We woke up bright and early… or at least I did. I set my alarm for an hour too early again. Which meant just before 5AM instead of 6AM. Since I hit the proverbial hay at 1, it was a little early, but we had a big hike ahead of us, so that kept me moving. We left in nice weather for Tongario National Park, where we were to hike in the shadow of Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings. Well, to really make it feel authentic, the weather got nasty as soon as we came to the edge of Mordor. I got a little confused between the Misty Mountains and Mordor, in other words. The mist was pretty light but we all threw on our waterproof stuff and set off.
The landscape was very sparse, feeling like the Canadian Shield or the northernmost portions of Norway, and we passed the swamp of the dead and lots of desolate volcanic fields, surrounded by, I can only assume, lush green mountains, waterfalls, and hoola girls. All of which were hidden by the mist, which grew heavier and blew harder as we ascended. I spent most of the hike with Anthony, who’s a pretty cool and friendly guy. We were near the back as I was still attempting to get some photos of the misty hike, which was basically being done in black and white – the lava and the mist. We soon found ourselves near the front and then he was gone, off in the lead on his own and trekking like an old pro.
The weather continued degrading, and my supposedly waterproof rain jacket was soaked through and through. My waterproof pants were mercifully holding up, but at the rate that the moisture was increasing, that couldn’t last long, It was a very steep climb and there were a lot of small breaks, and more than one person feeling bad for poor Frodo and Sam as we began to feel more and more tiny and hobbitlike on this vast volcano; shadowy figures on craggy slopes in cloaks on a mission. Except that we gave up and turned back because some of the group was tired and cold, and all of us were wet. To be fair, there wasn’t much use in pressing on as the visibility was continuing to drop and it was sometimes a struggle just to find the next marker. Scrambling down the rocks was even more treacherous, and all of us took a little volcanic mud home as a souvenir, either in our shoes, on our pants, or on our hands. Never content for a small serving, I took all of the above.
We took the van back towards the campsite and enjoyed a brief bit of sun en route before ending up in Mangaweka, our misty campsite. By now, we were really sick of the rain and wet, so setting up a tent in our drenched clothes in the rain was not exactly a picnic. But we got it done and decided that the solution to this wetness was to get really wet. So we walked down to the river and took a swim.
First, I should mention that only half the people were supposed to bring tents and then we were all to share. But, given the ratio of five guys to, well, a lot of girls, this was somewhat awkward. Moreso then it should’ve been – they wanted the tent to themselves and who can blame them, but it left a few of us in the cold for a while. We did finally get spots though, and I slept in Katie’s tent while Anthony, the other guy stuck in this situation with me, wound up with Kristin. Anyway, the campsite is actually pretty nice. It’s in a sandstone canyon, with big cliffs surrounding it and a very quick and fast moving rapids at the base. This is what we were swimming in. We’d walk in carefully until we fell and then let the current take us through the rapids. Not exactly safe, but lots of fun. The rocks would usually hit your feet and sometimes the current would just carry you right up and over the rock and you’d be back in it again. This, coupled with some kiwi-flavoured wine, was exactly the state that Anthony was in as he decided to go down the bigger rapids at the end. The others, Brad and Meridith (and later Chris), didn’t have that excuse.
Anthony and Brad took the rapids and wound up right against the cliff wall. They tried to climb up but Brad lost his footing and slid unceremoniously down into the water to try again, while Anthony made it up a fair distance and then had to turn back. They crossed the river to the other side, walked up a ways, and tried to cross, but got swept back down to try again. Finally, they made it across and joined the camp. Then we had a bit of dinner, and cracked open our bottles of wine. It seems that wine has become the drink of choice for the group, and I’d like to take credit for it. Though in truth, I’m not sure why. I guess we’re all trying to sample fairs from this side of the world.
Brad showed his camping skills by getting our fire going and we had quite a campfire party if I may say. Lauren and Chelsea joined Anthony as the most ‘active’ at the party, dancing like crazy and probably burning more calories than they drank giggling and laughing. Katie was not far behind, especially when they went up to a neighbouring camp and drank some moonshine (which was quite tasty, actually). Dustin drank for the first time on this trip and had enough to merit a late night resurgence next to poor Kristin’s tent. It was a good time and a good bonding experience for everyone. And we forgot about the rain.
The next morning we woke up, had some oatmeal (and more than one cooking mishap), and went kayaking and rafting on the same rapids we’d been body surfing through the day prior. While it was fun to kayak, you can imagine that the river itself was a little dull. It was beautiful and scenic, but nothing like the rafting we’d done only a few days prior. I still enjoyed it of course (how could I not?), and we had a good float. Then, back to the camp to pack up our stuff and off to Wellington, which I understand is our last stop on the north island. Already. It feels like it’s been two weeks and two days all at once. Neither of which is correct, but there you have it.
As far as the group goes, I’ve come to appreciate that almost none of them are the stereotypical Americans we all know and loathe, and I feel bad because they’re all good people and undeserving of their sometimes cool reception and are also very accepting and understanding of it. Even self-mocking. They might as well be Canadians! Oh, and en route to Wellington, we passed yet another converted plane. What the New Zealand fascination is with converting planes and posting them on poles as advertising is beyond me. I still have yet to discover that cross constellation that can only be seen from the southern hemisphere, I haven’t encountered a spiraling toilet to observe the Coriolis effect at work, and I’ve seen little in the way of dangerous fauna or animalia. I guess there are other stereotypes that aren’t fair too.
We woke up early in the morning in Waitomo and after cleaning the Marai we took off for more fun and adventure. Our first thrilling stop? The Waitomo Cave Museum. I suppose this qualifies as the educational portion of the tour, but aside from a video on glowworms, was sort of useless. Some of us tried our hand at a little mock-cave which was neat, I guess, and there were the odd interesting exhibits to be fair, but it was still missable. Then we went to Rotarura and looked around a bit, though I mostly took the time to grab my emails and update my stuff. Didn’t see a lot here, but I had a delicious lamb gyro and ran back to the vans 5 minutes late.
From there, it was a short trip to the Kaituna Cascades, where we went white water rafting. Now I don’t usually find this all that exciting, so I wasn’t really looking forward to it, but man was I wrong! The rafting I did in Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia were like moving a rubber dinghy in the water compared to what we saw today. We went on a Category 5 rapids, taking our raft over three large waterfalls (the largest of which was 7m, although there were two smaller ones that probably added up to 10m). It was a short ride but great fun and genuinely thrilling. They would submerge the front of the raft and whoever was in it (me) in the base of smaller waterfalls, it would actually sink before the buoyancy of the raft shot it back out. And I got pulled out of our raft and into another one, where I got to do it all over again.
Then we went for a pretty decent double scoop of ice cream nearby, after I snapped the handle off our trailer. Yup. These trailers where we have all our gear are really in need of repairs. Twice the ‘locked’ doors have flown open while driving and now the locks snap when you turn them. They’re supposed to be getting them repaired soon, though. Anyway, from there we went to the beach even though it was a little chilly, did a bit of diving off the dock, and then had a traditional dinner. Anthony was our chief and represented us in a traditional meeting of tribes. Dinner was cooked in the earth and tasted like it (in a good way – like stones in a pizza oven). Their chief was really soft-spoken and entertaining, and we had a little bit of a musical performance, too. We left after dinner and took off for a Saturday night out in Taupo, which was busier than usual because there is a big race tomorrow. We did a bit of pub hopping, dancing, and mostly stayed together, which somewhat impressed me. Though we did, apparently, leave Lana, Amanda, and Rachel behind, which is less impressive, but they were still sleeping by the time most of us headed out on our next free day, so it couldn’t have been too bad. Though I do feel horrible.
The next day was a free day, and we caught up on laundry (already!) walked around, visited, hung out at the lakeside, and I had a great chat with Katie and Norm over some wine and smoked cheese. I had made a trip to a wine store where they have a machine that lets you sample different wines by using a prepaid card and I tried a few. They have a wine that tastes like a shiraz is supposed to (I think the name is something very similar to Shiraz as well) – the wines are really quite spicy. It tastes like pepper almost. My mom would love it, she’s a pepper nut. We went out for a bit of hot chocolate later that evening in a lakeside café and called it a night.
Our last day in Taupo involved a trip to a natural hot spring, which was just perfect for these aching muscles of mine. And the water from the falls was really quite warm and mixed nicely with the icy glacier water flowing down the river. Speaking of which, en route we stopped at a bungee place just to get excited. I’m on the fence about trying it or not. The place where we go bungee jumping is the second highest in the world and I’m pretty sure I’ll chicken out, but it would certainly be a rush. Anyway, after the hot springs and some lounging around on the rocks, we took off to see Hooka falls, which is a pretty small but very fast and powerful waterfall. It’s quite pretty and was a nice stop. I went off the main path to the water’s edge to get some pictures of a smaller waterfall at the beginning of the rapids, but Dustin, I later learned, found the same place and put a foot in the waterfall. I was scared to be on a dividing rock. The guy’s crazy. We did a few other assorted things like stopping at a shrimp farm/power boat place, but I was more interested in the geothermal plant nearby.
I must not be enjoying this trip on some weird subconscious level, because I cut myself six times today. In the spring, I stepped on a bit of broken glass which luckily didn’t cut my toe too badly – Kristen cut her toe pretty good. I also backed into a big rock underwater and scraped my Achilles, which is nothing but it’ll be a nuisance on tomorrow’s hike and camping – and I got a pebble into the arch of my foot which is in the same category. And then, in the shower I was reaching for my shampoo and somehow hit my razor at the right angle that I sliced my skin three times and started bleeding all over. Not too deep, obviously, but a pain in the butt… or at least the finger. If I keep injuring myself at this rate, they’re going to start calling me Katie (our guide), who has an unprecedented record for minor scrapes, cuts, bruises, and stubs.
I met Lauren at the McDonalds and met the rest of the group not much after. We loaded our stuff into two separate vans, divided up, and hit the road. It’s cloudy and overcast and raining and beautiful all at the same time. Looking into the country, it feels like a larger Hawaii or a scene from Jurassic Park. The hills are capped with old forest, sometimes massive stands stick out from the plains, and always the hills are chased by further hills shrouded in the mist. The driving on the left hand side isn’t quite something I’m adjusted to quite yet, but luckily I’m also not driving. Quite yet. Today’s post is short because we’ve not done much yet, but we drove for about three hours to Waitomo with an hour stop for groceries and just visited. It’s very pretty here and I hope tomorrow is clear so that we can get a better view of the panorama. But I should get some rest to recover from the fact that it’s now Wednesday night and I’ve only slept 15 minutes since Sunday night. Which itself was a short sleep. Tomorrow, rappelling and black water rafting. Apparently the cave is lit with glowworms.
OK, today is now tomorrow. It’s down under, you’ll have to get used to it too. I’m going to be writing from the future a lot. We woke up in the morning and I had my first ever peanut butter and jam sandwich, which was a lot more delicious than I imagined. I would never have tried it were there honey around, but I’m glad there wasn’t. Then, it was off rappelling while the other half of the group went black water rafting. The walk there was nice and scenic, as you’ll hopefully be able to tell from the photos, and the actual abseiling was cool too. I mean, it’s not a rush other than the initial part where you throw yourself over the edge and hope your knots are done right, but it’s still nice to be there and look around as see how fast you can descend.
We broke for lunch and then it was off black water rafting. Which sounds extreme, but it really isn’t. We just made our way into a cave with some inner tubes and floated along. There were indeed glow worms, although they’re not really worms at all but maggots. I guess they glow to attract food onto a sticky little tentacle which they then reel in and munch on. My dad would've loved it. We sat in the sun because, if I hadn’t mentioned, it’s a beautiful day (+31, I heard) and so what the heck. I still can’t believe how much little things like the treed mountains can keep me staring at them, they just look so untouched, like little chunks of rainforest in the sky.
I was on cooking duty that night, so I helped BBQ the chicken and slice tomatoes. I sat with one of the Laurens, who actually seems pretty cool. Then, I used my Canadian talents as furnace starter (which, admittedly, are none) and got the hot water working for our little campground. Basically it’s a wood stove, so really, it’s just starting a fire, but hey, it was MY fire. Which helped with the dishes I was doing pretty much single-handedly.
This was because we got distracted midway through by some oohs and ahhs and people running for cameras and went outside to discover a comet streaking for the horizon. I’ve never seen a comet before, so this was a definite thrill. Apparently, another star lover on the trip said that it starts with an “M” (I just googled and discovered it's McNaught) and is so visible because it went close enough to the sun for the heat to help break it apart. And if that wasn’t enough, I have to tell you that the night sky I saw on this little island was like nothing I’ve ever before seen. The milky way was practically raining down on us, there were stars from horizon to horizon (tonnes of them), and you could actually see two blurs in the sky that we suspect were Andromeda and some other galaxy. Plus satellites and shooting stars and all the usual fun stuff. Amazing, and this is only day two.
We kicked off the next morning at 7AM with a little spelunking, or caving, or whatever you’d like to call it. It was intense, a lot more about really caving and a lot less handholding. I’m pretty much only typing this portion with one finger because every other muscle in my body is aching. We wedged, stretched, pulled, rappelled, climbed, jumped, crawled, and made our way through over 2km of underground cave (called Lucky Strike) before emerging from a grueling end into the sun. I went with the two Laurens, Dustin, and Katie, who pretty much are the older crew. By which I mean that they’re 22-25 and 29. The drive there was beautiful, the tea stop was great, and accidentally winding up at a dead end after working so hard to get through were all just what I’d wanted. I was very, very sore and tired after, and that's a good feeling. A hard day's work. Or something. We came back, had dinner, and then I walked with a few of the others into the surrounding hills. Something I wouldn't dare do in Australia, but apparently there's nothing to worry about here. We climbed a few hills and I showed off my new spelunking skills, then headed into town for a beer or two before calling it a night.
We finally leave Waitomo tomorrow and I’ll hopefully find a phone and an internet connection – I still haven’t called home! And I have to wish both my parents happy birthday, so it’s even more important, although I’m sure they’ve figured out that I arrived here fine. Hope everyone is doing well at home and talk to you soon.
Well, I’m off. This particular sentence is being written in the Calgary airport, awaiting my connection to Los Angeles. It didn’t really hit me that I was leaving everyone until I was upstairs at the Saskatoon airport, looking through the glass and waving down like an idiot, unable to say anything to the family before I set off. Still, I had a good omen right off the start. See, I dropped my passport on the ground without realizing it right at the Saskatoon security desk. Last time, I left it in the little tray and didn’t realize right away. Needless to say I enjoyed the last trip and am still here to tell about it. That’s a good thing. I’ll continue this post from Los Angeles in a few hours.
OK, here I am in LA. The flight here was uneventful, but en route I did find the time to watch the most recent episode of The Office I’d downloaded. I sat beside a girl, Erin, that is from St. Albert and also backpacking in New Zealand, though she didn’t attach the ‘working holiday’ part to the trip. It was her first time traveling alone so she and another girl, Carolina (en route to Guatemala) followed me to get their baggage and find their respective terminals. I’m happy to say that they probably would’ve done better without me, but I think both are safely en route. Erin’s flying via Kuala Lumpur, but arrives at the same time that I’ll be waiting at the airport for my group so I may run into her again. Now I’m sitting here, bracing for the longest flight I’ve ever taken, on the floor to charge my depleted laptop enough so I can watch the second episode of The Apprentice to kill some time. I’m only at 22%, so I’m not sure I’ll make it. My plane leaves in under an hour, so I’ll see you in Auckland or else Nadi.
Whew. That was a long flight. And, as the topper, I wound up with the middle seat. So, needless to say, I didn’t get so much as a minute’s sleep, though not for trying. Certainly I closed my eyes, however. Luckily, I had insomniac company by the way of a girl named Mercedes from Sydney and a very talkative and friendly Florida woman, though she nodded off quickly. Not a bad thing. Mercedes was entertaining to say the least and was returning home from Central America, which I grilled her on quite thoroughly. Plus there was a pretty good movie selection: The Illusionist, The Scoop, Open Season, and others. Though I tried to sleep, and kind of drifted off for a while. We got off the 747 in Fiji, observing a beautiful neon-fire red sunrise between cloud layers, and arrived in the unorganized chaos that is Nadi arrivals. Given I had a very short time before boarding my next flight, I went to the desk and got sorted out without waiting in the spiraling bedlam that they insisted was a ‘line’. Lucky, too, because I didn’t have my proof that I was leaving New Zealand on me and they had to look me up which took some time. Then I was assured that even though my bag was marked for Nadi, they would find it and forward it to the Air New Zealand flight. Sound like a recipe for trouble?
I wasn’t sure whether my situation improved or became more alarming when I was paged to the gate so that I might describe my bag. Which, really, is an average everyday backpack with a bit of yellow, black, and grey, and – I hoped – an Air Canada tag with my name. They assured me they’d find it and get it on my plane, and so I got myself on the plane and took off for Fiji. This time I sat by a young guy that had been in the US trucking with his dad – a very nice kid and he seemed fascinated by the fact that anyone would think it worthwhile to travel to New Zealand at all. The movie was, yup, The Illusionist (luckily I only caught a middle segment on the 747, though I did actually fall asleep for 15 mins during the climactic ending). And now, I’m here in New Zealand. My laptop seems to zap me a bit if I rest my arms on the bezel corners but I’m here in a different shirt and socks, with my baggage, and all that’s left is to find a USB cable for my camera (I forgot mine at home), grab a bite for lunch, and get on the road. I’m surprisingly not tired at this point. Just excited to finally be here. When next we meet, I will be knee deep in some sort of Pacific Challenge. Read More...
As you've no doubt noticed, I've spent a bit of time lately adding some cool new features and ideas to this little blog of mine. First of all, the one I'm most proud of: I now add a little location tag (or in some cases several) to my blog posts and thanks to the magic of Google Maps API and some coding on my part, a little marker appears on a map on the sidebar (look to the left). The green marker shows the location of the most recent post or more generally, where I am now. If you hover the mouse over any of the markers, it will show you the most recent blog post made from that location. And if you should dare to click, well, it'll open that post up. Amazing! Plus, don't be afraid to zoom right in, you can sometimes seem some neat locations, especially when you have the photo gallery open at the same time. As well, I've gone back through all my old posts and added locations to them, so you can go back to, say, July 2005 (see the archives in the sidebar), and check out all the places I was that particular month. Which, you'll see, was mostly in Scandinavia on a Contiki tour.
Of course, if you want to see all my Contiki posts, or Scandinavia, or Greece, or what have you, it's really quite easy to do so. Because now my posts are all tagged, you can click on one of the tags at the bottom of a post and every post that is tagged with that will be displayed. So say, for example, you want to see every post I made that has "travel" in it. Well, you just click on 'travel' at the bottom of a post tagged with that, and every post about travel will come up.
And speaking of travel, you may be wondering what on earth I'm doing updating a blog with new features when I can scarcely find the time to add a post every week much less once every month or two. The answer, as you may have guessed, lies in the question: I'm travelling once again. The observant among you may have noticed that I have Jan. 15 marked off on my calendar below. I leave on Jan. 15 for New Zealand and Australia! I'm going first on a six week adventure called Pacific Challenge, which takes us through the wild and untamed wilderness of New Zealand, hiking through rainforests, walking through volcanic playgrounds (in the shadow of Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings), kayaking through rivers and along coasts, a three day trek through the alps, and then to Australia, a motorbike tour through Sydney, learning to surf in Byron Bay, diving on the Great Barrier Reef, and more. Which, to be honest, gets me really excited even writing about it. Check out the full itinerary here.
That's a good thing, because writing about it is exactly what I'll be doing in the coming months. After I finish that, I have a working holiday visa for Australia and hope to make my way around the continent, seeing the sites, working in different places, and digging in to life down under. I'm thinking that, since I wrap up my tour at the beginning of the grape harvesting season, I'll head south and try to get a job in a vineyard first. Maybe learn something about wine making and if not, well, get my feet dirty. I'm definitely wanting to spend some time in Melbourne, which has the second largest population of Greeks in the world after Athens. In other words, there are more Greeks in Melbourne than in Thessaloniki. Definitely some time on the west coast and hopefully some more time in the sunshine/gold coast too, and, if I last long enough, New Year's Eve in Sydney. And I would be remiss to not mention the outback and Ooularou (AKA Ayers' Rock).
I still have a lot to do in the short time before I leave, but those in town and wanting to have a drink or two before I depart are welcome to join me at Specklebelly's/Athena on Saturday, Jan. 13 at around 9:00 PM. As far as what I have to do, in addition to buying clothes and trekking/camping/caving gear, packing, getting my international drivers' license, travel insurance (I hear they have some nasty critters down there), selling my car (maybe), I have my fairly new MacBook Pro to prepare. Yes, I finally bought a laptop, and as I've been saying for the last, oh... five or six year, my next laptop is going to be a Mac. Here we are, and I'm really loving it. Check out some of the photos I took with the built in camera (iSight) by clicking the image to the right. And anyone out there with a Mac, be sure to add me to your iChat, I can't wait to try out the video phone functions. Guess I should bring my headset along.
As far as what's been going on around here since my last "What Dean is up to" post, which was somewhere in late August. Well, I did some gocarting with my cousins and friends at the new Wilson's track. Supposedly the fastest carts in Canada, though they are definitely scaled down if that's the case, but still damn fast and fun. Click on the image to the left for more carting shots. I had my 26th birthday and must've had a good time, because I don't remember what we did, if anything. The podcast ate up quite a bit of my fall, as we were running interviews, planning for my New York-based cohost to visit and do a live 20th episode, and we were trying to record an extra two episodes for December. Incidentally, we were featured on the front page of iTunes for a while, and though we didn't win any awards this year, we did have over 120,000 downloads, which is pretty amazing!
Christmas was over before it started this year, just a whirlwind of activity much of which is squarely the fault of my imminent departure. Santa did all his shopping at Lululemon this year, which is great if you're female or into 'trendy' clothing, but being dressed in a skirt as an infant was enough cross-dressing for me. I did keep a jacket from there which should be very nice and waterproof, and a few assorted garments, and then used the rest to buy some new glasses. Which, the day after I purchased, became unnecessary as I found my old glasses. Oh well. A sign from above to keep my eyes open, I guess. Continuing on this tangent, I'm trying out contacts for the first time too, apparently I have very sensitive eyes because they caused me quite a bit of discomfort. I tried a disposable and depleted 60-70% of my body's water stores in the blink of an eye - mine, to be precise. I have some two-week ones right now that are much better though, supposedly the most 'comfortable' ones out there.
Anyway, back to Christmas, there were a lot of boardgames played, and that's always a good thing. For some reason that didn't become obvious until later, I got The Simpsons' Clue for Christmas, and it got a lot of use. Larissa is unbeatable at games of elimination. Try and have a Sudoku race with her. If only she could use that talent for good (a job) instead of evil (beating me at a board game). Risk came out a few times, that particular game was fairly evenly won by all except Keegan (sorry!) and we played some Balderdash and other games, too. Oh, and who could forget some Wii Sports? Good times! And speaking of good, we had a nice lamb dinner with figs, greens, dill potatoes, and the works. All very delicious, as always, though unfortunately I can take no credit for any of it. New Year's Eve was at Specklebelly's as always and was lots of fun thanks to a bunch of friends showing up. You can check out pictures of that by clicking the image on the left. And now I'm hoping to see you all on Saturday for a drink or two and some good times again. Well, those of you in the country, anyways. Elaine, hope you're having a great time in Greece. I expect some photos and say hi to my cousins! The rest of you, I'll see you Saturday or else in Auckland. Hope you had a good 2006, and in any case, a much better 2007.Read More...
