We All Almost Die (OR: The Dancing Morgan)

After Noah and Keller went skydiving, we headed out of Taupo for Turangi - which is a small town on the southern edge of Lake Taupo and (were are told this by most of the residents) the "Trout Capital of the World". We stayed at "Extreme Backpackers" which was owned and managed, inexplicably, by a 70 year old couple. Checking in took longer than perhaps would have been expected because the old man - Roger - was "deaf as a post!" (his words) because he "had grey hairs" (his words as well - while pointing to his head). Attatched to to hostel was a climbing wall, which was where we occupied the remained of our afternoon. We determined that a key element of rock-climbing is being light - as the main patrons were kids under 10 and small (-er than normal) Chinese women. We did OK though. For dinner we cooked up some burgers, which attracted the attention of a fellow countryman - a younger guy from Cleveland (whom we called "Cleveland") who came over when he "noticed someone grilling burgers and knew they had to be Americans.". We had a lovely talk with him about the NFL, Major League baseball and, in passing, US politics. We collectively began to work a puzzle waiting for our after-dinner rice pudding to cook. This drove us all into a towering rage as 1) there were many missing pieces and 2) most of the puzzle (over 2/3) was either a)blue sky with no clouds, b) out-of focus grass or c) water the same color as the sky. We go to bed tired and angry.

We woke up the next morning with an hour before check-out. I take a leisurely shower, and head back to the room, only to find the owner and cleaning lady (whom Noah informed us was the crack-addicted estranged daughter of the owner) puzzling over why we are there. We think that this is not puzzling at all - until we reach the unanimous decision that it is actually daylight savings time. Oops. We eat a breakfast of oatmeal, which prompts me to have the realization that bioling oats in water is clearly something God never intended man to do. We go for a walk along the river and see many, many people fishing and doing a resplendent job of not catching anything. Back in town, Noah passes out on the ground, and I get the Sunday edition of the NZ Herald. It turns out that the "Sunday" in "Sunday Edition" actually means "Stabbings, arson, and melodrama". "Edition" still means "edition". Inconveniently, this is the only day the herald comes in a readable form (stapled together like a oversized magazine - rather than the normal, senselessly awkward pages, one of which could be used to sail a small ocean-going vessel). We get on the bus and head to Palmerston North. Upon arrival, we are tired and decide to bee-line it to the hostel. We head to the hostel, but at some point decide that we are on the wrong road and turn around. We repeat this procedure several times, before heading back the origional way - only to find that the hostel itself was roughly 10 feet further from where we first turned around. The downside, is that the hostel is boarded up, and (upon further inspection) looks like a meth den. We head to the only other hostel in P. North - Peppertree Lodge. We did not know this then, but in ancient Maori folklore, a Peppertree symbolizes the enterance to Hell. We are checked in by a woman roughly the size and shape of a mailbox (the big blue ones on street corners back home). In stark contrast with the other hostels, this is inhabited solely by elderly women. We wonder where all the other guys are.

I gotta leave this here - time on the computer is running dangerously low and dinner's ready. The stunning conclusion tomorrow.

Peace and love, Nathan

12000ft.

Skydiving was awesome, check out the new pics ------>
We got picked up from the hostel by a limo, and rode to the base near the airport. We watched a movie of some one's jump, and then got a short briefing before getting in our sweet jump suits, meeting our guides, and getting in the plane. There were about 6 or so other people in the plane... I jumped first with Mac, and Noah was second with Henk. Jumping out was the craziest thing ever. Just crazy. Then you are blasting through the air, face toward the ground, for about 40-45 sec. (we jumped from 12000 ft., but for $100nz more, you can go to 15000, where apparently you can see the entire country... coast to coast in all directions. We still had an amazing view- it was ridiculously high up.)
Then the guide pulls the chute, and you get to float to the ground over a period of about 8 min... amazing views all the way down.

Next chance you get to go skydiving, I heartily suggest you go. (Our jump was $220nz each, about $155us)

Woo!

Yesterday, we hiked out past Huka Falls again and fished for prawns... we caught 9 in like 4 hours... it was fun though- prawns are very tricky! After making delicious delicious stir fry, we hiked back t0 the trailhead where there was a hot pool to sit in and watched the stars. On the way back, we saw a possum... the most dangerous animal we've seen so far [rabies!]
Anyways, after we got back, I rented a bike and rode on the walking trail to get my broken camera that I left at the prawn place, it took about 25 min... on the way back, I found the bike path, and decided to take it: AWESOME! It took almost an hour, but the trails were amazing, and I got to take a bunch of pictures. Got back to the hostel, made tons of stir fry, yum. After I'm done writing this, we're walking to the McDonald's to steal sugar and make rice pudding.

Yee-haw!

Jumping out of planes

We didn't end up skydiving the other day because of weather conditions, but tomorrow is the day! Woo!

What's that smell...?

Friday: We wake up in Tarunga, excited to experience one of the more anticipated towns on the trip. We stop by the front desk of the hostel and ask what is good to see in the town, and the super nice and enthusiastic (almost to the point of being creepy) guy behind the counter tells us "that we all look like very strong, fit boys and we should take a hike up Mt. Manginoui and then have a dip in the hot springs at the base of the mount. Before we go to the mountain, we take a walk to the flamboyantly yellow Pack N Save supermarket to get some food for the next day or two. It is on the way home that we realize why everyone is so nice in New Zealand...because all of the assholes live in Tauranga, while we were walking back to the hostel a van drove by with a bunch of twenty something year old guys yelling randomly at us, our luck didn't change much later in the day when we had all kinds of weird sexual gestures and obscenities yelled at us. The hike up the mountain took about twice as long as it should have because Keller and I were so fixated on catching the sheep that we would walk up part of the mountain than chase the surprisingly agile, furry, little animals down it. The view from the top was beautiful the weather was perfectly clear, you can see some of the pictures on Keller's Picasa account. We hike down the mountain (much faster going down), just as torrential downpours move in. We ran over to the hot pools, no digging this time, just $6. Delicious fish and chips again for dinner.

Saturday: After having numerous sexual gestures and swear words yelled at us the previous day, we decided that we were done with Taruanga, we took the short bus ride to Mt. Manginui, were we stayed at some surfer hostel, we were greeted unenthusiastically by the front desk girl, she showed us around the hostel, making sure to let us know that she was really hungover so we would get the abbreviated tour. We took another hike the mountain, this time right through the sheep pastures and watched the sunset. We have another swim in the hot pools and head back to the hostel, we called it a night early because of our early bus ride in the morning, and not wanting to binge drink with a bunch of trashy surfers. I was woken up multiple times that night to the sound of beer bottles breaking and people screaming and puking right outside our room.

Sunday: We leave the hostel to catch the buss to Roturua or "Rotovegas" as the same hungover woman behind the counter of the hostel tells us as we are leaving. We have a nice easy puke free bus ride to Rotourua. As the bus pulls in we are greeted by a nice quite city. We stumble off the bus pondering what about this city could possibly be anything like Vegas (we still have no idea). We check into our hostel Cactus Jacks, whose front desk person acted less happier to see us than the woman at the last hostel had. We walk around the hostel and realize we are in what looks like the set to a really bad western movie, all the rooms have different names such as the "shit house" for the bathroom and the "saloon" for the entertainment room. There is a central courtyard that has weird cowboy memorabilia nailed to the walls. The rooms are creepily decorated almost as if they were trying to cover something up. Wanting to escape the creepiness of the hostel we venture into the city and after having dinner we go walk around town and notice a building with 10+ pool tables inside, we go inside and the owner lets us play for free enjoying that fact that we can do something that doesn't cost money besides just sitting in our hostel, we play a good 3-4 hours of pool. We go back to our hostel after double checking that the doors were locked we slept (uneasily).

Monday: We decide we don't want to risk another night in the Cactus Jacks so we go to the Hot Rock Hostel. Deciding to investigate the weird sulfur/sewage smell that seemed had been lingering in Rotorua at times, we find the hot spring park, which was basically a tiny and extremely smelly version of Yellow Stone, that had everything from geysers to hotpools that you could stick your feet in. We decided to go to the bar across the street from our hostel for dinner after finishing our meals and a beer or two we decide to defend America's honor and test our new found pool skills from the night before on a few British guys who had been beating everyone in the bar at pool, and claimed that it was team pool night and they were "keeping things social" by making us play them. They make us pay the $2 pool table charge to play them and they proceed to beat us soundly 3-4 times. An hour or two later and about ten dollars poorer from rematching the British guys so many times we leave the bar really pissed off.

Tuesday: I wake up and my first thought is how pissed I still am at the British guys for beating us so many times the night before. We decide to get out of "Rotovegas" and take the bus to Taupo the self proclaimed sky diving capital of the world. Up to this point on the trip we have been having a problem with too much farting in the extremely small hostel rooms which ends up lingering. To solve the previously named problem Nathan proposes a "fart jar" that you have to put 10 cents in every time you fart in the room. Unfortunately the jar didn't really work and turned into an all out ban on farting the in the hostel rooms. We decided to get out of the room cause there was already over a dollar in the fart jar after about 20 minutes, as Nathan was climbing down from the bunk bed Nathan smacks his head on the glass light fixture and it splits clean in half shattering all over the floor, luckily no cuts this time.

Wednesday: Woke up today to the smell of cigarette smoke lingering in our room from the people who decided to smoke right outside the window that we had left open to reduce the lingering fart smell. After making a generous portion of cowboy toast, we decided to take a hike the the Huka Falls, which ended up just being intense rapids. We decided to walk past the falls to the Honey Hive, which was a bee house and Meadery, which had just burned down due to arson. We trekked even further to the Prawn Farm were you can fish for prawns, unfortunately we got there too late and was told the fishing was closed. Budget pasta for dinner tonight.

Excuse my poor spelling/punctuation everyone who knows me knows that its not exactly my strong point.

Ow

Woo- so sorry it's been a while since last update... I'll do a quick recap of the last couple days:

Monday: Got bus passes that take us down to Wellington, but we can get on/off at whatever city we want. We hop on the bus and head to Thames. We had a pretty relaxed rest of the day, got pizza and watched James Bond at the hostel. Became good acquaintances with the host, who always greeted us with a friendly "hi chaps"

Tuesday: Took a shuttle to Whitianga, a small town on the Coromandel Peninsula. The hostel was right on the beach, and the weather was great. We have time to run to the store before it got too dark, and made copious amounts of stir-fry and rice. I ate until I couldn't anymore.

Wednesday: Woke up, had some of Nathan's signature omlettes (tasty cheese, avocado, and onion). We rented some (crummy) bikes from the hostel for $20, and rode through some beautiful hills about 18 km to Hot Water Beach. We walked down the beach and hung out until low tide, when you can rent shovels and dig a hole near some rocks where hot spring water apparently bubbled up. We got the shovel, and started digging. At this point, the water is still pretty far in, and waves keep destroying our holes. Just before we are about to lose hope, we walk down into the surf and bury our feet, only to find that we are being very badly burned! Yay! So we set up a routine of digging about an inch into the sand and sitting there until a freezing wave comes, or our bums are scalded by hot water. After the tide comes back in and we are sufficiently sandy and cut up by sharp rocks, we decide to call it quits and ride back, because we realized that we forgot to pack lunch. Noah broke his Jandals. The ride back turns out to be harder, and by the time we get back to the hostel, Nathan is so tired that he slices his thumb while cutting cheese. The hostel guys were helpful, we got a ride to a woman's house who then took us to the local clinic, and they put a nice baseball-sized bandage on thumb. By that time, we are almost delerious from lack of food, so we walk to a restaurant and eat the most delicious and deserved burger of our entire lives. We slept hard.

Thursday: Had cowboy toast and budget beans* for breakfast, and mess around until the shuttle came to take us back to Thames (the ride back was rather twisty, and the german in back only asked us for a bag to puke in once), where we get back on the Intercity bus to come to Tauranga. The hostel guy pointed us in the direction of a fish and chips place, where we ate delicious fish and chips with tomato sauce (ketchup.) wrapped in newspaper (we can't escape from Sarah Palin). Tomorrow we're going to hike up Mt. Maunganui, and visit the hot springs there, where we won't have to dig so much.

Will post pics later, probably...
cheers




*Budget (brand) beans cost $0.65, and they are my favorite thing ever... tomorrow we are going to try budget spaghetti.

real post tomorrow morning

how's the economy doing over there? hostel owner guy gave us the hand signal for "flipped over"....
I'm out of computer time now, so i'll do a full one tomorrow

In Auckland (Or: In Japan, or China...or Samoa...)

We got in at the airport Friday (...), all fairly tired. We successfully pass through many, many, many checkpoints (bio-security, security-security, customs, immigration, etc. etc.) and catch a shuttle to the hostel...Auckland Central Backpackers. We find that we cannot check in until 13:00 (haha) and spend 8 hours sitting around, essentially. We open accounts with BNZ, which was a omen of the ease and simplicity with which tasks would be accomplished here. We also got mobile phones...only to find out the phones that cost less than a hundred dollars were out of stock...but we were instructed to come back "in the afternoon" by the sales-girl, who gave Keller excellent service. We returned in the afternoon, but: no phones yet. We (Noah and I) suspect that the girl just wants to see Keller again. (We eventually got our phones the next day).

Saturday, we ventured out to Kelly Tarlton's, an underground aquarium and penguin habitat. We hitched a ride with a tour-bus driver going to pick up his fares, who would become our first glimpse into kiwi indiosyncracies. We were waiting for another passenger (who never showed), when the driver looked at his watch and announced "Well, I guess I have time to roll a quick joint." (which turned out to be tobacco based). He went on to encourage us not to take up smoking, but excused himself for the habbit by saying "I'm too old for sex, and I can't drink." He is my favorite person we've met so far.

We notice that there are enormous populations of Japanese, Koreans, Chinese and Malasians here. Perhaps more so than the population of brit-decended kiwis. (It's only the 3rd day and already Keller is getting tired of my Japanese tourist impersonation).

Today, Sunday, we walked to the Auckland Museum, which was fantastic, then returned home after doing some shopping (three words: "Budget" brand beans) for under $13NZ. Now we're of to make some Thai Lamb sausages and, of course, the beans.

Sweet as,

Nathan

The Journey Over

Wednesday

4:00 pm: Entered US security after long, long, long goodbyes. Keller's thermos looks like a bomb on the x-ray. Everyone at the airport, including TSA agents, are nice. Uncomfortably so. Plane ride to LA is fine.

7:00 pm: We are waiting in line at the Air NZ desk at LAX to check in...we have 45 minutes to make our flight.

7:15 pm: Noah's visa is rejected...bug the situation is righted.

7:30 pm: My visa gets red-flagged by the NZ terrorist watch list (I don't know why...I promise). The agent calls Auckland to get an override code, but their computers are down.

7:45 pm: My visa is accepted. Hooray. We get on the plane.

8:30 pm: The captain gets on the PA to tell us the the plane is broken (not in those words) and that repairs are coming, but at a time he cannot ascertain.

9:00 pm: We take off from American soil for the last time in a year.

...we go crazy on the plane. I am abused to no extent by the Kiwi flight attendants. My dinner comes with no fork and no crackers. I eat my cheese by itself and my beef with a spoon. For breakfast, I order the fruit plate. I receive the cheese omlette (which was actually pretty good), but end up covering in in sugar instead of salt. Still tastes ok...

Yeeee-haw!

Today's the day! Saddle up, boys, time to hit the road (or the air)!

Giddyap!

The Woods

Lets go! I'm done with the woods, man!

Herro

This blog is where the 3 amigos will post news about their crazy New Zealand adventures.
Today is Sept. 5th- we just booked a hostel in Auckland and are busy getting packed and super stoked to leave.