - Under the Hedge
A Tribe Called Quest - Verses From The Abstract
Hellen Stellar - This Time Around
Ryan Adams - If I Am A Stranger

445ft. I couldn't comprehend the height till I actually had to jump.

Last night, my last night in Wellington, was 80's night Indigo, and that's the bar we decided to patronize, which worried me at first. Never a huge fan of the 80's I was skeptical of the fun that everyone insisted I'd have.

I've never seen a DJ so enveloped in the music he was playing. Besides dancing on his own he'd throw up a touchdown sign at key points in the song, and dizzy himself with some vicious head banging. I would have been entertained even without the music. Luckily, he mixed in some U2, Talking Heads and Pixies with the standard cheesy 80's fare. I managed to survive the night.

Anyway, I write this from Christchurch, which i flew into this afternoon and where I start my South Island circuit from tomorrow (Monday). I'll be leaving at 7:15am for the west coast and end up back in Christchurch two and a half weeks from now for my flight to Australia.

Playlist:

Metric - Hustle Rose
Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)
Meredith Bragg and the Terminals - Carolina
Pixies - Hey
Nightmare's on Wax - The Sweetest
Patty Griffen - Florida

By the time I leave Wellington I’ll have spent 8 of my 12 New Zealand months here. The plan was to come to New Zealand and be a bit more of a nomad, finding jobs as I explored. After two months of rural life in Paihia, however, I found that I’m not really cut out for the rural lifestyle (especially without a car) and returned to the city. I was immediately sucked in again.

The metropolitan Wellington area is only 350,000 people – one third the size of Richmond, yet the downtown feels at least as big as Richmond and the nightlife is far better. All crammed together on Courtnay Place, there’s 2 theatres, plenty of nightclubs, countless restaurants and 4 good cinemas, 2 of which bring in a new film festival almost every week. World Film Festivals, Documentary film festivals, Football film festivals, Human Rights film festivals… Both theatres are right around the corner, and as someone who admittedly sees too many movies, the movie industry has gotten plenty of patronage from me in the past months.

Most things are in walking distance in Wellington, which brings me to a huge part of Wellington I love – where I couldn’t think of living in Richmond or Williamsburg without a car, it’s been cake in Wellington. Busses, trolleys and trains to the suburbs are far more accessible than anything Richmond has and make for easy transportation wherever you need to go in the metro area: My catering job sent me to some random destinations, but it was never hard to find a way there, for a day at the beach you can simply take the train to the last stop, Paraparaumu, a small relaxed beach town, to go see a seal colony simply jump on a bus to Island Bay, forget a taxi to the airport - an airport bus runs every 20 minutes.

Plenty of other characteristics allowed Wellington to suck me in and give it a unique character: A large art scene, plenty of local bands performing, a fantastic waterfront that I get to walk along every day on my way to work and a welcome sense of it being clean and very safe. As with any capital city, Wellington gets additional color from a fair amount of protesters on a variety of issues. Greenpeace volunteers are hard to avoid when walking through the city and on my way to work, as I pass Parliament, I’ll walk by at least one new Anti-American protester a week, but they mostly just hold signs quietly stating their opinions.

Wellington is also a city obsessed with coffee. They claim to have as many restaurants per capita as NYC, but they must have more coffee stands per capita. Before I came here I hated cappuccino, but I’ve since been won over – even venturing out into latte’s and flat whites sometimes (so how have I changed since I went away? I drink coffee and tea now).

My goal of getting a flat when I left Paihia back in February has obviously fallen through. When I leave Wellington I’ll have lived in the Cambridge Hotel (left) for almost a total of 5 months – a ridiculous proposition had it been suggested when my stay started, but weeks turned into months and as I lost hope in finding a short term flat I simply got used to the lack of privacy and random transients shuffling through my room.

On June 2nd my job ends and on the 4th I say goodbye to Wellington for good, (were I the list making type, one of my top 5 cities) and head to Christchurch on the south island for two weeks. In Christchurch I’ll hop on a bus and do the route to the left, stopping in Queenstown to visit friends, for a little while. Highlights will be Franz Joseph (a glacier) and the Milford Sound. Pictures galore to come from that leg of the trip.

On June 21st I head to Sydney Australia and make my way up the east coast over two weeks (though I still have no clue how I’m going to travel I'm looking into a trip that goes up the east coast where you camp on the beach and surf for a week). I fly out of Brisbane on the 4th of July and then after one more day in New Zealand i fly from Auckland to LA on the 6th, where I’ll stay for 3 days before ending my trip on the 10th, when I fly to DC, pretty much one year to the day after I left. One of the fastest years of my life and, yes, one I’d probably extend longer if my return ticket would allow it.




Playlist:
Sufjan Stevens – Your Land
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Hard to Concentrate
Talking Heads – This Must Be the Place
Mason Jennings – Breathe the Same Air
The Cardigans – Live and Learn
Belle and Sebastian – Sukie in the Graveyard