Last year I got good taste of the rest of the world. New York City, Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Shanghai. It was New Zealand that I ultimately wanted for the main course however, and I do not regret a thing. This country really is amazing. And while it has its [...]
Jan 042012
It’s the last night in New Zealand. It’s below -20c in Montreal. We got to Auckland for lunchtime. I booked a room at the Mercure Windsor hotel again while others went to Nomads Auckland and other various hostels. I spent the afternoon eating cheap sushi and filling out a grand total of 17 postcards. I’m [...]
The drive up to Rotorua was long. 7/8 hours, but leaving so early in the morning means we got there at 3pm. Not terrible. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to do, and the place really does stink, though it was windy today so unlike last time I went through the area, it didn’t smell nearly as [...]
Jan 042012
New Years Eve No one really had plans. The weather was again miserable, canceling the fireworks and outdoor stuff on the waterfront. I was with Sam, Ken (the torontonian) and a few others. With the weather so bad, I spent my afternoon at the hostel bar, meeting a bunch of interesting brits, germans, americans, and [...]
Dec 302011
The weather is miserable. We packed up and drove off to Pincton to grab the 2pm ferry. Not ideal weather to be taking a boat ride but at least then it’ll be somewhat exciting. I decided weather or no weather, I wanted to do a timelapse video of the boat leaving the south island. I [...]
Dec 302011
Waking up before 5am is never a good thing. It was a very relaxing morning. I tidied up a bit around the kitchen, enjoyed a few cups of tea, listened to the enormous amount of sound coming from the forests. So many birds. I was up before the cows were as they only started mooing [...]
Dec 282011
GIVE ME MY MOJITO GRR… I’ve been searching for mint for two days now. None of the grocery stores we stopped off at had any mint at all. In fact, none of them really had any fresh herbs to speak of. I had all the ingredients, just missing the mint. We drove out of the [...]
Dec 282011
I really want another mojito. The drive through the alps back to Mt Cook was nothing short of stunning. Huge mountains piling down into perfectly flat valleys and rivers. Some of us were quite tired and most of the morning was a quiet drive. We stopped at a few places to take pictures and for [...]
Dec 262011
I woke up at 10/10:30am, but couldn’t be bothered to crawl out of bed until a bit past 11am. I got showered and dressed and went hunting for food. Head was clear, I felt refreshed actually. All that dancing certainly helped. I settled for a subways sandwich, then went walking around. Got another 32gb of [...]
Dec 262011
It’s Christmas Day. And we’re all tired. I called my family, 7:30am my time and wished as many people as I could a merry christmas. Family was busy making yule log cake and pangs of homesickness hit, or maybe it was just the aftermath of the night before, not sure. We got onto the bus [...]