Gisborne-Waipiro

I am leaving this morning on a bus to Gisborne.  I will be spending new years camping on Waipiro beach.  Have a happy new year's everyone!

Toilet Treachery

I had a wonderful X-Mas dinner with friends.  We ate baked ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pie, American style.  The dinner conversation started with Japanese greetings but migrated to my wardrobe.  Apparently  I have no style and I cannot make up my own style(making shorts out of dockers doesn't count ether). After being humbled I decided to go shopping this morning.  I took a bus to Onehunga a southern neighborhood of Auckland.  I find many stores that are advertising huge after x-mas discounts, but I don't budge.  I end up getting a few shirts from a Chinese corner store for $10 each.  I go back to the bus station. As I am looking down and texting, the bus passes the station and does not stop. Great.  I was supposed to wave the bus down, even if I am sitting at the stop.  Ok, the next bus comes in an hour(refer to the past blog entry). I always need to get exercise so I decided to start walking back to the city center.  I was a good half hour into my walk when I got pegged by an egg projectile coming from a passing car.  It made landing on my arm and slid down onto my shirt.  I am not happy at this point.  I continue walking and see that the local cafe has been victimized as well.  I chat with the diners and share a few laughs.  I continued walking down the street until an amazing structure appears.  This building was a stainless steel sculpture of modern plumbing.  The roof has a post-postmodern cantilevered slant that is more fitting of a design studio.  The old brick building to its right did not give the structure justice. It is a public restroom.  The door opens with the push of a 'non' touch button outlined with green LED's.  I press the button. Once I'm inside I hear a male voice that tells me that all I have to do to shut the door is to push the button inside, also illuminated by green LED's.  I do this, the voice comes on the speaker again.  "Welcome to to Loo, the maxim time of usage is 10 minutes. To flush, press the exit button"  All sort of thoughts ran through my head of what I could do in the restroom in 10 minutes.  Sadly, it did not take 10 minutes to wash the egg off my arm and shirt.  Music starts playing over the speaker, a stirring rendition of Jackie DeShannon's "What the World Needs Now" played by a pops orchestra, sans words. Whoa, romantic.  I hope that there is not a pub nearby.  The sink looks like a brick pizza oven made out of steel.  I put my hands into the structure, not knowing if I will ever get them back.  A laser beam hits my hands, a glob of soap follows.  Cool. I move my hands to the right, another laser beam tracks my knuckles, water rains down.  After scrubbing my hands like my mother always told me, I move my digits further right. A jet engine dryer finishes the job.  Impressive.  I did not use the toilet so I have no reason to flush.  I press the exit button, the toilet flushes anyway.  Waste.  I was expecting a goodbye from the man on the speaker, but was disappointed.  I guess the lack of goodbye makes sense.  I mean if I am in the restroom with a stranger from the pub taking advantage of dear old Jackie's romantic music and my 10 minutes are suddenly up, I may not be polite either.  I would just want to leave as quickly as possible.    I have been told of restrooms like this in Japan, but this is totally random.  The neighborhood around the loo is working class, nothing fancy.  This building is way out of place.  Most of the toilets I have seen in NZ have been of the pit variety.  I still had to walk another 45 minutes back to my house.  I enjoyed my toilet experience so much I may have to justify the 45 minute walk at least twice a week now, as long as I am not holding it for too long.

Public Transportation

Public Transportation in Auckland sucks.  Maybe because I am an American and I expect that every city outside of the United States has a top notch train or bus system.  Of course almost every US city has no public transit. One week ago I wanted to go the the Avondale farmers market to get a pumpkin for Christmas pumpkin pie.  I googled directions, saw to take the 50 bus.  I went to the bus stop in my neighborhood and waited one hour.  No bus. I had to try again. On Christmas Eve, I went on a mission to find a store called Martha's Back Yard, an American store in East Auckland.  I googled the directions, and I had the choice to take the 635 bus to Abbot's Way or take the Link bus to the 50 bus and walk like an hour.  I thought that the 635 bus would be the best option.  Auckland public transit is run by a company called Maxx.  I looked up the same information on the Maxx website, and the time table that Google had was very similar. I left for the bus stop about 20 minutes before the estimated arrival.   20 minutes after the estimated arrival I was still there.  In the mean time, 5 Link buses had passed me at the stop. The Link bus is supposed to go in a circle around downtown and arrive at a stop every 10 minutes.  At one point one link bus was tailgating the other one, leaving a 15 second interval.  Finally bus 235 arrives.  I take it to Abbot's Way, walk 20 minutes, and find the store.  I found what I was looking for, pumpkin pie extract.  It was NZ$8.  I think that this is a little overpriced, but with the $9.75 bus fare, this may be worth it.  On my way back to the bus stop, it rains.  Its good that the ingredients are in a can.  I see the bus in the distance, I chased it, and missed. that's ok, all I had to do was wait another hour.  I did make it home safely and mostly dry, but in the end it cost me $17.75 for one can of pumpkin extract.  Maybe I am expecting too much from public transit, maybe I was upset at the expensive pumpkin pie mix, maybe I should just buy a car.  I was in Europe in the spring of 2008, and I could go anywhere, but in NZ, cars are the rule not the exception.  I should be grateful that I was able to make pumpkin pie Christmas Day, but no, I still complain about the public transit.(by the way there was no public transit on x-mas day).  

The Furgburglar

I was advised by my French and German friends who had guidebooks that the best burger in NZ is the Fergburger. This is in Queenstown. I am usually highly skeptical when information comes from a guidebook, especially concerning food. We arrived in Q-town with the intent of getting groceries for our upcoming Greenstone Trek.  The girls dropped us off at the trail-head near Glenorchy and drove back to town, where they had the before mentioned sandwich for lunch.  2 days later, Shawn, Robin and I met the girls at the other side of the trail.  All we wanted to do was to relax, but all I heard was talk of this amazing burger. For the most part of the trip we have been vegetarian, especially when camping.  I was almost convinced that I had missed out.  2 days later the van pulls back into Q-town minus Dani, and we go to this restaurant for a late dinner at 9 pm. We wait in line for 10 minutes before we can make an order. In the line I was graced with the presence of a few British hooligans who were out to debaucherize town that night, I'm sure they had moderate success.

     I get the bacon cheeseburger.  It costs like $11.50.  Maybe I had big expectations, maybe I was hungry(true), but this burger was not up to my standards at all.  The meat tasted like it was from a Schwann's  frozen patty.  It was drown in BBQ sauce that tasted like fermented ketchup and it ran out of the sandwich making a heaping mess on my only clean shirt(yes I have a city shirt and camping shirt).  It was filling, but I was not convinced at all.  Give me a damn Dunnie burger!!!  I shared sweet potato fries with Shawn, probably the best part of the meal.  Shawn broke down and got the Bambi Burger. He is vegetarian, so this the only highlight of my day.

Wiki Kiwi

Happy Holidays from New Zealand.

For those who did not know, I have been In New Zealand since October 14^th. This is such a wonderful country, pleasant people and stunning landscapes. I recently had my e-mail hacked and you may have received a non-desirable advertisement. I'm sorry, I have change my password and this should not happen again.

New Zealand has been a great experience. Once I arrived in Auckland, I stayed with Jordan, a friend from my time in Florida. She lives in “The Big House” a communal house where 20 people share everything. The house is a great way to meet people and network, the only down side is that every dinner shared by the flatmates is vegetarian. As my diet adjusted, I spent my first weekend playing soccer at Karekare beach, injuring my left big toe in the process. The next day I went to a 18' skiff race that Erwan, one of the big house flatmates was participating in. A 18' skiff is a mono-hull that sails like a windsurfer, except 3 people are hanging on for dear life. I spent the next 2 weeks couchsurfing in west Auckland and volunteering on a boat in Bayswater. The boat I was living on was a 60' steel sailboat that had a steel pipe mast that looked like a oil derrick. We went to Waiheke island for a weekend trip. On board was 17 people, I think that we only had 13 life jackets. Waiheke is a scenic island with many wineries. On the way back to Auckland, the gearbox failed and the boat started going backwards. The captain, Phil tried to set the jib out but the sheets were all tangled up and we were not able to use the sail. We were on our way to crashing into the Auckland Harbour bridge. Phil called Coast Guard NZ, who came to the rescue and towed the boat into the slip at Bayswater Marina. After that I decided to leave the boat.

Marine, a French girl who was on the boat, and I decided to leave and hitchhike south to see the country. We took the train to Popukura, a suburb of Auckland, had Indian food for lunch and walked 2 km to the motorway. We waited for 45 minutes before we had out first ride, a couple of kids on their way to a party. They only took us to the next exit. Our first hour of hitching was not inspiring. In a couple of hours before we knew it, we were in Rotorua, the hot pool capitol of NZ. We spent 2 days in town, I went wall climbing and we went to a natural hot pool outside of town at night. Rotorua is build on top of many natural hot springs, like Yellostone in Wyoming. We hitched to Taupo, the next town south and spent most of the afternoon hiking to the Huka waterfall. There is one hot pool there that goes right into the river, so you can sit in hot water, move to the cold river, and do it over again. Many kids were there doing just that. The next day Marine and I hitched to the east coast city of Napier on Hawkes Bay, a beautiful city. We had Chinese for lunch and decided to continue to Gisborne where my friend Shawn had been working. We had a grueling 5 km walk to get out of the city centre to a good hitching spot. Out first ride was with a hunting guide, then we were dropped in the middle if nowhere, worried, we waited 2 minutes and we had a ride with a agricultural pharmaceutical salesman who was a big rugby fan. Once in Gisborne we waited for Shawn to finish his work so we could travel in his van, in the mean time Marine and I took surfing lessons, she succeeded, but I was a epic failure, much harder than it looks. Mila, another French girl had meet with us and the 4 of us were ready to start a road trip south. We drove back to Napier the first night, bought a $40 tent from The Warehouse department store, and camped together for the first time. We drove to Wellington the next day, Mila decided to leave us, making space for another person. We stayed in Wellington 2 days, going to Te Papa museum, the best museum I have ever been to. And its free!  I can only compare it to the Smithsonian. The museum has 6 levels, covers the entire history of New Zealand, agriculture, geology and the national art gallery. Shawn baked pizzas for us the last day in Wellington, he used to own a pizza restaurant in Utah.

      Picton on the south island was the next stop. We took the Bluebridge ferry across the Cook Straight. The cost was quite high with the van and 3 people, coming to NZ$75 a piece. We camped near Queen Charlotte Sound one night, Mount Richardson Forest Park for 2 days before meeting our newest rider, Dani in Nelson. Dani is German, but has been living in Austurlia for the past year. The 4 of us tackled the Abel Tasman Track next. We spent 3 days/2 night on the trail. The trail was flat with 2 large tidal crossings, we had to time ourselves to hit the crossings during a 3 hour window during low tide so we could cross. The last day, I hiked to Totaranui to catch a water taxi to Marahau where we had left the van. 2.5 hours of driving through mountains, I reached the camp again. The next 2 days we spend driving south and freedom camping. We arrived in Greymouth on Thanksgiving Day, exactly one week after the mining disaster that killed 29 workers. The town was as dreary as the name suggests. The town streets were deserted and empty. The girls stayed in a hostel and Shawn and I slept in the van. The girls cooked curry for Thanksgiving dinner, not exactly American, but they are from France and Germany and Shawn is vegetarian, so I commiserated by myself. Next we drove along the west coast of the south island, one of the most amazing roads I have ever been on. We camped near Fox Glacier that night. The girls decided to take a tour or Frantz Josef Glacier, while Shawn and I did the 2 day Copeland Treck. The Copeland Treck was much more grueling than Abel Tasman, but after 7 hours of hiking over boulders and tree roots we were rewarded by jumping into natural hot pools while watching the sunset over glaciers. The day after we finished out hike we camped near Haast. At this point were were having many problems with sandflys, especially when cooking dinner on a camp stove. Swarms of them forced us to retreat into the van or the tent. The next day we were in Queenstown, the touristy trap of New Zealand. Everywhere you looked there was a place to bunjy-jump or skydive. The town was crowded with tourist bars. We meet Robin from Vermont ,the newest addition to the van in Queenstown. Out next mission was to tackle the Greenstone Trek. Shawn, Robin and I did the 2 day trek while the girls went back to Queenstown to hang out. The Greenstone Trek was easier than Copeland,but had stunning views. Most of the trail was in a wide grassy valley going up to Key Summit. This is the picture of the lake on top of the mountain. The girls meet us near Milford Sound, but they had forgot to fill up with petrol, and the road to Milford was 100km one way in and one way out with no gas stations. Shawn drove back to Te Anau to fill up, and put an extra 150 km on the van just to get gas. Milford Sound was amazing, mountains that went straight into the water. The village was just a cafe and ferry terminal, somewhat disappointing. Actually Milford is not a sound but a fjord. We drove back to Queenstown, and said goodby to Dani, who had to catch a flight back to Australia to see her boyfriend. The next few days we drove around the countryside, and stoped at the coolest place in NZ, near Arthur’s Pass. Shawn, Robin, and I walked 580 meters through a underground creek. It was pitch black and we were wading up to our waists, but very cool. At one of our last campsites, a English couple invited the 4 of us for pancake breakfast in the camper-van. Apparently we looked tired and helpless, and they felt sorry for us. The hospitality of everyone I have meet here has been incredible. Robin caught a ride with the English couple and Shawn, Marine and I drove to Christchurch. The city of Christchurch had a devastating earthquake in September, but it was hard to notice much damage. Christchurch is a very British looking city, with a cathedral square in the middle and many old school buildings and churches in the city. Once in Christchurch, Marine flew to Auckland to start a new job, and Shawn and I spent 2 more days in the city before I flew to Wellington. I spent another 4 days in the capitol before returning to Auckland.

New Zealand should be a place everyone should visit. I am on a tourist visa that expires January 14^th, but I have applied for a work visa to stay in the country for one year. I would like to work here and do more traveling. Cycling is big here as well. We passed many cyclist tour groups in the south island. The roads don’t have much of a shoulder, but the cars always give cyclists room. I don't have any specific plans beyond Christmas. I am subleting a room in Auckland unil January 10^th. If I do not get the work visa to New Zealand, I would like to go to Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, or New Caledonia and look for work as a divemaster. I may also apply for a Australian work visa. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This is the First Day of my Life

With apologies to Conor Oberst, this is the first day of my blogging life.  Yes after 14 years on the internet, I can now say I own a blog.   remember the first day of my internet life. My mom had an old Macintosh from her school. I logged on to espnsportsline.com and the site had no pictures.  The headline was Tim Hardway traded to Miami Heat, so that dates me to February 22, 1996.  Later in the year we had a new Acer computer and I had an AOL account.  I remember looking up the Nebraska-Michigan State football game stats on AOL sports, and thus it began...