Travels

Hey everyone,
After I left you in Nelson with a full description of the wonders of Abel Tasmen I spent a few more days in Nelson. The hostel there is pretty amazing and I got my arm twisted into spending another night there as it was Halloween and they were hosting a big party. It was a really cool party, everyone dressed up and after a few hours the hostel paid for a armada of taxis to come and pick everyone up to go into town.

The next day, after dragging myself out of bed and saying goodbye to the Abel Tasmen crew as well as everyone else, I headed out. I followed the road down the east coast, through some really amazing wine country near Blenheim and then finally to the ocean. I decided to push through to Christchurch instead of stopping in Kaikoura as although it is gorgious, I had been on the beach for a long time and I was getting anxious about selling the van.

I pulled into Christchurch, found a hostel that had off-street parking and went to bed. The next morning I woke up and spent the morning putting up flyers in various hostels and internet cafes. After I had hit most of the message boards, I made my way down to the car market and signed up to be there.

The deal at the market is you pay $65 for three days of parking, then sit near your vehicle and wait for people to come by and look at it. There is always an interesting group of people selling there and the place has its own customs and culture, ie. if you sell you are then required to bring in a case of beer for everyone else to enjoy. When I got there, there was two British girls and a couple from Germany. Everyone was really cool and the first couple days past pretty quick. pretty soon both sold and were replaced by others, we had a couple from France with a van similar to mine who immediately began to use nasty tactics to sell theirs over mine. I walked by one morning during their sales pitch to someone that was interested in mine and heard them tell them how terrible diesel was and how they didnt want that. This of course was really annoying as the car market is stressful enough without having to deal with crap like that, soon enough they sold and in the meantime didnt make any friends with the other sellers. By this time I had been there about 5 days with no end in sight and with no money I was getting pretty worried. Luckily Jenny (one of the germans) returned and helped me scrub out the van so it was in mint condition, she also brought me cookies so to cheer me up from the depressing wait for buyers.

As I arrived at the market I was expecting to sell right away without having to wait, this optimism lasted until about the 6th day. By this time I started believing the stories on the wall, the place is full of stories drawn on the wall about disasters and lost money. At this point I was getting really frustrated and hated the whole thing as well as being in Christchurch. I had no choice but to keep going everyday, being as upbeat as possible to potential buyers and hoping that the day would come. I became the old timer pretty quick, everyone except me sold so all the new people came to me with questions and problems about selling. Again it was a good crowd so the days werent too bad, it was only when the market shut at night that I got frustrated because another day had passed without a sale. Soon enough I was at nine days, really frustrated but there wasnt anything I could do. I chatted with everyone in the morning and then went for a quick walk. When I arrived back, the guy selling a car beside my van was standing beside mine talking to someone. As I walked up he introduced me to "Julien" from France, who was interested in the van. Everyone was rooting for me to sell so they were all positive as I took him through the van before moving back and letting him poke around and ask questions. He asked if we could go for a ride which was great as it was my first test drive, we also talked about some problems (like the brake pads that need replacing) but there wasnt anything big at all. By the time we finished out test drive he turned to me and asked if I would take $2800 instead of $3000 because of the brake pads that needed replacing. At this point I had been at the market for WAY too long so I woulda taken almost anything over $2000 so I quickly agreed.

I originally bought Waka Tui for $2400 in Auckland, then proceeded to sink around $1200 into making sure it ran well by the time I was finished with it. This all seemed to pay off because although I lost $800 on it, that is a small price to pay for a van for 6 months. Needless to say I was ecstatic about selling, I had been eating out of the free food bin at the hostel for a week and was ready for a good meal. I treated myself to an amazing lamb pizza and a big pint of Guinness, and then met some people back at the hostel to go out. After a night of much needed celebration I sit here feeling a little under the weather but quite happy. I spent the morning wandering the Botanic Gardens and watching a marching band in Cathedral square. I am going to fly up to Auckland on monday, spend a day up there and then jump back on the plane bound for Fiji. I dont know if I will update before I leave. So unless something worth writing about happens, I will hopefully be back on in about a week filling you all in on the wonders of life on the beach.

Cheers,
-Jesse

Hey everyone,
I appoligise to those who sent me an email and havent recieved a reply yet. I got in from my hike last night and was pretty tired so I went straight to bed, and now I am trying to sort through everything and trying to write a bit. First in line is updating this, I have alot to talk about as Abel Tasmen definitly lived up to its reputation as being an amazing trip.

After I updated last time, I got to work getting everything ready to go on my trip. It was really fun to plan out everything, I havent had a chance to do that in awhile and I really enjoyed trying to think of all the things I needed to remember. I bought a bunch of food (I am truly my parents son... from good salami to a wheel of bree and some good chocolate, my pack was quite a bit heavier then it needed to be) and made sure I had all my gear togethor. I garbage bagged everything, lined my pack and basicly made sure everything was going to be water proof. After everything was packed I went down to the local DOC office and booked my huts and water taxi, the DOC officer was really helpful and pointed out a few places that I shouldnt miss when I was out there.

With all my things ready to go I headed back to the hostel and met up with a few people I had been hanging out with the night before. There was a group of American girls down here for the year, as well as another American guy who after hearing about what I was doing the next day, decided that they really wanted to come. I said it was no problem thinking that there was no way they would get ready and go for a four day hike with absolutly no notice or preparation. To my suprise they immediately got off the couch and got everything sorted and packed for the next day. I was unsure as to what I wanted because I had planned it as a solo trip, but I decided it would probably be fun to have some company on the trail. With everyone all ready to go I went to bed early and got excited about the trip.

Day One - 7 Km
I woke up in the hostel, got all my stuff into the van and then headed to the kitchen for breakfast. I alot took all my ski gear (which I have yet to send home or decide what to do with...) and put it in the hostels storage room, just in case the van was broken into at the trailhead. After breakfast, Two of the girls and I headed out in the van towards Abel Tasmen. We got their water taxis worked out, parked and started out from the trailhead.
The First section of the trail is a long section of boardwalk over an amazing coastal wetland. There were a tonne of day hikers out and we felt a little weird puffing away with our big packs on while hiking along past families out for the day. After the wetland, the trail snakes its way up through the rainforest and along the coastline. You work your way along, seeing viewpoints of incredible blue water and golden sandy beaches down below. It started to rain lightly and after a little blister work for one of the girls, we got into Anchorage bay which was the first stop for the trip.
Anchorage bay is another of the gorgious bays, Golden beaches with incredible limestone formations in the rocks, surrounded by lush rianforest. The entire park is similar to this, so it is hard to describe everything, I will do my best and attach some pictures at the end so bare with me. We quickly dropped our packs and headed out to another little trail heading up into the forest. We followed it for an hour and came to a little creek and pool called "cleopatra's pool". It was a really cool waterfall and creek, and just as we got there, the sun came out for the first time all day so I decided to go swimming. After we were done at Cleopatras pool, We hiked back to Anchorage, met the others and then continued on to "Te Pokatea Bay". The bay was just over the hill from Anchorage but there was absolutly nobody there so we just lay in the sand, crawled around on the rocks and just enjoyed it for awhile before going back to the hut to make dinner.
The other thing that blew me away about Anchorage, was that it was my first look at the NZ hut system. I had a nice hut pictured like those in Canada but had no idea what to imagine. To my suprise, all the huts down here have flush toilets and RUNNING water in the outhouses. Not only that but all the huts along the Abel Tasmen trek have filtered water supplied, so this was turning out to be not really the most backcountry of trips. The other thing, is Anchorage hut is the first hut on the trip so it is full of people just going out for a single night before returning to Marahau. Unlike the diverse spread of outdoors people regularly found in huts back home, this hut was full of, well... punters. There was even the group of obese middle aged kiwis who got their luggage water taxied everyday to the next hut. These hard core group of locals brought ten full sized coolers, as well as 5 big duffle bags full of stuff. Every morning the water taxi would pick it up and drop it off at their next hut (they took 4 days to cover the same distance it took us to do in 2... and I thought we were wandering through). I cant complain too much as after they found out it was my birthday, they spent the whole night handing me another beer and supplying me with lots of tasty treats from their various cheese plates (sounds like the robsons go to Lake O'hara? minus the overweight kiwis of course).

Day Two - 21 Km
I woke up nice and early, made a great breakfast of porridge and fruit and then packed up all my gear. Spent a little time down on the beach around sunrise and then went to see how my fellow travelers were. They were all still semi asleep, and a long ways away from being ready to go. It was going to be the longest day of the trip adn I wanted to have enough time to see everything so I decided that instead of getting annoying adn trying to get everyone outta bed, I just said "cya tonight" and headed off solo. It turned out to be a wonderful day, hiking alone proved to be an awsome experience giving me time to see absolutly everything and take lots of pictures.
The day started with a long tidal crossing across Torrent bay. There are a few crossings on the trek that you have to do at low tide because you cross large tidal estuaries and cant get across if the tide is in. I had lunch at the next hut on the trek at Bark Bay and then continued on. I came to my second tidal crossing at around 2... the next low tide wasnt until 6 and the crossing wasnt too big, there was also some weather coming in and my sun wasnt going to last forever so I decided to once again go swimming. I took off my boots and put my pack on my shoulder and waded across, it was only about 40 feet across and only about waist deep so i dropped my pack on the other end and went for a quick dip before continuing up the trail. After the crossing I moved up into the rainforest and over a small saddle before winding my way down into Awaroa bay. The weather was looking worse and worse, there was a storm coming in from the northwest and it looked like it was going to hit pretty soon so I hustled down the hill. The rain started once I hit the beach and luckily I got into the hut before it really started to come down. I dropped all my stuff, lit a fire in the stove (this hut was less crowded and alot cooler vibe). I then watched as a bunch of bedragled looking trampers walked down the beach and into the hut. My crew of Americans finally got in with two of them suffering from blisters on their feet. Everyone was soaked so we all stoked the fire and the place heated up nicely. I had dinner with a really interesting guy from South Africa (I have met a bunch of "SAFIS" and it is quickly becoming another destination that I want to go to) and then we all spent the night playing cards and drinking coffee with a good shot of Jimmy Bean. There was another tidal crossing over Awaroa estuary the next morning and with low tide at 8am we went to bed early, listening to the storm drumming on the roof.

Day Three - 13 Km
I again woke up early and had a nice long breakfast, the storm showed no sign of slowing down and it was absolutly pouring outside, with the palms swaying in the wind. I got the Americans up and reminded them about the crossing this morning. I watched from the hut as some other trampers crossed and it turns out that the river that runs into the estuary was flooding from all the rain over night, instead of being really shallow at low tide, it was over waist height for most of the crossing with a decent current. I decided that I better go right away instead of waiting as the tide came back in. Just as I left the warden ran in and warned everyone that if they were gonna cross they had to do it RIGHT NOW. This got everyone into high gear and they all set about packing up as I left the hut. I pushed through the storm over to the edge of the water and then in. I was pretty shocked to learn that unlike all the water I had been swimming in, this was FREEZING and in the driving rain and wind of the storm, it wasnt the most pleasant swim of the trip. It took me around half an hour to make it across the water, it was almost the width of the crossing and the majority of it was just above my waist and with enough current to keep you on your toes the whole way. I finally got across and put on my dry socks and boots. I walked on through the rain, up through the rainforest and back to another beach before getting into Totoranui where I had lunch and waited for the others. Totaranui is the pull out for most trampers and there was a few people out (not many due to the weather) getting picked up by the water taxis in the surf.
After lunch we pushed on back up the trail. When I planned my trip after talking to the DOC officer, I decided to go up to Wharawharangi (pronounced Fair-a-fair-angi)instead of just to Totoranui. The reason behind this was that everyone just does the standard Marahau to Totoranui trip and the area up by WharaWharangi was supposed to be amazing. It turned out to be a great plan with the trail becoming more of a trail then a road and weaving up through some of the more amazing forests that we had seen. The storm finally blew through about an hour after we got to the hut and we had the evening alone (we were the only people at the hut). The hut itself was actually an old farmhouse from when the area was used for farming (I cant imagine trying to clear this area.... it has only been regenerating since 1976 and it is complete jungle... everything grows SO fast here) which was really cool.

Day Four - 7.5 Km
For the last day, we had all day to make 7.5 km so it was nice to able to just relax. I went on alone and checked out Seperation point, it is a seal colony as well as a shag colony (birds) and you can go and climb through the rocks right with the seals. There are hundreds of seals lounging around on the rocks and I found one and started snapping pictures of him, he was really lazy and just watched my for awhile but then decided he'd had enough paparazzi treatment and turned and started barking.... I got a great picture of that and then quickly retreated away leaving him in peace.
After Seperation point I poked around some of the beaches, got eaten alive by the sandflys and the sat down for lunch on my own private beach. I was joined by a Kiwi guy who turned out to work in a few of the environmentalist organizations in ChristChurch, it was interesting to hear about all the different plant forms around Abel Tasmen and we compared pictures before heading seperate ways. I continued along until finally returning to Totaranui where I met up with the Americans and we waited for our Water Taxi. Mine came a little early (for some reason we booked the same time, from the same place and I got a different boat), it was a really cool Maori guy who after asking if anyone on the boat got sea sick (none of the three of us did), smiled and threw down the throttle. I was really suprised how fast the boat could go as we absolutly CAINED it across the water. After picking up one more group at Bark Bay hut we went over and checked some seals out at an island and took some pictures before returning to Marahau. It was really cool to see the whole park from the water, it took us an hour of flying through the surf to get back to the car and it was neat to see all the beaches I had been hiking down over the past couple days. When we arrived back to Marahau, instead of unloading at a dock, they load the boat onto a trailer and pull it back to the parking lot by tractor.... right down the main street of Marahau. It is the first time I have ever ridden in a boat down the street, it was definitly a cool way to get back to the taxi office.

We loaded all our gear in the van and drove back to Nelson. Booked a night at the same hostel and everyone put in some money to make a great dinner. We had huge burgers, a great salad and some homefries, everything tasted amazing and it was a great thing to do after 4 days on the trail.

I am spending some time around Nelson today just updating and doing laundry and tomorow I am going to head south towards Christchurch where I am going to sell the van. I only have 15 days left in New Zealand before heading off to Fiji and it seems like I only just got here. I think I might stop in Kaikoura for the night on the way down as I have heard alot of great things and then hopefully get a hostel downtown ChCh so I can explore the city as well as sell the van.
Hope everyone is doing great, keep sending the awsome emails and Happy Halloween.
cheers,
-Jesse

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Hey everyone,
quick update here so you dont all feel left behind. I spent 2 nights in Duni's with the boys. It was alot of fun to hang out there (especially after 4 days living alone in the van), all of them are very adventurous... surfing, mtn biking etc. (most of them ski'd alot in wanaka this year). I spent most of my day walking around Dunedin taking in the sites. I wandered through some stores, realized I hated shopping and then found the Cadbury factory and took the tour. You walk through the factory (unfortunatly you dont see.... anything really apart from a lot of chocolate smelling hallways) and then at the end you get to see the chocolate waterfall which was pretty cool. I was kinda disappointed with the tour, but all in all it was nice to wander the city.

When I got home the boys all wanted to go riding, so we pulled a bunch of stuff out of my van, through the bikes in and drove to the local trails. We got a few runs in down the DH track... mostly just rocks and steep sections but a few fun drops, it was just nice to be back on a bike. After riding, we were starved and got back to an awsome roast lamb one of the guys had done, he is from a farm so it was one of his from home.

The next morning, with all the boys off to study, I headed north. I drove up to Mt. Cook, which is the highest mountain in NZ and spent the night. I got a really cool day hike in before bed, basicly ran up the trail so I would get back before the sun went down. It was up past a bunch of lakes and finally to the lake at the base of Mt. Cook looking up at the glacier. Walking back I watched the sun set over the mountains before having a quick dinner.

The next day I drove up through to the Lewis pass, it looks very similar to the Banff area and even had some really nice hotsprings to stop at. I spent some time soaking in the pools and Japanese spa before finding a small campground by a river to stop for the night. I woke up pretty early in the morning and couldnt get back to sleep so I finished driving into Nelson where I am now. I spent the day with one of my mates from Wanaka, Hamish, we just spent the day wandering the beach, throwing a football (YES, a football... not even a rugby ball) and checking out the girls (because its what you do at the beach right? and for some reason there is more girls here then in sleepy little wanaka... heh, gotta love ski towns).

I am staying at the same hostel I stayed in when I was in Nelson the first time. It is the best hostel I have ever seen and definitly worth the second pass. Complete with pool, hot-tub, hammocks and beach volleyball.... as well as free breakfast and dinner. I figured that after the last couple days in the van except for Dunedin, that for my birthday I would treat myself and stay here. After tomorow night I move up for my other birthday treat care of my wonderful parents. I am going to do the Abel Tasmen trek, a 4 day, coastal walk through some gorgious golden sand beaches. I will update after I get back and I will definitly have a tonne of pictures to show.

Hope everything is wonderful back home. Keep emailing (or start if you havent already) its always great to get news from home.
cheers,
-Jesse

Atlast I can upload some pictures. See below for all about my adventures in the Catlins. prolly best to read below first and then look at the pictures.

Hey everyone,
I left all of you in Te Anau, where after spending two hours writing and then rewriting about my incredible trip to Milford, I set out south again. I drove all the way to the coast, touring down and finally finding a place to stop at about 8pm. I was really excited about getting down to the Catlins as I had heard alot about how incredible the scenery was and how amazing all the wildlife could be. I also had visions of sleeping on the beach, listening to the surf crash in as I lay comfy in bed in the great Waka Tui.

I decided to stay the night in a place called Colac Bay, just before the town of Riverton. It is a nice open bay about 8-10 km long, with a few houses spread along through the hills, but mostly (as most of this part of NZ is...) sheep padocks. I took a back road that winded its way down to the beach and soon found a place that looked absolutly great. The beach is all little stones that are smalled then pebbles but not quite sand, there was also a bunch of tracks from trucks all along the beach. After a quick walk out onto the sand to check it out, I decided that in my expert opinion the sand was nice and stable, and I could drive out onto the first dune so to have the optimum location to camp beside the sea. I jumped back into the van, drove down the path onto the beach, and made it about 10 feet out of the planned 20 before I realised that I could very well be fooling myself. I opened the door, looked back and realized that my expert opinion had landed me with both rear wheels dug straight down to the axles into the beach. Now, you can picture me: after a day of adventuring into the fiords, losing a great long winded account of said adventures and then driving all the way down to the south coast... I was a little tired at this point and not in the sort of "digging your van out of the sand" type mood.

By this time it was about 9 pm, the sun was setting and I realized that the storm that brought all the high winds and waves in Milford was definitly headed my way. As the wind and waves grew stronger and larger I wondered if maybe my van was indeed not in the most ideal spot to be stuck at this point in time. The more I pondered this the more I decided that it might be a good time to start trying to unstick the van from its present location by the sea. I got my trusty avi shovel (I knew there was a reason I brought that down to NZ) and started digging... I dug two deep holes, and then got a bunch of logs and built a ramp so that I would have purchase as I drove backwards out onto firm land. I jumped back in, started it up and..... no, my wonderful rear wheel drive van stuck it self mercilessly deeper into the sand. I tried again,.... and again, but still to no avail. I finally resigned to the fact that I alone was not going to remove the van from its present location.

Now imagine this, its about 10pm by this time... dark, oh, and there is a wonderful storm blowing in from the tasmanian sea to the west. I decided that it was time to swallow my pride and ask for help. I looked around and decided the nearest light on top of the hill was my best bet and I started walking.

It took me another 20 minutes to walk all the way up the road to the nearest farmhouse, and upon getting there, I was presented by a "beware, dogs running free on property" sign. I called a few times and finally decided to try my luck. I walked up to the farmhouse, and rang the doorbell. It was answered by a small older lady who looked, well, curious at the site of a sopping wet young man at her doorstep, in the middle of the country, in the middle of the storm. I immediatly appoligised for bothering her so late and told her of my problem. She then smiled, and invited me in. First thing she did was make a big pot of tea for me and then called the neighbours to see if they could help as her husband was out of town and their truck was broken. Finally she found someone who could help and after thanking her very much I walked back down to my van.

Sure enough about 15 minutes later I saw a light coming down the road. Around the corner rumbled a tractor and perched ontop was definitly my stereotypical view of the classic kiwi farmer. Complete with flannel jacket and cap, he rolled up and jumped down off the tractor. I again appoligised for being so stupid, he just replied "no worries mate, happens all the time". Quickly attached a rope to the back of the van, and after putting it reverse, popped it neatly out of the sand and back onto solid ground. I thanked him and asked him if I could atleast buy him a beer tomorow, he declined, jumped back up onto the tractor and bumped off into the night.

I then decided that I would not move the van, crawl into bed and call it a night before I became any more wet. The night turned into quite the storm and the van rocked in the wind all night. Even the next morning, the wind was still blowing quite hard with the occasional spattering of rain.

I got out of bed, got behind the wheel and hoped the day would bring a little better weather. I drove down through Riverton and Invercargil, skipping the latter as it is notorious around NZ for being home of the "bogen". It took me awhile to figure out what a bogen was, everyone just told me they were white trash.... basicly a bogen is the Kiwi equivalant to a redneck. The drive around in oldy cars or big pickups (atleast big in kiwi standards), rock obscene mullets etc.

As soon as you get past Invercargil, you enter what is officially known as the Catlins. Basicly it is the far souther tip of the South Island, and is full of rolling sheep fields, amazing coastal rainforests and incredible coastlines. I spent the day cruising up and down dirt sideroads checking out absolutly everything I could find. There were lighthouses, beaches and tonnes and tonnes of wildlife. I saw Sea lions seemingly everywhere, and more birds then I could find names for. I went to Slope point: the southern most piece of the south island. I also went to Colac bay, which is said to be one of the best preserved petrified forests in the world. upon first glance it doesnt seem like much, but the more time spent picking through the rocks and tidepools on the beach, the more I started picking out. There were literally remnants of logs, and even stumps with rings still intact. Once I found out how to look for them there were fossils absolutly everywhere apperently dating back to the jurassic period.

After checking out beaches all day, I decided to check out Parakanui Falls. I almost didnt check them out because after the waterfall overload of the last few days, I figured it wouldnt be that interesting. I am happy I did take the time though, unlike the raging cascades of Milford, Parakanui was calm and tranquil and even the incredible green walk down through the rainforest was fasinating. As I got back to the car, I realized it would be soon time to be looking for a campsite, turns out Parakanui Bay was just up the road and I decided to give it a go. After another jaunt up another crazy dirt backroad, I pulled into what is probably one of the most amazing bays I have ever seen. Bordered on one side by huge fiordlike bluffs, and on all others by either amazing coastal rainforest or pounding surf. An awsome golden sandy beach with tonnes of different rocks to be explored, and even a nice flat spot of grass, close (but not too close) to the beach to park my van. Best thing of all was I had the whole place to myself, not another soul around.... this in mind, I unpacked and became pretty happy at my own piece of paradise.

This was not to be however.

I might have skipped Invercargil, but I had not escaped from the notorious BOGENS.

They arrived one or two cars at a time, but slowly an armada of bogens took up camp on the other side of the beach from me. They brought all the things that make rednecks happy: beer, music, gas and dirtbikes, plus some surfboards. At first it was ok, they just ran out an surfed but the second they brought out the dirtbikes I started packing my stuff. I almost left apart from the fact that it was going to be a bit of a haul to find a new campsite and it was already time to make dinner. The night was thankfully saved by three cars not filled with drunken Bogens. The first two where three students down from Dunedin, and the last with two girls from Ohio who had obviously never been camping in their lives before. We all ended up sitting around the fire, talking and listening to our neighbours across the beach go about their drunken antics. At obut ne point it looked as if they lit a car on fire but I think someone must have just thrown some diesel on the fire or something. The girls were a little nervous to be camped close to them, but we all decided that they were harmless. They even calmed down by about 11 and I didnt wake up at all through the night. In the morning, with all the neighbours safely hungover in bed, I did some beachcombing before saying goodbye to everyone and getting back to the road.

Today was pretty mellow, I checked out Nugget point, which is a lighthouse on the Dunedin Side of the Catlins, but it was packed with tourists (unlike the solitude of the rest of the catlins). I took a quick look around and then kept driving. I got into Dunedin at about 2 and met up with my friend Tom. I skied with Tom a bunch through the season and I decided to take him up on his offer to crash at his place in Dunedin for a bit. Turns out he lives in the classic student digs: a gigantic old house, with 6 other guys and the place always has a cool vibe. Its must be an old mansion because its absolutly huge but he says they dont pay too much rent so its all good.

I think I am going to stay tomorow night as well before making my way northward. I am still undecided weather to stay in Christchurch and try to send all my ski stuff home, or to skip that and carry through Arthurs pass and up to Nelson and Abel Tasmen. After 4 days alone, camping in my van, staying in a rowdy house has been a real eye opener and I dont know if I want to carry on back into the city.

Anyway, Thats it for adventures for now, I am going to upload some pictures of Milford Sound as well as the Catlins. I hope everyones enjoying my new updates... send emails, they are always muchly appreciated.
cheers,
-Jesse

Hey everyone,
Before I start this, the first entry of my continued travels of New Zealand, I must first say that this is the second attempt at this update. The first update took me about an hour and a half of inspired writing and then as these things go, just as I tried to publish, the blog website screwed up and I lost everything. So here is round two, unfortunatly due to time it wont be as complete but hopefully it is as good as my first try...

So here I am, on the road again in search of adventure and experience on the South Island of New Zealand. After spending two days saying goodbye to everyone I had come to know in Wanaka, I was finally on the road. It was a fitting departure from Wanaka, after a week of variable weather between rain and wind to sun, I left on a day of calm with the sun shinning bright over the lake.

I made my way over the Crown Range to Queenstown where I stocked up on provisions and diesel for Waka Tui. I then headed south through the iconic green rolling hills of NZ, filled with sheep. I cruised south until Te Anau where I got on the Milford road and headed towards the darkening horizon. Soon I was into a driving rainstorm and a lush canopy of rainforest. The road to milford winds its way up a glacial valley, filled with misty viewpoints, thousands of streams and tonnes of gorgious pocket lakes. I made my way up until the last campground before the pass and decided that was where I would spend the night. At the head of a small lake named Lake Gunn, I made dinner looking up through the vail of rain to the ghostly silouettes of the mountains towering above.

I awoke early this morning to more rain drumming on the roof. After a quick breaky, I returned to the road up the pass. As it winds upwards, the lush misty rainforest gives way to an incredible alpine valley. During the winter, this stretch of highway is one of the most avalanche prone sections of road in the road. The average is about one slide a day, and a full time clearing crew keeps it clear as much as they can. This section of the road has a striking resemblance to Rogers Pass back in Canada, with a windy road hewn out of rock into an area that looks almost impassable. The only difference between the two is that the Milford pass has vertical rock walls stretching into the mist, and at the top, these walls converge to create a solid and impenatrable wall. The road seems to wind straight towards this wall until right at the top, when the road crests and flattens out. At this point you plunge into the darkness that is the Homer Tunnel.

The Homer Tunnel was "completed" in the 30's, but still doesnt have any lights inside and has a strange cave-like feeling due to its rough, dripping walls. Thankfully I drove through at an early hour, because the tunnel is barely wide enough to pass a car going the next direction (not to mention the hundreds of tour buses that ply the road everyday from Queenstown and Te Anau). Finally after over a kilometer underground, the tunnel imerges back into the daylight on the other side of the pass. Again, the road winds down through an incredible valley towards a lush rainforest and with the rain pouring down there was more water then I have ever seen before. The rock walls were covered in thousands of waterfalls ranging from little trickles to huge torrents, everywhere I looked there was another cascade. There are also hundreds of streams and rivers that crisscross the valley and the road crosses too many bridges to count, and everyone goes over another torrent of white water.

The only time I have ever seen this much water, was the great storm that flooded southern Alberta last year. Every turn down the road brought another bout of deja vu from driving home in that storm. At every point there was water somewhere and alot of the time streams flowed beside, under and even OVER the highway.

Finally after pushing through the rainforest and the constant downpour I finally found myself looking into Milford Sound. I threw on my rainjacket, grabbed my camera and ran to the cruise center. At first I was a little timid about taking a cruise, at $65 a cruise, it takes a pretty big bite out of my budget, where $700 nz is supposed to see me all the way until I leave NZ in a month. I talked myself over these worries because this could be the only time I see Milford Sound and I have heard time and time again how impressive it is out on the water. I chose my specific cruise out of the 5-6 different companies plying their trade because it seemed not only the best value but the most interesting trip.

Soon we boarded our boat, an 8m aluminium craft that although wasnt as flash as some of the big cats the other companies were using, looked alot more ocean going. My choice of cruise was validated almost right away, our crew of two (including captain) was extremely knowledgable as well as excited to show us around. They also had a very nice policy that you could go where ever you wished on the boat, and as a result I spent alot of time up in the pilothouse with the captian learning not only about the workings of the ship, but about the various geology, flora and fauna of the fiords. I also spent alot of time getting thoroughly soaked by the rain standing out on the deck of the boat trying in vain to take pictures of everything. Our captain was incredible, bringing us in close to the vertical walls of the sound, once no more then a foot away from the cliffs. We were so close that everyone thought the surf would smash us to pieces on the rocks, but the captain held us steady and gave us an amazing look at the rock formations as well as an up close and personal look at a small family of fur seals.

I cannot properly describe Milford sound. It is similar to other areas in Canada such as the Queen Charlotte Islands and Lake O'hara in that it has to be personally seen to truly comprehend the immense beauty. The vertical rock walls tower up to 1500 meters straight above the raging surf, with the rain these walls become covered in thousands of cascading waterfalls. When the sun is shining there are only 4 permanent waterfalls in Milford Sound, after a rainfall however (oh, and by the way it is one of the rainiest places on earth, it rains an average of 200 days a year and deposits almost 8M of rain per year!) the water seems to come from everywhere, creating almost one big waterfall for kilometers.

We couldnt venture out to the lighthouse on the Tasman sea due to rough weather conditions, but we did have a chance to see some fur seals, as well as a Fiordland Yellow Crested Penguin (the first penguin I have seen in the wild). The worst thing about Milford sound, including the road to it, is that it is utterly impossible to take enough pictures. I took literally hundreds of pictures and didnt begin to document what I saw. Luckily I burned all my pictures on my camera to CD before I left Wanaka, I had a full memory card and used almost all of it in two days of traveling.

I am now back in Te Anau, from here I am going to venture further south into the Catlins Forest Park. This is the souther tip of the south island, there isnt too many people this far south and I think I will spend the next 2 days camping, taking pictures and exploring on my way along the coast. I have heard alot about the scenery as well as abundant wildlife along the coast, so get ready for more inspired journalism of the voyage. I am glad to be back on the road, and it will be interesting as this time I am traveling alone with a very small budget, so unfortunatly there wont be as many adrenilen filled adventures. I love hearing from everyone at home, hopefully you will all enjoy once again living vicariously through my travels.
cheers,
-Jesse

Hey everyone,
That time has come again, I am gasing up Waka Tui and hitting the road. Everyone in Wanaka has pretty much left, and I think I have stayed about a week longer then I should have. The town has gotten pretty dead, it fills with all the old people and family tourists, so not really a fun and exciting place to be. For the last week I have been trying to get a few things sorted, but ended up just walking back and forth to town from the house that I am staying at. So here I go, Im off first to Milford Sound and then from there where-ever the road takes me, the only definite points are I have to sell my van in Christchurch and I really want to check out Abel Tasmen National Park.
Anyways, lately in Wanaka (prior to the departure of everyone), it has been a nice end to a great season. There have been lots of end of the year parties, and going away celebrations, for two weeks it seemed like every night something else was happening. The memorable one was definitly the Bullock Creek final party. Bullock Creek lodge was the hostel I have been living at since I arrived in Wanaka in June, it was a cool place to live with the entire lodge filled with longterm people here for the whole season. Everyone got along really well and there was always something going on and people around. The middle of the action was always the kitchen so it was a great place to hang out, for a big party with lots of drinks or even just a quite night watching a movie, there was always something going on. A few weeks ago the owners sent out a memo saying that since ski season ended on Oct 8th, everyone had to be out by the 9th (that was the one problem with the place... the lady who owned it was one of the worst people I have ever met... but she left at the end of Nov so it was all good). Everyone decided that the logical idea was that since we had to be out of there on monday, sunday night would be our big night, to say goodbye to everyone and the lodge. We worked out a BBQ and one of the guys was a dj back home so he worked out the music. Of course as these things go, everyone in town heard about it and before we knew it everyone was there... there were more people in our kitchen then in all the bars in Wanaka combined. Everyone was having a great time and the highpoint of the night was definitly when one of the other residents marched in the door rocking out as loud as possible on a big set of bagpipes, the music was turned off and everyone danced around him to various jigs. Bagpipes are a tough instrument and unfortunatly if you arent very good it is REALLY tough on the nerves, but much to everyones suprise (nobody knew he had a set, much less played them) he was amazing, he played his set and then marched his way out, the music came back up and people went back to their drinks and conversation. Apart from that, we had the last day at TC for the season, which was really nice, good way to say goodbye to all the ski buddies that I have ridden with all season.

I moved out of Bullock Creek a week ago and have been living with a girl from work since then. It made me appreciate how much fun Bullock Creek was to live at, plus the 20 min walk to town (yes I walk it instead of drive...) can get a little annoying. That said, there is something to having my own room for the first time in 5 months!

Thats pretty much it on this end, there is always too much to write but I try. Spring is in full force in NZ, Wanaka was 25' the other day, there is a tonne of Ducklings everywhere and flowers overflowing out of gardens and trees. It is nice to get some sun, I am trying to get a tan before Fiji (10 months of winter is tough on the tan.
Anyways, keep posted here, with my travels I am going to try and get back into the same routine as before with updating this and letting everyone know what is going on.
Bon Voyage,
-Jesse

Hey Everyone,
For the first month of being here in NZ I updated this blog sometimes 3 times a week. As I sunk into life in Wanaka and skiing, it became harder and harder to update and as the updates wore thin so did emails from home so it became a vicious circle of sorts..... Anyways, thats my excuse and I am sticking to it, point is I am doing laundry today, lazing around town and figured it would be a perfect day to finally do the big update that I have been promising but has never really happened.
I left all of you when I first got into Wanaka, the season was starting and I was pretty excited about the concept of working for Base. The season definitly started with a bang... TONNES of snow with a bunch of amazing, memorable powder days. The amazing thing with New Zealand during the winter is there is usually two types of weather up at the hill, normally its either dumping snow, with crappy light and you cant see a thing. That or it is brilliant blue sky and sunny... the latter being most of the time and it normally turns out that right after a big dump it goes bluebird which is of course amazing for riding. When I got down here I had in mind a summer spent in the park teachign myself how to jib and have a great time jumping and hitting rails, but as i got here and heard everyones rants about Treble Cone which is the local freeriding hill, I decided to get a pass for there as well as snowpark. This turned out to be a great decision and led to many great days riding some really interesting Big Mtn Terrain. I was having so much fun riding this terrain that I started missing my Big, fat stiff skis from back, so much so that my friend Jason (who also happens to be the Armada Rep for NZ) talked me into buying a new pair of skis... a pair of big (188 cm) and really fat big mtn skis... which i instantly fell in love with.
With new skis in hand, Luke and Darryl (the brits from whistler that work with me) had a few great days charging Treble Cone, dropping everything in site and straightlining everything else. Everyone on the mountain seemed to notice us because we were the only ones out charging and definitly noticable with Luke's bright neon orange snowpants. As I was working around the shop later in the week, i found out that a few people had come back to Brent, who owns base, and told him about some of his workers that were ripping it up at TC and being really impressive. Brent in turn was so impressed that he put Luke and I on the Base freeride team, which is a team of riders in Wanaka that are up and coming. Base supports them, sponsors competitions and helps them out getting future sponsors. After being put on the team we got to do the NZ freeskiing open big mtn, which is a pretty good international comp. Basicly Big Mountain competitions work on a judging system where the person who skis the most technical line the best with the most style wins... I was really excited about my line, but after crashing on my first drop, I ended up disappointingly back in the field. Coming out of the comp, even though I didnt do nearly as well as I wanted to, I learned alot about competing as well as choosing lines, it was really good and definitly brought me back to my days racing.
After the comp, a pretty big front came through, one that everyone thought would bring a bunch of new snow and more powder days. All the excitment quickly vanished as the temps stayed warm and rain poured down on our amazing snow. After trying to pull in a couple days at TC I realized that the big mtn riding wasnt really on anymore, with rocks pocking through and super slushy snow, I retreated to the park. Snowpark is arguably the best park terrain in the world, with the whole hill commited soley to park. It has the best Pipe, cut by Frank Wells (cuts the xgames pipes as well as all the other major events..) so all in all its a pretty good place to push myself and try to learn how to ride park a little better. It has been really great to go up everyday in the sun and soft snow and ride park all day... finally been able to do some things that I tried all season back home. Hopefully it doesnt stay so warm as all the snow will melt, but for the time being its pretty amazing.

Thats pretty much on the Ski front... pretty much all I do these days is work and ski. Last weekend was the big Base party, which was a great time (well sunday wasnt such a great time... but thats to be expected). Right now I am just trying to iron out plans for the rest of my journeys. Right now my plan is to go to Australia for 2 weeks, hit Fiji for a few weeks and then get back home to Calgary for December. After spending christmas at home and taking some time to see my friends I have decided to try to make the move to Whistler, after hearing where everyone is going this year, I think it makes the most sense if I want to have a great year riding with friends. These plans totally rely on how much money I have left at the end of the season, but I think if I try hard, then they should work.

Anyway, I think thats it for now... I will try (key word try) to update more often, especially once the season here is over and I start to travel again. I really appreciate everyones emails and please keep them up as its great to hear what is happening back home.
cheers,
-Jesse

Hello all,
I appoligise for my long break in regular blog updates, but I have spent the last two weeks settling in to life in Wanaka. I have started working at Base full time, and its really starting to get fun, the people I work with are absolutly awsome and the shop treats us very well. As for the accomodation aspect of life, well, its kinda sorted. I have found a hostel that charges $100 a week, which is nice and cheap, and its nice to be able to have nice long, hot showers and turn on the lights all the time without worrying about bills, but living in the same room as 4 other people is getting a little tiresome to say the least. The biggest problem is that there is absolutly nothing free in the area unless you want to drive 15-20 mins everyday which would get a little old after dishing out money for gas as well as waking up even earlier on those 7am shifts. So for right now, I think my best option is to stay in the hostel and wait for something better to pop up.
As I said earlier, Base treats us really well, its a really cool shop and you can definitly tell the two guys who own/run it are really into skiing. Our rental/demo fleet is the most extensive that I have ever seen, in demos alone we have every single ski that we have on the wall and then rentals we have even more. The snowboard side of rentals is even more impressive being that they stock a tonne of really highend boards so good riders have their pick of the goods. On top of having good gear and everything, the boys really try and get their staff on board, there is a real feeling of community, and more then any other job, I really want to work hard for the shop and do a good job. The way they bring this togethor is by making sure we are sorted, and want to work, for instance: last week, after about my third day working with them, we had a staff dinner with all 20 staff from the shop and from rentals. They took us out to "speights Ale House", which is quite the nice little restaraunt down by the lake. Now you can all imagine me, after backpacking for the last month and a bit, to get to go to this awsome place and order anything I want on the menu. We all started with some awsome bread, and then out came the lamb and even finished with an awsome dessert all washed down with a seemingly endless amount of beer. I dont even want to know how much it all costed because my dessert alone was more pricey then the most expensive meal I have had in my travels and I wasnt ordering the most expensive items as some others were. Let me tell you, it felt very nice to feel all full and satisfied after an amazing (and free) meal like that after a month of pasta and rice.
Now that I am finally sorted here in Wanaka, meeting people, living in my hostel and working. The ski season has finally opened and its starting to look great. All the skiers at the shop headed out today for the big ski test, where we test everything in the shop, and write up what we think about them. It really was interesting for me because out of the many different brands we carry, I had only skied rossi before, so today I jumped on some really fun Armadas, Fischers, Nordicas and Dynastars. It was really cool to get skiing, and also get to play around on next years gear. The resorts here are definitly smaller then what Im used to, kinda like the height of COP but with more terrain, I guess it would be like skiing in Ontario except with all the ice (so basicly not at all like Ontario... right?...). Today was at Cardrona, and tomorow, if all goes well, I am spending my afternoon at Treble Cone, I work 7-10 and then 4-8 but I can hopefully jump out and get some turns in that time, plus I hear TC is the place to be for actualy fun terrain. Even with the size of the hill and everything, it was still pretty amazing to get skiing soft, dry snow, under an incredible bluebird sky and then being able to look down at my ticket and read "June 26th", definitly worth the effort of getting down here.
With that I leave you, I hear its 28C back home in Cowtown, and I hope everyone is gearing up for a fun Canada Day, I am trying to get something going with some people here in Wanaka, and failing that I might drive over to Queenstown.
Thanks for the emails, those of you who took the time to send me some, its always nice to read up on news from home.
-Jesse

Hello All,
I started last update with news about my poor dead van... well i actually have a happy update. The mechanic found out it wasnt the engine that was dead, but the valves inside that were really tight, so the engine was losing compression. He got them milled down, and now, amazingly, the van starts on the first try everytime. She also has alot more power then before and a little better gas mileage. It still costed me $500 but in the long run its great because now I will actually be able to sell the van.
I stayed in Queenstown a little longer then I had hoped, not because I didnt like the town, because it really is alot of fun, but because I got a call from Base Sports in Wanaka saying that I had a job. I think because of that, it seemed like the mechanic took FOREVER to get this done, even though it was only 2 days. In those 2 days I still had a great time, Joel and I hung out, climbed up to the top of the gondola above Queenstown twice (kind of like the grouse grind in Vancouver) and enjoyed ourselves. There was a huge group of Canadians out to watch the Oilers beat Carolina, again at Winnies, the awsome bar part-owned by a Canadian. They also have big plans for Canada day, so I think I am gonna drive down for that.
Other then that, not much is new, I drove to Wanaka today to start work. I am working in the rentals fro the shop, which isnt bad because I only have one full day of work a week, then 5 split shifts from 7-10 and then 4-7 meaning I still get a decent paycheck, and can go skiing up to 6 days a week. Plus it is probably the best rental shop I have ever really been in, alot of really good skis, stuff that I like and can take when I want, which is good because I left my Big Mountain skis at home in favour for my little park skis. There is also the other small bonuses of working in a shop, like discounted seasons passes. So all is pretty good down here, all I need to do is find a place to live thats a little cheaper and a little more long term than a hostel.
Hope everything is good back home, keep emailing, start if you havent already.
-Jesse