unrealness abounds

Salutations my loyal and faithful peeps! It has been quite some time since my last post and I have missed you all dearly, so here is an update about my latest adventure. Hope you enjoy!

So, this past weekend, IFSA Butler had a tip organised for all us gangsters kickin it in Dunedin for the semester. Our destination: the iconic Doubtful Sound. We greeted our fine friend/bus driver Gerald and hit the road at precisely 5:01 pm on friday. The drive that lay ahead was something around 4 hours or so, so we all just settled in and conversed/slept/listened to some music. Along the way we made a pee stop in some town that I cannot remember, but there was this monument that informed me that I was in the country music capital of New Zealand. WOOOOO!!!!!!! Cause i just love country music oh so much. A much much too much. Can you smell the sarcasm burning? Anywho, we hopped back on the bus and continued our journey towards the town of Te Anau (pronunciation: tee ahh-now). Upon our arrival, we set up camp in the hostel. The room that I was located in was prime real-estate for building a fort. Reason being: there were 4 separate bunk beds. The possibilities were limitless. Unfortunately, we did not partake in a fort building extravaganza. I found out the next morning that a room with females did in fact make a fort though. Jealous.

Next morn! We all arose bright and early to have some breakfast. This included some toast, and more toast. Twas good though, and we all got on the bus to head to the first stop of the day, a bird sanctuary. We were given like a 40 minute tour of the place and saw some bizarre ass birds. One of the birds was named George. He was a big fat pigeon. He was amusing. But these other crazy green birds were very evasive when we tried taking pictures of them. I managed to snap a couple shots of the sneaky devils though.

After the bird sanctuary, we started making our way closer to the Doubtful Sound. Along the way, we stopped at this trail that led into the woods and over a river with a schweet suspension bridge. I have an affinity for suspension bridges, so this one was cool to check out. We then got back on the bus and headed to a little beach thingy to have some lunch. Not such a bad location to have some grub.

Stomachs satisfied, we got on the bus and made our way to the first boat we had to catch. We rolled up to the dock and got on the ferry type boat thang. This was the first of two boats we would be riding that day. Once we started moving, we headed up to the roof of the boat. It was super windy up there and the wind was whipping in our faces, but it was schweet to try and stand and fight the wind and little chucks of ice that hit you in the face. The ice didn't feel so good, but ya deal.

After the 50 minute or so ferry ride, we hopped on another bus. This bus would take us to our final destination. The road we took on this bus was pretty crazy. It wound all through the mountains and went up and down some pretty steep grades. The day before, the road had been closed because of an avalanche in the area or something, and passengers that took the same ferry and bus as us the day before got to ride in a helicopter. It would have been so dope to get a ride in a heli, but the bus was cool too. Anywayz, the bus was pretty uneventful but we eventually arrived at the wharf from which we would be departing. You see, we were about to embark on an overnight boat ride through the Doubtful Sound. Awesomeness was sure to ensue!

The weather on saturday was pretty subpar, ie it was pouring rain and pretty windy all day, but it made the Sound that much cooler. Let me try and explain what the Doubtful Sound is like. Try and imagine really big mountains and cliffs all around that lead directly into the water. No beaches or anything of the sort, just mountains leading straight into water. You see, the Doubtful Sound is a part of the Fiorlands. Now, a fiord is a valley type deal that has been carved away by a glacier. So, many moons ago, the Doubtful Sound pretty much consisted of a glacier. It has since moved on and left behind a truly beautiful and amazing place. I really can't even begin to describe with words how cool the place was. I'll try and give you an idea through pictures, but you gots to believe me when I say it was the most unique place I have ever been.

Righto, after we got situated on the boat in our living accommodations for the evening, see picture to get an idea of our tiny but sweet little room. It was pretty much under water cause that little porthole was right on the water level. Also, it was the second night in a row I got to sleep on the upper bunk! Moving on. Megan and I decided to go outside and battle the blustery weather to try and take a look around. We ended up heading to the bridge, which was the upper most level of the boat, so basically the roof. It was super windy up there and we were being pelted by rain, but it was quite enjoyable. We tried standing on one foot and jumping around and such and just got blown all around by the windy day. Apparently we provided some good entertainment for all the passengers and captain in where the navigation took place. They all watched and laughed as we made fools of ourselves. We found this out once we headed in there to see what was up. When we went inside, we met this really cool elderly couple, Phillis and Alan. You see, Phillis and Alan are from San Diego, but they are traveling the world. As Phillis said to Megan, they want to see the world before they leave it. Awesome. I really hope to be able to do the same some day. We continued chatting with the two, and they told me how I reminded them of their grandson because of my long hair and such. Peeps seem to like it, old folks included. So take that man! That was me, sticking it to the man. Lovely. While we were in the indoor bridge, we some some crazy ass waterfalls. The Doubtful Sound always has some waterfalls running down the mountains from the elevated lakes, but when it rains, there are tons of temporary waterfalls flowing down towards the ground. These things are seriously beautiful and crazy. Some of them are absolutely huge too, as you can tell from this picture of a yacht hanging out at the bottom of some temporary falls.

Once we were done chatting with Phillis and Alan, we reconvened with the rest of our group in the lounge to play some cards and keep dry. Whilst playing cards, the captain kept taking us to various locations of the sound to have a gander at some schtuff. We also went to the edge of the Sound to where it runs into the Tasmin Sea, so that was pretty cool. After a few hours of this cruising around, we made our way to a large cove sort of thing where we were able to get the opportunity to go kayaking. Myself and a bunch of other adventurers suited up in our bathing suits, rain jackets and life vests and hit the water for a little kayak adventuring. Despite the steady rain, it was mad fun. The girl who was leading all us kayakers challenged my kayak limbo skills and told me to try and go under this low branch. I showed her! I slip slunked under the branches and made it to the other side. My friend Dave wasn't so successful though and ended up taking an unintentional dip into the chilly water. Limbo test passed, we continued our way through the cove thinger in our little one person flotation devises. I pretty much stayed right along the edge of the water so I could check out all the temporary waterfalls and such. Pretty schweet place to be.

Back on the boat, it was time to go for a little swim. Thats right, some brave souls thought it would be good to take advantage of the opportunity to jump into the Sound. I mentioned that it was chilly, right? Well let me tell you how chilly. The water on that particular day was just about 7 degrees celsius. Translation: about 44 degrees fahrenheit, so it was pretty gosh darn cold. This did not deter my desire to adventure though. One by one we took turns climbing up this step ladder thing to jump off the back of the boat. The point we jumped from down to the water was about 10 feet I'd say. Stepped up there and did a little flip maneuver off the boat and was greeted by some super cold, and strange tasting, water. Get me outta here. That water was freakin cold. I scurried to the back of the boat and hopped out. Did I have enough you ask? Hell no. I decided to jump again and did a fun little backflip. In case you haven't noticed, I thoroughly enjoy throwing my body off things. Once again, I was greeted by the cold ass water and hustled to the back of the boat. It wasn't so bad once you got out of the water, but it was still quite nipply. I went again. Did another backy for my third and final jump and it was quite enjoyable yet again. Water was still super cold but it was worth it. Everyone was then jumping in. Well, most were done after one, but still, power to everyone who jumped in!!! We then headed inside and got some nice hot showers to try and warm up before dinner.

Dinner on the boat was absolutely delicious. They had a super good buffet type deal set up with all sorts of stuff like salad, fruit, potatoes, chicken, salmon, sweet potatoes, roast beef, lamb and a couple of pasta type dishes. The lamb was by far my favorite thing. During dinner, I looked up to see someone watching me intensely. Can I help you? It was a girl from my program just staring down my eating habits. Apparently I eat very properly and politely. Thanks I guess? I mean, I don't try to be a slob when I eat, so I guess I'm a respectful eater? I know its a good thing but it was just addressed to me in a very strange way. After theses comments about my general politeness, it was time for some dessert. They had cheesecake, fruit salad, some sort of chocolate cake, a strawberry crumble thing and some other type of light and creamy pie. Everything that i had was once again very good, and we were all super stuffed. Once dinner was over, a large number of passengers headed into the lounge to view an informational slideshow about the fiorlands. A group of about 7 of us decided to skip out on the slideshow and started playing monopoly. Monopoly is a freakin long game. We sat in that booth playing for hours, and we still didn't properly finish the game. I was doing quite well for myself but ended up landing on J-bo's monster of a monopoly and had to mortgage out everything and lost it all. Oops. Anyway, we decided to end the game there and head to bed. Even though I was pumped to be sleeping on the top bunk, those beds were pretty snug. When I was lying down flat, my shoulders were pretty much touching each edge. Cozy. Slept fine though and awoke the next morning to the sound of the captain's voice over the intercom.

Time to get up and greet the day. Sunday proved to be a slightly nicer day with less rain and a little more clear views throughout the Sound. We spent a few hours just cruising around and checking out some various things within the Sound. One of the stops we made was just off this little island where a blue penguin was just chillin on the rocks. Funny little guy shaking around on the rock as a bunch of peeps on a boat ooed and ahhed at it. He was a baller. After that we saw Commander's Mountain, I think that was what it was called, and that was a big ass mountain in the Sound. This thing was real tall and steep. I think this picture below is a picture of it but I'm not entirely sure. Anywho, we stopped cruising for a little bit while we were at the base of Commander. The boat shut off all its engines and generators so we could just hear the silence of the Sound. Super cool. I really like being able to just listen to the silence of nature, and this place was really quiet. Of course, there are always those select few people who have to ruin the silence though. I don't get it. The nature guide on the boat specifically asked people not to walk around the decks or go in and out of the boat and to not take any pictures for just a few minutes. Is this so hard to do? Seriously. Just hang out for a few minutes. You can move around and take pictures of that same location in a few minutes. You don't have to do it when people are trying to enjoy the simple silence. But whatever, ya deal with those fools and just enjoy the silence as best you can.

This is temporary believe it or not.

Moment of silence over, the boat started to make its way back to the wharf. We had to just hang out in the Sound for a couple extra hours though because the sketchy road had not yet been opened because of the weather from the previous day and night. Ain't no thang. I was fine with just kickin it on the boat and playing some more cards for a little while. Eventually though, it was time to get off the boat and back on the bus to take us to the ferry boat. Once we got onto the ferry, the sky really cleared up and we got to see some sweet views of the outer part of the Sound. It definitely would have been beautiful to see the Sound in bright sunlight the whole time there, but the rain really added a unique experience to the whole trip. Off the ferry, we loaded up on our bus and started the journey home to Dunedin. We stopped for some lunch in Te Anau and had a pretty uneventful drive home. The drive, of course, was beautiful the entire way home. New Zealand is just such a gorgeous country no matter where you go. All in all, it was another fantastic weekend in the lives of us wanderers of New Zealand. The Doubtful Sound is definitely the most unique place I have ever been in my life. Its something that everyone really should experience for themselves to fully appreciate the beauty of nature. Well, I hope you have all enjoyed the latest chapter of my life! I'm going away again this weekend on a little camping trip, so expect another entry some time next week! May the wind lead you to beautiful places and faces! Peace out.