Travels

Hey Everyone,
I am going to start this update with some tragic news, and then move onto a lighter note. The tragic events that I speak of surround what looks like the demise of my poor WakaTui, this morning she took ill and refused to start regardless of the loving that Joel (remember... team Canada again?) and I could give by pushing it around trying to bump start the old girl. Even after we brought in the Lite-ace whisperer (of all the things surrounding wakatui I think the only smart thing I have bought seems to be roadside assistance insurance), she refused to start by her own means other then by a tow and bumpstart. When I took her to the hospital, the news was grim, it sounds like the engine cant get any compression, which is why it wont start in the morning. I left her over night and tomorow I will find out if it is just something simply like a fuel injection pump, or leak in the fuel line, or if its going to be fatal like no compression (on a $2000 van, it doesnt take much to be too expensive to fix). So here I sit, hoping for my poor van to make it through, kinda annoyed at how much money I have spent on her, and hoping that I can manage to come out of it ahead.... unfortunatly if it is the compression, it will be a problem of selling it for parts. I took a look at a rental place, and it turns out I could have rented a NICE big truck with leather seats and everything... and still been cheaper than $2000 to drive from Auckland to here. I guess this one goes under the expensive lessons in life folder, but I guess thats what this trip is really about, making mistakes, learning from them and finding new ones to make. I dont think I could have done much different, I had the van fully checked out before I bought it, but with the age of it, I guess it is understandable to get sick like this. So with that, I must move on to happier times, but please put out your thoughts to poor WakaTui in the hospital, with hopes that she will survive to run again........
Ok, with the sad, tragic portion of the news out of the way, its time to update you all on how things are going. Team Pushstart left Wanaka on Saterday morning, after I applied almost everywhere available, and we got back on the road again for Queenstown. We phoned to see if we could do the Shotover Canyon Swing and were told the only vacancies were in an hour, so we headed straight there. The Shotover Canyon Swing is supposed to be the biggest swing in the world, you jump off a platform 109m off the canyon floor and freefall for 60m and then swing out into the canyon below... its so big that when you finish freefalling, you dont even notice that you have begun to swing until your halfway across. The harness is designed so that you can jump off anyway you want, and you wont get tangled, so of course I wanted to do something fun.... the rest of Team Pushstart just jumped, Adrian and Jay backwards and Mark forwards... but I had other ideas, I ran off the platform and threw a nice big gainer (gainers are, for those of you confused at home, a running backflip, you leave the platform forwards, and flip backwards....) which seemed to even impress the seen-everything jumpmasters (mostly because I did the shooter to the camera, which when I told everyone I was gonna do it he said "believe it when I see it"). Again, the nagging feeling, that this really should bug me more then it has came back, it was definitly a good time, but not scary... not even butterflys. With that over, we went to the pub to watch the All-Blacks play Ireland (soccer, or "football" and Rugby is HUGE right now with the worldcup and the trinations on) and then I went to bed before the Soccer game... it started at 1am, and it seemed like I was the only one in Queenstown not watching it.
Yesterday I woke up, and went to book our bungee, which was another thing I decided I had to do when I was at home, because its New Zealand, and commercial bungee jumping started in Queenstown. The average bungee around the world is around 40m, which is pretty big on its own... if you have seen a bungee jump video, its prolly somewhere in around there. Now there are two really high commercial sites in the world, one in South Africa which is the highest at somewhere around 250m and another in, you guessed it... Queenstown. The Nevis Highwire bungee is the second highest commercially run bungee in the world, topping out at 134m or 440ft. Suspended above the Nevis river canyon, it is the only suspended bungee site in the world, and you have to take a specially designed gondola out to the jump station. With the knowledge of all this, and my theory that if Im gonna do a Bungee jump, I might as well do the best, we jumped on the AJ Hackett bus to the Nevis Site at noon. The Nevis is really hard to explain, the picture I have is shot from outside the canyon, so you can only see about halfway down, the best way to see the size of this is watching a video of it but pictures are going to have to suffice for now.

We loaded into the gondola, and it was really interesting to watch everyone as we made our way across to the pod. Inside we got suited up with our special leg harnesses (you are actually attached by both leg and body harnesses, because nevis is so big, they dont lower you down, but actually winch you back up, so you jump out, bounce twice, and then pull a cord and your leg harness unattaches from the cord, allowing you to sit comfortably as you get winched back to the top)I was going second so I got to watch Adrian fly off the edge and into the Abyss. As soon as he was getting winched up, I was shown to the chair, where you get all strapped in, and ready to rock, said a couple words to the camera (the whole thing is one my movie) and then waddled out to the edge (you really cant walk with a leg harness on, so i did my best duck impression and waddled over). You get ready, look at the camera, and jump, the best way being as far out and down as possible. For the first half second you look down and see where you go, and then I just relaxed and watched the canyon fly by, it is so big it truly feels like you are flying and I held a nice swandive the whole way down (again, the jumpmasters were impressed... they said they dont see many people jump that clean their first jump). Alot of bungees jerk you when you get to the end of the rope, but because nevis is again so big, it really is a smooth transition and soon your rocketing back upwards, interesting thing is, the second bounce is still more freefall then the highest bungee in Canada, or the second in NZ. After the third bounce, I reached up and pulled my leg cord, and sat back to enjoy the incredible scenery... you actually just dangle there in space... its really peaceful until you finally get winched up and its done, of course the jumpmaster was up there saying "oh by the way, for a small fee, you can jump again" which unfortunatly I couldnt resist, normally its $80 but he let me do it for $45 (i checked on the 80... he wasnt just puillin my leg). So for my second jump, the staff recommended "The Bullet" because I did so well on my dive. The Bullet is when you bend your knees, put your arms right to your side, and lean out until you are just about falling, and then push off as hard as you can downwardand hold the straight, hands down position the whole way. The position is of more aerodynamic, and the extra push gives you even more speed, so the whole thing allows you do take it a little deeper into the canyon below. Again, the Jumpmasters were impressed with my ability to hold it the whole way without even flinching. So far on the trip, the Nevis jump is by far my favourite, WAY better then skydiving, and night and day compared to the swing. The only problem with the Nevis is that it again didnt scare me, I definitly got some butterflys in my stomach before my first jump, standing there on the edge, but it wasnt scary, just a really good ride. So now I think I have ruined my bungee jumping experience, nothing will be quite the same as Nevis (unless of course I get to South Africa sometime soon) but with that said, I am definitly gonna try to do Nevis again before I go home.... it really is addicting.
On top of having an awsome time bungee jumping yesterday, we actually managed to find a pub that was showing the Hockey Game, turns out one of the managers is Canadian, so he puts on all the playoff games on the big screen, he had to get the game forwarded over the internet from his brother back home. Jay, Mark and I (we were trying to educate mark on sports not being Soccer or Rugby). The pub was actually pretty busy, with pretty much every Canadian in Queenstown there to watch and cheer, I have met like 5 Canadians since I have gotten here, and then all of a sudden, there are like 20 in one room, singing along to hockey night in canada, and cheering the Tim Hortons ads...
After the Game, we all went out for a few drinks, we drank to an end of an era, Team Pushstart would be no more... Jay and Mark headed to Christchurch this morning, Adrian with them as well but I think hes gonna meet up with me in Wanaka this week. Mark is off to Aus and Jay back to the north island before he goes home. unfortunatly this left me with nobody to help with the death of Wakatui this morning, but again... its all a learning experience, and with a little help from Joel as well as a few random helpful kiwis, I think it shall be sorted out.
So I am going to leave you here... Im gonna see what happens with the van, stay in Queenstown for a few days, and then try to make my way back to Wanaka, where I might have a possible line on a job at Cardrona. Hope all is well at home,
yours in Adventure,
-Jesse

Hey everyone,
Thought I would put up a quick update before I get lazy and dont... We finally made it into Wanaka last night, after an absolutly gorgious drive down the west coast of the South Island. The drive is really interesting because you start in a coastal rainforest and work your way up and over the pass into the mountains, on one of the most windy roads I have ever seen. The road was good, dry and well maintained, it was just incredibly windy, with suggested speeds for corners sitting around 15-25 Kmh. It was also continous, I think the longest straight section we saw was probably 200m long, and then into yet another section of curves. The whole road made me yearn for a nice, fast and RESPONSIVE little car, something that you could play with and cruise through the turns. The whole road made highway 762 at home (where all the ferraris and other such fancy cars come to play) seem pretty straight, there was banked corners and even the dotted lines on the apexes..... the whole thing had the feeling of a really long racetrack. Of course our TURBO powered van is past its days of racing and it no longer corners quite as well as a Ferrari, so we had to stay WELL below the speed limit (100, when we averaged about 50) and follow the suggested speeds exactly (and alot of the time being below them), we even got passed by a big bus.... it was kinda frustrating. The saving grace to having to drive so slow however, was the scenery, definitly one of the most gorgious roads I have ever driven and I got a bunch of pictures, some ill throw on now, and more when I finally load all the pictures I have (hundreds, but its a pain to load them off the camera).
After getting into Wanaka, we found a hostel and I wandered around town, its a little different then what I expected, kinda like Canmore, but still a really cool town. Doesnt seem to be too much work available, but I am going to go around giving my resume out to absolutly everyone today, and look for somewhere to live thats a lil cheaper then a hostel.
So I hope you enjoy the pictures, as always, these are small versions of the real things, if you want bigger ones just lemme know and I can email them.

Hey everyone,
Yesterday I actually got to take the day to explore Wellington, with a plan to not think of anything regarding my silly van. Jay played tour guide as we wandered around the city, the crew for the day was Team Canada (Joel, Jay and I) as well as Team Sweden, which is all we ever call him, but its actually Zishan, a Pakistani from Sweden that we have met a couple times across NZ. First we checked out the cable-car which pulls you up the hill up to the top of Wellington, and provides a wonderful view of a city that when your downtown, it is hard to imagine how interesting it is. The whole town is squashed into a valley, right beside the ocean and around the harbour, and is very european with a tonne of little cafe's and small streets running everywhere. After we came down the cable-car (it was raining, and crappy so it wasnt the best place to be up top), we headed to the New Zealand national museum, where me and Joel checked out the Lord of the Rings exhibit and then met everyone else before we wandered around the rest of the exhibits including an interesting video on Maori folklore which was pretty cool. After the museum we headed to the grocery store to grab some provisions before checking out the parliment buildings. The New Zealand parliment has got to be the most random and therefore ugly seat of governent I have seen, the parlimentary offices are all in "The Beehive" which is a 70's attempt at modernism, which is connected to the parlimentary chambers which looks... like a parliment, early english style with pillars and lots of rock. Then you get to the parlimentary library, which looks.... very spanish and pink, it isnt an ugly building, but paired with the other two, the whole compound looks kind of strange. After taking tonnes of pictures across Wellington, and basicly playing tourist all day, I made a big curry thai risotto for the four hungary tourists and we bid farewell to Team Sweden.

This morning Joel and I woke up, packed our gear and had some breaky in the kitchen, then came back to the room and kicked (literally, as well as many other things to wake them up) our British comrades out of their deep and apperently comfortable slumber. We then packed the van (no easy task with 5 guys and all our gear, including ski stuff for Jay and I) and then bump started Wakatui, which although better after her checkup, still has some trouble getting going in the morning when shes cold. We then headed to the ferry terminal and lined up, right away we were told that there was a storm in the Cook Straight so we would be a little late. So after finally boarding the ferry, and getting underway we headed up to the top deck to watch Wellington slip away. Almost right away the captain was on the intercom warning people about the weather, reminding us that we could get seasickness tablets if needed and where the sickbags are, we were excited but figured it would be alot of nothing like it probably would be back home had something like that happened. We talked to one of the girls at the info desk, and learned that the highest sea that the ferry is allowed to sail is 6m, and today, the seas were anywhere from 4.5m-6m and would be pretty big when we were out in the straight. With this knowledge we wandered out to the deck to watch as we went through the narrows, and watch as the seas grew larger the further we went out. We saw various beaches on the outside of Wellington harbour getting slammed with surf, and then when we turned into Cook Straight, the show really started. We were standing on the 7th deck so we were about 100 feet off the water, and as we were sitting in front of the windows closest to the bow (no walkways on the front of the ship) we watched as the seas crashed over the bow of the boat, and sprayed our windows. The boys were all having a great time as we wandered around the rolling boat, were we were seemingly the only ones who werent grey with motion sickness, we grabbed some food from the cafe on board and watched the show, you could even sit on the deck in the back of the boat and get soaked with the spray coming off the bow, I have never seen anything like it before. The boat washed all over the place and as it would ride up a large wave, it would slam into the trough of the next, jarring the boat and causing a huge spray, to the continuing sorrow of those bot feeling so great, yet to the joy and cheers of those lucky few of us who were having a great time. After 2 hrs of adventure and the continuing jokes about pirates "ARRRRRR ye big a great brew of a storm, where be my rum drinks?" and such, we finally made it into the narrows approaching Picton, an idilic little coastal town where after a quick lunch of fish and chips (actually, it was probably the worst fish and chips i had ever had, total crap especially becuase the last one i had was amazing from fishermans warf in victoria) we headed out to Nelson, where we found an absolutly incredible hostel, where I am now. We found our hostel randomly through a tourbook, and it turns out it is by far the best we have seen yet, $20 which is a great price, and you get free soup and bread for dinner, free breakfast, a pool,hot tub, sauna and even hammocks and a beach volleyball court under palm trees. It is gonna be pretty tough to leave, but we are gonna cruise down on our way to Wanaka early tomorow morning.
Again hope all is well at home and please send emails... especially if you havent done so yet all ready, its hard to keep writing these sometimes pretty long updates and I dont even know who is actually reading them. anyway, take it easy... have fun,
-Jesse

Hey everyone,
When I came over here, somebody told me that traveling is absolutly one of the best things you will ever experience, you will experience incredible highs, as well as lows, but it all comes togethor to create a incredible experience. Since I have gotten here, it has been pretty easy, with pretty much everything happening in my favour and allowing me to have a really great time... But I guess the Karma gods decided I needed a little kick back to reality. On Friday morning we woke up in our hostel near Mt. Ruapahu, got all our stuff togethor and got ready for a quick drive down to Ohakuni to meet my friend Jay. The only problem is when we went to start the van, it just didnt want to go... We tryed everything, including trying to bump start it down a hill... until finally, with the three of us being too tired to push it, we relented and phoned the towtruck (luckily I had the forsight when buying a van as old as I am, to buy 24/7 roadside assistance as well). We got towed to the nearest garage where they ended up bumpstarting it for us by towing it behind a truck, and told me that it was the glowplugs, and we would need to get them fixed but they couldnt do them because their electrician wasnt around. Without much else to do, we finally got on the road to Okahuni and after we met Jay we continued into Wellington, where after checking 4 hostels finally found a room. Which is kinda fortunate, because we already knew 2 people in our room, including a fellow Canuck that i had met in Auckland, and it turns out our entire room is absolutly awsome and the 10 of us have been going out togethor everynight and we all had a great breakfast this morning.....
Anyway, back to the story, I woke up early yesterday morning (saterday) and found that yes... my poor van refused to start. So Mark, Joel (the other member of team Canada) and I set out to find a garage that would help us out. Now I have heard many stories about mechanics being absolutly useless, trying to take people for all their worth... but I never really have experienced it first hand, so wandering around Wellington Saterday morning, the first morning in a longweekend, kinda hungover, was definitly an interesting experience. The first guy we went to was like "for replacing the glowplugs, your looking at between $80-$140 per plug, and you have to replace all four, plus labour which will be about $150 and thats if the glowplugs are actually the problem... also, I cant even do them but I have a buddy who probably can". We obviously decided that this guy was trying to pull something over on us, so we moved onto the next garage, where we heard almost exactly the same thing saying that it would cost us somewhere around $800 and it will be hard to find the people to do it, as well as the plugs... At this point I was getting pretty pissed off, I was looking at a $800 repair that might be done for tuesday on a $2000 van, the math really didnt work out.
After we left the second garage, Joel had an awsome idea "Why dont we check out an autoparts store, find the damn plugs and find out how much they are worth".. so thats what we did, we found an awsome place, with my new bestfriend Robin who not only found our glowplugs for $30 a piece (a hell of alot cheaper then $140 no?) but took a look at the van and told us what we were really dealing with, he then recommended another garage to go and see if we could get it done. We were of course a little less stressed at the concept of paying 1/3 of the price per plug and I figured that now, with a little more knowledge of my problem, I could get a better idea of waht would happen. So we went and got our van again, Mark wanted to phone another towtruck to bumpstart it, but I spotted a crew working on a nearby building, went over, asked nicely and they were all more then happy to come help (I think they just loved the excuse to take a break from work) and we chained the van to their truck and bumpstarted it nicely. We then brought it to the autoparts place, bought our plugs and went to the garage... again, the guy told us he couldnt do it, he had to leave soon for the longweekend to meet his girlfriend, but he was very nice and told us what we could try and what he would recommend. So at this point we figured that nothing could hurt so we once again trooped back to find Robin at the autoparts store and we bought a ratchet set (he actually gave us an amazing deal on it... $20 for a $30 set). We figured we would just try and fix it ourselves but just as we were about to leave, Robin ran out and told us that Mark, the mechanic called, something had come up and he would take a look at it. We ripped back to the garage, turns out his girlfriend who works at the hospital had been called in on a burn victim so he had a bunch of time. We went to get lunch for everyone and he started working (we bought him lunch... we were pretty happy at the idea of a working van). When we got back, we all sat down to eat and he told us about what was wrong... turns out the glowplugs are fine, so we dont need the new ones, the problem was the electrical system which he doesnt know enough about (he is a Mercedes and BMW mechanic... only the best for my girl...) to fix, but instead he said he would bypass it, put in a switch so we could manually turn the glowplugs on. He told us everything about the problem, showed us what was going on and then launched into a few hours of stories about various things he has seen (he has worked for almost every luxury car company before starting his garage.... absoluty awsome guy) and finally at 4:30, when he was supposed to leave at 11, he was done... I was a little worried about cost but anything was better than $800... and looking back on it, the two mechanics we talked to would probably have changed the plugs anyways, charged us for that and then thrown in the switch, and charged the earth for that... plus Mark seemed to be a pretty good guy. When he finally tallied up everything, including what he thought was 2.5 hrs of actual work (even though we had spent literally all day with him) and all his parts.... he charged us $180.
I guess the moral of all of this is, you have to keep your head on your shoulders, learn something about your problem so your not completely ignorant and realize that there really are some really friendly people out there. Needless to say, I was pretty bloody stressed yesterday, but at the end of it, I just cant believe how friendly the kiwis are around here.
Anyway, we are all off to check out the museum. Again, comment, email anything... I wanna hear from everyone.
take it easy,
-Jesse

Hey everyone,
I hope everyone is well back home, and enjoying reading these updates. The last time I wrote, we had just gotten into Rotorua and were looking forward to some fun in the whitewater, but first we took the advice of the lady at the hostel and checked out the street luge. It is set on the mtn (well, hill really..) above Rotorua, and there are 3 tracks: scenic, intermediate and advanced. You sit in carts that are basicly unpowered gocarts similar to the push cars that I played with as a kid, and you fly down the track, trying to brake before you go around the tighter corners. some of the corners are banked, and there are rolls and steeps to deal with, the best part is that once your confidence is built (about halfway down the first rise) you realise that you REALLY do have to brake for some corners.... a muddy bank and my hoody can attest to that. We had an absolutly awsome time, racing down, passing on corners and otherwise going as fast as possible and even found a group of swedes so we had about 10 people flying down the track. After our 5 rides were done (not nearly enough but more rides were too expensive), we headed back to our hostel to have a soak in the hotsprings and play some pool in the bar.
We awoke on tuesday ready for adventure, the Kaituna river was closed due to high water levels so we had do sledging tuesday and wait until wed to raft the mighty Kaituna. We got suited up by our guides, one cute Maori girl and a classic easy going kiwi guy with blonde dreads named Wika, who honestly talked like "yo bro, todays gonna be off the hook eh bro!". He was easily one of the most enthousiastic people I have ever met, and used "bro", "brotha" or "Cuz" more then anyone i have ever known.... it was great. Before we signed up for the Sledging/rafting combo, I was mostly interested in the rafting because of the waterfall. I wasnt really expecting anything so sledging absolutly blew me away... basicly you swim down the river in with flippers and a big plastic sledge (basicly a glorified flutterboard), and you swim down a river that is a class 4+.... keep in mind that in Canada, you are not allowed to commercially take people down a river higher then a class 4, this was a 4+ and your swimming it. After a bunch of drills on the flatwater above the first rapids, learning how to roll, turn and navigate, we went right into "The shit". The first rapid is a class 3 followed by the big class 4+ which was a hydroslide into a huge hole at the bottom. I came into the hole, flipped and finally got spat out upside down, rolled back over and swam over to the guides..... it was awsome. Adrian, our "big, tough military" comrade, who has always maintained a very tough image about everything, including his military service which he finally admitted he didnt make it through bsaic training... came through the hole, and was absolutly grey, and wanting to be helicoptered out because he didnt want to go further. After finally being convinced to continue by our guides, we went on, but it definitly worried us all because we just wanted to have fun. Fortunatly the guides led Adrian down the tame stuff, while pointing us off everything else, including a nice lil waterfall where you actually go under for like 10 seconds. Needless to say, Mark and I were ready for the next day, and with nothing else to do, we all went back to the hostel and soaked our soar and bumped bodies in the hotsprings.
I woke the boys up for our early start (they had went out tuesday night and had quite the night, I wasnt an idiot and went to bed) and we met our pickup at 9. Again our guides seemed to be the classic kiwis, easy going and just a little bit crazy. Right off the bat, we were driving to the put-in and one of our guides "jumbo" had a lil car trouble... we were driving behind him and all of a sudden, black smoke was billowing out of his hood, and his car stopped.... forever. The first thing he says is "its a bad morning now, lets go get wrecked on the river", and after hearing about all the strokes we would need (all common to me, but mark had a lil trouble) we were off down the Kaituna. Before I go on, I should explain that as previously stated, in canada you cant commercially raft anything over a class 4 river, and not only was the Kaituna a 5+ but the guide informed us that we were rafting it at the highest level that anyone had done it this year. We had two guides, and the three of us, and we were ready... right into the first big wave (everything is named with something "death" usually with an explitive thrown in) and then right into the first waterfall of the day... only a mere 3m one. After a few more minor class 4 rapids, we eddied out above the main attraction: Kaituna Falls. The guides told us to stand up, and take a look, but whatever we did DONT fall out as we were like 50 feet from the edge.... after another Maori prayer to take us safely down the river, which by the way I really want to learn, the Maori languige sounds SO cool.. you take 3 strokes, line up, get down and "hold the ****! on".... Kaituna falls is the highest commercially rafted vertical drop in the world, normally 7m, it was 5m for us because of the massive amount of water running through. As you ride it down, it swallows the 4m raft whole, and spits it out the bottom.... apperently you go like 2m underwater, but I couldnt tell. After the falls, everything feels tame, but the guides try to make it as fun as possible.... making us stand up.. or try to, as well as running rapids out in the water, holding onto the boat. The later the guide told us to jump out and then told us the name of the wave, it was the "stupid backpackers". Pretty soon you are finished the river, we pull out and to be honest, I was kinda disappointed, I was expecting craziness and fear, but it really wasnt that bad... even the waterfall, we didnt even flip but just got spat out the bottom and kept paddling. With this feeling, we decided to do some relaxing, and made our way to the polynesian spa in Rotorua, apperently one of the top 10 health spas in the world, as Mark and Adrian had massages (a lil too high in both class and budget for me) I sat in the wonderful hotsprings pools overlooking the gorgious lake Rotorua.... Life is hard as a backpacker.... really.
I phoned home last night, which was really nice... its always nice to talk to mom, and she reminded me that life isnt all about the crazy activities, and why wasnt I visiting museums and such? which isnt completely true, we have been doing some interesting things like that, visiting all the geysers and boiling mud pools in Rotorua, when we were in Auckland we did all the old war sites (remember the guns?) as well as Americas Cup village on the waterfront. In Waitomo we did the Waitomo caves museum, learning tonnes about the history of the caves as well as the biology behind what actually makes a glowworm glow, the cave adventure wasnt all adventure either... lots of time spent admiring and learning about the cave coral, stalagtites, stalagmites and dont forget the worms!... we even went to the only place in the world that sheers rabbits.... only in NZ would you find an angora rabbit sheering place. On our way from Rororua to Taupo this morning we checked out a bunch of sights.. even the Huka falls, the highest volume falls in NZ, which interesting enough, has only had ONE raft make it through to the bottom... two tryed but one popped underwater because of the pressure and sent all of its four occupants to the hospital, but the one that made it was piloted by none other then Jumbo!, our easy going brotha who lost his poor car on the way to playing in the river with us. So as you can see mom, we have done plenty of interesting and almost academic things.... but when we got to Lake Taupo, which is ABSOLUTLY gorgious, with the big volcano Mt. Ruapahu to be seen on the other side, we decided that the best way to see it was from the air. After jumping in our nice little, but perfectly capable plane, we flew off down the Taupo airport, and climbed into the air. At 15,000 ft, the view was amazing, so great that the pilot slowed right down so we could see, then someone threw open a door, and woosh... out we went (sorry mom). Skydiving was totally and completely different than what I had expected.. I had expected that incredible rush, that stomach in your throat feeling that I get jumping on skis, or on a rollercoaster or something, but skydiving was suprisingly peaceful, dont get me wrong, it was AMAZING, the most free feeling I have ever had (maybe thats why they call it freefalling), but it didnt even make me nervous. Which makes me wonder, I have spent all this money to do all these crazy things in NZ, and nothing has made me really scared, although to tell the truth, sledging got that feeling in my stomach before we went into the big hole, but even that wasnt really fear, only nerves. That said, I would do any of these again in a heartbeat if I could only afford it, and Skydiving is hugely tempting.
Anyway, with that I think I am going to sign off for now, We are in a hostel in the Whakapapa national park (I think its the Whakapapa but we could have moved to a different park on the drive), right beside Mt. Ruapahu, which should be gorgious tomorow, our hostel even has a climbing wall... even though it might as well be a ladder, there isnt a single challenging route up... so we resorted to making up bouldering challenges (happy to report I remain UNDEFEATED!). As I said above, I hope you are all enjoying this, and please, please comment, I really want to know who is reading this (there are alot more then I anticipated). As always Emails are always appreciated,
thanks alot,
have fun,
-Jesse

quick update here... more to follow later about our awsome adventures in the whitewater of Rotorua. Im still looking for a name for the van, but right now the best option seems to be Wakarui which, in maori apperently means... waka: boat or vessel, and rui is silver (among many other things... the maori languige doesnt have alot of words, so some things mean many random things.
-Jesse

Hello,
Yesterday, the water was finally low enough to open them up for caving, we got down to the caving office to check, mark runs out beaming "aright mates, we're on!". First thing you do, is suit up in a full 5mm wetsuit, with a fleece jacket on underneath, as well as helmets and white booties. We had two guides, Louisa and a Maori named Hop, who were both really good. After about ten minutes of checking us out on the abseil practice course, its time for the real deal. You start out on a platform over a black hole in the ground and lower yourself down into the black abyss (which ironically is what the trip was called). About halfway down the hole, it starts getting a lil tight, the guides had warned us about this, but it definitly was a lil tighter then I had first imagined. Once your through the tight section it opens up into a huge cavern where you can quickly let yourself down to the bottom... the whole abseil is about 35m but it doesnt feel that much and unfortunatly its really hard to look down because of your harness.
When the group got all assembled at the bottom of the abseil, we followed one of our guides down the first passage, clipped into a safety rope (at first i thought this was a lil overkill, until you start walking on metal planks with black holes beneath them). She stopped us a few times so that we could look at and learn about the various stalagtites, stalagmites, cave coral and various other amazing deposits on the walls of the cave. Then we kept walking until we came to another set of ropes, I was in the lead so I clipped on first, the guide turned my headlamp off and said go.... it was a flying fox through the darkness, with glowworms EVERYWHERE. So after a couple seconds of flying through the darkness, I got pulled to a stop, a light came on, and Hop was standing there ready to help me off the line. Once our whole group was down (there were 10 of us including two guides), and after we had all finished laughing at the screams coming from the two japanese girls on their way down. We sat down on the edge of the water, and had coffee and "Cave Cookies", which in hindsight, I think goes under the same principle as when your climbing, because those cookies were one of the best damn cookies I have ever had.

After letting us enjoy our awsome cookies, and chat about the various things we had done, the guides gathered the group and got us all tubes. Again, I got nominated to go first (the guide had some crazy idea that I wanted to do all the scary things first, I wonder where she got that?), So I got put on this edge, were its about a 15 foot drop into the water, even though you cant really see it. Your told to jump, and land ass first on your innertube in the black water below, course I didnt need any convincing, and landed with a satisfying bang as my innertube hit the water. After which, everyone pulls themselves along ropes, and otherwise paddles a ways upstream, its really hard to tell distance of course because its so dark, but after awhile, the duie joins us all up as a train, and pulls us downstream through the river, all you need to do is relax and look at thousands, and thousands of glowworms. It is really hard to describe what a glowworm cave is like, they look like stars, but some are really close, and your moving through the cave so you come into these huge chambers that have literally thousands of them.

Time is a strange thing underground, just when I thought I had just gotten in, I checked my watch and it had already been 2 hours. The float under the glowworms was absolutly amazing, so it was kinda sad when we had to get off the tubes for the next section of our tour. Although that said, as cool as the tour was, I was just excited for the rest. This time we left the tubes behind, jumped off a small waterfall (only 4 feet) and started floating along the river (just like back home down the elbow, except in a cave, and in wetsuits). Similar to the tubing, except you float on your back, with your feet in front, and you go through some pretty small passages... some with only about a foot of room above the water for your head, all the while being pushed along by a nice current. One of the Japanese girls had trouble with small spaces, and this section was starting to get her nervous, so she started asking lots of questions. Which also included "are there any fish in here?" to which the guide replyed "do you want to know now, or after we are out?", he said this because there is a very large amount of cave eels down there, we knew this because we had checked out the info center the day before, but I didnt realize they could get up to 2m long!.... that said they are perfectly harmless, even if they decided to bite, their teeth are only 2mm long, and our wetsuits were 5mm, although lemme tell you guys, it felt VERY strange when one swam past or brushed against you.... I had to tell myself a few times that the suckers wouldnt do anything.

Anyway, back to the caving part, we finished our float, and had another little break as Hop explained the Maori importances of the cave that we were in, they even buried a chief in one of the chambers years and years ago. After we were done that, and our little snack of hot juice and chocolate, we started up what became my clear favourite portion of our trip, the CLIMB. We started up another small chamber (too small to walk, you had to crouch and sometimes crawl) with a tonne of water coming through.... the guides said this was one of the most fun times to go through because of the huge stream. At one point Louisa the guide turns to me and asks my favorite question "you want to do the normal route, or that challenging one?" which truly, isnt really a question. After this, I can say I am definitly not scared of tight places... the challanging route was through a passage where there was literally about 2 inches of room between the roof, and the water, and the whole passage was a little over a foot high, the idea is that you lay on your back, with your face out of the water and pull yourself along the roof. The whole thing lasts for about 10m, and then its back to the same passage as everyone else took, there were about 4 of us who did the "challenging" section, and all were very excited about it. After this, the guides told everyone that the next section was, "full on" (a very kiwi thing to say), meaning that because of the amount of water coming through, it was kinda sketchy, and anyone who didnt want to do it, no worries, there was another, easier, route out. The "Full on" route, consisted of two waterfalls, the first being straight up a chimney, that you had to climb up, then crawl along another passageway until you came out in a nice little room where you could sit and wait for the group. Finally we emerged out of the last waterfall into the stream above.

When we got out of the cave, it was already dark out, so we walked out of this incredible rainforest valley at night with our headlamps, and watching the stars.... it was definitly a fitting end to an AWSOME day of exploring these amazing caves. If anyone reading this decides to go to NZ and doesnt mind small spaces... do yourself a favour and get our caving, because it is WELL worth it.

We all jumped into the van after we had showered and had our fill of free soup and bagels.(Im thinking about naming her angie, although i still have yet to hear any suggestions from you guys.... toyota lite-ace thats silver... come on guys!) and hit the road for Rotorua, where I am writing from right now. The city is pretty cool, its built on a huge network of hotsprings, which means that our hostel has a hotsprings pool, and that there are tonnes of amazing gardens in the town, but it also means that the whole town reeks of sulpher... it smells almost like they were setting of fireworks for days on end. Today we are going to check out the street luge down a local mtn, and over the next two days we are going whitewater sledging (swimming down a class 5+ river with a glorified flutterboard) and then whitewater rafting (I wasnt going to go whitewater rafting, because of how cheap i can do it back home, but Mike told me about this place... the famous Kaituna river... it has the highest commercially rafted vertical drop in the world (a 7m waterfall!).

Again, please keep sending your awsome emails, and everyone keep thinking about a suitable name for my awsome van.
Hope all is well back home...
-Jesse

Hey Everyone,
Before I came here, I had heard about this "Land of the Long White Cloud" business, but never paid much attention. Now that Im here, it becomes only too evident as to why this name describes NZ, when it gets weathered in, the whole bloody place is socked in. I left you all in Paihia were it was really storming with high winds and a tonne of rain coming down, we decided that making the run for the Cape probably wasnt the best idea, because it would just be pouring up there as well. So although it was a really tough decision because the bay of islands is absolutly gorgious, we decided to try our luck down a little bit more south. The three of us jumped into our yet-to-be-named van, and drove down to Waitomo in search of the elusive glow-worms and "blackwater rafting". We were supposed to be black water rafting today, but because of the rain, everything was flooded out. Now I know everyone is wondering what blackwater rafting is, which makes sense, especially because you arent ACTUALLY using a raft, but merely an innertube. Blackwater rafting is basicly caving (or spilunking) in a cave with a river running through it. I wont tell you much more because I have yet to actually do it, but after exploring this area, I can atleast tell you, it looks REALLY cool.

So now we are just hanging out in Waitomo, waiting for the waters to lower, we have actually been in the sun most of the day with just scattered showers, and the raft center said we should be on for tomorow. Waitomo is totally what I would expect for the interior of the North Island in NZ, rolling hills, filled with sheep, and super windy roads. If I can get this stupid computer to read my card, I will update some pictures, it really is gorgious.
hope everyone is well,
keep sending your great emails, and dont forget we still need a van name.
cya,
-Jesse

Hello Everyone,
Yesterday was pretty interesting... on my last update I said that on wed. I would hopefully finalize my van buying, which on hindsight, the key word was HOPEFULLY. When I went in to look again, the one I was super interested in was there, but the lady behind the desk kinda gave me the downlow... that the guy was asking too much ($2500 NZ) for this time of the season, for that van. She pointed out another one that was a lil cheaper and a much better van, and she could tell me it was checked out legally (in NZ all the legal stuff goes on the car/van so if you dont do a legal check, you can actually end up with someone ELSES tickets and such.... crazy kiwis). So I decided to check this other van out, I got the mechanic to come, and he was very helpful with things, (he better have been, he put me back $120)and after he checked it out he talked about how old vans stand up, and what he normally sees, but this one has a leaky head gasket, and that it could stay like this, but if it gets worse, the engine is basicly screwed (which brings down the resale value no?). By the time this happened, I had ruled out the original van i was looking at because of price, another van because the mechanic and the owners told me about a gearbox that "might make it through the 6 months" and then this.... so I took a deep breath, and walked home kinda pissed off at stupid vans. I made dinner for a big group, and then met up with everyone and even some Canadian girls (Emma and Kelsey from Grande Prairie) and we went out for a drink, with the one rule that nobody is allowed to talk about vans (the girls are trying to buy something too). So yesterday, I woke up, again a little hungover, but set on resolving my vehical issues, and getting the hell outta Auckland (fun city, but everyone there goes and partys everynight, and i needed to go and experience some actual NZ). So after a quick walk down the waterfront to clear my head, I headed back to the dreaded Backpackers Car Market. My luck seemed to have turned around, the lady at the desk pointed out another good one, and after poking around for a bit and determining that I liked it, I got my good buddy Mr. Mechanic (actually, im sure he thinks of me like that with the money I shelled out.... but after seeing two lemons in a row, i am absolutly positive it is money well spent. He is also kinda funny, drives up in the shiny, brand new Ford. Its pretty flashy, something i havent seen before in north america, and he has it running at around 600bhp and is apperently just amazing.... which is suprising because I was under the researched opinion that ford ummm, Sucked.) Anyway, back to the story, he checked this one out and gave it the ok "It's a runner, thats for sure mate", the only problems are some wear on the tires and little things like a should get a fluid topup and always watch the oil and water (same with every car there because everyone of them is as old as me). So after 2 days of car buying hell, I took a deep breath, went and got my hired muscle (car market is in kinda a seedy part of town, so I got Adrian to come with me because I didnt love the idea of walking around with a huge roll of hundreds in my pocket), and went to the bank. The Van actually ended up costing me the same as the original that I looked at, which rounds out to about $4000 Cdn, except it is MUCH nicer.... Its in great condition, Toyota Lite-Ace with a Turbo (yes... turbo, i can pass trucks, going UP HILL when theres two lanes without pissing people off behind me) diesel so it is nice and cheap to fill up (1.27 a litre as opposed to 1.70) and it even has skylight windows in the roof that can come out. So now that it was done and I had all my papers in order, I was free to go (I should also mention insurance, 6 months of insurance for me costs $235, with any driver in the car, being insured.... try THAT at home). The Backpackers Market is just off K-road (its not actually called K-road but thats what everyone calls it because it starts with a K, and is about a meter long, and hard to pronounce like everything else here) which is one of the busier roads in central Auckland. So here I am, driving on the wrong side of the road, shifting with the wrong hand, and driving a van thats as old as I am for the first time..... When I stopped to turn onto K-road, I decided it was kinda sink or swim time... Suprisingly, I didnt have any troubles, the only problem is the right-of-way rules in NZ... people turning right have priority, so if your turning left (your side of the road) and someone oncoming is too... they have right of way, it didnt cause any incidents, but it sure is confusing...

After negotiating downtown traffic back to the ACB, I found Mark and we all packed our stuff, booked various crazy and awsome activities (I wont spoil it now, you can stay tuned to find out what they are... i just promise you wont be disappointed), and then said our goodbyes to people around the hostel. After having some pizza, finding the requisite car kit so we could listen to music on our bumpin stereo (for 20 yrs old... it works wonders), and relaxing by our van with John laughing at it and us... "Now Jesse, when you turn left up that road there.... remember, your on the LEFT" and "well, I guess we will cya tomorow.... pushing your van up queen st." bloody brits.... but after all this, it was kinda hard to leave the ACB, it really is a cool place, with some cool people (I would like to say international people, but 95% of them are brits). Even with that though, it was nice to get on the road.... with Johnny Cash blaring (I thought it was suitable) we hit the open highway, in search for adventure, and everything that came our way.

So this leaves me in Paihia, We had hoped to camp, but it was dark when we got in so we stayed at another backpackers hostel. This morning is kinda crappy weather, rainy and supposed to be high-winds later today, and similar tomorow, so my plans of sitting on a sunny beach seemed to be postponed. Although that said, it really is a pretty little town, nice waterfront walkway by the pounding surf, with palm trees and everything. Im even sitting in a nice little cafe, sipping on strong European coffee, listening to the surf as I write this.... I have decided that Im not having fun at all

So there we go, I hope you have enjoyed my update, I will try to update again with pictures of my van. Please keep sending emails, it is always nice to hear what is going on back home with everyone. I also have a challenge for you all, I need a name for her... Its a Toyota, and like any worthy transport, it must be a girls name.

Cya,
-Jesse

Hey Everyone,
I hope everyone is enjoying reading my accounts of life and times in NZ, I really love the emails that people are sending, definitly keep it up.
Aright, I left you guys just before going out on Sunday night, which in hindsight wasnt the best idea, being hungover AND jetlagged isnt the most fun thing to do, but its all good now, and I am starting to not only explore the city but plan for the next couple weeks. I have started to make some pretty cool friends out here, yesterday I was wearing my ski cellar shirt around and a guy stopped me and says "So where in canada are you from?" and after i said Calgary, he goes "great, me to, I saw your cellar shirt and knew". turns out it was two guys and they were just leaving that day for oz, so they gave me all their calling cards (like $40 worth) and then invited me to have breakfast with them, and free breakfasts are always fun. We also had a good laugh about my running joke with the brits, that EVERY single canadian you will ever meet not only knows, but misses a large double, double. Speaking of brits, one of my roommates.. Adrian, as well as another, Mark, are joining me in my roadtrip south, which is great, because since im gonna buy the van, they are gonna pay gas and the ferrie fee. On top of wanting to get out and find some cool adventures, both LOVE to eat great food, and LOVE to cook, I made my burgers last night to much applause, and Adrian and I are gonna make a currie tonight. We are also planning our trip, and it sounds like 4 days on the north island, hitting all the awsome spots, and then down to the south island, so apply in Wanaka, and then touring all over until ski season and work starts. So now I have 2 more nights in Auckland, and then we are hitting the open road with an eye for adventure.
As for today, today was absolutly AWSOME. I woke up with a headache (not hungover, i went to bed early last night, just an annoying headache) but I grabbed a quick shower, breakfast, and then went and checked out a bunch of cool activities to do on the north island before we go south. After that, Mark and I jumped on the "kiwi experience" bus tour, which is run by kiwi experience, but its a free tour all around auckland for people in the backpackers. We checked out a few beaches, and then one of the Mtns, which cant really be called mtns, more a big steep hill... its actually one of the volcanic cones that are everywhere around Auckland. On top of the mtn, was one of the Coastal Defense emplacements that the kiwis built to drive off the chance of a Russian invasion. There is even a huge cannon that is supposed to be the biggest gun in NZ, which was only fired once, as a warning shot to the only russian boat to ever come near the harbour. The gun fired, shattered every window on the waterfront, and the boat promptly turned around and left. There was also tonnes of tunnels and caverns that connect the guns, and provide cover, and it took us a couple hours to explore the area....
Aright, I think that basicly brings everyone up to date, tomorow it sounds like we are gonna try to finalize our search for a van, check out the sky tower, and then finalize our plans for the roadtrip. I also attached some pictures, tryed to keep em small so they dont take up all my space here, but i have bigger versions that i can email if you want.
So Long for now...
-Jesse