Some more photos

Well I fianlly figured out how to embed photos from my flickr account on my blog. It really wasn't that hard and I never really tried. Well with out further ado here are some photos. Click on the photo to be taken to my flickr page where you can look at others and view them full size.

In queenstown for the night

Well I am in Queenstown for the night to rest. Tommorrow we are headed back out towrds the milford sound to partake on a four day hike. The hike itself is called the milford walk and is considered by many to be the finest walk in the world. They only let a ceratain amount of people on the trail at a time. Because of this limits there is something like a two year waiting peroid to get on the trail. The walk cover around forty mles and ends in the milford sound where we spent last night. We took a boat around the sound this morning but it was cloudy so not many of the paeks were visible. Even so it was amazing. The mountains surrounding the sound jump straight out of the water. Tonight I am charging all my batteries because for the next three nights I will be staying in huts along the trail. They are bug community huts with bunk rooms and large general cooking/eating areas. I al looking forward to meeting all sorts of interesting people. There will be about fifty people in each hut each night. I am told there are hundreds of waterfalls along the trail and the views are to die for. I am most exicted about being so far away from civilization. It has been awhile since I have been on such a remote trail. I uploaded some more pictures on to my flickr account. To get there follow the link in the previous post.

Milford Sound

Today we arrived at milford sound, and are going on a scenic cruise around the sound tommorrow. It is an absolutely beautifull place. to view where I am click HERE. You can also view some of my photos on my FLICKR account. Hopefully at some point I will have the time to upload more of my pictures and be able to write a better description of what I'm doing here on this blog. In the mean time be happy with what you get!! Cheers.....

Some random shots

Well i finally found a Internet cafe with a decent speed and was able to upload some pictures. The only downside is that I am only in this town for an hour and I need to grab some coffee, so these are all you get. I have taken almost a 1,000 pictures so far so rest assured that you will see some good ones sometime soon.
We are off to Wanaka today to do some hiking and then to Queenstown for the night. The more time I spend here the more I fall in love with this country. Absolutely beautiful. I have yet to meet a local with a bad attitude. Quite an amazing place......

Near Lake Rotoiti

Well last night we stayed at a nice little hotel with a backpacker hostel attached. It has a communal kitchen and dining room. It gave me a very good idea what will be in store for Sarah and I. In the hostel part there are several rooms with a couple sets of bunk beds. It is very nice and clean and cost only around 20 bucks a night NZ. It comes out to be around 15 American dollars. An absolute steal. I spoke to the owner of a neighboring hotel last night about the possibility of work on the south island. There is lost of seasonal work due to it being summer. With the summer ending, Queenstown starts to take off as its a winter town. We might have pretty good luck finding work there.
The group I am travelling with is nice. The guides are awesome and the other customers all have interesting personalities. There is one other person close to my age, a 32 guy from Boston. Pretty funny guy and like to find a bar in every town we have been to. Most of the other people are older but have amazed me in their ability to trudge through some difficult hikes. I hope to be in that good of shape and with such good attitude when I'm over 60. Yesterday we did a moderately difficult hike to the top of a 4,698 ft mountain which overlooked the lake below. Breathtaking views. I was amazed that everyone made it up. I was convinced that some of the people would drop off, but sure enough after an hour of waiting the entire group was on the top together. Near the peak there was a mountain hut that backpackers can stay in. Apparently there are loads of them around the Island and range from 5-20 bucks NZ a night. With many backpacker hostels around, Sarah and I should be able to leave our bikes places and do some really interesting overnight hikes.
Well I have taken heaps of photos, but while I do have my card reader with me at the moment, the front of this computer is completely inaccessible. You will have to wait further for pictures to arrive. If anyone has an 10" laptop they want to send me please email me and I will give you an address to which you can do so. Or if someone wants to donate some money to me just let me know, I will gladly take donations. The last statement pretty much goes for the rest of my life.

Finally in New Zealand

Finally. I left Virginia Beach at 5 o'clock in the morning on Friday, and arrived in Auckland, NZ around 6 in the morning on Sunday. I have no idea what time it is in the states but it is Monday afternoon here. On Sunday I met my parents in the airport (they were on a different flight). We collected my luggage which included my bike box. It arrived completely unscathed. The bike case ordeal went a whole lot smoother than I had expected it to. Nobody said a thing to me about it and was never given any problems or charged a dime. Completely free. Awesome.
So as I was saying on Sunday were were in Auckland; a big ass city on the northern part of the north island. It sucks. Just another big city with lots of rich people everywhere. I might be a little jaded because it rained the entire time I was there. Hell, for all I know it could be the coolest city I have ever been too. But for now, until I go back, it sucked. We ate at a Chinese restaurant last night, and I got spare ribs in Shanghai soy sauce. They were freezing cold and had almost no meat on them. They were covered, no smothered in a thick sauce that was so sweet it was disgusting. It was bad. My mom, or I shall say Mum as they do here, Ordered some sweet and sour chicken. They were nothing like sweet and sour chicken I have ever seen. They were crispy as hell and had a bunch of pineapples mixed in. Her meal was actually delicious although nothing as we expected. I ate a lot of it. I ate a lot of my dad's too. I am going to apologize now for going into so much detail about my meal. I tend to get very off topic sometime, but it does make for an interesting read I think. So to top off the bad stay in Auckland, we had to wake up this morning at 4:30 to have enough time to catch a plane to Christchurch. Christchurch is a city on the south island and it is b-e-a-u-tiful. It has a huge botanical gardens (57 acres) that is completely free. Lots of very interesting architecture and very good food. The town square has all sorts of street performers and the like and throngs of people. To add to the atmosphere it is wonderful outside. Bright and beautiful. I'm sitting in a Internet cafe right now overlooking the town center. I cant wait to come back here with Sarah on bikes. That's another thing, There are people on bikes everywhere you look. Its a flat city and there are bike lanes on most of the roads. I have seen countless people on loaded touring bikes since I have been here. I really cant wait to start that part of the trip.
Its going to be nice to be able to meet lots of new people and go at our own pace. Everyone we have come into contact with so far has been a pleasure to be around. Very accommodating people.
Tomorrow we meet our group and guides and start the hiking portion of my trip. I am curious to meet the people that I will be travelling with for the next three weeks. I hope they are nice and don't smell bad. Smelly people suck.
I forgot my SD card reader at the hotel so I am unable to share any pictures with you. I am going to try and talk the hotel people into letting use their computer to upload some photos when I get back there. Nothing fantastic but might give you a little idea what the real middle earth looks like. Cheers.


P.S. send me emails and comments so I can feel special when I log on next time. Thanks in advance.

Ramblings and an Important Link

I leave on Friday morning for New Zealand. I have spent the better part of my day running around trying to get last minute things. The first month will be spent in hotels for the most part, but for the second part of my trip I will be riding my bike and camping. Two months on a bike is a daunting thought. I am both scared and excited about the trip. As almost everyone has told me, It is going to be a life changing experience. I have traveled all across the world and been to a ton a of different countries, but this will be the first time I will have spent so long a time in one country. (besides the U.S. of course.) I have no doubts that I am going to love the place, and I have heard nothing but good things about the people. People make a place. You can be somewhere as beautiful as any other and think it is a horrible place if your surrounded by assholes. And just the opposite, you can live in a flat place by the river and the sea with not much to do, and be completely content. Wilmington for me is a wonderful place. Not because of the amazing views of chemical plants, or the surplus of SUV toting soccer moms, or the complete lack of outdoor activities (minus skating). Wilmington is a wonderful place for me because of the people that are there. I have countless numbers of friends that I know are my real friends. People that have supported me in my recovery and people who respect my decision not to drink. People that tons of fun to be around and are grounded in life. I don't like false people who hold materialistic ideals of what they should be like. I have friends that are down to earth. Friends that keep me grounded. There is a real sense of community in Wilmington that I think is lost in so many other places. I have been gone for two days and I already miss it. I'm curious to see how the people of New Zealand hold up to my friends in Wilmington. I'd be really hard pressed to find better people.
I have been thinking about the people and especially my friends lately because of the thought of moving to New Zealand. Sarah and I have talked about quite a bit. There are a whole lot of ifs involved but the thought of it makes me thankful for friends at home.

OK. sorry I got all sappy about my friends. Didn't mean to get all mushy on you. So any way, I ran around today trying to make sure I got all the gear I need for the trip. Two months of riding and camping is a long time so I had to get some sweet gear. I'll be sure to show you guys some pictures when it's in use. I did get a fancy new leatherman today because my old one got lost somewhere in my move. I really wanted the same one but they don't make the leatherman ""super tool" any more. I had to get the wave, or curve or something smooth sounding name like that. I don't know who thought of renaming all the lethermans with such weak names as such. Its a damn tool, call it something tuff. for example...when picking a tool would you go for the Leatherman Pillow Tool? or the Letherman Man Tool? It's not even a question. You will go for any tool with the word Man in the title. "Buy this hammer....its a MAN hammer"


Edit*** I totally forgot to tell you something. I want to come back to the states because more than moving to New Zealand, Sarah and I want to do this. http://www.trektoreenergize.org/

So on a side note...does anyone actually read this blog??? If you do tell everyone you know to tell everyone they know to check it out. I know its quite boring now but soon it will be filled with all sorts of rad shit!