Sweet as bro, choice.

It's been another few days since my last post, and a lot has happened! The glacier climb was pretty cool in Franz Josef, but I think it would have been a lot cooler for people who aren't from cold countries. Some of the people in my group were excited to use a pick axe to scrape away at the ice, while that sounds like something I would do for work at home. It was a beautiful climb though. We then left Franz Josef and headed further south to a small town called Makarora. There we just relaxed and took in some amazing sights, jumped off more rocks (it seems to be a New Zealand pasttime) and sang kareoke. The following day we headed into Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world! This city has everything, bungee, paragliding, sailing, kayaking, mountain biking, skydiving, quad biking, hiking, canyon swinging, and mini golf. A few of the guys stopped and we did the Kawarau bridge bungee jump. It's the home of bungee, and is the first comercial bungee site in the world. AJ Hackett, the man who started it all, was there for the day, and actually tied my bungee to my legs, so that's pretty cool. The funny thing about bungee, is that they just use a towel and wrap it around your ankles, then wrap a strap around the towel and attach a bungee cord, then away you go. The towel in my backpack was just as good... But it was a pretty amazing rush, especially at the bridge because you have the option of being dunked into the river below. I'll upload photos for your viewing pleasure. After the bungee we came into Queenstown and relaxed for the night. The following morning was my first real sleep in of the entire trip, waking up at 10:30 am! haha, but it was followed by a quick lunch and then off to hike Ben Lomen mountain range. It was a 6 - 8 hour free hike, that a guy from the UK named Matt and I decided to tackle. He didn't tell me, but he's an avid hiker and just finished hiking around Asia often doing multiple day treks. He basically ran up the entire mountain, so as you can imagine I was deeeead tired. We completed the entire thing in just under 4 hours, but I'm really glad I went with him, I would have probably turned around if he hadn't pushed me to the top. On the way back down though we went off the beaten path, and ended up climbing over rocks on the edge of the mountain, and carefully steping around the edges of the cliff and got some amazing views. The funny thing was we ended up at a chalet, and walked into it not realizing it was a wedding reception with people dressed up sipping wine, and 2 scraggly hikers walked through. This morning I woke up early to watch the Canada vs. USA finals at a sports pub. The game started at 9am, and the pub was packed full of Canadians, some Americans, and a few Kiwi's who I had to explain hockey to. Tonight is our last night here in Queenstown, so we're making a big dinner for 17 of us, then relaxing with some friends. Hope everyone's doing well back in Canada! I bet the streets are crazy and alive with celebration from the hockey game!

It's been a while.

Hey everyone, it's been a while since I last wrote, but it's because I've been doing tons of stuff and just caught a break now! Wellington was my last stop on the North island, and it was a beautiful city. I decided to go to the rugby game with a few people and we watched the Wellington Hurricanes play the Perth Western Force. Not knowing the rules of rugby didn't really matter, since they're pretty easy to pick up and you just cheer when everyone else cheers. The Wellington Hurricanes easily beat Perth, and everyone was happy. The next morning we took the 3 hour ferry across to the South Island. We got picked up in Picton and stopped in Abel Tasman. Our hostel was called "Old McDonalds Farm" which is surprisingly a farmed owned by an old guy named McDonald. He had cows, sheep, lama's, chickens, and about 50 backpackers on his property, freely roaming around. The weather was absolutely perfect, so I did what any normal person does on a good day, GO SKYDIVING! It was more than I expected, and defintely one of the coolest/most extreme things I've ever done. I have some photo's so check them out in the photo's section. I also got a free t-shirt and a DVD of the skydive, so I can show anyone once I get back home. We left sunny Abel Tasman for Barrytown, a small little town with a population of 600. The bar/hostel was called Bas Vegas, and it was a costume night. The theme was pirates and hookers, so surprisingly most of the guys dressed up as girls, and the girls as pirates. The next morning we did bone carving, and got to make cool necklaces out of bone (it was said to be the bone of backpackers who didn't pay, but turned out to be cow). I designed my own sort of, I took inspiration from a few designs, but they had templates for those who just wanted a stock design. Anyways, that brings us to today, where I am in Franz Josef, and climbing the glacier tomorrow rain or shine. We've stopped for quick activites along the way, including jumping off rocks into the river, checking out seal colonies, and taking in some wicked sights of the coast. You can see all of these in the photo's section. Well that's all for now, I can't believe Febuary is almost over, time flies when you're having fun.

Pictures

Hey everyone, I just spent an hour uploading some photo's so check them out by clicking the "photos" button on the right hand side. A few things I forgot to mention, one was Waitomo Caves. We got into wetsuits and descended into these caves. Our guide would take us through narrow passages, often times we'd have to crawl through little holes or hold our breath as we'd crawl through a crack that had rushing water right below our faces. We repelled down 2 waterfalls, and one biiiig hole. It was probably the most exciting thing I've done here so far, definitely the most amazing experience. Glow worms live in the cave, so at point we turned off our head lamps and you'd see a ton of glowing little worms on the top of the cave walls. Unfortunately we couldn't bring cameras with me, so I only had one photo, of a photo. The hike yesterday was a success as well, but walking 18km was not easy, haha. Some spectacular views though, and some amazing photos. Now we're in Wellington, a pretty cool city with a lot going on right now. There's a festival called "home grown" featuring only Kiwi bands, as well a rugby game, and the streets are alive, so time to check them out! hope everyones well at home, and see you all soon, my trips 1/4 over!

Kia Ora (it means "hello" in Maori)

Hey everyone, Im writing from a hostel in Taupo, home of the cheapest skydiving in the world! Thats the good news, but the bad news is that there was poor weather today and no planes were able to take off, so looks like I wont be able to skydive here. There is still another city called Franz Josef that is in the south island and has great mountains and glaciers, that also offers skydiving, so hopefully I can go while I am there. Ive been having a really good time, and everyday seems to have another story to go with it (Yesterday 3 of the girls got lost on the mountain and we had to call in a rescue team, one of the girls had her hand caught in a possum trap) Haha but New Zealand is a beautiful country with roaming green hillsides, tons of sheep and cows, and a lot of cultural history from the Maori people. The olympics arent that big a deal here, but it is definitely interesting watching them in the hostels since there are so many people here from different countries, so every athlete shown has some homeland fans. Tomorrow I am doing a 6 hours hike up Mount Tongariro, which is Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings. Hope it goes well!

yeeAAH!

I gotta make this quick, internet is EXPENSIVE here and I have a minute to type. I had a wicked weekend in Paihia, but didn't get to swim with dolphins. However I did manage to burn my finger tips on the hostel oven, and get a nice red sunburn while sandboarding on giant sand dunes. I left Paihia on Sunday and arrived in Hahei yesterday, we did some trekking around, then headed to Raglan today. This place is realllllly cool. It's like in the jungle, and has a sweet black sand beach. I went surfing for the first time and did alright. Jack Johnson and Ben Harper both have houses here, so I techincally surfed the same beach as those guys. Anyways I gotta jet! Hope everyones doing well at home, I wish you alll the best

New Zealand, better than Old Zealand

I just arrived on the northern most of New Zealand called Paihia. It's a lot like Grand Bend with mountains, dolphins, sting rays, and sand dunes to go sand boarding. Tomorrow I'm swimming with Dolphins, then going sand boarding! The town has a reallllllly cool vibe, with a lot of cafe/bars with open walls facing the beach. I've also actually found quite a few Canadians, mostly from Calgary or Vancouver, but one guy from Toronto. Our bus driver is "far out" (that's a popular term here), we drove by a very nice golf course on the coast line, and he would wait until a golfers mid-back swing then lay on the horn. Even earlier than that we went to Goat Island and drove around on a glass bottom boat, checking out caves and some giant fish. Unfortunately we didn't see anything but fish, although the driver said in his 18 years of driving the boat, he's only seen one Great White Shark. It's been a packed day, and I'm lounging around Paihia until Sunday! Hope everyone at home is doing well!

New Zealand from the Future!

I'm alive! And even better I've just arrived at my first hostel and begun my touring around New Zealand! The flights were long, and the food was dirt, but it wasn't too bad. I was greeted by roaming green hillsides, and tons of cows just outside the airport. I had to fly Toronto - Vancouver - Sydney Aus - Auckland New Zealand. On the way from Vancouver to Sydney, the plane was packed with beach ready Australians. I had jeans and a coat on, and everyone else shorts, sandals, and bronzed skin. Luckily I got the seat beside the Star Wars nerd who ended up telling me all about the specially released comics he got that explain even MORE stuff that the movie doesn't. Anyways I watched enough movies to kill the time and now it's all paid off. I'll be walking around downtown Auckland tonight and leaving for the first leg of my bus tour tomorrow. So far I have to guess half the things the people are saying here because I have a tough time understanding New Zealand accents, and I'm getting the same stares back as I mumble and slur my words. Anyways, I'm wearing shorts and t-shirt and off to see what the city has to offer. We're 16 hours ahead, so I'm currently writing from the future, and the future is friendly!

Off to New Zealand!

Today's the day, my bags are packed, I'm finishing up some last minute things, I took a long last shower, shaved, and have some fresh clothes on. Feels kind of like the first day of school. Except for you have to fly 22 hours to get to school, and stay for 45 days before you can come back...

I'll hopefully be able to write again once I've settled into my first hostel in New Zealand. It's called NOMAD'S FUSION/FAT CAMEL, and it's supposedly backpackers paradise for downtown New Zealand. So with that, I just want to say "Good bye everybody!" Thanks for reading, I'll keep this baby updated as frequently as I can, see everyone at the end of March!!!

One Week Away!

Well this is the first post of hopefully many. I'm still in Canada just setting up the site. I think I have everything I need for this trip, I just need to pack my bag and off we go!