Justus In The World

Snowshoeing!!

2012-01-31T22:23:00.001-08:00

This past Sunday, I went with a couple friends up to the high ground nearby Mt Hood to go snowshoeing around a lake. It was a lovely 43 degrees to keep the body warm and even break a sweat. The snow was packed down pretty good, but looked to be at least 4 feet deep (as you can see from the picture of the pedestrian crossing sign. On the sides it was higher and I could get in some good tromping and fully use the snowshoes as they were made. Pretty sweet stuff, and pretty sweaty stuff. Not easy dragging extra things on your feet. The legs were a bit tired on the way back and the right foot got a nice ol' blister as a souvenir. A jolly time out, enjoying nature and winter, before back in to work.

I'm currently working my tail off with my two jobs. Still cooking part time (at least once during the week and both weekend nights) as well as working for Toyota in their parts distribution center, so needless to say, the days are busy as is. But the credit card debt will paid off on the next statement, which makes things that much brighter. Still rocking and rolling as always, and keeping Portland better off. That's what I do.

New Years on the Oregon Coast

2012-01-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

So for this past New Years I headed out to the Oregon Coast with a group of friends to stay at a cabin, go crabbing, and ring in the new year. Quite relaxing out there, and surprisingly good weather. Kinda nice to come around the bend, watch the clouds disappear and see the ocean. We had a large house on top of the dunes, hot tub and large kitchen. Plus a Nintendo 64 with an NBA game from 1999 which was awesome,despite Kobe not in the starting lineup.

We cooked food for every meal, feasting with 8 of us out there. On the Saturday, we rented 2 boats and went crabbing. Pretty much you leave your traps in the water for 15-20 minutes and then come back to pull up quickly and see if you caught anything. Frozen chicken was the bait and apparently, wasn't so tasty. We didn't strike it rich and the crab dinner became crab appetizers. But it's been a bad season and there just wasn't much down there. Still, it was a blast to get out there on the water and cruise around the sandbanks, past seals and other crab boats.

Graham and Marcus checking out the trap with a crab in it

Graham and Marcus lovin the boat
Pulling up one of the 3 traps
The best way to get back into the boat after stopping on a sandbar to check out seals

Free ride!

Heap of seals

Man on the moon

Rocking the Oregon Coast

What the Oregon Coast is all about

Powell Butte hike pictures

2012-01-08T22:45:00.000-08:00

Pictures from a sunny day in wintery Portland. Mt Hood rocking the background as always.

Cabo Pictures!!!!!

2011-11-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

Surfin it up with the boys
Beach # 2 with Pat, Jeff and Tim
The groom being carried in to his bride
Me with buddies Scott and Tim
Lunch of smoked marlin burrito in Todos Santos
Will you marry me?
Our villa
Rockstar on top of the world
Perfected jump the first time
Scott performing the service as Bryan and Diana mix their sand glasses together

Mexico for a Wedding

2011-11-01T10:15:00.001-07:00

So I just got back last night from 6 days in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for an amazing wedding. Two of my good friends from college, Bryan and Diana had the best destination wedding out there and along with 12 other friends, we rented a huge $1,000/night villa across from the wedding villa to celebrate. 6 days of weather in the 90s, in a huge villa overlooking the ocean with an amazing pool spoiled us. Cooking up breakfast burritos for 13-16 people each morning, grilling pounds of chicken at a time and living like royalty. We had rental cars delivered to our villa and made road trips to go surfing, explore artisan markets or simply be a tourist downtown. It was amazing, as life can be when you live like the 1%.

Cabo is pretty tourist and dry, not exactly my cup of tea. But when you're out there with some of the best people in the world, it can be a blast. We stayed up in the villa for most of the time as it was amazing, and we were all together. Couldn't have asked for a better group of people. The rehearsal dinner was a boat cruise at sunset around the cape, by the natural arches on an island and out to the coast right in front of the wedding villa. Very snazzy.

More pics to come soon

OUR VILLA

Nicaraguan Farm Pictures

2011-10-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from my week working on the farm in northern Nicaragua in early August of this year:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.602696933644.2085889.29301533&l=aad3246978&type=1

By the way, I'm moving into a new house in Portland today. Great location, nearby the restaurant I cook at, near lots of friends and with lots of cafes/bars nearby. Got a huge porch, 3 cool housemates, a legit booth in the kitchen to eat breakfast at and a corner room with 2 windows, so things are looking golden!

Los Angeles after 3 weeks

2011-09-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

So I've been bouncing around the Los Angeles area for over 3 weeks now. The time just flies by as always, and it's been a blast catching up with old friends and reconnecting with old high school mates. I've been all over the region, from Malibu out to Norwalk to Huntington Beach. Been fun testing out the efficient public transportation system, which just takes a long time.

Being back in LA, I had to go to a Dodgers game. Went with my dad to watch them score 8 runs in the 2nd inning, including a home run as they whooped up on the Padres. Not sure if it's me being in town, but the Dodgers have now won almost all of their games since I've been here and have jumped up the rankings. That's how it's done, and I"m looking forward to the next season where they can carry on with the winning.

I'm flying back to Portland this afternoon, to rock the Northwest again. Time to get back to making some money instead of spending spending spending. But after over 2 months of travel, from Central America to Los Angeles, I've still got money and am still living the good life. Thanks to everyone who has hosted me over this trip, and allowed me to keep on traveling and having fun everywhere!

Farming pictures

2011-09-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hope you enjoy some pictures from my stint on a Nicaraguan farm. I spent a good two days picking the bean plants, sweating in the fields. The lower back was killing me after being bending over to pull the plants out. After a couple days of drying in the sun, we laid the bean plants out on a huge plastic tarp, and gave them a good beating with sticks, which shook the beans out of their dried out pods. Gravity sent them to the bottom of the tarp, so we were able to collect them fairly easily. We ended up with over 50 pounds of beans, ready to be cooked for dinner.

I worked with Ranae, an awesome farmer down there. Although she has no cows, she asked if I could milk a neighbors and low and behold, there I was, struggling to get milk out.

Pretty much every day we would go out and pick baby corn. Stalks sometimes grow two ears of corn. Normally one is the runt and one is the big ear. By picking through and taking out the small ears, the stalk can focus on growing just the one big ear of corn. So we help the stalk grow better ears of corn, and get some tasty baby corn to eat, raw or cooked.

Little Corn Island, Nicaragua

2011-08-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

Farm to island

2011-08-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

Finished up working on the Nicaraguan farm on Tuesday morning and spent the next 26 hours traveling via 3 buses and 2 boats out to the amazing island paradise of the Corn Islands. Pretty rough travel at times, but made it through with a few new friends and am set to live the good life on a beautiful pair of islands.

2011-08-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

Colourful Leon doorway
Leon church complete with VW transportation
Leon Cathedral
Granada city scene
Granada cathedral just down the street from the hostel

2011-08-01T10:07:00.000-07:00

Here{s a video of the double volcano island of Ometepe, Nicaragua. Loved the time relaxing out on the island, hiking and kicking it.

Im in Leon now, the 2nd of 2 colonial cities before I head to the coffee farm. Leon is better than Granada in my opinion, easier to walk and dosent feel so cramped. Again, churches, colourful buildings and not much more. I{m looking forward to getting away from the cities and into the wild again.

Today is day one of travel to the coffee farm where Ill work for a week. The place Im going is pretty remote and the bus schedules dont match up for one day of travel sadly unless I left this morning at 5:20am. So Ill be stopping off in the mural crazy town of Esteli for a night and to relax. Check out the murals: http://www.linesofflight.net/isittravel/2005/01/estel-nicaragua-street-murals-and.html

Then farming time! Dont know much about what Ill be doing, but thats half the fun of it. Just going to show up and rock the farm for the next week or so.

Isla de Ometepe

2011-07-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

So I just finished up a 3 day trip on the island of Ometepe, in the middle of the Lake of Nicaragua (which does have sharks), complete with 2 volcanoes on the island. Pretty much jungle and beaches and volcanoes all on one spot. Looks small til you get there. Might actually still be a small island, if it wasn´t for the buses going super slow over the bumpy roads to each village. We spent 3 nights at 3 different spots. The first with the supposed most people and best beach, had neither, but was near a crystal clear water hole called Ojo de Agua. Pretty sweet stuff there, being able to look 10 feet to the bottom no problem.

Santa Cruz was where all the backpackers went and where the best beach was. Pretty chill stuff, relaxing, floating in the water and looking at 2 volcanoes and a huge lake with sharks. I hiked some of the way up the Maderas Volcano before sunset one evening for an amazing view. Nothing like looking down at the island you´re on and seeing water surrounding another volcano, with the sun going down.
We spent the last night at the Monkey Island Hotel, mainly for the use of their free kayaks. Cruised around the local beaches as well as to a couple islands with monkeys on them. Worked up a nice couple of blisters and kept the shoulders in shape after the 4 days surfing down in San Juan del Sur.

Here are photos of the island:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.593910920884.2083143.29301533&l=ae71802421&type=1"

2011-07-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

Loading the ferry.

Here are some pìctures from San Juan Del Sur, my first town in Nicaragua. SPent 6 days there, hanging outwith great people,getting to know thecity, andsurfing 4 of thedays. Got to hike to a huge statue ofJesus another day. A great town, and I miss it alittle bit. Leftthis morning for Ometepe, an island with 2 volcanoes onit, in themiddle of Lake Nicaragua. Took a rusty, bouncy, waterfilled ferry here and then a local chicken bus. Slow traveling, but got here andhad a nice swim. Traveling withmy Israeli mate Barak right now. Meeting some other friends tomorrow to hike on one of the waterfalls and explore.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.593619430034.2083014.29301533&l=a861cf2c42&type=1

2011-07-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

Here´s a pic of what I´m traveling with on the 6 week Central American trip. Nice and light.

Here´s some pics of the grand day out hitching a ride on a horse, waterfalls and jumping off rope swings:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.593260294744.2082851.29301533&l=43e908b9c5&type=1

Horse ride part 2 and water hole action

2011-07-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

Costa Rica Cowboy Action

2011-07-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the amazing day

2011-07-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

Riding on Millionaire, the horse who never stoppedHorses without saddles mean free rides
Me with the Costa Rican John Wayne who let us get on the horses on their return trip with the Arenal volcano behind us
Nothin like a cool waterfall after a 3 mile hike in the blazin sun
Solo me

Best day to date

2011-07-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

Can´t believe how amazing this day has been. The start which could´ve been cool ( a bus to a boat across a lake to another jeep) was just the beginning. Entered into La Fortuna, a town in northern Costa Rica nearby the volcano Arenal. Volcano was pretty cloudy at the time so I set off to find some waterfalls.

On my way up the 5k hike to the waterfalls, I ran into 2 girls from Portland and found the traveling partners needed for the adventurous day. Sweated our tails off getting up the hills on teh side of the volcano to get to the waterfalls and played around there for a couple hours in bliss. Perfect spot, good pictures and all that.

On the hike back down, we heard cowboys yelling at us and then 2 cowboys went by, followed by about 30 horses, all saddled up with no one on them. A tour going back to the pasture. Of course we yelled that we wanted a horse and lo and behold, we were able to snag 3 horses for ourselves and hop on with the cowboys on the roundup back to the stable. Pretty unbelievable, being on a horse, not knowing how to ride, going down a steep trail with 4 Costa Rica cowboys, 2 Portland girls and 20 odd horses. The clouds went away and we had a great view of the volcano the whole ride, with the cowboys playing ¨paparazzi¨for us and loving it. Good times, sore ass. Nothing finer than hitching a ride with horses going by you. Don´t need to do a horse tour any time soon, as rode down a mountain, crossed 3 rivers and felt like John Wayne.

After that amazing adventure, we walked to a bridge out of town where you can go below the bridge to a trail to a water hole where there´s a rope swing. Swinging out past the rocks, and dropping about 20 feet down. The day keeps getting better. Met some California girls as well and jumped off 10 times.

Followed all that up with some sangria and a chicken casado (chicken, rice, beans, salad, fried plantains) to cap off an amazing day.

Off to Nicaragua at 6:30 tomorrow morning to keep the life amazing.

That´s how it´s done.

Keepin it interesting

2011-07-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

So had a bit o' a bother last night trying to travel by bus. We took a bus to a ferry and by the time the ferry got in over on the other side in a dirty port city (Puntarenas), we found out all the buses were done for the day at 6pm. We were trying to get up to Monteverde, the town in the clouds with tree walks and such, but the direct buses were done. A taxi driver said it was possible to still get there via another couple buses. As it was just 6:30pm, we figured we could make it. Instead of taking us to the local bus station, the taxi driver took us 15 km away to the Pan-American highway where we could supposedly take a bus. So instead of a cheap ride, it was a very expensive ride.

Got pretty much left on the side of a busy small road, and found out that the buses we wanted would not work for us. So we were stuck out there, and after a while finally managed to get a bus back into town. 2 hours and too much money later, ended back up in Puntarenas at 9pm looking for a room. The town is full of overpriced rooms and we paid twice what we normally paid just for the night before catching the early morning bus up to Monteverde.

Bit of a mission to get up here, especially as the bus broke down on the way. Martijn headed off to San Jose to meet another Dutch friend on Monday, so I'm on my own, up in the clouds, surrounded by mist and rainforests. Pretty nice up here, quiet and relaxing.

Taking a jeep to a boat across a lake, to another jeep to La Fortuna, the town by the volcano Arenal. Keeping the adventure alive and having fun down in Costa Rica.

2011-07-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

Lizard Lunch
Sweaty Tarzan in Manuel Antonio National Park
Our path through the muddy jungle. Tis the rainy season so its all a bit muddy.
I took a pill and turned into a monkey for an hour. Sexy huh?

Costa Rican monkeys gone wild

2011-07-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a video from the Manuel Antonio park on the pacific coast in Costa Rica. Saw monkeys all over the place, along with raccoons, sloths, butterflies and loads of tourists. Pretty sweet overlooks and beaches along the way in the country's most visited park.

Costa Rica photos!

2011-07-07T20:09:00.001-07:00

The life is amazing right now. Back on top of the world.

Im down in remote Costa Rica, in the very southwestern corner, at a crazy beautiful national park called Corcovado. Sleeping with monkeys, insects, trees all making noise all around. Packed full of wildlife. Supposedly there is 12% of the world´´s biodiversity here, and Im definitely getting my fair share. Super quiet, away from the tourists and a perfect spot.

Martin, my Dutch buddy and me, have been exploring the area after a day in the capital San Jose. Long bus ride down here has been worth it so far. rented bikes and road to check out crocodiles (sadly they were not showing themselves or biting us) and then off to a beach called la playa precioso, and it was indeed amazing. perfect waves and no one else there apart from some little kids who beat us 5-4 in a game of soccer. cruising around on a bike never felt so good.

today we got up at 5am to catch the Taxi Collectivo with all the locals and head out to the heart of the park, a bumpy 2 hour ride in, with lots of stops for the locals. after a 3 mile trek along the beach, we entered the jungle to meet anything from 3 species of monkeys, northern racoons (much better than our trash eaters), parrots, lizards, crabs, butterflies and so much more. completely amazing. We had to ford a few rivers, walk along beaches surrounded by blue water and palm trees. Perfect day, capped off by a seafood feast back in town.

We are staying at an awesome Italians farm nearby the town of Puerto Jimínez. Super cool guy, who speaks a little English and has been here for 7 years with a Costa Rican wife and boy. Pretty good life. Kinda envious right now as he has a fun little farm which produces a lot of his food, rents out rooms to people like me and just hangs out. Pretty tempting right now, the easiness and enjoyment is high. Ill give the farming a test run soon working on my friend of friends coffee farm.

this keyboard isnt the best, but the life is, and that is all that matters. here are a few pictures on face book for you to check out. We are living it up down here.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.591861572794.2082188.29301533&l=10ae1a60f9

Last day in the USA

2011-07-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

As I booked my flight to central america, I had the option to take the cheapest way possible which included a 12 hour layover in Denver. Perfect! Time to make it to Coors Field and check out the Rockies vs. the Royals. Solid baseball in a home run park. Royals whooped the Rockies 16-8 with 4 home runs, in a high scoring game. Got to chow down on a Rockie dog and feel American, plus the stadium went all out Independence Day themed with the players getting the wig treatment.

Scalped a wicked ticket and sat 6 rows behind home plate. Got to see the pros up close and live it up in style in my last day in the US.

After I cruised around Denver, checking out their main mall full of every American shop out there, and checking out the capital area. Thousands of people out to watch the fireworks and celebration, which for some reason comes on July 3rd. Why not beat everyone to it, and celebrate a day early so you´re special, eh?

Good times, then off to Costa Rica to arrive at 5am for the adventures to begin.

My backpack

2011-06-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

To prep for the Central American trip, I bought a new backpack that should be perfect for my 6 weeks on the road. It's recommended as a 3-5 day hiking trip pack, but I aim to get a lot more out of it. Several key features include a built in raincover which will come in quite handy as I'll be going in the rainy season. Still hot and humid out, just have to shower in rain for a couple hours a day.

The pack has a suspension backing which is like trampoline material, and keeps the pack an inch away from my back, keeping the back sweat to a minimum. Since I last bought a pack, this is the new and top of the line method for back support/sweat management. Going to be a fun trip. It's got a volume of 42 litres and right now, what I plan to take, makes the pack about half full, so plenty of room leftover for whatever comes up.

So I've got 3 weeks to go. Leaving July 3rd to arrive early July 4th in San Jose, Costa Rica. Keeping my streak of July 4ths in different places alive. Dating back to 2001, I've bounced all over for the Fourth. Highlights include Boston, Albania, the oldest celebration in Bristol, RI and the ol' classic on the beach, Malibu July 4th.

I head back up stateside, to Los Angeles August 18th, and will be around the area for a week or so. If you're around there, let's meet up. Don't know where I'm going after, but it'll work itself out quite nicely I'm sure.

Trip plannin

2011-04-27T22:29:00.000-07:00

So after being grounded in the US for over 6 months now, the next trip is being booked. I bought a ticket last night to Costa Rica in early July to go travel around with one of my Dutch friends. Going to be around a month or so down in a couple countries in Central America. No end date yet, just a one way flight. Not sure how many countries, but Costa Rica and Nicaragua are in for sure.

I'd had an offer to work as a tour guide driver up in Alaska, taking cruise ship passengers from the ship to the Alaskan Brewing Co up in Juneau. Would've been working the summer season up there (65 F high in July) and lived it up surrounded by killer whales, glaciers and traveling by dogsled. But the idea of spending summer on white beaches, zip-lining and drinking coffee in the high hills was just too good to pass up.

So I've got a couple months left in Portland before off with the backpack again. The sun is paying us more visits, the Blazers keep teasing us with a potential first round upset, and there are still too many restaurants to choose from.

On a side note, my mom is in Bhutan, and I'm extremely jealous. Look it up, one of the best, most hidden countries out there that has yet to feel the wrath of over-tourism.

On another side note, did anyone see Kobe's 2 dunks last night in game 5 of the series? Lakeshow in full effect, going all the way for Phil's last threepeat.

Groovin

2011-02-28T19:12:00.000-08:00

Been back in Portland for 4 months now. The time is flying by, the days get longer, and the rain keeps on coming. The American dream is indeed alive and well, full of fried chicken, NBA, Mexican food, hip hop shows, movies and good times.

After working 3 months total in 2010, and visiting 11 countries and living life as it should be lived, I'm acting like a grown up and working in an office. Part time. Still time to be free and have fun.

Working for an international student exchange program by day, and making people smile by night.

So sorry for the lack of posts, as I'm rocking the steady workin, American life these days. Definitely new adventures a'happening and more on the agenda, with Justus taking on the world once again. We'll see where the next post comes from.

America does Christmas

2010-12-21T23:23:00.001-08:00

Portland's finest, presented by Justus, Peacock Lane!

China Vol 1

2010-09-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Here's the first round of pictures from China. Traveled into the country by bus from Vietnam and bounced around the southern cities working may way out to the coastal town of Xiamen north of Hong Kong. Didn't get to go to Hong Kong because I only had a single entry visa to China and if I went to the city, I could'nt get back into China. So I passed and stuck to the smaller town route, and by small town, I mean 1 million people. Every place was huge and packed full of people, locals and tourists. So many tour groups. They're all Chinese and just like around the world, they stick together in groups and take pictures of things that aren't picture worthy. Pretty much they often get in your way and fill up the cafes. It's a Chinese heavy tourist population. Often I wouldn't see more than 10 foreigners in a day, while each spot I went to was booming with tourists.

Mt Fuji Pictures

2010-09-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

Most people hike the mountain in the night to be there for sunrise. Unfortunately, with all the people, it gets a bit crowded and there's a traffic jam towards the top, full of tired people, all a bit cold. I heard that and decided to hike the mountain in the day time, much faster, warmer and with views the whole time. Turned out to be a perfect day and a good hike, 4 hours to the top and just under 3 hours down. On the fast side, but had a street party to go to after so the time was ticking.

Once on top of Mt Fuji, it's like you've joined a new family. Everyone is happy, smiling, one even puking, but all are part of the club that has been to the top. I bought a Mt Fuji flag with a stamp saying when I hiked it. Proof that I was one of the elite. In Japan, it's like a rite of passage to get to the top, but you only do it once. The expression is, "a wise man climbs Fuji once, and a fool twice". I ain't no fool, mission complete, bring on the next mountain.

Check out some pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2064164&id=29301533&l=31bc6f5998

Endangered Monkeys vs. the Justus

2010-09-19T12:05:00.001-07:00

Endangered monkey #1: Red shanked douc langur, ready to battle
Justus kicking butt in the feeding process at the start
Uh, oh, monkeys taking over
And the victor is Justus, captain feeder and cage cleaner
And they were left wondering how the Justus won

Hawaii Pictures

2010-09-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

Back in the USA

2010-09-19T08:01:00.000-07:00

So after 6 months I made it back to the USA. Went to 11 countries in between here and where I started, New Zealand. Most of the time I was in Asia, almost 5 months total, eating a lot of rice and noodles, plus checking out heaps of temples. Should almost get a honorary Buddhist degree after this trip. Wore sandals and shorts 95% of the time, living the good life in constant summer for over half a year.

I last left off the blog when I went to China, where internet is a bit tricky with lots of sites blocked off, including this one. I spent 28 days there, taking overnight buses everywhere, seeing lots of cities and not that many other foreigners. After China I was in Japan for 2 weeks, where I hiked Mt Fuji, saw some cool temples and met up with an old university friend. The last stop of the trip was Hawaii for 2 weeks to relax on the beach, and that wraps up the missing 2 months in between this post and the last.

Now I'm chilling out in Boston, resting up, and liking not having to repack and move out with my backpack every few days. I've got over 4000 photos to go through, some already online, but more will be coming in the near future. Nice to be back in the land of civilized internet and English.

Sapa

2010-07-20T04:51:00.000-07:00

Me and the Dutchies out in Sapa
Local friend Mih who took us on the hike
Cat Cat Waterfalls
Up in the mountains in northern Vietnam. It's amazing up here, actually cold and feels like a small alpine village in the town of Sapa. I'm finally not sweating and for the first time in months am wearing pants and shoes.

Plenty of hiking up here around the scenery. Waterfalls, terraced rice paddies and some amazing local women who wear traditional outfits that actually look good. It's a utopia away from the madness of the rest of Vietnam, which was hot, full of pushy people and too many motorbikes.

I'm sticking around here for an extra day cause it's guaranteed to be good. The first two days were rainy and misty which wasn't the best for riding motorbikes around, but still had some good pics with the mist over the mountains. Today was actually sunny, with blue skies and was a reason to go swimming in waterfalls. Super cold water, but was refreshing.

I've been kicking it with two Dutch guys I met on the train and it's been a good time. We've got our own consort of local girls who follow us around trying to sell us local products and playing pool against us. Entertaining and we get to see some of the local culture through them. Big BBQ tonight with the locals.

Off to China in two days, to spend a month there. Had to pay $130 for my visa since I'm American, so going to get my moneys worth and see as much as possible. Looking forward to it and have been getting lots of chopstick practice in Vietnam.

Laos

2010-07-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

Eline and I spent about 2 weeks in Laos, traveling from Luang Prabang in the north all the way down to the 4000 Islands in the south, right on the Cambodian and Thai borders. Its a laid back country, with people changing Laos Peoples Democratic Republic to Laos, Please Dont Rush. Often not much to do, but just sit back and read a book, of which I got through 4.

Luang Prabang was the best city by far, a French styled town with nearby waterfalls that were amazing. Rope swings, tiered levels to jump off and some that were just good for photos. Nice and relaxing out there in cold, refreshing water to cool down from the heat in. Lots of western people around.

Sandwiches are the popular thing to eat in Laos. A Laos Style sandwich has pork, egg and tofu with a ton of chili and vegetables. Definitely the best and for the cheap price of just over $1.

Vang Vien is a beautiful setting of a river with limestone cliff mountains all around. Caves to explore and a river to go tubing down. Big party town too which was fun to watch the world cup. Germany was still rocking at this point.

Vientiane, the capital has nothing to do. by this point, Ive seen too many temples and the ones here just werent impressive. Pretty much just a stopping off point to catch a bus and later a plane.

We took a sleeper bus down to the 4000 Islands in the south. Pretty sweet bus, air conditioned with 50 beds in it. Apart from all the bouncing and the local guy who sat on my feet for a couple hours, it was a sweet ride and we got some sleep, before arriving and hopping on a large pickup truck packed full of everything. About 50 bags of rice, lots of roofing tiles and live chickens lined the middle with about 20 people sitting along the sides. Bouncy, dusty ride out to the islands, definitelz entertaining with locals selling whole roasted chickens and lots of crazy things at each stop.

The 4000 Islands were a let down. More like 50 islands with a lot of bushes around and 2 big waterfalls on rocks. We only stayed 2 days as after biking one day and kayaking the other, we'd done everything there was to do. The best part was paying just $3 for a bungalow. Super cheap, although the food was expensive and small. Not exactly the place I'd go back to, but got in some reading and chilling time.

Here are some pics to check out:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2061494&id=29301533&l=39e0404602

Mandalay, Myanmar

2010-07-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

Pics from Mandalay, the big city in the north of Myanmar. I extended my stay in Myanmar to get to know the country better as its been my favorite so far. Completely different from all others. Not very western, feels completely Asian. With the extra time, I was able to go to Mandalay, to sweat in the hot room every night, hike the labyrinth called Mandalay Hill (staircases everyhere and no signs on how to get to the top), check out surrounding villages, take a picture of the popular teak bridge, see more tmeples and watch some world cup. Almost had 2 run ins with the prime minister too. Once on top of Mandalay Hill where he was hosting the Laos president, and once at a pagoda where he was rubbing gold onto Buddha. Both times, super close to him, but the barefoot security guards wouldnt let us too close.

Inle Lake photos

2010-06-28T23:22:00.000-07:00

An amazing lake in Myanmar, where fishermen use their legs to row, long necked women reign, souvenir shops are everywhere as well as monasteries. I spent a day on the lake,one day biking around and 2 days hiking in the hills to a monastery where I spent the night.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060832&id=29301533&l=ab17cf357c

Temples

2010-06-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

Bagan, Myanmar home of over 4000 temples. Just a few pics for you

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060829&id=29301533&l=3b3a8283c6

Luang Prabang, Laos

2010-06-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

Jumping off waterfalls and rope swinging like Tarzan out in Laos.

Singapore Photos

2010-06-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

Cambodian temple photos

2010-06-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

Silk Factory and Floating Villages

2010-05-31T07:08:00.000-07:00

Siem Reap, Cambodia:

The highlight of the silk factory was eating a silk worm. As 80% of the worms are killed in the process of getting their cocoon for the silk, there are a few number left over for eating, thus feeding the workers and others. Actually not too bad, tasted like a potato and didn't have a bad aftertaste. Had a couple and all were good. Probably not something I'd eat on a regular basis, but wouldn't turn down again.

The worms eat mulberry leaves, then weave a cocoon and the workers take the cocoon and get tons of silk out of it which they can dye, weave and work with. that's my condensed version of making silk. It's definitely a process and the women do the same thing every day which seems very monotonous and bad for the hands. At the Indonesian cigar factory, the women switch jobs every day so they keep it interesting and use the hands in different ways.

We also checked out some floating villages, accesible by a very shallow river going out to the lake. Since it was the dry season, there was only 1 meter of water and boats kept getting stuck on the way out to see the floating homes. Very cool out there, full villages with schools, stores, churches and even a floating basketball court. Normal lives, based around fishing, take place on the lake, everyone with boats, most that they have to bail out at the start. Looked rough to us, but they've been doing it for years.

Temple City

2010-05-31T06:56:00.000-07:00

Siem Reap, Cambodia has over 200 temples around the city, with Angkor Wat being the superstar of them all. Trinity and I had 3 days to explore as many temples as possible. Hopping on a Tuktuk, a couple of seats with a top pulled by a motorbike, we would head north to the temples, validating our 3 day ticket on the way (which helps fund the temple restoration). Most of the temples were being worked on, restoring them to gandeur which they used to have over 800 years ago.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious temples in the world, or something like that. It's the grandaddy of Cambodian temples and is on the flag, although it's not the oldest. It's got a moat that puts all European castles to shame. It takes about 5 minutes to walk across the walkway to get to teh outer wall and then another 5 minutes to get to the entrance of the temple itself. Intricate carvings are all over and there are some super cool bas reliefs on all sides. Many levels and great views all over, truly an impressive time.

My favorite temples of Preah Kahn, where Tomb Raider was filmed. All jungle like with trees taking over all the walls. Very cool looking and packed full of tourists. Others had Buddha faces all over the place, some had the Buddha faces removed when a new king came in and changed the religion.

There were lots of struggles between the demons and the gods, often pulling a long serpent around a stick stuck into the ground to "churn the milk" and release immortality. Got to learn more about Buddhism and Hinduism, and got a fair amount of photos taken with my main man Buddha.

All in all, a very cool place to visit, amazing architecture everywhere, although much of it run down. For example a 70m long reclining Buddha looks only like that in diagrams, as the real life is a work in progress putting it back together. Other sculptures are worn down or have heads missing. Lots have been ruined by pollution and are all black. But often the size and meaning is still there, causing people to stand back and just appreciate the Cambdodian temples.

Orangutans

2010-05-29T07:51:00.000-07:00

My sister Trinity met me in Jakarta and we set off to the island in Indonesia that used to be called Borneo, now Kalimantan. Pretty much the main reason the toursists go there is to check out the orangutans.

Along with friends Kelly, and Curtis, who live in Jakarta, we boarded a boat for a 3 day 2 night trip along a small river up into monkey territory. The first night we saw long tailed maccau monkeys swinging in the trees. Super cool start, to go along with the feast of food that we got at each meal. Great Indonesian food done up by our chef, who alng with 3 crew and 1 guide made up the rest of the boat.

We slept under mosquito nets on the deck, nice and quiet with no one around. Awaking early for breakfast, we then went to the first feeding of the day. Twas a big success with about 10 orangutans coming out to see us and the food. Big Papa, the dominant male, came down the path and scared the others up in the trees and the tourists down the path. Made for some excitement, but was all safe. Pretty relaxed monkeys, semi-tame they say, but still a wild monkey in their territory.

The second feeding after lunch had orangutans chilling more in the trees, swinging around and showing off their size. Little babys exploring on the vines and doing things that probably warrant wearing a helment. Very cool, despite the fact that there were a lot more tourists there taking photos.

All in all, an amazing trip, with great photos that can be viewed here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2059423&id=29301533&l=c49dc69019

Volcano photos

2010-05-07T02:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058731&id=29301533&l=bf18f8b9fb

Active Indoensian volcanoes

2010-05-07T02:21:00.000-07:00

3729 meters high, that's the height of the summit on Mt Rinjani, the volcano in the Indonesian island of Lombok that I just climbed.

Starting at 1100m, we hiked up to 2500m over 5 hours to our camp, watching the sunset through the clouds and eating a feast cooked up by our porters. We had one guide and 2 porters who carried our food, water, tents and sleeping bags. Part of the hike package, which everyone has to do, so we got to live like kings hiking with great meals and a tent already set up for us when we got to the top.

The hike up was through grasslands, and fields and then through lava fields and up through trees high up with mist everywhere, past the clouds and up the crater rim. The temperature dropped often and was pretty cold at night, but nothing compared to the summit at 5:30am watching the sunrise.

We awoke at 2:30am for a quick breaky and then hiked for almost 3 hours up to the top, on a trail made of scree, meaning for every step we went up, we slid down a little. Not the easiest hike, especially in the dark and cold. Luckily the moon was pretty bright and we did it without lights. Sar our guide knew the trail well and we kept a steady pace.

I was the first one to the top, all alone for over 5 minutes before the next person came. So amazing to be alone on top of the mountain, watching the sunrise and freezing my tail off. 5 degrees Celsius, and my hands were freezing, as I'd forgotten I'd packed my gloves in my bag.

From the top we had a good view of the volcano below erupting twice while climbing and once on the way down. Huge clouds of ash shooting out and one time we could both hear and feel the eruption. So amazing. Fun just to watch the volcano in action. It's been growing a lot lately, so will most likely be much bigger in the coming years.

Coming down sucked, the knees hurt, the body was tired and I decided to go back to Gili Trawangan, my island paradise, to chill and rest, rather than keep exploring Bali over the next few days. SO I'm here, relaxing on the beach, drinking freshly made juices and reading, taking it easy. Quite a nice option after the huge hike.

Indonesian photos

2010-04-29T03:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058387&id=29301533&l=8cdfffd8da

Brisbane photos

2010-04-29T03:00:00.001-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2058386&id=29301533&l=0b9247823e

Indonesian life

2010-04-29T02:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm back on Lombok after the 8 days in Gili Trawangan. I already miss it. Easy, fun life over there. Had a super cheap place to stay, some good mates and could just wake up, swim, relax, dive, watch NBA live, hike or just chill with a book. I knew the good places to eat and had a local spot that I went to about every day, sometimes twice a day cause I knew the food was good and would be a good price. They definitely knew me by the end. Ate a spicy peanut veggie dish 4 times total, cause it was so good.

The island is full of travelers, all staying in homestays. Most chill on the beach or in the cafes, while some take it up a notch and go to one of the 7 dive companies on the island to get underwater. The days went by without being bored, and pretty much always just loving it. Watched the sunset, the sunrise, the tides change and the moon get bigger and bigger. Plus learned which places to eat at and which not to. Can't get ripped off all the time and after a while, you feel like a local.

Today I rented a motorbike and road around the local villages, stopping off at a few temples, jumped off some rocks into the river coming from the volcano and fed some monkeys. They love peanuts, but get a little pushy after a while, so they stopped getting fed, almost had a monkey war going on.

Off to dinner, then crashing early for a 5am start to go hike Mt Rinjani, an active volcano, which is the 2nd largest in Indonesia. 3 days 2 nights on the mountain. Hell yeah

Lombok, Indonesia

2010-04-29T01:38:00.000-07:00

I got out of Bali as soon as possible to get as far away as I would go on my trip to enjoy the quiet beach life and then slowly head back. So far it's going perfectly according to plan and everyone is saying that Bali isn't all that great, and that where I was on a small island was so much better. I definitely agree.

Gili Trawangan is an amazing small island packed full of culture, craziness, accomodation, cafes and bars, with no cars, just horse carts and bikes. I loved the place and spent 8 nights there, learning to dive, hiking, meeting new people and enjoying the great weather on the beach.

Diving was amazing. Started right off in the ocean, no swimming pool or theory for me, just the real deal. First time in the water was 6 meters and I ended up on my last dive going 30 meters, about 65 feet. I saw a shark, sting rays, an eel and several turtles on my last dive, definitely making it the best. Every dive, 7 in total, I saw turtles and got to pet them and watch them eat under water, way wicked. I saw Nemo every day too, chillig in his suction cup plant. I'm now officially qualified as a diver, to go up to 18 meters anywhere in the world.

Bali

2010-04-20T04:24:00.000-07:00

So I made it in Sunday night to Bali, pouring rain outside made it fun on the taxi ride to my couch surfers house where I spent the next 2 nights. I explored Denpasar for a day checking out the streets filled with the local life, seeing only 3 white tourists all day. Which meant lots of walking around like a celebrity and having people wave to me and look at me wondering what I was doing with no main draws nearby. Fun to see the food stalls everwhere, people selling petrol out of absolute vodka bottles on the street, trash thrown around everywhere, shops selling practically everything, and lots of bargaining going on.

Today, I took a couple of minibuses to catch the ferry to Lombok, the island next door. The plan is to go as far away from bali at the start and then work my way back. Got ripped off on the ferry as was expected, but it's still cheap overall, but not like what the locals pay. Everyone raises the prices for the tourists, with that sexy white skin giving us away.

On the new island, I set up a tour to the paradise of Gili Trawangan, a small island on the ne coast of Lombok. Going to learn to scuba dive with a 4day course and then chill on the beach for a week total tiime. Then back to Lombok to hike the highest volcano over3 days and 2 nights, getting to watch the lava at the night and see the lakes at the top. So I've got my next 10 days booked and spent too much money in one day. Meaning basic fried noodle dinner before going back to my hotel room, snazzy with a fan up above.

So that's it for me, off to paradse tomorrow where i hope it isn't raining so much. Been raining pretty much all day today, so time to get to teh small island with no mountains to attract the rain. 3km x 2km so pretty small

Brisbane

2010-04-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

Chris, Hannah, Sandra and myself lawn bowling it up

Chilling with Chris, Sandra and Andrea by the Brisbane River
So I've been in Brisbane for a few days now, my last stop in Australia. I took the easy and almost as cheap option as taking the road up from Sydney, and flew here. 1.5 hours or 14 hours, was a no brainer. More time in the city to relax and chill, rather than perhaps more money on the road.

I've been enjoying it so far, good weather until today, so I've just been kicking it with a good coffee and now free internet at the library. Lots to do in the city, although Melbourne still ranks as the best city in Australia for me.

Been couch surfing here and everywhere, and again have made some good friends to explore the city with. Chris from Germany and Sandra from Denmark have both been good companions for exploring Brisbane. We've been lawn bowling with another couch surfer, spent time at the fake beach by the river, explored the funky parts of town, and had too many burgers in a short time, but rocked it anyways.

On Sunday, I'm off for Bali, the first country of many where English is not the number one language. Going to be amazing. New adventures to come. Looking to scuba dive, hike a volcano, chill on the beach and live it up. And probably repeat myself by writing that over and over in each blog, but it's going to be great.

Sydney and Melbourne Photos

2010-04-14T18:01:00.001-07:00

Here's some photos for you guys:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057690&id=29301533&l=f436254219

Melbourne photos

2010-04-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

Melbourne in the background from the war memorial
Rooftop bar action
Sonia and I on the Flinders St Bridge
Lots of cool graffiti everywhere
Classy Melbourne
View from St Kilda
Litter collection in the Yarra River
Street performer juggling fire at Federation Square

In Sydney

2010-04-09T15:51:00.000-07:00

So I made it up from Melbourne to Sydney. Had been having a wicked time in Melbourne, made several friends and had a few places to stay through couch surfing, but decided to move up north to the big city in order to have a few days there and then a few days in Brisbane before taking off for Bali on the 18th.

I met a German named Herbert who was also going up to Sydney and decided he wouldn't kill me, and got a lift up with him, sharing petrol costs. Took 2 days, stopping off a few places, mostly for me to swim in the ocean. Nothing finer. Definitely more fun than going on the bus and got to talk a little German, plus learn some tips on traveling in SE Asia.

Arrived in the evening of Friday in Sydney and went to meet my couch surfing host, who happened to be having his big Seder dinner with his family. So Herbert and I had a big old feast with everyone and a fun night meeting the family. Turns out my host, Landon's brother, just had a baby named Justice so got to meet the mini version of my self. Pretty damn cool I'll tell ya.

Now up ready to rock a street festival nearby and explore the city for several days.

Pictures will be coming soon, from Melbourne and beyond.

Great Ocean Road

2010-04-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

Cliffs and beach, perfect combo
Site of the morning swim at 7am after a night of camping

Surfer boys

Going on a surfing safari

The road, on the ocean, is indeed great

This past weekend, I organized a trip down the Great Ocean Road nearby Melbourne with 2 people from the flat I was staying at and 2 other couch surfers. Just over an hour away from Melbourne, the Road was supposed to be Great, and it lived up to the name.

Easter weekend was busy with lots of people, but had some of the best weather. We surfed 2 days, camped out for free nearby a beach and feasted upon homemade sandwiches whipped up for super cheap. A great 2 day trip, nice and cheap which was good for the wallet and tons of fun. Made some new friends out of it and improved the surfing skills.

Vanuatu pictures

2010-03-24T21:43:00.001-07:00

Here's a link to some more photos from Vanuatu:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057042&id=29301533&l=2fc1926db1

Leaving western Australia tonight for Melbourne and the east coast. 3 weeks over there and then onto Bali!

Australia: Fremantle

2010-03-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

Sunset after big storm in Freo
Back in my old stomping grounds of 2005, Fremantle, Western Australia. It's good to be back, meeting up with mates, going to favorite places and hitting the beach.

Things have been great, and the weather has been super hot until this afternoon when a big storm came in and just dumped the area with buckets of rain, plus some golf sized hail. The place where I'm staying, with 2 mates, had the back patio start to flood and we spent quite a while bailing it out and keeping the house from getting flooded. At one point, we were just 1 cm away from overflowing. But we kicked butt and got it down. Pretty amazing sunset afterwards before the rain came again. Whipped up some homemade pizzas and chilled inside, dry and warm.

Planning on more beach time, a trip out to Rottnest island to visit the marsupials, the quokkas, which look like big rats. Always a good time riding around the island. Just chilling with mates and living it up.

Vanuatu 2: island of black magic

2010-03-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

Ambrym
On top of old smokey, all covered in rain
View from the plane
Cruisy way to travel
The jeep I rented in Port Vila
So Alisha and I flew out to her island, Ambrym, on a small 12 seat plane, with no doors to the pilots and amazing views of the islands out the windows. Landed on a grass airstrip surrouned by beach and jungle and then hiked with her host family to her village, a half hour away.

Black sand everywhere, the island is filled in the middle with volcanoes which affect the trees and crops due to acid rain and not the best soil. But there's still lots of produce coming from the ground, mostly root vegetables and coconuts. They make money off the coconunts and eat the other stuff, overall living a simple life and not needing money overall.

There was no electricity in the village, just one generator and a few solar panels, but otherwise, people wake up early with the sun and go to bed when it goes down. There's no fresh water on the island either so they collect rain water in wells.

We snorkelled around her beach, seeing a sea turtle and pretty much the whole cast of Finding Nemo except for Nemo himself. Had some big hikes around the area, to the gardens and up a small mountain to get to a sacred rock overlooking the beach. On the Friday we went on a hike up the volcano, which was amazinig, but was in pouring rain for the first 3 hours. Pretty soaked at the top, there was still an amazing view with a yellow red sky.

Alisha has two pets right now, Penny the pig and Lucky the dog. Both were awesome and playful, although both could be too noisy at times. She's got a cat on the way too, so it felt like a farm at times in her house.

And now I'm over in Australia, after 7 days in Vanuatu and living the easy life, getting a little dirty in the jungle and having a blast.

Vanuatu: south pacific island life

2010-03-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

So I've been in Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu for a few days now with my cousin Alisha who is here in the Peace Corp. Got lucky with her picking me up at the airport due to cyclones around the islands and her flight being cancelled for the previous 4 days, but she made it in time to meet me and then get rid of a chicken that she had in a bag that her village had given her as a present for a friend in town. Small island life where anything goes on a plane, and there is family on every island to meet.

We've been cruising around town and keep running into other peace corp volunteers. Been crashing at 2 volunteers flat which is pretty basic, but still a lot better than Alisha's island where we're headed today, land of black magic and volcanoes and no fresh water. Going to be rustic is putting it mildly.

Sadly no cannibals around anymore, last case was lsited in the 70s. Used to eat each other just as a source of meat in certain places. Interesting stories at the cultural center.

Rented a 4wd ghetto jeep and drove around half the island to Alisha's first host family, saw the laid back island life in the hot sun. Stopped off at some awesome waterfalls where we swam under them, jumped over them and slid down some. Definitley the highlight so far.

Drinking some local drinks with the locals which involves a lot of spitting after you drink. Apparently the taste gets worse the more you drink it, so it was a noisy venue and a good thing I was wearing shoes.

So now off to the airport to fly in a small propeller plane where you can see the pilots. Going to ask for wings like I did when I was a kid.

Hope all is well with everyone. The big adventure has started and it's rocking and rolling.

Summertime in Wellington

2010-02-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

One Love at the Velodrome
Chillin with couch surfers
Bout to get my feed on
This past weekend was huge for Wellington. On Saturday was the One Love music event, celebrating Bob Marley’s birthday and the whole weekend was the Rugby Sevens tournament, with international teams packing out the stadium, culminating in a huge street party. Plus Saturday was Waitangi Day, celebrating the day the treaty was signed between the Maori and the English, making New Zealand an official super colony.

I went to One Love last year and just like then, we had amazing weather for the festival held in a velodrome. Nice grass pitch in the middle of the bike track. Super sunny, perfect day for hanging outside and listening to good live music while chilling with friends. The music was pretty sweet, although not as good as last year. The highlight was definitely the dub from Scotland. Nothing like a red haired Rasta from the land of Braveheart.

The place was packed, over 10,000 this year. Ran into a bunch of people I knew throughout the masses. Lunch was a hangi, the traditional Maori meal cooked using hot stones in the ground. Damn tasty and filling for a cheap price. 3 types of meat to go with potatoes, pumpkin, kumara and stuffing. Nothing like food cooked through steam over several hours.

For the Sevens, everyone dresses up and parties. It feels like a mardi gras mixed with Halloween. The 35,000 daily tickets sold out in 5 minutes and most of the people were all dressed up at the stadium. Huge screens around town and every bar making heaps of money during the weekend. In the night after the final, the city came alive dancing in the streets with DJs on rooftops and in the streets keeping the feet moving.

Moved into my new flat on Friday as well. In town, close to everything, 5 minutes to work on level ground, and a big room. I’m only here for the next 5 weeks before taking off to travel, so it’s working out good to be in the city centre again after crashing at a mate’s place a half hour away. Loving the city and going out with a bang.

Snow in between spring and summer

2010-01-11T02:47:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pics from my couple weeks in the US over Christmas. It was a great time visiting everyone and relaxing in the homeland. Felt a bit different, and full of Americans, but it was still nice to get into the little things that count, like Wheat Thins.

With Boston being super cold, we got some snow. Lots of it, which rocked. Just what I wanted. Looks great, fun to play in, and fits the bill for a stereotypical northern hemisphere Christmas which we didn't have last year in New Zealand.

Highlights include snowshoeing, cross country skiing, making a snowman, a couple Christmas parties with warm drinks and lots of sweets, plus the usual Christmas traditions like cutting down a tree (tried our best, but only shrubs were left so had to buy one) and having a wicked feast of a dinner with the family. Lots of good presents, several good games of darts and lots of static electricity flowing around to shock me.

Snowshoeing with the mom

Playing snow-baseball

Me and Charles Bronsan, my snowman, complete with snow nose and Oreo eyes

Walking the dog with my sister

Lake starting to freeze over it was so cold

Cricket

2010-01-07T20:48:00.000-08:00

Cricket, once believed by me to be one of the boriest sports out there, actually isn't half bad. Wednesday night I went with a bunch of couch surfers down to the Basin Reserve, the ancient cricket grounds for a match against Canterbury. What made the game interesting was that it wasn't the long drawn out famous matches of 5 days, but rather 20/20 cricket which means that you have a start to finish and a victor in about 3 hours, with only 120 balls bowled to each team, thus keeping it pretty quick paced.

Having practically no knowledge about the sport before the game other than it's a batsman not a batter as in baseball, it was fairly easy to pick up. Actually wanted to get out there and have a couple of swings myself. Each batsman gets 6 balls in what is called an "over" and there are 20 of these overs in a 20/20 match, therefore 120 balls. In that time frame the team tries to get as many runs as possible, with extra runs given when it rolls out past the fielders over the boundary rope of 4 runs and 6 runs given when hit over the boundary rope. The 6's are the big boys, like home runs and we had a bunch which always gets the crowd going, whether for the home or away team.

Wellington ended up winning, by 7 wickets in fact, pretty damn sweet, not a huge celebration as just a regular season game and the cold wind had been blowing all evening and a bunch of people had already headed to a warmer place. It was defnitely fun and I'd go to another one, preferably in warmer, sunnier weather.

Unicyles, Cricket and Summertime

2010-01-04T21:07:00.000-08:00

So I'm back in New Zealand after a couple weeks in the US. Great time up there, cold, but super fun. Got to play in the snow every day, sledding, snowshoeing, snowman etc. Good to hang out with the family and eat some rich tasty Christmas time food.

Now i'ts great to be back in the summer, hot weather and a lot less clothes than in New England. We've got the World Championships of Unicycling in Wellington right now. Pretty funny stuff, city being bombarded with 600 unicyclers all over the place. Watched the freestyle event which was pretty much figure skating routines on one wheeled bikes. Lots of bouncing around, twists and such, which didn't always go to smoothly. Entertaining in it's badness at times and awesome in the creativity at other times. Sadly missed out on the basketball and hockey due to being at work, but hey, just got to check it out some other time.

Going to my first cricket match tomorrow , going to get some of that good old British boring sport action that's world famous. Outside, lots of people in the sun and something random going on in the pitch. Guaranteed to be entertaining.

Santa's coming to town

2009-12-08T00:38:00.000-08:00

Who's that?<

So guess who got to decide who's been naughty or nice? Yup, yours truly. Had about 50 kids ages 8 months to 6 years all around me, giddy as hell, waiting for me to call out their name and give them a present. The smiles, the happy faces, the scared faces, the believing faces, it was all good.

I got driven up in a car (wearing a seatbelt of course, must set the good example) waving out the window and ho ho ho-ing. Kids gathering around getting all excited as I got out with my bag of presents. Felt like a celebrity, decked out in a wicked beard and costume, snazzy pillow belly to boot.

Sitting in a throne (what I call it, others might say chair), I was handed presents for each of the kids by my elves (flatmate Hannah and her coworker) and called out their names. Talk about having people's attention, all the parents and kids waiting for the name to be called out, pretty darn cool. Got some compliments on how Santa didn't sound like just a typical Kiwi, but rather international, perhaps from the north pole. At least the northern hemisphere and like he sounds in movies.

All was good, kids were happy, presents were opened and then there was just the one kid right in front of me, super eager the whole time and it turned out he didn't have a present while every other kid did. He was the brother of one of the kids at the school, and all the siblings only got presents if the parents brought one. Turned out they didn't and little Max had a big pout cause he wasn't leaving til Santa gave him a present. Lovely. At that time, Santa was thanked and escorted out leaving the parents (who didn't get him the present in the first place) to deal with the kiddo. More waves and happiness on the exit, a quick change in the car and I was back to being the sex symbol I am.

Good times, good times, giving happiness to one and all. Now I'm packing the bags and getting ready to head up to the northern hemisphere to a little country called the USA for a thing we call a White Christmas. Better get me some snow, none of this cold, cloudy, shite weather. Want the real deal and looking forward to seeing every member of my family that's currently in the US.

Flat roast

2009-11-11T21:20:00.000-08:00

Had us a traditional Kiwi roast the other night. Roast pork with roasted veg (sweet potato, carrot, parsnip, potato, garlic and pepper) along with mint peas, gravy and apple sauce. It was a feast and fed all 6 of us. Damn fine stuff cooked up by Laura. Fun stuff to get the flatmates all together for a meal, chatting it up. Good people and been a fun flat so far.
Pic of Laura and Sam cutting up the roast, plus one of the steaming roast on our olive green 70s counter

Roller Derby

2009-11-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went to my first roller derby game. To put it short, it was amazing. One of my workmates is on a team and so as well as supporting her, the fact that women wearing leotards on roller skates bump each other as a sport sounds amazing. Fairly simple rules, the skaters have one person who can score, called the jammer. The jammer scores points by skating past her teammates. The other 4 on the team try to allow her to get by, while the 4 on the other team try to stop her. Simple stuff.

The arena was packed, over a 1000 people there for the championship bout (not a match, or game, but a bout). Signs supporting their favorite players, such as Thigh Voltage, Huttbreaker or Punk Pantha for example. Lots of enthusiasm that just grew with the game as people actually started to understand what was going on. Towards the end, it got close, but my mate's team, Smash Malice won. Big celebration and the crowd loved it.

As Wellington is pretty small, there are only 2 teams so far and they practice with each other, so there's no real animosity. Good natured and yet physical, the girls battled to the finish, with some good time spent in the penalty box for being too rough. I thought it was a great sport, but my mates weren't so sure, with a couple saying one and done, but I'm keen for the bout against Auckland in a few weeks. Here are some pics and videos to check out.

2009-11-04T21:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday hit both the lower and upper parts of society with visits to the mental hospital and a red carpet movie premiere.

One of our most loyal and crazier customers is a local busker named Simon, always in the cafe, from when I get there to at the end of the day at 3am when we close. Quite a character and always with interesting stories and hypotheses. Not exactly everyone's favorite person, but someone you expect to see. Couple days ago we got a call that he was in the mental hospital and wanted to see some friendly faces, so I went with my co-worker, Rebekah, to check him out.

First trip to the land of the crazies was pretty fun. Signing in and then going through 5 long corridors through lots of doors to get to the ward he was in, and then got locked into his ward. Got a big ol' hug and lots new stories, which were still along the same lines as before. He's living large there with free coffee, food and a private room, along with a shrink and the best yet, a basketball court. Fenced in outside, next to the smoking room, we shot a few hoops, watched the short guy try to dunk it over and over to no avail and had Simon demand a tornado to come along with the wind. Hypotheses ranged from the the silent revolution, to how England looks like a man sitting on a pig. He'll be out soon, within the week most likely, as he's not as nuts as the woman who kept talking to herself and pacing the halls the entire time.

In the evening I attended the premiere of the German Film Festival, first annual with the German ambassador, Wellington Mayor and other hot shots, including 2 German film directors. Pretty sweet stuff, being in the largest theatre where they had the Lord of the Rings premiers.

The red carpet led into the foyer where an old Trabi (standard East German car) was chilling. Going on 20 years since the wall fell down, Nov 9th coming up. This festival is to tell the story of Germany and the stuggles around that time, and the film shown did just that. With a reception of free German beer, wine and snacks afterwards, it was quite a nice evening. Saw a bunch of familiar faces from the Goethe Insititute who I'm still in touch with as well as other friends from around town.

Quite a solid day off after a day of beating my squash partner in 3 out of 5 games, damn if feels good to be a gangster.

2009-10-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

Ah yeah, sweep of the Cards in the first round. Divisional series coming up. Pretty pumped about it down in New Zealand. Rocking it like they should, a return to the glory days of the late 80s.

Urban Golf

2009-10-04T23:15:00.001-07:00

We hit up the streets of Wellington once again for a round of golf in parking lots, alleys and side streets. The fashion was in full effect and there was actually a hole in one, sadly not mine.

For those who don't know, urban golf is the sport of golf played with a tennis ball around the city, finding potholes down alleys to use as holes, going up and down levels, around corners and with many water hazzards (puddles) in the way. It's a blast having people stop and check us out around town, not sure what we're doing, although it's pretty obvious. Golf clubs, golf attire and balls, pretty simple stuff.

Here's some pics for better clarification:

Sad day in island paradise

2009-10-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

Super sad news about Samoa. I spent 4 nights in one of the hardest hit places, over 40 dead there. Pretty crazy seeing the Friday paper with before and after pictures of where we stayed on the cover. Just devastaed. I have the same before picture and now it's completely gone. On the news footage I saw an empty cement block where theh dining hall and bar had once stood. Quite different from all the fun times we had there.

Thoughts go out to all the families in Samoa. Tough times. But I'm glad I was able to see the country and enjoy the culture before it was changed.

Samoa!

2009-09-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

Living it up on the island of Upolu in Samoa

Location is everything says our beach hut

Mr Peacock and Mr Turtle

Hey everyone! Hope things are good wherever you are, whether it's turning to fall or mid spring already.

I just got back from an amazing holiday out in Samoa, super chill and laid back island culture. I travelled with my flatmate Sam for 8 days, over which I turned 25 years old. We explored both of the main islands spending many an hour upon the beach, both in the water and out. The hair was pretty salty by the end and the mattress was filled with sand every night. We spent the nights in open beach huts called Fales. No locks, no frills, just a mattress, sheet and mosquito net with thatch wall hangings to cover the sides if wanted and just a few steps away from the water.

Got to swim with 8 turtles out in a lagoon. Pretty friendly animals that come right up to you. Fun to swim around with them and get smacked in the back when wasn't looking. They'd often gain up on us, surrounding us and get in a good whack when we weren't looking. Fed them some papaya and they loved it.

Outside of Apia, the capital, we slid down a couple waterfalls which didn't look too safe, but turned out to be just grand. In the city we hit up the food market where you get fresh coconuts, taro, vegetables and fish. Just make sure you buy the fish from the place where they wave a fan around the keep the flies away.

Snorkelling was amazing, with schools of fish all around and bright blue starfish a shallow dive down. One of the places we stayed had a great coral reef just 15 feet out.

I helped cooked a traditional Samoan meal, starting with making fire by hand and using hot stones to cook the food. Using fresh coconuts that a guy climbed a 50 foot tree to get, along with fresh vegetables and fresh fish, we cooked the meal over the stones with lots of leaves on top keeping the heat in. Turned out to be a damn tasty meal along with the freshly cut coconuts which had been cut open for us.

Played some beach volleyball, met lots of cool people, saw several whales, ate lobster and crab caught off the shore and just lived it up. Now I'm back ready to rock in Wellington, NZ. Good to be back with some structure in the life, working at the same cafe and loving it. The visa extension is taking a few turns, but is nearing completion as my current visa runs out. Pretty soon I'll be all set to stay legally and enjoy my time down here in the coming summer, and then start planning a big trip up through Australia and SE Asia when the summer ends in March.

Here are some pics of the latest trip. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/JustusPB/Samoa#

Cheers,
Justus

Off to Samoa

2009-09-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow my flatmate Sam and I are off to Samoa. We leave Saturday at 10am from Wellington and get into Samoa Friday night at 9pm, so I'll get to have 2 Friday nights. When we come back I lose a Sunday night, a fair trade in my opinion thanks to the international dateline.

It's currently windy and rainy, so a perfect time to take off north to a more tropical south pacific island. Aim to be swimmin with turtles by this time tomorrow, with a volcano in the background.

I had a bout with the flu that kicked my butt and kept me in bed for 5 days, but now I'm back on top of my game, full of attitude and life. Good to be back and rocking, ready for the holiday.

Still working on getting my visa sorted out, luckily I got my passport back so I can leave the country, but it may be a bit tricky upon returning as my current visa ends the 30th of this month, a few days after I get back from Samoa.

I'll be turning 25 on holiday, celebrating by chilling on a beach and snorkeling around. Going to be cruisy.

Hope everyone is rocking and rolling.

Next time, pictures from Samoa and stories of the adventures.

2009-08-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

The weather has turned and it's definitely spring with sunny days, and clear cold nights. The allergy season has started for people and we get more and more sunlight. It just gets better and better.

Today I've been out urban golfing with some mates around town. We play different holes around town that we made up, choosing some spot in the distance, around the corner, across a back alley, over stairs etc. which we then hit our tennis balls towards. The slight hills around town make it a challenge, plus parked cars and busy streets, but it's a damn good time. Plus the golf fashion is in full effect.

Every Saturday I've been playing hoops with my mate Steve from work with other people. Getting more and more people and today had our first fullcourt game of 4x4. Good times and new people every week.

In the month of August, the zoo is only $5 on Wednesdays so Rebekah from work and I went to check out the new monkeys, Pgymy Marmosets, smallest in the world and the rest of the animals. The monkeys are about the side of a coke can and walk in slow motion, with quirky head motions, plus they look funky. Check out the pic down below. The best 2 animals at the zoo are the red panda (more of a racoon)and the sun bear (more of a monkey bear). Watched the tiger get fed and fed a giraffe myself.

Got a trip to Samoa coming up in a few weeks for the birthday. Going to get solid summer sun, hike to waterfalls and volcanos, swim to underwater caves and go down natural rock slides on waterfalls as well as chilling at the beach.

Work's going good as always, busy as with the good weather and making some great food. I've got the art of making a basic coffee down as well as rocking the kitchen. Good people there, one big happy family.

Feeding the giraffes at the zoo
Marmoset monkeys at the Wellington zoo, smallest in the world

Morning sunrise from our balcony

2009-07-14T21:10:00.001-07:00

Hello! You still out there? Someone has been slacking on the blog front. Life's been busy in Wellington, filled with work, friends, a new flat and some cold weather. It's been 3 months since I got back from my van travels. Time has flown by, but it's good to be in a fun city with a lot going on and busy days.

Midnight Espresso is still as busy as ever, the students are back from their 2 week holiday which did slow things down a bit, but now with the youth and a new pinball machine, the cafe is bumping. I've added some new spicy peanut egg rolls to the counter food as well as continuing to make my vegan and gluten free chocolate nut cupcakes that sell big time. It's fun to try new things out and then to perfect them and make them something that people come back for.

Although I have a full time job, it feels like a holiday for me as it's fun and laid back and I only work 4 days. Still almost 40 hours in 4 days isn't exactly easy on the body with lots of standing up. But it's a good time and I'm still enjoying it. With my days off I've been getting a lot of music from the library as well as books to catch up on everything from ancient numeric systems to trademark logos. Plus on Mondays I can get any movie for $1 at the local video shop so I'm playing catchup with some movies.

I'm in the final stages of extending my visa. Immigration called to check on payment and said all was in order, so it sounds like it passed, but I haven't received the official confirmation yet. With the visa extension, I'll be able to stick around until Sept 2010 if I want to. Just keeping the options open.

Lastly, the flat is still going great. My German flatmate Stefan got the travel bug from our travels around and decided to take off for Indonesia. So he's been gone for a couple weeks now and we have a new guy in his room now. Now I'm the only foreigner here, living with 5 Kiwis. Still a fun place and we're having a good time together, joking around and going out. It's a great flat with an amazing view and good times.

Hope all is well with everyone. Must be warmer up in the northern hemisphere. We average around 10 degrees celcius now which is high 40s in farenheit. Pretty nippy with the wind when it's in full effect, but managable. Can't wait for the summer to come again, plus I'm planning a trip to Samoa in the near future to get some warm island beach experience in.

Cheers,
Justus

2009-06-09T04:12:00.000-07:00

I've been in the new flat for over 2 weeks and things are going great. Went to the dump shop today where everything is super cheap and they sell literally everything from skis to paints to candlesticks. Got some excellent things to finish up the room with the highlights being a sliding door that has become the top of my table. It's all polished and comes complete with a brass handle that gives it good character to match the flat. I also got an old poster of James Dean advertising for McDonalds. Not sure if it's legit, but it's pretty funny.

Been super busy at work as always. Just did 40 hours in 4 days, over a busy weekend which was fun, but tiring. Went with a friend to see Shakespeare's Richard II done in a circus style. Different, interesting and hilarious. Also went to a mate's birthday party at an old cinema he'd rented out on Friday night. Awesome venue, with lots of old movie memoribilia and some classic films to watch.

The weather had been super cold, but we just had a good week of sun most days, after not seeing it for 5 days. Slight snow flurries in that patch, but now we're on to traditional fall weather down here after setting record lows. It's tolerable and the room isn't too cold which is nice. Plus working in a kitchen with free heat is an extra bonus.

View from my living room

James Dean munching on some McDonalds poster I bought at the dump shop

My table, set up with 6 milk crates and an old polished sliding door for the top, full of books and paint

The room setup these days

The bread crates that keep my bed above ground and airated

All moved in to the new flat

2009-05-23T21:31:00.001-07:00

So I'm in my new flat now, moved over this morning. Feels pretty damn good to be here. I've got most of my stuff organized and still have to get more furniture for the room, but that'll come quickly. I'll most likley move my couch into the room as well as add a table/desk, plus get some good posters and wall hangings to cover up the marks. I'm going to buy a base for the bed to get it off the ground to avoid mould problems and give some more storage underneath.

Storage is definitely not an issue here, it's a huge place. I've got a massive closet which pretty much does the job, plus there's hidden closets, cupboards and such all around the house. I explored them all and got some new clothes, a hot water bottle, a bunch of food and a first aid training kit including a blow up doll to practice on. Really hit the jackpot on that one.

The past couple of days have been really bad weatherwise and today is no change. My amazing view is just of flying rain, wind and clouds. So I'm excited for a good day soon to take some pictures and enjoy a primo view of the whole city.

It's fun getting to know the flatmates. Only 2 around right now, but been fun. Good people and all of them are around the same age.

I'm looking forward to being just a 5 minute walk to work, pracitally being able to see work since we're up on a hill. No more waiting for the bus in the cold and then getting to town 25 minutes later. I'm back in the city and pumped about it.

My room, with the 70s orange carpet

The huge closet on the other side of the room

The stairs from the front entrance coming up in the middle of the flat

The living room with lovely wall paneling

View from living room of the study and kitchen through the slding door

Study view looking at the kitchen, slightly lighter wood paneling on the walls

Kitchen with view of the back where we have a garage, bbq and another balcony

Looking back to the living room from the kitchen

New flat

2009-05-14T02:15:00.000-07:00

The whole top is ours, big balcony and huge living room.

The view from the balcony of the harbour and city

While I've been cat sitting out in the ritzy suburbs, I've been looking for a new flat in town, one that I aim to stick with for the next 10 months or so of my stay in Wellington. After checking out a couple duds, I viewed one last night that was perfect. Such a wicked house with an amazing view. I don't move in for a week and a half while I cat sit, but I'm getting pretty pumped about it.

The flat is the whole top floor of a huge house, with a big balcony out back overlooking the whole city and harbour, plus a back balcony. Inside, when you come up the stairs, you are in the middle of the flat with everything all around you. Nice big kitchen and dining room, plus a spacious living room with lots of couches.

I'll have 4 flatmates, 3 girls and 1 guy. All around the same age and all workers. Going to be good company and many good times to come.

The price is super cheap for what it is and the location. I'm about a 5 minute walk to work downhill and 7 minutes uphill back to the flat so it's perfect.

Things have come along nicely. Working on getting the medical exam taken care of to extend my visa and once that's done, I'll be set to live in a cool flat, with a great job and an extended visa for a long happy time.

Tree planting

2009-05-05T18:54:00.001-07:00

Since it's way wicked to be back in Wellington, I figured it was time to plant some roots. Not mine, but rather a tree's roots. I was at a wind power concert last week and got a free tree, just a wee little baby one. I worked 5 days straight and had no time to plant it, but on my first day off, that was exactly what I did.

A Rata, is a native tree of New Zealand. Like most countries these days, NZ is trying to plant just native trees and return it to how it used to be. of course they can't get rid of everything like the cows, sheep and vineyards which make the most money for the country. But with planting trees like the rata, steps are taken in the right direction. And yours truly is taking a couple steps, making up for all the breathing going on down in NZ. Check out more info on my tree at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrosideros_robusta

Here are a few pics of me planting the tree, tucked away in a park with a great view of the city, the water and the hills. Should last a while before anyone notices it there and hopefully it will stay for a long long time.
My baby rata tree in it's bag admiring it's new home

The planter

Mr. Rata loving the view

Me and Katy down by the schoolyard

2009-04-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

So I'm a bonafide catsitter these days. Yup, a change of career. This one pays differently, tossing in free accomation in a 3 story townhouse, minus any actual payment. So I'm living like a king, out in a nice suburb, living with a cat and taking a bus to work.

The life is good out here, except for the bad weather which has been rainy, windy and cloudy for a few days now. Had to borrow a bike to get into work before 6am yesterday and lets just say, the ride wasn't that nice. But the perks of not paying rent and getting the cash flow problem fixed are quite nice. The main problem with the cash flow, was that there was no cash flowing in for 2 months of travel in a van, therefore, the account got down to the double digits and I got back to working. Now with money coming in and not much going out, the future looks like I found the golden treasure of El Dorado.

I've got a sweet view from my bedroom on the third story. Overlooking a huge park with several playing fields, and Mount Kaukau across the way. I'm up on a hill which is wicked, giving a sort of valley texture to the area between myself and the mountain. I've attached a photo of a sunrise and will get more once the current clouds go away.

Hope all is rocking with everyone. Enjoy the pictures

Katy giving me the staredown

Spotting something much more interesting outside

What's that, who's playing reggae?

Sunrise colours at 6:20, time to head off to work

More travel photos

2009-04-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

Jumping over the Moeraki Boulders
What a penguin would do if it could

The boys tackling the world's steepest street in Dunedin

Check out the beard and the steep street

That'sa me, way up there

2009-04-16T22:16:00.000-07:00

The tranzscenic train going from Christchurch to Picton

More good views along the way from the open air viewing car

Me in the viewing car with no view at all thanks to my wonderful photographer

Kaikoura with the snow capped mountains meeting the ocean

The travels are done. It’s been a bit over 2 months and we’ve been to pretty much most of NZ. Done both islands, seeing both sides of each, plus some good stuff in the middle. The trip has been amazing and I’ll miss traveling around in the van. I’ve got to get back to civilization, taking showers not in the ocean and sleeping in a bed once again.

On Easter, I took the train from Christchurch up to Picton where I then took a ferry to Wellington. The train was definitely the highlight of the day, starting at 7am with the sunrise through the fog and out along the coast, past seal colonies, snow capped mountains, vineyards and salt flats. Pretty much you get to see a lot of types of NZ landscapes all on a 5 hour trip, in the cushiness of a train. There was a open viewing car, where you could go and get some fresh train air with no windows to mess up your photos. Pretty sweet stuff.

Now I’m back in Wellington, and back working at Midnight Espresso. Things are golden as always. It’s good to be back in town, seeing a bunch of friends in the first few days and staying with some up on a hill over the city. I’ve got myself a nice walk into the city for this week, before moving in next week to a townhouse I’ll be house sitting for. So this week, I’m close to the city and able to get around quite easily.

Work is sweet as, as the Kiwis would say. Cooking and doing some baking shifts as well. Baked some wicked peanut butter chocolate cookies yesterday that got rave reviews as did my caramel slice. It’s been fun to mess around and try new recipes, things that are typical in NZ. Baked some Anzac Biscuits today, sugary coconut cookies that are named after the Australia New Zealand Armed Corp. They’ve been baked since WWI.

The south of the south starring the Catlins

2009-04-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

Nugget Point Sunrise
The scruff and the falls

The southernmost point on the south island

The travelers see Stewart Island in the distance

Big Blue spends a night on the beach

Named after a former landowner, the Catlins is basically the very southern part of NZ, along the water, full of beaches, waterfalls, caves, fields and heaps of sheep. At Slope Point, you are at the southernmost part of the south island. Since we’d already been to the northernmost point on the north island, it was customary to be a good tourist and do the bottom of the bottom. Pretty rough water out there, with a few islands a ways off being the actual southern part of NZ. We saw some sweet 4 tiered waterfalls along with an old shipwreck from 50 years ago. Several lighthouses, along with seal sightings were other stops that we hit up along the way, going from sealed to unsealed roads, taking our time, enjoying it all and trying to stay ahead of the rain, which we actually did for a while.

For about the third night in a row, we ended up camping on top of a hill. With it being autumn and having had a cold spell lately, it was again a cold night. Bundled up in some woolen socks that were used in Antarctica (not sure if that means they work in the cold, or they didn’t work and therefore were sent back) and an extra blanket, we made it through to wake up for another sunrise. Unlike the last few days where there were too many clouds, we had some breaks of blue skies for the sunrise over Nugget Point.

Nugget Point is unbelievable. Nugget shaped rocks spread around the water, with a lighthouse on the cliffs above make it a good photo op. Watching the sun come up, with nothing but you and nature, is tough to beat. That’s definitely been one of the highlights of each day on the trip. The clouds which were there, rained and then hailed on us, but that couldn’t take away from the place. Nothing like watching the sun rise, with blue skies in the distance and yet getting pelted with small frozen raindrops. Definitely better than the blowhole from the day before that wasn’t blowing. Anyways, from Invercargill through the Catlins, we made it out to the eastern part of the southland.

Dunedin is a wicked city, full of students and some great microbreweries, plus one of the best botanic gardens around. From beer tasting, to walking up the steepest paved street in the world, to viewing the city from the highest mountain around, Dunedin was a good stop. Nearby, the Otago Peninsula, is full of seals, albatrosses and lots of other wildlife. We spent a day out there, swimming around in the cold water and checking everything out. At the beach where we swam, there were some seals showing off and posing, while the penguins were in hiding. It was a wicked day, even with having to hike up for 20 minutes up sand dunes. Great views, blue skies and not many people, out in nature: what the Otago Peninusla is all about.

The Warrant of Fitness test

2009-04-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

In New Zealand, cars older than 5 years have to get a Warrant Of Fitness test done every six months. The WOF is a safety test, to make sure that your car is safe for the road, both for you and other drivers. After owning Big Blue for a few months, our warrant was up and we headed south to the largest city around, Invercargill to get it done. Like most travelers, we wanted to get the warrant passed and on our way, no hassles, nice and easy. We found out about an easy garage in the middle of nowhere that was perfect, but he was in a spot of trouble and couldn’t do any warrants, so we had to look into other garages. After having no luck with getting a warrant on the same day, we happened upon a garage that could do it right away. They turned out to be a very strict garage and were quite nice to come up with several things wrong with the van that had to be fixed in order to pass the WOF.

Luckily Invercargill is a big city and after checking out some repair places, we found a place that could scramble up everything we needed, from welding some cracks, getting a new seat belt cover for us, changing brake hoses and a few other things. Unlike the 500 dollars quoted at the strict garage, we were able to get the work done for pretty cheap, paying not even half that amount.

Allan, the repair/salvage yard owner, was a genius with cars, but had to do all the work as he hired 3 braindead people to work for him. Things took a while there, but after 2 days, everything was set, and we passed our warrant. The delay gave us time to see Bluff, famous for their oysters and windy hills, plus good views of Stewart Island.

We drove on the beach where Burt Munroe raced his famous Indian, as seen in The World’s Fastest Indian. Not bad for an old timer to be setting speed records in a self modified 1920s motorcycle. We spent the night on the beach, hoping the high tide wouldn’t be too high and sweep the van away. In the morning, with just a couple tiny islands in between us and Antarctica, we went for a swim. The water was mighty cold, refreshing, and rejuvenating. Clean and ready to rock, with a safe van, we were able to leave the southwest of NZ and move on to the east coast.

Southern sweetnes, yeah the south island rocks

2009-04-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

The travellers reach the southern lakes

Nothing like stone towers and waterfalls

Sunset at Lake Wanaka, where it got down to 0 degrees celsius

Natural hot springs after a 7 hour hike up towards the southern alps

The wild west coast

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks of travel on the south island.

http://picasaweb.google.com/JustusPB/BeyondTheApple#

Starting with the apples and going through amazing valleys along a river out to the west coast where the beaches were super rough. Driving past vineyards and orchards into the valley was great, as the trees are starting to change colour for autumn and the riverbed was lined with water, stones and trees. The drive along the west coast is also pretty impressive with scattered islands and rocks and some of the rougher water we’ve seen in NZ. The beach swimming wasn’t as nice as before, as you’ll see in a few pics where the waves are higher than I am, and just 10 feet away from the shore, thus being super strong and taking out our feet as we went it. The fact that the beaches were filled with rocks that were shot at our ankles by the waves didn’t help getting out too far, but made for an entertaining time.

Also entertaining on the west coast were the sandflies. For those who haven’t been to NZ before, they are worse than mosquitos. They look like little black flies, quite harmless until they land on you and bite, and when you smack them away, there’s blood coming out. Little bastards. Heaps of them too, surrounded a lot of the time down by the beach. For dinner, we’d walk around eating, trying not to get attacked. We’ve learned a few of the kiwi tricks to fighting them off, using an antiseptic mixed with baby oil which works well. Keeps them from biting, but they’re still around.

The glaciers are a huge draw after the pancake rocks for tourists. Pretty impressive, with the tallest mountain, Mt Cook and the southern alps behind them as a background. After checking out a small gold mining town, we hiked the overnight Copland Track. 7 hours of hiking up through small creeks and rivers, past tons of rocks and landfalls up to a hut surrounded by mountains and some natural hot springs. In the morning, we were greeted with views of snow capped mountains from the nearby river before heading back to the carpark and the sandflies.

From the west coast, we drove to the southern lakes, a land full of huge, blue, beautiful lakes. We’re in Wanaka right now, have been for 4 days. Such an amazing town, on what is regarded as the most beautiful lake in NZ. They’ve got an amazing brewery, a sweet toy museum, lots of hiking, the world’s largest two story maze and much more. Plus Uncle Mike’s BBQ, serving up some great American pork ribs. Today we hiked out to another glacier, driving around the lake up towards snow capped mountains, just doesn’t get any better than that.

West Coast

2009-03-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

The west coast is full of rough beaches and mountains. We've moved into the higher mountains now, called the Southern Alps with a few glaciers to check out. Pretty sweet stuff, but not as cool as the pancake rocks, sandstone rocks that have a pancake look to them. Well not really, more so to a 5 year old, but they're amazing, standing apart out in the water, with natural bridges and blowholes in them. Very cool, and yet they sadly got a childish name.

The towns on the west coast aren't all that hot, meaning there's not much to do. It was a big gold and coal mining area, which has died down leaving just a few good breweries to hit up, plus some boring mining hikes.

Tomorrow we're off to hike the Copland track, an overnight hike that heads up towards Mt Cook, the hightest mountain in NZ, hitting a high elevation with hot pools by the hut. Shouldn't reach the snow, but should be cold. With good weather, the pictures will be good.

After 2 days of glaciers, Franz Josef and Fox, the weather feels colder. But that didn't stop us from going to the beach this afternoon at a rough and rocky beach. Pretty crazy out there, with rocks being whipped at you in the water, but still a good time.

Hope everyone is having a grand old weekend.

South Island Photos

2009-03-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/JustusPB/TheIslandCloserToAntarcticaThanTheOtherOne#

Got a few photos for you guys to look at of the adventures as we get closer to antarctica and the weather gets colder, but still remains sunny

Apples galore

2009-03-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

If you've got a cold morning, apple picking is a great remedy for warmth

How 'bout dem apples?

Check out the size of those bins

My career as an apple picker ended almost as soon as it started. To put it bluntly like the British do, the work is shite. Out there in the hot sun, doing manual labor, standing 8 feet above the ground, wearing a basket holding pounds of apples, gee that sounds like fun. But it was a good time while it lasted. We worked on Friday, getting a good taste of what it would be like. Starting off in the cold morning, in a work group made up entirely of Thais, who kicked ass and made us look super slow. We did the average of 4 bins each, which equates after tax to about 100 dollars for the day. Check out the size of those bins, hundreds of apples in each. About a cubic meter full, which is something big in square or cubic feet.

So we worked the Friday and then had 3 days off. So what do we do? Go exploring another new part of the country, Golden Bay which rocked. Super sunny, with grassy fields on the bottom of a valley surrounded by amazing hills going out to golden, warm beaches. Not too shabby. After attempting to run 10k in the forest by the beach, I hurt my knees and got to be a gimp again, thus ending our illustrious apple picking career. A good, legitimate reason not to work and also why work now in the summer with good weather when I can work it off in Wellington at a job I enjoy with good people around.

So we’re done picking apples, and with about 30 apples from the orchard we are heading down the west coast to gold mining cities and glaciers. The travels continue, a week ahead of schedule, meaning more chilling and enjoying the country.

Abel Tasman

2009-03-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

My arch can kick your arches butt

Early morning low tide hike across mud flats, crossing with new friends Lara and Jeff

Refreshing water after a couple hours kayak

How a master kayaker looks

Probably the only time my paddle wasn't going super fast in the water

To put it in easy words, Abel Tasman rocks. The national park in the northwest of the south island, is full of isolated, golden beaches and super clear blue water. It's what most people would consider an island paradise, scattered with islands and amazing shorelines along the coast. Seals and dolphins abound, along with sting rays and fish. From the jungle like mountains surrounding the water, down to the thick glass-like sand, or the smooth white sand, it's pretty amazing.

I spent 3 days there, kayaking for two of them and hiking for another. Camping out, surrounded by the dark starry sky at night, and walking through sea shell scattered beaches in the day. Not a bad way to enjoy pefectly sunny days.

The kayaking was definitely the best part. Stefan and I got suited up in our double kayak and set off exploring some islands first before sticking to the beaches along the coast. Seemed like every 15 minutes we were at another beach. Hardly anyone out there, as the tourist summer season is about over. Lots of lagoons and estuaries along the way, with one leading up to a river, only accesible at high tide. Paddled upstream to a swing bridge up above, where we talked with 2 people we would later see at the campsite and hike with the next day.

It was a great few days and a good way to get over a bit of illness I had after hiking in the Marlborough Sounds. More to come on that later.

Surfing with volcanoes

2009-03-02T00:52:00.001-08:00

Surftime

Typical New Zealand

Perfect beach free of human contact by roads

Today has been amazing, waking up to a wicked sunset from our beach parking lot spot. Then on to climb the volcano (not active they say) with great views all around. On one side you have the city, sticking out on a peninsula that ends with the volcano, beaches on both sides all the way down. The other side you have another beach across the water that has no roads going to it and goes on forever, unblemished by humans (apart from those sneaky kayakers who were out there). On the way down, we passed sheep out in a pasture on another side, which set up a typical NZ photo with sheep, water, beach, green and a volcano. Yup, this is life in Kiwiville.

After hiking the volcano and chilling with fresh watermelon by the beach volleyball court, it was time to rent surfboards and hit the water for a few hours. Great waves, hot sun and perfect surroundings. Good to be out surfing again on a hot summer day.

2009-02-26T22:14:00.000-08:00

Me and Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings

The hunchback sits in a crater, a prequel by Victor Hugo

We make it to the Emerald Lakes, bright lakes in between volcanoes and craters

Crater behind one of the Emerald Lakes

View through a mini tiki hut on the beach out at the Pacific Ocean

New Chums Beach, an unbelievable oasis of a cove amongst the rocks and trees

Nice long, private beach for us

Today we went to a beach that is in the top 20 in the world. Unbelievable. A perfect sheltered bay surrounded by cliffs, palm trees and caves. Felt like we had just been shipwrecked with hardly anyone around. Took a decent hike to get there through water, rocks, a hill forest and a palm tree forest, coming out on the super soft white sand. Spent several hours there loving it before heading back to grill up some mussel sausages, something the locals go crazy for out here. Big seafood feast.

A few days ago we hiked the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which passes through 2 volcanoes, a couple craters and some amazing emerald lakes high up amidst it all. A lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed here, with one of the volcanoes being used as Mt Doom. After making it through sideways rain to get there, up mountains in midst and almost snow, the craters were well worth it. The one we crossed felt like we were in Star Wars and the red crater did not look natural with its strong colour.

I'll update more soon as my battery is about out and we have no power source. Luckily found a wireless hotspot out in the middle of nowhere next to a pub. That's all there is in this town. On the way to Hot Water Beach, a beach with hot springs under it. Supossedly it'll burn your ass, cause it's so hot.

2009-02-21T15:43:00.000-08:00

Sandboarding

Fishing for pacific salmon

Caves, beaches, tourist bathrooms, sand dunes, oh yeah

2009-02-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

The Wellington Ukulele Orchestra at the Cuba St Carnival

Big Blue enjoys a sunset on Cape Egmont

The largest and oldest Kauri tree in New Zealand

The Dodgers and the Sugar Loaf Islands

Cape Reinga Lighthouse, the northernmost point of the north island

Sandboarding in the northland

Chilling with Big Blue and the ocean background

Big Blue and the Bay of Islands

Famous, crazy artistic toilets

Does this count as spelunking?

So after 2 weeks, I get to go online for the second time. Been busy out around the country, exploring the north island, seeing a ton and living it up. The van is still going great, been driving a lot and put on 3000 kilometers so far.

After leaving Auckland we went up to the Bay of Islands passing through Kawakawa, the place of the infamous Hundertwasser toilets. Austrian artist Hundertwasser designed some crazy toilets with no straight lines in a town in the middle of nowhere, which has become a spot to come, relieve yourself, take a photo and leave. Gotta love it.

Explored some sweet caves nearby the Bay of Islands which were off the beaten path and better than some of the other touristy, expensive ones. Hiked in through slippery rock, to wade through knee deep water through funky rocks, glow worms and lots of darkness.

The northland was my favorite part of the north island so far. Super white, soft beaches with hardly anyone around. Great sandboading, sliding down super steep hills at rocket speeds. At the top we cooked dinner after bodysurfing where the two oceans meet and chilled with the sun setting in one of the most isolated places in NZ.

Down in New Plymouth we went on a tour of the seals around the Sugar Loaf islands, catching heaps of pacific salmon along the way, two of which we were able to take back with us for a huge feast. Fresh fish, along with roasted sweet potato and sweet corn, oh that's the life. Not eating like normal travelers, eating quite well and living it up.

First 5 days of travel / PHOTOS

2009-02-12T21:08:00.000-08:00

So I've been gone from Wellington for 5 days now, on the road in Big Blue, Stefan and I traveling around seeing the north island of New Zealand. It's been a blast so far, as expected. We are up in Auckland now, having got here late last night. Been taking our time, enjoying it and see heaps of the country. Haven't been slowed down by sheep yet, but we've been on plenty of windy roads, green countryside and dirt roads that NZ is famous for.

After a day in Waikane, getting things taken care of on our van (oil change, fastening seats, air filter etc.) we went to Turangi to some wicked hot springs. Stefan hit up bungy jumping along the way in the highest place in the north island. Pretty high jump down to the river, some 80m down. We stayed overnight at some private hot springs, off the main path, being able to chill with no one around, just lots of heat and moisture. The next morning, waking up to heat, and moisture in the van, we cooked breakfast over a hot spring, which some Maori locals had shown us. Super fun way to cook food, slow, but it got the job done naturally, using heat from the earth.

Lake Taupo was huge, famous for trout fishing. Cool city too, and we camped on the outskirts near a huge waterfall at a free campground. Super strong river there, which was refreshing after organizing the inside of the van. The gas cooker worked great and the next morniing after another good swim in the river, we had breakfast and on the road again to the west coast to the big beaches. It rained the whole day, but that didn't stop us from swimming in the Tasman Sea in the biggest waves I've seen so far in NZ. Found some hot water springs on the beach too, that weren't too hot due to the rain and tide and one hour later after swimming and coming out drier than before, they weren't too much hotter.

Now we've explored Auckland and are off to an island tomorrow morning nearby to do some wine tasting and hiking.

Private hot springs in Turangi, dug out by the locals

Cooking breakfast of eggs and ham over the hot springs, old fashioned Maori style

Big Blue with breakfast table out back at free campground in Lake Taupo

Big Blue and I, rocking the North Island

Fresh corn, enough said

Green countryside, dotted with cows, and covered with summer clouds

Stefan, Big Blue and the Tasman Sea near Kaphia

Auckland, as seen from Mt Eden, the highest volcano in the city

Queen Victoria with palm trees? Must mean I'm on a south pacific island

Big Blue!

2009-02-03T12:13:00.001-08:00

Check out my new van that I'll be traveling around New Zealand in:

Pretty excited to have the van finally. Way wicked. The best part might be the carpet. Right now Stefan is putting a roof rack on it and we're putting in some seats in the back as well to transport mates around town in. Pretty fun to cruise around in, with a good stereo system and lots of character. Couple small problems with it, but those are being taken care of by the experts, us and our mates.

Wellington by Night

2009-02-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

Photo from Mt Victoria

A day at Midnight Espresso

2009-01-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

I've been working at Midnight Espresso for a couple weeks now and will let you know what I've been up to there. This is what one website says about Midnight Espresso:

Midnight Espresso is Wellington's longest standing late night cafe, situated in one of Wellington's historic areas - Cuba Street. Midnight offers a diverse and colourful atmosphere, encouraged by staff, music and clientele.

Laid back and relaxing, Midnight is a great place to go just to have a coffee and read the paper, and of course sample some of the magnificent cuisine. They offer a range of predominately vegetarian counter and menu food, with awesome flavour and presentation to match.

Midnight Espresso are users and stockists of Havana coffee - NZ's only cuban coffee wholesalers. Also available are freshly cut and squeezed fruit and vegetable juices, vegan, vegetarian, and wheat-free food.

My day starts at 6am, when I get there to open up, do the cheese and milk orders and then get started on my baking. I whip up both sweet and savory muffins, making about 2-3 dozen of each, then I make enough hollandaise sauce for the day, then I make cheesy scones from scratch and get our bread set by mixing the flour, yeast, soymilk and maple syrup together to get the dough rising. After my baking is pretty much done, I start making our standard breaky sandwiches with croissants and bagels we get ordered in.

By that time, food orders start coming in and I"ll be cooking eggs and bacon etc as well as finishing up the sandwiches and then starting to work on some counter food. I'm often making vegan lasagnas, or veggie pizzas with a twist like the last Asian one I did. There are a few recipes I can follow if I want, or I pretty much just do what sounds good. Very flexible as to what I make. Just need to make several a day to keep the counter going and looking good.

I work until 4pm getting lots of things done and having a blast. Good coworkers, great music and fun food makes it a good job. I'm leaving in a week or so to go traveling so I'll miss the job, but I'm hoping to come back and work there in a couple months when I'm done traveling.

Beach Volleyball

2009-01-19T21:07:00.000-08:00

Beach Volleyball takes over Wellington! Stars from around the world, teams that are amazing, but didn't make the Olympics playing on the beach. Over the weekend Wellington held an international beach volleyball tournament. Pretty sweet to see some good volleyball and relive the Olympic memories when everyone was into beach volleyball. Well it's summer down here and that means beach volleyball is still in full effect. I watched the finals for the both the men and women, with Germany losing to the Kiwi women and the Dutch men losing to the Kiwi men. Everyone was happy with the results as the Kiwis won so everyone could party, and the other teams put up good fights so they were cool. Would've been bad if the Kiwis had lost, so although it might've been rigged, it was still a good afternoon of entertainment.

Somes Island

2009-01-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

In the middle of the Wellington Harbour is Somes Island. It used to be used as a quarantine station for sick passengers, then for sick animals, then it was used for increasing quality sheep by taking quality sperm and eggs and making lambs. For the last 10 years or so, it's been an animal sanctuary and has been flourishing with native wildlife.

As my roommate Stefan, friend Angie and I had the day off, we headed out to explore and check out the 360 views of the harbor. Perfect sunny day for it, with a slight breeze. Upon our arrival, we were checked for rodents, as that could ruin the environment on the island. Our shoes were also checked for mud or seeds that could bring non-native plants to the island. You might ask who did the checking, well, it was done by yours truly, and I am happy to say, there were no rodents in my bag. Rangers did supervise of course.

We saw the oldest lighthouse built around Wellington, old gun battlements from WWII in which the guns were later sold to the Japanese (ironic, eh?) and some funky looking sheep, plus some finicky seagulls who tried to take a bite out of Stefan.

Skydiving

2009-01-09T19:44:00.000-08:00

Right after Christmas, my sister and I went skydiving in Queenstown. Up to 15,000 feet which meant about a full minute freefall before the shute came out. The weather wasn't good the day we wanted, so we went early the next morning on a perfect day, with nary a cloud in sight. after getting all suited up in a jumpsuit, cap, gloves and goggles, we hopped in the small plane to take us and another jumper up. Crammed into the plane, we rose higher and higher, with the view getting better. In the distance we could see Mt Cook, the highest peak in NZ. We kept climbing higher and higher, then the other jumper jumped at 12,000 which already seemed pretty high and the brain started those second thoughts, but then we kept rising up to 15,000.

When you reach the height, the plane levels out and the door opens and you know it's time. I went first, leaning out of the plane with my instructor hooked on behind me, and a photographer holding on outside the plane. To be honest, the first 5 seconds sucked. It was basically the nightmare you have about falling. But then you get used to it and get to enjoy it, checking out the amazing scenary and making faces for the camera. We fell for just under a minute before the parachut popped out and we floated down slowly. Quite an amazing experience and in one of the most beautiful places around so I was quite happy. Enjoy the photos.