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
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 [...]
Dec 262011
Helicopters are cool. Every movement of the machine is strongly felt. Not at all like a commercial jet. I slept well, and was ready to do this. We start off by getting gear. I was able to use my own boots but still needed the crampons and a waterproof jacket. Thankfully they had crampons that [...]
Dec 262011
A member of our group, lets call her Bridgette because her real german name seems like an overly complex version of this name, is leaving for Christchurch while we are on our way to Franz Joseph. We all gave her hugs and she teared up. We’re the best group all right. It was quite emotional [...]
Dec 262011
There is nothing in Greymouth. The group now is british, two more canadians, belgian, austrian, german, and two swedes. We’re all drinking countries, we’ve all seen breweries, no one cared. The next day there was carving activities and a knife welding thing. I signed up for knife welding, but couldn’t do it because the bus [...]
Dec 262011
It’s unbelievable but I’m half way through my Stray trip. My first real backpacking experience is so far going very well despite getting a bit sick and not being able to do some activities. All in all everything has been very rewarding. The groups kept getting better, the music being played on the bus kept [...]
Dec 212011
Tasman Kayaking. The company did me a favour, and pulled out one of their bigger kayaks for me. The front seat was uncomfortable, but the back seat was perfect. So time to kayak! We were about 10 people in five kayaks, with Noodles and I taking the bigger one, as well as the lunches. We [...]
Dec 212011
Good thing I picked the hostel I picked. Being right beside the ferry terminal was a smart move. Got more sleep from it. Ferry left a bit late, and I just ended up watching a movie on my ipad for most of the trip. The group I was with is now down to just 5. [...]
Dec 212011
Checked into the hostel at Wellington. It’s a nice place. Used to be a hotel, built in the 1930ies with that certain kind of british charm. I’m sure this building has had some good stories in this place. Since I’m going back to Wellington for a few days on December 30th, I didn’t do much. [...]
Dec 212011
Today is the one of the big things I’ve been looking forward to. The Tongariro Crossing. It’s a 20km hike starting at 1100m above sea level, reaching a peak of 1900m, then descending down to about 750m. The average time is 7 hours. The highlight of the walk is going along the summit of Mt. [...]
