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While doing my daily reading at Philz coffee today, a chill student by the name of Kasey(sp) asked me to complete a survey for his class. It was about student life in college.
We were chopping it up about college, and travel, when I mentioned that I had been bitten by the travel bug. I told him that I had traveled to New Zealand for two weeks earlier this year. He then told me that he stayed in New Zealand for ten months. That’s crazy! We exchanged stories and experiences from all the different locales that we visited.
I then told him that I and a few friends were planning a trip to Japan in the coming months. He was like, “Yeah, you should go, I lived there for 7 years.” Damn, where haven’t you lived doo? He told me that he grew up in mainland China, and then moved to Japan. He can speak Japanese better than Chinese (his native tongue) . Kasey even knew a little bit about fixed gear culture. I probably could have spoken to him about his travel experiences for hours, but alas, he had more people to interview.
It has been my dream (for a short time now) to travel around the world, to meet new people, and experience different cultures. To me, that is what life is all about. It was cool to meet another like-minded person stranger who is experiencing the ultimate lifestyle.
Sucwidit. I slept for a good 12 hours on the night that I got back, and caught up with friends and even got a good ride in since coming home. I received a nice little surprise when I reached my apartment too. The construction has pretty much wrapped up outside my building, and a nice little wooden lounge area was added.
I wanted to write a little about my experience traveling, as it was my first time really “backpacking it” in a different country.
The trip overall was a success, as there was something to do almost every single day of the trip. I learned a lot, tried new things, met people from around the world; but I also blew my budget and missed out on a few things as well.
I went into New Zealand with a really basic plan, with a few must sees and must dos. Although I think being spontaneous is great, having a rough plan is key. There were a few activities or places that I couldn’t cross off my list; which was attributed to either poor planning or bad weather. But even then, I should have had a contingency plan for those rainy/windy/snowy days. A few of the spots that I wanted to hit up, Abel Tasman, Franz Josef Glaciers, and Milford Sound along with skydiving were completely missed.
Staying at hostels is not only the most economical choice for lodging, but for a variety of other reasons as well. Many hostels offer discounts for members, as well as discounts for tours, activities and restaurants if booked through them. I stayed at quite a few different hostels during my visit, and paid around $20 each night on average. That’s $20 US dollars!
Another great reason for staying at a hostel are for the people. I met so many different from so many different countries it was astounding. It was awesome listening to all the adventures that people have had over the years. One girl that I met from England had been to a slew of South Asian countries including Vietnam! For two weeks! I’m 100% pure suc and I haven’t even been to the motherland yet.
When I was planning the trip back home, I tried to come up with a budget for the entire duration of my stay. I ended up surpassing that amount before my first week was over. As I started to go over my budget, I decided not to worry too much about the dollar amount, because these are really once in a lifetime opportunities. I mean you can’t really put a price tag on experiences or memories, right?
Upon arriving in New Zealand, I really had no idea what was going on. I didn’t know any of the places of interest, although my friend new a lot more, since he had been there for two weeks already. Since New Zealand is a very touristy place, there are information centers all over. But even those can be overwhelming. Talking to locals about cool places to go to is a good start, but sometimes they don’t even really know.
Here is where your fellow travelers come into play. Ask them! When I was at the hostel, all of the people I met told me some of the great places that they had either been to or were planning to go to. Also, when you are doing the activity, or on a tour or whatever, ask the people with you for more great tips.
I never really was a Facebook or Myspace type of person, as these new fangled social networks always seemed suc with my mind. However, I started to regret not having one, because then I could have added all the people that I met to my friend list to stay in touch. Oh, well.
Turns out that I overpacked. I think next time I will cram everything into my huge backpack, and try it on. Then I’ll take it off and remove 1/3 to 1/2 of the clothes from my bag. I ended up using less than half of my clothes. Usually you can find a washer/dryer somewhere and just rewear everything.
I’m not too sure where I will be headed to next. But I have to wait until my bank account recovers first.
Oh, and bring sandals.
Edit: I’ll probably add to this later when my I get my thoughts together.
Well, it’s been a fantastic journey for me out here. I’m sitting in a coffee shop enjoying my last bit of Kiwi coffee (alright it’s a caramel macchiato). I spent the last couple of nights in the Christchurch/Canterbury area.
My skydiving booking was canceled yet again on Sunday, due to turbulent winds. So I decided to take the bus up to Hanmer Springs, which is about a 2 hour drive away from Christchurch. The area has beautiful scenery, but more importantly it has quad-biking, or ATVing as they call it in the states. I had heard that Hanmer Springs has one of the best quad-biking in the south island.
It was a lot colder in Hanmer Springs, and the weather was nice and wet as well. Perfect! As you can see from one of the pictures, it was so wet that you can’t even see me from the huge splash.
And the reviews were right, it was an awesome time. Some kid wrote in the guestbook that it was the single most greatest day of his life! Haha! The rugged terrain mixed with the mud and water, going up hills and then bombing them, and literally going through cows. Sick!
When I get back home I plan on posting up more pictures/videos, and a recap/reflection of my trip. Until then, cheers!
Me driving on the other side of the road! Suc!!!
I haven’t had a decent internet session in a while, mostly because we’ve either been in the boonies or just trekking about NZ. Last week we rented, or “hired” a car as the Kiwis say here, and drove out to Springfield. I was itching to get some climbing in, especially since I wasn’t getting any form of exercise other than walking. Jabari had stayed at this one backpacker B & B earlier, so we opted to stay there again. It was a pretty nice and spacious house, each of us got our own bedroom.
We ended up climbing and hiking around in this area called Castle Hill for two days.
My feet were killing me for some reason so I couldn’t do a lot of bouldering, but it’s not like I’m a pro anyway. The little day excursions were pretty sick, but at night, it was effin boring. Since we were literally in the middle of nowhere, there wasn’t much to do in the evening. I remember one night stoking the fire and then watching Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey all but for 15 minutes before crashing. Jammy time for the win.
My internet charges are racking up here, so I will update more tomorrow before I leave for home. Yeyeyeyeyeeyey!
Well, I finally have some time to sit down and write a little bit about what’s been going over here. The weather over is rainy at times, which definitely limits what activities can be done. Right now I am in Queenstown, which is a resort like area at the very south of the South Island of NZ. We will be staying here until the 12th. Also, New Zealand has a fascination with some hiCOCKlarious names.
The bartender said, "Yeah, pretty much everything is gay about that drink."
Upon arriving in New Zealand, one of the first obvious differences is that the driving is done on the opposite side of the road. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost gotten maimed by a car by looking the wrong way. There are some other smaller differences such as there being NO KETCHUP, but tomato sauce that tastes disgusting. On top of that, you usually have to pay extra for it! Most of the food is actually pretty bland, and the portions or generally smaller, which is probably why Americans are so damn fat.
Not only is New Zealand known for it’s jaw dropping scenic landscapes, but the architecture over here is also bar none.
I landed in Auckland, but immediately took another flight to Christchurch to meet up with Jabari, who has been here for two weeks already. Luckily we only stayed there for one night, because it was effin boring as a mothereffer. Everything closed at 5pm, and it was like a ghost town after that. They had some pretty cool bars, which we checked out, but they weren’t crackin like back home.
The very next day we got aboard the Naked Bus, which took us down to Queenstown, for dirt cheap. I think it was around $20 US dollars for a trip that is equivalent to a San Francisco to Los Angeles drive. Everybody on the bus got some good shuteye, to rest up for the shenanigans that is Queenstown. I had a New Zealand style breakfast at one of the stops.
Upon arriving at Queenstown, we literally rejoiced as it was like a haven for young people. We checked into a hostel, and then proceeded to explore downtown. They have a good amount of bars, with some having happy hour from 9 to 10pm! Wish they had that back home.
One thing about Queenstown is that there is so much to do, that you have to plan everything carefully. You don’t want to do too much in one day either. With the weather being so unpredictable, it really limits what you can do, so you have to just roll with it. I’ve been aiming to try and do a few things per day, as weather permits.
The days also seem to go on forever over here. Not necessarily the amount of daylight, but the duration in general. I’ll check my watch and be like, “It’s only 2pm!” or whatever time it is.
Seeing as how the weather was mostly dry today, I checked out the luge and Shotover Jet. If we can manage to get some tickets, one of New Zealand’s hottest rap groups Smashproof is here so we’ll try to catch them tonight.
Things have been pretty hectic over here in the NZ, with traveling and switching hostels and whatnot. I haven’t really had time to upload photos are anything yet. We arrived in Queenstown last night, which is a heck of a lot better than Christchurch.
Started off the day with this: OHHHHHHHHHH DAA SUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC!
Check out the video with sound to hear how much of a pansy I am. Make sure you listen to the very end.
I gotta dooooo it! I gotta doooo it!
My blowout trip to New Zealand has finally arrived, so now I am just chinchillin at the SFO Airport. The flight has been delayed by a half hour now, which doesn’t really matter anyway since I have a six hour stopover at LAX. Yeeee!
My buddy Ryan hooked me up with a fat discount on the North Face backpack you see right thurr. I was so amped on it that I was walking around the mall with it strapped to my back like the idiot that I am.
It’s May 3rd today, by the time I land in Christchurch, New Zealand I believe it will be May 5th. Time flies on the plane. Get it?!!??! I’m supposed to meet up with Jabeezys at Charlie B’s Backpackers once I get in. He’s been there for about 2 weeks already, so I’m hoping he knows whats crackin around town. Peace and violence
