The Travels and Tripulations of a Nobody

dry

2010-03-06T22:22:00.000-08:00

Colossus from Raleigh, NC

Mitch Nipper

Jeff Danger

Wells Steve

Jeremy

"No Tomorrow" from Wilmington

"Cough" from Richmond, VA

Punk Ross stare down at Durham, NC

Happy New Year!!!

2010-01-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

Well I hope that everyone had a swell 2009. I know I did. I traveled the entire year. The only place I paid rent in 2009 was in New Zealand. I'm not really sure why, but I'm proud of that. I move back in to my old house starting today. Ross is renting me his room, and he decided to live in the RV in the backyard. Its a pretty awesome set-up... well I really dont feel like typing anymore, so Im gonna leave it at that.....

some pictures of new years eve at the soapbox.......

2009-12-29T20:45:00.000-08:00

2009-12-21T18:59:00.000-08:00

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2009-11-18T17:24:00.001-08:00

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don't count your chickens before they hatch!!

2009-10-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

SO listen to this, Its been pouring rain all day so I rode down to the park to make sure the bowl didn't cave in. I stopped at a store on the way to buy a cheap raincoat so I didn't get completely soaked. I buy the coat and put it on in the store and walk outside in the rain. Only that it wasn't raining anymore!!! At somepoint between me going in the store and me purchasing a rain coat, it decided to get all sunny and hot outside!! I couldn't believe it! But you know Im a laid back guy, so I said fuck it I'll just go do some work.. SO I go to the park and get all my shit set up to weld some studs... I pull out all my leads get my magnets out and start welding. I didn't make it 10 minutes before the bottom dropped out and it started pouring rain. I had to pack up all my tools in the rain!! But gues whatt................................I stayed as fry as I could be cause I bought a sweet ass camo rain jacket today!!!!!!!

friends

this is what sarah looks like in america

more friends

one last friend

I have tons of photos and tons of stories to update which I'll do soon...

A forgotten friend..

2009-07-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

Today I found an old friend of mine that I had forgotten about for some time now. I used to sit for hours telling this friend about what was going on in my life and show them pictures. They would just sit there and take it all in. I know from other friends that this forgotten friend would spread the stories of my travels for me and even show the pictures I took to everyone. They never asked for anything in return and after all this time there was no bad blood. So this morning I decided to sign in to my blog and rekindle this old flame. So know that I am not gone, and nor have I forgotten about my blog. My life has been extremely busy lately and I have had no time for things such as my blog.

A quick recap; The park is done and we opened it to the public last friday. We had a really hard couple of weeks trying to get it done in time but in the end it turned out awesome. The opening went off beautifully and had no less than 300 people attend. I took a good slam right in front of the mayor of christchurch and subsequently ruptured my ear drum. All in all it went off really well.

The next day my mate James took up to the mountain to go snowboarding. It was absolutely beautiful with clear skies that allowed to see all the way to the sea from the mountain. Good snow with very little ice. The rest of the week I spent trying to get as many skates in at the bowl as possible. I am quite bummed to have to leave the park. Then yesterday James took me up to the mountain again. This time we went up with burton to do a demo for a snow shop. James works for burton and we went up with the rest of the guys from burton along with all of the 12010 boards and bindings for the shop to demo. It was rad trying out different board setups. The snow yesterday was amazing. It had snowed for two days in a row beforehand so the mountain was covered with powder. All my runs in the morning were on virgin powder making fresh tracks. I had a lot of fun and am super stoked that james has been taking me up to the snow.

Well Sarah and I are heading back to the states in less than two weeks marking an end to our New Zealand excursion. We both look forward to seeing all of our friends and being back in the good ol' U S of A.......

see you soon

Good Morning to You Too....

2009-06-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Two Halves.

2009-05-30T01:05:00.000-07:00

I have decided to break this post into two portions. One dealing strictly with skateboarding and one for everything else that is going on in my life.

I think I will start with everything else because I have a feeling that if I were to begin with the skateboarding, that I would not have the dedication to go through with telling you all the other interesting things that go on in my day to day life. The last statement was a bit of a joke, one that only I might think is funny; I am under the belief that my life is not all that interesting. On the the grand scheme of things one might consider my life interesting, but on a day to day level its pretty normal. About the only non-skateboarding aspect of my life as of lately has been photography. I recently bought a new flash which I am absolutely pumped on. For those of you who are camera literate, it is a dedicated ttl flash. the nikon sb-600 to be exact. Nothing too powerful but it still is quite a strong flash. I am really keen on the ttl because I am not that flash savvy and don't always have the motivation to set up the settings manually. ttl is an automatic function that works between your camera and your flash. Both the flash and the camera must posses the capabilities for it to work. In a nut shell, it adjusts everything in both the flash and the camera to ensure a perfect exposure every time the shutter fires. Some photos for ya;

Now for all the skateboarding things that have been happening in my life. I have chosen to include work in the skateboarding portion of this. Some might be able to debate this decision, but I honestly don't really care that much. This is my blog and I have made my decision. You, as the reader, are going to have to deal with it and just move past it.

Work has been rather interesting lately. We have made some really good progress on the bowl. A couple more pours and well will have all the walls done and then only the flat will be left. On a sour note, with have been having serious problem with vandalism. A group of kids have been entering the work site at night and messing with our stuff. It started out as just pulling down some of the forms and having a small fire and has escalated to graffiti. And we are not talking the artistic beautiful street art, its really bad tagging. Some crummy name scrawled on the concrete. The tagging was bad enough, but things have continued to get worse; the day that we came in to find the tagging, we wired all the fence sections together to try and deter them from coming into the site. It backfired. The next morning we came to work to discover that every single pin had been removed from the fencing and the entire fence was down. Not only that, but the little bastards had taken some of the metal poles from the fence and took huge chunks out of semi-wet piece of concrete that we had poured the day before. They also took rebar and scratched their ugly tag in the new piece. We are still waiting for word from the council to decide whether they want us to patch over it or if they want us to jackhammer the whole piece out and re-pour it. The good thing is that they are going to pay for the damage. Still feel rather gutted to come into work and see something you've put your heart and soul into destroyed by some little maggot that has no clue. I have yet to take pictures of the destruction yet but I will make sure to post them when I do.

This was the piece that they vandalized

This is the first vert piece that we have poured. 10' high with 1' of vert

New Zealand is a special place

2009-05-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

So I haven't ever really posted anything about the quirks of the place. Its quite a different place in a lot of special little ways. I have travelled around a good chunk of the world and New Zealand has lots of little things that are quite unique to them. First off, mullets are totally in style in New Zealand. And I'm not talking a wee little hint of a mullet, I'm talking full on 10-80 kentucky waterfall style mullets. There are more damn mullets here. The funny thing is that its a fashion statement. There are business men with full blown mullets. Apparently its somewhat of a joke and tons of people are just playing a joke on the mullet. However, the jokes on them, they are the ones wearing a mullet! Maybe they didn't get the memo that mullets are a government accepted ID for white trash! Another gem left over from the eighties that the kiwi have fully embraced is the car/truck. Such beauties as the El Camino and the Ford Falcon are everywhere. I even saw a brand new double cab car/truck today. They never stopped making car/trucks over here. You can get them in any year and tons of brand new ones are on the road. There is an Australian company called Holden that puts out tons of them every year. Its really quite funny seeing a well to do business man driving to work in a brand new El Camino sporting a huge mullet.

Another fashion trend that needs to die is men wearing super short two tone shorts. I mean really, I cant even think of anything funny to say about that, its just sad. No body wants to see your upper thighs! Driving here is kind of fun too. You can make a U-turn anywhere. GOing the wrong way? don't wait for an intersection; just turn around! There are so many other things that are on the same par of ridiculousness as the above, but I don't feel like typing anymore. Hope everyone is well!

ROBBED!

2009-05-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

Well I awoke yesterday to Sarah informing me that my car had been broken into. What a way to wake up! I really hate thieves. Just lazy people who would rather inflict ruin on other people than actually go out and work for their money. The bastards smashed my window and let themselves in. Upon first inspection I didn't think that they got off with too much. I was rather worried that they had taken my skateboard, but for some reason they left it. I also had a brand new skateboard that had never been ridden which they left as well. They also left my sleeping bag and my therm-a-rest sleep mat. They pretty much took everything else. They took everything from my muddy work boots to my chapstick. Really who the hell steals chapstick. They even took a permanent marker that was in my door. The only thing of mine that was worth some money and really made me mad is that they made off with my camera bag. My camera is safe, but the bag had all my memory cards, filters, remote, batteries, battery charger, etc. A bunch of little things that really start to add up in price when you have to buy them again. Luckily I have backed up all my photos on Sarah's computer. They also took a brand new pair of skate wheels that my boss had given me for my birthday. I didn't even get a chance to ride them yet. Among the other things stolen were my leather-man, my pocket knife, a cycling cap, my sunglasses, my MSR camp stove(they left the pot?!) and my charhart winter work jacket. I went to work yesterday only to find out that Dave had left his wallet in my car the night before. His car is in the shop so I had given him a ride to and from work. Along with all his credit cards and Id's, his wallet held all the receipts from the different suppliers for the park. There was no cash in the wallet, but none the less the loss of the receipts is a huge nightmare on a city funded job like this.

It is really quite odd what they took, and even more what they didn't take. such as taking the stove but not the pot! or better yet, why take my muddy work boots and my dirty work coat and leave my skateboards. Maybe he has the same size foot as me. The good thing is that besides Dave's wallet, everything of mine that was taken is replaceable easily enough. I just have to get the money together to get the things I need. The only things that I really cant do without are my boots, memory cards and battery charger for my camera. Everything else I can easily live without.

Well I hope all is well with everyone else. If you see someone breaking into a car, throw something heavy at them and then proceed to tell them that they are a loser and need to get a job.

Feels like home....

2009-05-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

Well I just got home from a squatter show. Yesterday I met some crusty punks kids at the skatepark and one of them was playing in a band tonight. It was quite a rad experience. Full blown crusty punk kids everywhere getting wasted and playing fast loud thrashy punk and metal. There were five bands in total and all but one of them were pretty good. Somehow a nu-metal band played but they didn't last too long. All the punks were throwing bottles and cans at them telling them to get a haircut. It was damn funny.

It really felt good to be around a bunch of crusty kids and see patch jackets everywhere. There was actually another dude wearing a Death shirt. I felt like I was home again.

The past couple of days have been pretty slow as far as work goes. We poured concrete on monday and tuesday and then had the earthwork guys come back to get more stuff in order for more pours. It pissed down (kiwi for rain) on Wednesday so I took a drive out to methven. Methven is a ski town about an hour and a half from Christchurch. I met a guy named Trev a couple of weeks ago that own an indoor skatepark in Methven. The park wasn't anything special but I still had a good time. Trevor is a really rad guy. He is on his 28th consecutive winter. For the past 14 years he been chasing winters all around the world. From Vancouver to Japan and heaps of other places. Needles to say he had some rad stories to tell. In the park he did have a really fun mini-ramp on which I spent most of my time. If nothing else it was nice to get out of Christchurch for a bit. When I was leaving there was an absolutely amazing sunset on the mountains. Really orange sky that silhouetted the snow covered peaks. I was so pissed that I didn't have my camera. Oh well I guess there will be other sunsets to capture. Its been raining for a couple of days now and I haven't been doing much. Just waiting for the rain to stop so I can go for a skate. There's not too much to do here on a rainy day. Just biding my time till monday, so we can pour some more concrete. I hope everyone is doing well.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the park, and some of where I was staying with dave.

Happy birthday to me....

2009-04-26T23:50:00.000-07:00

So today marks my 26th year in this world. Today I did what makes me the happiest; I had a full day of hard labor. I went to work this morning only to find that some kids had a fire in the deep-end of the bowl over the weekend. I spent most of the day fixing all the crap they had drug around. Around lunch, Dave arrived back from the West Coast and we started getting everything ready to start welding some coping tomorrow. We are looking really good to start pouring some concrete early next week. Its nice to have some templates in the ground and be able to spy out some lines. The bowl is going to be super fun.. I can't wait until we finish a portion and have some round-wall to skate on our breaks.

I am really looking forward to the cheesecake that Sarah has baked me for my birthday. I love cheesecake almost as much as I love Sarah and haven't had a single slice since I have been in New Zealand. I'm getting excited like a fat kid!!!!!

Working....

2009-04-22T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well today We are finally going to start building the skatepark in New Brighton. To save on costs, the council has agreed to do all the earthwork for us. I have some pictures of the earth work they have done so far, but our internet is to slow to upload them. At some point I will go to an internet cafe and upload heaps of pictures that I have been wanting to show people.

I am really looking forward to starting the park. I really hate not working. Its one thing to be on vacation and not being doing anything; however, since we have stopped riding our bikes I have felt very stagnant. I have been sitting in our flat until I get restless and then I go skate. This has been my daily routine since I got back form Dave's. I have purchased some work clothes which is nice. I have been wearing the same shirt and pair of pants for two months. I found a really rad Indy shirt in a thrift store that says "ALL OTHER TRUCKS SUCK" It has quickly become my favorite shirt. I guess it doesn't have much competition as my favorite but still. I have three shirts and they are all pretty dear to me. I thought about going on and on about my three shirts and what each one means to em but have ultimately decided against it. I really don't want to bore you with my feelings about some pieces of cloth. Granted they do make me excited every once in a while and I am glad that while I only have three shirts, they are all special to me. So instead of going on and on about how much they make me smile, I have ended up going on and on about how I am not going to tell you how much they mean to me. I really am sorry about that.

You know I am in a foreign country. I am sure you knew that but I thought I might tell you again. Being somewhere completely different has made me do things differently. One thing that I have been doing that has been quite strange for me is that I have been listening to heaps of old school hip hop. Everything from the roots, de la soul, Jurassic 5, Run DMC, and shit like that. Its been rad. I like it. But if you would do me a favor and not tell anyone. It might ruin my reputation. Its quite funny. I came to New Zealand to ride my bike and I end up building more skateparks and listening to Hip-Hop. You never know how things are going to turn out.

On a side note, I am having trouble embedding pictures from Flickr into my blog. They embed with out a problem, but the sizes are all wrong and lots of the photo gets cut off. It really screws up the composition of the photos and to me, they end up looking like crap. If anyone has any sort of advice on how I might be able to fix this, I would be happy to find out. Thanks in advance..As for now you can click on any of the pictures and be redirected to the original Flickr page where they look much better..............

keep it real

Note to self......

2009-04-19T23:01:00.001-07:00

Do not leave yourself signed into blogger and hand the computer to Sarah.....

Everything posted is right on the money and I am super thankful to have such a great girl at my side. BUT, I am currently kicking her ass in scrabble!!!

I just wanted to say that...

2009-04-18T18:33:00.000-07:00

I have the bestest girlfriend in the world. She makes me coffee, and loves me and runs baths for me when I have muscle soreness. Aint she the best?! Not to mention ridiculously good looking and svelte like a tiger! RAWR!

Also she is so great at Scrabble, and it blows my mind that her vocabulary surpasses mine by leaps and bounds. Damn I love Sarah. I mean, really... Could a man ask for more? I think I'm going to take her out to the movies this weekend and treat her to a delicious seafood dinner. Yeah, that sounds nice. She is superior to me in many, many ways.

Some time off.......

2009-04-17T00:23:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I drove back to Christchurch early to surprise Sarah. I took a different mountain pass to enable me to stop by Reefton skatepark. Pretty fun park with a really fun bowl. Not too big but the first proper roundwall I have skated in New Zealand. The park had a decent sized street area with tons of random tranny all over the place. I had quite a good time doing weird tricks off of random tranny. Once again I got heaps of weird looks from the little kids at the park. Other than that there is really nothing new going on. I'm back in Christchurch and have a few days off before we start the park on Monday. I am trying to do as little as possible between now and then. I'm not sure anybody actually reads this blog anymore. Regardless I still feel somewhat compelled to update it. I wish I had more exciting things to tell you but I don't. I've been skating everyday and Sarah's looking for a new job. Thats about the extent of our lives right now.

Now for some pictures of Dave's property where I was building boards....

working!

2009-04-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Been working heaps lately.... getting orders out the door and betting through a huge order. We have several hundred more boards to make before we can start the park so we are pretty hard at it. Daves wife Lisa has been cooking me absolutely wonderful meals three times a day. Most of it come from their garden which is awesome. I am really getting spoiled with the food. just to give you an idea, we are having lobster tonight. They like good food. Now don't let me fool you into believing that I am living in luxury. The house they live in is quite old. There is one wood burning stove for heat, so at night we all sit in one small room to stay warm. There are a couple of leaks through out the house but lucky none are in my room. Lisa has one right above her head!. They were going to fix the house up a bit, but are working on building a new house so they decided not to bother. With all the age this house has it is quite cozy and charming. I'll post some pictures later.

while you wait, heres a pic I took on a break from work

hope everyone is doing well, i miss you all

It was nice today

2009-04-02T03:02:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing anything much lately. I have no job and nothing to do really. I have been skating a couple of times a day which has been fun. I did go rock climbing the other day alone. Sarah doesn't really get down on the rock gym here. Well about an hour into climbing I ripped a piece of skin off my finger so climbing is out for a wee bit. I really don't know why I am writing a new blog with nothing to say. I guess I just wanted to let people know that I'm alive. I am alive. Just thought I would let you know.

Dave North came over to Christchurch the other day and Dave, Cambell, and I laid out the bowl for the council to put the drain in. Cambell is a local to Christchurch who has park building experience and is going to be on the crew for the New Brighton park. We laid out the bowl for the city to do some of the earth work as well. We wont start our work until the 20th of April. Until then I am going over to Nelson Creek to help out Dave with some boards. I'm pretty keen to be skating some vert too. The one place I've been skating only has a five foot pocket. It is pretty steep though which is rather fun. 5' with 5' trannies. I get a lot of weird look skating it which is pretty funny. No one else skates it. Everyone is preoccupied with doing flip trips and pushing mongo!! (the mongo epidemic is alive and well in New Zealand)

Just for the record....

2009-03-29T04:07:00.000-07:00

So the last post was a little out there for many of my readers. I would like to assure everyone that I am still indeed drug free. I am sorry my babbling rant on candy might have led you to believe otherwise. Its just that I've been eating a lot of candy while here and I get mad at every banana piece I encounter. Its really a money thing. I view every banana piece as wasted money hence my anger and rant. Sorry for any confusion.

On to the good stuff...... A lot of rad things have happened in the last couple of days. Sarah is officially employed in New Zealand. She found a job as a bartender and an english pub called "The Bard on Avon." Its like a five minute bike ride from our flat so its super close. She also has been employed as a daytime bartender so late night bike rides are not an issue. I'm sure some of you are saying "a bartender can make money during the day!" allow me to let you in on a secret; It is not customary to tip in New Zealand. Bartenders are paid an hourly wage so time of day is not an issue. The minimum wage in NZ is currently $12.50. Granted I am sure she make more than that. I actually don't know how much she is making. She'd be the one to talk to about that. If you really want to know, tell me and I'll find out for you. I know people who can give me answers to question like that.

On another super rad note, I bought a car today........for $600 bucks NZ. With the current exchange rate its like $340 US. And the best part is that its not a total piece of shit. It belonged to a french guy that was flying out of the country in a couple of days. I waved some cash in his face and told him that I'd buy it right now. On top of everything its not stolen! I got papers with it. 89 Mitsubishi Lancer. Its got some dents and scratches and stuff but nothing major. Its only got 235,000 kms as well. around 140,000 miles. Not too bad for $350 bucks.

I'll test out its mountain capabilities next week. I have to drive it over Authurs pass to help Dave finish a board order.

Not much else to say, I've been skating everyday soaking up the nice weather. It is supposed to rain tommorow so I might go to the climbing gym. Hopefully I can talk Sarah into going and we can belay each other. Their bouldering room is insanely difficult.

take care ya'll

......

I haven't been able to upload any new photos lately so I am going to treat you with some pre-trip photos... hope you enjoy..

The future and bananas

2009-03-26T02:37:00.000-07:00

I reckon that most people who read this are in the States. If you are in the States, then that would officially make me ahead of you by a day!! Well technically its 18 hours, but nonetheless its awesome. I love talking to people on skype on thursday and be able to say its wednesday there.

On another side note, my mind wandered today. I buy bags of candy every once in a while and today was no exception. Most bags of candy include a yellow flavour of banana. I could be wrong, but when I share my candies people almost never like banana. Its never a grey area either. Its black and white. There no "there not my favorite but I still like em" or "I don't love em but I guess I'll eat them." Its either "I fucking LOVE banana, give me them all," or "eeewwww, I HATE banana! I wont touch em!" This leads me to a question for the candy companies; Why the hell are there still so many banana pieces in my bags. There always seems a greater banana to other fruit ratio in the bag. And seeing the black and white situation of the banana flavour, why isn't there a banana exclusive bag. The candy companies need to take out all of the banana pieces in the mixed flavour bags and sell the flavour individually. The banana lovers can buy both bags if they must absolutely have a banana inclusive mix of flavours. I really don't think anyone would be upset over the absence of banana but I know of at least two people that would buy more assorted bags of candy if such an action would be taken! Just a thought.

Some Visual Pleasure

2009-03-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

Castle Hill. These boulders are like three stories high!!!

Well this morning we woke up in our home. It was awesome. Its nice out.

well well well

2009-03-24T02:49:00.000-07:00

So a lot has happened since I last left you. Last time we talked, Sarah and I were in Queenstown. From Queenstown, we drove towards the west coast and up towards Greymouth yet again. We saw Wanaka with is puzzling house, Franz Jospeh Glacier, Fox Glacier, Hokitika, and up to pancake rock for a second time. We witnessed a rescue operation at Fox Glacier which was pretty rad. When we pulled into the car park, there was a helicopter and a nuch of fire and search and rescue people milling about. Shortly a second helicopter arrived as well as a second helicopter. The two helicopters took off and were seen landing on the glacier. They brought a man back to the car park fully strapped to a back board to be loaded into the waiting ambulance. We found out later that the man was on a guided walk on the glacier when a land slide took him down seriously injuring him. Pretty crazy stuff.

At Greymouth I headed east for about 15min towards Dave North's skate factory. He hooked me up with a couple of decks, a pair of Indy's, which are almost impossible to come by in NZ, and some bearings. Deane, the skate shop owner in Greymouth finally hooked me up with some wheels to complete my setup. I am still in awe of the hospitality of the people over here. Dave didn't make me pay a dime for any of the stuff. After spending the night in Punekaki, we drove over Authurs pass. We stopped at a place called Castle Hill which is basically a bunch of huge boulders on the side of the road. It is a rock climbing mecca. There were heaps of climbers around just playing on the rocks. We then drove into a rock and back into Christchurch. I should clarify that I drove into a rock as Sarah was not at the wheel. There happened to be a huge rock the size of shopping cart in the middle of the parking lot at Castle Hill. I'm really glad we opted for the extra full insurance on the car. In Christchurch I have been going to a local skatepark everyday that has a super fun steep pocket. Today we finally rented a flat. Its really nice and the guy that owns it cooked us a steak dinner to welcome us into the house.

The guy that owns the house, Rob, has some real promising leads for some bar-tending work for Sarah. He seems to know tons of people and has heaps of contacts. In addition to rental property he owns a construction company so I've got options when the park is done. Its been a pretty rad day today. Its the first time in three months that I have had some stability. For once I don't have to wake up in time to vacate a camp site or move on in fear of a park ranger. We can actually buy groceries for more than two days. Its really nice to settle down after months of being nomadic. Christchurch is a really rad place and we are looking forward to being able to call it home.

Some photos

2009-03-17T01:16:00.000-07:00

In absolutely no order

So you really need to click on the above photo. Blogger cuts out all the good stuff. Just click on it, youll see.

Steepest street in the world

Oh yeah, We went bungy jumping today!!!! I went four times and Sarah went three. Sarah did two straight forward and one backwards. They actually had to push her off backwards. I went running forwards, running backward, falling backwards, and running doing front flips. It was awesome. You should go find somewhere to do it!

Thats Sarah in the air!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its been awhile

2009-03-16T01:45:00.000-07:00

So its been while a long while since I last updated this here thing.
I left off with us still being in Greymouth. Rest assured we are still in New Zealand. From Greymouth, we took the Tranz Alpine train over Aurthurs pass. You can call us what you will but I personally didn't feel like riding a mountain pass after having sat on our ass for three weeks straight. I took heaps of photos but haven't uploaded them so you will have to wait.
The train arrived in Christchurch to a wind blown cold hail day. Super rad weather to ride your bike in. We didn't have far to go and made it to the city center. The next couple of days were spent lounging around the city center. Actually, I had to get my medical exam for my visa done. Three visits and some needle poking was done. We also went rock climbing twice. Well I went twice, Sarah went once. Christchurch is a pretty rad city. Theres stuff going on everywhere. People playing music, magicians trying to make money etc. We left Christchurch two days ago and had our furthest day yet. We absolutely killed it. something like 275 kilometers. The crazy thing is that we did it in like four hours, maybe five. We are true athletes.

That photos is way out of context! but none the less its rad. I stacked those rocks like that and then I took that amazing photo!!

So I guess I might tell you that we are cheating big time!!!!! We rented a car and are driving around. So far we been to Dunedin, invencargill Milford, and are in Queenstown right now. The coolest thing yet has been taking a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory. They had a chocolate waterfall. pretty awesome. They wouldn't let me take photos though! I can give you an image of words though...... there was lots of metal and fast moving belts and machinery and brown stuff in everything!
The reason we are cheating is because we want to see as much as possible before I start working. Its going to get cold on the south Island relatively soon so we thought we'd get the big stuff out of the way.
Cheers

Hectic Couple of days

2009-03-07T15:47:00.001-08:00

Well the last couple of days have not really been hectic, but none the less very eventful. I have made some real promising leads on work. There is a skate shop just down the street from the backpackers I am working at. I went in the other day to try and find some information about a NZ board factory. I had heard that there was a factory somewhere on the south island that presses there own boards. Dean, the shop owner, told me that the factory is run by an english guy by the name of Dave North. The factory happens to be twenty minutes form here. Yesterday Dean gave me a ride up the Dave's factory so that I could meet him. It was a super rad place. Pretty much in the middle of nowhere, we are driving around the mountains to get to his property and then all the sudden there is a huge vert ramp in the distance. Dave has a 13 foot vert ramp in his yard. Pretty awesome. He also has a small board factory that him and his wife run. In addition to making boards, Dave also builds concrete skateparks. Fate would have it that he is about to start a new park in two weeks in Christchurch. After talking with him a while and skating the vert ramp for a bit, I am more than likely going to work on the park. I just need to get my visa stuff taken care of. Its not a real big park, but looks really fun. A big flowing bowl with some bigger sections and a small street course. Im looking forward to building parks again.

Yesterday was the first day in almost three months that I have skated. Both Dave and Dean kept asking "and why didn't you bring your board?" I don't really regret not bringing my board, but its funny how things worked out. I came over here trying to get away form everything I knew and try new things. I thought that being in new places and doing new things would bring me nothing but happiness. And it has made me happy. I have had a blast traveling thus far doing rad things with Sarah. But even doing such things I'm still quite aware how far away I am from home. Yesterday I finally felt at home. It was so nice just sitting down and talking to some people that had the exact same interests and passions as me. Skating vert and walking through a board factory felt so good.

I miss the sessions

2009-02-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

More than anything I miss the sessions.

I miss going to the crater on Wednesdays and coming late.

I miss seeing the dedicated crew who longs all week for wednesday.

I miss the greetings I get when I climb the stairs.

I miss seeing Clint finishing off a smoke and taking a swig of water out of an old milk jug.

I miss watching Marley run around the bowl as Ron skates it smoother than anyone in history.

I miss the occasional presence of Mike Scibetta telling me about obscure punk as he gets pumped up.

I miss watching Andy destroy the oververt as only the owner can do.

I miss Fatneck's double double on the tall pockets.

I miss Capron's frontsides through the corner in a sweaty V-neck.

I miss Don telling me he doesn't skate anymore.

I miss sticking Pink Crack stickers at 5.9 ramp and blaming them on Ross.

I miss the friendly rivalry between the two ramps.

I miss the Friday night sessions at the pink crack ramp.

I miss Ross getting so mad he punches himself in the face only to land a sweeper the next run.

I miss Staci's frontside carves through the door.

I miss Boot's ridiculous frontside airs from the new ramp to the old.

I miss getting wiffs of Adams stench as he does a front side grab grind in my face.

I miss watching Talba doing the most creative non-stop skating I have ever witnessed.

I miss EJ yelling at me with support every time I get stacked. FACE!

I miss RIch putting everyones style to shame with his moves from another time.

I miss Jeremy's endless smiles as he does some of he best carve grinds around.

I never thought I would, But I miss Ducky showing up in full pads and smoking a cigar.

I miss Tamra showing up with her hellion Sage and seeing the trouble he tries to get into.

I miss watching Jimmy get stacked his first time to the ramp.

I miss Womble showing up and giving me a pair of old shoes.

I miss Hanuesacks Laid back approach to the ramp.

I miss Medford's gnarly leaps of the railing.

I miss cleaning up the carnage of beer bottles and cigarette butts the next day.

I miss going to the city park and seeing Stubby guide the park rats in the right direction.

I miss meeting Steve Hart there on bikes and having a blast just goofing around.

I miss taunting the kids who push mongo.

I miss watching the kids get better everytime I go.

I miss getting vibed at Eastern.

I miss the family that has grown through blood and sweat. No tears.

I miss my friends

I miss my skateboard.

Most of all I miss the sessions.

Some old pictures

2009-02-26T18:36:00.000-08:00

Well first off all I might as well tell you what I've been doing. Actually I really dont feel like tying that much right now so I will just pleasure you with some photos!

Oh Yeah,

2009-02-22T15:10:00.001-08:00

I shaved my head yesterday... I feel like a new woman!

Absolutely wonderful day!

2009-02-22T01:12:00.000-08:00

Today has been the best day of the trip so far. We woke to yet more rain in Greymouth. We had booked another night at the Duke Backpackers the night before and had made plans to go rock climbing today. There is an indoor wall at the civic center nearby the place we are staying. A couple of Israelis went with us to the rock gym. We have been hanging out with them the past couple of days and were glad to have them along. The gym is open only two days a week and was packed. There was almost thirty people there. Everyone was friendly and super helpful with ascents. We stayed from open until close and had an absolute blast. I had a lot of fun. I have climbed before but only minimal and it had been almost eight years. I surprised myself and did really well. Not to toot my own horn or anything. I really look forward to going climbing again.

Right before we left to climb a guy came into to work at the hostel. Would you believe that he was from wilmington!!!!! small world. Super nice guy by the name of Frankie. We talked for a while about home before we went climbing. Rather weird talking about Wilmington half away across the world. Anyway we left him and went climbing. We ran into the owner of the backpackers at the gym. apparently her son is getting into climbing and because of him she has as well. Really nice lady. Both her and her husband are super kind. So back to the story that you are unaware that I'm telling; The backpackers works on a WWOOF'rs operation. WOOF is Willing Workers On Organic Farms. It a system set up that provides a place to stay and sometimes food in trade for work. In addition to farms many backpackers and other similar types of places are included in the system. Sarah and I have been saying every ten minutes about how much we like it here at the backpackers and how much we don't want to leave. I approached Dorrey about the possibilities of us working here for a bit. He said that they would be more than happy to have us stay here for a while. They keep four staff on at a time and a couple who is currently working here are leaving in a day or two. Couldn't be more perfect. There is a two week minimum stay, and no pay. The work load is about four hours a day and is mostly cleaning the rooms after people leave. Included is free stay in a private flat with its own bathroom. We also get free internet and a free drink every night. I think a failed to mention that there is a bar in the backpackers. In addition to all that we also get the ammenaties provided to the guest such as the free toast and jam in the morning, and the free soup every night. There is also free coffee and tea all day long. We are going to take up the offer and stay here for at least two weeks. As I have said before the atmosphere here is super friendly and have met heaps of new people every day. I am really looking forward to staying here for a while. Greymouth itself is a rad little town and I have even spotted a small mini ramp behind a skate-shop just down the road. Seeing as that I'm going to be here a while I just might have to make some more friends.

Sticking to my usual pattern I will end with a completely random thought. I have been reading like crazy since I have been here. I bought a book just yesterday and by last night had read over 450 pages of it. I am going to try and finish it tonight and return it tomorrow for a different book. Hopefully it will work. It is "The Navigator" by Clive Cussler. It is his third book by him Ive read since Ive been here. Another set of books that I have been reading is the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. They are sci-fi thrillers about a wonderful land full of magic witch;s and wizards. Each book is huge (almost a 1000 pages each). They are quite nerdy and I love it. I had actually read the first two when I was 12 or 13 and had left it off until now. Quite glad I picked them back up. So you should go and pick up any book by either of those authors. Defiantly worth the money.

On another side note, everyone needs to get Skype. Skype is a free video chat service that uses a computer webcam. Sarah and I have been chatting with my parents regularly and it awesome. Anyone that has friends in far places should look into it. Free is way cheaper than any phone call. And you can't see each other during phone calls. SKYPE WEBSITE. click that for more info and a the free download. It would be awesome to start seeing some friends!!!!!!!

Made it to Greymouth

2009-02-19T23:09:00.000-08:00

Well I don't know if you were checking the weather, but it rained today.....ALOT. We left westport yesterday and made it to Paunakaikei. It was by far the gnaliest bike ride I had ever been on. Huge climbs and subsequent drops all day. At lunch we ran into a slew of other bikers. It was so awesome. There was another couple from indiana, a guy from switzerland, and a couple from the UK. We all sat and talked for a while sharing stories of our tour. Later on in the day Sarah and I ran into yet another couple from Taiwan. On that note, we have been meeting tons and tons of people from all over the world. So far we've met people from , switzerland, tons from Israel, a couple Germans, heaps from the UK, Scotland, Aussies, several Americans, Taiwan, Several from France, and even some Canadians. We've also met numerous hospitable Kiwis. They are super nice here. Its a lot like southern hospitality minus the redneck. TOnight were are staying in the Duke Backpackers in Greymouth. We were referred to them by a traveling Israeli we met in St Arnaud. It is run my an Israeli couple who have been in New Zealand for several years. They are too nice and more than happy to answer anything we ask. We told them that the Israeli had told us about them. The owner told us that when you check out they give you a card with the backpackers info on it. You are instructed not to keep it, but to pass it on to a traveller that you meet. The only requirement is that they must be nice and friendly. This is the card that Maton gave us. Awesome. Needless to say because of this the place is filled with super nice people from all over the world. Everyone starts up conversations and everyone is smiling. Very peaceful place.

So After we checked in today we went to the Grocery to get some material for dinner. We couldn't resist and filled a bag with some gummy worms. You know the ones you fill yourself and weigh at the end. Well if anyone knows Sarah you'll know that she couldn't wait until we checked out to eat some. So we are walking around the store and Sarah is stuffing gummy worms in her mouth and the manager comes up to us and says something along the lines of "you can not be eating those. You have to wait until they are weighed and then you pay. It is considered theft to eat them in the store. I am going to charge you ten dollars. Either that or I will call the police!" WHAT A PRICK!! When we got to the register, he tried to have us charged fifteen dollars. This guy was out to get us. he was a total nerd and hated his job. Walking home we felt better by telling ourselves that we were on vacation and he was at work. (Sarah would have my head if I made her out to be the bad guy. I was totally eating gummy worms but he caught her with one in her mouth!) and she wasn't stuffing them in her mouth she was gingerly placing them on her tongue and slowly chewing as to savour the forbidden treat!

I totally forgot to tell you about today; It rained today and we got wet. Really wet. It rained all last night, but this morning it looked as though it might clear so we decided to push it to Greymouth. Not long after we left it started to rain. There were times when it let up but it pretty much rained all day. Match that up with some gnarly hill climbs (six total climbs) equals an awesome day. I was as wet as I could be singing at the top of my lungs riding my bike in the middle of nowhere and having a blast. I stopped and looked back to see Sarah not enjoying my angelic voice. I hummed the rest of the way to Greymouth.

P.S. on a completely side note I would like to quote my friend Aaron; "Men + Time = Beards" more info HERE wise words from a man with an awesome beard

A little one two punch

2009-02-17T22:50:00.000-08:00

New Zealand's largest swing bridge. DONT LOOK DOWN!!!!

They had to cut the road out of the rock!! Dynamite beats rock!

The view for morning tea

This is the Cafe near our cabin at Murchison. Told you it was an awesome place

Well now for the good stuff. Well the pictures are probably the good stuff, but I feel more confident in my writing. Anyone can take a picture in a place like this, but it takes a true genius to tell stories that invoke the pure emotion that mine do. I think I might give myself to much credit. But alas I continue:

I shall produce this blog entry in order. I shall try to anyway. Well a couple of days ago I left off with our thoughts about going whitewater rafting. We did. and it was fun as hell. We went with a company call Ultimate Descents because we were told that they had really good guides. My personal belief is that when doing something like that guides are just as important as what you are doing. I feel its their job to make it as fun as it is exciting. We weren't let down. The river was somewhat low but still a blast. mostly class three rapids but maybe a four in there. We were in a really small raft so that made it that much more exciting. In the raft was Sarah, Matt from germany, our guide Simon and I. Small group and we were roughly all the same age. We shared lots of laughs as we went through the rapids. Simon let us swim through quite a bit of the rapids and even took us to some sweet cliff jumps. I jumped but sarah said she was too cold. Overall we both had a really good time and thought it was worth the money. Seeing to ourselves that we earned it, we ate our best meal of the trip so far. Chicken, rice, onions, garlic, and some veggies. It was awesome. The next morning we woke somewhat early. actually we didn't wake up early at all. We never do, were on vacation. So as I was saying we woke up when our eyes opened and got ready for the day. The plan was to make it 65 Kms to a small place called Berlins. That was the closest backpackers from Murchison. We made it about 55 km to a place called Inangahau. Weird name but awesome place. I asked about Berlins and they informed me that the backpackers there was full. They did tell me that they did have a campsite though. It was unadvertised and only cost 10 bucks for the both of us. It was complete with a bathroom and kitchen. The people at the store were a breath of fresh air. It was nice to meet some other people that are heavily tattooed. The lady who ran the shop was about as nice as anyone can be and made some of the best food ever had. The three of us talked for awhile about all sorts of stuff, I found most interesting her vies on judgment of tattoos. In New Zealand it is a tradition of the native people (maori) to be heavily tattooed and is a rite of passage to be a face tattoo. She said that it was rather racist to judge someone because of what they have on their skin. I've never thought about it like that.

In the morning we went back to the shop and had some delicious savory muffins. We left Inangahua and started towards Westport. After a really hot and sunny day with the wind blowing in our face, we made it. It was another absolutely beautiful ride. I'm really not sure as what else to say. Ive pretty much brought you up to speed. Its still a whole lot of fun here. oooh ooooh I totally forgot to tell you that I fixed the tent again. At one of the lot that we camped in at Inangahua there was a heap of junk cars and stuff. I was able to pillage some thick fencing wire and with the combination of the binding wire that already had I got it fixed pretty good. The only downside is that I had to permanently attach two section to make it solid. Now the poles wont fit back into the tent sack and I currently have them sticking out of my pannier like a radio antenna. I look like a radio bike from WWII.

Hope everyone finds my wonderful words in good spirits.

A little bit of both!

2009-02-15T14:22:00.000-08:00

First off some pictures for those who wish to be visually appeased....

We took a rather nice and long hike up to parachute rocks that over look Lake Rotoiti. It was Sarah's first hike ever and she did awesome. It was a pretty hard hike and I am super proud of her.

Part way into the hike!

Sarah crawling her way to the top of the rocks. Amazing view in the background.

She got really nervous on top of the rocks. She actually threw half of her sandwich on the ground trying to wave away some bees. It was quite hilarious.

So. Now that we have secured some free internet, I can afford to be lengthy with my explanation of what we have been doing and what we plan to do. Thats not to say I will indeed write a 20 page expose of our trip but I could if I wanted. I know you have better things to do than read my boring blog, but I don't have anything better to do than to tell myself that people have nothing better to do than to read my blog. So I will undertake this entry as if your life depends on it being grand.

Right now we are sitting in a beautiful riverside cafe called "Rock Snot Cafe" it is right outside of Murchison and is next to our cabin area. Its open to the outside and sits right on the river. Murchison is a kayak mecca and every so often a group of kayakers will move past us on the river. Quite an epic spot. We are waiting until 1:30 (its 11:34 a.m.) to go white water rafting with Ultimate Descents. THe river is a 3/4+ so it should be a lot of fun. The weather couldn't get any better. Beautiful sunny cloudless day. This will mark Sarah's first white water rafting experience. I can't wait to see the look on her face when we go over the first big rapid.....

I hate to backtrack but my mind doesn't always work on a strict time frame. Yesterday was by far the most beautiful bike ride either of us have ever been on. We rode about 60 km from St Arnaud to just outside of Murchison. The views just never stopped. There was quite a lot of motorcycle traffic on the road due to the quick hills and sharp curves. Every time one went by I couldn't help but think about how much fun it would have been to ride that road on a motorcycle.

The day before yesterday are what the above pictures are about. We took an amazing hike up to Parachute Rocks in the St Arnaud range. It was a rather long and somewhat steep hike but the view at the top was worth it. Like I said above, it was Sarah's first hike. I was confident that she had the ability to do the hike, but was nervous about whether or not she would enjoy it. She put my fears to rest and had a blast. Its hard to complain when your at the top of the mountain and have the best view you've ever had in your life. There were a couple of bees at the top that got a little to close for comfort. Sarah was trying to swat one of them away and ended up throwing half her soundwhich (<------I misspelled that on accident but it was such a beautiful accident that I left it. I'm spelling with an accent!) Not much more to say here. Tomorrow we are getting back on the road and heading towards Westport. I hope all is well in the states....It's amazing here!

Gotta be quick

2009-02-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

Well our interent time is about to run out so I have to be quick. We are in Murchison for the night. Its awesome. Its sunny here and we had a really good and long ride today. we are talking about going white water rafting but I'll tell you more later.....LOVE YOU ALL

three

2009-02-13T13:32:00.000-08:00

MESSY CAMP

Rained Out!

2009-02-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

Well on the way to St Arnaud from Blenhiem, We encountered a little bit of rain. When I say a little bit, I really mean a lot. It rained all damn day. We made it about 30 miles before we decided to pull over and set up camp. It was one of those rains that everything got wet. No matter what. It was rain within a thick fog. We were like two wet rats. Looking back on it it is quite funny. So we get to a DOC camp site and set up out tent and get inside. Mind you, its only like 3 O,Clock in the afternoon. We get the tent set up and crawl inside for a bit of dryness and warmth. We both fall asleep and awake to one of the poles of the tent snapping. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The tent was still standing but badly disfigured. I'm not sure if I have told you before about this; this is the third time we have had a tent pole break. I have repaired it each time but it has subsequently weakened the overall structure. The first two were the same section of pole, but the third was an entirely different section. With the tent so mortally wounded we, and everything in the tent got wet. We are going to try and make it to Westport by staying in backpackers the whole way. There are two between here and there and are evenly spaced out, 65 Km the first day and 60 Km the next. Westport is a decently sized town and I can only hope they have an outdoor shop with some sort of nice tent.

Today Sarah and I are going to hike up to the mountain the overlooks lake rotoiti. hopefully the weather will hold out and we will get some nice views.

Swallow your pride!

2009-02-08T21:09:00.001-08:00

Well today we went and found a kayak operator and rented a sea kayak for three days. We also rented tickets to camp sites for two nights as part of our journey. We loaded the kayak with a bunch of food and all of our camping equipment and set off. The first camp was supposed to be only about three hours paddle. Two and a half hours later we were only about a tenth of the way there. Once out of the harbor we came straight into a 15-20 knot headwind. We were basically going nowhere and a couple of hours of that we decided to turn around. It hurt my pride quite a bit but it was the smart thing to do. There was no sense in beating our selves to death for the next three days only to get right back on our bikes and ride as soon as we got back. I could go on for ever telling gruesome details about how much it sucked but thats not why you have arrived at my blog. You simply want to hear the good stuff. The simple fact is that we like to ride bikes. We found out the hard way that we don't like to sea kayak. At least not in rough windy conditions. The rental company happily refunded our money and said a front had come in a lot earlier than expected. We decided to stay in Picton yet another night before heading to blenhim tomorrow. We have three days worth of heavy food that we are not trying to carry around on our bikes up some hills. Tonight we will eat well and set off in the morning.

On a side note, it is our fifth night in a tent and me and sarah are still madly in love and still the best of friends. Future looks bright for us......

Back on the South Island

2009-02-07T22:54:00.000-08:00

Wow, where to begin.......... Well Sarah made it here safe and sound and to say I am excited would be an understatement. My parents left me a rental car and Sarah and I drove from auckland down to the capital city, wellington. We made a quick stop in Rotorua to go Zorbing. It was an absolute blast. Nothing like rolling down a hill in a huge ball filled with air and water with the person you love. You should be really jealous. After we went zorbing we went swooping which is a giant swing thing. You free-fall for a bit and then swing out going like 160 kilometers per hour. It was scary as hell.

There was a huge reggae festival in rotorua that night so all the camp grounds and backpackers were full so we were forced to continue driving south. We made it to lake taupo and camped on the lake at a holiday park. It was a really gorgeous place to camp. The next day we drove further south towards wellington. We stopped and did a short hike to a lookout over a geothermal area. Ridiculously blue lake below a giant bright red cliff. It was something out of a bob ross painting. We made it to wellington only to find that there was some sort of rugby tournament going on that night. Once again all the backpackers were full. It was quite a sight. For some reason everyone wears costumes during this one day tournament/party. Not only were they in costume but they were dressed up in groups. It was weird as shit. We saw a group of twenty dominos, a bunch of umpalumpas, and tons of other strange looking groups of people. They really put a lot of time and money into their costumes. Easily one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Anyway we were once again forced to leave the city and drive back from whence we came. We found an awesome camp site backed up to a mountain where we spent the night. Today, we finally dropped of the car and caught the ferry to Picton. We made it safely to the south island and have set up camp near town. Tomorrow we are going to rent sea kayaks and go on a 3 or four day sea kayaking trip in the marlborough sounds. Should be a whole lot of fun. The sounds are filled with bays. I was told if you spent a day in each bay, it would take like twenty years to see them all. Needless to say I wont be on the internet for a few days. Take care and I hope to be back soon. Not to soon though, I am going to soak this up.

Go HERE for some sweet pictures

some reflection

2009-02-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

Well for the past week or so, I have been staying at a hotel in Auckland New Zealand. It is a huge city (2 mil). I have been riding my bike all around usually into the town center. I have never ridden my bike in a city nor have I ridden much in mountainous areas. The city has lots of traffic and lots of hills. To add to the equation they drive on the left here. And to top it off it is compulsory (law) that you wear a helmet. Needless to say the first time out I was very nervous and felt very out of place. It is amazing how big a difference it is from riding around Wilmington. I have since gotten used to all of the differences and have had a blast riding around the city. I have found a really cool bike shop that let me tinker with my bike. Super nice guys that let me have some old used parts and let me use their tools and work stand. (Much thanks to Ian). In case you were wondering what I had to to my bike; I took off my big chain ring and replaced it with my middle chain ring and then put a smaller chain ring in the middle. Its actually not much smaller and looks funny as hell but it works. I had put a 22 tooth chain ring on the smallest of my triple. this caused my big chain ring (52 tooth bio pace) to rub my derailleur. Just too much of a range. So now much to my delight I have no rubbing and a most absurd crank setup. A 42 tooth bio pace, a 39 tooth and a 22 tooth. Its so awesome. But it gets me up the hills and I am in no race anytime soon.
Yesterday I went out and gathered some goodies for the trip. Some fingerless gloves (ruby chewed mine up), gas for my stove, and some climbing shoes. The climbing shoes were a bit random but it leads me to my next topic. I want to have no regrets on the trip. New Zealand is place where there are lots of different things to do. Tons and tons of outdoor activities. I want to try as many things as possible. I want to experience as many new things as possible. I have done a lot of different things in my life and have loved some and have not been interested in some. Its a trip to step outside of my box. To do things I would never have done before. I want to rock climb, to go white water rafting, to skydive, to bungy jump, to zorb, to go canyoning, to go sledging, do some more amazing hikes etc. I want to do as much as I possibly can. Who knows I might not like any of these things, but I want to be able to say I tried them out. I want to experience as many firsts as I can. I am far beyond my normal comfort zone and it feels awesome.

Some more photos

2009-01-25T16:21:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-21T01:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T00:50:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-17T13:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

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!

Sarah Eats an Orange

2008-12-28T10:52:00.001-08:00

Orange with a little bit of awesome sauce on top!

Playing with new camera and fisheye

2008-12-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

Click on an image for a larger view.

Nikon D 60

AF-S Nikkor 18-55 VR w/ opteka 0.20x superwide fisheye

This is the first time Ive ever messed with a digital slr so its going to take some time getting used to. lots of menus and options.

Bulding Ramps Today

2008-12-12T04:47:00.000-08:00

Well I'm about to ride my bicycle over the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. On the other side I am helping put together Jimmy's ramp from Azalea festival. 40' wide 6' tall with two 8' extensions. It is for the contest redbull is throwing on the deck of the battleship. You can check out more info HERE.

Explanation of sorts

2008-12-10T16:02:00.001-08:00

Well, everyone that I skate with asks me the same question when I'm telling the I'm going to New Zealand. I guess that I should precede this post with an explanation of another kind. I am going to New Zealand for three months starting in January. The first month I will be hiking around the south island with my parents. We are then flying back to Auckland and spending five days together. They are then leaving and my girlfriend Sarah is flying over. For the next two months we will be riding bikes around and camping trying to see as much of the country as possible and do as many things as we can afford.
With that said I can finally explain the previous question that I started to tell you about. Everyone always asks me if I'm bringing my skate board. Actually its more of a rhetorical question, like; "your bringing your board, right." Well No. I am not. I have lots of reasons why I want to and lots of more logical reasons why I'm not going to. First of all our means of transportation is going to bicycles. Bicycles require healthy bodies. I personally cannot skate at say 50%. Its 110% every time. I'm not saying I'm a bad ass or anything, its more along the lines that I cant have fun if I try to hold my self back. I've said for a long time that if your not getting hurt, than your not skating hard enough. I cant get hurt over there. Not this trip at least. Who knows maybe I'll go back one day solely to skate or hell, maybe I'll move there. You never know. Ive got plenty of stuff to skate here and my friends are here. I'd rather skate with my friends anyway. Next is space. We are cramming for space as it is without worrying about carrying boards. Sure it could be done but its not worth the hassle for me. Last and not least, Sarah doesn't skate. She has spent allot her her hard earned money to go on this trip with me and I want everything we do to be together. I would feel bad if I made her sit on the sidelines and watch me skate in every town we came across that had a park in it.

With all those good reasons said, This will be the longest period since getting sober that I will be off of my board. I have used it as a means of taking out my anger, frustration, and all sorts of other emotional road blocks. I'm pretty positive however, that while we are in New Zealand I'm not going to have that much to really worry about.
damn, I cannot wait!

Wilmington to Virginia Beach on Bikes

2008-12-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

This past thanksgiving break my lovely lady Sarah and I rode our bicycles to Virginia beach from Wilmington. The total trip was about 300 miles. 297 to be exact. It took of fives days total to get there and it was five of the greatest days ever. We had really good weather besides the cold and one day was really windy. I'll probably come back later and post more pictures and details but for now here are some pictures and a synopsis of the trip. One of the days I will make a map solely for the purpose of putting on here so I can show all my fans the route that we took. I do plan on telling you what route we took, but it is so much easier to just give you a map and say; look, here, that is how we went. But, alas, I am not going to give you map just yet so your going to have to use your imagination. Or better yet you could go to google maps or some other map service and look it up and it will be alot clearer. I still think imagination is the best way to go. We had several battles with warlocks along the way and none of those will show up on google maps so you would be getting robbed by not using you imagination. Warlocks are terrible creatures. They are constantly drooling pink fuzz, and are relentless with their attacks.. More on that later..........

back on topic

Pictured above is two lovely people getting ready to leave Wilmington. This picture w
as taken by someone else. I am not going to name them because I have not received permission from them to post their name all across the internet. I don't know why they would care but who knows. some people are weird about stuff like that. In this picture we have no idea what we are getting ourselves into.

This picture was taken way early on the second day of our trip. We found an abandoned building in Swansboro and set up camp behind it. It was the coldest night in November in Swansboro ever in recorded history. (it was cold) . we rode 71 miles the first day to get there.

This is the morning of our second day. Brutally cold but beautiful day. On our way to the cedar island-ocacroke ferry from Swansboro (map tip)

Shortly after this photo was taken, Sarah was grabbed by three large warlocks and taken into their cave. Some how I didn't get any photos but I was able to retrieve her using the force.

We found The shortest bike route ever.... and subsequently murdered it. It might have been a block and a half. We got all excited at the beginning of it but were let down shortly there after. It was located on the outskirts of Morehead city.

After we made it through Morehead city, we battle a river dragon, and then ate lunch in Beaufort. We then made our way through some back roads all the way to cedar island. Home of the not so famous cedar island ferry. The above picture is on top of the bridge to cedar island. Whole lot of nothing around. We were successful in our trip to ferry and were able to catch the last ferry to Ocracoke. It was well past dark by the time we arrived in Ocacroke (I'm not sure how to spell this so I plan to try and spell it every way possible at least once.) There are no abandoned buildings or anything of the sort there so we were forced to rent a campsite. We rode another 70 miles that day bringing our total to 141. The first two days we were averaging around 15 mph.

The next morning we woke early as usual and rode to the north end on the island where we caught the ferry to Hatteras island.

We had to wait for about 45 min for the next ferry so I made some delicious french press coffee while we waited. You can see our mugs up above. That picture was kindly taken by one of the ferry boat workers. After arriving on the shores of Hatteras, we made our way up the coast. Through the village, through Buxton, Waves and so on. Our goal was to make it to south nags heads and find a house to sleep under for the night. The ferry pushed us back a bit and we got caught riding over the Oregon inlet bridge after dark. I'm a man, so I don't get scared, but it was scary. Sarah didn't want to die. Either did I. Bridges suck. So do saber tooth teradactals. Well rest assured that we made it over the bridge just fine and were able to continue on to south nags head. It was supposed to rain that night so I wanted to find some protection in the form of a car port. We found one and we slept well.

The next morning we awoke to a cold wet windy mist. We each had a bagel and a half and a cup of wonderful coffee. We adorned our rain gear and started out. Holy moley was it windy. 20 mph wet wind right in our face. We moved really slow the fourth day but trudged along. We rode from south nags head to Currituck and caught the ferry over to Knotts Island.

This sweet huge ass hammock was on the side of the rode somewhere along 168. We stopped and took an hour long nap in it. It was the best nap Ive ever taken. After the nap we continued on towards the ferry. We stopped at a subway in the middle of nowhere and met the coolest guy of the trip. He was a true sandwich artist, and very genuinely nice guy. I told him that and Sarah tipped five bucks. I think we changed his life forever. We made it to the ferry in time and I called my cousin George to see if we could camp in his barn for the night. He told me No. He did tell me that we could sleep in a bed and take hot showers though. After much debating me and Sarah decided that it was a fair trade off.

We arrived at George's later that night after riding less than a mile from the ferry dock. It felt so good to get off the road. The wind beat us down and while we only rode 53 miles that day, we averaged 8 mph. Extremely slow. George and his wife Sue are my closest relatives. They have always been super kind to me and always a lot of fun to be around. When we got to their house we were immediately welcomed with open arms and brought inside. They showed us to the room that would be staying in, showed us the shower, and then brought us to the kitchen where we had coffee and tea while we waited for dinner. Sue cooked us some chicken and macaroni and cheese, and gave us some homemade BBQ sauce for the chicken. After eating bagels and dry ramen for four days this was a god send. We both took showers and quickly hit the hay. The next morning we awoke to more fresh coffee and orange juice. Once again Sue was cooking up up storm and we had bacon egg and cheese biscuits for breakfast.

This is me wondering why the hell we were leaving such wonderful hospitality. George and Sue are really too kind. I need to call and thank them once again. Well with our belly's full we began the final leg of our journey to Virginia beach. We had but just 30 some odd miles to go. The wind had died down a lot and we got on the road.

This is our shadows crossing the land bridge that connects Knotts Island to the Mainland of Virginia. Knotts island is mostly in North Carolina but the northern tip sticks up into Virginia. At the end of the land bridge you enter into Virginia and subsequently Virginia Beach.

Well We made it to Virginia Beach as the pictures show, but we still Had another 25 miles to my parents house. We made it safe and in plenty of time to eat lots of turkey. The next four days were spent on the couch eating five to six times a day. My parents are amazing and my mom has the most ridiculously stocked kitchen ever. Mom and Dad: me and Sarah cant thank you enough for everything. You rule.

Well the trip was a huge success and was an amazing experience. Sarah is the best travel partner ever. It gave a little idea of what its going to be like being on a bike for two months in New Zealand together. Cant wait for that to happen. If anyone actually reads this....I LOVE YOU..........hopefully i know you because i don't say I love you to strangers. Forrest Gump would not approve of such behavior.

Who the Hell Knows

2008-12-06T23:14:00.000-08:00

Well Here it goes. I having been wanting to start blogging my life for sometime now. I am always doing things that I myself find rather interesting. I actually find my daily activities alot more than interesting. I love my life, and I know that sounds lame, but I do. I have awsome friends, an amazing girlfriend and two jobs that all fill me countless laughs and smiles. I try to travel as much as I can and am constantly trying to get out. I plan to use this blog not only to let people into to my world, but to also preserve it for myself. There are so many memories that we have that are so easily lost to time. I want to be able to have something to look back upon and keep remembering my smiles.

Sob story shit out of the way.

I'll warn you. I ramble when I type, and constantly jump to topics out of left field. Deal with it. You can send my webmaster an email if you like. No I dont have a webmaster. You can send me emails if you like. It doesn't have to be about anything really, you can just send me an email about the weather. I like getting emails. Actually send me some funny shit about unicorns. That is your job now. go do it

*edit: WOW, I read the first paragraph and its pretty funny. It sounds like I am having to explain my blog to a class or something. I didn't mean any of that. Well actually I meant all of it but dont tell anyone. Sorry if you actually read that. Dont do it anymore.