the south south island

Care to hear a story about the island that is even more south than the South Island? No? Well too bad. About 2 weeks ago, a few friends and I headed down to Stewart Island to do a bit of tramping (hiking). You see, Stewart Island is the somewhat large island below the South Island of New Zealand and it is one of those must see places if you are staying in NZ for an extended period of time. What better way to celebrate the end of classes than heading on down to the lovely island? Anywho, let us begin.

I guess it was a tuesday when Megan, Miguel and I walked to the south side of Dunedin to start our hitchhiking journey southward. Hitching seemed to be the best and cheapest way to get down there, so we gave it a shot. First dude to pick us up was this real nice hillbilly from the hills outside of Dunedin. He referred to himself as a hillbilly, so he wouldn't be offended by this term. His name was Ryan, by the way. So Ryan told us how he just lives alone on 50 acres of land with his dogs and hunts and goes fishing whenever he desires. His work allows for 2 days on and 2 days off, so he gets to spend heaps of time doing what he wants. Overall, he really came off as a guy who just loves New Zealand and loves doing what he does. Turns out, he has traveled all over Europe but always finds himself coming back to NZ. I can understand why, its pretty super duper down here. So, Ryan dropped us off about an hour down the road and we got picked up by a van full of college students on a field trip. It was pretty funny to just have 7 polytechnic school students give us a bit of a lift down the road. After they dropped us off, we got picked up by this little Asian man who did not speak English very well, despite living in NZ for the past 15 years. Miguel, sitting in the front seat, tried chatting it up with the man but it proved to be a somewhat difficult task. Meanwhile, Megan was passed out asleep and I was sweltering in the back seat. It was a pretty hot day, and our Asian man didn't realise til more than halfway through that it was quite warm in the car and figured out he forgot to turn on the AC. Oopsies. After a couple hours, we eventually rolled into Invercargill and then managed to convince the Asian fellow to take us the extra 20 minutes to the little town of Bluff, where we could get the ferry to Stewart Island. We arrived in Bluff about 3 minutes after the last ferry to the island departed for the day. Ugh we were so close! Megan, Miguel and I then posted up in a bar that doubled as a hotel for the night and just hung out til the morning. Just a note, there isn't too much going on in the little town of Bluff. Not much at all.

The next morning we woke up early, ate some breakfast and caught the early ferry out to Stewart. Once we got there, the three of us just hung around the little town and waited for our other group of friends, who had made it to the island the night before and spent the morning on another small island. They eventually got back and we all set out on our trip. The first day, our crew comprised of Noah, Michelle, Jake, Jackie, Megan, Miguel and myself. The track that most of us would be doing was the Rakiura Track, whick is one of the 7 Great Walks of New Zealand. I say most of us because after the first day, Noah and Michelle broke away from the pack to do another track that was 9 days instead of the 3 days and 2 nights Rakiura. So we all hiked along the trail through the woods for a few hours and saw all sorts of sweet trees and little cove type deals with not another soul around. Seriously, our first day of the hike we did not see anyone else. At one point we decided to take a little rest and check out a small beach. Miguel wandered around a corner and after a second or 2 jumped back and scurried around the corner in an act of surprise. Turned out, this large thing he thought was a rock ended up being a sea lion that caught him by surprise. This big fella had just been hanging out and blending in when Miguel walked by. Pretty funny to see his reaction when he noticed there was sea lion a short distance away.

A couple hours of hiking after the sea lion encounter, we made it to the North Arms Hut, the place we would be posting up for the night. The hut was a pretty schweet set up. It was right by this little cove and beach with a nice view of the water. Also, the hut was huge with bunk beds that were capable of sleeping like 24 people, and we had the whole place to ourselves for the night. We cooked up some dinner and just hung out for a bit before turning in for the night. We were all pretty pooped from the days walk and went to bed pretty early.

The next morning we all slowly awoke from our slumbers and started making breakfast and getting ready to head out for the day. As we headed out, the 7 of us brought it in for a team on 3 and separated on our respective trails. Noah and Michelle went left to begin their longer journey while Megan, Jake, Miguel, Jackie and I continued along the Rakiura Track. That day's hike proved to be slightly more difficult than the prior day for the soul reason that it was a lot of uphill. It was a really great trail, just a lot of uphill. Also, that day involved a lot more mud than the day before it, but that was cool with us. Trying to maneuver around the boggy trail made things a little more interesting at times. It was kinda like solving a puzzle and picking out the best way to go. I think all of us fell victim to the mud at some point or another, but only one or two peeps had a leg sink in up to the knee. Yummy.

After a couple hours of walking, we came across a sweet extension bridge that led us across a creek. This thing was pretty darn cool. It was this old rickety chain link fence type material and it was pretty fun to wander across. Load capacity: one person at a time. Walking across it you could make it swing and bounce around in a fashion that probably wasn't the safest, but still fun to do. Not too long after this suspension bridge, we came across another one that was slightly smaller, but still really cool. Also at this second bridge were the first people we had seen along the track. We exchanged hellos, took their picture and each party continued on their way. Our way only really involved crossing the bridge because once we got to the other side we found a perfect spot along the creek to post up and eat some lunch. It was right along a bend in the flow of things and part was shaded by trees while the rest was out in the glorious sunshine. We all had a nice lunch break and thoroughly enjoyed our location. Before we departed, Megan did a bit of monkeying around a tree limb that stretched over the water and Miguel and I decided to take a dip in the stream. Miguel calmly did a shallow dive type thing, like you would into a wave or something, into the deeper part of the stream while I, well kinda completely stumbled on the rocks in my bare feet and just flopped/fell into the cold water. Boy was that water chilly. It was so nice to get in though, nice and refreshing.

Once we dried off a bit, we continued on our way to finish out the journey to the hut we would be spending the second night. We walked along this one strip of the track that seemed like a never ending pathway through some super duper cool small trees and such. It wasn't that it took a real long time to walk this portion, it just had the feel of a track that never ended. It was really nice. A little bit later, we made it to the coastline and made our way down to the beach instead of following the trail the remaining duration of the walk. We mozied along the sand for a while and saw some really sweet water running along the golden sand. The sand actually gave off a goldish shine because of a certain type of element in it. I can't for the life of me remember what it was, but it was still cool none the less. A short while later we made it to the Port Williams hut where we found some other peeps. There were about 7 other people that would be sharing the hut with us that night. The Port Williams hut was in an even cooler location than the North Arms hut the night before. This hut was in a bit of a bay, and it was like 50 yards from the water. Sand flies were kind of a pain, but not a huge deal. A couple of us ended up jumping in the water there too, which proved to be a little chillier than earlier in the day because the sun had started going down. We then made some dinner and hung out for a few hours playing cards until it got dark and we decided to head into the woods to try and spot some kiwi birds.

We all suited up, grabbed our headlights and wandered into the darkness of the woods. A little while in, Jake, Jackie and Megan headed back to the hut cause they were getting cold and tired and the track was sorta muddy for the darkness. Miguel and I posted up in one spot for a bit, turned our lights off and listened to the forest, trying to make out sounds of kiwis running about. We sat in our location for about 20 or 30 minutes before moving to another location a little ways back down the path. Again, we turned off our lights and just sat listening and looking into the darkness, trying to see an elusive kiwi. This spot too turned out to be an unsuccessful one, so we headed out of the woods and went to the beach to see if any happened to be running about in the moonlight. Again, no dice. At this point I was getting pretty cold in my flannel and shorts, so I decided to go to bed for the night while Miguel stayed out a bit longer to continue the search. Turns out, Miguel's search was very successful. We woke up the next morning and he told us that he managed to find a few during his journey the night before. He said they had really heavy footsteps and were about the size of a small dog that came halfway up your calf. Pretty big little buggers. I was a bit bummed I missed out on the beasts, but there was no way I was gonna make it as long as he did in his search.

When we woke up the next morning, we were greeted with yet another beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was nice and warm. We all made some breakfast, wrangled up our stuff and headed on out to take on the final leg of the journey. The beginning of the walk took us through the portion of forest that we skipped the day before, and it was really schweet. Lots of big trees, crazy moss and some weird ass mushrooms. Overall, a very cool portion of the forest. After about an hour or so of walking, we got the the biggest suspension bridge of the journey. This one was fairly new and was capable of holding 10 people instead of just one. It was in a really cool location too because it was right along a bay and you could look out to the ocean while on it. On the other side of the bridge there was a nice long stretch of beach that we decided to chill on for a bit. We sat around for a few minutes and then Miguel, Megan and myself all went for a swim in the water. Again, it was very chilly, but we all stayed out there for a few minutes enduring the coldness and wandering about in the water. It was really clear so it was cool to check out the sandy bottom. Swim completed, the five of us explored the remainder of the beach for a bit before redressing and continuing our day's mission.

After the beach stop, our walk stayed on the coastline foe the remainder of the trip. It was cool going up and down along the cliff/coast and getting to look out at the water and other parts of Stewart Island for the whole day. A short time after our swim, we saw 2 penguins kickin it on some rocks in the sun a little ways down from the trail we were on. They knew what was up, taking advantage of the sunshine. About an hour or so after that, we stumbled upon yet another sweet bay and beach set up. This was going to be our lunch spot. I found a couple of branches that provided a pretty nice chair and just sat for a bit while eating my sandwich. Then, Miguel and I headed out to this point at the end of the beach where there were some cool rocks that we could check out the ocean on. All around the rocks there was crazy bull kelp that sucked it to any rocky surface it could find. That stuff gets a serious grip and you really have to give it a good yank in order to detach it.

Lunch and kelp time over, it was time to continue onwards towards town and the end of the Rakiura because Jake and Jackie were trying to catch the 3:00 ferry back to Bluff. During the very final stretch of the coast, we hit a couple of really pretty locations. On of which is one of my favorite spots in NZ because you can see a large part of Stewart Island's beach as well as mountains and then look out into the ocean. Another cool spot looked down a hill through some skinny trees and into a cove with a little island about 70 yards away from the shore. Once we got to the end of the hiking trail, we had a few kms to walk along a road and then along a pretty large bay before we made it to the main little town of Oban where we waited for the ferry. Jake and Jackie had scurried ahead of Megan, Miguel and I at one point so they could catch the earlier boat, so the remaining three of us just hung out in Oban and relaxed until the 6:00 ferry. It was a good time to just sit and think about the whole walk we had just done and try and preserve a little bit of energy because all the walking we did wore us out.

Eventually the time to take the ferry back to the mainland rolled around and we scooted on back to Bluff where we managed to hitch back to Invercargill. Jake and Jackie were already well on their way home to Dunedin but it was a bit late for Miguel, Megan and I to start hitching back, so we decided to spend the night in a backpackers. The place we stayed was called Sparky's, and it was owned by a very eccentric little man named Sparky. Sparky never really had the chance to travel the world so he likes having different people from all over the world come to him. He was great dude and had a very positive outlook on life. He also had an obsession with the movie The World's Fastest Indian, which is about this dude, Burt Munro, who is from Invercargill and has a dream of racing his old motorcycle at the salt flats in Utah to break a land speed record. I saw the movie last summer and its quite good, so you may want to check it out. Anywho, stuff situated at Sparky's, the three of us walked into town to get some dinner. Indian. Good schtuff. We then walked back, Miguel passed out instantaneously and Megan and I played some cards before joining Miguel in the Egyptian room because the walls are painted with pretty elaborate Egyptian themed designs. It was pretty unique and cool.

We woke up bright and early the next morning to finish out the journey back to Dunedin. We walked to the edge of town and got a ride pretty quickly from this nice dude heading up to Gore. He was a cool guy, but the place he dropped us off, not so cool. Remember I mentioned Gore before and how it is the country music capital of NZ? Yeah, well it also sucks for hitchhiking. We tried getting a ride for like 2 and a half hours. It was miserable. At one point, Megan and I walked back into town to see if there was a bus that could take us to Dunedin. Nope. Meanwhile, Miguel remained in our hitching spot and eventually got picked up. Seeing as there was no bus, Megan and I wandered to the outskirts of town once again and stuck the thumbs out. This time, we got picked up very quickly. This old, sweet ass car was driving down the road and pulled over to give us a ride. Schweet deal. It was a husband and wife with their 8 or 9 year old son heading up towards Dunedin for a couple days. Awesome. The car was a 1958 Ford Fairlane and the driver's seat was on the left side of the car like back in the states. And, the speedometer was in mph instead of kmph. All in all it was a bomb.com car, and we were more than happy to get a ride from them. The two of us just hung out with the family for a couple hours before they had to drop us off about 20 minutes outside of Dunedin. We thanked them for the cool ride and waited to get picked up for the final sprint home. It didn't take long for some dude from South America to pick us up and take us into Dunedin. He was a nice enough guy but did not have too much to say. I just learned that he moved to NZ about 3 years ago cause his brother had been living here. Anywho, he was nice and he got us home after a long day of traveling.

All in all, the trip to Stewart Island was pretty incredible. We got to meet some interesting people in our hitchhiking and got to check out a very beautiful and fairly undeveloped part of New Zealand. We only got to see a relatively small portion of Stewart Island, so I can only imagine how pretty the rest of it is. Also, it was the first time I had ever done an over night hike, and I really enjoyed it. Its nice to just wander around nature for a few days with some of your friends. Then again, its always nice to just wander around nature, regardless of the time period. Well thats about it for now I spose. I will be adding pictures of the Stewart Island excursion in a couple of days so be sure to check them out. Hope all is going well back in the states. I am now down to my last few weeks down here before heading home and I'm halfway done my exams: 2 down with 2 to go over the next couple of weeks. So long my friends!

jumping off schtuff

Jump Numero Uno

Second Time Around

Yay Brittany!

wild and wonky

The only way I can describe this past weekend is by using the phrase: wild and wonky. Hello all, and welcome back. I'm being serious, my weekend was quite wild and wonky. The majority of our story takes place in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. Remember I told you about the knights and steads and such? And how that weekend was spent in Queenstown? Yeah, well I forgot to mention the fact that it is literally the adventure capital of the world. But anyway, lets begin.

Thursday morning, I woke up at approximately 4:50 am to go skiing with Trevor and Greg. I woke up, got my stuff together, they picked me up at 5:35 and we were on the road out of town by 5:50. Nice and early start to the day. Along the road, we got to see a pretty schweet sunrise. Trevor was driving at the time so I just gazed at the colours as I slowly began to fall back to sleep. When I woke up from my little nap, I was in a much different location. Waking up, I found we were pulled over at the side of the road engulfed in some seriously thick and awesome fog. It wasn't sketchy fog, like at night when you can't see anything, but it was still super thick and you couldn't see very far ahead of you. I took over driving at this point so Trevor could sleep, and it was heaps of fun driving through the bright fog and then eventually out into the morning sunshine. The drive to Queenstown and Wanaka is so pretty and I love every opportunity we get to drive there. Then again, everywhere you drive in this country is pretty fantastic. Anywho, a couple hours later, we made it to Queenstown and scooted down the road a little further to The Remarkables. The Remarkables is the name of the ski field we went to, and the access road was basically up the side of a ginormous cliff. The mountain/cliff thing is really impressive, and its crazy how they weave a road up and around it to get you up to the very top bowl type location where the skiing is had.

So after driving up the super cool road, we made it to the base of the ski field and started getting our shat together. I had to rent some skis and they hooked me up with some awesome, brand new skis. Dope sauce. The three of us then headed out to the lift to start getting some laps in. By the way, the day was shaping out to be absolutely gorgeous. I started out with a long sleeve t-shirt, a short sleeve t-shirt and a light sweatshirt on. Later in the morning I would ditch the sweatshirt because it was just so warm and sunny out there. Righto. We started doing some runs through this little park and had a grand old time just getting warmed up on a couple of the small jumps and various other features. I don't typically ride park so it was fun to get out there and just basically do warm park runs for the day. Its no fun to do jumps and such in the freezing cold cause the landings are quite unforgiving on those days.

After a handful of runs through the small park, we headed up another lift to get to the bigger park to have a little more fun and enjoyment. The jump line in the upper park proved to be a lot of fun. The jumps were really smooth and heaps of fun to just launch off in a big group of us. The last 2 runs of the day were especially fun because at that point, we had a group of 5 heading down the park all at once and hitting the jumps in quick succession. Good times were definitely had on that lovely day of spring skiing. Trevor, Greg and I then loaded up our vehicle once more and started the drive home. Greg drove the first half and I took over to finish up the journey and arrive in Dunedin.

The next day proved to be another somewhat warm day. It wasn't as sunny as the previous day, but still a lovely day. A bunch of us went down the the Botanical Gardens to play some football and throw a frisbee around. We also ended up wandering through the gardens for a little bit before dinner time rolled around and it started to rain a little bit. Overall, Friday wasn't too wild and wonky, but it was a very nice and relaxing day for sure.

Saturday morning a bunch of peeps woke up somewhat early to take a trip down the farmer's market at the train station. On the way I made a pit stop at the library to print out a couple of vouchers. One was for a car rental that we were gonna be picking up that morning, and one for something a little extra schweet, which I will be getting to later on. Right. The farmer's market was once again enjoyable to walk around and check everything out. I only got a roll thing from one of the bakery stands, but it was a scrumptious roll indeed. A few of us then headed to a car rental place to get ourselves a car for the weekend journey ahead. We got hooked up with a pretty nice Toyota and went back to Queen Street to get all our stuff ready to go. Brittany, Michelle, Megan and I all put our stuff in the car and went to pick up Trevor, Greg, Louise and J-Bo. The guys got in our stinky car as the girls settled into their really nice rental, and we hit the road to begin the trip back to Queenstown.

The drive proved to be somewhat uneventful, but beautiful as always. At one point we saw a little bit of freaky cow action, which was hysterical to see. Eventually we made it back to Queenstown and found a parking spot for the evening so we could go and seek out a hostel. We weren't about to set up a tent in the middle of a rugby field and then get invited by a bunch of kind folks to crash on their floor for the night. We found a pretty cool hostel, posted up our stuff for the evening and went across the street to get some dinner at Ferg Burger, this famous burger place in Queenstown. These burgers were seriously massive. Almost too big. They were really tasty and delicious, but unnecessarily large. We were all beyond satisfied for the time being and needed to take a little walk along the lake to settle our stomachs a bit before going out that night. It ended up being a fun night for all, and we didn't have to set up a tent in the cold in the middle of the night, so that was quite nice.

Sunday morning! Where the real fun begins. Alright, so the whole purpose of going to Queenstown was really to do a little bit of jumping. Bungee jumping that is. Hells yeah. We woke up to some rain, which was kinda wack but kinda cool at the same time. Jumping in the rain could potentially be a lot of fun. Racing the rain drops down and such. Anyways, Megan, Brittany, Michelle and I roll bounced on over the the bungee building to check in for our excursion. We signed in, got some schtuff written on our hands and waited for the time to depart on the shuttle to the ump site. I can't tell you how pumped and excited I was to get going. I had been waiting to bungee jump or sky dive for so long, so it Sunday was a glorious day for me.

We eventually loaded up onto the bus with some other fellow jumpers. Team Malaysia. They were kinda silly and super nervous it appeared. Know who else was real nervous? Brittany. I have never seen a person turn the different shades that she did on that fine day.

Onwards I say. After about a 45 minute drive, we got to the jump and swing location. I say swing because in the same valley, they have the worlds largest bungee style swing thing. Pretty cool, but we were headed for the Nevis, a 134 meter bungee jump. Translation: approximately 440 feet. Cool beans! We all got our harnesses on our heads and headed out to a little look out point where we could see the suspended contraption we would be jumping out of. Just before that, we got weighed and situated in a jumping order. I was destined to go second! I wanted desperately to go first, but one of Team Malaysia's members was a kilogram heavier than me, bastard. Unimportant though, because we were about to launch ourselves off a platform thingy.

The three girls and I then got onto the little shuttle that goes out to the jumping location with one of the workers. He then says to us: "know what my favorite part of this shuttle is? The floor." We looked down and the floor was just a grate so you could see out the bottom. Really schweet if you ask me, but you can bet there were some shrills that came from our companions. I spit over the edge to see how long it took to reach the bottom. It was quite some time before that little white dot struck the ground. Like, a really, really long time. Awesomeness was about to ensue.

We arrived at the jump gondola thing and got situated with ankle straps to attach us to the cord. I then walked over to the seat to get strapped in and ready to go. I can't begin to explain how pumped I was to do this. In fact, its hard to even begin trying to write about what was about to happen. I'll do my best. One of the worker dudes got me all situated and asked if I was ready to go. What kind of question was that? Of course man. We shuffled over to the edge of the suspended building and looked over the edge as he dropped a bit of slack over the edge. As Trevor would say, oh yeah buddy. I gave the camera a little thumbs up and a smile, and it was time to go. Jumper brotha counted down from 3 and I leapt off the edge into a big swan dive. I then started rushing towards the ground, just falling and falling for quite some time. I couldn't believe how cool of a feeling it was. Tingling all over my body as I see the ground getting closer. I eventually reached the extent of the cord and got pulled back up a bit by the recoil. At this point my head was just rushing with ecstasy. The cord did a couple more bounces and I reached up to release my feet so I could get pulled up in a seated position. On the way up, I just laid back and looked around, thinking about what I just did.

Once at the top, the guys pulled me in and unhooked me from the bungee contraption. I reconvened with Megan and Brittany as we watched Michelle get situated with the cord and led to the edge. She had this big, goofy, nervous grin on her face as she looked over at us to take a picture. The dude then counted down and she was off the ledge. Once she got back to the top, she was all smiles and laughing and such. One compadre down that had a great time. Next up, Megan.

Megan had a similar nervous grin on her face after she got set up with the bungee cord and such. She got shimmied over to the edge, gave us a final look and took a dive. On the way down, we all heard her screams load and clear through the valley. Even when she was at the very bottom, everyone could clearly hear her. She got pulled up and, like Michelle, had a big grin on her face and was laughing. Brittany's turn.

Now Brittany had a look of sheer terror on her face when she got strapped up and such. We really didn't know if she was going to jump. The dude tried walking her to the edge, but she kinda snapped at him, telling him to wait just a minute. She did however make the shimmy over to the edge and gave us this absolutely terrified look. Oh dear Brittany. She leapt off the edge and took the plunge. When she got pulled back up, she still had a look of terror on her face, but it was terror mixed with happiness. We were all very proud of her for making the jump, considering she told us she almost didn't go through with it. Good on you, Brittany.

Now, my first thought as I got to the top was: I need to do that again. Seriously, I really wanted to go another time. As one of the dudes was taking my ankle straps off, I said I'd really like to go a second time. He told his buddies, radioed inside to find out the cost, told me, and it was game on. I asked if he had any suggestions for a different kind of jump this time. He told us about this one called the bullet. This particular jump involved slowly letting yourself fall/roll over the edge and then pushing off the ledge, to give yourself a little more speed. And, while doing so, you hold onto the back of your leg straps so you are in more of a bullet shape. Sweet deal. I got all situated once again and shimmied over to the edge. The worker pointed at a bush/tree way down on the ground and said aim for that. Alright, lets give it a shot. 3. 2. 1. Time to go again. I leaned forward and let gravity start to take over, then pushed off the platform aiming for the third tree. On the way down, I was going noticeably faster than my first jump. Seriously. Pushing off and keeping in a straight, bullet shape, you go a hell of a lot faster. I got to the very end of the bungee-ness and started the recoiling once again. Holy moses was that a fast ride. I couldn't help but let out a yell of excitement as I went down. After 2 bounces I released my feet once again and just kinda chilled while waiting to get pulled up. Again, I just lounged and observed my surroundings. When I got to the top, it was just about Michelle and Megan's turns for round 2.

Both girls did the bullet as well. Again, Michelle had a big nervous grin on her face and Megan's screams could be heard by everyone in the Southern Hemisphere. They both were so glad they chose to do it again as well, and we all gathered round to take a group picture before departing the jump zone. The four of us rode the shuttle thing back to land, leaving all the jump workers behind. On the ride back, the wind started picking up and clouds started rolling in once again. We got so lucky having such nice weather for when we did our jumps. The bungee gods must have been smiling upon us. Back in the building, we all got our pictures and videos, and hopped back onto the bus into town. We were still all amped up on what we had just done, and the ride back to town went very quickly.

Once in town, we got some Mexican food for lunch, Michelle and I tried some of this salsa stuff they had that was so hot it was quite unpleasant. Anywho, we had a good lunch, returned to the car, got Michelle's stuff (she was catching a bus to Milford Sound the next morn), bid goodbye to Michelle got in the car to head on home. Brittany passed out for most of the ride and Megan for about half as I drove us back home to Dunedin, ending an awesome that was quite wild and wonky.

Sorry for taking so long to post about this, but I really should have another one up for you within a matter of days! Also, the internet is, once again, being a little stink right now, so pictures will follow soon. Peace homies.

wild and wonky

more pics from cookie

take a poo

Greetings earthlings. First off, I would like to address my excitement to be done with school work until exams! Thats right, I handed in my last assignment the other day, and now I don't really have any work until my first final on the 20th of October. Schweet stuff. You see, exams here are spread out over the course of a month. I have 4 weeks in a row with one exam a week, which is kinda crappy, but at least I'll have plenty of time to prepare. Anywho, lets discuss what is much more interesting than exams. This past weekend.

So, it all began around 4pm on friday or something like that. Megan, Brittany, Allie, Emily(aka Sesno), John, Michael, Gabe and myself loaded into the 8 person minivan we rented for the weekend with the intention of heading up to Mt. Cook. Mt. Cook is the biggest mountain in New Zealand and we wanted to check it out and do a little hike right around there. So the journey began. We headed up the coast along highway 1 and make a quick stop at Shag Point. There wasn't any particular reason we stopped there, other than the fact that it was called Shag Point and a break was nice. Well, we get out of the car and check out this beautiful coastline point thing. Down on the rocks there was a seal just soaking up some rays. This was the first seal I've seen in this country. Plenty of sea lions but seals were the one marine animal that I hadn't seen. We didn't torment this dude and let him continue enjoying the sunshine as we made our way to this little cove thing. In the cove, we found another seal just enjoying the warm sunlight as well as this old abandon boat hanger thing. It was kinda creepy inside cause there was this old rusted out boat just chillin there along with a bunch of old pieces of metal and such. Cool beans but it definitely would have been a creepy place at night. We then got back in the mother ship and continued our journey.

About an hour or so later, we made another stop to get some groceries for the weekend. Our food was gonna include chili, pasta, pb&j, eggs and some snack foods. Good stuff. It was then time to drive the remaining few hours to the general Mt. Cook area. Eventually, we got to this town called Tekapo, which was right on Lake Tekapo. We like to refer to it as take-a-poo. Righto. We drove around town for a little bit looking for a campsite to set up shop for the evening. One campsite was kind of a pain in the ass to get to because you had to go to an office and get a code or something like that, so we just left to try and find our own place. So we drove down this dark road to the middle of nowhere and found a place right by the lake to camp. We parked the mother ship right off the side of the road and started making dinner. We only had a tiny little stove thing and one pot, so we opened a bunch of beans, sauce and rice and dumped them on in to make some chili while a couple guys set up the tent. Speaking of the tent, we brought 2, but as it turned out, the one we borrowed from a kiwi host in our complex did not have any poles. Oops. Not a big deal though, the 4 person tent I rented from Unipol was huge. We then got down to eating some dinner. The chili actually turned out to be pretty good and everyone was satisfied and got ready to go to bed. 6 of us slept in the tent that night while Gabe and John slept out on the beach.

We woke up in the morning to an absolutely beautiful day and a dope location. We knew we were right by a lake the night before, but we had no idea of the rest of our surroundings. There was absolutely nothing around. Behind us there were some hills and mountains, and across the lake there were some even bigger mountains. It was really a perfect location. We then packed up our schtuff and got into the mother ship so we could meander on down the road to get to Mt. Cook. Along the way, we decided to take a break and get out of the van for a bit of a stretch and wander about. We pulled over next to this little stream that led out of some mountains called Fred's Stream. The water in Fred's Stream was really fresh, crisp and cold. While we were wandering along the creek bed, Gabe jumped in and said it was the coldest water he had ever been in. I wasn't about to join cause I didn't feel like getting all wet at the moment. That would come later. Anywho, we made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and had some lunch. For some reason, the girls decided it would be wise to use the handles of plastic spoons as knives to spread the goods. Didn't really understand the logic because it would have been much simpler to just use the actual spoon part. Not important though. After we munched a wee bit, it was back in the mother ship to get to Mt. Cook.

Shortly there after, we arrived at the base area for Mt. Cook and parked. The base area was this really nice resort type place that had a great view of the mountain and the surrounding valleys and other smaller mountains. We put some schtuff in my backpack, grabbed our cameras and headed towards the mountain. The resort thing had this trail that led all the way out to a lookout point that was pretty close to Mt. Cook with a glacial reserve of water down this big sort of bank. The weather that day was so clear and we had a great, close up view of Mt. Cook, and the glacial lakes were a really cool coloured blue/grey that resulted from the combination of glacier water and the rocks in the valley. Cool beans. We all soaked in the beauty of the place for a bit longer, and then headed back down the trail to another trail that would lead us up one of the neighbouring mountains of Mt. Cook.

At the bottom of the track, there was a sign that warned us of avalanche danger and that we should not proceed. Nonsense poopy pants. There wasn't any real danger that day, but I guess in the past couple of weeks there had been a lot of snow, so they were just letting us know. Righto. We started up the trail and were greeted by some steepness. Seriously, the trail we were taking got really steep out of nowhere, but it wasn't that big of a deal and we continued onwards. Eventually, we got up to this great little look out point with a huge rock to sit on and just observe our surroundings. We were situated about half way up the mountain and had a great view of the valley below and a direct view of Mt. Cook. It was a great place to just sit and hang out for a bit. We were gonna just stop there and then head back down, but a few of us decided to continue up the trail further.

Further up the trail, the views starting getting even better. As we got higher, there was just a lot more you could see. It was so beautiful and clear up there with absolutely nothing to obstruct your views in any direction. Along the way, we started to encounter a little bit of snow to walk through. At first, it was only a few inches deep so your foot might sink in a little but, but not too bad. Then, the snow started getting a little deeper, causing your leg to drop all the way down at some points where the snow was up to your knees. It was pretty cool. The snow was real fun to just walk around in, and it made the maneuvering upwards a little more difficult. Every once and a while, Sesno and I would hear Allie shriek from further down the path behind us. It was hard to tell if there actually was an issue or not because she shrieked at absolutely every instant her foot sank in the snow. Anywho, we eventually made it pretty high up on the mountain and decided not to go any further. The snow was getting a little deeper and there was still a decent way to go to get to the very top, despite the fact that we were pretty far up there. Sesno, Allie, Megan and myself convened on a big rock as we watched Gabe butt sled through some of the snow a little bit further up. Butt sledding done, Gabe joined us on the rock, and we all started to head back down and meet up with John, Michael and Brittany. Getting down the snow was a little trickier because you would start to slip and slide down the mountain a bit with not too much to hold onto. The five of us made it down safely though, and met up with the other three so we could head back to the mother ship.

Back in the van, we headed back towards lake take-a-poo so we could set up camp once again. We tried checking out that campsite we gave up on the night before to see how much it would cost. $18 a person!? Say what? Usually they just do a charge per tent, but these fools clearly did not know what was up. We all decided it would be a much better option to head on back to the place by the lake where we spent the previous night. What was even better about staying there a second night, it was still light out when we got there, so we got to set everything up in the daylight and catch a schweet sunset. Also, Megan and I decided it was a great opportunity to jump in lake take-a-poo. No one else wanted to join so we jumped in real quick during the camp setting up process. That water was quite chilly. Not as cold as the water in the Doubtful Sound, but still pretty cold. It was nice and refreshing to jump in though, and it made me feel a little cleaner after the hot and sweaty hiking earlier in the day. Once cleansed and dried, it was time to start building a fire. Gabe, John and I collected some wood and brought it down to the beach. Gabe set up a little circle for a fire pit and added some kindling to get the fire started. After a quick light of the lighter, fire! Huzzah! We got a good solid fire going and collected some more wood so we could keep it goin. Fire situated, we all sat around it as dinner cooked on the little stove thing. While we waited, Gabe cooked some pieces of vegiburger on a rock in the fire for everyone to snack on. Good stuff. The pasta was then ready to be eaten, and we each took a little bit of that. It wasn't quite as good as the chili the night before, but it wasn't bad.

A little while later, we were all just sitting around the fire when a car drove down the road and pulled over at our campsite. A couple peeps got a little nervous as to what was going on, but Gabe and myself told everyone to just relax and wait for them to leave. Sure enough, they left. Kinda weird that they pulled into the campsite, but no big deal. A little bit later though, that we think it was that same car came driving down the road again. This time, it was shining a spot light on the fields on the opposite side of the road as our campsite. I made a comment that they might have been hunting and using the light to try and see rabbits. They drove past our camp, and this time they didn't stop. About a hundred yards from our camp though, the car stopped and we heard a rifle shot. Rabbit hunting. That had to have been what it was because the fields here are littered with tons of rabbits that you can always see running around. Kinda funky to have these guys drive by and hunt, but they didn't bother us. We all just hung out by the fire for a while longer before we decided it was time to go to bed. This time, we squeezed all 8 of us inside the 4 person tent. Tight fit but everyone made it inside.

Next morning, Sunday, we were greeted by more gorgeous weather. We all mozied out of the tent and took in our surroundings once again. It was seriously such a beautiful campsite. We then started to pack up the tent as a couple of peeps began cooking some eggs for our breakfast. The eggs had a little remnants from the dinner the night before, but they turned out pretty well. A couple of us then decided to take another quick dip in the lake before hitting the road to head back down to Dunedin. The water was no warmer this fine morning. It was definitely a nice and refreshing wake up before having to get in the mother ship.

Back in the car, we started heading home and made a quick stop for some smoothies, coffee and icing Michael. A few hours later, we stopped at the Maoreki Boulders. These boulders are these big, round and super smooth rocks along one of the beaches on the east cost, about an hour or so north of Dunedin. I had been trying to get to these lovely rocks for quite some time, so I was very happy we decided to make a stop there. The Maoreki Boulders are very simple, but also very beautiful. Its pretty crazy how perfectly round and smooth they are. We all just climbed around on them for a while and John and I did a little hardcore parkour session on a few of them. One couple definitely thought I was crazy. I started running straight at this boulder, that was probably about 4 feet high or so, with the intention of jumping over it. This couple then kinda got in my way so it was like I was running directly at them. The guy kinda looked at me like what the hell is this hooligan about to do. I split the d and jumped over the rock, to which the 2 peeps apparently started cracking up. I didn't hear them laughing but John and Megan both said they did as they were walking away. Doesn't bother me a bit if people wanna laugh, I just enjoy myself. Anywho, we all headed back to the car to make some sandwiches for lunch before finishing the final leg of the journey. We befriended the Maoreki Boulders dog, named Havoc, and Gabe managed to get a hand shake out of the pooch. Havoc was a schweet dog. We then said goodbye to or new friend and headed home, concluding yet another awesome weekend on the South Island. My apologies on how long this took me to put up, but I've been real busy recently and the weather has been to nice to sit on a computer. This whole adventure now took place 2 weekends ago, so I'll be posting another one about this weekend's trip to Queenstown within the next day. So long!

And the internet is being funky so I'll add more pictures later.